okay. So I went to my friends youth rally tonight, and AMAZING, I saw two of my fellow campers there haha :) besides the point (even though that was really cool!!!)
So we go...and there were probably well over 20 kids saved tonight. Now I go to my youth group regularily on Wednesdays, but this feels so different. These kids are hurting, they are desperate for something and they don't even know what it is. When I walk into my youth group, I know they are people who will build me up in christ...but I feel like there are high expectations. That God's way is only one way. But that's not true, countless times in the bible God challenges the laws we establish as our society determining what is and isn't acceptible. Hosea, married a prostitute!!! How do you think the church would judge a Godly man walking in with a prostitute?
That's my point. As a church body, we judge. And I'm not saying this is always true, in fact, without my church I wouldn't have the encouragement to be keeping up with this bible study. But a lot of the times, the people walking into the church are just as hurt as the ones I saw tonight. Maybe we don't have the bruises or emotional abuse to show for it, but all of us are hurting. All of us have a story of how God loved us, and how we came from broken people to feeling whole with Jesus.
But we still don't have it figured out. Every time we walk in the church we put on some front like we are so holy, like our lives are in a good place. True, I can't think of anything BAD that happened to me today...but society determines what is good and bad. to me, bad would be getting sick, a bad grade, tripping down the stairs and breaking a leg...but to God... bad is that I didn't take the opportunity to witness to the girl sitting next to me in English class who I have known since middle school. bad is giving up on my quiet time this morning when I didn't understand it.
Wow. when I am around broken people, I feel so free. I feel like no one will judge me and there are no more burdens to take my struggles to the cross. You know what that means? God was in that place tonight :) with God we are free, and for the first time in a while I felt truly FREE tonight. did I make some life-changing decision? no. But I should have. Every day we are called to change our lives and make a new decision to follow him.
That is what God laid on my heart tonight and I just wanted to share that. Sorry if there are spelling errors, I wrote it in a hurry ;) love you guys!!!
Loved that! (:
ReplyDeleteMy absolute favorite part of that was God's definition of bad...so different than what we so often think is really bad. I know I'm not the best at understanding this sometimes. More than often I get so carried away with things that don't matter. I get stressed and frustrated when I get bad grades or something. But in the long run and in the big scheme of things - not of that will matter! What matters is, like you said, how we carry Christ into the world...and how we bring people closer to Him.
breanna - that is awesome. praise the Lord for what He is doing in the lives of youth as well as in your own heart! so encouraging. :]
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