Prayers!

Remember that retreat I told you my class and I were going on way back in February? Well, it got cancelled because of all the snow days. Now it's coming up this Thursday and Friday. If you get a chance, please pray for my class and me! Pray that all of our hearts will be open to God's presence and love at the retreat. Pray that we grow closer together as a class. Also, I'm giving a witness talk at the retreat, so please pray that the Lord will speak through me.

Thank you!
-Haley

Shalom

John 14:27- "Jesus said, "I leave you my peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid."

In hebrew, the word shalom means "peace," a wish for good health, freedom from strife, and wholeness. At the Last Supper, Jesus bid his disciples shalom. He bid them peace of mind and heart. This peace was one that the world never knew, or could offer. The world's peace depends on circumstance, Jesus' peace depends on our relationship with Him.

Think of John 14:27 as Jesus' Last Will. This verse tells us of our inheritence. And the wholeness and completeness found in this inheritence is at the heart of true happiness. His happiness.
-DJ

Amazing.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42191453/ns/today-today_people/

Wow, I saw this video today and I thought I would share it with you all. It's about an 11-year old boy who visited heaven during a near-death experience, where he sat on Jesus’ lap and met his great-grandfather and the sister his mother miscarried.

So incredible.

Where does faith belong in dating?

hey everyone. long time no see.

so i'm thinking about trying to make a girl my girlfriend. but a couple of weeks ago, my small group and i talked about dating and my leader said "I think its alright to date if you and the other person are in the same place spiritually."

so i asked my friends in class today the same question on what they thought about faith or christianity in a relationship. They said that it doesn't really play a big role in dating.

What do you guys think about this? (please comment)
-DJ

Redemption

Hey Quest! I have another poem for you, called "Redemption." Hope you like it!

You wash away my sins,
Creating me anew.
You comfort my soul,
With a peace that’s ever true.

Your forgiveness heals,
Restores and sustains.
Set free are my sins,
Like the falling snow and rain.

The mercy of Your saving touch,
Grants me a new heart.
Grateful am I, oh Lord,
For yet another start.

Without Your forgiveness,
Where would we be?
Imprisoned in the confines,
Of our sinful misery.

But now You’ve set us free,
In forgiving us all.
And I know that with You I can rise,
Whenever I fall.

“Who is there like You, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of His inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins.” Micah 7:18-19

-Haley

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." -Romans 8:18-25

Let that marinate today. Comment what you think about what Paul was saying in this passage. Love you all SO MUCH!

-Alexa

Just a Quick Thought...

Hey guys!

Matthew 10:10.13 "'...he said to them, 'Why do you make trouble for this woman? She has done a good thing for me. Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has doen will be spoken of, in memory of her.'"

Just a reminder that God values our efforts, and we will not be forgotten for doing good.
Have a nice day!

An answer to DJ's question...

A while ago DJ posted this...
I want the Lord to take control, I want to find contentment in His Word and His Love. But there are so many distractions that I can't remember Him occasionally. How do you give your heart fully to the Lord? How do you say to God, "Lord, here's my heart and my soul. Do with it what You will. You can have me."

Well I've been thinking about this question for the past few days. How do we really give it all to God? How do we completely surrender our lives to Him and His will? When I started to think about this question, the song "From the Inside Out" by Hillsong United came to mind. If you haven't heard it, here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-afZJ9_TIM...it's so good! Anyway, part of the song says, "My heart and my soul, I give you control, to love you from the inside out." But HOW do we give our whole heart and soul to God, putting Him completely in control? We have to...

1) Offer up our sins to Him, knowing that He will forgive us no matter what. We have to confess everything to Him (even though He already knows everything) and admit to our failures and sinfulness. Doing that will help us realize that He is the only One who is sinless and perfect. Micah 7:19 ~ "You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and toss all our sins into the depths of the sea."

2) Trust Him, knowing that He knows what He's doing. When we face good times and when we face bad times, we have to trust that He is doing what is ultimately best for us, what will only make us stronger. Romans 8:28 ~ "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

3) Live WITH and FOR Him. This last step to surrendering your life to God can only happen if you do the first two steps. If we don't consistently ask for forgiveness for our sins or trust Him with absolutely everything, then there is no way we can live with or for Him at all.

These are just my thoughts on how we can surrender our lives to God. If anyone else has anything to add, leave some comments! :)

And I don't know how I remember this, but DJ, I remember you said this at the Quest reunion: "God can't be a part of our lives. He has to BE our life." I think that's really cool and has a lot to do with the whole surrendering your life to God thing.

-Haley

Star Gazing

Hey Questies! I don't know how many of you did the facebook event star-gazing thing tonight, but i have a quick story from it. it was basically a night of looking at the stars along with others all over the country (and maybe world!) and just praising Jesus and being in his glory, presence, and awesomeness.

However, tonight where I am, the stars were not visible at all. neither was the moon. this showed me 2 things for sure...well, okay, reinforced 2 things for sure....

1) even when we don't "see" God working or "feel" him, he's definitely still here and working miracles day in and day out. i mean, you woke up this morning, didn't you?

not seeing the stars hanging in the sky exactly where God placed them himself was almost better for me right now than seeing them. it just reminded me that even when the cloud cover of life gets in the way, the Lord is STILL THERE. Always. it encouraged me to have more faith in my creator and trust in what Romans 8:28 clearly says, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Also, a personal fave, Hebrews 11:1, the perfect definition of faith itself: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we DO NOT SEE." I know the stars are up there somewhere, even when not visible to me.

2) we know a lot less than we like to think we do. WE ARE HUMAN, NOT GOD. God is sovereign and in control, and no matter how much i wanted to see those glorious, hand-crafted stars tonight, i couldn't change the fact that the sky was cloudy. not a thing i could do about it. and there is comfort in knowing that. who am i to say the sky should be clear tonight? at least it didn't rain like predicted to! anyways, my point is that God is the head of all things, large and small!

hope you all have a great weekend, and just know you are more of a blessing to me than you can ever know.

-Alexa

Prayer request!

I'm going to be a retreat leader for the 7th grade retreat next week at my old grade school. Some other questies, Emma Jaspersen and Lauren Baskett, will also be there! If you get a chance, please pray for us, that God will use us and speak through us to these 7th graders. Pray that He'll give us wisdom when speaking with these kids and He'll give us courage when sharing stories about our faith! Thanks :) I hope everything's going well with you guys.

Represent!

So i'm gonna try to make this one a bit shorter....

Today in class we were assigned to do student led devotions and this is the topic I decided on: Living in God's name.

The verses i chose were: Col. 3:17- "And whatever you do, whether it be in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
Prov. 21:31- "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord."

Basically mine is about whatever you do or accomplish, God LET that happen. Then I kinda led that into a modern example: Tony Dungy.
If you dont know who that is, he was the head coach for the Colts the year they won the Superbowl. He had been fired from so many other teams before he was with the Colts, because he never won the superbowl.
The first practice he had with the Colts, the very first thing he said was this: "It's not gonna be Manning's touchdown throwing pass that's gonna win us games. It's not gonna be the linebackers awesome defense that's gonna win us games. The ONLY thing that's going to win us games is if we honor the victories we earn in the name of the Lord."

And sure enough, they won the Superbowl that year.
Here's Tony Dungy's 'I Am Second' video: http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/tony-dungy/
WATCH IT!