Thank God for Quest!

ok so this is my first post EVER! I'm from sessions 6 and I just want to let you know that I've already used what I learned at quest so many times since arriving home after a week of sky ranch.

If you are from session 6, then you might remember some of what I said at campfire, but basically the story goes like this. Last year at quest, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I understood God and that it would be SOOO easy to keep up a relationship with him. When I got home I was quickly reminded of all the temptations that come up in everyday life. Without a strong foundation in Christ, I gave in, weak in my efforts to fight the temptations. I doubted myself. I doubted others. I doubted my family. but worst of all, I doubted God. I blamed him for the trials in my life and for the pain I felt. I felt like a part of me was missing and I tried so hard to fill the void. looking back now, I realize that I tried to fill it with temporary things. material things of the world. After this summer at quest I finally can truly say I understand now. The Bible is truth. It is wisdom. It is love. It is everything I've been searching for for so long! I can honestly say that the void I've been feeling for so long is finally filled. The Lord is what I've been searching for and I'm so thankful that my SOJO GIRLS FROM SESSION 6 helped me to realize that.

Last night I was reading from James, and God brought my eyes to the passage James 1:19-27 and James 2:1-26. It addressed pretty much what I've been struggling with for the past year! God works in crazy ways doesn't he?

If anyone out there has had their struggles with doubts, encourage you to read these verses. I promise they will inspire you to act on your faith instead of living a life without fighting for Christ!

HEY QUEST!

I want to get to know the new questies to the blog and welcome back the old ones too, I love that this blog is exploding with posts! It makes my heart smile. I really want to know more about the people I don't know and just know how I can be praying for you! I want to hear about you and I look forward to seeing you grow through this blog! I'm so happy you guys have experienced the love of the Lord whatever week you were at quest. I think it's so beautiful to see your passion for the Lord and to see your fire for him! I just want to get to know you! Hopefully you Shreveport girls I will get to know you personally and not via blog like I will with everyone else!

I love you guys and keep on seeking after the Lord.


_Madi!

I am not ashamed

Hey everyone! I just posted something yesterday but I have another great story to tell you.

So I have a cross necklace that one of my really good friend's moms gave me when I got confirmed. I wear it all the time. So about a year ago, my cousins came to visit us. One is a guy in 11th grade and the other is a girl who is a senior in college. (They aren't religious). So they had been with us a few days when the girl noticed my necklace. She said, "Kelly, I wouldn't wear that in public if I were you, and especially not to school." I was shocked she would say something like that to me and I asked why. She said no guy at school would ever want to go out with me or even talk to me if they saw I was a "good Christian girl". Thinking that she knew best, I took it off. I strayed from God and the Bible and everything good. I tried so hard at school to fit in and do things that I wouldn't normally do.
I wasn't known as anything special and nothing different happened than it did when I was wearing the necklace, but I did feel lonlier inside and knew that I strayed from God.
"What was I thinking??" I asked myself later. "My school life is the same but I lost the one thing that's constant in my life!" So then I decided that I was not ashamed to let people know what I believed and I would wear the necklace all the time. "If guys don't talk to me because they see the necklace, then I really don't want to become close with them, because I don't need them or their approval at all!" I thought. I went back to the Bible and began to pray again. And this past week at Sky Ranch really just drove that home for me. DON'T BE ASHAMED. My cousin doesn't know God at all, and I knew that but I still believed her, and she was pulling me down. I don't want to be like her with her religious views, because guys on this earth are temporary while He is forever.

Kelly

Expect the Unexpected

Hello there! I'm Madeline from Sojo session 6 and am really excited to share with everyone about the amazing experience God has given me this past week, so here goes...

Last week was amazing. I went into it wanting to remember that God is all-knowing, and he understands what I'm going through 100 percent. The week had been going great and I felt like I could feel God around me everywhere I went, I was unstoppable. However, that Thursday me and a friend of mine were in shock as God turned the tables on both of our lives. Our dear friend who acted in our community theatre group had been in a coma for the past several weeks, and he had passed away Tuesday morning July 6, 2010. I wasn't sure why God had decided to bring me the news on what was supposed to be the greatest week of my year. But once I thought about it, I realized that it was a blessing that I was surrounded by a cabin of such great girls and four amazing counselors to be with the both of us.

#1. God knew exactly what he was doing... and He revealed to me about how He knows everything I'm going through.

So I had to miss the closing ceremony Saturday in order to make it to the funeral on time. Walking into the church, I was expecting everything to be sad-most funerals are. However once we sat down, the pastor immediately said how today we weren't going to mourn, but celebrate the life of Zach how he would have wanted it to be celebrated. It was the most beautiful celebration I've ever witnessed. They had a time where they worshipped and on the third song Zach's mother, who had lost both her husband and her only son within two years time, continued to sing and praise God with a smile on her face that brought tears to my eyes. How someone who had lost two of the closest people in her life could still stand up on stage in front of everyone and shout praises to our Lord will forever amaze me. She later spoke to everyone about what happened after he passed away. She told us how angry she was that God would take away her one and only son, but then she heard God say to her,

#2"I understand, remember that I have been through everything you are going through right now. " And that is what gave her joy, and God revealed himself to me once more.

So I got everything I asked for when I showed up the first day at Sky Ranch. God answered my prayer two different times, and now I know how He truly does understand every situation in life.

I hope my story inspired you in some way. And heres one more thing, Job 12:13

~Madeline

Church

Hey I was in SoJo session 6! With all the knowledge I learned in Quest this past week, my family and I went to church today. We were discussing the book "Children's Letters to God." So someone was asking the pastor some of the questions that kids asked alot.

All of the questions could have applied to things we learned at Sky Ranch just in 2010 and I could have answered all of them! But one was, "Dear God, why do you allow people to suffer?"

The pastor said that he didn't think God knew everything before it happens. I disagree with that completely. So he said he wasn't really sure but some people just do. And in my head I was like "Trials! God puts us through trials so we can grow and become stronger in Him!" I answered all the questions in my head and I just felt like my pastor didn't really understand it. I miss being at Sky Ranch so much but I'm glad to be home to start applying everything I learned!

Kelly

Where we're at

Hey Quest! This is Alexa from session 6 SoJo! I am SO excited to finally be posting on the blog! I feel like this is such an awesome way for us to all keep up with each other and encourage one another and pursue Christ. Together. We are the body of Christ.

I don't have all that much to say yet, but one thing the Lord really put on my heart today i do want to share with y'all. He sort of revealed this obvious fact to me in Sunday school this morning, and perfectly enough it connected very well with something that we talked a lot about at camp. We had been listening to our youth minister talk for a while and everyone could tell he was coming to a close, making his final points of the sermon. Then he said ,"Alright I'm going to pray with y'all and then we'll go." Right then everyone moved in their chairs. And you could hear it. We sit in those metal folding chairs in Sunday school so when people are changing positions you know it, especially when a lot of people do it at once. Even i moved, probably out of habit to a more upright position, preparing to pray. That's basically what everyone did because let's face it, during sermons we tend (or at least i do) to slump down in our seats, some of us barely holding onto consciousness before nearly falling asleep! So when the speaker says "Let's pray," it means the sermon is coming to an end. And to most people, that is a good thing. But to those of us Questers who want and yearn to know about the Lord and seek him daily, it can be a letdown when an awesome message ends. Anyways, back to the story, when everyone sat up only to bow their heads again in prayer, it made me think about going to the Lord in prayer, just in general. Sitting up was like when we act like we have it all together when we pray to God, when clearly we do not, just like we act like we weren't about to fall asleep in the middle of a sermon during church. And then there are those people who don't move at all when prayer time comes around, and God showed me how that was like the people who go to God in prayer and meet him where they're at. They don't try to conceal the reality of the brokenness they're experiencing, they just go to the Lord with what they're dealing with in that moment or time. That's just what God brought to my attention this morning, and i wanted to share it on here. Thanks for reading and I cannot wait to see how the Lord uses this thing for his glory.

In his pure and holy embrace forever,

Alexa

What do you think?

Hey Quest! I was in Sojo, session 6, and I had the most amazing week ever. I learned so much.

I was in Quest last year, and I've been posting on this blog for a while now...it's great to see some new people posting! Keep it up! Anyway, I've had a few questions here and there, most of them were related to my dad, who is an atheist.

Today he asked me why God "allows" suffering to exist in our world. He asks me this question constantly...but he never likes the answers I give him. I've asked this question so many times on here, but I thought I should post it again to see what all of the new people to Quest have to say. I would love to hear what you think.

When my dad asks me why God allows suffering, I say this:
If we lived in a perfect world, then there would be no need for God. But we live in a world full of sin and evil...and this sin and evil forces us to turn to something greater: God. We realize how much we truly need Him when we realize just how fallen our world is. Also, the world can't be perfect because only Heaven is perfect, and Heaven is not of this world. (Thanks to cameron and whitley for helping me with this answer...I definitely couldn't have thought of this myself.)

Well everytime I tell him this he doesn't understand it...today he brought up a new question. He said if we lived in a perfect world were there was no need for God, then why is God present in Heaven, if that is a "perfect world?" I tried to explain to him that Heaven can't be considered a "world" because it's really not of this world. But then he said I was contradicting myself, and he didn't get it.

Let me know what you think of all this! Or if you have a totally different explanation I'd love to hear it.

-Haley

Exciting News!

For those of yall who don't remember me it's Ryan Folkes. whats up. I know I haven't posted on ye old blog in a while but I do have some cool news to share. Recently, meaning this summer, I've take up a new past time now that I don't have football or school or anything like that to hang on to. Take a guess at what it is, I bet ya can't get it...


I started writing raps. nbd.
And I don't know about you buy my greatest motivation and inspiration all comes from the Bible. So far I've completed three of them. One was kinda just an opening at a talent show so its not really as important. The next is my new and improved way to know the books of the old testament, and the last one is about Ephesians 6:11 (the armor of God) and Revelations 19:11 (the Rider on the White Horse).


Currently I'm working on one thats focused around Psalms 23. This is actually one of my favorites which I'm sure everyone has heard at some point in their life. "The Lord is my Shepherd... As I walk throught the valley of the shadow of death..."


I say all this because I wanted to come back making somewhat of an impression. Hopefully I did just that. I'll leave a link to the video of my old testament rap at the end of this blog. I've missed all of yall a lot and I'm looking forward to hopping back on this train!!

http://www.facebook.com/video/?of=1057262017#!/video/video.php?v=403819666125&subj=1057262017

A little strange..

So Paul when writing to the churches wrote a prayer out for them, and I want to do that for you guys, I know this is kind of strange because no one has done it, but I want to. So here we go,

Yahweh God, Thank you for quest, Thank you for the very heart of quest and thank you for quests desire to go deeper and seek after you Lord. Thank you for their passion and thank your for the fire you have ignited in their souls. I pray that you let us be examples for our generation God, and not just for them but for everyone around us God. I pray that you open the flood gates and you release your blessings upon them Father God. I thank you for the boldness you have given them God, the boldness to spread your word, not just by words God, but by their actions and the things they do. Lord I pray that the seek after you face and your heart and not just your hand, I praise you for the things that are coming their way, for I know that they are spectacular Lord. Lord I pray that they hold fast to your words and keep your commandments and live. I thank you that they will not forget and they will not turn away from the words of your mouth Lord. Just like it talks about in Proverbs 4. I thank you for the wisdom you have given them and I thank you for the anointing you have put on them God, I thank you and I praise you that they are walking in it God. I thank you Lord that the enemy does not have a strong hold on them and they will walk in confidence of you Lord. I praise you for the paths you have set before them God and I pray that you will reveal your self to them in new ways everyday God, I pray that they will fall in love with you more and more the more and more they seek you Father. I thank you that your voice is sweet and that your face is lovely, and I thank you that all of quest knows that too, I pray that you give them ears to hear when you speak to them God, and I thank you that they will know that it is you speaking to them God, I know the enemy will try to tell them otherwise but in Jesus name I rebuke him! I love them Lord and You love them too! And I praise you for the phenomenal things that they will do!

I thank you and I ask all of these things in your son's holy name

Amen.


Sorry I hope that wasn't weird. I just really feel like I needed to do that. Be blessed today quest.

-Madi

Tuning In

Hey quest! I just got home from a camp/ conference called YFN! I suggest everyone go check out there website Youthforthenations.com, its pretty neat. Anyways, while I was there a man by the name of Jaycee Jennings prepared a sermon to give us and it was all about hearing God's voice. He titled it Shouts and whispers. I got to thinking and I realized I never give God a chance to talk back to me, I talk to him so much I never give him a chance to talk back. Then I realized if I want Him to respond to me, I dont want him to have to Shout at me, because if you think about it you shout at someone when they are far away, typically, right? But, you guys, I want The Lord to whisper to me, you can't hear a whisper unless you're right up close to somebody, and I want to be that close to God that he can whisper to me and I can hear him. So that's my prayer, to be so close to God that I can hear his whispers. In the Bible in 1 Kings 19:9-14 Elijah (who I have a secret crush on BTW) has been running from Jezebel because she's trying to kill him and he goes into a cave and a big wind comes and then an earthquake but the Lord was not in either of those things then a great fire came and the Lord wasn't in the Fire either but after the Fire Elijah heard a low whisper, it was The Lord. I want to encourage you to read that. I also want to encourage that when you have you quiet time and you spend time in prayer, spend some time in his presence and see what kind of stuff he's been waiting to whisper in your ear, his voice is sweet, and the things he has to say are beautiful!

Keep listening to Him! And let me know what he has to say!
In him always,
Madi

ESV Study Bible

The ESV Study Bible was recommended to me while I was at camp, and when I got home, I bought one. When it came in, I was shocked at the size of that thing! But man, is it awesome! It is sooooo helpful for inductive Bible Studies! It has like three pages of context, plus an outline, for each book! On a page, like 1/3 of it will be verses, and the rest of the page will be filled up with notes. It has like a summery of the section or idea you read, plus a breakdown of every verse complete with awesome deffinitions and explainations. There is so much meat in there you could spend an hour on two paragraphs! I am currently studying James, and i just spent an hour revisiting the verses we covered at camp!
All this is to say that i totally recommend an ESV Study Bible to anyone who is serious about God's word and really wants to go deeper. It makes inductive Bible Studys super easy too!
love,
-Hannah

How's it been since you left camp?

Comment on this post on how you have been doing since camp... good and bad.

Question

Hey Quest! I have a question I was hoping y'all could help me with. I've read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy some laws that we don't apply to our lives anymore. Like in Leviticus 19, there are a couple examples, and also in those books it says stuff about not trimming your beard, or don't eat shrimp, or women can't talk in church. My question is, why don't we live by those laws anymore?

Psalm 139

I love how Psalm 139 talks about how God is there all the time no matter what happens. It supports the poem about the footprints on the beach, God carries us and supports us through everything.

-Alex

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Proverbs

Hey Quest! I have one quick thing to say. I've just started going through Proverbs, and I want to say, if you're looking for something to read that full of awesome verses, start in the first three chapters of Proverbs. It's such a cool book.

One thing I noticed was that the first three books are all about the benefits of wisdom, which reminded me of the time when John Morgan came and talked to us at Breakout. He mentioned one of the verses I just read, Proverbs 4:6-7.

"Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore, get wisdom. Though it may cost you all that you have, get understanding."

Like John Morgan said, though that may be difficult to remember at times, you can always go back to that verse and remember the importance of wisdom.

So, if want a place to start reading your bible and digging for information during your own quiet times, may I suggest Proverbs?

-Joe

Walk By Faith

Okay, I finally figured out how to post something of my own!! (:

Anyway, so I was listening to the radio the other day, and the song, "Walk By Faith," by Jeremy Camp came on. If y'all don't know that song, I would HIGHLY suggest listenign to it because it is awesome!!

These are the lyrics:

"Will I believe You when You say Your hand will guide my every way?
Will I recieve the words You say every moment of every day?

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road prepares Your will for me.

Help me to rid my endless fears.
You've been faithful all my years.
With one breath You make e new.
Your grace covers all I do.

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road prepares Your will for me

Well I'm broken, but I still see Your face.
Well you've spoken, pouring Your words of grace.

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road prepares Your will for me.

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road prepares Your will for me.

Hallelujah, I will walk by faith, Hallelujah"


I just thought this song was so cool. It's really helpful if you're going through something tough. The words set an example as to what we should be doing. Like, even if you don't see the good in the situation, you have to stay in faith, and God will lead you through. That is so comforting to me. I hope it helps y'all, too!! (:

-Caroline (:

WATCH THIS MUSIC VIDEO!

Just click on the title and watch it. It is Trip Lee, a rapper who grew up in Dallas. I watch it at least once a day.

tossed and turned back home

I read in Ephesians 4 today and it talked about how we are like children that are tossed to and fro by the waves of the world. I was really encouraged by the whole chapter and got to talk to Chris Witt about it and he told me this awesome analogy that I wanted to share with you guys.

In the times when Paul was traveling by sea around to all of the different churches and writing these letters, they had these anchors that they would use to pull themselves in. The anchor was set into the safe, port waters and the ships would attatch themselves to these ropes and pull themselves in. The seas can be treacherous and the process is really dangerous, but as long as they hung on the anchor, pull by pull they would reach the safe harbor.

Alot of us are out in those dangerous seas right now back home and we have got to grab a hold of that anchor, Jesus Christ. We may be tossed and turned by the waves but we persevere, holding fast to the anchor. It may be tough but as long as we cling to Christ, he will navigate us to the harbor.

But it is not enough just to hold on, we have got to pull our ship to that harbor. We have got to make pulls in our own life towards Christ, otherwise we are just going to sit there and continued to get dominated by the sea.

Make War

Session 5, we've been home from sky ranch for just two days now and I am already finding myself face to face with tons of different temptations that seemed absent while at sky ranch. Guys, If you remember, on tuesday night Cameron told us to "make war" against temptation and against all sin. This short phrase has really helped me not give in to many of the temptations that I have faced and I hope it can do the same for all of you. If you feel a sudden urge to sin and if you feel that you should give in to the temporary pleasure of the world, just remember that you should "make war" against this temptation in order to overcome it. Also remember that this worldly pleasure is short, fleeting, and altogether unsatisfactory. Look, instead, for joy in God and in his word. Remember, though, that alone, we are powerless against the devil and temptation, but if we "make war" with faith that God is behind us and trusting that he will help us successfully beat temptation, then the devil cannot touch us. Also, If any of you are having problems with temptation, you have all your brothers and sisters in quest who will be there to help you in any way possible. So remember, "make war" against all the temptations that you face, and as long as long as you do so with trust that God will be with you the entire time, you will not fall to any temptation.

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak! -Mathew 26:41

Love yall

-Kyle

Purpose

"Every moment is worthless no meaning or purpose,
Every breath is just waisted, if you are not the center of my world
Im just drifting, barely existing,
Cause every minute without you is worthless"
-Worthless, by Point of Grace

So I heard this song and i found it super powerful and convicting. It just reminds me that everything in this life that we spend time on besides God is fleeting. Nothing else will last, and everything else is meaningless from the eternal perspective. We need to keep God at the center of our world. In everything that we do in school, sports, and with our friends, We should be doing it with the motive to please God. It is so true that every minute without him is worthless. Our lives are a gift. Our next breath is not a guarantee. I say this not to worry you, but to remind you to invest in things that will last. This really changes my perspective on spending time with the Lord daily. Before, i thought that if you read your Bible in the morning for fifteen minutes, that was awesome. And it is awesome to be in the word daily, but there is more to it than that!! The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Think how different every day would be if we truely did that! I think that is what Christ being the "center of our world" means. for if we keep him at the forefront of our minds throughout the day, than we will naturally start to think of the details more from his perspective. And then we start to change.To become more like Jesus, we need to spend time with him. And thought reading the Bible is absolutely essential, we can't just do it for a few minutes in the morning and then be done.
I know its not a Bible verse, but i really found that song challenging, and I hope you do too!!

Esther Was the Light

Today I asked my dad to take me to Borders or Barnes & Noble to get an ESV Study Bible. When we were at Borders, I was walking in the Religion section and I saw the title of a book that made me look again. The book is called Chosen:The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther by Ginger Garrett. I had to have it. I thought it would be an awesome book to read while reading the actual book of Esther in the Old Testament.

So I was in the car starting to read it, I read a footnote telling me to go to the back of the book to the appendix. What I read there really stuck with me. Here it is:

'What was it that set Esther apart? Although we do not know how Mordecai allowed Esther to groom herself, we know her peers used cosmetics to increase their allure. Fats from animals... were used as the base for cosmetics and perfumes, and it was believed that the strength and beauty of the animals would be passed along to the wearers. These fats... were applied based on the premise that light always creates highlights and shadows. ...One must draw the eye to a good feature, and away from a lesser one.

The Jews say God created Esther with a different approach. Esther's peers used cosmetics to manipulate the light around them. Yet, fashioned by God, in this story Esther would be the light. It is taught that women are illuminated internally by His power and strength. He shaped them to His satisfaction.' (pg 273)

This tells us that by being being the light, we are set apart. That we are 'illuminated internally by His power' and making a difference in that way.

In John 8:12, Jesus says, '"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”'

As followers of Christ, we do not 'walk in darkness'. We have Jesus within us, seeing through our eyes, speaking through our mouths, and shining out of us with the light of life.

I've been reading this book for about 30 minutes now, and already its made me think quite a lot. I recommend it to all of you! I miss you and love you all!

-Ally

Inspiration

everyone in quest session 5 has inspired me to do so much, and to challenge other people in their faith i hope we can all see each other again someday.

bringin' da truth

"I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of this world, just as I am not of this world. And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified in the truth."
John 17:15-17

This is what Jesus prayed for his disciples right before he left them. He left them with a call to bring the truth to the world.

That is us too my friends. We have been called to be vessels of truth to the messed up world. He does not want to take us away from it because this world NEEDS us to bring the truth.

May we be continually sanctified by the truth of God's word!!! Let's read it when its hard lets read it when its easy, lets read it in the morning, lets read it in the evening, lets hide it in our heart, lets go baby.... its time to bring THE TRUTH with our lives!

Encouragment

"So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

How awesome is that? I can't tell you how many time I get discouraged because I am so scared. I'm especially scared of failure, which is lame, but it's something you should know about me. I know that I shouldn't be scared because God will "uphold me with his righteous right hand" that's so cool. What are things that your scared of and what are ways you can apply this to your life? I LOVE to hear your hearts so please share. I am so happy to be on this blog again. It's awesome! I hope all of you are doing great and that the Lord is moving in your lives in new ways that are so exciting to you! Keep me updated on things.
I love you guys!

In him, Madi.

Quest

Hey everyone. First off, I want to say it's great to see the blog being used again by so many awesome people, and I can't wait to see what all of you have to say.

What I want to talk about real quick is something that I noticed at the Session 5 campfire. Everyone was telling a part or two of their own personal testimony, and there were so many successful stories. All these people that had guilt or had fallen away during the year were talking and saying that now they knew they could go out and live their lives for God. Which is so awesome! I love hearing that kind of stuff. But one thing I noticed was that during everyone's turn to speak, almost everyone said, "And then came this week," or "then I came to Quest." And in that point in the story, everything turned around and out came the lighter side of the story. What I want to say is that, although Quest is awesome, and it's such an amazing place to get to know the Lord and His will, it's just a title. It's just the name of a section of Sky Ranch. It wasn't the building, or the tribal comps, or chili dog day that created Quest into what it was.

It was all of you.

While it was the Lord that brought us all together for that wonderful week, it was all of you that encouraged each other throughout the whole week. It was the counselors, it was the campers, it was Cameron and Dana, that were the heart of Quest. We were the collective body of believers that made Quest so awesome. That also goes back to our Bible X time when we talked about the Christian community, or the body of believers. Anyways, I just wanted all of you to know that if you really want to get to know the Lord this year, and grow in your faith, don't let Quest be part of your encouragement. Let it be everyone that made up Quest. Let it be each other. Try and keep up with each other this year and keep that bond that all of you made during your sessions. Don't let it go to waste. And this blog is perfect for that. This is the perfect place to keep up with everyone that you've come to know and love, why not use it? I would love to see this blog kept alive and running until Quest next year rolls around. I encourage everyone reading this to keep posting and asking, even if you only have something small to say. Y'all are awesome, please keep it up.

-Joe

The Importance of Wisdom.

"Break my heart for what breaks yours, Everything I am for your Kingdom's cause

." -hosanna, hillsong 

I want THIS to me  my  battle cry.  

I read through proverbs this past month, and PROVERBS 2 really stood out to me. 

It talks about the importance of wisdom, the value of Wisdom, and even how to find it. 

Proverbs 2:1-5  1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find that knowledge of God. 

When we seek wisdom we will find it.  In wisdom we find understanding, and when wisdom come into our heart the knowledge will be pleasant to our souls. THE LORD GIVES WIDOM, FROM HIS MOUTH COMES KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING!!! Discretion will watch over us, and understanding will gaurd us delivering you from evil in MANY different aspects. 

(discretion is knowing when you speak and when not to speak, knowing what you say, when to say it, and how to say it, or being careful in situations) 

Proverbs 2:20 You will walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

Walking in the way of good and keeping the paths of the righteous, is a way that others will see a difference in Christians and an important way of wisdom.

If we do not have knowledge and understanding of God, we can easily be broken down.

Someone I'm very close to in my life walked with the Lord all throughout highschool, but then they entered college and they were beaten down by those around them because people would throw questions at them, that they couldn't answer.  Or make statements, that they couldn't refute. All of that made them doubt so much, to where their faith was destroyed.  Because they did not have a large knowledge of God. 

The importance of seeking after the Lord with all that we are, giving ourselves completely to him, and growing in knowledge of him is so so so crucial.  

We are called to share the word of the Lord, but it's tough to do that if we don't know it.  

That's why it's so important to spend time in the word.  Receiving God's word is the first things it says to do in this chapter.  In reading God's Word, we gain wisdom. 

To sum it up Wisdom is important in GLORIFYING THE LORD, in growing closer to the Lord in our relationship with Him, and God working through us to save the Lost, and bring knowledge and understanding to them. 

I am second videos

(Click on this title and it will take you to their website...after you have read the blog duh)

So im chillin on my morning off from camp and decided to check out some videos online. Yesterday, Dana had to lead a breakout and I had to leave but I downloaded a couple of videos that were like inspirational stories... yeah Dana was crying through the whole thing... haha. Anyways I checked out some I am second videos and I was so encouraged. There are a few that were really cool that I reccommend: Jason Witten (Dallas Cowboys All-Star Tight End), Jason Castro (Aggie, WHOOP and American Idol finalist), and Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers All-Star Outfielder).

We have so many poor examples of famous people out there, so I wanted to let you check out the stories of some studs.

Love you guys and prayin for you a ton

JUDGERS!!!!!

Okey dokey, I know that everyone has to deal with these people. Judgers (or people who judge if you are an English grammar freak :D). Anyway, judgers annoy me to no end. Seriously. I cannot stand it when I am with someone and they say things like "wow that girl is really fat" or "that guy is super ugly". It annoys me, and yet I judge all the time. Why is that we do the things that annoy us the most? I have been getting better at not judging. I sit there and tell myself, "who am I to judge?" Besides, I do not want people judging me (and I know they do). So, my question for ya'll is, what do ya'll do when you find yourself judging someone? And, are there any bible verses for this? LET ME KNOW!!!!

I love you all and miss you so very much!

James

I have been reading through james since i got home and it turns out you can really aply it to your life. in chapter 2 it talks about not judging people because of thier outward appearance or the ammount of money they have. if your looking for a book to read i HIGHLY suggest James.

-Austin C. Mann

Finding encouragement in Philippians

Last night I was pretty discouraged. It is so awesome to have so many of the Quest kids back at camp but it is hard for me when they tell me how difficult it was for them this past year with their faith. I care about you guys so much and I wish I could just walk through life with each of you. But then I got to thinking that it doesn't matter how hard I try to encourage you guys, equip you guys, or blog with you guys.... even with the best motives, it is not enough. God has to capture the hearts of his sons and daughters and move in their lives.

I was sitting down by the fire and felt hopeless, it didn't matter how awesome of a week the Quest kids have, it is completely in God's hands after you leave camp (don't get me wrong I know that it is 100% Christ in me that can do anything here at camp, I know that it is not me, trust me, if it was, Quest would be nothing). But it is the fact that I can't do anymore than a week and blog you know? I was broken last night.

I woke up this morning not very motivated to read my Bible but decided that I would look into Philippians. In the first chapter, Paul talks about how much he misses those he loved dearly that he had to leave.

"For God is my witness how I long for each of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." Php 1:8

That caught my eye because I feel really similarly about you guys. I kept reading and a couple of verses before that last one it said:
"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion."

Paul was devastated to leave these people but he was confident in the Lord who is the one who does the work inside of them.

Then Paul talks about how earnestly he prays for them. I was so encouraged through this and realized that prayer is really all I can do. We serve a God who is so big and loves each of you more than I ever could imagine. Of course he will complete the work he started in you and carry you into completion.

I am praying for you guys harder than ever, and more humbled than ever. May Christ continue to capture your hearts

heys guys! so questers going back this year get ready for some fun. I just got back from visiting my awesome sister, and wow. God can seriously work through little things to refresh you on your faith. Last year when i came back from camp i was on such a spiritual high and ready to learn new things about the Lord. Once school came around as well as soccer i found it hard to keep that high up.. and those should never be excuses? I have been luke warm for the past couple months and only opened my bible when i got bored..and im sure some of you out there feel the same as me? When i got to camp i immedietly felt that stillness and comfort in the Lord even when i was having a blast! Sarah B and Cam i consider you guys my brother and sister. You are such role models for how Christians need to live their life--and all the fun and talks we had helped me get back on track. I have my bible with me right now opened next to me.. and i can tell you that it would not have happened if i hadnt come back to camp. I am ready to grow in the Lord!
sam

Not just a camp high

First, I just want to say just how happy I am to see everyone posting on here again! Thanks cameron! I'm going to Quest next week, july 4th-july 10th, and I'm so excited to see what God has in store for me.

I was just reading what some of you said about how amazing Sky Ranch was for you these past few weeks. God always teaches me so much at Sky Ranch. Camp always brings me so much closer to Him than I ever thought possible. But it always feels like I'm super "holy" only a few weeks after camp...then pretty soon after, I return to the same person I was before camp. So here's your challenge: don't make this just a "camp high!" Hold on to everything you learned. Remember these joyful feelings you're experiencing right now, immediately after camp, and never, ever let them go.

Trust me, it gets hard. I'm sure you all know about the struggles that come along with being a Christian today. Stay strong! And I think the best possible thing you can do, in the future, when you feel like you're not the same joyful person you are right now, right after camp, is pray. Pray to God for strength when you feel the need to. He's always there.

WOW

Wow. I do not know what else to say. Seriously. I used to be this super depressed, my life sucks, there is no reason to live person and now...I have not been able to stop smiling. Sky Ranch was the best thing that has ever happened to me. God sent me there for a reason and I realize now that the reason He sent me there was so I could rededicate my life to Him. I am happy again. I am filled this unquenchable joy and everyone around has noticed it. The light has finally been brought to the darkness. Thank you to everyone in Quest. And thank you God for helping me through this. I love you all.

Home!

I had an awesome week at Sky Ranch. It feels so weird not being with my new found brothers. I can't wait to take what I learned this week and put it into my regular life! Thanks Cameron for being so amazing, and helping me on my journey towards christ!

P.S. Say hey to Taylor, Will, and Jake for me!

Let us not forget...

Last night campfire was so good!!! It was really hard for me at the same time because of all the brokeness in the room. I grow so attatched to the people that come through Quest and when they express fears about returning home it rips me apart. It reminds me of the dark and cruel world that we live it. It is getting harder and harder to live our faith out in America. I wish that we could all walk through life together, supporting one another. But that is not what called has called us to do.

The Lord gave me a beautiful picture in my mind last night in the midst of my brokeness. I saw a group of young people, those who came to Quest, walking out into the darkness with some firewood and matches in their hand. As they walked off in separate directions from camp the picture panned out into a map where you could see all across dallas and texas and the united states and then all the way to europe. Little lights started to flicker like little specks all across the map as the Quest kids began to stoke their fires. As I continued to watch, the little specks began to grow and burn brighter and brighter. More specks formed around the bright specks and God began to move in mighty ways across the country.

All from a small group of high school kids God chose to bear his light into the darkness. Then I began to be comforted. Quest, we are supposed to go back home.

I was reading in James 1 this morning because we have been getting so much out of it in our inductives and this verse really stuck out:

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror. For he looks at himself in the mirror and immediately walks away and forget what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be bless in his doing." James 1:25

Let us not forget what the Lord taught us, but may we shine like stars reflecting Jesus Christ in a dark world.

blogging about our blog

Today I'm going to blog about this blog and my thoughts on if I should continue it into next year.

Something that is so hard about camp is that on Saturday, you all have to go back home to the same lives that you left before camp. You changed but no one else back home did. It's rough. This blog was created to help that transition. It is a way to continue to encourage each other as a body, planted throughout Texas and the U.S. and even France.

I don't know any better use of my time than to blog with the next generation of God's chosen leaders. It is a lofty commitment, I only lasted through December last year, but I feel the Lord tugging at my heart to do this again with you guys. I love ya'll more than you know, and I pray that the Lord gives me strength to be faithful.

This blog is centered around the living, breathing, active, and infallible word of God. We post what we learn, we post our questions, and we encourage each other to pursue Christ harder than anything else in this life.

Today I'm making the commitment to you. Let's do that trash.

Cant wait to kick it again!

Hey questies! I'm shane from stonewall session 7 of 09'. I've only posted on here once but would always love to read other questie's lessons and experiences. But since school got busy I started drifting away from here. I think God wanted to lead me back here so I decided to check out to see if things we're still going good on the blog. The last post was only 13 days ago and to think that everyone's almost made it a year staying connected is exciting. I will be returning to quest session 7 again this year and can't wait to reconnect with old questies! I hope this blog stays alive and we get a lot new bloggers throughout the summer. I plan to start posting more on here and contributing to our awesome quest community.

Can't wait to reunite with everyone and to kick it again!

God Bless,
Shane Steiner

The Message

I've been reading the Bible version called "The Message," and it has allowed me to see scripture in a new, modern way. I had found myself somewhat in a standstill with God's word, not reaping from it what I would expect, when I decided to check out this different version of the language of God. It has been blowing my mind. I love the way that it says things, so simply yet boldly and with strength. It penetrates my very soul. Thus, if anyone is feeling stagnancy with God's word, may I suggest to check out this version. It will rock your world.

It is funny how often I use things that I learned in Quest this past summer in my day to day life now. When I was abroad in Europe for a month, I had probably 5 or 6 spiritual conversations with non-believers, just travelers who I would meet and then they would ask me about my beliefs. It's funny how God prepared me for that time through my ministry at Sky Ranch. I used what I learned time and time again, and it was like God was recalling it all back to me...Behind Closed Doors helped not only you as campers, but me as a counselor. I wasn't aware of the best ways to talk to non-believers, atheists, agnostics, etc. until Quest. And it's just insane, because it works. Keeping a standpoint of being non-judgmental and just loving the heck out of people, for reasons they don't understand-- that love goes so far, it goes such a long way.

There is also a girl at work that I have befriended named Sarah. Her and I hang out once a week after our shifts and she is an agnostic/atheist/I'm not too sure what she labels herself, but she is a strong advocate of science and what science proves or says about our lives and how we are here, etc. It has been wonderful building a friendship with her, because genuinely I do care about her and enjoy her company. She is extremely bright, intelligent, and easy to talk to. We share life together and I also have the opportunity to love her and love on her and show her God's love without even talking about it. She and I had our first spiritual conversation 2 weeks ago after work, where she finally brought up dozens of questions she had for me and I found myself just fumbling for the answers and for the right things to say, when I just kind of stopped and realized that this was what we had prepared you guys for, this is what it's all about. It's about loving people through their disbelief, to continue to remain firm and confident in our faith but to show the other person love through our disagreement. The great thing about it is that afterward, she wasn't turned away. She thanked me for respecting her and said she looked forward to the next time we conversed about it. To me, this was a miracle-- that someone who questions everything about what I believe and who I am still wants to continue a friendship with me and also continue to talk about this issue.

But really, Quest changed my life. Last summer was epic. It not only brought me closer to Christ, not only allowed me to connect and build relationships with my flipping awesome co-counselors and campers, but it also taught me things. It taught ME how to read my Bible inductively. It taught ME how to evangelize or talk to non-believers about Jesus. It taught ME how to depend on the Lord with all that I have, when you're getting 5 hours of sleep a night and running rampant around a summer camp all day long. It taught me how to love better, how to find my identity in Christ, how to be secure as a woman of God, how to appreciate different parts of the Bible...so many things.

I am currently facing one of the hardest decisions of my life, whether to return to this place that changed my life last summer. If anyone still reads this, if anyone gets this at all, please say a prayer for me that God will direct my steps in His paths of righteousness.

Thank you, Quest, and thank you JESUS, for all you have done, for these kids, for me, for your Kingdom.

Seek the Lord

"From the moment a soul has the grace to know God, he or she must seek."

Keep seeking the Lord. Praying for you all :)

Brussels: T-2 days!

Hello my questies,

I am departing for my month abroad in Brussels on Friday. Please pray for me that I will be a light to the girls I am living with, to the children in the school I am teaching in, and to the people in Belgium and everywhere I end up traveling. Pray that I continue to follow Christ's call for my life and shine like a star in the universe by His light. Pray for safety as well.

I think of you guys every day. Not a day goes by where I don't think of Quest with such fondness, memories, and thankfulness. I pray that God is rocking your worlds right now. It's not promised to be an easy road as Christ follower, but the reward is far greater. Read Psalm 73:23-26. I found it the other night and it made me cry, it is so beautiful.

While I'm gone I will have a blog, if you're interested in reading: www.whitleyinbrussels.blogspot.com

Truth

God does not choose the equiped, He equips the chosen.

Hiatus

Hello Quest,

My many apologies for not being on this for quite some time. I got discouraged towards the end of last semester because I was frequently reading my own posts and I didn't want to do that, but that was a pitiful reason to stop posting! It doesn't matter how many people are reading our posts or if anyone does...it's cool because God is reading them and knowing them before we even type them, which is who we are aiming to glorify anyway.

I also have been without computer for over a month now and just got my laptop back up and running, score!!

So, in other words, I'm back and am excited to continue this journey with you.

I challenge you all to spend at least 5 minutes per day being still before God. just be still. no thinking, no typing, no texting, no phone/internet/facebook/twitter, no music, no tv, no driving, no eating, NOTHING. sit and be completely still. and if you start praying in your head, stop...and just keep repeating, "Be still and know that You are God." I think it is so important for all of us in the midst of our busy lives and schedules to know to be still before God and to never compromise our time with Him. do you think He enjoys it when we miss a single day without spending intimate time with Him? i don't think so.

i love you all...

Prayer Requests

If anyone is still reading this, is there anything you'd like me to pray for?
Comment and let me know! (:

God bless!
-Haley

imperishable beauty and waiting for the good to win

I know most of you aren't really checking this anymore, and that's okay, but I guess I'll just keep posting anyway because it really helps me get the most out of each passage I read. And yea, it's pretty late right now to be posting, but I can't sleep! Here are a few things about 1 Peter 3 that really stuck out to me...

1 Peter 3:3-4 ~ "Your adornment should not be an external one: braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or dressing in fine clothes, but rather the hidden character of the heart, expressed in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and calm disposition, which is precious in the sight of God."...And God's "sight" is definitely the only sight/judgement that matters. I think girls in particular should really listen to these few verses. It seems like everyone gets too wrapped up in things that don't matter in this world and, for some reason, they think that they have to be perfect on the outside for everyone to like them or accept them. Try not to focus on those kind of qualities too much. (: And don't look for those kind of qualities in other people. Love them for whom they are on the inside.

1 Peter 3:17 ~ "For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil." It's crazy how much this verse applies to my life right now (especially tonight). It's such a powerful verse, though. I guess it's basically saying that good always wins. And here's a quote I read this morning that is really connected with this verse..."Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore." - Dorothy Bryant. Kind of a cheesy comparison, but it's really true. We might have to keep digging through all of that sand for some time before we find the gold, just as we might have to wait a while for the good to overcome the bad, but in the end, it's always going to be worth it. Sometimes it may seem like the "bad person" (I don't know how else to say it...) is winning, BUT just wait a while, keep on fighting for what you know in your heart is right, and you'll most definitely find that good really does win - - ALWAYS. That's something my parents have told me ever since I was little, and I'm never going to forget it!

You're in my prayers,
Haley

1 Peter 1

Hey Quest, I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

So here are some pretty cool things from 1 Peter 1:

1 Peter 1:6-7 ~ "In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." I love these verses so much because they are so encouraging and uplifting. The truth is, we're ALL going to go through struggle after struggle after struggle in our lives. What really matters is how we handle them, how we react to these struggles. They are really God's ways of testing ("the genuineness of") our faith. And they almost always make us and our faith even stronger...so something good can definitely come out of something bad. "Every set back in life is a chance to rise up even stronger."

Here's part of a poem that goes along with/has the same message as 1 Peter 1:6-7. It's called "Heavy" by Mary Oliver...

That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying

I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had His hand in this,

....................

Then said my friend Daniel
(brave even among lions),
"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it-
books, bricks, grief-
it's all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not,
put it down."
So I went practicing,
Have you noticed?

Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?...


1 Peter 1:22 ~ "Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a [pure] heart." This is the verse that Whitley put on my award for "sincere spirit" at camp. Always remeber the importance of sincerely and genuinely loving one another. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~ Plato

Hopefully more people will start reading/posting on the blog again... :/
And are there any prayer requests out there?

God bless! And happy 2010. (:
-Haley

Forgiveness talk relived...

I read Philemon this morning and it reminded me of you guys. I don't know if you guys remember my story about the person that sexually abused me when I was younger or not but over Thanksgiing I saw this person for the first time in 5 years. I know that I forgave him this summer with the power Christ gave me to forgive but it was another thing to walk up to him and talk with him in complete forgiveness. The Lord was so good though, I was able to walk up to him and give him a big hug and I truly felt Christ giving me love and forgiveness for him. It was really cool. This morning in Philemon reminded me of this. I hope you all are having a wonderful break!

Sharing your faith

Hey Quest! I meant to tell you this a while ago, but I'm just now getting around to it...it's been a pretty busy first semester of school! But now we're all on break! Woooo get excited! (:

So, way back in October my class and I went on a retreat to a camp near our school. One of the priests from our diocese came with us, and later, I told him about my key and the story behind it. He was amazed, and immediately he said he was going to tell his school and his parish about my key. And, just a few weeks ago, I saw this priest again, and he told me that he has never told so many people a single story before! Can you imagine how many people have heard it by now! I don't know about you, but I think the fact that so many people know is just unbelievable. And pretty much every person in my grade at my high school knows the story as well. I guess what I'm trying to say is just how important it is not only for you to simply live your faith by yourself, but for you to share it with everyone in whatever way you can. I shared my faith and my story with that priest, and he shared it with his family and friends, and now so many people are probably inspired by God's grace and compassion in that situation. And of course I'm not just talking about people with keys around their necks everyday who need to share their faith. You really don't have to have something like that to teach people about their faith, but it's definitely helpful! Everyone should try to make that their new, lifelong goal. Trust me, it takes courage and wisdom, but know that God will always be there to help you through. You'll notice that He will give you that courage and that wisdom to share your faith with more people in your life. It's truly a blessing! Right now, I'm working on sharing my faith with my dad, brother, and sister...like I said, it's challenging, but it's definitely worth it, and I'm not giving up!

I hope you all have a great Christmas!
-Haley

falling in love

i love evi's post below. christ IS strong when we are weak. and guys, we are always, always, always going to be weak. we are always going to fall short. so instead of seeing God as this almighty being in the sky that will strike you down and be sad if you don't take up your cross daily and follow Him, be disappointed that you didn't open your bible for a few days/weeks/months now...He doesn't care. He just wants you to come to Him, open arms. I encourage you to let yourself fall in love with the lover of our souls. We were bought with a heavy price--and all He expects in return is LOVE.

To be weak, is for Christ's power to be made perfect

hey quest
i haven't posted in too long, say, 3 months? yeah, too long.
actually, i have a long story that came about recently that's relevant..so if you're dying to hear it ask me but basically i want to encourage all of you with this passage about how Paul had some ailment from satan that he prayed the Lord would take away, but ended up finding contentment in it when the Lord spoke to him of His power and grace...
2nd Corinthians 7-10:
So to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

basically, i love every one of you and hope you remember that in your weaknesses, Christ's power is made perfect, so don't be afraid to have weaknesses- nobody's perfect-it's fine to aim for it, but His grace brings Him glory!

prayer

my prayer for you all and myself is that:
-we will take the readings we have been studying and apply them to our lives
-that God's living, breathing, active Word will become flesh in our lives
-that the apostles and martyrs we are reading about become examples of how we should live like Christ
-that the boldness these people have will be found in us, that we will have boldness to proclaim our LIVES for Christ
-that you realize that God loves you not in SPITE of your sin, but in the MIDST of your sin...He loves us imperfect sinners, He loves us as we are, He delights in our joy
-to live is CHRIST and to die is GAIN...this is what Paul writes in Philippians. I think we forget the first part, that to live a Christian life does not mean that we are dead while we are living, but that we are CHRIST while we are living.

i love you all.

Amazing Chastity Talk!

Hey Quest! First, I just want to say that I'm so happy that the blog is alive again! It's great to see some more people posting on here. Keep it up! (:

So I go to Catholic school, and we have religion class every other day. And for our religion homework we had to listen to this chastity talk by a guy named Jason Evert. It's so good! If you find some extra time this weekend or this week, I encourage you to listen to it. It's about an hour long talk, but Jason's really funny and easy to listen to, and he gets the message across perfectly. Here's how to listen to his talk if you're interested: go to www.chastity.com/node/442, scroll down to the "Romance without Regret" section and click on whatever talk you want to listen to (since I'm Catholic, our school had us listen to the Catholic High School talk). So if you get a chance and you want to learn more about the kind of stuff that goes along with chastity...listen to his talk! It's really good!

Have a good weekend!
-Haley

the past repeats itself

when i say the past I dont mean like wayyyyy back then but i do mean sky ranch past. It was really cool seeing some of the verses come up recently in Sunday School at church. Recently weve been doing a quick runthrough of all 66 books in the Bible just to get them memorized and have a brief understanding of them all and although I cannot point out all the verses we've come across, I can tell you that a lot of what we learned at camp has come up week in and week out. The greatest thing about it is that I'm already familiar with a lot of what we've been talking about!

Keep looking for the past to repeat itself. It will show up if you look! That's my two cents for today.

Read some Acts this morning

I am a few chapters behind but plan on being caught up shortly. This morning I read Acts 21 and 22 and was blown away by Pauls courage. He went into the heart of persecution in Jerusalem because HE knew that is exactly where he was suspose to be. Everyone was telling him not to but he listened to the voice of truth isnside of him. He had so much credibility as a Jew and as a Roman and yet still they would not even listen to him.

I am encouraged to be courageous in the face of stress, persecution, failure, lack of confidence, or whatever the devil may throw in my way for I KNOW I am where the Lord wants me to be

paul inspires me daily.

can i just say that paul's willingness to follow where the Lord is leading him, through persecution, beatings, and trials, just brings joy to my soul? how inspiring. may we all be this way. be joyful and patient in persecution, trusting in the Lord to bring us through in perseverance. it's all, ALL of it, for His glory. :]

can i get an amen??

Giving Thanks

Hey Quest,

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, and this time of year I feel really grateful about everything that I have. And so I was wondering if all of you would like to comment or post, and just share what all of you are thankful for. You don't have to if you don't want to though. Please feel free to write anything you want!

sharing

hello quest,
i have begun the reading plan over with a friend at school, we are in the gospel John right now, and it is SO COOL to be able to do this over again with someone outside of Quest...and to teach them and help them along the reading plan, and to see them get to fired up for the Word and hungry for it! she is blazing through it, she loves it and she is diving into it...it is the coolest thing to witness. Also she is kind of new to the Word so she is learning SO much through this reading plan and things about Jesus that she didn't ever know...like the fact that people witnessed Jesus's miracles and still didn't believe? the fact that they questioned Him, "well what should make us believe you?" and he's like "uh...have you not seen? obviously you do not know GOD..." amen to that Jesus.

It's just really cool, how people sat with and ate with and walked and talked with Jesus like He was any other human being. I think so often we think of Jesus as this being up in Heaven (which, He is) but forget that He was real, He was birthed into this world in a humble state, He walked and talked and ate and performed miracles in front of people's faces...and yet they still had disbelief?! It goes to show how much stronger and larger our faith has to be, that we don't and won't witness Jesus in the flesh nor His crucifixion or His miracles like they did, but we still believe. Thank you Jesus for allowing me into YOUR kingdom and for helping me in my disbelief!

Check and Mate

"the God who brings you peace will soon defeat Satan and give you power over him"
thank you Lord! Hallalujah! I don't know about you but that makes me want to kick something, its so exciting!
Heres some thing I have learnd about Satan:

1.) He hates a spoken word.-How many of you know that when we think something thats cool, but when we profess it to Jesus, the devil gets angry! how angry? ANGRY! Start speaking, when you pray and when you think something or you want something to happen...START SPEAKING IT INTO EXSITANCE!

2.) He hates it when we confess, sometimes I don't want to confess I am wrong, I'm extremely stuborn. But when we confess that we are wwrong and we grow from that, He gets steaming mad! There is power iin confession guys! You don't even know! When you confess that something, it's not entirely gone, its there for you to start working on and for the other person to hold you accountable.

3.) He corrupts-remember when a few months ago when I was totally convinced that the Devil was the reason for sickness and he was sickness. Well I was wrong, I was asking and researching this a few weeks ago, and heres the thing "the devil is the king of corruption" The Lord may let us get sick to test us, but the Devil will corrupt that and take it to the next level. Its like a big game of chess between the Devil and God. The last pwan the Devil will try and use is God, He will try to fill your minds with "God doesnt love you' and "he's not real", but can I tell you something? The KING has one more move! It's not over until Check mate!

Those are the things I have learned about the Devil but hahah OH! man! GOD HAS GIVEN US POWER OVER HIM! I AM PUMPED! Next time you Speak something into exsistance, confess something, or Remember the love of the Lord and how real he is, The devil will get fighting mad, and will try to corrupt some more, but THE KING HAS THE LAST MOVE! and the KING has given us power over the Devil!

checkmate.

Just want to say...

I have been so encouraged by this blog this past week. You guys getting on here and posting about how God is teaching you through his word is absolutely incredible and inspiring. I love each of you and cherish our friendship. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to post on this thing... don't stop

I don't wanna be "that girl" anymore...

"Do not change yourseleves to be like the people of this world, But be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you. And you will be able to know what is good and pleasing to God and what is perfect." - Romans 12:2

I have a bad habit...this habit is a little something called: sarcasm. The worst habit in the entire world! Guys sarcasm...to me...is not good! It tears down and cuts out. It tears down someone or something, its cuts out the encouragment and love that I am supposed to show people. Gaw! But I don't wanna give it up...at all! I feel like that's why the only people like me, like Lila told me the same thing last year, and it's true. I feel like the only reason people are friends with me is because I am not afraid to be silly and because I am so "sarcastic" and they like it, but obviously thesess arent my REAL friends, but my school friends, and I love having them because they think I am funny, which is always a confidence boost, and they are the people I have to talk to all day. When I read this I felt so so so convicted, I can't tell you how many times I told this verse to people this summer, it's on my backpack, i shared it in the circle during "candle time", small group, and even behind closed doors! BUT MAN! I AM SUCH A LOSER! I told them this verse but did something completely different. I wasnt even applying to my life! GAW! Guys like I don't wanna be like the world, sarcasm is of the world, think of the world we live in, its a sarcastic world, our generation? a sarcastic generation! and I'm no better than the rest of them I am not set apart from them, and I am supposed to be, I am supposed to be different, I am supposed to be set apart, and I am not. Guys I don't wanna be held back by this anymore, in order to reach my full potential in Jesus, I have to get rid of the things that tie me down. I'm done with finding my confidence in what others think of me. Like I wish I wouldve noticed it before, but I am just so glad I have now! I'm ready for a boost in my relationship with the one I love, and this is how I am going to have to get that.
This is what I got out of Romans 12.
What did you get out of it?

-Madi

Romans 11

Hey Quest!

I am so pumped that we are keeping this alive and allowing God to work in all of our lives though it! So Romans 11 says a lot to me. The part that got me the most excited was verse 4, God says that he has 7,000 men who have not bowed a knee to ba'al...7,000! I have been in this place before where i have said "God im all alone, there are no other christians at my school, at my job or wherever i go." This is so encouraging because this blog proves that WE are the 7,000. To each other, we represent those 7,000 that are still faithful to God. it is so easy to look at our schools and our cities and say that there are no other christians like us, but God is telling us we aren't looking hard enough. We have this opportunity that others do not have, to look at this blog and see for ourselves how many others are posting and following the reading plan. We have an opportunity to read each others posts, pray for each other and pull encouragement from each others words. God is the only one who can give us courage, but this battle is so much easier if we don't try to do it on our own. We are not alone.
My second favorite part is where David prays that people would stumble so they fall into salvation...how cool is that?! A lot of times i know God reaches me the most is when i fall or when i break under pressure. its almost like God has to break us before he can put us back together and leave out selfishness and pride and all other human nature we fight against. What better way to be broken than in the presence of God??! I have a perfect example, I play bass for my youth group's band. Tonight i showed up and everyone got there early and set up already. So i started to play and my mind went blank, whats going on ive played these songs before, i know how to do this? After practice was almost over i felt completely lost and i didnt want to hold everyone back so i asked my friend to play for me. i felt like such a failure, i thought i let everyone down. Then service came and i had the most amazing time with God ever because i was broken and empty. God will never waste your hurt.

I mis you all terribly!

-Lila

It's Been a While...

Hey everyone. It's been a long time since I've gotten on here and posted.
Football season is over now so I'm going to try and do everything I can to whip myself back into shape. If you don't see a post from me at least once a week, call me up and crack the whip!

A promise

Here the thing guys, I have not done a good job posting on this blog or keeping up with reading plan, I want to be a leader, and I have failed epicly. So I am making a promise to you that I will post, I am going to post every other day, and if I miss a day I will post twice in one day! I don't want this to die, I love this, it holds me accountable and lets helps me understand things in different ways. My goal is to get others posting to! I dont want the same 4 people posting on here, thats alot of the reason why I quit in the first place, but know more, I want to encourage the other questies to post also, at camp I felt like everyone had so much to bring and to offer when we discussed, for example session 9, wow! when all the kids who had been there more than one week had there own time during my ride, i hung to almost everyones word, i was bewildered by the wisdom they had and the power they posessed. I'm not AM NOT! going to let this die!! I know we are all busy, I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW!!!!!!! but its worth it, I think to help us we could start a fast, I want to start a fast for sky ranch and for quest specifcally, how many of you know that quest is something amazing and has touched our hearts in more ways than one, and has opend up doors and opprotunitys? I KNOW IT! well i say every Friday we fast lunch, we spend that time in prayer or in the word, and we just take that time to remember the awesome things that the Lord did at quest and is going to do through quest, now dont feel pressured to join i jus know that this has been on my heart for a while and i want to share that with yall. I plan on calling people from quest, well the ones i know, tonight and checking on them and asking them about the blog! I'm not going down with outh a fight, and as sad as it may be, one thing I am good at is fighting! SAVE THE BLOG!


sorry.....i got a little excited!!!


all my love, and all of his
-Madi

Apostasy

Hey Quest,

So, the blog is a little slow lately...but we can change that. Right after camp we were all posting like crazy, excited about what God was doing in our lives and excited about the accountability we had with each other, I mean I was and I'm almost posative all of Quest was. Apostasy is "falling away" and the pastor at my parents' church is doing a series on it right now. I don't know about everyone else but when I quit posting I fell away from God. I was still reading my bible, but not consistently. This blog is awesome because it gives us a community of people who are thirsty for what God has for us. Its not that we love God any less or that we dont want to spend time with him, we just get wrapped up in our own lives and loose sight of what is eternal.
God has convicted my heart and I feel strongly about this blog and what it does. We all made a commitment to stick with this blog and we thought we would. This is the very thing I did not want to do, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't quit no matter how busy I became. Somwhere between work, school, church, family, friends and everything else I compromised with myself that I didn't have to post twice a week, then it was twice a month and then I was making up excuses not to post on the blog. Please hold me accountable for posting and most of all following hte bible study and I will hold you accountable too. If we want to start revival in our schools and cities, we need to revive ourselves first.

I hope all of you are doing well!

don't let this die

what are some things we can be praying for each other?

post to comments

sad

sad that this is dying

however

in contrast to my previous post...Romans 2:17-24 is very convicting, in that if we say we follow God and teach others about Him and preach and try to be an example of Him, we have to ask ourselves, are we doing the very things we preach against? and i know that i am guilty of this (we all are) but i need to do better at making sure that if i'm posting or leading a small group or teaching others about Christ that my heart and mind are in check.

Romans!

ok ok so ROMANS is the book we are currently in...This is what my Bible tells us about Paul's letters/Romans:

We can learn from Paul's letters a great deal about Paul's faith and his understanding of what Jesus Christ means for the life of the ordinary Christian. Romans was written to pave the way for Paul's visit to a church he had never seen, but whose help he needed as he began to preach the gospel in the western Meditteranean world. Roamsn is one of the fullest statements of Paul's faith. He tries to show how Christianity is rooted in Judaism, but is a fiath for all of humanity. Romans is a book full of the power and grace of God and has been a source of inspiration and renewal in the church from earliest times to the present.

I think it's interesting when Paul writes in Romans 2 about God's righteous judgment. It says plainly that "for it is not the heareres of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified." Man...because we know Christ and follow Him and His laws (despite our remaining shortcomings), we are justified in His sight! Now, that is crazy to me. I am constantly beating myself up it seems for what I do wrong but someone said something the other day that made me think: Do you forget or fail to remember that those sins, those things you do wrong, are forgiven? Is that why you won't come to the surface about them, talk about them, or confront them?

Let us never forget the power of the cross, that we are forgiven and made righteous in His sight because of our belief and our faith in Him.

prayer request (:

Hey Quest, if you get a chance, please pray for my friend Lauren...THANK YOU!


By the way, how's everything going with everyone's Timothys?!

Have a good week!
-Haley

Ephesians 3

Hey everyone. Sorry, this post is behind in the reading plan, but I just got around to it. It's not gonna be some long winded thing, just a quick little observation.

Alright, when I read through Ephesians 3 two days ago, I saw this little verse. "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." (Ephesians 3:17-19). First off, I want to say just how awesome that verse is. Hearing that verse is just amazing. But when you got through the verse, when you look at the wide and long and high and deep part, those aren't just adjectives to describe His love. Well, ok, they are. But they all have there own individual little meaning. Like, take His love is wide for example. You can take that to mean that His love covers us, all our experiences, and it covers throughout the entire world. His love is long; It is everlasting through our entire lives and even farther than that if you can imagine that. His love is high; He loves us in our moments of joy and celebration and victory. His love is deep; He loves us when we are troubles, in those funky moods, when we think we have nothing left.

When you go through all these, there's really no time left where God doesn't love us. He's always there for us, and His love never ceases. I think that's so awesome. When I hear something like that, I feel that little spark of excitement in me. It's so cool hearing stuff like that.

I hope all of you are doing great. Keep on posting guys; I love this blog, and I love seeing what all of you have to say. Thanks everyone.

Lets get Real

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!!!

It's a good day (:

I'm so happy right now! In English class, we had to read a book about a famous woman, and I chose Mother Teresa. Today, I had to get up in front of my entire class and talk about Mother Teresa and how her story related to me personally. This was such a challenge for me because, as I've explained before, my school is no Sky Ranch...meaning not everyone has found God yet.

Before giving my speech, I was completely freaking out and falling asleep at the same time (I barely got any sleep last night) BUT somehow I was able to get up there and talk with so much confidence and wisdom. I just know that most of those words that came out of my mouth were not of my own thought...I had said a prayer to God for help before I gave the speech, and in one way or another, I felt as if He was speaking through me. Just felt like sharing that with you!

Always rely on God when you feel like you can make it through, and he'll be there to support you every step of the way. (:

Praying for you always!

-Haley

P.S. I'll be posting something soon about this book...I learned SO much from it.

P.S.S. Lately I feel like I have three timothys. Is that okay or is two more than enough? Help?

sunday morning encouragement

Psalm 73:23-26
Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I had a dream two nights ago that the rapture occurred and the heavens opened, it was like a bright white light and you couldn't see anything around you-- it illuminated the entire sky and earth. Everyone that saw this and knew the Lord knew what was happening and I was standing on a building with others and we jumped off and ascended into the sky. As for others that did not know the Lord, they watched us do this with curiosity and tried it but fell back down to the earth. I remember feeling extremely peaceful during my sleep.
Then in my dream I remember being in heaven with someone, another girl...I don't remember who. But the Lord wanted us to go back to earth during the tribulation and be believers and try to help people know Him so He sent us back. I remember the transition between heaven and the world. I remember being shocked and seeing the earth--it was destroyed. Buildings had fallen everywhere, it was dirty and rubble and trash abounded. People walked around like zombies and they had NO CLUE what was going on. This girl and I found a group of people, a family I think, and began spending time with them to try to evangelize.
That is all I remember dreaming about but I thought it was fascinating and I also thought it was real until I woke up. I really thought it had happened...
Heaven is going to be SO AWESOME, you guys. Like, everything that happened down here and every grade on a paper or every mean thing someone said about you seriously doesn't and won't matter ever again. I remember thinking that when I was in heaven in my dream--thinking, wow, none of that even mattered compared to THIS! for eternity!

just wanted to share with you all. have a wonderful week.