I have always believed that I have had a great influence on kid's lives, but I have been oblivious as to how great that influence is until this week. It has been a humbling and eye opening realization.
This week is my church's yearly Summer Vacation Bible School called Buddy Bears! I grew up since I was about 4 or 5 going to Buddy Bears, and then I've been helping out at Buddy Bears ever since I was too old to go. It has been this week at Buddy Bears that has been one of the most influential times in my life.
My first epiphany of the magnitude of influence I have over kids came on Tuesday when I talked to a kid in my group's mother when I confessed my adoration for her son. The previous day I had flexed my muscle for him and told him that if he started lifting heavy things his muscles would slowly grow to the size of mine, and maybe even bigger. The mother told me that day that she heard some clanking in another room the night before and went in there and the little boy was lifting the fire place tools. When she asked him what he was doing he said, "James said..." (wow) "that if I lift heavy things my muscles will get bigger!" I know, I know... really cute huh??? But I now realize that kids listen to every word that I say and they believe it. The ten words that I said to him in that one moment dictated his life for that night, and he has told me about lifting more things the past two days.
More epiphanies have come as the week has progressed. From the little boy named Deven coming up to my every day before lunch and asking if I would sit with him, to the hand-full of students who beg me to sit next to them every time we go somewhere and then get jealous of eachother if I sit somewhere else, to Austin copying my British accent and telling me I am the coolest guy he has ever met, many things have awoken me from my obliviousness.
I am humbled to know that I have such an influence on kids, and that God has chosen me to have that influence, so that I can influence them towards Him. I am reminded of Mark 9:41 where it says, "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." This verse reminds me that much responsibility has been givn to me, and thus, much is expected of me. I must be aware at all times who I am influencing and what I am influencing them towards. My goal is not to lead students away from Christ, but towards Him. It is soo cool that I get to invest in these kids and point them towards God.
My encouragement to the blogging world is that we do have influence over kids, whether we realize it or not.
Be aware of the influence you have over other people so that you can take seriously the call to glorify God with every breath of every day, so that no one will be mistaken about who you are influencing them towards.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank You for giving me the opportunity to be here this summer and this week at Buddy Bears. Thank You for making me aware of the influence I have over kids. Lord, my goal is to influence kids towards You and the love that You have for them. Help me to glorify you with every breath that I take so that I might influence kids towards You in the best way possible. I want to take seriously the call You have placed on my life and the heart You have given me. I love You sooo much. I thank You and praise You!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son: Amen.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wow I haven't blogged in like a month!!!!
I guess I've just been really distracted with a lot of really important things. It is my duty to update you on the world of James, the life that sits in the wildhorse canyon... :)
So lets start with the first few days of summer. I got home and rested for the weekend, then started our move to a different house. A much smaller house. I had some friends come help my family out... Ryan, Bryan and Matt all helped us out, but at different times. They were such a blessing. This is what I did for my first 2-3 days of my summer vacation and week rest before starting my internship. I only did it the first 2-3 days because I got sick. I came down with some sort of infection, and the doctor told me I had to be in lock-down and I couldn't be around people, because I was more susceptible to getting the flu since my immune system was being affected by the infection. So many days were Jeff and Dan here that I really wanted to hang out, but I couldn't... I was very dissapointed and kinda lonely.
Eventually I got over my sickness and the next Tuesday morning I met my youth pastor, Dewbe, for some starbucks before our staff meeting. We met so he could get an update and figure out where I was spiritually, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't where I wanted to be. For the longest time I had been down on myself for not doing my own personal devotions every day. I recognized the need to constantly be filled with God's Spirit, yet I did nothing to do that. I didn't pray every day. I didn't read my Bible. I felt like I wasn't taking my calling seriously. I knew I needed to be in a different place. Dewbe told me something that really stood out. First he told me that the shame and disgust that I felt was not coming from God... and I knew that... but he then told me that it was good that I desired to be in that place because the kids that I minister to will only be as spiritual as I am... or something to the effect. I desire nothing more than to love God and develop my personal relationship with Him, and that love for God will overflow into love for other people, and the love for other people I have will affect other people to the point where they develop a love for God. It seems like an infectious idea to me.
So he challenged me to start doing daily devotions, to pray, to read my Bible, and to listen for God's voice. I tell you, life is much different now. I love it.
I then started my internship. It has been a blast so far. Soon after I started we took our seniors on a trip to lake shasta. It was meant to be a fun trip, but we had a spiritual focus on it. We did this because statistics show that like 80% of Christian highschool graduates after leaving for college abandon their faith. The number is shockingly high and breaks my heart. So our focus was on trying to give them tools to make their faith their own so that when they do leave for college in a few months, they will hopefully be built up and won't abandon their faith. We all had a blast during the weekend though through tubing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, swimming and worshipping. It was an awesome weekend that I won't forget.
I also have had the chance to preach a few times so far. For the first month we followed a curriculum until we got into the student's summer. Now it's up to us and the Holy Spirit for our sermons, which I like a lot more.
We have had two awesome youth nights so far for the student's summers. The first one was a water games night. It ended up just being a big waterballoon fight. It was really fun! Then this past wednesday we had a food fight night. Dewbe, my youthpastor, was gone this week because he's up in Redding taking some masters classes through Tozer Seminary at Simpson, so I pretty much played Youthpastor that night. I got youthgroup going, led worship, preached, and ran some games. My buddy Jon ran a egg in a pipe game where there is two people on the ends of a clear plastic pipe with a couple eggs in it... they blow and someone ends up eventually with egg in their face. We then did bobbing for apples in cereal and milk... that was really funny and I'm surprised the kids had as much fun as they did. I then ran Blend-or-Dare which was really nasty and kinda anti-climactic, but was still fun. We then had our big food-fight game called presidents. Basically, two teams, each with a president. You have to protect your president, as well as get the other president dirty, whichever president is the cleanest at the end of the game wins. The boys totally whomped on the girls. It was a little unfair, I have to admit. For that game, Jon and I had prepared about 20 pounds of flower by adding water to make a bunch of goop. That stuff was really fun to throw at people. Then began the long process of cleaning it all up. haha... it didn't take as long as I thought it would.
And a quick change of topic. Lately I have been thinking about how complacency ruins us. When we think we don't need anything else, we stop living... we basically die. A. W. Tozer once wrote that complacency was the deadly enemy to all spiritual growth, and I completely agree because not only does it stop growth, it takes us backwards. This is what I spoke on this last week at youth group. I used an example of how my complacency with a female friend I had ruined my chances of dating her and then ruined our relationship because we don't even speak anymore. I then talked about Revelation 3:14-19... the verse that talks about the church in Laodicea being like lukewarm water and Jesus wanting to vomit them out of His mouth.
Little did I know, but in that verse Jesus actually is comparing the church to Laodicea's water supply. Because the church was complacent in trying to be self-sufficient their poor water supply was not useful unless heated for bathing or cooled for drinking. Thus he was saying that their complacency had made them un-useful. Their un-useful-ness had caused them to fall into sin and they didn't look any different from the surrounding world. They focused on things of the world and they thought they were rich by the world's standards... so Jesus urged them to buy His gold refined in the fire so that they could become rich. They looked like the rest of the world by sinning and not repenting, so Jesus urges them to buy white clothes from Him so that their shameful nakedness wouldn't be exposed... because everyone in Laodicea wore black clothes... thus, you could tell the difference from God's people and those of the world. They were spiritually blind to the fact that they needed God, so Jesus urged them to buy ointment from Him to spread on their eyes so that they could see. And Jesus made this offensive comment and rebuke to the Church in Laodicea out of love. He loved them so much that he did not want them to be complacent like the rest of the world, so he called them to obedience and repentance. I think it is so cool how every detail was put in the Bible for a purpose.
I then concluded with how frequently in scripture we are urged to press on towards the prize, to add to our faith, to run the race! I then gave the example that when I started running a mile to get in shape and I became complacent with how fast I ran it, I stopped running. A couple weeks later I decided to run another mile and I couldn't... because I didn't press on. I became complacent and stopped running, and then went backwards in my ability.
I share all of my sermon with you, not to just tell you what I spoke about. I share it with you to encourage you. Whether you might be complacent or you always seek more with God... I want this to encourage you. If you find yourself in the middle of complacency, I urge you to seek more from God. Develop your relationship with Him so that he may call you and use you for his purposes. If you continually press on towards the goal to win the prize, as Paul would say, I encourage you to never become complacent, because when you do, you stop running... and when you stop running, you slow down to a jog, and then to a walk, and then to a hobble, and then to a crawl... and eventually you die and fall away. When you think there is nothing else you need, you stop living... and when people aren't living... they are inherently dead.
"Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress."
-A. W. Tozer
Lord,
I pray for the rest of my life that I would never become complacent in anything. That I would always seek more of You in my life. I pray for the people who read my blog that they would not become complacent in anything and that they would continually desire to grow in their loving relationship with You and that You would use them for your purposes. Lord, I speak against complacency and want to encourage all towards growth in you. Lord bless the rest of our summer and keep my friends across seas in your will this summer. Protect them and bless them as they seek to advance your Kingdom. I pray that they would be obedient to the things that You call them to do as they interact with the people of the countries they are in. Lord I pray that You would continue to speak to all of us and then we would wait upon You and listen for Your voice. Guide us as we grow in You.
In the name of Jesus Christ I pray,
Amen.
So lets start with the first few days of summer. I got home and rested for the weekend, then started our move to a different house. A much smaller house. I had some friends come help my family out... Ryan, Bryan and Matt all helped us out, but at different times. They were such a blessing. This is what I did for my first 2-3 days of my summer vacation and week rest before starting my internship. I only did it the first 2-3 days because I got sick. I came down with some sort of infection, and the doctor told me I had to be in lock-down and I couldn't be around people, because I was more susceptible to getting the flu since my immune system was being affected by the infection. So many days were Jeff and Dan here that I really wanted to hang out, but I couldn't... I was very dissapointed and kinda lonely.
Eventually I got over my sickness and the next Tuesday morning I met my youth pastor, Dewbe, for some starbucks before our staff meeting. We met so he could get an update and figure out where I was spiritually, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't where I wanted to be. For the longest time I had been down on myself for not doing my own personal devotions every day. I recognized the need to constantly be filled with God's Spirit, yet I did nothing to do that. I didn't pray every day. I didn't read my Bible. I felt like I wasn't taking my calling seriously. I knew I needed to be in a different place. Dewbe told me something that really stood out. First he told me that the shame and disgust that I felt was not coming from God... and I knew that... but he then told me that it was good that I desired to be in that place because the kids that I minister to will only be as spiritual as I am... or something to the effect. I desire nothing more than to love God and develop my personal relationship with Him, and that love for God will overflow into love for other people, and the love for other people I have will affect other people to the point where they develop a love for God. It seems like an infectious idea to me.
So he challenged me to start doing daily devotions, to pray, to read my Bible, and to listen for God's voice. I tell you, life is much different now. I love it.
I then started my internship. It has been a blast so far. Soon after I started we took our seniors on a trip to lake shasta. It was meant to be a fun trip, but we had a spiritual focus on it. We did this because statistics show that like 80% of Christian highschool graduates after leaving for college abandon their faith. The number is shockingly high and breaks my heart. So our focus was on trying to give them tools to make their faith their own so that when they do leave for college in a few months, they will hopefully be built up and won't abandon their faith. We all had a blast during the weekend though through tubing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, swimming and worshipping. It was an awesome weekend that I won't forget.
I also have had the chance to preach a few times so far. For the first month we followed a curriculum until we got into the student's summer. Now it's up to us and the Holy Spirit for our sermons, which I like a lot more.
We have had two awesome youth nights so far for the student's summers. The first one was a water games night. It ended up just being a big waterballoon fight. It was really fun! Then this past wednesday we had a food fight night. Dewbe, my youthpastor, was gone this week because he's up in Redding taking some masters classes through Tozer Seminary at Simpson, so I pretty much played Youthpastor that night. I got youthgroup going, led worship, preached, and ran some games. My buddy Jon ran a egg in a pipe game where there is two people on the ends of a clear plastic pipe with a couple eggs in it... they blow and someone ends up eventually with egg in their face. We then did bobbing for apples in cereal and milk... that was really funny and I'm surprised the kids had as much fun as they did. I then ran Blend-or-Dare which was really nasty and kinda anti-climactic, but was still fun. We then had our big food-fight game called presidents. Basically, two teams, each with a president. You have to protect your president, as well as get the other president dirty, whichever president is the cleanest at the end of the game wins. The boys totally whomped on the girls. It was a little unfair, I have to admit. For that game, Jon and I had prepared about 20 pounds of flower by adding water to make a bunch of goop. That stuff was really fun to throw at people. Then began the long process of cleaning it all up. haha... it didn't take as long as I thought it would.
And a quick change of topic. Lately I have been thinking about how complacency ruins us. When we think we don't need anything else, we stop living... we basically die. A. W. Tozer once wrote that complacency was the deadly enemy to all spiritual growth, and I completely agree because not only does it stop growth, it takes us backwards. This is what I spoke on this last week at youth group. I used an example of how my complacency with a female friend I had ruined my chances of dating her and then ruined our relationship because we don't even speak anymore. I then talked about Revelation 3:14-19... the verse that talks about the church in Laodicea being like lukewarm water and Jesus wanting to vomit them out of His mouth.
Little did I know, but in that verse Jesus actually is comparing the church to Laodicea's water supply. Because the church was complacent in trying to be self-sufficient their poor water supply was not useful unless heated for bathing or cooled for drinking. Thus he was saying that their complacency had made them un-useful. Their un-useful-ness had caused them to fall into sin and they didn't look any different from the surrounding world. They focused on things of the world and they thought they were rich by the world's standards... so Jesus urged them to buy His gold refined in the fire so that they could become rich. They looked like the rest of the world by sinning and not repenting, so Jesus urges them to buy white clothes from Him so that their shameful nakedness wouldn't be exposed... because everyone in Laodicea wore black clothes... thus, you could tell the difference from God's people and those of the world. They were spiritually blind to the fact that they needed God, so Jesus urged them to buy ointment from Him to spread on their eyes so that they could see. And Jesus made this offensive comment and rebuke to the Church in Laodicea out of love. He loved them so much that he did not want them to be complacent like the rest of the world, so he called them to obedience and repentance. I think it is so cool how every detail was put in the Bible for a purpose.
I then concluded with how frequently in scripture we are urged to press on towards the prize, to add to our faith, to run the race! I then gave the example that when I started running a mile to get in shape and I became complacent with how fast I ran it, I stopped running. A couple weeks later I decided to run another mile and I couldn't... because I didn't press on. I became complacent and stopped running, and then went backwards in my ability.
I share all of my sermon with you, not to just tell you what I spoke about. I share it with you to encourage you. Whether you might be complacent or you always seek more with God... I want this to encourage you. If you find yourself in the middle of complacency, I urge you to seek more from God. Develop your relationship with Him so that he may call you and use you for his purposes. If you continually press on towards the goal to win the prize, as Paul would say, I encourage you to never become complacent, because when you do, you stop running... and when you stop running, you slow down to a jog, and then to a walk, and then to a hobble, and then to a crawl... and eventually you die and fall away. When you think there is nothing else you need, you stop living... and when people aren't living... they are inherently dead.
"Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress."
-A. W. Tozer
Lord,
I pray for the rest of my life that I would never become complacent in anything. That I would always seek more of You in my life. I pray for the people who read my blog that they would not become complacent in anything and that they would continually desire to grow in their loving relationship with You and that You would use them for your purposes. Lord, I speak against complacency and want to encourage all towards growth in you. Lord bless the rest of our summer and keep my friends across seas in your will this summer. Protect them and bless them as they seek to advance your Kingdom. I pray that they would be obedient to the things that You call them to do as they interact with the people of the countries they are in. Lord I pray that You would continue to speak to all of us and then we would wait upon You and listen for Your voice. Guide us as we grow in You.
In the name of Jesus Christ I pray,
Amen.
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