BigStuf Debrief

… More of a sharing of thoughts.  These are in no particular order, but all of them are important to understand.  More will come later, but these are my favorite take-aways from the week:

We as a church, will live by faith and not by sight.

Leaders must exemplify the image of Christ for their followers, for they will be held accountable by God.

The difference between a daydream and a vision is the audacity to act.  (Pastor said this a while back, but the reality of this statement become clear to me on the trip.)

Take advantage of the little opportunities to impact someone-  Everything big always starts small.

Consider the relationships in your life:  Which people need to come first?  Practice selective hearing.

Rules without revelation leads to rebellion.

Sacrifice the temporary fulfillment of now for the incredible reward in the future. (In relation to purity)

People with purpose establish goals and set their plans in action.

Your school doesn’t need one more person who is willing to compromise their integrity.

Purity now leads to intimacy later.

Honor God with your purity-  for it’s a lifestyle, not an after-thought.

If you’re going to play the game, don’t be satisfied with just sitting on the bench.  Get in and play the game with all your heart.

If it’s in the bible, it’s a command, not a suggestion.

After the crucifixion, the separation between God and man would be no more.

Proverbs 24:27 // Prepare your fields, and after that build your house.  Even the most extravagant building can’t stand without a solid foundation.

Stop making excuses about why God can’t use you-  Quit running from your vision and embrace it.

Humility comes before honor.

God is like hide-and-seek.  The seeking is often better than the hiding.

We are called to be serious about our commitment to Christ.

There is strength in numbers-  God will always show up and walk through the fire with a bunch of passionate and committed teens that are willing to stand up for Christ.

Our generation isn’t the one for the future.. We’re the generation of NOW.  Rise up the challenge.

A Few Scattered Thoughts..

A certain friend does this thing with his blog almost every Sunday night.  He just starts to type bullets about his day & his thoughts usually go into a really interesting direction.  I thought I’d try this out for a bit & see what I think.

Every Monday night for the next four weeks (excluding next week-  could end up being posted on Sunday).  I’m going to post some of my thoughts on the weekend, as well as the week ahead.  Play this song while you read-  Could make this post more interesting and make your day a little better at the same time!

• Love the fact that I go to a church that isn’t afraid to topple the ’sacred cows’ that the Church as a whole is too afraid to even address.
• Took too many notes on yesterday’s sermon.  Ran out of room to write and there was still five minutes to go in the message.  We should offer bigger worship guides to frantic note-takers.
• Seems that I’ve been forgetting to eat lately.  I ran around all day yesterday on just two cups of coffee and a Nutri-grain bar.  Wish I knew where my energy came from!
• Discovered one of my favorite guitar lines to play EVER.  And from a worship tune-  Check out this guy do a semi-ok job  of covering it.  Love the stripped-down simplicity, yet harmonic tone of the melody.  Sounds much better when I play it though! 
• Spent a total of five hours at Starbucks today and yesterday.  Could be a Pro, could be a Con.  You decide.
• Really, really pumped about my future.  Wish I could skip the rest of high school & keep doing what I’m doing now.
• That’s not reality, however.  I WILL go into this next school year with Spiritual armor and a desire to see change in my generation.
• Been constantly reminding myself of this line from a sermon lately:  “What is the one thing you would do for God if you knew you could not fail?  Now do it-  because you are a coward that doubts God’s power if you believe He won’t move you in a position to fulfill that task.“   INTENSE!
• On a less heavy note, I really like my new Mac.  Always felt like a Mac person at heart-  bound to a sentence of using PCs. 
• Installed Covenant Eyes on it too.  Didn’t feel like risking the integrity of my future for a dangerous temptation that I don’t even need in the first place.  I feel so much better, and you should do the same.
• The entire church staff is volunteering with some great people tomorrow-  Get to head up some ‘Olympic Games’ for summer camp kids.  It involves water!
• Discovered the Mac app ‘Things’.  I really like it-  but still trying to convince myself that paying the $50 to keep it is worth it when the trial time is up.. Going to be a tough call.
• I feel like my greatest desire to write comes late at night.  So weird.
• Shared vision with a great guy today-  Hard to find people with the same level of commitment and passion to serve that he possesses.  So encouraging!

That’s all I’ve got for you, folks.  Please give me feedback if you like these kinds of posts-  Not used to them, so they feel a little random.

Night!

Silence

I’ve forgotten what silence means.  And it’s become a problem.

I can’t remember the last time I secluded myself for more than 10 minutes without reading a tweet, checking my Facebook, responding to email, watching TV, listening to music, reading a magazine, typing a text, talking to someone, reading a blog.. You get the picture.

What I thought:  Information brings knowledge.  The more people I follow on Twitter, the more music I buy, the more blogs I read, the more knowledge I’ll gain.  This made sense for a while.

What I’ve learned:  

True understanding cannot be obtained through a lifestyle of noise.  

In the same way, are close whispers heard at a crowded concert?  Can the cry of one sheep be distinguished from a flock of hundreds?

My point is, I can’t hear from God if I’m busy filling my mind with information that’s not relevant to my life from the get-go.

If I’m to fully confide in Him with all my heart, soul, and being, why am I placing my obsession with information above His ultimate intention for my life?

I’ve decided to cut back.  Less blogs, less tweets, less information.  I’m reaffirming the integrity of my foundation to allow God’s purpose for my life to permeate my soul.  Silence brings revelation, revelation brings understanding, and understanding brings security.