Just Some Thoughts of the Day..

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

These are lyrics of Tenth Avenue North's song By Your Side. I've love this song for so many reasons. Today when I listened to it the words just really opened my eyes. We tend to look for love in all the wrong things, in people who will fail us, in material things that will fade, in boyfriends or girlfriends who won't always be there for us. Why don't we turn to the face of love? Christ himself who is perfect love, who won't ever fail us? We fight his hand in our lives so much and we may never notice it since it can be instinct for us to be in control? He is there for us all the time we don't even have to call on him necessarily, we just have to let go completely. My favorite part could possibly be, "Look at these hands and my side They swallowed the grave on that night When I drank the world's sin So I could carry you in And give you life I want to give you life" Man why does God loves us so much that he really wants to give each of us life and it's so easy to get lost in that thought. Those are just some random thoughts.. Let me know some of your thoughts..

Retreat

So this weekend we went with the youth to Camp Willow Run. I love that place, it is all around great. So Rebekah and I had freshman girls, who I love. They are so much fun to hang out with. They have such a heart for God that I completely love to see in youth.

We had a bunch of team competitions that were pretty cool! Allyson and I faced our dislike of playing group games hah and played dizzy bat and loved it :) And of course they did gender olympics. It snowed and was freezing. The youth got to launch water balloons at some of the guy leaders.. and was one of the best retreats in awhile.

Joel Davis and his wife came to spend the weekend with us it was really awesome. The whole idea of the retreat was discipleship and the main verse for the first night was Matthew 11:28 : Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light." Joel told us that only when we are yielding to God can we see what it is like to have an easy yoke. (1John5:3 Loving God means keeping his commandments and his commandments aren't burdensome) Basically what it means to be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ, and all we have to do is come to him. What compels us to submit to the yoke of Christ?What makes us want to leave all of our garbage behind and follow Christ? (Ephesians 2) God's grace is a compelling force within us that makes us want to follow Christ wholeheartedly.

Then the next day they did something new which I really liked; they let the kids pick two of four classes to go to. I went to BJ's which was cool.. here are a list of verses he gave us:

(( Isaiah 1:10-17 James 1:27 Deuteronomy 27:19 Mark 14:3-7 Deuteronomy 15:11))

Then I went to Joel's teaching on worship. Basically he explained worship encompasses everything we are not just songs like most people think. We were made to worship, so simply everything we do is worship. ((Romans 12:1-2 Therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed by the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.)) What makes an acceptable and pleasing sacrifice to God? When we've received the grace and mercies he has to offer us. Ephesians 2:8 says For it is by grace you've been saved through faith, for it is not from yourselves but a gift from God.

-Grace that doesn't cost us anything is cheap grace. and discipleship is not found in cheap grace.

-Grace cost Jesus everything..He gave his life for each and every one of us. and it is going to cost us everything. It is costly because we have to leave our past lives behind.

-We lose our lives but with grace we gain eternal life.

-Grace absolutely does not give us freedom to continually live in our past sin.

- Grace that cost God much is going to cost us everything.

Let God's grace justify us today... start anew.. Are you willing to give everything?

So that is just a little bit of what we talked about his weekend.. maybe a few pics to come later.

Goodnight :)