What a bust week into a busy weekend. However, I feel like we have made some great progress in a short amount of time. Last week I e-mailed every students that attended our weekend service and filled out a communication card, to let them know I am praying for there request and to follow up on some decisions they were making. Several of our Students indicated that they wanted to grow spiritually but admitted that they didn’t necessarily have a plan to accomplish that. Here is what I sent them,
1. Find a consistent time and place to meet with Him. I spend time with God early in the morning, but I used to spend time with God late at night before I went to bed. The time doesn’t matter, what matters is that you find/make the time.
2. Read the Bible and Pray. When you read the Bible God speaks to you, when you pray, you speak to God. Many times the question is where do I start, and how much do I read. Even if you don’t like to read (I don’t like to read) its important, so start small. Here is what I encourage:o Pray – Ask God to forgive you of sin and to guide you as read His Word.
o Read a Bible you understand – NIV or NLT are great translations.
o Read 1 Chapter a day – A great place to start is in 1, 2, 3 John, James, or the Gospel of John, from there you may have developed a stronger habit and can pick a book from the Bible you would like to read.
o Highlight verses that impact you or seem to jump out at you.
o Think about what you read.
o Pray – Ask God for help, thank Him for the things in your life and lift up concerns to Him.
o Think about what you read throughout the day and begin to apply it to your life.3. Don’t Give Up! – If you miss a day, it’s going to be ok, just pick up where you missed and start there. It will take a while for this to become a habit. There will be days that you forget, or even days that you don’t want to read. In those days still try to read but admit to God that you are tired, or feeling lazy, or stressed and ask Him to give you the strength you need to meet with Him. It’s ok to be honest with God! This will get easier the more you begin to have consistency, I promise!
The services this weekend were awesome. Great worship, the talk seemed to connect on personal levels and the Illustration about the family really allowed us to see the way it was supposed to be, and James a 9th graders shared his story and brought it all together. It was so powerful. Following the services we went to celebrate baptisms with three families. It was awesome seeing Dads baptize their kids.
Last night I was able to connect with Connor and Nick at Chili’s. I learned a lot about them and had a great time hanging out. Dash from “The Incredibles” (AKA Josiah) was there also!
Dan Gould 