As I'm sure you are aware, every night we gather together as a large group and have a time of worship and teaching. And so you understand what I mean by worship and teaching...there's not really a time limit on it! These students are hungry to lift high the name of Jesus every night and to be fed by the Spirit because of how much they are pouring out everyday. So sometimes we start and it's tough to end because eventually we gotta get some sleep!
The last couple of nights have been incredible. Two nights ago Brian our high school pastor, spent time talking about worship. And our response to God. He used a great analogy of a ball, and how it responds to what we do to it. And just like that ball, we respond to what God does in our lives. The difference between us and the ball, however, is that God has granted us free will. So we can choose whether or not to respond to what he does in our lives. Many of us will go our entire lives soaking up God's blessings in our lives, and crying out to Him when we are facing trials and troubles, but will never respond to Him when He moves in our lives. I mean that outward, unashamed, fall on your face kind of worship. We looked at Luke 7 and the story of the woman who "lived a sinful life" that walked right into a Pharisee's house that Jesus was eating dinner with and simply fell down at his feet to worship him; not ever thinking about what the "righteous" people around her would think. Beautiful.
Then last night we expounded a little more on what we do with all this information. All week the leaders and staff have been having countless conversations with students about how they get the Gospel, they understand it, and they understand the implactions of believing it, but they are scared of fully committing their lives. Most are afraid because they know people will think they are crazy, they will ruin current friendships, they will feel abandoned. We were reminded of the scripture in Hebrews that God has called us to move on from the basics of Christianity that we know. That if we really want to see a difference in our lives then we have to stop soaking up all this teaching and information about the Gospel and actually start applying it. But because the free will God has given us, that is something WE have to do, not God. We can only be as spiritually mature as we are willing to be. So we have to stop getting fed just a pastor teaching on Sunday mornings or in our weekly Bible study, but we have to be PURSUING God ourselves...reading scripture! praying! worshiping!
Which brings us to Friday. Today we were really blessed to have a chance to hang out on an awesome beach on Catalina Island. We went snorkeling and swimming and just relaxing! What a huge blessing it was for our team to have a day and hang out with each in such a beautiful part of God's creation! Now we are sharing stories about things that happened during the week and hearing how God worked in different people's lives. This has truly been an incredible week, so there is much reason to celebrate! The latest number I heard was that 657 people committed their life to Jesus and allow Him to rescue them from their sin! PRAISE GOD!
Tomorrow will be a long day of travel. Be sure to look to the right hand side of this page to see the flight information! The only change that happened was the Charter flight is now leaving the DR at 4:55 PM, arriving in ATL at 8:30. PARENTS: Please be sure to pick your student(s) up from baggage claim at the airport...or the top of the escalator from the train if you really want to surprise them!
PS...there are a few new pictures up from the last couple of days. (Days 5 and 6)
