day four (part two)

Since my last post the day has absolutely turned into the best day ever! I feel like I'll be saying that every day of this program because the way I am already seeing God moving is blowing my mind!

So to recap what went on this afternoon:

First, we had a debate with Pastor Matt Moore, who is the Fusion (middle school) pastor. What an awesome man of God he is, just as all the other pastors at Bayside are. He broke us up into four teams, each with a different side of a debate which we were to research online, look up in scripture, and use our personal views and beliefs to support. The two debates were "Why speeding is a sin/not a sin" and "Why leaders in the church should/should not be able to drink alcohol". My group was assigned "Why speeding IS a sin" which is SO CRAZY because I was literally just thinking about how I felt about it this morning as I drove to the Y! Weird coincidence or God preparing me for the day? Who knows? ;) We had a blast debating our topics and getting fired up in the moment as well as listening to the other teams trying their hardest to win the debate. At the end we mostly all agreed that both issues have certain boundaries or exceptions for different people or situations, but it was so fun having such heated debates! It was a great way to channel any frustration we've been harboring from our workouts or team times into a positive activity.

Next, we sat through a sort of orientation for A.C.M.E. (stands for "All Children May Enter") which is the children's ministry at Bayside for newborns up till 5th grade. We got to tour all of the ACME classrooms, playroom, special areas, and Pastor Jason even let us slide down the massive slides! :) We totally wished we were all back in elementary school again.

After that was when the awkwardness started. We kept being told we were going to do something at a certain time, then 5 minutes later the activity and time changed. Then 5 minutes after that the time and place changed again. We were all thinking to ourselves two questions: Why isn't anything planned for us right now? And if there aren't any plans for us now, why can't we just go home and chill with our home sponsors? But it turns out that 24/7 has more student-caused drama than I would have expected, so Justin was meeting with the student leaders while he stalled us until he was ready to talk to the whole group. So while we were stalling, Justin played us an AWESOME video sermon from Pastor Craig Groeschel called "The Making of a Man of God" about Elijah. This sermon literally rocked our worlds.

We saw yet another example today of how God works in such mysterious ways. This sermon was an impromptu, random solution to a time issue Justin had, and this was not what was planned for us today. But instead of this afternoon being a wasted hour watching a boring sermon video and discussing the message, we learned so much and were laughing so hard at Pastor Craig's ridiculous analogies and weird facial expressions. The message was about being unconditionally obedient to God's will for your life, going through isolated pain and truly hitting rock bottom, and finding out later that all of the things you've been through have led you to this right place at the right moment for a specific reason. It truly touched everyone watching it, especially two people who broke down into tears because this was the exact message they needed to hear today. God is so amazing!!

In short, the message was from 1 Kings 17 and Elijah was told by God to drop everything and move to a place called the Kerith Ravine, where he would be isolated and suffer. Elijah was nervous but immediately obeyed and though he suffered much, God provided a brook for Elijah to drink from though the land all around him had not seen water for a long time. God commanded the ravens to bring bread and meat to Elijah each morning and each night. This taught Elijah to see that though God didn't give him a year's supply of food or above and beyond what he could want, God DID provide him what he needed each day, day by day. This is how God works! Then the brook dried up and God sent Elijah to live with a widow with a son that she could barely provide for. He commanded the woman to make herself, her son, and Elijah food and promised that her flour and oil would not dry up until the rain fell again and each day she had enough to get through that day, then the next. Suddenly, her only son died and Elijah prayed to the Lord to raise the boy from the dead and He did just that. The main point of this story is that if Elijah had not been so obedient to God, he wouldn't have done all the things he did to lead him to that house where he raised that boy from the dead.

So when it says in James 1:2 "consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds", do it! God builds you up, then breaks you down, and the cycle begins again. Each time through the cycle you come out stronger, more faithful, more passionate, more focused on God than you were before. And God's plan will lead you to do amazing things in your life!!

I can only hope that God will show me more and more of these revelations throughout this program and the rest of my life.

The rest of the day went quickly. We met with Justin for a while to address some issues and some changes to our daily routines that will be made permanent....AFTER OUR TRIP.

WE'RE GOING ON A TRIP!! All I know is the temperatures of where we're going so that we can dress accordingly and the items I need to bring, which include a head lamp, weightlifting gloves, a poncho, a sleeping bag, and a couple other sketchy items. We leave sometime Saturday night and I have no clue where we're going or when we'll get back! YAY FOR ADVENTURES!!

But I have to go to sleep now, I have a big weekend ahead of me!