Angela’s Thoughts

Today, I am playing (notice I said playing) catch up.  I don’t know that it is possible to finish everything that is on my list.. and then some that aren’t.

We had an awesome time at Youth Congresss.  Last night during service, everyone that attended Congress had the chance to speak about what they recieved from the sessions and services.  It was awesome to see that each person found something for them.  Every testimony was different, and so compelling.  I heard from a young man that I can now see the call of God on his life to the ministry of preaching.  I heard from another that is most likely feeling the call to being a sunday school teacher (but has not yet recognized it), and the list goes on.

I was so proud of our youth.  Each one had never been to a Youth Congress.  Let alone a place where 18,000 young people joined to worship God in spirit and in truth.

There were so many highlights that it is impossible to mention all of them… but there were a few that are more prominent.

• It’s Okay to Be Different – Bro. Huntley.  He talked to our kids about not being ashamed of who they are.  To stand up for what they believe in… and embrace being different.
• What if? – Tim Rutledge.  He spoke on our choices.  What if we do this? How will we look? What if we mess up?  He challenged them to take risks in the Name of Jesus and for the gospel.  Don’t look back on life later and ask What if I had just did what I thought instead of dwelling on what others might say or do?
• Recognizing the Call – Bro. Haney.  He ministered in so many ways during his session.  But one thought stood out more than others.  He talked about how God calls some one, and we keep asking for direction, keep asking for affirmation.  He talked about Noah, and how that God spoke to him to tell him how to build the ark, what to preach and then for 120 years Noah didn’t hear from God again, until it was time for the door to be shut.  Where is our commitment to just do what God has asked us?  Why do we need confirmation upon confirmation.  Isn’t his word enough in the first place?

Those are just a few of the things that were brought out during this years Youth Congress.  So much was accomplished in the lives of our young people.  I believe in this generation!  I believe that they are the generation that will lead during the last days.  They are the ones that God has chosen for this time.  And they will do it without fear or shame, and with more boldness than those that came before them.

Let’s encourage them!  Let’s stand behind them and support them when they fall!  Let’s believe in them and what God has called them to do! I would rather be a part of it, than not at all!

There is a great stirring within my spirit.  I can’t even explain the feelings I am having.  They touch deeply into my soul.

On my way home yesterday from Cory McCool’s Going Home service, … Kelsea sleeping in the back seat, and Jay working on his laptop in the front seat… me driving with one earphone in my ear listening to the Bible on my iphone, dwelling in the presence of God that I felt so strongly through-out the day.  I didn’t want to leave that special resting place, a place of peace that just is so thick and real… where you can almost feel the arms of God wrapping around you.

I chose to listen to Romans… starting in the first chapter… I got to the end of the 5th chapter, and beginning of the 6th… and I kept replaying it over and over.  Romans 5:20, where it says, “…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” And in Romans 6:1-6, 11-12… “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his ressurection…. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but ALIVE unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal BODY, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

This last week has been a time of deep reflection into my soul.  My intents, my purposes… ME.  Let’s hit it even deeper.  MY SIN!  Where am I living today?  I live in a world where, yes, there is much sin, therefore much grace… But I think so often we become immune to sin.  “Oh, it really isn’t as bad as that!”  “God wasn’t talking about that, or he loves us too much to do that.”  If God’s word is true in one statement.. it is true in all statements.  God is loving, but God also expects obedience and loyalty to Him.  We fail, often.. but are we so comfortable in our failures that we don’t allow God’s grace to do the work it was meant to do.  It isn’t meant to allow us to stay in that sin… it is meant to give us the opportunity to rely on God, as he helps lift us out of that sin.

I look at this world…and think, are we in Sodom and Gommorah?  Are we so far from God in our culture, in our times, that we really believe that everything is okay… Does our flesh suffer from sacrifice?  Or is it happily content with the state we are in?  Does the devil fight us?  or does he leave us alone because we aren’t causing a ripple in the work he set out to do?

I want to be lifted out of the sin.  I want my mind to be focused on God and living my life to the fullest by serving Him in whatever he desires of me.  I don’t want to go backward… I don’t want to be part of a great falling away because I just accept that things are the way they are because of the time we live in.  No, they aren’t!!  God is still God!  God’s word is still true!  God still expects the same from his people as he always did.

Am I so caught up in the “things”… (busy, busy, busy.. entertained daily, going through the motions…etc)  that I miss out on the opportunity that God is giving me to step out from among the rest,  to dedicate fully and completely to him.  This isn’t a one time dedication… it is daily, leaving behind the things that would distract me, tempt me, change me to be something other than what God has called me to be.

I know this may seem like rambling, but I wanted to get it on cyberspace “paper”,  so I can study it deeper. 

Today as I was catching up on Facebook updates, one caught my eye almost immediately.  He said he had been woken up early this morning, and the song “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”, came to mind.  When I woke this morning,  that song wasn’t on my mind, but I felt an overwhelming peace… and love for my God.  After reading his status update, I thought… “yeah, it is so sweet.”

Over the years, I have sang this song… in some of my deepest hours of need.

Being a young mother, I often sang “Jesus, Jesus, How I trust you…” while rocking my daughter to sleep.  I doubt that I was the only one that would look at her child and think… “what an awesome responsiblity it is to raise her.”  It was times like these that I just trusted in God, that he knew what he was doing, and he would help me.  If she was sick, I sang, and prayed… and felt that peace, that only he can give.

When I was on my deathbed in 2003.  That song was one that I heard others singing, and in my mind I was singing it.  It was a time where I could literally feel the prayers of the saints going up for me.  My room would be thick with the presence of God.  I remember my mother sitting in the hospital room with me, and calling her over to my bed… saying, “Mom, their praying… someone is praying… I can feel it.”  That changed my life forever…  He allowed me to live, there had to be purpose, and in that purpose I would trust Him.

Last year, my husband was in the hospital.  I remember sitting in his hospital room, and praying… then, of course, this song would come to mind.  “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word, Just to rest upon His promise, Just to know Thus saith the Lord.”  I begin to remember the promises, and visions God had given us in coming to Kentwood.  During Prayer Force at our church that Sunday, I remember being in a realm of my own with God… trusting Him.

He has never left me, He has never forsaken me.  He has always proved to be trustworthy!

Thank you, God, that I can Trust in You!!!  You are the only real thing in this world to trust in!  Thank you that I know you, Thank you for being there every time I felt I couldn’t go on.  Thank you for teaching me to lean upon you!

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.