What's God Saying To You?

Aaaaahhhhh The Mix Blog. It's definitely been a while. We've gotten away from posting updates here for far too long and the Lord sort of shook me by the collar last night and...well...here I am. Lots has happened at The Mix since we last posted and rather than try to catch up, let's just start right now. We've been looking at a teaching series for the past few weeks that we've called "Yeah...But How?" It has basically been a VERY practical look at VERY practical things we can build into our lives to help grow our faith. We've looked at various different aspects of prayer, Bible study and sharing our faith with others...specifically, trying to share some tips and ideas as to how to build these things into our lives and stay consistant with them so our relationship with Christ can continue to deepen. We've shared some great ideas over the weeks and as a conclusion to the series, I asked the students to come this week to The Mix prepared to share what God had been saying to them and showing them over the past week...sort of 'put it into practice'. It could be a verse they read, a situation they found themselves in where God revealed Himself, a Word from God, etc. The night was amazing to say the least!!

We had lots of kids freely share what God has been doing in their lives. It's great to know that God still speaks and kids still listen! After several students shared their insights (of which I benefitted from greatly!!), I asked Kelcie to share some things with us...

Kelcie has been going through a rough time. But unlike many of us when we go through difficulties, Kelcie has turned TOWARDS God and not AWAY from Him. And God began to show her some things for her life that she wanted to share with the group. So with her permission, I've included below what Kelcie had to say Tuesady night at The Mix...

"God has layed some things on my heart lately that I really felt like He wanted me to share with everyone else as well. It has to do with God's will...His plan for our lives. God has amazing plans for each and everyone of us. And God wants to see to it that his plan has every opportunity to happen in our lives. God allows things to happen in our lives for His plan to work out...but this requires lots of trust and faith. Because sometimes God uses the good times...but He also uses the bad times, to help His plan happen in our lives. Its as though God says sometimes, 'Something was going wrong in your life, so I changed it.' Check out these verses from Job. (Job 5:18-19). When God allows you to go through hard times, it's your decision...it's up to you...to turn toward Him and allow Him to have TOTAL control of your life and everything in it. When tough times come, the only way to do this is to pray about it and get into His Word so He can talk to us and show us what He wants us to do.

But we have to WANT to learn about God...we have to WANT to get close to Him...we have to WANT to follow in His path. Why wouldn't you want that? If you think about it, when you follow your plan, your just setting yourself up for failure. But if you follow God's plan, He will never fail you. I've decided I don't want to be like all the other people. I don't want to live life one way at church and a different way at school or around my friends and family. I want to be the same person all the time...when I'm byself with God or when I'm with my friends and family...or even the 'popular' crowd.

If you're not following God's plan, if you're walking on a path you want...or even if you're not sure...I encourage you all to talk to God, ask Him, get in the Word, get excited about what could be...and ask Him to show you the right path, and then accept that path. God gave up His One and only Son to die for us, what are we willing to give up for Him?!!"

WOW!! Nothing else for me to say! Kelc hit it right on the head! I truly believe that God is and will continue to use youth to say what He wants to say to our world...and I'm excited to hear what that is!! When we begin to interact with God regularly...having discussions with God and just hanging out with Him as friends do...it brings an excitement to our faith that we can't find any other place. I have a suspicion that as long as these students continue to hang out with God and hear what He has to say, their faith will be life-filled and they will stand a much better chance of staying on the 'path' the Kelcie talked about. Thanks for listening to God, Kelc...and thank you all for checking out the blog this week!

-Bob