PRAISE THE LORD

Tonight was by far the best night of my life. My two wonderful (most of the time) teens accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. My daughter told me she had some questions that she thought she would like to ask our pastor. We went over and visited for quite some time and she up and asked how she could know it was real, how she could be sure God was real, how she could be sure the bible was real. by the time he was done talking she was a blubbering mess. She said i think i want to be in "the family". We all bowed are heads and pastor lead her in the salvation prayer. He, his wife, myself and two of our closest friends were all weeping. my daughter then said "hey guess what? i am now adopted too." (to our friend that was adopted...twice *smile*) She said she was adopted into the family of God . when we got home and she was telling her brother what she had done he said that he had said the prayer and asked God into his heart at Promise Keepers (a mens retreat) a month ago and never thought about mentioning it, I told him in the bible it says to confess with your mouth you are a believer, so off we drove to the pastor again. (he is a very open man and doesn't ever mind to much our continual pop ins) He told my son it wasn't a done deal until he signed on the dotted line and to do that he must confess so my son, right in the same chair my daughter had sat an hour before told us all that he was a son of God and was a believer, that he had confessed his sin and asked Christ into his life. WOW what an absolute blessing. Praise the Lord. God said " Rejoice with me for I have found my lost sheep" what a day to rejoice! 2 for the price of one... literally. Thank you Father for giving your son so that we could all live. I was telling my kids in jest that tonight my prayers would be simple because i didn't have to pray for their salvation and they both asked me to make sure i still kept praying for them. They both told me they were sorry for the way they had been acting latley (things have been ruff esspecially with my son) and told me that they would be praying God help them to be a little more like Him.

With a joy so deep in my soul,
Leanne

Youth Outreach

When I think of a youth ministry I think of a group of adults doing everything in their power to bring our youth to Christ. In order to do that I believe that NO youth should be excluded from that. It is all too often (not just with youth) that people are un-willing to witness and lead people who are a bit "different" or have a "past" to Christ. It is the really wayward kids we need to be reaching. Everyone always says that outreach starts at home with our mothers, children, siblings. Our church is our family and it is a very extended one at that. Every person in the entire world is our relative in God’s eyes and therefore deserving of the same respect.
We are called to be fishers of men. God didn’t say "hey go out and fish for only people you would like to be around, only fish for those that are clean and proper and act accordingly." If that were the case we wouldn’t need outreach at all. If you jump down a teens throat and tell them they can’t be doing this or that they will leave, Get them in and let God sort them out. If someone had told me when i was seeking "you can’t smoke and you can’t swear and you can’t do this and you can’t do that" I would have NEVER, come back to church and I am not a teen. But with a little open mindedness and compassion and seeing first hand how a true Christian lived their lives I came around and gradually am becoming more and more like what God wants me to be. God is working out all the kinks with me; it is not people telling me I am doing everything wrong that works. The best witness is a life lived for Christ. I believe we should be patient and kind and nurturing, sneaking in the great lessons every new Christian needs in a non threatening manner. Letting the kids know that some things are not appropriate with out being too judgemental. Remember that God tells us not to judge unless we want to be judged ourselves. We need to grow our churches and our youth groups but are we are doing everthing we can to ensure that happens? I think God would be disappointed in some of us that we are not doing EVERYHTING in our power to get as many youth to come to Him as we can. What makes one youth’s salvation more important than another’s? Their attendance at church? It is the ones that don’t attend church that really need us. It is the un-saved that need us most. We need to still nurture and help the ones that attend regularly but not spreading the word of our Lord to every single person that will listen is undermining God’s command for us. I pray that in the future we are all a bit more eager to make sure that the word of God is not reserved for those who have already heard it. There is a wonderful church in the states that is doing amazing outreach to young adults that would never have the opportunity to hear God's word. They are going to the punk and metal shows and preaching the word. They are getting down into the gritty underbelly of the lost and pulling people, quite literally, from the fire. we could all use alittle of there compassion ( even if we aren't all tattooed and pierced)
Click the picture below to see a video of this amazing group of individuals in action

God exceptes everyone who is willing to change their lives for Him, believe and repent. Even the ones that are messy, unkempt and raw around the edges. I implore you to take a good look around your community, at the youth that you cross the street to avoid and try to turn your head from them while thinking of them as God's lost sheep. They are going to die and you could save them! "Come to me and I will make you fishers of men"