Moving Forward

A Greater Love

I did something tonight that I never wanted to do... I never thought I'd do. I planned a lesson for youth group around 1 Corinthians 13. I'm kinda sick of that chapter being used so often in reference with weddings. I decided though, that I wanted to talk about love since tomorrow is Valentine's Day... not humanly love, Godly love. Unconditional love. Loving each other the way that God loves us. I talked a little bit about Paul and his history. I reminded them of the fact that 1 Corinthians is a letter to the people of Corinth from Paul offering them guidelines on how to live as a Christian in a pagan and corrupt society. Paul reminds the people that without love everything is meaningless. Also that the things of this earth will fall away and disappear, but love lasts forever.
We defined love. A lot of the words they used to describe love were right out of the chapter. We also talked about humanly love, brotherly love. I wanted to talk about how tomorrow is such a fun day whether you get flowers and candy or not. It's fun because we can use it as another excuse to praise God for the great love He has shown us. V-day is a day when many single people choose to sulk and have pity parties. They watch sappy movies, eat insane amounts of chocolate, wear their pjs, and avoid leaving the house... because apparently not being single is a status symbol. Well I wanted to get across that that's bull. That side of valentine's day is so man made it's crazy. As Christians we should be living every single day with love for our brothers and sisters. I think being grateful to the Lord is showing that everyday you care enough to tell someone what Jesus has done for you. How can we not shout out the greatest love story there is?
I don't know... that's the gist I s'pose. An update is in order...
Last Friday I went on a jr high purity retreat with Trent and his youth. We went down to someone's lake house for the weekend. I was supposed lead worship and to have prepared a talk to give to the kids. Well my talk didn't go as planned... mainly because it wasn't planned. I was busy as heck and just didn't take the time to prepare much. (excuses, excuses) But the Lord still works even in my failures and I trust that someone got something out of what I did say. (It wasn't about me, but about God anyways) Other than that though, the weekend went well I thought. I had fun times and I really like the kids he has. I really think they have a lot of potential and I'm excited to see how things play out in the future. I'm hoping to go down for jr high youth group in a couple weeks when I have a three day weekend.
Last night I started a little bible study group with two awesome ladies and I'm really excited for times of fellowship and learning more about God. I find myself being lazy a lot about being in the Word consistently, so I'm pretty pumped about being held accountable a little more. One thing we're going to do is talk about what God is teaching us at the present time, which is a great thing because that means we have to all come to the Lord with expectancy everyday... and not just be content to skim over something we've read a hundred times. I want, nay, need to delve deeper. I've recently started a study of King David on my own and so far so good.
Moving on. I'm looking forward to a weekend with one of my favorite people from IWU ever! I can't wait to hang with Beach! I'm also excited about going into the city for brunch on Saturday. I don't really get brunch though... I'm all about breakfast food (well minus the eggs) and I'm all about lunch food... but combined... too many choices.
Also, I FINALLY got the latest Caedmon's Call cd and I'm liking it! Of course! I put it in the cd player at work today and it was on repeat all day. Awesome.
The windows in my house are all being replaced, so the guys were here doing that today when I got home... my house was literally 40 degrees inside, with the heat running. Yikes! It's still pretty chilly, but no more random cold breezes and hopefully less disgusting crickets this summer. Something to look forward to!
Something else that's kind of exciting... I'm going to Florida in April with my whole family, which means I get to see Stacy and Jeff! We're taking the girls to Disney and all that jazz... it'll be fun. The last 2 or 3 times I've been to florida I haven't gone to a theme park. Kayla is going to be so fun to see experiencing Disney. She's too freakin cute.
While I was at work today I was reading through the Psalms. I came across this and wanted to share it with you.
Psalm 19:7-14
The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
each one is fair.
They are more desirable than gold,
even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.

May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

This was kind of scatter-brained, but that's the story of my life these days. I hope you have a great V-day! Praise the Lord for knowing what real love is.

posted by Moving Forward @ 9:08 PM