"Our God Is Love"

My prayer is that people would see God's amazing love through my life.

"I pray that the "supernatural" in my life would become natural. Most songs get old, I pray that my love for Jesus Christ would never get old. God, I pray that I would be open to receive your plan for my life. 'I lay my life before you, and I'm not getting up.' Allow me to listen to Your Word. Place people in my life that will protect me and keep me on the right track."

If you're reading this, that's my prayer for you as well. God loves everyone, don't let that slip away. I'm only 16, but I pray that God will change my life in a radical way that when people see my life they say "Wow, Praise the Lord! Surely God is Love" and not just "He's an awesome dude!" Please pray for me that I would stay in His presence. So many things are happening in my life now and I don't want to stray away. That's all I really have for today.

EXCEPT that this morning I woke up at the normal time and still had time to spend with God. I opened my little "daily bread" thing that I use for quick studies and the story had to do with a girl kayaking (fav. sport if you can't tell) and she flipped but was suddenly saved JUST before her death. God likes to come in at the best times to prove that He is there, but that we just need to have faith :]

Love,

Westgate Day With Brooke

So Saturday I went to westgate to walk their 5k trail they have, which I think I'm gonna do every Sat. from now on, with Brooke at 7 IN THE MORNING. We were walking and apparently they were hosting a 5k run with the runner's club. Haha, we were embarrased. But when we got done at about 9 that morning we went to BK to get a croissant. =]Then we went to Solomon park to do a Bible Study. When we got there Brooke started reading from Luke, but I told her to go to James, and basically what we got from the message was that when we accept Jesus into our hearts to become a Christian, that is symbolic of His blood covering our lives. So that gave me this idea: Since the Old Testament has a bunch of examples that reflect the New Testament, maybe Jesus' blood that covers our lives when we become Christians reflects the Passover! I've never thought about this, but maybe you have. In the Old Testament, God came down to destroy all those who didn't have Lamb's blood on their doorway. That's why the Jews celebrated the passover. Because they were the people that originally followed what God told them and were saved. When we become Christians, God saves us from the horrible death that awaits us sinners. We die and then when God finally judges us, he'll see that our lives have been covered by the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God, and we'll be saved from Hell. I've never thought of the Passover this way, but it all comes into perspective for me.

WHICH makes me so much more excited for communion; And I know that we can have communion anytime we wish, but it makes it really intimate when we save it for a special time with others.

That leads me to a new topic. Wednesday at 1st priority, Thomas talked about how when we perform communion, we need to respect and glorify Jesus because He died for us; And to tell God that we're waiting for Him to come back and that we'll live for Him till He does. =] hope this made your day

Headland High School: '10-'11 Year

SO! Today is Thursday, August 12th!! School starts tomorrow and I'm ready for an exciting Junior year at Headland High School =] I can't wait to see what God has in store for HHS this year so that's why I'm posting this. Today is the day before school as you probably know already because I've told you 5 Gajillion times haha and I decided to dedicate the time I have to God, praying and studying His Word. I've been praying for Him to anoint my life to where others can see Him through me. And I've been praying for the leaders in school as well as the students that their eyes would be open to receive what He wants them to know. I pray that God would use me in school and allow me to gain friends in Christ so they can lift my spirits when I need it most. I know that I can make it without friends and with Christ by my side, but I also know that godly fellowship helps. So if you're reading this, this is my mission for you!! =D

1. Pray that God would show people at HHS that He's with us and that the devil will not win over our students.

2. Pray that I would be a servant to others when they need it most and that I would live in His presence so others come to me for help.

3. Pray that staff and leaders would show others His love for them in their lives and that they won't be hard on students.

4. Pray that this school will give me the most opportunities to share Christ with others and that HHS would come together as a family in Him.


P.S. - Headland High is not labeled as a Christian school because they are public, but I'm putting my foot down and saying that there are people in this school that need to know the plans God has for them. I won't let what we're labeled as get in the way of God's plans.

Your Brother In Christ,

This is the post you've been waiting for.... PART TWO!!

WIRED
okay! So, I've already told you about Forward, but you haven't heard anything about Wired!! Wired... The Dothan, AL mission camp-with Judson Baptist Association-is an AMAZING way to serve God. I had went to Forward, had the revival, and was ready to "move forward" as the conference song talked about! And Wired was just that. Moving forward and serving God through ministry work.
As you all may know, I was on the Construction 8 team. I had signed up for Social, which would be inside all week (haha) but I guess God put me there for a reason!!
At my track, I was painting a house and doing a BUNCH of yardwork, cause this lady's yard was... mmm... ENTYWAY, I had missed half of the first day and didn't get to meet everybody that was in my track! So, that evening I got all settled in with FBC Headland in the Highschool Boy's room!! Whoop Whoop, but yea, I brought one of my favorite books that I'm almost done reading, and just relaxed the rest of the day!

So, Monday!!! I get to meet everybody in my track group, who happens to be the best group of people ever. haha, So just to name some people: Josh Bugg was my leader, Austin, Audrey, Sam, Sarah Grace, Taylor, Caleb, Kendall, Ashley, Tony, Kaley, and two other people I can't remember their names haha. Okay, the REAL part of Monday was when I actually introduced myself to them. But when we all got together for Bible study, I brought up the topic of being filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues and we started this whole debate on Calvinism vs. Arminianism. It happened to be the most awesomest day of the week!! Because we all understood the Word of God and became closer just in the first day. Haha but the cool thing was that on Tuesday Josh came back and said that he talked with everyone about what we discussed during our 2 freakin hour discussion haha and they were all jealous because everyone else talked about becoming a leader or something. But basically TUESDAY was an awesome day at worship because before I went in I had quiet time during my free time (which was NOT inforced) and I prayed to God that He would show me something that night and He did! =]

During the worship service, we all sang AMAZING songs and I don't know about everybody else, but I was all eyes on God that night. God definitely gave me the chills while I was singing and I just broke down in front of everybody! So what did I do? I left the building after what I thought was the last song because I didn't want to distract anybody. It wasn't. I went out of the chapel into the waiting area or whatever and who happened to be there but my youth pastor watchin the TV service of worship. I told him I would talk about it when I got all cleaned up... haha. So I came out and we prayed and I told Him about what had been happening at mission site.

WHICH I forgot to tell you, okay, long story short: This 46 yr old man told me that I had touched His life with my energy for God and that he would never forget me. He had to leave that day. I told him to pray for me because God's really been putting it on my heart what I'm gonna do in the future. He said he would and I told him I would.

Okay, back to the story, I was talking with my youth pastor and basically told him what I just told ya'll. But I also asked him if we could pray together for my calling. And I told him that I read a scripture after I prayed that talked about the children of God following His calling even if we don't know it yet! So we prayed and I went back in there and what song are they singing?? AMAZING-FREAKIN-GRACE!!!! It really touched my life. So I prayed that God would show me what I need to do. And God showed me that I needed to accept His calling for me no matter what. The sermon that night was thrown in the trash according to Mr. Dave Edwards (haha) and he told everybody that he just felt the need to get what he was about to say out of the way. He told us that some people in the room needed to accept God's calling. So we had invitation that night for the ministry! HOLD UP!! God does listen and He does answer. If you didn't know that, you know that now. I knew I had to get down there as fast as I could. I was praying the whole time he was finishing talking about "in about 5 minutes I'm gonna call anyone up here" Shooot!! I couldn't wait 5 minutes for God. When he said come to the alter, I RAN AS FAST AS I COULD. I was the 1st one up there =] haha, but instead of putting the eyes on me I put them on God, I was worshiping the whole time I was up there and I prayed the whole time as well. So that's BASICALLY all I have to say about Wired. It was an awesome experience to move Forward, like the conference talked about the week before wired, by serving God and living a life ALL OUT FOR HIM!

I gained great friends that week and saying good-bye was hard. I'll never forget them and I pray for them when I can. I pray for my calling as well. If you're reading this please pray that my eyes would be open to see what God is trying to tell me. I'm going to live my life for Him and what He wants, NO MATTER WHAT.

Your Brother In Christ,

This is the post you've been waiting for!!

So! To begin with my SECOND blog post, I'll say that this has GOD written all over it =] So if you don't want to read this then press ALT+F4..

Haha! so, To begin w/, I'll talk about FORWARD CONFERENCE 2010!

FORWARD!!
So, this wasn't your average church trip son.. I was going with the Cornerstone youth, called Now Ministries, from Dothan, AL. I had never met anybody from there and was pretty excited =] Anyway, we left the church on Thursday afternoon to go see huge Christian bands!!
SO!! I went with a non-denominational church which is WAY different than a Baptist church BY FAR! So, just to tell you, every night I went to the concerts I knew I was worshiping God. I just felt God in that place!
The MAIN thing I REALLY want to talk about was the time I spent with the people from church. Everybody that went was full of the love of God and it just showed. I love Now Ministry and the people there. That whole week just really prepared me for what you're about to hear about. =]]

Okay, so this part is VERY personal to me and my relationship with God. If you're going to judge me for this, don't read.
On June 27 at 12:50 in the morning, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. If you don't know what that means, you need to speak with somebody wiser because I'm not here to give you the Spirit, nobody can, only God can. I was in Atlanta at the Homewood Suites in a hotel room with the leaders of Now Ministry and some of my closest friends that I've met on that trip. I had a hard time believing what they were trying to tell me because I was raised Baptist and I've never heard of being filled. I've never believed in speaking in tongues or prophesying or any other gift of the Spirit truly. But, when I was in that room, The people that helped me could back EVERYTHING up with scripture! That really spoke to me that this was true and that I could and should do it! I took a step of faith. One of the hardest things in my life at that moment, but once I acted on it, God took care of the rest for me =D
I'm going to tell you the truth now. I know how to speak to God through the Spirit in prayer and I've seen God's love for me more than I ever have. The experience was spectacular the first time I spoke in the Spirit. I was in the room with about 7 other people and we were just talking about what was going on in our lives. The wife of the youth pastor called me out and said she just knew I had something to say, so she told me to share. I told her that the whole atmosphere of this place was full of God's love and I would probly never be the same (which I haven't) and that I haven't felt love from friends like this in a long time. But after I shared, one of the coolest dudes I've probably ever met asked her what being filled was like and how to speak in tongues. He opened the floor to discussion of something REALLY amazing. Anyway, the wife told us all about the Spirit and being filled. She told us about a book she was reading that helped her to understand Him better, and how to be filled and what happens when you are filled. You see, I thought you would become like possessed and crap, haha-but no-You're in your right mind and you have God in you through His Spirit!!!
YOU BECOME CLOSER TO HIM. :]

I was skeptic of it at first, I was crying in hysteria of what I didn't know. I asked if I could watch everybody else that wasn't filled yet and wanted to be act upon it. I was REALLY scared and confused. I went to the bathroom and started crying horribly!! God was acting upon me, He was showing me His love, and He told me to do this. I gathered myself together and went out there and watched everybody get filled first. They all started to pray to God, worshiping Him and praying to Him. Praying in the Spirit. It was an AMAZING experience to watch and was so intimate between all of us. I finally accepted what I was called to do. I went to the bathroom one more time and tried to pull myself together. That awesome friend I talked about that brought up the topic came in there and kind of gave me a "pep-talk". He was so nice to me, I felt like I had a real friend for the first time since I moved down here. Nobody's ever spoke to me like that, I knew God was speaking through him. God was telling me that everything was going to be okay and that this is something He wants me to do! I've had experiences where God has talked to me through other people, but this was from a peer!! It was amazing :] God was telling me that He loved me through it all. I was truly loved that night. I went out into the room, after I cleaned my face of course, and I asked that everybody would pray for me before being filled. They did, and we went over how to do things. Of course none of this made sense still. But God is called the Comforter and The Source of Understanding. In fact, He gave me the understanding! I prayed the prayer for the Spirit, and then we all started to praise God in prayer. People were speaking in tongues and lifting His name! I started to mumble words. I admit, I was weak at this... Then I felt God the Spirit take over. He was directing what words to say and how to say them. I was speaking in tongues!!! I was still in my right mind like everybody said, but I was having a conversation with God!!! I had truly taken an act of faith, besides my salvation through my savior Jesus Christ. God had somehow calmed my soul and I felt complete and that God was going to be with me always. I can't run away anymore =]

Just a follow up!!
From that night on, and its been a couple weeks, I've prayed in the Spirit EVERY night since (NO LIE). People notice something different in my life, and learning about God comes easily! I pray in the Spirit and its not just mumbling anymore, He has given me language to praise Him. You see, being filled isn't just about speaking in tongues! Its being closer to Him. I'm understanding what I'm praying for and I totally trust in Him MUCH more than I did before. I've studied His word and I've been given so much insight on what He tells me. I understand more about His Spirit. I've got much more to learn still but I know He's always going to be there. =]

This is basically all I have to say about what happened at Forward. I feel complete and that I don't have to work to be close to God anymore, it all comes naturally now! I love Now Ministries, and I love all the loving people that go there. It feels right. Thank-you to whoever reads this. Don't allow me to sway your faith though, when the moment comes to act on faith, God will make everything clear.

Your Brother In Christ,