I Love God!

It's crazy what God does to lift your spirits. Sunday morning was one of those mornings that Satan tries to use and get ahold of your Spirit. I had four kids in class to start out with and then two more came in 30 minutes late. so I had 6 out of our normal 20. It wouldn't have bothered me too much except that this week we have our first annual teen mission week. We have all these jobs that we are planning on doing for members of our congregation and all the teens know about them. Satan seemed to kind of suggest to me that maybe nobody wanted to do them and that's why they weren't here. Plus, I was just made aware of a concession stand that we could run Friday and Saturday for the Cordell Class Reunion to put some money in the youth fund but we needed good numbers to run it. Then, on top of that, I really had a hard time leading singing, because our normal number of 100 people on Sunday was depleted to about 60 and everybody was just really down and didn't feel like singing. And even more on top of that, I had to prepare a sermon for the evening because our preacher, who has MS, was having complications with his optic nerve and was having lots of trouble preparing for sermons.
Yesterday afternoon I should have cried out to God for strength. I should have handed it over to him, but I didn't. Yet, God took control of the situation despite my lack of faith. Last night, we had more at church than we did in the morning (around 70). The singing was spectacular, and there were about 15 of our 20 teens there (the other 5 are out of town). They expressed the desire to work this week and do the concession stand. Wow...I just cannot express more thanks to God for answering my unprayed prayer.
And on top of that, I prepared for my sermon for about an hour and a half and of course I am never comfortable with that but God spoke through me using the book of 1 Thessalonians. Paul commends the Thessalonians over and over again in this letter. So I used those things he commends them for as a blueprint for us.
1. Be imitators of the Lord and of Holy People (1:6) which will make you well known. (1:7, 8)
2. Stand firm in the Lord (3:7, 8)
- Special note: The same town where Paul had to escape and a mob dragged Jason out into the streets (Acts 17:5-9)
3. Love one another and all Christians (4:9, 10)
- Why? to earn the respect of outsiders (4:12)
4. Be ready for the day of the Lord (5:1-8)
It was powerful.

I love God.

Josh

It's Monday Again

Every Monday the men of my church have a men's breakfast where we get together and discuss prayer requests and eat some good homecooked food (though all is cooked by men so you can imagine it doesn't look very pretty but it tastes good). I am the official bacon cooker. Anyway, it starts at 6:30 a.m. in the morning (and I usually get here around 6:00 to start cooking) so it's always pretty rough on Monday mornings after a long day of ministry on Sunday (and I was up til about 11:30 last night counseling kids, and talking to parents), but it is always such and uplift. God has blessed me greatly this morning. I was really needing some encouragement this morning and he provided it through this bunch of men.

For camp, I have received over three hundred dollars now in donations to give kids scholarships so that nobody is turned away on account of cost. It is so awesome. God is really working through these people here in Cordell. Of course, I could choose to look at the bad and say that God isn't working but I prefer to look at the good and give the bad over to Him.

Right now, I am dealing with two families in particular that have a lot of problems. They are both blended families, and in both instances, the oldest child is rebelling against the wishes of the parents/guardians. It just seems like every step they take forward they take two steps back. I hope and pray that God will work on my teens' hearts.

Thank you for your prayers for our camp. We are getting more last minute sign-ups so I am very thankful.

Josh