What About Now?

As a young Christian, I tend to set a lot of goals in my life for the future, for things that I hope and wish to do and make differences in when I'm older. All of us should make goals like this and persevere to accomplish them in our life.

But in the meantime, I find myself doing nothing. I'm constantly setting goals and getting nothing accomplished at the moment. Times like that make me question where God is in my life right now. They make me wonder what I'm doing wrong and why I'm getting tempted so easily to disobey God. As I was asking myself about this, I came across this quote:

"Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next." ~Elisabeth Elliot

Too often in our lives, we promise and pray to God that we will be better Christians, but too little do we put it into practice today in our lives! If you're anything like me, it's like that essay you're supposed to write: you get so caught up in saying that you absolutely, positively will do it on this day that when that day comes around, you've been so used to procrastinating it that you never get it finished!

As is said in a familiar song by Daughtry: "What about now? What about today?" You've got an open opportunity to simply obey God right now, so "before it's to late, what about now?"

Let's make our focus being what can we do for God today. Let's pray together and ask God, "How can we obey you and serve you today? Help us live how you want us to live, right here, right now." Be willing to work for God, and he will use us to do great things! Don't put it off any longer, for the time is now, and the day is today!

~♥~

Trust

Read Luke 21:1-4. You've probably heard this passage read often at Church services for the offering, but what is this really about?
"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others."
At this point in the short story, the disciples (twelve people who are constantly watching and learning all that they can from Jesus) are probably thinking, "What are you talking about, Jesus?! They gave so much! And she gave next to nothing! You can't use that to make repairs on the temple or to pay taxes!!!" But Jesus points them to a higher place.
(verse 4:) "All of these people gave their gifts out of wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on."
Back then, if you were a widow, you were poor. You might have a family member or a friend taking care of you if you were lucky. But this lady wasn't just a widow; she was a poor widow. So most likely, she didn't have anyone to take care of her. All she even has to care for herself is two tiny copper coins that were hardly worth enough to get food! To give up this was to give up everything she had to live on.
Now there are only two ways a person would do such a thing:
1. She is crazy. or, 2. She has complete trust that God will provide for her.
Jesus was pointing out that by putting both of those coins, her only way to survive on her own, she was placing her complete trust in God, and he was proud of her for it. He was not just saying that the amount given in was more in compared to what she had than the others; he was telling his disciples to have the kind of faith that she had.

Matthew 6:31-33 "So do not worry saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well."

God's Wonderful Deeds

Alright. Let's do this. It's time to serve.

This Sunday evening is the first of two nights of our church's VBS (Vacation Bible School).

It's an exciting time for me! About 5 months ago, I would have never dreamed this day would come! Let me explain...

I am one of the few at my church who literally grew up in the same church my whole life. I still have baby pictures of me in front of the old puppet booth in the upstairs "A" room. When I was a little kid, I remember having VBS every year at my church. We did some Veggie Tales theme one year, another we had a jungle theme, another bible brain, and yet another Jerusalem Marketplace; then that was it. By then, I was actually a helper rather than a participant, and so all the parents of the kids my age were stepping out of helping and some even moving to different churches.

So then, they transferred the responsibility to the youth group for us to form VBS, but we didn't have any real youth leaders then--just parent volunteers. What happened? Nothing. Why? They didn't want to do all of the work, and we couldn't. We didn't know how.

Finally, I got tired of it. I was helping out during our Children's Worship, and I saw a ton of tired, bored kids who didn't care about what was going on, and clearly saw nothing exciting about the word of God because of the boring routine of the Church.

I couldn't stand that. That pierced me to the heart and made me realize that someone needed to do something about this.

Some Wednesday night in March, when we have an hour long time at the church for us to meet and have more lessons, our youth group was gathered together in the room discussing plans for this summer. As they discussed all kinds of trips and get-together ideas and when to do them, I spoke up and asked, "What about VBS?"

Immediately, a girl across the room said to me, "Forget about it, we're not getting that done." And our two 'Parent Volunteers' both said to me, "Yeah, sorry, but there's no way we could get that done this year."

I was dumbfounded. This youth group honestly did not trust that God could help us do this? No one was willing enough to take action and actually do something for these kids? If I'm correct in my memory, I got very quiet for the rest of the night.

The following Sunday, I still wasn't completely giving up inside. I talked to a strong Christian friend of mine and asked him what he thought about giving VBS a try this year. Despite what had been said that Wednesday, he told me that if I want to do this, then I should. It just so happens(thanks to God), that the ones who had disagreed with me were not present on Sunday. I attempted to bring up the subject again, at first with little success. Then, a college student who had been sitting in on our class(because he still acts like a kid), spoke up and got everyone's attention. He said something like,

"Hey! Guys! Emily's trying to get something started here! Pay attention! (Then he directed the conversation to me as well) If you guys want to actually do this, you need to plan for a date, right now."

Thanks to him and to the other teen, we came up with dates, times, and a theme for everything. Ever since then, a friend of mine, Sarah, and I have been planning out all the details, creating a schedule, writing skits, planning crafts, forming lessons, coming up with activities, and slowly delegating details down to other close friends(and relatives).

Today, we have a well brought together staff (which includes her mother, both of my parents, and both of my sisters), and we have figured out everything that is going to happen during the night. We are expecting every kid in our church to come(about 15-20 I believe), as well as some neighbors, and possibly some kids from another church we know.

I could go on and list the ways that God has blessed us, but just having VBS this year is such a blessing. Nothing that is VBS now would have ever existed without God. What happened on that one day has changed my summer, and my whole life.

VBS is happening. I'm learning what it means to be a leader, and now am being called into service in my school as one. Our church is changing and seeing true growth compared to the stillness beforehand. We are preparing to touch people's lives next Sunday(A couple new families are being encouraged to bring their kids to VBS, and I am excited to see what happens!).

So much good has come out of this that will lead to more good, and it is ALL thanks to the Lord, Jesus Christ. I cannot express enough in words how blessed we are because of this! Let God be blessed 77x over and over for what he has done for me, and for my church and family!

"Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men."

~Psalm 107:21(or 31)

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."

~Romans 8:28

Dear Girls...

Dear Girls,

Gossip hurts.

Be smart;

Just don't do it!

Sincerely

~Emily