And To Dust You Will Return

Yesterday, I went to my first ever Ash Wednesday service at my church. I had seen people come to school with a cross of ashes on their foreheads, but I never had one on my head before. I have never really known what to think about Ash Wednesday, but I knew it was the start of the season of Lent, or the 40 days before Easter Sunday. All I knew about Lent, was a lot of people gave stuff up, and that we didn't say "alleluia" during the communion talk thing at church. I had a very limited view of what Lent really was supposed to do

Luckily, I have a Youth Minister, or Minister to Students, as he calls it, that gave us a very accurate view of what it's supposed to be like. He gave the sermon about really focusing on letting the Lord come in and take away the bad things. He used Psalm 51, which was written by David after he had sent Bathsheba's husband to the front lines to kill him, after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He says

"Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compasssion
blotout my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin\

For I know my transgressions
and my sin is always before me
against you, you only have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge..."

This is David coming to the realization that he has sinned against God. He is aware that he is in sin, and he takes the right response to it. He doesn't get mad at God, he doesn't try to fix it himself, and he doesn't sulk about his sin. He takes it directly to God, and agrees that he has messed up. It's like a coming back to God.

When you confess your sin to God, you are agreeing with Him that you need His help. When you repent of your sin, you take a 180 degree turn away from your sin, and since sin is running the exact opposite way of God, you go back to the direction of God.

One thing we like to do in our society today is to try and fix everything by our own power. If we just do something about it, it will all be better. If we do it better next time, it will blot out our bad thing we did. The thing is, trying to fix ourselves is like trying to screw in a nail with a saw... It will never work. Or trying to run with a broken leg. It will be very painful, and you will fall again. What God wants us to do, is to respond like David did, and allow him to blot out our iniquities. He wants us to agree with Him that our sin is evident in our lives, and that we might be made clean only by the blood of Jesus.

All I can really remember now is that we need to focus on Jesus. The words that are said to you when you get the ashes put on your head kind of tell me that we are so small and that we can't fix ourselves, so we should focus on Christ, and He alone will fix us.

Thanks guys
TJ


"You are dust, and to dust you will return"

Mind=Blown

Tonight we had one of the largest groups at a Cave Spring Young Life club in my entire high school career. This is huge, because there were people there who have never been, or have never heard the gospel before, and they had a blast. Having a night like this makes me so excited to see what the Lord is doing at Cave Spring through our amazing group of Campaigners. They are all the best, and I love them all so dearly. I can't wait to see how things will change with the ending of my high school career, and watching people's lives be transformed is going to make it all the better! I can't wait!

With a heart that is Jacked up on Jesus,

TJ

Love What You're Doing

"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." Genesis 29:20

This verse only serves as an example of what I'm trying to say right here, right now. In the context with the verses around it, Jacob met a man named Laban who had 2 daughters and he liked Leah, the older of the two, but he was in love with Rachel, the younger. So he made a deal with Laban that he would serve seven years for Rachel's hand in marriage. As the verse says, he served for seven whole years before he could marry her, but he did so willingly, because he loved Rachel so much, and he kepts his eyes on his goal, of having Rachel as his wife. If you read on, you'll see that the Laban acutally gives Jacob Leah first, because he didn't feel it right to give the younger of the two before the older, so Jacob was married to Leah, but he desperately loved Rachel. He then worked another seven years for Rachel's hand. Jacob was not happy with Laban, but he would not be denied of  Rachel, so he willingly gave up 14 years of his life. It doesn't say much for the second term of seven years, but I'm sure because of his love for Rachel, that they went by equally as quick. We all have those things that will fly by, because we love what we're doing, or what we're doing it for.

For me personally, Work Crew flew by. I loved almost everything about it. The people, the reason we were there, and everyhting else. The month I was there felt so quick, that I just couldn't believe it was over. When your heart is full of love for whatever you're doing, you will see that it flies so quickly. For those who love a sport, like I loved baseball, and football. Practices seemed to flow by most days, because I was just happy to be where I was. Work Crew, we were told that our goal was to serve kids for Christ, and hopefully see them turn their lives around completely. We loved seeing that, and that's what drove us.

I want you to think about the things you're passionate about. If you can, find a way to make it something you can do for your job. Find a goal you want to accomplish, and set it somewhere where you can work towards it, because it will make everything seem so much better.  We talk about enthusiasm a lot in my school. If you love something, you're going to be enthusiastic about it. No matter how much it could suck, if you love it, it never does. That verse really stuck out to me, because I want to love someone so much that a lot of hard work seems like nothing because of my love for them, or my love for what I'm doing.

Love what you do. Do what you love.
TJ