A Rededication to the Scriptures

A man by the name of Sam Bhatt has challenged me as a leader beyond belief. The amount of biblical knowledge this man had blew me away when I heard him speak at Student Life. The way he automatically knew the scripture when kids stood up just by hearing the referrence was amazing and he challenged everyone in the room. He asked the question "Do you really know the Bible as well as you should??" I think everyone in the room, even Sam included, must admit that we do not. Not to say that we aren't living holy, presentable lives, but I still think we could all do better. We can ALWAYS be doing a better job with our relationship with Him and we need to strive towards that! After camp, I purchased an audio CD of one of Sam's message's on holiness, and in that he had a great commitment rededication within it. I quickly took it to heart:

"I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my God IS reliable and my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problems recognizing me - my banner will be clear!"

There may not be many who will stand by me, but when we consider what He did for US on the cross, how could we not dedicate to such a goal? Yes, we do need to look forward to what is ahead of us, but we also need to remember where He has taken us from so that we can love those who some might consider "the enemy." It is time for us to stop looking at non-believers as enemies and to start viewing them as our future brothers and sisters in Christ! It is time for us, as the Church (notice the capital C), to stand up and start taking names in the name of Christ. As Perry Noble said this past sunday, we need to run up the score, because that's what Christ called us to do!

Who is with me?

One Prayer 2009 - Perry Noble

So last week we kicked off our "God Is..." series at Compass Church. I didn't get a chance to hear Jim's sermon, but I have heard some pretty awesome feedback from it. Today, we had the honor of hearing from Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring church in Anderson, South Carolina. I have been to NewSpring once before, and ever since I was there I have been DYING to go back! It's incredible how God is at work there (Anderson of all places!). When Jim was introducing Perry, he said "if God can do it in Anderson, just imagine what I can do in Athens!"

I think the Oconee crowd responded really well to their first view at video teaching, and I think Perry was the perfect guy to introduce it to that crowd. He had an incredible message of how God is here. He focused his three main points on the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the victory of Jesus. For those of you who missed perry's message, here is the link:

http://www.newspring.cc/series/godis-4

Can't wait to hear from my favorite speaker next week, Steven Furtick (did I mention that there was a guy at camp on the drama team for student life the looked EXACTLY like Furtick??).

Part two of camp recap coming soon!

Camp: The Aftermath

Okay, seriously, where do I freakin begin??? SO much happened spiritually this week I honestly do not know where to begin.

Let's begin with a man by the name of Sam. For those of you who don't know Sam, here is his website: http://www.sambhatt.com. Sam was our preacher for the week, and boy did he preach! He is a guy who knows his stuff. He was authentic, challenging, hilarious, and down right passionate when he spoke to us. Our students and everyone loved him, and the services is what everyone was looking forward to, which I find straight up incredible! Usually a lot of students dread that part, but there wasn't one person I saw who didn't want to hear what he had to say next!

Let's move on to a guy named Dave. Dave was our worship pastor for the week, and boy did he worship! Honestly, THE most intense worship experience of my life. Worship so real it brought me to sobbing tears every song! It was so awesome, I loved every minute of worship! Dave not only sang many popular songs that we all know, but also shared with us many of his own songs that he had written for his church. And a lot of times when people hear that they say "oh, that's cute." No, it's not cute, those songs ROCKED! And I mean ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF! Which is one of the reasons it was such a powerful and impacting worship experience!

Now, lets move on to this family known as family group 37 (yeah, we never really settled on a name, so we stuck with the number we were assigned at the beginning of the week). The kids in my group were pretty awesome! I loved getting to know those kids and hearing what they had to say about stuff. It was so cool. Sucks that we had to leave each other, but hopefully we will keep in touch. I know everyone says that, but honestly, I would love to hear what God is doing in these kids lives.

Okay, so this next part is about a different group. This group is known as the 706 student ministry of compass church. I can not explain to you in words how proud I am of my students. Wednesday night Wesley approached me before heading to family church group time at the end of the day and said "we will walk in, get a head count to make sure everyone is in there, then shut the door behind us." Now you have to understand, he told me about this idea a week before and I honestly didn't know what to think of it. I thought it was an awesome idea, but it is such a bold move. Honestly, THAT is a sink or swim situation. Either something horrible will happen, or something phenomenal that can't be explained happens. Something phenomenal happened. Yeah, for about the first 20 minutes they played around and joked around and had fun with everyone in the room, but eventually a few students realized we weren't coming and they started leading. They led, and kids opened up. Once the silence set in, the four leaders just started praying some big time prayers. We prayed out loud one by one specifically for certain students, by the end of the night everyone was in tears and when the students finished up with a big circle up prayer in the center of the room, that's when the leaders stepped in the room. Wesley told the kids with pretty near tears in his eyes that they grew up that night. They finally understand the meaning of community, and that now they can finally take reaching their schools seriously.

So many tears, so much community, and so much still left to be done! Our students made a commitment to reaching their schools for Christ, and I BELIEVE that they meant it after what I saw happen this week. So much left to blog about, part two coming soon!

Student Life Camp 2009: FLIP

Please pray for our students this upcoming week as we head off to Covenant College to Student Life camp. The theme of the camp this year is FLIP. Some thing to specifically pray for over our students is that they will embrace their own unique leadership style (as discussed in my previous post) and that they will not let up or back down this school year and reach their schools for Christ. Can't wait! Wesley will be blogging every day from camp, you can follow up from him on the 706 blog page:

http://blog.the706.com/

Again, can't wait to see what God does! I'll see you all in a week!

Where ya hands at??

Last week at the 706 Wesley really challenged our students to change their schools this upcoming school year. We discussed the story of Moses holding his hands up to lead the Israelites to victory, but when he lowered his arms, the Israelites began losing the battle. Basically, there are three different forms of leadership represented in this story:

1.) Hands Up - Moses was the leader here. It basically all fell on him. If he lowered his arms and gave up, the Israelites would have lost the battle. This is the type of leader everyone looks to and depends upon. If anything goes wrong, it typically falls on this leader. This type of leader gives direction towards others and ultimately points them in the direction the group is going.

2.) Hands Under - During the story, when Moses's arms got tired, there were certain people who helped hold up his arms to ensure victory. This type of leadership helps support the one in charge to help ensure victory. Every good leader NEEDS (not wants, but NEEDS) some hands under type of support. There may be times in leadership when you feel like you can do everything, but eventually, like Moses, your arms will get tired.

3.) Hands Out - These are the Joshua's. These are the types of people on the battle lines, doing the dirty work, doing whatever it takes to ensure victory. This type of leadership makes sure the job gets done, by doing whatever the leader asks them to do, no matter how "meaningful" or "insignificant." I once heard a pastor say it this way: "nothing is insignificant when it is done for the significance of the cause of Christ!"

Our students responded to this question tonight by answering with painted hand prints on a very large piece of paper, each color signifying each leadership quality. So, ask yourself - where ya hands at??

Currently on my mind...

Boy do I have a lot. Several things that have been consuming my thoughts. Lets dive in, shall we?

First off - Camp 2009.

If you are a high schooler that would like to go to camp (or a recent high school graduate), contact me asap (706)817-1969. We have seven spots that we absolutely have to fill, time is running out!

Second - My relationship with God

I have been finding it really hard to be motivated to stay in His word lately. This is something difficult for me to admit, but it is tough. Most of the time I just don't feel like it and usually find something "better" to do. Shame on me, but it is true. I am praying that God lights a white hot passion to constantly follow after Him every day of my life.

Third - My current relationship status

I must admit, I feel somewhat strange about posting this portion. I always feel weird whenever I say that I want a girlfriend. Not that that's a bad thing, I just feel like it comes across as needy to other people, and that isn't the case at all. I just happen to really like girls, haha. But honestly, there are many times when I just wish I had a specific someone who I could call whenever life's got me bummed. Someone who I can just go to to talk about whatever. Someone who can make me laugh every day. Someone I can make laugh everyday. It's something I long after, and honestly pray for. I know that now isn't exactly the best time to have a girlfriend, seeing as I don't have income and I would feel just absolutely awful saying "hey baby could you get the check?" For now, I just need to make due with what I got, and what God has already blessed me with (and that is, but not limited to, INCREDIBLE friends, a great family, a place to live, a soon to be vehicle with stable transportation, an internship opportunity of a lifetime, and an incredible staff at the church.)

So that's it. Prayers and comments are always appreciated.

-Andy

A God who Provides

Is the same God who chooses not to provide. Sorry it has been a while since I last updated, I have been a busy man. Lot's on my mind. Lot's that need to be done. Lot's of provision still to come in. Allow me to elaborate.

For the past few weeks, Wesley and myself have been working on camp 2009 (getting everything set, making phone calls, preparing for the unexpected, and ultimately, finding campers for our last few spaces). We have had two students drop out in the past week, and we now have seven available spots. That's a lot of spots seeing as we have already paid student life for the spots. At $350 a spot, the money adds up pretty quick, so Wesley and myself have both been stressing trying to find people to take those spots.

Ever since I started my internship I have been getting rides from people, getting dropped off, and getting picked up. I haven't had any other means of transportation, so you have to make due with what you got. I was recently informed that Paul Sims spare car is now available for me to use, and I will be able to use this as my new means of transportation. GOD PROVIDED!

After this happened, it hit me: the same God who provides can also choose not to provide. It's all up to Him whether He provides or not. As far as the camp spots are concerned, I still believe he is going to provide us with the appropriate number of students to fill those spots up. We need to remember that He may not choose to provide for us, and that will probably mean a difficult time, but we need to remember, His Son went through something WAY worse than whatever it is we are going through. Trust God, pray for provision, and walk in faith.

Blog on Blog: Pastor Steven Furtick

Okay, so while I was on vacation I missed a full week of reading Steven Furticks blog, which is actually pretty weird believe it or not seeing as I tend to read it every morning as part of my devotions, but rest assured, I caught up this morning. He posted this blog about acting in faith, thought it was great:

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/uncategorized/faith-is-substance/

I think way too often (myself included) we use prayer and faith as an excuse to not act. We say things like "I know God will come through for me in this situation" and instead of doing anything about our situation we stand hoping God will do something instead of acting in faith. Faith and hope have a lot in common, but hope is nothing without faith. We need to realize God wants us to act in faith as well as placing our hope in Him.