Seek!

This week started off late Monday night with oreos, hot chocolate, and highlights from our break. I had a great Thanksgiving break but ten days away from everyone here at Link was way too long!

Shay Robbins spoke on intimacy with God and the importance of seeking Him. We often ask where is God, and why aren’t we experiencing the power of God? We are distracted, selfish, sinful people who are too lazy too seek God. Man can always try to run and hide but God is ALWAYS there. However, we have to actively seek Him. We did a word study (this is where you look up all the verses in the Bible having to do with a word) on seek and I learned so much! These are just a few of the things I learned about seeking God.

·      God rewards those who fear

·      You will find answers – Jeremiah 33:3

·      Rain righteousness upon you- Hosea 10:12

·      Blessed – Psalm 119:11

·      Rejoice- 1 Chronicles 16:10

·      We will be loved and Jesus will disclose himself

·      Seek and you will find- Matthew 7:7

“But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”- Matthew 6:33

We are called to seek God! But we have to seek Him, we can’t just wait around and not do anything. Matthew 6:33 commands us to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God. I love Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all of the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.” I think this verse is just a great prayer because it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of this world, but we have discipline ourselves and make time to seek God daily through the good and the bad. If we want to have intimacy with God we have to grow our relationship by seeking him. He will show us answers and bless us we just have to be active! 

The Weekly Link: Dating

I wish all girls (and even guys) could hear the talk that Adam Donyes gave this week on dating relationships! While I am neither in or looking for a relationship I still found the things he said helpful and inspiring.

When should I date? Many people answer this with an age but Adam said there isn’t a specific time or age. He believes one should date the reason to date is not physical and when your security is in Christ. It’s so important that we find our security in Christ before we begin dating because no one else will EVER fulfill you or sustain you other than Christ.

Master

Girls if they don’t love their master, they won’t ever be able to love you. Love described as a feeling, but love is Not a feeling, love is a commitment; lust is a feeling. Ephesians 5 speaks about the love a husband should have for his wife. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and   gave himself up for her” –Ephesians 5:25 That right there is a powerful verse, husbands are called to love their wife as Christ loved the church! This love is an unconditional love that is only found in the context of marriage.

Mission

Often times the more we chase a relationship with others the less we chase Christ. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and   sin which clings so closely, and   let us run   with endurance the race that is   set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,  who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising   the shame, and   is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. “ -Hebrews 12:1-2 Our relationships with others should be an overflow of our relationship with Christ. We often drown out God’s voice by those we are infatuated with, but we have to let God be the voice in our life.

Mate

Relationships are meant to increase your relationship with the Lord, not decrease.

Genesis 2:18 tells us “the Lord God said,   "It is not good that the man should be alone;  I will make him a helper fit for   him." Relationships are not bad, we were designed for them, but our relationship with the Lord should come before all other relationships. We need to have a mate that loves the Lord and encourages us to seek the Lord daily.

Girls, don’t marry POTENTIAL, marry PROVEN CHARACTER! Don’t even DATE potential. This concept is near and dear to  heart. Girls DO NOT SETTLE! Girls are TREASURES and we should be treated like treasure. This is something that Adam stresses both to the girls and the guys and I definitely agree with.Be patient. It's so easy to get caught up in wanting to "feel loved" and wanting a boyfriend/husband, but we can't let the desires of our flesh drown out the voice of the Lord and cause us to settle. 

Find your identity in Christ, not in a boy.

RUN!
Run to the cross and don’t let any guy pull you back. 

The Weekly Link: Urban Entry

This week was Urban Entry. We loaded up the vans and started our adventure to Kansas City. When we arrived in Kansas City a sweet sweet family had us over for dinner. We played the piano, ping pong, and just hung out until the game began. The rules of this game were simple but challenging at times.

1. no cell phones

2. no complaining

3. no use of personal money

4. be on time

We were given tickets within our family groups, and all decisions were to be made together as a family; breaking the rules would result in a loss of tickets from our family group. We were allowed to use our tickets for phone calls, showers (if we had not already purchased them), snacks, and lunch on Tuesday. My family group is awesome and we agreed on and were happy with all of our decisions. Our cell phones were taken up Monday night and then the game began with a round of jeopardy. There was one girl winner and one guy winner. The winners were each given an envelope with $27.00 to buy breakfast for the next three days for all the girls and all the guys. The girls decided to buy a large bag of honey-nut cheerios, one loaf of bread, peanut butter, plastic baggies, and a box of granola bars while the guys chose to buy peanut butter, multiple loaves of bread, and coffee. 

Tuesday morning we went to the Hope Center in inner city Kansas, not the safest place I’ve ever been, but it was definitely a great learning experience. We were given a tour of the neighborhood and I was shocked at how abandoned it was. The streets were lined with abandoned run down homes. It was just empty. We were told multiple stories of how innocent people were murdered daily in this community for no reason. Talk about a sad life. I couldn’t even begin to imagine growing up in a place where gunshots and sirens were just a part of everyday life. The Hope Center is a charter school that is trying to help the community and restore it to its former glory. It is a Christian organization that wants to give the children of this abandoned community a hope for a better future. These kids cannot help the fact that they were born into this terrible abandoned community filled with drugs and violence; just like I could not control being born into a very blessed family. We don’t choose our lives, we have to learn to make the best of it and give our lives to God. We are here to glorify Him, and use our blessings to bless others.

After the tour we did different things to help clean the school and the church building next door. The church was beautiful but it too was abandoned, and was falling apart.  I had the task of organizing a supply closet with backpacks, school supplies, toys, and books for the children. While I know several of us just wanted to play with the kids, the things we did instead were a great help that would have taken a long time to get done had we not been there.

This is just a little snapshot of what we did this week, but I don’t want to bore anyone with the rest of it. Overall it was a great week designed to show us how blessed we are. It’s so easy to forget how blessed we have been, and complain about the things we don’t have. It’s always good to be reminded of this. It’s important to help others. 

Weekly Link: In the Beginning

Keith Chancey , the director of Kanakuk K-7, was our speaker for today. Keith is probably the most passionate person I’ve had the chance to listen to, he gets so fired up about sharing God’s word with people. We looked at the first three chapters of Genesis. This seems like general knowledge to most people who have grown up in the church, but I really learned a lot.

 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”- Genesis 1:1 

This verse is known by so many but people often overlook that heaven is plural. There’s only one heaven so why is there an s? I used to think this was just a typo because I have always been taught that there was only one heaven. However, Keith answered my question and explained that heaven is far greater than anyone could ever imagine; the plural use of the word heaven refers to the vastness of heaven.

“And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.”- Genesis 1:7  

I have been raised in the church, and have heard the creation story multiple times, but Keith introduced a theory that I had never heard before today. It is believed that there was a water canopy over the earth. This canopy remained over the earth, but when God chose to flood the earth the canopy poured down and was no longer there. I found this to be really interesting, and after reading over the verse several times it makes sense.

Christians are often asked who created God? This stumbles many people, but the answer is simple. No one created God; God is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. No one can create the creator.

Another stumbling question that Keith answered was why did God create sin? He created sin to find the true worthshipers (Greek for worshipers). He wants to find those that truly love Him, not because they are forced to do so.

Fun Fact: Did you know that our carbon dating system is only good up 2,400 year? But people claim that the earth is over a million years old, this cannot be proven scientifically because carbon dating doesn’t work that well!!! Christians believe that the earth is approximately 10,000 years old.