Whom Shall I Fear

This week's leader blog post comes from Mary Edwards (Pastor Carl's wife). Mary is a new mommy (Yay!) and a middle school leader.  For more information about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church please visit us at www.youth.mabcmd.org or Facebook

If you have not yet heard Chris Tomlin's son "Whom Shall I Fear", I suggest you keep an ear open for it or look it up on YouTube!

 The chorus says "I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side. The one who reigns forever, He is a friend of mine. The God of angel armies is always by my side."

A few weeks ago this song came on the radio while Pastor Carl and I were out running errands, he told me how this was one of his favorite songs so I immediately tuned in. Then when we were traveling to the hospital to have our baby girl, Macklyn, this song again came on the radio but this time I felt as though God was speaking truth to me through the lyrics. I admit to being a little bit afraid of the unknown as we were traveling to the hospital for Macklyn's birth, but listening to words of how God is not only with me but He goes before me (He knows what will happen), He stands behind me (He supports me), and that He would be with us through the whole process brought peace to my heart. I like how this song refers to how powerful God is, He is not some passive bystander just watching our lives but He is actively involved and desiring to journey with us. Our strength truly is in His name, He will deliver us and victory is ours through Him. What have we to fear? He is faithful and we can stand firm on His promises found in the Bible. Is there something in your life where you are facing fear? How will you respond? Victory, strength and peace can and will be found in Jesus Christ. We can trust Him, His word is true "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). We are not alone in our journeys and we have no reason to fear, God is always by our side.

You Lead, I Follow

This week's blog post was written my one of our Amp'd youth. Claire Crossman is a junior and attends Mount Airy Christian Academy. For more information about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church please visit us at www.youth.mabcmd.org or Facebook

 

A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with

oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

 

Psalm 23:1-5

 

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It helps me remember that God is

leading me in the path that I should go, and that he never leaves my side. Sometimes

during hard times, I feel so alone, like I don't have anyone that I can talk to, and God

feels far away. This is because I push him away, not because he abandoned me. The

great thing about God is that, no matter how many times I push him away, he will

always come back to me if I ask Him too.

When you follow God and let him lead you, he will bless you. This isn't to say that

nothing bad will ever happen to you, the Christian life is full of trials that will test your

faith so that it will become stronger, but God will never allow trials to come into your life

that you won't be able to bear. When you lean on God and seek comfort in Him, you can

get through anything that comes your way, even if you don't think you can make it

through. Look to God and he will show you the way through.

God Bless,

Claire Crossman

Social Media: What’s In It for Us?

Meet Sevgi Buisch, a middle school youth leader. Sevgi is "Social Media Coordinator". She markets and advertises in different social media channels to promote business for the company she works for.
For more information about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church visit our website www.youth.mabcmd.org or Facebook. Enjoy!

 

 

Last week in youth group, after the overly-confident Leaders were brutally defeated by the Youth, in a game of Family Feud, Ben Colvard continued our How To... series by teaching about "How to Use Social Media". He encouraged us to really think about what we post online and how we present ourselves to others on social media sites. He challenged us to use these "weapons of distraction" as means of evangelizing.

Have you ever thought about how often we use social media? Just in the last 24 hours, I took a picture with my phone and emailed it to a friend, "Skyped" my parents who live in Turkey, repinned a recipe on Pinterest, read the news on the Internet, and shared a verse on Facebook. I have to admit, whether I like it or not, social media has become an inseparable part of my life. I have been blessed with the opportunity to use these resources which help me stay in touch with my friends and family half way around the world, at the same time, connect with millions of people that I normally wouldn't be able to meet face to face and learn from them. 

Last week, Facebook reached a billion users-- that's 1 of every 7 people in the world. With its population increasing by day, it is becoming a near-essential tool for families, businesses, and churches. How can we use this powerful tool to our advantage? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." How can we use Facebook to bring glory to God? One of Facebook's benefits for us as believers is that it lets us stay connected to each other even though we are at different stages of life, in different circle of friends, or even different parts of the world. Among other things, it enhances our relationships within the body of Christ; it helps us encourage each other, it makes us laugh at each other's jokes, it reminds us to pray for whoever needs prayer, it gets us singing the same songs. It also opens a door to our unsaved friends who might be intimidated to ask us about our faith. But after seeing our uplifting posts they might feel safer to approach us to find out about the source of our joy.

The ways Facebook can help us minister to others is endless. Let’s use this weapon of distraction as a challenge to spread the good news, instead of adding one more picture of food, one more video of kittens, or one more personal-to-do list to the endless chatter. Ephesians 4:29 commands us to "…not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Today, let’s take a moment to think about how we can steer each other toward God by our behavior online.

 How have you used Facebook to minister to others today?

 

Bad Company Corrupt Good Habits

Meet Mr. P (Dan Perotta). He's a high school youth leader and the games master! As always, to learn more about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church please visit our website (http://youth.mabcmd.org/) or Facebook.

 

Last week during our Wednesday AMP’D gathering, we were all treated to a message from Pastor Keith (PK). But it wasn’t like a usual message from him. No, PK started out by telling us some of the craziest stories and moments from his young life with his friends. For example, PK and a friend once thought it was a good idea to throw rocks at each other, until he got hit in the mouth and broke one of his teeth. Or the one, when PK thought it would be funny to put his cat in the mailbox and leave it there until the mailman arrived. PK never forgot it, and I am sure the mailman will never forget it either. Let me share with you a couple of stories from my own life. My best friend and I once thought it was a good idea to go sledding backwards, moments later I ran into a house bleeding from my head. Or the time that all my friends got together and my brother decided to shoot an arrow straight up in the air, to see what would happen. I have never seen that many kids run so fast, in so many different directions! Thank the Lord the arrow only landed on top of our roof. We were a special group of kids.

But the message just wasn’t about the dumb things we do with our friends, it was about how we should go about picking our friends or better yet, how we act with our friends. How do others see us when we are with our friends? Do they look at us and think, “that person has Jesus in their life”, or do they think, “that person needs Jesus in their life.” Which one would you rather they say of you?

Having fun with our friends is one thing, but having fun at the expense of our relationship with Jesus is another. This is the “big idea” that PK was trying to get across to us last Wednesday, and many of us (leaders and kids) have been meditating on for the last week. It is my prayer that many more will continue to meditate on this and hopefully we will make wiser choices in the friendships we keep.

 

Mr. P with one of his childhood friends.