Getting To Know Our God

This entry was written by Emily Sadowski, a junior in our Amp'd Youth Ministries. To learn more about Amp'd Youth Ministries please visit us at http://hs.mabcmd.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/AMPD/128529207198340

 

Laziness is so prevalent in our society today. Many days we, as teenagers, sit around and do nothing. We put little effort into our work at school. We go to church and listen half-heartedly and by the time we leave, forget what the message was about. So often, Christians wonder why God feels so far away and why we can't seem to know what He wants us to do. Perhaps if we studied more about Him, reading his Word and spending time in prayer and simple conversation with God, we would come closer to Him.

When we do our part, we will understand and see what we have been missing. Having a relationship with God is the most rewarding and exciting journey of this life. I read in a book once, that said, "He passionately pursues you and me to sweep us off our feet and convince us of his incredible love." We serve an amazing God. He wants us to get to know Him; so do it! When we realize how incredible God really is, and I don't think we can even understand that fully, we will wonder why it took us so long to get to know Him more.

Never stop getting to know God; there is always more to learn. :)

A Reason To Hope

This week I have struggled to come up with something to write about. Life has been so usually. There has been nothing extraordinary happen, no "A-ha" moments, no special revelations.

Don't you know that God has a sense of humor.

As I sit here writing that nothing special has happened, something special happened... I took a breath. I blinked my eyes. I had a thought. I heard Asher playing. Those are all extraordinary moments. Everyday that God chooses to let me wake up is an extraordinary moment. So often we get caught up in the day, in the ordinary, in the usually and we forget that everyday is a gift that could be gone in the blink of an eye. We get caught up in the what's next instead of living in the now. We look for fireworks and forget to appreciate the normal. Just imagine if things turned bad, would you long for the days when things were normal? Would you long for the usual days you took for granted?

I get caught up in my list of things to do, in my normal daily activities and sometimes forget to be thankful. In everything we have a reason to be thankful, a reason to give praise and even when things are extraordinary or even if they're less than desirable we have a reason to hope.

Psalm 52:9

⁹ For what you have done I will always praise you
in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name,
for your name is good.

Christmas Traditions

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas blog post written by leader Dan Perotta. For more information about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church please visit us at www.youth.mabcmd.org or Facebook

Around mid-October, I start to get more and more excited for Christmas approaching.  I get excited for our family’s multiple traditions.  It all begins by putting the tree up on Thanksgiving weekend, coupled with nonstop Christmas music.  Our Christmas tree is a ginormous, ten foot tall, pre-lit tree.  Once our tree is up, we will spend the next week adding ornaments. We have over 400 ornaments, and much like other families, some ornaments have more meaning than others.  We have ornaments that mark our childhood, first year of marriage, our children’s births and adoptions, vacations and special occasions, and ornaments from loved ones.  My absolute favorite ornament is one that my grandmother gave to me from 1942.  It is called a Depression Ball.  During World War Two, almost all the metal the country had was going into producing materials for the war effort. So they used a little bit of tin, balled it up, and made it into Christmas balls to hang on their tree. This little tin ball is 70 years old, and without a doubt, our most precious ornament.
Then come the lights; both outside and in.  I go nuts when it comes to lighting the house.  So much so, that Mrs. P. calls me Clark Griswold, which is in reference to Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  One year I counted the number of lights that I had put up and it was a little over 3500 lights.  Next we start decorating the inside of the house with Christmas decorations that we have collected since the beginning of our marriage. Another decorating tradition is putting a Christmas tree in our children’s bedrooms.  I love to walk by their room at night, as see the glow of their tree, as they are sleeping.  The absolute last bit of decorating is our nativity scene.  We set it up in a table, just as you enter our house.  Everything is there; Joseph and Mary, barn animals, shepherds, and an empty manger.  Of course, Christmas morning, the manger is occupied by baby Jesus!
On December 23, we always try to get over to church to celebrate and hear the good news through the Christmas program.  This year will be no exception.  Then, onto Christmas Eve.  Most of the day is spent relaxing, but when the evening comes, we like to have an Italian dinner, filled with homemade pasta.  Some years we will watch a Christmas movie as a family.  The Polar Express, Elf, and The Christmas Story are favorites.  Next we will gather near the tree and read about the birth of Jesus.  Maybe this year, I will have my children read it to us.  After we talk about God’s greatest gift to us, we all open one gift.  No secret here, we know what it will be…new pajamas!  A little dessert, then off to bed!
December 25, Christmas is finally here!  The day that I have waited for, for 364 days.  It starts by sleeping in.  And when I mean sleeping in, I mean sleeping in till 5:00 am.  My wife and I will try and spend the next few hours telling the kids to go back to sleep for a little longer.  But normally by 7:30, we are up and ready for the day.  Every year we will have one of the kids organizes everyone’s presents into their own sections.  Then we start with the youngest to the oldest, opening their presents one by one.  My wife and I never really liked having the kids just tear into all the gifts all at once.  We want them to appreciate each gift, and the thought then went into someone getting it for them.  We also try to take a picture of each present being opened.  Can’t forget to see what’s in our stockings.  Most years, it is loaded with little or practical items.  Such as batteries, packs of gum, oranges, etc.  When all the gifts are opened, my wife starts making our Christmas breakfast.  I don’t know about your home, but this may be our biggest and best breakfast of the year.  Eggs, bacon, Scrapple, hash browns, toast, fruit, and our newest addition, pancakes.  Funny story; a few years ago the only Christmas present our son was asking for, was pancakes.  So, under the tree he unwrapped a large box of Bisquick pancake mix.  The boy went nuts!  So my wife started making pancakes.  We decided to keep making them, if he was going to keep eating them.  When he was finally done eating, he had devoured 13 pancakes!  Now, pancakes are a staple to our Christmas breakfast.  After breakfast, we all clean up together, put our presents away, and get ready to go to one of the grandparents’ homes for Christmas dinner.  When we get there, we start the gift exchange then onto dinner and desserts.  The next day, we try and spend it with the other set of grandparents and have a second Christmas dinner with them.
Our Christmas celebrations don’t end there though.  My wife and I try to keep the lights on, the tree up, and decorations out as long as possible.  Even when we do take down everything, my wife and I try and keep the Christmas feeling living in our hearts.  This is easy to do if we hold tight to the fact that the excitement of Christmas is based completely around the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!  We need to remember that He isn't Wonderful, Counselor, our Mighty God and Prince of Peace just on the day that we celebrate His birth.  He is all of those things on every day of the year!  We can celebrate like its Christmas all year long, even if we have to take down the tree.

ALIVE

Grains of Sand: Reflections from the MS Youth Conference in Ocean City MD

 

 

 

Every time I see the ocean, I get an overwhelming sense of the sublime.  It is a reminder of just how awesome God is and how small and humble I am.  When standing on the dunes, you can only see for only a few mere miles but it feels so vast.  Think about it- God created the entire ocean! 

The Psalmist describes these truths:

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.

…
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

…
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

…

 

Amp’d middle schoolers recently gathered in Ocean City, MD with to participate in the ALIVE Conference with other youth groups in the region.  When we stepped onto the beach, I had this same sense of how great our God is and how much he cares about each and every one of us.  There were so many grains of sand on our beach front (and stuck in our shoes afterwards!) that it would be impossible to count.  Yet even so, God’s thoughts for us outnumber the grains of sand in the entire world!

The ALIVE Conference was an excellent reminder of these same truths. With a super hero theme, messages proclaimed that God is our superhero.  Often times we try to be our own superhero and make things for in our own lives.  We cannot do it on our own and we need Jesus in our lives to come and rescue us.  HE is the real superhero.

Proberbs 30:4-5 lists just some of his super powers:

“…Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
    Whose hands have gathered up the wind?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is the name of his son?
    Surely you know!

⁵ “Every word of God is flawless;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

 

Not only is God our shield, but as Christians He empowers us and has chosen us to serve and honor him.  My favorite part concluding the conference is when the speaker reminded the middle schoolers that no matter how you feel, what you think or what you may have done, “You are worth it, you are worth It, YOU ARE WORTH IT!”  The creator God of the vast ocean says that we are His wonderful creation whom He is thinking of at all times and we are worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

Worship, it's all about Him!

This week's blog is written by high school youth leader, Jana Patrick. For more information about Amp'd Youth Ministries and Mount Airy Bible Church please visit us at www.youth.mabcmd.org or Facebook

What is worship to you? What is your definition of worship? How do you worship?

All summer these were questions that I feel God was laying on my heart. I didn't not have a right thinking of worship. I got stuck in a rut! I started viewing worship as only the singing portion of a church service. That all changed during a message at my parent's church in Houston (Woodsedge Community Church) in which the pastor preached about communion. You're probably thinking, how does communion convict someone's heart about their attitude toward worship? Well, let me tell you. Woodsedge chooses to take part in communion weekly. It is not as formal and structured as Mount Airy Bible Church, but Pastor Jeff made a HUGE point that there is no right or wrong way to take communion. As long as you have put your faith in Christ and partake with the right attitude there is no wrong or right.

The thoughts I kept having were, am I making worship about me? Am I focusing so much on what I've done wrong and forgetting about all the things that God has done right? Before taking communion we are to "set right" all the ways that we have wronged God, but it is also a time for us to acknowledge, praise and WORSHIP all that God is, all that He has done and all that He has yet to do.

So, where am I headed with this?

I had turned worship inward instead of God-ward. I was focusing so much on what can I do to worship instead of actually worshipping. I was "worshipping" only while singing at church. I had forgotten that every time I use the talents God has given me in service to him, I'm worshipping. Every time I look at Asher and am thankful I have him, I'm worshipping. When I rise, when I lie down, when I eat, when I pray, when I (fill in the blank) I can be worshipping.

I absolutely am not perfect at this. I still sometimes wonder what the person next to me in church is thinking as I raise my hands while singing, or do they think I have a horrible voice. I still go to work some days just to get a paycheck instead of using my talents to worship. BUT, I'm getting better at it everyday. So my challenge for you is to evaluate how, when, where and what you are worshipping.

1 Corinthians 10:31

³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

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