All In

By -
When playing poker and you think your a hand is better than everyone else's and you are convinced you can win you go "all in". You place all your money in the middle of the table.  Your trusting that what you have is the best.  You are placing all your trust in those cards.  Your trusting that those cards will double your money.  Jesus wants us to be "all in". Tonight we focused on two scriptures; Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 5:1-11.  Both scriptures are telling the same story, but from different perspectives.  Matthew was a Jew who was writing the stories for other Jews; people well versed and trained in religious ways.  Luke was an investigator who asked questions and recorded the accounts for those of little knowledge and experience.  Luke's story has a few more details than Matthews.  

In both accounts Jesus says "follow me" and they do.  Luke points out that Jesus tells Simon Peter to throw his net to the other side of the boat.  This is after he had been out fishing all night.  This is after he had caught nothing all night.  Jesus asked him to do this during a time when he normally wouldn't go fishing and after he had just experienced repeated failures.  But, in v. 5 Simon Peter says "But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again."  It was in the middle of the the day, no one during that time fished in the middle of the day.  Even though Simon Peter wasn't sure why Jesus was asking him to do this, and even though He probably thought Jesus was crazy for telling him to do it, he still did it.  He was all in. Following always starts with listening.  Intentions do not create results, actions do.  In the beginning of service we watched a video, 'Jesus>Religion' (http://youtu.be/1IAhDGYlpqY).  During devotions we discussed how you can act and be like a Christian, but it can easily be just a cloak to put on for show.  We discussed what it means to us to be "all in".  No going back.  Nothing can change your mind.  Not just sticking your toe in the water, but jumping in.  We shared about a few things in our lives that we are "all in"; marriage, being a sister, extra-curricular activities.  

Are you all in?  
Are you a fan or a follower?  
Do you trust Jesus enough to act on it?

We also took time during devotions to share what we accomplished on our sites.  It was a pretty hot day and everyone has been drinking lots and lots of water. Colton, Sarah, and Abby got the shingles removed from one side of the roof, felt paper layer, and a couple rows of shingles started.  Katie, Amy, and Jana cleared half their roof, and had a few professionals help start to lay shingles.  Some members of their group went on prayerwalks through the neighborhood.  They were well received by some individuals, they even met someone who had a roof replaced by Mission Serve last year.  Others they met weren't quite as receptive.  Catie and Andrew's group as well as Mark's group got shingles off and felt paper down.  Kya, Autumn, Clarissa, and Isaiah's group got shingles off, paper down, shingles started, watched a hyperactive dog and met their homeowner.  Kacey and Don got shingles off, plywood replaced, paper down, raked and weeded the yard and met some neighborhood kids.  

Everyone is wiped out and tired in bed early tonight trying to rest up for a busy day two of service. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Work Day 3 - Finding Purpose

By -
Image
Today was a half day of work.....Yay!  As stated before we were all excited that today was only a half work day, we worked until lunch was delivered and then were off the rest of the day.  Even though we only worked for half the day it seems that we all worked extra hard to make up for it.  Today has also been the best day  in terms of weather, slightly overcast all day and cool (comparatively). Clarissa, Kacey, Andrew, Don, and Erik continued painting the rooms of their house.  In all they are painting 11-12 rooms/hallways in the house.  Isaiah and Colton worked hard painting the back side of the house with 3 coats of paint.  Tomorrow they plan on doing the front.  Colton shared that they very quickly painted over where the wasps used to live.  Deana and Katie continued roofing.  Katie shared the frustration of having to rip up a large portion on the back of the house because the shingles were going crooked.  They worked hard on t...
Read more

Work Day 1 - Denial of the World

By -
One day of work is done!  The weather cooperated enough for the crews to get a good amount done...it did rain at most work sites, one site had 3 inches in 2 hours, yet it was still very productive.  Most of the youth commented about how they really got to know their crew pretty well today and made more new friends.  Many of the youth spent the day scraping paint and putting on fresh paint, some inside a house and some are working on the exterior of a house.  Others spent the day scraping old shingles off a roof, repairing old damaged wood and putting down the underlay for the new shingles to add the rest of the week.  Andrew, Erik, Kacey, Don, and Clarissa shared that they are working on a house that is a shelter for kids in trouble, it helps keep the kids clean and safe and the kids even made lunch for them.  Katie shared that she had to save a neighborhood kid who got himself stuck in a fence and Isaiah and Colton had some time to get to know the neighbor...
Read more

Work Day 5 - Denial of Life

By -
Image
Today was a good day to wrap up all of our projects. There wasn't a sib that didn't get completed this week.  In fact, they had to go out and look for some jobs for crews to do because there was nothing left to do at their site.  Some crews finished their site early so they went to another site to help finish.  To see everyone come together and get it all wrapped up on the final day was awesome.  A few final thoughts shared by the youth tonight were; "I am definitely coming back" "This is the strongest feeling of a family our youth group has ever had" "The dedication everyone showed to getting the job done and serving others was very impressive" As leaders we are extremely proud of the youth that we brought with us.  All week long we heard so many times how hard of workers they were and how awesome they were.  They were so respectful and well behaved.  Just to think that these teenagers worked to earn money to pay for a trip to go do more wor...
Read more