20 for 20

Leave comments or questions for John 2 by clicking on comments below.

20 for 20

At Soul Link, one of the speakers gave us a challenge. The challenge is to take 20 minutes of your day to read and pray and do it for 20 continuous days. It is to be 15 reading and 5 prayer minutes. Our youth group is going to take on this challenge and spend 20 minutes at 8:00 pm each night for 20 days. We are going to begin in John 1 and read the entire first chapter tonight (Feb 27) at 8 pm. Everyone read at 8 pm. We are all doing it together. Remember to at least read it twice, then spend the rest of the time in prayer. The duration of the time should last 20 minutes. The word of God is powerful and if we take this challenge serious, we could greatly grow from this challenge. TAKE THIS CHALLENGE SERIOUS!! God takes covenants very serious. Then after you read chapter 1, if you have any comments you would like to add look at the bottom of this post and make a comment, either on blogspot or facebook.

i'm ALL in,

BB

But you can't expect the church to change the whole world....

I came across this video and it hit me hard. Watch it and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrMLlZqPT50&feature=related

Don't read this part until you watch the video.....

My hair on the back of my neck began to stand up a little and I got a little perturbed at this man's view of our church (and maybe yours did too). Now I know it this is a clip from an old movie (some of you may know what it's from), but I know several people today who have this same view. And I bet some of you know people in your school or job who have this view. The view is that in the world there are thousands, millions of hurting people and what is God's church doing about it? We gather together once or twice a week and sing songs, pray, collect money, listen to a sermon, discuss the Bible, eat of a cracker, drink a little juice/wine, talk to our friends, and what purpose does it serve? What do we do about it? It's almost as if we are in training, but we never go out and perform. For example a police officer, they train for serveral weeks and learn the laws, but do they sit in the police station after their training all the time? Or do they go out and fight crime and write tickets?

The statement that hit me hard in the clip, was when the guy sitting on the right said "you can't expect that the church can change things over night, can you?" It hits me hard in two ways: 1. How many times have we used an excuse like this? You can't expect for me to talk with him/her and change their life, do you? You don't expect that we can change those rough neighborhoods of Waco, do you? You are really saying that God can't do something or that he is powerless. 2. When we say this, it is focused on ourself and not focused on God. We are saying that the church is making the change. It is saying that the people who call themselves Christians are the driving force. COMPLETELY WRONG!! It's God doing the change!!

I have been guilty of thinking this way, and it limits God power to work in this world. If God can part the Red Sea or cure people of cancer, then surely he can change the hearts of people. Let us be known by what we DO, rather than what we DON'T DO.

i'm ALL in,
BB