A Faith Tested and Proven

If you are like me, or any other human being for that matter, you deal with struggles in life. Things are difficult and don't always go your way, and sometimes it feels like you are the only one. I often begin to have thoughts of doubt on whether I'm doing the right things because often times it can feel so hard just to go through the day to day.

I have posted before on my struggles with just time in the day alone. About how much of the time it feels like I am burning a candle at five ends. With college, work, and then my internship at First Baptist Clarksville (that I consider my real job, regardless of pay or not), it can begin to feel like too much. Sometimes I feel like I just want to be done with it all and be in full time ministry, but God has his subtle ways of keeping me humble in my place in life.

Just today I was supposed to preach to the high school students in our student ministry, but a kink was thrown in when I was scheduled to begin my new paying job during the time of the service. At first I was frustrated, getting angry at my situation and wondering why things have to be so difficult, but then one of those subtle reminders from God came. In the very passage that I was preparing to preach on tonight (1 Peter 1:3-25), through His word, God had a message for me.

In 1 Peter 1:6-7, I was reminded that trials in life are meant to test us, to strengthen our faith and give glory to God. I praise God for the reminder, that I seem too often to forget, and I pray that through the trails in life my faith is proven.

Rest in the Lord

I am grieved, yet also filled with joy that my great grandmother, Ruth Shipman, is now with the Lord. She was one of the strongest women I have ever known, and much of who I am today is due to her and the closeness between four generations of family members. I will always remember spending time at my great grandparent's land and all of the memories that were made there. Though she will be greatly missed, I hold my hope in Christ and her faith in him.

Love you Granny!

Isaiah 51:11

D3- Down and Dirty in the 'Ville (Louisville that is)

The past week has been a blast working with a group of the high school students from FBC. Starting Monday and running until Thursday, we took a group to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky for the D3 Youth Conference put on by their college (Boyce College). The conference used the facilities of the seminary campus and operated like a conference-camp hybrid.

The name D3 stands for the basis on how the teaching sessions work. We had general sessions every day involving everyone, but there were also three different track sessions that met 4 times for one hour sessions. These were three areas of discipleship, hence the name D3, and they were Missions, Spiritual Leadership, and finally Worldview. Students, along with adult leaders, were able to choose what track they wanted to take, and our group was mainly split by Spiritual Leadership and Missions.

This was honestly the first youth event that I have witnessed in a long time that was

immediately all about scripture. We checked in, took our stuff to the dorms they had us staying in, and right after that we dove into the first general session. Everything from the worship and teaching was deep in scripture and truth, lacking the surface teaching and concert worship I have become accustomed to seeing at youth events, and as the Conference Pastor Eric Bancroft started speaking we immediately started dissecting the truths of scripture on what discipleship is truly all about. He used The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20, and talked about how Jesus commanded the Disciples to take what he had taught them and take that to the nations. So it should be with us that to instruct others in the way of the faith, we must know the word of Christ ourselves.

There was even an intense game of Underground Church that we played to bring awareness of the persecuted Church to the students, using almost the entire seminary grounds where Jeff, Kyle, and I somehow found our way into the office of Dr. Russell Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology at SBTS, as well as a teacher of the word I greatly respect and look up to. We didn't touch anything, I promise...

So much more was discussed throughout the week and many great men and servants of the Lord came to teach (Jeff Struecker, Al Mohler) and lead in worship (The Hoffmans). We also had a "concert", which was more like another sermon through music, from the Christian Rap artist FLAME. I can't help but be amazed by these men and their hearts for the Lord and discipleship, as well as all of the others behind this conference, seeking to love on and teach these students.