So I talked yesterday about clever speeches and illustrations and how they can hurt you, they are also quite helpful in the right crowd. Last night we had about as much fun as I can remember having in youth. We had a blast!
First, the night started off with an interactive game of "I". Each student was given 3 bead necklaces and every time they say the word I in a sentence they were forced to give up a set of beads. It was hilarious because many of our smart and cunning middle schoolers were trying hard to start conversations with people who would make the mistake. One even went and got someone to say I in a sentence and immediately reached for the beads saying, "Ha! I got you!" which meant he immediately had to return te beads because now he had said it. The game went on for a while as we hung out and messed around before youth started.
We talked about God, and 2 of the main things we need to get out of our vocabulary to be more understanding of God. The first ofcourse is I, we need to stop taking ownership in things that are God's. Our bodies, our possessions, our all belongs to God and once we get a grip on that we are more readily available to be used by God.
Second, we need to stop asking why. As a kid I recall never having the right to ask my parents why. Go clean you room, make your bed, eat all of your dinner, go to bed, you're not going there, you are going here, all are examples of things I was told. Any time I asked why it was as if I had no rights, no ability to ask these things. Well, if everything we possess belongs to God, then what right do we have to ask why?
None, we need to stop asking why things happen for 2 reasons.
First of all, we need to stop asking why because we don't want to start a scorekeeping situation with God. Why did something bad happen? Well, what have you done to deserve something good? God might ask, or which day did you not sin that I should not let something bad happen? God isn't like that and we should be glad that He isn't, He isn't someone we want to keep score with.
Secondly, we don't want to ask why because we don't have the right to make judgments. Think about it this way. My favorite food right now is fish, Tara and I have learned how to successfully cook fish ourselves(it's not just Gorton's fish sticks any more, hooray!) and I love it. Tara, and the girls don't like it. So with that having been said is fish good or bad? If you ask me I will tell you it is good, I like it so I think it is good. The girls will tell you no it's bad, they don't like it therefore it is bad. You see my point?
We don't make the decision what is bad and what is good in our lives because we don't know. God allows things to happen in our lives and it is all good to Him because it is part of His plan for us. I can list a hundred or more things that happened in my life that I immediately wanted to ask God why, why is this bad thing happening. Then, I realize down the road(sometimes years later) that it was actually a positive that God used to make me stronger or get me to where I am today.
Acts 17:22-27 says, Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopaggus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are avery religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now that you worship as something unknown I am gong to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. ANd he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that thye should inhabit the whole earth; and he deteremined the times set for them and exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. FOr in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'we are his offspring.'"
There you have it, Paul says it best once again. Tomorrow I will talk a little more about dependency and the supremacy of God.
So stop asking why, stop saying I and you'll be more usable to God.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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