What would you give up?

We talked more about sacrificial love. On a small piece of paper, we wrote down our most prized possession. We discussed what is THE most important thing/person in our life. Would we be willing to give that up for a chance at a relationship with God? Would we be willing to give up our warm homes, full bellies and comfy beds for a war torn devastated place like Afghanistan just to be with God? Or a devastated area in Haiti? Think about what God gave up to have a relationship with us. How can we show that kind of love to others in our lives? Take steps this week to reach out to those around us in need. Remember how Christ ministered to those around him. He fed them. He listened to them. He spent time with them. Go now and do the same.

God's love is sacrificial

We spent some more time talking about another aspect of God's love. We focused on the fact that His love is sacrificial. What does "sacrificial love" mean? It's a "dying on the cross kids of love". A love that gives something up for the other person. Remember everything that Jesus gave up for us!! With His spirit living inside of us, we are able to give things up for others as an act of love. We talked about how we can love sacrificially with our friends and family, and many of you have some specific relationships in which you can love sacrificially.

Don't forget about our all-nighter on Feb 5! You'll be getting permission slips soon.

ALL NIGHT EVENT

The date for our all night event is set!!

Feb 5 from 7:00 pm - 9:0o am.

We'll be having lots of fun, and talking about the purpose of the teen ministry at Faith Baptist.

God's love, our love

We spent some time looking at verses that tell us more about God's love. We need to know what it is that we are supposed to be filled with! We focused on one main aspect of God's love - that it is "steadfast". We talked about steadfast meaning that it doesn't change, no matter what. It is always there, and always strong. We looked at verses that tell us that God is "slow to anger" and that "nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus". Then, we discussed what this means for us in our relationships with other people. The question is "How does God love this person, and how can I reflect that?" If God's love is steadfast, then our love should be, too. If we love with God's love, people will always know that we love them - no matter what.

Forgiveness

We talked about what "Testing the Spirits" means and why it is important. When I told how I was confused about forgiveness when I was younger, many of you believed the way I used to believe. I then gave you "a truth" regarding forgiveness. It is so important for you to understand and "test" what you are being taught. Do not accept anything blindly. LOOK IT UP! You have a Bible with a concordance in the back, Use it! Look up the verses on forgiveness and see that ALL of your sins are forgiven. We are told to ask for forgiveness even once we are saved. This is, in part, to restore our relationship with God. If you disobeyed your parents, they are not going to disown you and kick you out of the house. When you ask for forgiveness (and change your behavior!), you restore that relationship between yourself and your parents. Please ask myself, one of the other teen leaders, your parents or pastor if this still doesn't make sense to you. There are a lot of people who will be more than happy to help you.

Know God, Know Jesus - Know Jesus, Know God

The facts that Jesus has always existed and also became fully human tell us something about God's character - that He is eternal, that He loved us enough to humble himself, and that he deeply desires a relationship with us. In these ways, Jesus perfectly showed us what God is like. If we are going to "be like Jesus", we need to know the character of God so that we can reflect it, just like Jesus did. How do we know what God's character is? By having an active relationship with him - just like we have with our friends or family. We talk to them throughout the day, we ask questions to get to know them better, we pay attention to what they like and don't like. Getting to know who God is isn't just something to check off of our "to do" list. It's reminding ourselves that we are always in his presence, and so can always be talking with him and learning about him.

Prayer - It is an act of love

We reap what we sow. If we want to be obedient children of God, we need to seek His Will. We are commanded in 1 John to love God AND to love one another...deeply. One of the most important things we can do for each other is to pray for one another. We paired up and wrote down a few requests. Please keep praying for each other. It truly is an act of love.