worth repeating Archives - Page 7 of 10

Not Down, but Through

January 6, 2011 by Aliesha

I read this poem in Streams in the Desert this morning, and I thought it would encourage you all as it did me!

When you pass through the waters,
   Deep the waves may be and cold,
But Jehovah is our refuge,
   And His promise is our hold;
For the Lord Himself has said it,
   He, the faithful God and true:
“When you come to the waters
   You will not go down, BUT THROUGH.”

Seas of sorrow, seas of trial,
   Bitter anguish, fiercest pain,
Rolling surges of temptation
   Sweeping over heart and brain–
They will never overflow us
   For we know His Word is true;
All His waves and all His billows
   He will lead us safely THROUGH.

Threatening breakers of destruction,
   Doubt’s insidious undertow,
Will not sink us, will not drag us
   Out to ocean depths of woe;
For His promise will sustain us,
   Praise the Lord, whose Word is true!
We will not go down, or under,
   For He says, “You will pass THROUGH.”

{ Annie Johnson Flint }

“When you pass through the waters… they will not sweep over you” (Isaiah 43:2).

Do you believe?

September 13, 2010 by Aliesha

“I think babies really do make you believe in God. They make you believe in God because there’s something just beyond understanding about their freshness and fragility and their smell and their toes. When they take their first breaths, and when they land, floppy and slippery, on your chest under the bright overhead light in an otherwise dim delivery room, when you watch their tiny sleeping selves, when you hear their thin wild animal cries, you know, you just know in your guts that God is real, and that babies have been with Him more recently, have come more directly from Him than our worn-out old selves have.”
– Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

Worth Repeating: Teens Want More than Pizza

August 25, 2010 by Aliesha

I was recently reading a great blog post entitled “Teens Want More than Pizza.” The post was written by a high-school pastor from Chicago, but it just as easily could have been written by my husband! (Their philosophy of youth ministry is essentially the same.)

The author’s three main points are:

I cannot compete with my students’ culture in the area of entertainment.
I can offer high school students the real gospel of Jesus Christ—and they can handle it.
Growth happens not by entertaining, but by equipping.

He states:

Some youth pastors can keep up much better than I can. Still, even the savviest, coolest, most-in-touch youth pastor around will find himself unable to entertain students in a way that will keep them coming to his youth group. The competition is simply too stiff.
The gospel—the objective reality that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” which is received by faith alone—is what high school students really crave. The amazing (and constantly humbling) thing about continually offering the gospel to students is the response it brings. The response is not: “Wow, Jon, you’re cool,” or “That music was off the hook!” It’s actually a much more biblical response: repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. High school students crave the real, true, life-changing, not-watered-down gospel of Jesus Christ. Woe to us if we give them anything less. (Emphasis added.)

Read the rest of the post here!

image source: sxc.hu