Casting Crowns - Praise you in this storm

The Well--Casting Crowns with lyrics

TEENS ON FIRE TONIGHT 6-8

Teens of Fire tonight at Abbe Reformed Church 6:00-8:00
Wear your walking shoes, bring a friend, and there will be food!

1 Thesalonians 5:17
Pray continually

Make a Difference

Most of us know that God loves us and he has a plan for our lives, but think about all the people at school that have no idea who God is. What if God was trying to tell you that you need to talk to that girl who sits alone in studylab, but you wont talk to them because they aren't "cool". Or, maybe God wants you to tell your friends about him, but you don't because they might not like you anymore. Well, maybe its time that we all stick together and spread the love of God. It only takes one person to change the world and you would hate to find out that somebody wont end up in Heaven because it was your job to reach out to them and you didn't.

He loves you!!

Have you ever felt like you are worthless, or stupid? Well guess what, Jesus thinks that you are worth dying for. He hung on the cross with nails through his hands and feet and was whipped.....all for us .....because he loves us!

God Has a Plan

God has a plan for your life. Even when you are going through the hardest time you have ever been through, God is there. He won't let anything happen to you that isn't for the better. Sometimes we think that we know what should happen, but we don't...only God does. Let go, and let God have control.

Its A God Thing!!

Did something ever happen to you and you thought to yourself "Wow! What a coincedence." Well, its not just a fluke thing at all, its God! He is such a wonderful planner, that He takes time to add in some exciting things that we might look at as a coincendense. Its kinda nice to take some time to just look around and take in all the beautiful blessings that God has put around us. He is such an amazing God!!!

Jonny Diaz - More Beautiful You

What a great song! Never forget that you are beautiful just the way you are. God made you special, He made you beautiful, and He made you look the way He wants you to look. It doesn't matter what is on the outside, all that matters is that you have beauty in your heart.

Casting Crowns - East to West

Something Encouraging

When Andrew came home from baseball practice today, he said that at the end of practice when the boys were all in a huddle, Dan started to pray! Amazing, right?!! Well, it gets better, actually worse then better. Somebody backed away from the prayer huddle angry that they were praying. At the end of the prayer, a couple boys defended Dan and said that there is nothing wrong with praying. It is very uplifting to not only hear of groups of people praying, but to hear that when sombody has a problem with it the boys stick together and stand up for our amazing, all powerful God!!



Don't be afraid to stand out!! Say a prayer when everybody else is gossiping, memorize a Bible verse when others are memorizing songs, tell other kids about God even when that's not the cool thing to do. When you act in a Christ-like way when it is easier to go with the crowd, God sees what you are doing and it makes Him proud! Don't worry what other people think about you, all that matters is that God is happy with the girl that you are!!

Jamie Grace - God Girl (Lyric Video)

WE ARE GOD'S GIRLS!!! I pray that by our actions and words it will be clear to all the world that we do everything for the glory of God!

Kari Jobe - We Are (Lyrics)

Remember this week- We are the light of the world...
we are the city on a hill....
we gotta let the LIGHT SHINE!!

Remember to use your prayer journals, and to watch out for each other.
Do something nice today, even if it's not quick and easy...
This week, pick a day or the whole week...walk into each class, look around
the room and just see who grabs your eye and pray for them. Just a quick little
couple of sentences prayer.  Maybe you know things are tough for them, maybe
you don't know them at all.  Everyone can use a prayer, even the teacher and
the janitor!  Then smile....God will be HAPPY with you and for you.
Have a great Feb/Mar week!!
Love
Karen

Bible Study Tomorrow

Hey guys! Don't forget we have Bible study tomorrow at the Abbe. 5:00-7:00p.m. All you need to bring is your Esther book, Bible, and prayer journal! And maybe a friend too!!!

Awesome Weekend!!!

We are God's Masterpieces!!

Who are you?! You are God's masterpiece!!!! Amen!!!(yep, yep)

A couple girls were going around school asking everybody who they were. It was pretty amazing.....most people said "I am God's masterpiece!" with a huge smile on their face and excitement in their voice!

One person said their name when they were asked who they were and their friend said to them "No, you are something more than that, something beautiful, something amazing."

God looks at all of us and sees beautiful people. No one person is more special to God because of things that they have or haven't done. We are all sinners, and we are all forgiven.

Always remember..........YOU ARE GOD'S MASTERPIECE!!!!

Amazing Weekend!!!

As 67 kids poured into the church on Friday night, it was quite clear that so many people had been praying for that moment and the next 24 hours to follow. Everyone seemed to be filled with joy and excitment, anxious to find out what God had in store for our weekend.
After eating pizza, and socializing for a few moments the kids went up to the sanctuary to listen to Ben give an energetic sermon about the Devil wanting to ruin our lives. He made sure we understood that we needed to have all of our armor.....not just a helmet and a sheild, but ALL pieces.

Then the time came to go to bed. Well, some people used the opportunity to sleep, others found that it was a good time to talk!!

Eggs, pancakes, sausage, and bacon made up our delicous and filling breakfast! We would need it to stay energized for our long, spiritually strengthening day that God had planned for us!!

Mike Strickland woke us up with his talk about social media and electronics. He gave us some very disturbing facts about what the world is coming to today. He warned us that when you watch garbage on TV and listen to garbage music, guess what, garbage is going to start coming out of your mouth.

Joe then took the stage and talked to us about our armor and told us that God judges us based on the inside not what is on the outside. It doesn't matter if we're short, if our hair isn't straight, or if we aren't the most beautiful girl in school. What God looks at is our heart.

The girls went over to the Abbe parsonage and listened to Amanda and Leanna and Kim give a very emotional and moving talk on modesty and purity. They told us that God would lead us to our husband, and He knows exactly who we are going to marry. We were warned not to have sex until we were married, that is the way God wants it to be.

We were fed a snack to keep us moving. This was also a time for us to think about everything that we had taken in so far. Every speaker was amazing....if only we knew how much better it was going to get as the day went on!!

After our bellies were re-energized, there was a time for us to ask any questions we had about everything we had learned. Some great questions and amazing answers!

More food!! Lunch time went along with a time to take a nap or go to the gym and get some energy out.

Scott Bensink told us all about the dangers of money and credit cards. We learned that the things that make us happy in life are not things that any amount of money can buy us....they are things that come from God, like love, blessings, and faith.

We had a chance to sing and dance to some crazy Bible School songs!! This was a fun time to move around before our next speaker.

Scott Aikens opened our eyes by telling us that each and every one of us has some type of special gift or talent from God. He told us that God has things planned for our lives that are too amazing for us to even imagine!! We need to use our talents and gifts to honor God!!

More food!!! Ice cream sundaes with a countless amount of toppings!! At this point we had only begun to see the amazing, life-changing, heart-moving things God had planned for us. The constant prayer from the whole community was definitly helpful.

Mike Cerula talked to us about putting on our full armour and being ready to handle whatever the devil trys to throw at us. He gave many examples of miracles he had witnessed and told us that we can't let people who are not Christians pull us down and convince us that God doesn't matter.

We then had another panel. Even more questions were asked this time and some pretty good advice was given to us. The adults said that they were blown away with some questions being asked. "How do I know what God's plan for me is?" "How do I know if God and I are on the same page?"

Dinner time. Both our bodies and our souls were well fed this weekend.

When we came back from dinner,we had the most amazing praise band! They were enthusiastic for Christ, and led us in many praise and worship songs. It was absolutely amazing to look around and see 65 kids with raised hands, closed eyes, and clapping to the music!!

Then came the time for Erin, Roy, and Ken to each wrap up the speaking part of the weekend (definitely not the spiritual part!!!!). Each of them added a little bit to everything that we had learned. They must have had a way of really humbling and softening our hearts, because what was about to follow was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Erin, Roy, Ken, and Ben went up to altar and prayed. They said if anybody would like to go up and be prayed over, go ahead. It started with one person. One person got up, then a few more, then a few more, and next thing you knew there were 5 or 6 huddles of prayer around the church. Everywhere you looked you would see groups of people praying. Everyone was out of their seat involved in prayer. Not only was there tons of prayer at that moment, but tears.....so many tears of happiness being poured out because of different reasons, at that moment  some people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, some people were drawn closer to Him than ever before, some people were simply experiencing the love of Christ fill them. At that point it was clear that God was really busy that weekend. If that wasn't enough, when we were all back to our seats they asked if anybody would like to stand up and say anything. A couple people went forward with tear filled eyes saying thank you, or that they had really felt the Holy Spirit in them, but when two girls went forward and said that they had never felt so loved before and they had never thought that anything could be so amazing, if you werent crying before, you were at that point!! No words will ever be able to describe the feelings and emotions and that were felt over the weekend (especially at the end), it was obvious that the Call of Duty Teens on Fire Retreat was filled with prayer and the Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much to everybody that helped in any way!!!!

Steven Curtis Chapman - For The Sake of The Call

Casting Crowns - Voice of Truth

Bible Study Tomorrow at Methodist Church 5:00-7:00pm

CAN'T WAIT!!!

Can you believe it.......the retreat is less than a week away!!! Keep praying for every heart to be open and for God to give each and every speaker lots of courage! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next weekend!! If you get a chance, thank our wonderful youth leaders for all of their hard work they have put in to planning the retreat for us.

Dara Maclean - Listen To "Suitcases"

It IS hard to do anything when there is so much stress and worry weighing you down. But, God is ALWAYS right there willing to lift your load and set you free! -Amen!!

Genesis 21:22
God is with you in everything you do.




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Prayer List

Snow

Rebecca's Cousin's Boyfriend

People Who don't know God

Everyone who will be coming to the retreat as speakers and teens...that they will connect with just what is needed.

People don't get sick with the weather going up and down

Safety and no injuries with our sports teams

Thanking God for YOU!!

Logan's Knee

Libby's Aunt Margaret

Kailyn Bently for speedy recovery

Courage in all of our hearts

The retreat

Any unspoken prayers

Cancer patients

The Abbe and Methodist church as both are in search of pastors



If anybody would like to add something, feel free! Just click on "comment", then write what you want and sign your name. Where it says "comment as" just click on "anonymous".

Thank you to everybody who has commented on the posts! It is very apreciated!!

GoD And DoG by Wendy J Francisco

Peter Furler - Reach

Our Prayer List So Far.....

Snow

Rebecca's Cousin's Boyfriend

People Who don't know God

Everyone who will be coming to the retreat as speakers and teens...that they will connect with just what is needed.

People don't get sick with the weather going up and down

Safety and no injuries with our sports teams

Thanking God for YOU!!

Logan's Knee


If you would like something to be added, just comment on the post with your prayer request and I will add it to this list!

Romans 8:31
If God is for us, who can be against us?

He Is With You

In all of the suffering and pain, it is easy to wonder if God is really there and if he really cares. Well, He does care, and even though His way of relieving the pain might be different than what we think He should do, He still has a plan to get you out of your rut.

A few helpful verses.......

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it for the glory of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 10:31

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.
2 Samuel 22:33

If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

Now faith is being sure of what hope for and being certian of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 3:3

Above all else, quard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Lets give this a try........

I was thinking maybe we could start a prayer list on the blog. All you have to do is leave a comment with a prayer request.

A reminder on how to leave a comment:

    - Click below the post where it says "comments"
    - Write a comment and sign your name if you want
    - Where it says "comment as" click on anonymous
    - Then click on publish


I really hope we can get a good, long prayer list going........!!
  

We are so blessed!

It is so easy to look right past all of our blessings. But if we stop and look around, we might realize how blessed we really are. That having a house, a family, and meals on the table is a blessing in itself, let alone our phones and ipods. And the next time we're having a bad day, maybe we could remember that Christ died for us and one day we will be in Heaven!           

How's it going?

Well..........did we all try to be like Esther today? Was it hard? Did your friends gently remind you not to be a Haman?

Here is another song I thought everybody might like!

The Afters - Light Up The Sky - Official Video

Sometimes life can be very hard and disappointing. But no matter what, God is ALWAYS there for us. It can be very easy to forget about God or get mad at Him for putting us in those situations. But He knows that in the end He will work it all out. Never lose faith!!

How to Post a Comment

    >Click where it says "0 comments"(or however many comments there are)
    >Write what you want, and sign your name
    >Where it says "comment as" click on "anonymous"
    >Click on "publish"

Let's Try to be Like Esther!

It is very, very easy to react to situations with anger and hate. But that's not what Esther did! She was humble and gentle and thought things through before she reacted. How about we all try to be a little bit more like Esther, and keep calm. Pray for each and every one of us be like Esther!