THURSDAY, August 21st, 2008

Well hello everyone! I enjoyed last night so much! I hope you did as well! I loved the enthusiasm that each of you had the entire time beginning with the opening music all the way to the closing prayer! You are GREAT!

Make sure you come to church on Sunday morning. In Sunday School we will be continuing our series on setting personal boundaries in your life! This is important I hope that you make it a priority!

A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
To the Fantastic Four: Josh L, Rachel, Michael. and Marvin!! Thanks for coming on yesterday before school! That is very cool! I am thankful for you guys! (and girl) :)
Tyler: You missed a great night in church! If you and Cary would have been there we would have been right at 40 people!!! UNBELIEVABLE! COME TO CHURCH!
Tricia: Thank you! For your incredibly kind words! I am so thankful that God is using us to work in this youth group!!
Kervin: Awesome! I think that will be so cool!
MALLORY: ONE SHY OF 30!!!!! and then you had to rub it in!! Unbelievable!! :)
Kacey: We missed you! It really was a great night in Church! I was sad that you were not there!
McCue: Call me! Lets get together today or tomorrow if you can! Let me know!

Genesis 7

1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female;
3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.
4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”
5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth,
9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark—
14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.
16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.
20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.
23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.
24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Have you ever been on a cruise? I have been on 5 cruises and I love them. If you ever get a chance to go on one, do this... Late one night, around midnight or so, go to the pizza buffet and get a late night snack, and then take your pizza up to the top deck of the ship. While you are enjoying your pizza from the top deck of the shiplook around the ocean, and feel the strong wind blowing in your face, and think about what it must have been like for Noah on the ark.

I will tell you right now, it can be scary on a cruise ship, let alone a wooden ark made by yourself!!!! The power and darkness and splashes and waves of the ocean can be absolutely terrifying!! And Noah went from never seeing a drop of water fall in his lifetime to floating in the worst storm of all time. It is absolutely clear that Noahs craftmenship is not what help that boat up in the water. The hand of God was holding that boat up the entire time!!

The longest cruise that I have ever been on is 6 days... I know that by the last day, I was ready to be getting off the boat. Just last night, Katie and I were looking at some mediteranean cruises, and they last 12 days, 14 days, and there are even some world cruises that last longer than a month. That would be SO LONG!!!!!

I cannot imagine floating in that ark for over a year, probably around 370 days!!!!!! That must have been very tough! Yet as Noah trusted God daily, God got him and his family through every moment!!

Just like I spoke about last night, there are many times in our life where God is taking us through a storm, a trial, some tough circumstances, but if we Trust and Obey just like Noah did, then God will protect us through the storm, and he will get us through every tough time in our life.

Just like it is scary out on the pitch black stormy sea, the seas of life can toss you around and be just as scary... trust God through the storm!!