MONDAY, August 11th, 2008

Suncoast Youth Group, are you ready to begin this new journey of living for the Lord here in Port Charlotte. Many of you have made incredible spiritual decisions over the last week, and I am so excited to see what God will do through our youth group as we continue to be faithful in His Word daily. If you received Christ at camp then I encourage you to make this time in God's Word a priority every single day; for that matter, if you were saved long ago: I encourage you to do the same! I am so thankful for each of you and I am blessed to be your youth pastor.

Remember the message yesterday: I Kings 20:1-30: The same God that did incredible things at camp this past week is the same God that we serve here in Port Charlotte, at Suncoast Baptist Church! Stay faithful! He will reward you!

Jonah 1:1-10

1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

This is such a great story in many ways. I think because we grow up hearing this story we often discount it to simply a "children's story", but the truth is, there is nothing childish about this story. As we read from verse one, we see that God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell the people to get right with God. However Jonah has his own plans. Whether it be rebellion, fear, or a lack of faith, Jonah does not obey God; In fact, Jonah goes in the opposite direction from Gods will.

I think it is Ironic that Jonah was scared to obey God, but he felt ok in a fierce storm out of the presence of God. I think we are like that many times: God will tell us to witness to someone, or to go down to the alter and pray, or God will tell us that we need to stand up for truth, and instead of obeying Him, we cower down and ignore the Holy Spirit.

Well, God has great ways of getting our attention as He did in the life of Jonah...

God sent this fierce storm that was likely o "break the ship" (vs. 4) So what did the men on the ship do? They turned to their god's. However their god's had no authority over the waves of the sea. When they found Jonah would you believe that He was sleeping through this mess?? (vs. 5)

The men on the boat wake up Jonah and then they all decide to cast lots... that is an old way of choosing straws? Do you know what that is? Basically it is a form of chance that men used to find out who's fault this was... The best way you can understand it is like this: These men played scissors, paper, rock to find out who was running from God.

When Jonah loses, they ask him, who are you and what are you doing here? Jonah tells them: I am a messenger from God, but I am running from God right now...

The men on the ship get very scared, because they see the power of God and they realize that they do not want to be on the opposing team of God.

I think that there are several lessons in this passage, but the few that jump out at me the most are the fact that when God tells me to do something: I must DO IT!!!! I should just obey the first time that God tells me to! Second, I think think it is wonderful that we have such an incredible God that He can even be glorified through our mistakes. Jonah chose to disobey, but God still received the glory whevenever Jonah told the men that He was running from God. They feared God.

We must obey God and be a testimony of His greatness Daily!!!!!!!!!

MONDAY, June 9th, 2008

Well, so I hear that half the youth group is going to the movies today? I wish that I could crash the party and come along, but I am going to Orlando with pastor Chip for a "Pastors Meeting". It will be lots of fun, but I would rather come and spend time at the movies with you guys! That would be lots of fun... we need to plan to go again soon!

A Few Thoughts From The Weekend:

Jeff: Great job on the devos man... I am glad that you decided to finally "listen" in church.
McCue: We miss you too man! I am excited that your show is so incredible this year... I hope you guys win first at the National Championship thing!!!
Amy: well well well, good to see that you did not fall off the face of the earth! I know your in Arizona or something, but I was pretty sure they had internet over there!! :) WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL YOU COME BACK HOME! (When is that by the way?)
Lucy: you are silly! URL is not someones name!! Earl is how you spell the name... URL is where you put the address for pictures... You just say the letters... U... R... L... :)
BETHANY: IT IS SO COOL TO SEE YOU ON HERE! Thanks for joining us! Stay on here all the time! It is lots of fun!! ( I really wish we could get you back in Youth Group... do you think that I could beg your mom?)

John 6:15-21
15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,
17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.
18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.
19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.
20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

This passage teaches us some things about Jesus Christ that are quite shocking. I think that they are very important and they teach us important things about how we can be more like Christ.
VERSE 15 is incredible... the first time I read it I assumed that Jesus was hiding from the people because they were coming to take Him "by force" to kill Him or something...
When I read it the second time I noticed that they were taking Him by force to make Him the King!!! How great is that! These people saw a few miracles and then they wanted Him to be king.

So why didn't Jesus just stay there, and become their king? Jesus had not come to earth to reign, He came to earth to be sacrificed for our sins. If you are like me, then you probably would think, Hey I will just go ahead and be king for a while and then do what I have to do later on...

Jesus was not about Himself, He was focused on us! How incredible, the son of God, who deserves all glory was not conerned with Himself but concerned with you and me.

If God is not selfish, and He has every right to be... then maybe we should stop being selfish!

VERSES 16-21 are great! I can really unerstand a little bit of what these guys were seing in the boat at night time. Remember I have gone out at Midnight two different times in the last 3 weeks. It is dark and it is scary!!

The disciples are in the middle of this storm, in the dark sea, being tossed around, when they see something coming towards them... is it a ghost? Is it a monster? AHHHH! oh wait... It is Jesus.
Jesus came to them, and when they received Him into the boat, they were immediately on track with where they were supposed to go next!

If our life seems to be getting tossed around, back and forth, and things are scary, and we dont know what to do... Dont focus on the scary things: Just ask Jesus to get involved! Pray about the situations you are facing! Let Him get you on your destination to a God glorifying life!!

Love you guys! Be Faithful this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!