So last night was close to amazing. It was the last night of revival at our church. The house was packed and our speaker, Paul Negrut, from Romania spoke broken English, and still managed to get his point across to every countrified person in that room. He preached on the family and how to lead your family towards the next lifetime……like Noah did for his family. We went back and read in detail all the things that were going on in Noah’s time and they were horrible. People were so immoral. He went through all of the things that God listed in that time and EVERY one of them is in our world today. That is heartbreaking to me. This was a time in the world’s history where God was so fed up, so disappointed in his creation that he destroyed it! And only saved one family (Noah’s). I hate to think that we have brought ourselves back to that place again. We ache our Creator’s heart just as they did back then. That is so depressing. Then we looked at something I had failed to study before, Noah and his family. God found all of them pure and gave them a way to salvation (the Ark). But how?? How did Noah get his son’s and daughter-in-laws to be pure, to be faithful in his Lord with all this corruption going on. That gave me hope, because everytime I worry about how I will raise my children in this demoralized world and think that no matter how hard I try, this world will devour them…………..now I know that it can be done. Noah lived in the same times and did it! But still………….How?? Paul went on to give an example of Noah’s sons’ lives. He said, each of them would go off to school and see what was going on there and then come home and see the faithfulness, the determination or their father. They could come home and see the glory of the Ark (their way of salvation). Then they would go off to the clubs and see what was going on there and come back home and see the majesty, the awe inspiring Ark that their father worked diligently on. No matter where they went in their evil world, they always came home to see something bigger, something more amazing, something more inviting……….their father’s faith, and their salvation! If, as parents, you live a boring Christian life…….when your kids go out, they will be inspired by what they see………if, on the other hand, you are passionately living your faith, doing things unordinary, extraordinary……they will be inspired by you! So that is the secret, It’s you! If they see something amazing in you and your Jesus…….nothing in this world can be so marvelous. That sermon gave me so much hope for my children. It can be done! And although I won’t and can’t be perfect I will show them so passionately my love for Jesus and they WILL be captivated! That was just so awesome to feel the extreme relief inside of me.
After the service one of our youth boys came to Justin in tears and asked him to talk with him about Salvation. Justin took him up in the balcony and I watched as he spoke, prayed and cried with him. They stayed up there for over an hour, until they turned the lights out on us. This child is marvelous. He is the prime example in our youth group of Christ. He lives it, speaks it, he walks the walk, but Satan has given him doubts and he was heartbroken over it. I cannot tell you how miraculous this conversation was, I can’t begin to describe it. Let me just preface by pointing out the fingerprints of God all over this meeting. This boy is an awesome Christian in our youth group, he has an older brother who is supreme in his faith. This was the last day of the revival and the young brother came to one of the youth leaders (Justin) and bawled with unsureness of his salvation. This is where you get the chills. Justin was an awesome member of the youth group in high school, he walked the walk and talked the talk. He too had an older brother who was supreme in his faith. He too, on the last night of a revival approached a youth leader (Mr. Fields) and bawled his eyes out over unsureness of his faith! Justin soon even realized that they were sitting in the same seat in the sanctuary as they were when he went through this dilemma……………………you tell me that wasn’t my Jesus at work. This boy did not know all of this about Justin, he didn’t know that the leader he was approaching had gone through this very scenario……….God gives us gifts in such mysterious ways. Justin never knew that he would be able to use that experience to better God’s kingdom?!! Justin went on to tell me how he began to quote scripture (address and all), scripture that he KNOWS he had forgotten, God will always supply you with the tools you need to do the work he called you to do! I hope that the miraculous spirit of this encounter comes through in my description. My God is amazing, he really does give each one of us a testimony for such a time as this. Always have an answer for the hope that you have……………
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