Imprisoned for 18 years...

So Josh, this is a little different - it's a prayer request from a girl in my youth group, Becky, who is writing about something God has brought to her attention. In bringing this to our attention, she's being obedient to God.

Hey Everyone. It's Becky.

Maybe you've not heard
Now, I'm not sure if any of you have heard about this, and maybe if you have you've been affected by it, just like me. I'll fill you in just in case you haven't heard it, and if you have, well I encourage you to keep reading.

What happened
18 years ago, there was an 11 year old girl named Jaycee Lee Duggard who was abducted in 1991 from her California street. She was held captive in a backyard, by a registered sex offender who was on federal parole for rape and kidnapping convictions. She fathered his two children while she was stuck inside a camp in his backyard, and his wife even knew he was doing this, but didn't object! I'm going to enclose a URL link to a website, so you can read more if you like. You can read more about the story here.

The same age as us
So, that's basically the gist of what happened. But what really stood out to me when I heard about this, is that she had 2 kids, when she was a kid herself. Her children are now 11 and 15. Those are ages of some of the teens/pre-teens that attend our Youth.

They need our love and support
I felt like God was asking me to pray for these people, and to spread the word about them too. These are kids that have practically never seen the light of day, a church, a friend's house, and even school. When my dad told me about it, I sat crying in the back of our car, because I thought, How can we be dreading back to school time so much, when there's kids around the world who haven't even picked up a pencil? SO. What I am asking you to do, is to pray for these kids that are so close in age to us. They need our love and support and prayers more than ever now. I'm just going to write down some quick prayer points, and of course, you can add your own.

How to pray

• Pray that God will allow them to see everything he has to offer in a new light, and that any anger or frustration they are having to be wiped clean because Jesus loves them.
• Pray that any guilt that surrounds their thoughts is overcome by a realization of the fact that none of this was their fault.
• Pray that at this point, they can start off fresh, and can experience the world through Jesus's eyes.
• And, please pray for LOVE. That love will surround them and keep them together through everything that is to come.

Thanks so much guys. :) I know we can do this.
Becky

Why not forward this to your friends to encourage them to pray too?

Come, follow me

So Josh,

"Come, follow me". Three simple words. There's not much to them. They were said to two guys, Peter and Andrew, two brothers, ages and ages ago. Just three words. "Come follow me".

You see, three simple words are transformed into a daily invitation of adventure, power, meaning and transformation when we find out who says them. Let's read the passage:

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20)

• Jesus gives them this invitation when they were in the middle of their humdrum, day to day life. Jesus invites us to follow him when we're serving up fries at McDonalds, or working on the farm, or going to a friends party, or swimming in the pool. In the middle of our day to day life - Jesus is constantly whispering to us "Come, follow me"
• Jesus invites them while they were doing what was needed for them to survive. If they didn't fish, they wouldn't eat. If the catch wasn't big enough, they wouldn't eat. If they didn't put in the hours on the boat (at the office, in school etc) they wouldn't move on in life. In the middle of living in survival mode, Christ gives us a different option: "Come follow me".
  
• Jesus invites to leave what they find comfortable. Fishing made sense to them. They'd done it all their lives. They understood the ins and outs of handling a boat, mending a net, what fish to keep and which to throw away, how to gut a fish, how to preserve, what was a good price for the fish. This life made sense. But Jesus invited them out of what made sense, he invited them to leave their comfort zone...to do what? Follow him.
• Jesus is sometimes vague about the details. He didn't give them a 3 year plan, or tell them to get a degree first in healing or preaching or demon casting out. They passed or failed on one thing - would they follow him? To where? They didn't know. For how long? They didn't know. What would the accommodation be like? They had no idea. Did they know at this point that they would be laughed at, persecuted, tired, hungry, angry, hard done by? No. Did they know that they would be responsible for building the church, spreading the gospel, seeing thousands of people come to know Christ through them? No. All they knew what that Jesus said "Come follow me". And they did.

Sometimes we need to know all the details, sometimes we want God's plan to fit into our plan, sometimes we want to have it all figured out, make sure our health insurance is up to date, ensure we have a contingency plan..a plan B. We want God to give us a HUGE sign before we'll even take one tiny step. Have we packed our bug spray, our sun screen, our travel sickness pills?

Sometimes we think "I don't know enough...I'm not good enough...I'm not smart / funny / witty / good-looking / together enough". Still Jesus looks you in the eye and says "Come follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men". He will make you into the person He wants you to be. He knows you better than you know yourself. And He wants to use you. Right here. Right now.

Jesus always takes the first step in inviting us.
We just have to respond by taking one step, and then another, and then another. You see, when you put together a lifetime of taking one step at a time with Jesus - you have an entire lifetime of following Jesus. But all he's asking you for, right now, is the next step. Will you take it? Will you come and follow Him?

Remember the kids song:

"I will make you fishers of men if you follow me"

Perhaps there's more truth to this than we think...

Love you mate

Dan

Transformers or Transformation?

So Josh,
I was checking out a video blog by this guy called Brett Ullman (you can check out his website here). He was reviewing the movie Transformers 2. I've not seen it personally, but have had every intention of doing so. This video blog has given me pause for thought. I'd love to know, Josh, what your thoughts are on this video blog (and I'd love to know the thoughts of anyone else who reads my blog). To view the video, just click here. It's only 7 minutes long, and should get you thinking!
A couple of questions for you to think about and reply to (by hitting the comment button under this blog post).
1) Have you watched Transformers 2? Was Brett's insight the impression you got from the movie?
2) Do you agree with what Brett is saying? Why or why not?
3) Is he making a big deal out of nothing?
4) How far should we take this issue of holiness?
5) Are you and I influencing the world with love and purity, or is the world influencing us?

Let's get this discussion started...

Love you,
Dan