Youth Convention

During this past week's youth convention, I've got deeper into the Word of God. Evangelist Chris Hill preached how in John 8:1-11 Jesus even left church to go minister to the people. He came down from Mount of Olives, where God's glory was at. He came down from His glory into the city, and into the temple courts where he was teaching. Later, the teachers of the law and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultrey to Jesus. Jesus' classroom become a seat of judgment. They tested Jesus saying that Moses commanded us to stone people who are caught in adultrey, and asked what would Jesus say about that. Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. They kept on questioning Him, so Jesus got back up and said to them "If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.". Then got back down and wrote on the ground again. They all left one by one until it was just Jesus and the woman. Jesus then asked "Woman, where are they? Has no one condmened you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemned you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin.

So Jesus got down to the woman's level and started writing on her ground. In Genesis 1: 27 it said that God created man and woman in His own image. In Geneis 2:7 God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him. In Luke 8, the Parable of the Sower, there's different kinds of ground that Jesus is talking about. There's basically two different kinds of ground, hard ground and good ground. When the sower spreads seeds onto the ground, it either goes into the ground or don't. If the seed falls onto the hard ground, birds will come and eat it up. The seed is the word of God. The birds are demons. Even for the good ground, sometimes the seed goes in, and starts growing but thorns also grow and choke up the plant. The good ground produces a frutiful tree, and many more seeds will be planted. So for the woman, on Jesus' decision whether to get stoned or not, Jesus got down and started writing on the ground. Jesus was rewriting her history. When Jesus touched her ground, He made her ground into good ground. Jesus also forgive her of her sins. He declared to her "Then neither do I condemn you." and said "Go now and leave your life of sin." Whenever we sin, Jesus is willing to get down to our level. He said that anyone without sin can pass judgement on her and these teachers of the law and Pharisees were in sin. Jesus never sinned and yet He didn't pass such a judgment on us, instead He love us. He's willing to get down and not condmen us of our sin but help us fix our hard ground, our messed up ground and make us back into good ground! Praise the Lord!

That's what I've received out at the youth convention this past Monday to Wednesday. I've met so many new people, especially samoans. Mark, my group leader, Avery the group leader of the girls. I like how I felt the fire when sharing the word of God. Mark asked me on Wednesday morning to explain this scripture, and I felt the fire as I just kept sharing. I feel like I can start being a preacher now, haha. I've also made friends with girls too. I notice that someone sat by me the every service except the begining and the ending. She would poke me in my ribs, pat my head, and even one time for a few second put her head on my shoulder, telling me that I smell good. Gosh, how did this happen to me? Zach found out because he said that she would always come by me and do her thing, by giving me a certain look or something, that's what he told me. Hey, if this didn't happen how can I teach my guys and girls to not go to something like this for boyfriend and girlfriend relationships but instead for God. I notice how people ususally end up potentially having a date when making new friends at youth convention than reaching out to someone new at church. I got sunburn on my neck, nose, and my left and right arm. Although I brought a packet of tissue, I forgot to bring sunscreen.

I've been pretty much also a unoffical leader. Since my leader left for a few hours and we had no other leader, people suggested that I would be the leader since I took responsibility, like the time on Tuesday when we were leaving. I found out what bus we were leaving with and gathered everybody saying "Get ready, we're leaving soon." since a lot of the message I'm already putting into practice, I also got the chance to help move chairs, talk to people asking if they received the Holy Spirit, they should go now because it's the altar call, and stuff like that. Also I got to help out with registration, which has been fun. One thing I would say is that I think God was teaching me what a leader is like during these three days. A leadership position is earned, never asked. Humble yourself, and you will be moved to a better position (Parable of some kind of great feast; New Testament).