Honestly it's been one of those weeks where you're not entirely sure things can get much worse. Family issues seem to have a way of bringing you down lower than most others, but all week I have been praying for my family and many of my friends in hope that God will see fit to impart to them some amount of wisdom and peace - for myself it's been the peace. I can't say I pray enough or get into the Word as often as I should. Yet, since Winter Retreat, I've tried committing myself to that more, and God has been working through soo much. I can't say that when things get bad He totally makes me feel 100%, cause He doesn't really work that way, but He has given me that peace and that strength to walk through it all. He does have a way, however, of providing you with everything you need to get along!
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you." (Luke 10:19)
Abba father,
I pray that Your love will not be unseen as we go through this weekend, whether we're at home or at retreat or work or wherever. Father God, be working in our hearts and prepare for us everything that You have in store for us. Like Nathan said, God, I pray that each and every one of us would be striving for that steady relationship with You and fall out of the habit of creating ups and downs in our walk with You. There will always be those ups and downs God, but I pray that as the Prince of Peace You will give us some of that peace. Especially for the seniors who will be going on to the college life next year, keep us out of the enemies' reach, Father, help us retreat to Your strong fortress and guard us!! God You are amazing, and You have placed AMAZING people in my life. You are the perfect blessing Dad! We love you so much!
Chris Garmon
2.02.2008
2.01.2008
Prayer 2/1/2008
Daddy, I pray that tonight You would lay Your hands on everyone who's headed to Winter Retreat. Would You soften their hearts? Would You allow them to be open and willing to share in small groups? I pray specifically for those who are going on their first retreat or camp. I pray that You would surround them with loving leaders and friends; will You not let a single person go one night without feeling loved, treasured and accepted with a place? Daddy, I'm excited for what You're up to in the youth group now and for this weekend. Thank You for everything that You've done, are doing and will do. We love You!
Nina Coyle
1.31.2008
Prayer 1/31/2008
Well, first off, how about this wonderful day off from school? I love the days when they cancel when there is not even a sight of snow or rain in the sky. A few days ago a friend of mine told me we had only 75 days left of school. That means today’s wonderful snow day marks only 73 days left of school, and the countdown has begun. The last few days I have been doing a lot of thinking about the last three and a half years of my life - where I was both spiritually and maturity wise. Skipping many stories and memories, I just want to tell you all that without the Lord, I would not be the person I am today. Without Jesus, I would not have made it through some of the challenges of high school. I have always lived by the motto of, “Trust in God and understand everything happens for a reason.” My advice to all the underclassmen out there is exactly that - Trust in God.
Andrew Bennett
Andrew Bennett
1.29.2008
Prayer 1/29
God's been working wonders since Winter Retreat. It's weird because I haven't been much with words since then either. Over WR, I ended up losing my job. Talk about not knowing God's Plan. It's been awhile since I felt so entirely lost, but I completely gave it up to God. I've put my entire trust in Him to provide, AND HAS HE! He provided me enough money so that I could pay all my bills for the month, and He has also given me a wonderful opportunity to work for this awesome christian music magazine. AND I got to share Jesus with someone at my school the other day. It was incredible. I can really see a difference in myself and in my life since I totally gave my heart to God.
I hope everyone else has been great since WR ended. I miss all of you guys so much and pray for you all every day.
SIDE NOTE: Please keep my friend Shannon in your prayers. She's my best friend, and she's in a really bad situation, family-wise. Please, please, please pray that God will give her strength. She needs it so much.
IN CHRIST,
(Nat)
Natalie Miles
I hope everyone else has been great since WR ended. I miss all of you guys so much and pray for you all every day.
SIDE NOTE: Please keep my friend Shannon in your prayers. She's my best friend, and she's in a really bad situation, family-wise. Please, please, please pray that God will give her strength. She needs it so much.
IN CHRIST,
(Nat)
Natalie Miles
1.27.2008
Prayer 1/27/2008
The Vision-
The vision is JESUS--- obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9- 5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind; they belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free; yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, and their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose.
That one day they might win the 'Well Done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday Morning as Sunday Night.
They don't need fame from names.
Instead, they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground -
The whisper of history in the making.
Foundations shaking.
Revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers.
Conspiracy is breathing...
This is the sound of the underground,
And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts " For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man -
with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, with sulfuric tears and with great barrow loads of
laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24-7-365.
Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules.
Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide.
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels' fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside? They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but Never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or popularity?
They would lay down their lives-- swap seats with the person on death row--guilty as hell.
A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out; they breathe in!)
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centers.
Do you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdoes!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frighten and forgotten with fire in their eyes;
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of
another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be.
It will come to pass; It will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of GOD.
My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And my feeble, whispered faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking
great "AMEN!"
from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ Himself!
And He is the original dreamer the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed!
God I just pray that would become our hearts' DESIRE! To be SO passionately in love with you.
Equip us to be soldiers for you God; use us in ways that glorify YOU and humble US! Let there be more glory for you and less for US. Would you Cover the camp for the middle schoolers and continue to answer prayers God? Unite them like you have the high schoolers. I LOVE you daddy.
Love you guys!
Casey Tinius
The vision is JESUS--- obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army.
And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9- 5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind; they belong to the nations.
They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free; yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, and their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose.
That one day they might win the 'Well Done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday Morning as Sunday Night.
They don't need fame from names.
Instead, they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground -
The whisper of history in the making.
Foundations shaking.
Revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers.
Conspiracy is breathing...
This is the sound of the underground,
And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts " For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs.
Who can stop them?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed?
Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man -
with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, with sulfuric tears and with great barrow loads of
laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24-7-365.
Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules.
Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide.
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels' fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside? They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but Never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or popularity?
They would lay down their lives-- swap seats with the person on death row--guilty as hell.
A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out; they breathe in!)
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centers.
Do you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdoes!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frighten and forgotten with fire in their eyes;
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of
another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be.
It will come to pass; It will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of GOD.
My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And my feeble, whispered faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking
great "AMEN!"
from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ Himself!
And He is the original dreamer the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed!
God I just pray that would become our hearts' DESIRE! To be SO passionately in love with you.
Equip us to be soldiers for you God; use us in ways that glorify YOU and humble US! Let there be more glory for you and less for US. Would you Cover the camp for the middle schoolers and continue to answer prayers God? Unite them like you have the high schoolers. I LOVE you daddy.
Love you guys!
Casey Tinius
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