Inspiration

Jude 1:24-25
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

The entire book of Jude (although only one chapter) is a great reminder to stay firmly rooted in our faith. It's a reminder to not follow fleshly desires, but rather to follow through faith alone. To gather all of our strength from the Holy Spirit and prayer and to trust in God's sovereign power above all else. There are people who love dissension, strife, drama. People who live for their own desires. People who don't follow God. But when we truly follow Him in faith, then we have true joy. He is the one who carries us to glory, the one who forgives our sins, and the one who supplies all of our hearts' joy. There is no one like our God. There never was and there never will be one who is like Him. May our hearts echo Jude's closing words now and forevermore. Praise be to our great God.

Distance

I feel like I've been totally separated from the youth group lately. And I know that I just moved up to the college group, so that's inevitable. But I just feel like I haven't even seen a lot of people in weeks. I'll take the blame. I definitely haven't been trying to get more involved or anything. But it's partially because of how dead the group has felt lately. I feel like the year ended in a total routine way. And I feel like church has been like that in general for a while now. People go, they sit and listen, they talk a little, and they leave. That's all I've seen forever now. It's really starting to get discouraging. There are bright spots here and there, but on the overall, everything is boring and the same week in and week out. I'm tired of "building a foundation" so we can eventually go deeper. I'm tired of "before you get the rest, you have to get this." I'm pretty sure those of us who have heard the basis for a while understand it about as well as we're ever going to and it's not helping to hear it over and over again. It's truth, and it's amazing truth, but it's the same truth that I heard last week and the week before that, and you get the idea. I want to know more about love, I want to know more about peace, I want to know more about promises, I want to know more about God. I get grace, I get TULIP, I get calvinism as much as I'm going to I'm pretty sure. And hearing the same old isn't adding anything. I want to grow.

This is venting, but it's not exaggeration.