I was reading through Matthew 7 today and one of the verses that stuck out to me is verse 21, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

I have a Life Application study Bible for my quiet time, and the further study for verse 21 is very eye opening. Here’s what it says:

Not everyone who talks about heaven belongs to God’s Kingdom. Jesus is more concerned about our walk than our talk. He wants us to do right, not just say the right words. What you do cannot be separated from what you believe. Jesus exposed those people who sounded religious but had no personal relationship with him. On “judgment day” only our relationship with Christ–our acceptance of him as Savior and our obedience to him–will matter. Many people think that if they are “good” people and say religious things, they will be rewarded with eternal life. In reality, faith in Christ is what will count at the judgment.

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This really sticks out to me with working with the youth in our church. So many people are raised up in the church, and are great at going through the motions of being a Christian. Go to Sunday School and Service on Sunday morning, and maybe go to some type of Bible Study on Wednesdays, maybe even play or sing in a praise band if you’re in to music, and then go home and live a totally different life. We are all guilty of this at times when we get into the routine and life is going well, we tend to slack off on our personal relationship with Christ and can loose focus. I also have to be careful that the life I live is not to only set an example to others, but I live in obedience to Christ because I love Him and want to worship Him. It’s not a one-time choice to live for Christ, it is a choice we make every day, and sometimes several times a day.

What gets me the most with this is us just having Confirmation Sunday a couple weeks ago. It is a very exciting time to hear our youth’s testimonies of what God is doing in their life. Honestly though, it was hard to not sit there and wonder which ones were being sincere and honest in their testimony, and wonder which ones were up there saying what they were “supposed” to say. And it saddens my heart to hear friends of confirmands report about ones that are so excited to be “done with church.” Our teens moving from junior high into high school is one of the highest drop out grades with involvement in church. And I’m sad to say, it’s not just their fault. What are the parents doing to live out their faith? There is a mind frame that once a student is done with confirmation, they’re done with church, or their faith. And with that mind frame, where is their faith? Were the past few years just words?

Jesus is very clear when he said, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” You may know the right things to say at church, but so what. What are you living out? Parents, have you taught your children that it’s okay to go to church and be one person, then leave and be another? Or are you living your faith out and being a righteous example to your kids? It’s good for your kids to know that even you struggle in your walk with Christ. We all do. And it’s healthy to be real with your kids. But don’t set the example of a “Sunday Christian.” If you want help with that, ask. We’re not here to judge, we’re here to help. We all have to look at our lives and constantly reevaluate where we are in our faith. What is the next step to take to become more Christlike?

And even if you don’t have kids in your home yet or anymore, what example do you show to others that you come in contact with throughout the week? Are you living a righteous life, asking God to lead your steps? I struggle with this when I want to make a quick trip to the store and am not willing to take time to notice someone God may want me to reach out to. What good am I then? That makes me just as useless as the person we came across last week at the mall who said, “I believe in God and Christ, but I don’t believe we are supposed to go and share with others.” I should give my every moment outside of my house to God as an opportunity to share Christ with someone.

Take some time with God and listen. What does He want for you? What is the next step He wants for you to become more Christlike?

In previous years Tim and I always saw couples bringing their babies to conferences and we kind of day dreamed about getting to do that one day and how fun it would be. However, it didn’t end up being as ideal as we thought it would be. Hannah is a great baby and we had lots of help from our team of youth workers that came to the conference with us, but I still got stressed.

Before we had Hannah I would go to everything. With Hannah at the conference I took my time in the mornings, missing the general sessions so I wouldn’t have added stress of trying to hurry around in the morning. Of the 6 general sessions I made it to 3. Of the 5 seminar slots I had 2 by myself, which was my favorite part of the weekend. I met 2 wonderful yp wives in the girl’s ministry seminar and had a great time visiting with them. I made the mistake of not getting their contact info to keep in touch with though. Oops! Luckily Alisha found me on facebook, and Jackie, if you read this, please get in touch with me!

Getting around the conference with the stroller wasn’t a problem. The first day we stumbled across an elevator that went all the way to the international level, which I think was mainly a service/handicap elevator, but it was great, and we didn’t get in the big lines for the main elevator!  We also saved money on never taking a taxi anywhere around town because we didn’t bring Hannah’s carseat. Instead we got our exercise and walked to a couple different restaurants. The furthest one was a hair over a mile, which wasn’t bad coming from Minnesota, it was nice to get outside for a walk and enjoy the warmer weather. I didn’t enjoy having to sit in the back of seminars though, in case Hannah started really fussing and I needed to take her out. It was also harder for me to hear the speaker from the back, and Hannah loves to talk so it was hard to keep her quiet, especially since I don’t want to have to contain her all day long, she needs time to talk. I couldn’t explain to her that, yes there is someone else talking, so it would seem like it’s okay for you to talk, but you can’t.

I would love to hear how other people have handled bringing kids to youth conferences. Did it work for you? Did it not work for you? How did it go, and why? Next year we’ve already decided we’re going to try to find a baby sitter for our 2 babies. Anyone want to volunteer to baby sit an 18 month and a 5 month old on March 4-7 2011?

Our Senior high students started a new study yesterday that we’re using from Perry Noble’s sermon series Don’t Get Married Until…
I called Tim wondering where he was so long after Impact was supposed to be over, and it turned out that even though the video was finished when they were supposed to end, the students wanted to stay late and discuss what they just watched.
Tim asked some of the students if they would want their parents to see this section of the video, and they said yes.
Parents, get involved in your child’s life, especially dating life. Even if they don’t want you involved right now, they will be thankful for it later.