What's Stopping You?

Have you ever gone somewhere like college or camp or some conference and you felt like you were right in the will of God? You had joy and peace and you were contented where God had you. You were in awe of your God. But then when you go home you feel that at times you can't even figure out where God is and why it seems He left you.
I don't know about you but I definitely feel this way sometimes. Especially when I am here at college. I'm learning, growing, serving, falling, getting back up, but when I go home I feel like I'm struggling. Greer and I were talking about this last night, trying to figure why it is we feel that way(and no we don't run by our feelings) and I'm going try to explain what we found out.
When we are here at school we are in the Word of God all the time, and we set out schedules. If we feel overwhelmed and just need to be with God, we just sit with our Bible and read and pray. We don't even have to go to another room, the others just know they wanted to spend some time with God. Now when I say this I'm referring to times other than you normal everyday devotions which you should have everyday. We also established at the beginning of the semester that between 10-10:15 we start a wind-down mode. By 10:30 we are all reading our Bible or another "self-helps" book, this helps us at the end of the day get our thoughts re-focused on the Lord before we go to sleep. We forget the troubles of the day and think on Him.
Greer and I both have the same struggle: when we go home, we love our families, and there are those times when we want to be alone with the Lord, yet we don't want to be rude to our families and just go hide somewhere. Neither of us have our own room, we share it with siblings, making it difficult to find a place at night to read. But we realized that we have to learn to find other times to get alone with God, God will present them.
We've got to learn to deal with our situations because this could be God preparing us for the future when we have families of our own and we can't just run away and hide, though I'm sure we will want to at times. We've got to find ways to keep that peace and joy of being in God's will real in our lives no matter where we are.
These were just some thoughts on it, I might post more about it later, once I ponder on it more.

Do We Really Want Revival?

I mean do we really, seriously want a revival that will change our life? Like that of the old days. I am reminded of the time at college when we went up for teen visitation and were told that we were going to stay on campus and pray for the upcoming revival. That was one of the best moments of my life and the lives of others. We spent that time praying, really praying, that God would send revival to everyone but more specifically to us individually. And it was amazing! We spent time searching ourselves for any sin that would be in the way of God getting a hold of our lives and making us more like Him. Why is it we don't have revival? Even my 9 year old brother Josiah, after learning about the Great Awakening in history, said "Why can't we have a revival like the Great Awakening? I wish we had a revival like that." This coming from a 9 year old! Yet you never hear things like that coming from adults. What a sad world we live in and what carnal Christians we are!
I want revival, I want the Lord to change me and make me more like Him. But how can I help make it happen? I mean we have revivals and they are wonderful but they aren't like I believe they could be, so what do we do?
I read a really great book called The High Cost of Compromise & Worldliness by Glen Spencer Jr. and in it he speaks about how we can obtain revival. So I am going to put some quotes from the book and hopefully it will help remind me to do my part in helping to bring about a revival.

"It is only when God's people repent and separate from ungodliness that God can hear from Heaven and pour out a might revival." (p.20)

"Christianity is suffering today because the bible has been replaced by television, pleasure, sports, and just about everything else the Devil has thrown out. What's the solution you ask? A God breathed heaven sent revival is our only hope! How can we have it you ask? Junk the television, movie going, money mongering, jungle jazz music, card playing, public nakedness(mixed bathing), cigarette sicking, cocktail drinking "sipping saints." Then get rid of these pussyfooting, back scratching, ear-tickling, gospel-dodging, compromising, soft-soaping, corner cutting, aim-at-nothing, hit nothing, modernistic, cemetery seminary, manufactured, assembly line preachers, and get some Daniels, John the Baptists, and Elijah's. Then, and only then, will we see an old fashioned, Holy Ghost, sent from Heaven, God-breathed Revival." (p.23)

We need to forsake our worldliness and get focused on doing what God's Word says. And I'm just as guilty as the next person. We never reach that peak of perfection, where we've done it. It's an everyday process of denying the flesh. So pray with me and strive with me to do our part to bring about an old fashioned revival.

Why am I Like I Am?

Does anyone else ever think about that? I mean when I think about myself, not that I'm anything special, I really want to know God's will for my life. Then I look around and see other teens and young people that want the same thing. But sadly there are those that don't really care or they are too distracted by other things to do it right not. What about those who are raised in church, but as soon as they are out of the house you never see them at church, serving God? So what makes the difference?

Of course the greatest contribution is the salvation of a person, not just a profession but a possession. Not only do you need to be saved but you need to grow in the Lord.

Another big factor is when you see your parents living it. You know what I mean by it, you see them living for God, doing His will. How blessed we are to have parents that live the life of the believer, not just talk about it. You know they are in church when the doors are open, you see them reading their Bibles and praying, they drop all their plans and go where God wants them. I know this has to have affected the way that I am. Why else would I have no problem going around the world serving the Lord? Not have a big problem doing my devotions everyday? I have the desire to be in church when the doors are open. Yet I still have situations that I don't understand. Maybe it's something I'll never understand.

How can a pastor's children grow up and forsake all they were taught? It puzzles me. Maybe they aren't really saved I guess or maybe they aren't growing. Maybe they weren't really listening all those times their dad was preaching. Heaven forbid we become like this. This is just something I was really thinking about over in Germany. Just, what makes me what I am? I want to have children someday, but it scares me because of seeing the children of good, strong families stray from God. So think about this: What makes you the way you are?