Fighting for RED HOT passion!

Yesterday I had the most encouraging and exciting day! I felt SO pumped up for God and so excited about my youth and my job here and my church!!

I was out with one of my youth, Talitha, and we stopped into a small clothing shop. They sold heaps of funky, off-the-wall stuff. Not your mainstream 'Supre' type stuff. Anyway, while Talitha was paying for her shirts she was talking to the salesman about how awesome the clothes were cause they were so different. He was obviously SO into retail! You could see it and hear it. He lived and breathed it. He was GREAT at his job and really knew what he was talking about. Talitha also seemed really clued in and really knew her stuff. Then she started to tell him about the JC'N'ME brand cause it was similar to what she was buying...she told him about some stuff she owned. She told him it was a 'God thing'. I was so blown away that she so casually slipped it in there and really got him where he was at. Retail was definately his thing! There was NO doubting that! And heres this 16 year old girl who happens to know a bit about clothing and she just hits him with God in such a relevant way that he understood. Now, it didn't even have to be anything huge...but it was DEFINATELY a seed that was planted!

In 1 Corinthians Paul talks about how he planted seeds that Apollos watered and GOD made grow!! So neither Paul or Apollos were anything...but only God cause He made it grow! I shared that with Talitha and told her how encouraged and blown away I was that she stepped out in faith like that and that we know that God will send someone to water the seed and He will make it grow! I just couldn't get it out of my head all day! I was SO excited to see her share in such a simple and relevant way! And I got to thinking, thats ALL IT TAKES!! Some RED HOT passion for Jesus, and the simplicity of the Gospel and BAM...we're reaching out for souls!! YEAH!! Man, Im so pumped!!!!

But, my day didn't end there...oh no my friends, there were MORE blessings and encouragements on their way!! I stopped into Talitha's place and her siblings were all home from school (Talitha's an apprentice hairdresser, hence the reason she wasnt at school hehe) Anyway, her younger brother, Morgan, who is also in the youth group, asked me if I still do Flipside...the lunch time program I do at his school. Morgan's never been interested in coming along cause he hangs out with his friends at lunch and they only get 2 half hour breaks...so its really not much time. But, I told him that, yes, I still do it and he was welcome to come. He said that he was interested in coming because he has a friend who wants to become a Christian but his folks wont let him! So, Morgan wants to bring him to Flipside so that he can still get his dose of God and might hopefully be led to a full committment to Christ!! Man, even Morgan, at 14 years old, in grade 9, has RED HOT passion for Jesus and wants his friends to have it too!!!

I started thinking, man, I want MORE of that!! I want to be so RED HOT with passion for Jesus that I am absolutely bursting at the seams to share with people!! I mean, I am, but sometimes I think...not enough!!

Last night I went to a building plan committee meeting (our church is going through a building project) and I have to say that I was even more excited after being there...I seriously felt like I would explode after all the blessings that my day had unfolded...haha! Last night in the meeting it was RED HOT with passion and visions and dreams of what God is going to turn our church into and how its growing slowly but God is ALREADY showing His faithfulness since we stepped out in faith and got serious about this project. It was awesome to sit in this room with these passionate people who really know their stuff and are really just SO keyed into what God's vision is for this place! It was awesome!! The meeting normally goes for 2 hours (it's meant to go for 1 hour) but last night it went for 3 hours!! And it felt like 1!!! There was so much excitement and so much positive talk and clarification on this vision and I just left there feeling SO totally in awe of God and the work He is doing in this place!!

Tonight we had our first worship team practice. I have started a 2nd all age worship team in the church with another guy on board with me. It was really great! We sang the song 'Out of my depth in your love!' These are the lyrics:

I wanna be out of my depth in your love
Feeling your arms so strong around me
Out of my depth in your love
Out of my depth in you!

Learning to let you lead, putting all trust in you
Deeper into your arms, surrounded by you
Things I have held so tight, made my security
Give me the strength I need, to simply let go

I love that song!! Its such a great song and a great reminder! Too often we hold things so tight and we don't allow God to work. We put up shields and don't let God use us to reach out to someone. We try to vandalise visions cause we dont have enough faith to understand what God is going to do! We try to lead instead of letting God lead! I challenge you to make that your prayer...'give me the strength I need to simply LET GO!' Give me the strength I need to be RED HOT with passion for you!! I wanna be out of my depth in you, Lord...fighting for you ALL THE WAY!!

BE RED HOT WITH PASSION, FRIENDS!!

Your sister in Christ

FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE!!

Jodi