The Meaning of Worship

Introduction, Worship, Offering, Communion, Sermon, Worship, Outro. We always have worship in our church services. The band is on stage singing out their hearts and people are lifting up their hands. What are they doing?

Worship is such a beautiful response to God's character and his being and all that he has done for us.

I remember when I went to a Soul Survivor Youth Conference and there were around five thousand youth just praising God and dancing together. It's so amazing when we, the body of Christ can come together and worship God in unity. 

There's one verse which I think sums up why we worship very well; it's Romans 12:1, which says:

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Faith + School

I've gone through High School. I've gone through Post-Secondary. I've been in school my whole life. Basically, all I know is school.

High school is a time of decisions: What should I do when I graduate? Is that friend going to be a good influence in my life? Should I go to that party? Should I do this? Should I do that?

and...surprise! Post-secondary is pretty much the same thing!

So how do you make your decisions? And how do you integrate your faith and school?

In my life of school, I've picked up a few things....

MORALS & ETHICS & VALUES
Self check: When that exam is too hard, do you look at your neighbour's answer to 'double-check' your own? You procrastinated or you stayed out too late the night before. Do you give your teacher a made up excuse or do you frantically copy what your friend has written? Is it obvious to others that I value honesty and integrity?

[What the bible says]

CHOICES
Self check:

INFLUENCE
How others influence you
Self check: Are you constantly trying to keep up with the current trends? Do your friends persuade you to do stuff that you know is wrong? What motivates you?

How you influence others
Self check: When people look at me or talk to me, can they tell that there's something different about me? Do I encourage my friends to do the right thing, or do I encourage them to do what everyone else is doing, even if it's wrong?

PRIORITIES
Self check: What do you put first? School? Friends?

3D CAMP!

The four of us went to Camp Charis over the weekend (june 28-30); a beautiful camp in Chilliwack jam packed with fun! It was really exciting as there were many activities, games and free time where we could get to know each other better and take a break from our daily routines. Furthermore, Joshua Cruz, a teacher at Trinity Western came to talk about the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Fillings. We all learned something from this, whether big or small and we are grateful for him coming to speak! 
I just want to share with you some things we learned this weekend on this topic~

First Session - The Battle for Your Soul
Starting off, Joshua drew a triangle on the board. He labelled the corners; thoughts,  feelings, and behaviour. All three are linked together and are influenced by each other.
He told us this story:
Imagine you are on a coach and there are 2 toddlers running up and down the aisle hitting the chairs as they pass and they accidently hit you too. The father is sitting in front of you and you are just wondering why he cannot keep control of his children.

Main messages were that we should not let our faith and thoughts be influenced by our feelings. Neither should we let our desires be driven by them, but by the holy spirit.
If our thoughts are grounded in the Word, then they will guide our actions too.
Like the saying goes: rubbish in, rubbish out. If we ingest the word and understand it, then we can learn to act and behave more as the spirit leads