Hey all
These past two days have been a little crazy here. We had
the pastor conference. And let me tell you there were a lot of high points and
a lot of low points. There were a bunch of speakers and some were great and
others I had no clue what they were talking about. Now I’m sure you are all
thinking that it is because of the language barrier, but no, that was not the
problem. We had translators; it’s just that they were all preaching on unity,
because that was the focus of the whole conference. There were just times that
I couldn’t focus and I just zoned out of it for a half hour or so. But some of
my favorite talks were on “Unity in Small Groups”, and “Teaching the Bible”.
One reason why I enjoyed “Unity in Small Groups” and “Teaching the Bible” was
because they literally laid it out how it is, no huge words they just told the
problems that they saw, and what from their experience worked the best.
Besides
that, I have been practicing speaking in tongues. Now one may ask “How can you
practice speaking in tongues?” Well to be quite honest what I have been doing
is what 2 Timothy 1:6-7 says “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame
the gift of God, which is in you by the laying on of my hands. We were not
giving a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and, of love and
self-discipline.” So practically I have
just prayed for God to Honor my attempts, to speak in tongues and been speaking
gibberish. Now I’m not going to lie to you I felt pretty silly doing this the
first couple times and I was a little afraid of insulting God. But I felt that
after I started to say things that sounded similar, and I’m thinking that I may
be getting close…but who can really tell.
I’ve also
been memorizing scripture so far I’ve memorized Jeremiah 29: 11 “for I know the
plan I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you plans to give you a
hope and a future.”
2 Timothy 1: 6-7 “For this reason I remind you
to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you by the laying on of my
hands. We were not giving a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and, of
love and self-discipline.”
Jeremiah 29: 13 “You will seek me
and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
This is what I have been up to lately, as for prayer
requests, I would appreciate prayer for health, as I am just getting over a
cold, and I am getting over the amoebas in my body dying. I would also love
some prayer for yl, and yl club, they are going well but just pray for courage,
and for more youth to come and participate in it. And personally I would like
some prayer for my spiritual gifts.
Garrett, ALL good and perfect gifts come from above. Don’t fear offending God as you seek to grow in your spiritual giftings, He knows your hearts motivation.
In response to your prayers for YoungLife and YoungLife Club, I will keep this constantly before the Throne of God.
Garrett- When I get there in a couple weeks let’s chat about this. We can pray for some Holy Spirit juice for ya LOL. It’s great you’re being faithful and at least keeping the door open for God to move! I’m proud of you buddy!
Jimmy
Hi Garrett!
I’m proud of your faithfulness toward God and his gifts. Just keep praying in faith – God has already heard and answered your prayer!
Peace,
Candy
Garrett, I don’t know if this applies to your situation with the pastor conference, but I find that when I don’t understand part of a sermon (or a passage of scripture), it’s because it isn’t for me, at least not at that time. So if your heart is open, you do hear the specific thing God wants you to hear.