This was my 6th year as a student, but I've been to every event but one.
I went to YBC this year with an open mind and heart to whatever God had in store for me. There wasn't anything in my life that I was hoping to get help with at YBC, so I went to be blessed. :) And I definitely was!
Various speakers had the morning messages- Larry Zook, Elvin Martin and Chris Tice. Henry Klassen had the afternoon messages on "Faith" and Mike Mollman had the evening revival messages.
I'll just highlight each message to give you an idea of what we learned last week.
Monday "Rules for the Kingdom"
Larry spoke that first morning on Rules for the Kingdom. In the kingdom of God there are 4 important points, just like an earthly kingdom, 1. King- Jesus Christ; 2. Subjects- Christians; 3. Laws- The 10 Commandments; 4. Domain- The area that the King has jurisdiction.
Just as in an earthly kingdom, Jesus expects the subjects to adhere to His Law.
Henry Klassen spoke on Abraham. (Everyday he spoke on a different person referred to in Heb. 11.) He challenged us with Abraham's faith. Too many times we walk by feelings and not faith. Don't doubt God's call. Ever.
Mike Mollman preached on Ezekiel 36. Salvation is a new heart. Have you been changed?
Tuesday "Kingdom Principles for Earthly Goods"
Chris Tice spoke on the "upside down" kingdom that we live in. There are 5 principles that we live by in our heavenly kingdom. 1. Beware of Covetousness 2. Be generous in giving to the Work of God 3. The Kingdom of God is more than food and clothes 4. Seek ye the Kingdom of God 5. Where your treasure is, there's your heart.
Sarah was Henry's next "Hero of the Faith". He encouraged us sisters not to get discouraged in those everyday mundane tasks. Those are just as important as great acts for God! He also warned us that we need to have our own faith. We girls can't ride on the faith of others (be it father, husband or church), we must own it for ourselves.
Mike spoke on the touchy subject of "Friends" that evening. He warned us that unsavory friends aren't content to fall away from God by themselves, but must take others down with them. Are we looking to be a friend or to have friends? The lust of the flesh and the pride of life will never have an end, the farther you go, the more you want. Am I finding my fulfillment in Christ alone?
Wednesday "Love Your Enemies and Resist not Evil"
Elvin gave 7 points on "Loving Your Enemies". 1 To love all people 2. Love all the time 3. Prayer 4.Chlidren of your heavenly Father in Heaven 5. A higher plain of love 6. Aim High! 7. Resist not evil. He mentioned that we need to praise our enemies by finding the good in them. He said that if we just can't seem to find any good, tell them they have nice teeth or something. :D
"Elijah" was Henry's next subject. He used 2 Kings 1:1-8 and 1 Kings 18:46; 19:8. Henry said "Didn't God use Elijah despite his shortcomings? He can still use us then!" The reason God came through to Elijah was because he was willing to obey God. A willing spirit goes a long way!
Thursday "They are not of this World"
Larry asked a couple of pointed questions, Am I willing to have Jesus reign over me? Am I willing to make a break with this world? Toward which city am I pitching my tent? Babylon or Jerusalem? He used Lot as an example in Gen. 19:12-30. Why did Lot's wife look back? She was reluctant to make a break with this world. Lot lingered in the world and his wife looked back fondly on it. The whole world nowadays is reposing in the sinister lap of wickedness. Larry pointed out that pride is the fundamental sin of the world. Is it for the kingdom of God or for myself?
Ah, yes. Hannah. Henry brought out some very encouraging faith building material from the life of Hannah. When we pray, remain submitted to the will and timing of God. Hannah was a woman of her word. She kept her vow to God and was able to give Samuel up with joy and willingness. She didn't regret her promise to God. God has no pleasure in fools that don't keep promises.
Mike's title for his evening message was "Let go of the World". We need to sever all ties and slam those open doors shut to the world. He gave 3 warnings to us. Warning #1 Be Ready! the end is coming sooner than you think! We are very expensive to God. He paid a very high price for us. Warning #2 You must walk closely and intimately with Christ. Warning #3 James 4:1-10. During this message, I could just feel the two kingdoms waring against each other, especially during the altar call. That night, though, two precious souls were added to the kingdom! Praise God!
Friday "The King and His People"
Chris Tice said that God wants His people to do His will with a willing and ready heart. Let your conversation and actions be godly so as to be a testimony to the world and to other Christians. We may be as close to the Bible as the unconverted will ever see.
Henry turned in a slightly different direction for his last message by speaking about Peter's betrayal of Jesus. #1. Mark 14:27 Pride is the first step toward backsliding. Peter was proud in this verse. #2. vs. 32-42 Spiritual laziness is a result of pride. You are too proud to watch and pray. When Peter woke up from that third nap in the garden, he was completely unprepared and had no idea what to do. Watch and pray! The drifting away is so gradual that we don't even notice it at first. #3. v. 54 Bold Peter had now become a fearful coward. He followed Jesus at a distance so as not to be identified with Him. Without diligent preparation, we too could begin to fearfully lag behind in an hour of trial. #4. v. 54 A Christian cannot be warmed and comforted by the fire of the world or he will be burned. #5. vs 66-72 Denial of Jesus Christ is the final step to closing the door.
Mike's last message was called "The call of God- 'Follow Me'" God demands our lives. We can't keep anything back. Jesus has already won the battle, so when we choose His side, we chose the winning side. If we side with the legions of darkness, that means we've choosen to follow the loosers. His main cry of the message was "Humble yourself and God will lift you up!"
Well, that's my synopsis of the week of messages. I'm sure all the other students would've heard other note worthy things, but those are the things that stuck out to me the most. Mike's messages were especially touching. That man preached his heart out! I just love when Mike preaches. There's not a message that I've ever heard by him that he doesn't get choked up, or break down completely. May God grant me a heart like that!
Group discussion was good this year. Girls were very open. I was excited that Mom and Dad got to be group leaders for the girl's group B. I heard a lot of positive feedback about them. :) Sadly, I was in the girls' group A so I wasn't able to be with them...
Prayer and sharing was good this year, though I'd have to say that last year's prayer group that I was in was prob'ly the best I've ever had. But, all the girls were very open and honest. We had some very sweet times together!
Chorus practice also went well! We sang 11 songs. Here's a list of them,
1. Man of Sorrows-Tis Midnight Medley
2. I can Hear My Saviour Calling Medley
3. O Life in Whom is Life Indeed
4. Praise God, and God Alone
5. How can I Keep From Singing?
6. Be Still my Soul
7. Muse, O my Soul
8. Watch and Pray
9. I am a Stranger Here
10. At any Cost
11. Go Into the World
I'm sorry if I bored you through this long recital... I'm still tired from last week, but I wanted to get this done today 'cause we have an extremely busy week ahead of us. *sigh* I guess we'll rest in Heaven...
Now for the pictures!
Deewee likes to sit on the clothes line pole. Remember how I'd mentioned that our drier was broke? Well, we finally got the parts and Josh fixed it Saturday morning. We barely got our laundry done for YBC. :)
Pile
The Lord's Prayer plaque at the church where YBC is hosted.
Reading the Bible School listing
The irrepressibles...
A smiling Abi in Chorus Practice.
James Ebersole was our chorus director again this year.
Group facilitators
The young men had a song all to themselves! It was called "Watch and Pray."
Friday night at Garzas' we girls had a girls' night with lots of candy, laughter and fun! :)
Listening to the Sacrifice of Praise CD that had just come out. (It turned out really, really well, if I do say so myself!)
Rose contributed Starburst jelly beans... Yum!
Emily contributed Fun Dips; Garza girls, gummy worms, gum drops, red hots, and choc. covered pretzels; and I had Hershey's chocolate bars.
Checking out the SOP CD.
Visiting
Please, no!
We decided to share the candy with everybody else, so we brought it down for just a little while.
Looking at pictures on Alexis' camera
Back upstairs, we continued eating candy and making memories. Emily had this cute little neck pillow that Kiana put sunglasses on.
We all declared it immensely cute and set it up on Rose's bed to preside over our little party! :)
Saturday afternoon, all the Emilys got together for a picture. There were seven of us there! The ages ranged from 17-24. I was the second oldest... That's kinda scary, I'm getting quite old!
Saturday night, we had our annual Garza/Grice ice cream party. We always go the whole nine yards- several flavors of ice cream, peanuts, whipped topping, maraschino cherries, hot fudge, caramel, and bananas. Oh, ya!
The waiting line...
I was in seventh heaven... Maraschino cherries!
Nate's bowl looks like it's mostly whipped topping. :)
A handfull of whipped topping.
Ray started to get up to get his ice cream, but Josh stopped him and told him to wait just a bit. After awhile, Dad came in with this huge banana split!
:)
Ray thought it was so funny!
He could barely get it all down and had to get another banana to sop up the rest of the ice cream. :)
On Sunday, we had church at Iowa Mennonite School, then moved back over to the church that they'd been renting for the week for lunch and the afternoon program. In this picture, James is having us girls practice filing out for the boys song.
The sound guy
James, addressing the crowd.
Leading out the first song!
Sweet Abba
Guys' song
Aaron sharing a testimony
:)
Joshie
Pay attention, Noah!
That sound guy again!
Larry left us with a challenging benediction after we'd sung the last song.
The girl directly behind me without the covering, is one of the youth that got born again on Thursday night.
Larry had us sing the theme song that we'd been singing before every afternoon message that week, "This World is Not My Home."
It sounded amazing! He'd had the congregation rise, so all their singing was pointed directly at us, while we were singing toward them. The sound was tremendous!
Just for kicks, I thought you might like to see the picture that we Glory youth were in...
Back home Sunday evening, we unloaded our suitcases, making a mountain of laundry! :)
Nice report Emily! It's fun hearing at other people's view of the week:) Sheila
ReplyDeleteOh wow Emmie, your laundry room looks like our kitchen does this morning! :) That was a really good week! Annetta
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