To Know And To Live

So this past weekend I went on a retreat with my church, this being one of the many I’ve been on, but it was the very first retreat I’ve been on as a middle school youth group leader. I’ve been leading for about 2 months now and I have learned so much about myself and about Christ. My middle school girls make me go further and think harder, they are all so amazing and I love them so much. 

Our theme for this weekend was “To know and to live.” To know what the gospel is and how to live that out. The gospel is the reason we are here, it’s the eternity of humanity. The gospel is God sending His ONE and ONLY son to earth to live a perfect and sinless life and then to die on the cross and take our sins upon Himself, He then literally beat death, He completely overcame it, He rose from the dead three days later and then descended into Heaven leaving the Holy Spirit within us. So that whoever would believe in Him will have eternal live with Him in Heaven. This is good news. This is truth. We watched a video over the weekend where Propaganda breaks down the gospel by every letter (I’ll have that linked below, definitely worth the watch). God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life. This acronym has helped me remember the gospel so much in so many different ways. 

We then looked at how to live that out. Romans 10:9-13 says “If you declare with your mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Some things that stood out to me a lot in this is how there is absolutely no difference in the eyes of God. He loves us all unconditionally and we are all equally broken and equally in need of Christ our Savior. The very moment you accept Christ you’re eternity is secure in His hands. We also talked about how God has a calling for each and everyone of us and we are to do that well, to do it for Christ, and to point people to Him. The gospel is the greatest thing ever told and it hurts knowing that there people all over this world who don’t know this incredible truth. I feel that God is calling me to go oversees and spread this truth, so that is what I’ll do.

Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age.” 

How the Gospel has impacted me.

I was once asked the question by my youth pastor “Why’re you a Christian.” I said things like “Because I was raised in a Christian home.” or “Because I go to church.” when in fact those are not things that make me a Christian. I can be raised in a Christian home, go to church every Sunday, read my bible frequently, but those things DO NOT make me a Christian. What makes me a Christian is believing in the gospel, and ever since knowing and understanding that truth it has changed my life. I used to be lost. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my future, especially since softball was no longer the center of my life. But knowing the gospel provided some sort of peace for me. I know that God has my future in His hands, He has plans for my life and as long as I trust Him those plans will succeed. Also, the gospel has made me more of a loving person. Knowing and understanding what he did for us. I didn’t deserve for Jesus to die on the cross for me and I don’t deserve to be loved like the Lord loves me, for I have disobeyed God way to many times to deserve what he did. But that’s the thing, we don’t deserve His love, but yet He still loved us and we are suppose to love others the way Christ loves us. For without love we are nothing.