Thank You Justin!

January 1, 2022, marked TEN YEARS since Justin first came to as our Student Ministries Director! He has worn many different hats during his time here (literally and figuratively!) but the consistency has been his warm smile, his incredible giftedness, and his servant’s heart!

Justin, we thank God for you and congratulate you on this very significant milestone in your spiritual journey and your career in ministry! We can’t imagine the past or the future without you!
Enjoy reminiscing as you look at the photos below and wondering in what year they were shot.

How are your “dangerous prayers” going? I find when I pray “search me” my intimacy with God grows. I think what makes “sin” sin is the effect it has on our fellowship with our Creator. One sin (or a common effect of the presence of sin in our lives) is the desire to hide from God and one of the benefits of “search me” is the way it removes walls and barriers and opens doors for God to step through into our lives.

“Break me” is a “dangerous” prayer because it gives God permission to align our will with His. Think of it as a horse learning to submit its will to the rider. Perhaps the best word picture of rebellion against God is the desire to throw Him off or refusing to give in to His will as He exerts it through the reins.

I had a few horses in my lifetime and the last one took me for a wild ride! I was eleven years old and we had just moved to the farm. One of the first things I wanted to do was buy a horse. My dad found one for me and about the second day I had it, I should have known something was up when it took me under a low tree branch trying to brush me off and then when we got out into the open pasture, IT TOOK OFF! It was galloping lickity-split and bucking in the process. I was literally hanging onto the side of the horse. Fortunately the fence line it was running along, came up against a creek and it stopped. Very shortly after that, Dad came flying over the hill in the pickup, loaded up the horse, took it back and stopped payment on the check.
God won’t “return” us but neither will He fight us for control. I pray that you grow in fellowship with Him as you pray for Him to “break you” to ride.