The Week That Was

As I look back on the past week, many things flash your mind. We had a wonderful retreat at Horns Creek with the students and staff from the Element. Our theme was centered around Fire and our retreat was called Ignite 08. We had a wonderful lineup of speakers and the entire weekend the kids, as well as the adults, were challenged about purpose and calling. We had wonderful times of worship with the Link band and our Encounter band (which is student-led), all of our worship time prepared us to hear the Word of the Lord. We returned from Horns Creek and had dinner at the church before going into Awake 08 (revival at Westmore main campus). The speaker that night was Stan Lester, he challenged our students to Aim High! "God did not call us to be happy, He called us to die"! We must die to self daily and answer the call to follow Jesus. My favorite night of Awake 08 was Wednesday night, brother Sean Teal brought a message titled, "Surprised by Grace"! He reminded us that many are called but few are chosen, warned us against having an attitude of entitlement and told us that God blesses obedience. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. We all need grace everyday.....we expect it from others and we sometimes take it for granted with God......do we ALWAYS show grace to others? I was truly blessed this past week and was in church everyday for seven (7) days, I look forward to the changes that this week makes in our students, staff and most important in me!