Day 1 Backyard Bible Clubs

Over the past 6 months, the Lord has been teaching me to delight in Him  (Psalm 37:4).  I have loved the Lord for several years now, but I am really learning to delight in Him.  It all started when the Lord revealed 2 Samuel 22:20 to me  “He brought me into a spacious place; He rescued me because He DELIGHTED in me.” We all want to be delighted in, don’t we? I knew that the Lord loves me more than I can ever imagine or comprehend, but somehow I never really thought about the Lord delighting in me.  Learning this truth, has changed my heart. If the Lord delights in me, then I certainly want to delight in Him!!  To truly delight in Him, we have to know Him and spend time with Him… He is faithful and He will reveal Himself, so we can delight in Him. 

            What does all of this have to do with Hawaii?  Well, in the process of learning to delight in the Lord, I am learning to recognize the sweet God moments where you know that the Lord is speaking to you. I want to share with you the first God moment of my trip.

God Moment #1 Right before take off, I was reading out of the book of Jude (I can count on my hand the # of times I have read out of Jude)  and vs 24 says “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy”  Now I know that this verse is not directly talking about falling out of the sky, but minutes before being thousands of feet in the air, I love that the Lord pointed out that He can keep me from falling. J

            This morning before the Backyard Bible Club started, I was studying about how the Lord is our Righteousness.  I was reading in Jeremiah about how our hearts are deceitful and beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9), but how thankfully, the Lord provided us a way through Jesus.  Ezekiel 36:26 says I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  Later during the day, I was seeing kids and teenagers from last summer. It was so good to see them, but it was frustrating to see and hear about some of the choices that have made throughout the year or are continuing to make in this moment. Sadly, these choices do not glorify God.  In reflecting on the day, God brought to my attention the verses that I read earlier.  The Lord is our Righteousness  Jeremiah 23:6.  Only through Him, can we have a new heart. Please be praying that God will do a mighty work in the hearts of these children and that He will give them a new heart and a new spirit.  I am so thankful that we rely completely on the Lord to be our Righteousness!

            Funny moment of the day, several of the little girls asked me if my toenails were fake.  I guess French pedicures equates with fake nails.

 Philios came with Darla to pick me up.

 One of the views from the building I stayed in last year. I never noticed it because I stayed on a lower floor.

 Happy to see Lesleen! We'll start our discipleship group up tomorrow.

 I look a little more awake in this picture. Philios and Darla gave me this lei at the airport.

 Remember my little buddy that would ride on my back.... He still does!

 Raston... another year older. He informed me we were frienenemies because I graduated from UGA. Hawaii fans do not like the bulldogs because of the Sugarbowl several years ago!

 Remember Amy? She's on the left!

        The whole team... except for Darla and me.

    Much love to everyone!