This last weekend in JH was AMAZING! It was our second week in our “Summer of Swagger” series and we launched JHO (Junior High Only) at my house. Even though it was Father’s Day we still had JHers showing up more excited than I have seen in a long time!
Here’s what went down this week…
In the first part of Acts 2:42 the Bible tells us that the people devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. The very things that Jesus commanded them to teach right before he ascended back into heaven (see Matt 28:19,20). So it is, with God’s Word that we begin our journey of increasing our Swagger.
We discussed that the foundation to increasing your Swagger is God’s word. There is absolutely no replacement for daily time spent in the Bible! We went through some scripture that tells us more about how awesome Gods word really is…
Jesus is the Living Word (John 1:1)
Hiding it in our hearts helps us to not sin (Psalm 119:11)
We need to meditate, constantly think upon His Word (Psalm 119:15)
His Word is a light and a guide to our life (Psalm 119:105)
His Word is pure (Prov. 30:5)
His word will never pass away (Matt 24:35)
His Word is Living and Powerful (Heb. 4:12)
Every word of the Bible is breathed by God (2 Tim. 3:16)
Next we learned that we don’t need to find time for God’s word, we must MAKE TIME FOR IT! I painted a picture of what this looks like. I asked if anyone had ever had a morning where you woke up way too late, and all you have time for before you leave for school is to grab a Pop-Tart and run off to school. That is finding time for food. Next, I painted the picture of Thanksgiving dinner. You plan in advance the menu, you set aside specific time to prepare an amazing meal. This is making time for food. Obviously one is much more satisfying, and from one we receive much more nutrients. This is how we need to treat our devotional time. We need to make time and guard it.
Next I showed them how we now do devotions. For a long time I along with many other people have used the SOAP method of journaling. It stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. Now seeing as we are into our Summer of Swagger series and we want to increase our Swagger I thought that it was only appropriate to have SWAG become the new SOAP… SWAG journaling is as follows…
SWAG —> Scripture, What’s it saying’, Apply it, God help me
So we won’t be SOAP journaling anymore… We will be “Gettin’ Our SWAG on!!!”
I gave out little cards that had the new way of journaling on them so that all the students could put them into their Bibles or journals.
This next week we will be in week three of our Summer of Swagger series where we will be discussing part 2 of how His Word will increase our Swagger…
So don’t forget to bring your JH student to JHO this Sunday at 6pm. Email me for directions to my house if you need them.
Excited to see you there!
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