POWER OF PRAYER AND GUILT

We had our final INDULGE of the school year last night. If you are not hip to it, Indulge is a monthly party for high school students at Cokesbury in Knoxville. The original intent was to give students a place just to hang out and to be an outreach to the community. We have learned a few things along the way, but last night I was reminded of how God is using everything in our ministry. One student started coming to indulge last fall, but quickly plugged into Sunday mornings too. One of his Sunday School teachers was working the front gate last night and asked him how a situation was that he had asked his class to prayer for the previous week. He was a little surprised because he forgot about asking the group for his request, and he was a little blown away when he thought about how much better his week had been. Chalk it up as a lesson in the power of prayer and the care of our youth workers. Good job Alsyssa! The second thing that had God all over it was when a student was on their way out and asked for prayer for their father who has been ill. There seemed to be much more to the situation, but as the kid wept there came an apology for not being at church much lately. It was almost as though they thought that their absence had brought about the sickness. Guilt is a powerful thing too. Satan likes it that way because it keeps us stuck in the mire of failure and hopelessness. Please remember this: There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That means God is our only judge and through the forgiveness and righteousness we have in Christ, we can approach God at any time and talk to Him about anything!