"He is ALWAYS Faithful"-2 Timothy 2:11-13

Have you ever wondered why God continues to love us even when we don't deserve it? I wrote and spoke on this a bit in yesterday's blog, but the question still remains to me, why does God constantly come through for me and love me and remain faithful to me, even when I am unfaithful to Him? Why is it that He is always there to hold us up even when we've committed the same sin for the Umpteenth (is that a word?) time? Time and time again, God has shown me His faithfulness and you know what I've done in return? Remained unfaithful, you know I think what we are guilty of doing sometimes is thinking nothing of sin, I mean we commit sin everyday and we throw it off as the cliche, "well we all sin everyday." My problem with that lies in the fact that I want to be faithful to God and sometimes I just have the hardest time being faithful, remaining sinless even for an hour, or praising my God when I overcome a temptation.

Isn't it great to know that God is faithful to us even when we SO don't deserve for Him to be? It blows my mind each day to know how much God loves me and how even when I turn my back on Him and remain in sin, or even when I pay Him no attention that He remains there waiting for me to come back to Him. Even when He's the last thought in my mind, I'm the first in His...crazy huh? It would be so easy for Him to just say "forget it...I'm not gonna continue to love Him when he continues to screw up all the time" but He never says that and He always promises that He will remain with us, it's a crazy thought! Just an encouragement to you...God will remain faithful to you even when you're not faithful to Him and I'll say it again...when He's the last thought on your mind, you're the first on His-Grace and Peace.

"Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; IF WE ARE FAITHLESS, HE WILL REMAIN FAITHFUL, FOR HE CANNOT DISOWN HIMSELF."-2 Timothy 2:11-13

"We Needed to Be Loved"

1 John 4:7-5:3




There are some facts that need to be pointed out in this Passage...
1. The word "love" appears in this book of I John 46 times, but 32 of those are in this passage alone.
2. It can be compared to that of I Corinthians 13 (Love Chapter)
3. There are 3 different kinds of "LOVE" in Scripture and here they are:
a. AGAPE...defined as, "an unconditional commitment to the well being of another person or “I’m committed to your good no matter what, no matter how you treat me, I’m committed to your good."
b. Philia..."Friendship love" can be viewed as 'Give and Take'
c. Eros..."Romantic love"...defined as that infatuation we have with someone we "love", it's sort of a romantic love (what I can take for myself)

God loved us with an AGAPE love, He loved us with that unconditional commitment to our well being, no matter how we treat him, He is committed to our Good, doesn't that just blow your mind, that He would love us in spite of ourselves?

Think about that for a second, no matter what we do, He is committed to our good, sometimes we convince ourselves that other people need to deserve our love, but we are just a channel of His love to be given unconditionally to others.

Question then is: "What LOVE are you loving with today?"

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What's the Deal With the Light? John 8:12-19

Have you ever wondered what the big deal was with the "Light" that Jesus always talked about? If you've ever been in church or ever heard Shaun speak (which you should have...if not...I'm sad...jk) you've heard the phrase or phrases "I am the Light of the World..." or "You must walk in the light as He is in the light..." these two statements are profound if you think about them for a second but it's easy to lose sight of them because they're used so often that it kind of becomes a lost point with us...

So, the question is, what's the big deal about the light?

Well, there's four things about the light that you need to know about if you truly do want Christ to be the light of your life and you want to grow in Him and let others know about Him.

1. Let the Light guide you and let your light guide others (verse 12)

2. Don't ignore the light...God's light will shine for you if you'll be willing to see it...(verse 13-14)

3. Focus on the light and the light in others (verses 15-16)...You ever known that person that claims they're a Christian, yet all YOU see is darkness? Maybe there needs to be a perspective change so you them in the light of Christ, and then you can focus on the light of Christ and the light of others.

4. Recognize the light (verse 17-19)...Can you even see God? Or are there so many things going on in your life that you're light is shaded and God's light is almost non-existent?

• We have got to realize that we need Jesus in order to get through life.


• We've got to dive into relationship with Jesus and love others in the process.


• We've got to run the race set before us in life and not run from it.


• We've got to spread the news of God's gift to us.

THESE ARE ALL EVIDENCES OF THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IN YOU!!!

My encouragement to you?...Quit living in the Darkness and come into God's light for you...love you guys...Grace and Peace!!!

HEY GUYS!!!

Man, you guys know I don't like to be gone on Wednesday nights...I don't like missing all of you as you're coming up, I certainly don't like missing you guys play those games that we choose on purpose to see how far you'll go in making a fool out of yourselves ( I mean...um...uh...yeah I got nothing...sorry about that)...Anyway, I wanted to post a blog on here to do two things...here it comes...ready?...still ready?...seriously are you ready?...ok, now that I've annoyed you and you're on the edge of your seat, here it is...I wanted to tell you about this new blog...it can be accessed through our student website www.surfstudentz.com, or by going to http://studentzspot.blogspot.com, and check it out...here's the deal (you know I can't go a Wednesday without saying that...ok I can't go anyday without saying that)...But, I will be doing DAILY devotionals on here in the Word of God, so if you want your morsel of God's Word for the day, open it up and read a chapter, then read the blog...ha ha jk.

But, I will be doing a DAILY devotional on here every single day, and for those of you who scoffed at the idea that I can do this everyday, you'll miss out if you don't check because you think I won't do it-Ha...jokes on you!!!

But, You'll just have to check everyday to get my devotional thoughts on God's Word for that day.

Now, let me share my heart with you for a second...sorry shane it's called flexibility...ha ha...Guys, here's the thing...I've been at Southside for two years now...I know it feels like so much longer because you love me so much, but all that aside...I want you to know how much I love you...a long time ago, I was done with ministry, I was never going to be a youth minister ever again and I was done with the whole church thing and it hurt to be at that point but that's where I was....so, without going into the details of that...I want you to know that God has used you guys in so many ways...to challenge me...to encourage me...to love me...to pray for me...and ultimately to show me the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am so grateful...beyond words...to be the youth minister at Southside and to be with you guys every week, even though you guys don't all come every week (which makes me sad)...ha ha jk...but I really am, all kidding aside...so grateful to be the youth minister at an awesome church that loves you guys and I can't imagine how much God loves me that He would give me another chance to share the message of Christ and His love with students again. You guys are my passion...You're my desire...and there's nothing I love more in the world than students...seriously other than Whitney and Jarrett, and Jesus!!!! What can I say? Whitney's Hot(please don't kill me for typing that)...but I love you guys so much and my prayer for you tonight is that you would be open to allowing the Word of God speak to you...I'm learning more and more this week about the richness that the Word has to offer if we're willing to listen to God and be still and silent in His presence...so, listen to Shane (love ya bro!)...hug on Whitney (all of you)...Love on Brad and Terry, Leeca and Marissa and Cara and Kaye and sorry if I missed anyone that's there but love on them because they love you guys with all their hearts (or else they wouldn't be there) and they want to serve you guys, let God speak to you, and listen and be still in His presence...try it...you might just love it...-Grace and Peace from the Coolest Youth Guy Ever!!!-jk I'm second to Doug Fields...ha ha love you guys!

The Ministry of Perfume

Now, I know that this sounds wierd but I'm studying the Gospel of John in my Master's class John and His Writings...(thus John)...and we are reading through John chapter 12, where Mary Magdelene pours the expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus, and wipes His feet with her hair...two observations...

1. The bottle of perfume literally cost a years' wages (mentioned later in verse 5)
2. It was such a ministry to Jesus.

Now, I know this sounds a little wierd here because first why would perfume be a ministry, especially to Jesus the Son of God? and, what was the importance of the perfume being worth so much?

If you think about it for a second...this shows us how much of a human Jesus Christ really was in a way...here's what I mean...sometimes we get caught up in looking at Jesus as "The Son of God" which He is, no mistake about it, but we get caught up in the aura of that, then we lose sight of just how much a human He was...He was fully God and fully man, and this little act of kindness from Mary means so much to Jesus because He's a person with real feelings and to know that she was so close with Him meant so much to Him.

The other thing is that the perfume was literally worth 300 denari (spelling?) which was a years' wages but we have to realize something about Mary, this was the only thing she could offer to Jesus that was worth everything to her...she didn't have very much and she didn't settle for giving Him little things as offerings...she gave him all she was worth in that perfume, He was going to lay everything down for her, so she did the same on Him...

One last thought...Mary was at His feet with the perfume...and at the foot of the cross with Jesus at His death...coincidence? I DON'T THINK SO--GRACE AND PEACE.

The Start of Something Great....You'll Love it I know it

Hey guys! This is my first ever blog on blog spot, I'm sitting in John and His Writings class for my Master's degree, and well I've lost attention...oops!!! This will be the blog spot for everything SURF Student Ministries, through this blog I will be doing a daily devotional, my thoughts on youth ministry from things I read, things I watch, things I'm told (I better be careful...), and things that God just reveals to me I guess so I wanted y'all to know that this is our new blog for our Students at Southside Baptist in Monahans and hopefully it will be the start of something great!!!

I know what you guys are thinking...there's no way Shaun (ADD, OCD) can remember to do a daily devotional, YES I CAN, and YES I WILL...come check it out...in fact I am now going to do another post with a devotional for today!!!