Now that school has started back up and I am now in my second year of college, things are starting to get a bit busier. My schedule is filling up a lot more than I had anticipated and I am finding myself in the hard decision making spot of what to keep in my schedule, what to rearrange and what to throw out. The weekend prior to school starting, I went to the ISU Young Group (Apostolic Christian) Summer/Fall Retreat. That was a lot of fun, but also it filled up a lot of time. Now that the school semester is back and rolling again, Thursday night Bible Studies from the same group at ISU have started up again. During the summer I had joined another Small Group via the church I attend, Eastview Christian Church, and the group had met on Thursday nights. With school starting and schedules changing, we split the group to have whoever could come, to come on Sunday nights, and everyone else could come on Thursday nights. However this week the Eastview group is meeting on top of the ISU Bible Study on Thursday night, since the Sunday one was cancelled. The group leader is considering going back to only Thursday night. If that happens, I will have a tough decision to make - do I stick with the ISU Bible Study, which I felt like God lead me to a year ago and told me this was a place to connect, or the Eastview Small Group, which I am starting to connect with. Part of me is slightly leaning to the ISU group, but I do want to connect better with the church that I am at.
Also, to complicate things, my church is wrapping up a year-plus long series on the book of Joshua and is doing a "experience" that has been in the workings for years. They are doing a 6-week end to the series, walking though Joshua 24, calling the whole experience "The Joshua 24 Experience". This experience is aimed to draw the church body closer together and closer to God. Each week will have a different focus, and in the middle will be a big dedication. Like the dedication in Joshua 24 where they rededicate themselves to God and they stand up a rock as their witness, we will do the same. On September 30, we, as a whole church body, children and all, will gather around a nearly 2-story tall rock (that is currently hidden behind a large box just outside of the church) and rededicate ourselves to God, having this rock be our witness. As we walk though this 6-week experience, we also are all, individually, are walking though a 40-day devotional written by our senior pastor and two other pastors in the church. The devotional book, published this year and printed this past June, is called "The Joshua 24 Experience". The sermons each Sunday will align with this devotional, and help lead us closer to God and each other. The devotionals are short, but are aimed to be able to fill it with my thoughts and experiences. There are lots of open pages to write and the devotionals challenge us to do so. In addition, we are all also involved in "tents". Just as Joshua and the People of God traveled and rested together in tents in the wilderness and the promise land (at first) with their families and grew with those around them, we will do the same. Whether out tent is out small group, our family, our coworkers, or a larger group at the church, each week we will dig into Joshua 24 all the more in our tent and grow closer to each other. My tent is my small group (which is the complication, because it meets the same time as the ISU group - if we move to Thursdays). In our tents we will expand on what was taught in the service the past Sunday and what we are learning and going through in the devotional. I am really excited for this whole experience and I know, I am confident, that God is going to do great things through and in and from it! Yeah God! I can't wait. We started this past Sunday (September 9, 2018).
(if anyone wants the devotional, let me know and I can get you one)
Also, to complicate things, my church is wrapping up a year-plus long series on the book of Joshua and is doing a "experience" that has been in the workings for years. They are doing a 6-week end to the series, walking though Joshua 24, calling the whole experience "The Joshua 24 Experience". This experience is aimed to draw the church body closer together and closer to God. Each week will have a different focus, and in the middle will be a big dedication. Like the dedication in Joshua 24 where they rededicate themselves to God and they stand up a rock as their witness, we will do the same. On September 30, we, as a whole church body, children and all, will gather around a nearly 2-story tall rock (that is currently hidden behind a large box just outside of the church) and rededicate ourselves to God, having this rock be our witness. As we walk though this 6-week experience, we also are all, individually, are walking though a 40-day devotional written by our senior pastor and two other pastors in the church. The devotional book, published this year and printed this past June, is called "The Joshua 24 Experience". The sermons each Sunday will align with this devotional, and help lead us closer to God and each other. The devotionals are short, but are aimed to be able to fill it with my thoughts and experiences. There are lots of open pages to write and the devotionals challenge us to do so. In addition, we are all also involved in "tents". Just as Joshua and the People of God traveled and rested together in tents in the wilderness and the promise land (at first) with their families and grew with those around them, we will do the same. Whether out tent is out small group, our family, our coworkers, or a larger group at the church, each week we will dig into Joshua 24 all the more in our tent and grow closer to each other. My tent is my small group (which is the complication, because it meets the same time as the ISU group - if we move to Thursdays). In our tents we will expand on what was taught in the service the past Sunday and what we are learning and going through in the devotional. I am really excited for this whole experience and I know, I am confident, that God is going to do great things through and in and from it! Yeah God! I can't wait. We started this past Sunday (September 9, 2018).
(if anyone wants the devotional, let me know and I can get you one)
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