John 3:16

So this is a verse that is very common to man. Chances are whether you believe in God or not you have heard this verse at one point in your life. Here is what it says.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in

Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

 

 

You read it. Your brain comprehends it. Then you close your bible, or stop listing to whoever is telling you the verse. Have you ever really sat down and meditated on this verse? Like really dug deep to reveal the message God is giving you.

 

 

Until today I hadn't ever really meditated and studied the true meaning of this verse. It is simple but it goes so much deeper that what I have ever imagined.

 

 

• First you should know that The book of John leads up to this one verse. This one powerful, life changing, verse.

 

 

Okay! now lets break down this verse!

 

For God so loved the World

 

• God's love is not static or self- centered. It doesn't stand still or focus on only itself. It reaches out and draws us closer.
• In this simple beginning sentence God sets up the pattern of true love. The basis for all love relationships.

 

That He gave His only Son

 

• When you love someone so much you are willing to give up everything for that individual. This is how much God loved us. That He would send His only son to die for the sins that we commit.
• Can you imagine loving someone so much that you would give your son away to die a painful and brutal death? Its hard to imagine but that is exactly what God did for us!

 

That whoever believes in Him,

 

• To believe means more than just believing that God is who He says he is.
• To believe goes even deeper it means having total and complete faith in God. Giving all that you are to him and trusting that He will take care of you.
• It is to put Christ in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny.
• Believing is both trusting his words are reliable, and relying on him for the power to change.

 

Shall not perish, but have ETERNAL life. 

 

• Some people are repulsed by the idea of eternal life because their lives are miserable, but eternal life is not an extension of a person's miserable, mortal life.
• Eternal life is God's life embodied in Christ given to all believers now as a guarantee that they will live forever.
• In eternal life there is not death, sickness, enemy, evil, or sin.
• When we don't know Christ, we make choices as though this life is all we have. In reality, this life is just the introduction to eternity.
• Receive this new life by faith and begin to evaluate all that happens from an eternal perspective.

 

 

 

That is the breakdown of the simple verse John 3:16. This verse holds so much meaning and power and is one that needs to be studied and meditated on.

 

 

God bless <3

 

Love,

Heaven April 





Wow... It's been a while

Hey guys! wow... someone pointed out to me the other day that I had not updated since April!!! 0.0 that is crazy! I guess sometimes we get caught in the flow of life and forget the ones who are there for support. For a while I didn't update because I was at a stand still as to what to talk about. Then I guess I just fell out of the habit of updating that until someone mentioned it to me, I didn't really think about it.

Its about time that ends! I need to get back into the habit of blogging again. So I hope some of you that were reading periodically will still be reading :)

This Sunday I will leave to seek week summer church camp with my amazing youth group! I am very excited but there is another previous camp I would like to talk about.

 

Early July I had the opportunity to attend the pre- teen church camp in brownwood. For the first time instead of being a camper (I was to old) I went as more of a sponsor and helper. It was an amazing life changing week. My job for the week was to look after the girls from our church and help them in any way that they needed. It was amazing getting to see God work in their lives and to be a part of that amazing experience for them.

 

 

The first night was the most life changing. We took 6 girls and 6 boys this year. Shane Pruitt was the preacher and I can not recall the name of the band. The theme of the camp was "Fishing Patiently with God" and the main verse was Romans 12:12- Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and constant in prayer. That first night we had 9 out of the 12 of our kids either accept Christ or recommit their lives to Him. It was amazing to feel the energy from the kids as they felt the power of God move through them. That first night is one I will never forget.

 

 

The second day I was either in the cabin or in the nurses office. We had one girl who got very sick and eventually had to go home. I don't regret for a moment volunteering to miss out on the days activities and stay behind with her. I felt that was where God wanted me. I was able to get to know the person I stayed back with and to just stay in for the day and meditate on Gods word. While the girl rested I was able to get some Jesus time in and prepare for the rest of the week. :)

 

 

The third day was the last full day of camp and it was just wonderful. The girls were split up and I was with three of the older girls and the other sponsor took the two younger girls. Its weird how the kids that you attended church and school with but never really knew, one week and you start to feel like you know them. I had spoken to all three of these girls but I hadn't really taken the time to get to know them outside of being the younger kids in our church. That day I got to hang out with them and discover who they really were. They were some pretty cool kids! That night was very memorable for me because there was a woman named Megan Bruce who was a children's entertainer. She used puppets to tell stories of the power of Christ. That was really neat but what I enjoyed the most was the ending. Its hard to explain what she did besides just saying it was amazing. So here are a few pictures to show you. :)

 



She told the powerful story of Christ in 5 simple pictures that put together showed the Love God had for us. This was an amazing way to end an amazing week.

I am so honored and blessed to have been given the opportunity to participate in this week. The power of Christ is like no other. The children of the church are not the future of the church , they are the present of the church. God can use even the youngest of people to impact the life of many! God defiantly used those 6 girls to impact my life.

 

 

Here are a few more pictures from the week :)

 

 This is a snap shot of Justice shooting the arrows at one of the activities on the first day :)

 Here are a few of the boys preparing their fishes during art time. These fishes were put on a net in the worship center for all to see!

 Britney is doing the same as the boys were in the above picture. Jesus fish time!

 Here are 5 out of the 6 girls that went to camp this summer. Like I stated before one got sick and had to go home.

This is little Marilu. :) She weighs like 50 pounds! Its always fun having her around!

 

 

 

Once again I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update. I will start updating on a regular basis like I used to. I hope you all bear with me and continue reading.

 

God bless <3

 

Love,

Heaven April 

Verse by Verse Breakdown- Matthew 10:28-32

So this was something I typed up for one of the S.W.A.G kids. She had a question about some scripture that comes out of the New Testimant book of Matthew. I just wanted to share this with you guys. Chances are if she had that question there are more of you out there who have it to.

Heaven Slaughter

April 29, 2013

Matthew 19:28-32

Verse by Verse Breakdown

“Do not fear those who can kill the body and can not kill the soul.” (28A)

-         The world and the devil can both kill our body. Do not fear them because they do not have the ability to kill our souls.

“ Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both the body and the soul in hell.” (28B)

-         God is the only one with the power to condemn us to hell and to destroy our soul. We are told to fear God. Fearing God is mentioned many times such as in Ecclesiastes 12:13 , Luke 1:50 and Psalms 33:8.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” (29A)

-         This is just stating that sparrows were not worth very much.

“Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” (29B)

-         Even though they were not worth much value God still never let them fall to the ground and away from His care.

“And even the vary hairs of your head are all numbered.” (30)

-         God knows everything about us. Down to the number of hairs on our heads.

“So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (31)

-         God values sparrows that are of little value in the world. He will not let them fall. It is stated that we are worth more than the sparrows. That means God values us immensely and will not let us fall before him.

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my father in Heaven.” (32)

-         Its simple. Accept Jesus and acknowledge him now and he will acknowledge us when the time of is His father is to come.

“But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in Heaven.” (33)

-         If we disown Jesus right now before our peers and friend he will disown us when the time comes for His father to bring judgment upon us.

If you look in Luke 12 you will also find this same scripture. Its worded a little differently but the exact same thing is being expressed.

Basically Fear God not the devil or world. We are very valuable to God and he will protect us. :) 

Hope this helps explain things a little better! :)

 God Bless <3 

Love, 

Heaven April 

Do not worry

Therefor do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry 

about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

The book of Matthew chapter 6: 25-34 deals with worrying and overcoming this worry. As the days continue to grow more and more stress full I find this chapter comforting. My biggest problem is worrying and stressing over things, instead of just putting it into the hands of God. 

I worry for the days ahead, just as I am sure many others do. But it states it black and white in Matthew 6, Do not worry for tomorrow. God is already in your tomorrow. He is there waiting for you to call upon Him and give your worry, stress, fear, grief, and everything else to Him. Each day will bring a new trouble to your life. In that trouble is a reward. When we overcome that worry and truly give it to God, He gives us joy, happiness, peace, hope and Love. 

That is not to say that there wont still be struggle and worry in your life if you give it all to God. I will not give you that false hope of total joy and happiness all the days of your life. God never promised us that this life would be easy. He promised that it would be possible. 

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, 

but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:26

Trying to handle everything on our own is an impossible task. Putting all that stress, worry and fear on our own shoulders is impossible. But if we give that to God, it is made possible. We are able to endure all that life throws at it and we can overcome the world! We can face tomorrow and grow in our strength with God.

I can do all things through Christ who Strengthens me! 

Philippians 4:13

God gives us strength to face another day. Even when it feels like the stress and worry is consuming you, God builds that fire in your heart and gives you the perseverance to continue on. Do not let that worry become your life. Do not let that fear become your story of regret.. Give it to God. Let Him be what consumes your life. Let Him take the fear and worry and throw it in the pit of fire. 

Anything is possible with God. The strength to face a new day comes from Him. He can be that rock you stand upon. If you only let Him in. Give it to God! 

God bless <3 

Heaven April

Are you prepared?

This past week I attended the first ever Spring Break Seek Week at camp Buckner. It was intense, emotional, amazing, life changing and left me in awe. It was a great experience where God really spoke to me. 

The first day there we got into groups called D- Teams, where it was two rec team members, and various sponsors and kids from other churches. This was the group that we spent most of the time with. We did games with them as well as D-Team time where we reflected on what we learned and how God spoke to us throughout the day. 

There was one ques ion asked by a leader that has stuck with me all week long. It was not until the last day of camp that I could truthfully answer. The question is as follows. 

If God called you right now to go do His will. Would you be prepared?

This question seems simple but you really have to think about it. If God said, "Hey drop your whole life, family, friends, boyfriend, schooling, everything and go spread my word in a 3rd world country;" Could you? Could you risk your whole life and change everything you have planned to follow Gods plan? 

Now we know that in the book of Jeremiah it states that God has a plan for our life. This plan is not always the one we planned. Just a year ago I had no plans to attend a christian university, to major in a biblical major, or to strive to be a youth pastor. My plan was to attend Sam Houston State University and get my degree in psychology. Plans Change, God changes them. Now God has put it on my heart to be His disciple. 

So I ask again are you prepared? Think hard and pray about this one. Like I said it wasn't until the last day of camp that I answered. 

During worship time on Wednesday, God spoke to me through a song and He said, "Come, Heaven, Follow me." I said "Here I am, God, Take me." I mean that. I'm prepared to lose everything and follow him. Its one thing to say that I am prepared and its another when the time really comes. I would like to think that I am in a place where I full heartily trust in God and follow Him. Now this is not to say that I wont mess up, or that the road will be easy. But I know that God is with me always. He never leaves me. 

So......
         If God called you right now to do His will. Would you be prepared?? 

Love <3 

Heaven April

John 13:16

Wow... So it has been a really long time since I sat here updating this blog. I've been sidetracked and life has been hectic lately. That's no excuse though.. For those of you who keep up with this blog, I am very sorry. 

What I want to share today comes from John 13:16 which says, Very truly I tell you no servant is greater than their master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 

When I heard this verse it really got me to thinking. So often we try to act as though we are higher than one another. In Gods eyes we are all the same. We are equal. None of us is greater than the one who sent us, the one who gave us the very breath we are breathing right now. 

Its easy to get caught up in this world. Its easy for us to act as though were better than one another. Take racism as an example, one race believes they are better than the other. Is that true? No! God made us all equal and he tells us to love one another just as He has loved us. 

That's something the world is lacking. Instead of love they hate. Did God have that hate when he sent his son to die on the cross for us? No, He had love.. He is love. I believe that if the world would take a step back and truly understand that we are equal and decide to love instead of fight, we would all be better off. 

I walk through the halls at my school everyday, and I see the love and family feeling between some students, then again I see the hate and outcast by others. I'm guilty of this. I have been the outcast that feels she doesn't belong, but, even though its wrong, I have also been the one who was not very accepting. I guess we are all guilty of this though. No matter how much we feel like an outcast, we have also been the one making someone else feel the same way. 

So very truly I tell you no servant is greater than their master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. God is our master, God is the one who sent us. Share a smile today, share love, don't share hatred and bitterness. Show that kid that feels like they don't belong that we are equal and that God is waiting to make them feel like they belong. Be that strength that someone is searching for. 

God bless <3

Heaven April

P.S. Once again I am very sorry for not updating. There is no excuse. I just got caught up in the schemes of this world. 

This to shall pass

Seeing your best friend crying out for help and guidance and feeling useless is a tough feeling to have. No matter how much pain I am in or how I am feeling, seeing my friends hurt, tears me apart. I saw that tonight. I saw that cry for help and I felt helpless. 

I found out that I was not completely helpless and in helping her I helped myself. Well.... actually God helped us we had nothing to do with it. He worked through us to help one another. I just want to share a verse of scripture from youth group tonight that I think really helped us both regain that hope and patience we cried out for. 

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

Romans 12:12

This scripture brought me that peace, and hope, and joy that I have been longing for all week. Be joyful in hope. Be joyful in God and in his miracles and blessings. Rejoice that we get to spend eternity with Him and that our days of suffering and fearing are numbered. He restores us and makes us whole and He never gives up on us. 

Be patient in affliction or tribulations. Trouble times come. God never promised there wouldn't be storms. But at the end of the storm a beautiful rainbow will shine for us. Patience produces endurance and we need to be patient during these hard times. They will pass and better ones are yet to come. 

Be faithful in prayer or another translation I have is be constant in prayer. Pray to God in your struggles and in your joy. Talking one on one with God is amazing and He listens even when we feel no one else will. God longs to talk with us and to have our hearts. He already knows us better then we know us. He created all that we are and He will help us through those hard times. Pray to Him. Talk to Him. Let Him in and He will give you the desires of your heart. 

For myself to be hurt, angry, or just on the verge of falling apart is one thing, but to see my best friend who I love is another. I came to the realization that we can be there for each other and we can hold one another when we cry. We can talk and encourage, build another up but only God can heal us. We need him in our lives. We need to put our faith in Him and give Him our all. God will calm the storms and produce a beautiful sunlight. We just need to believe and to never lose hope in His plan. Never lose hope in His strength, His might, His love, His mercy, and His love for us. 

For those of you who are still crying out and starching for a life greater then your own. Come to God. Give Him your heart and your troubles. Sometimes life seems like its to much to handle, it is during those times that God will hold you and get you through the roller coaster. Trust in Him. Believe in Him. If you are searching for that way out of this life then search no further. God is always near, with open arms. He will give you a life worth living. God is the breath you are breathing so be the light He is shining. 

God bless <3

Love, 

Heaven April