Finding your ROOTS.
This past weekend my youth group had our 2017, DNOW. For those of you who find yourself sitting there thinking, "What in the world is DNOW?" I will tell you. "DNOW" stands for Discipleship Now, It is a very popular youth retreat for youth groups, all over the place to partake in. For my youth, it usually just lasts from Friday night to Sunday afternoon after church. We have 4 sessions, as a large group, and 4 bible studies in our small groups throughout the entirety of the weekend.
In the past we have done many different themes, such as 'Unleashed', 'Found', or 'One', This year the theme to our weekend was 'Rooted'.
The first night, our guest speaker talked about our soil. What is your soil? Is it enriching, or is it dry? What do you feed your oil? Do you feed it with a feast of time with God and in His word, or do you sprinkle it here and there with the 'bible verse of the day' on your Bible App? And then in Bible Study that night we talked about truly spending time with God, how you don't have to wait for a retreat to come around to get away with God, that spending time with your creator on a regular basis, is something that will transform you. When you spend time with God you are feeding your soul. You start to feel better and t shows to other people, makes them wonder what is so different about you? I found this study was especially convicting, because one thing I do not do on a regular basis is spend time in the word. And it is apparent in how I have been living my life here recently.
Saturday morning before we left our host homes to head back to the church, we ate and had another small group Bible Study. We talked more on the fact of being rooted in the soil of God's word. An analogy I found really heart-turning was this; If you have ever cooked a steak, a really good steak, you must first let it marinate in all kinds of sauces, juices, and spices. After a while that steak starts to soak up the juices and spices and starts to taste like them. The same thing that happens when you spend time soaking in the word,and letting the content of God's promises marinate on your heart. Likewise, if you've never tasted a steak before, do you know for sure if it is good or not? No. You must taste it to see if it is good. Same thing with God. You must taste and see that the Lord is good. I love metaphors like that because I feel like they really help you see what the Bible is talking about in a way that is really relate-able and easy to understand.
On the last couple of sessions we began to take it step further and talked about once you are strongly rooted in the best type of soil, God, how to branch out to others and plant seeds to help others grow. We brought to light the urgency there is in sharing the gospel with others. Tomorrow is not a promise, but today is, so aside from spending personal time with Christ, we must branch out to others and show them that light and tell them of the goodness God is doing.
DNOW is not only bible studies and worship sessions, there is also some really sweet fellowship with community throughout, and some really fun, hyped, youth games!
This weekend was a really spiritually enriching and awakening weekend. It showed me one again what the call of the Church is. To spread the Gospel.
Until the whole world hears.
