Hydrate Your Soul

Do you ever find yourself desiring more from life? Do you have a sense that there's more to life that all that you have now? Does your soul crave something that can't be satisfied by XBOX, Facebook, texting, new clothes, or popularity? This summer Uturn Jr. High took time each week to look at what stops us from answering that thirst of our souls. Believing that our hearts have a longing that can only be satisfied by our Creator, we took the summer to explore what it would like to truly pursue God and HYDRATE OUR SOULS. This teaching series was based on the book, The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer (click here to buy it on Amazon.com) and it really challenged us to abandon any type of spectator faith founded in complacency and laziness. We explored the ideas of battling materialism, dealing with doubt, responding to His presence, silencing ourselves to hear His voice, following God amidst trials or struggles, and finding our true hope and satisfaction in Him alone. Jeremiah 2:13 says, "...they have abandoned me - the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!" These words from Jeremiah clearly articulate what can easily happen after we identify that our heart aches for satisfaction. We encounter a moment of decision, we can either pursue God and seek His answers for life's questions, or we can venture down our own path, substituting God's plan for our own. In the moment our own plan can seem correct, but in the big scheme of things we come to realize that our plans don't truly satisfy, instead they leave our souls still thirsting. This entire series centered around the idea of whether or not we would passionately pursue God in order to quench that thirst in our souls. I would encourage you to buy a copy of Tozer's book and take the time to slowly read through it, it's not a quick and easy read, but it will challenge you in your relationship with Jesus and inspire you to truly HYDRATE YOUR SOUL.

Activate Your Bible

This spring we did a 7 week series looking at the different sections of the Bible and how they all fit together. The first section we learned about was the Pentateuch which includes Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Pentateuch was followed by the Historical books which includes Joshua through Esther. Gaining a greater understanding of these two sections of the Bible is crucial because they lay the groundwork for the New Testament. There is so much background information and historical context cannot be overlooked simply because these sections are a little more dry and less entertaining to read. In the Pentateuch and Historical books we are able to see that God wants to have a relationship with humanity and just how much he loves his creation. As we progress through scripture we encounter the Poetic books of Job through Song of Songs. This section not only teaches us about the character of God, but also challenges us to express ourselves in creative ways. Whether it be through song, poem or narrative we should tap into our creativity and share our emotions, thoughts and beliefs in ways that people can relate to. The final section of the Old Testament that we see are the Prophetic books. While many are scared, confused, or bored with reading the prophets, we must remember that God uses mankind at times to share his truth and his promises. Reading the prophets will also give us a greater context for the historical sections in Kings and Chronicles.

After four weeks of breaking down the Old Testament we finally made it to the New Testament. We looked at the differences between the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We discussed that while Jesus is the central figure of each gospel they are written by different men and they focus on different attributes of his ministry. The next week we had a great discussion about the book of Acts and how the Holy Spirit empowered the early church to explode onto the scene after Jesus' ascension. Our series concluded with a look at the different letters of New Testament, everything from Romans to Revelation. These letters were written by different men to different audiences at different times during early church history, but they all were written to edify the church body and point people closer to God's will for their lives and for the church.

The Bible is a book that can often be described as long, wordy, confusing, old, and boring; and when this is your view of the Bible there's no way you're going to be motivated to pick it up daily and study it, memorize it, and live your life differently because of it. Hopefully after this series students started to realize that the Bible is a book that is inspired by God, full of insight, capable of challenging our status quo, relevant to us today, encouraging and comforting during our tough moments, and one of our greatest resources for understanding who God is and who we are.

If you would like to listen to any of the messages from this series, you can find them for free on iTunes by searching for "Uturn Bothell".

Where is God when you're in a JAM?

This past weekend we continued our "Hydrate your Soul" series by talking about pursuing your relationship with God during times of struggle, trial, or overwhelming circumstances. It can be so easy to direct our focus on the problems of life rather than keep our eyes on Jesus. Difficult circumstances are never easy to navigate, but we have to remember that as Christ followers we have God on which we can depend and trust. We need to be diligent in following Him even when times are tough. We can't forget that God is still there, his presence is still around us, the Holy Spirit is still empowering us; even when life hits the lowest of the lows. No matter how lonely, discouraged, frustrated, overwhelmed, overlooked, stressed, or stretched we may feel we must constantly do our best to remain faithful to Christ and trust that He can help us navigate these troublesome times. Even though life has gotten difficult, we have to remember that God has not abandoned us, He's still right there, and He still loves you dearly. Its during the tough times that our faith gets thrust into action. Those are the moments when we need to admit our dependence upon Him alone, and look to God for guidance, strength, wisdom, and peace. We also must remember that God can use these difficult times to refine us and teach us to be more like Him. Keep your eyes and ears open to the Holy Spirit so you can see how God is using your circumstance to make you more like Jesus.

If you feel that you're going through a tough time right now, here are some verses that may be an encouragement to you:

1 Peter 1:6-9, 1 Peter 5:7, James 1:2-4, James 1:12, Galatians 6:9, Matthew 5:10-12, Matthew 7:24-27, Isaiah 26:3-4, Isaiah 35:3-4, and Philippians 4:4-9