Hey everyone!  We are officially half way through the 75 Days and we have seen some incredible things happen already this summer.  We have seen powerful worship services, 17 baptisms, many 217group service projects, awesome youth events, and we just started 217kids camp!  Today our guest blogger is one of our college students help planting a church in Virginia on a college Campus.  She is also a 217kids camp team leader.  I am looking forward to the 2nd half of the summer.  It will be a great August!

Scripture Read:  Psalm 75, 76

Key Verse:  Psalm 76:11

“Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them;
let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared.”

Observation:

Many times we tend to limit our powerful God to something that we can control. We tend to forget how we are ultimately supposed to fear our father in heaven through worship.  The book of Exodus talks about how no one could see the face of God and survive. Even Moses who received the 10 commandments had to be shielded by the hand of the Lord until he had passed by. If we truly feared God our vows and promises would be kept, and our ways would change. So why don’t we?

Application:

This past week I was reminded of the power of God. I went on a serving trip with middle school students and I was reminded of how small I had made my God. I had taken him and used him for what I wanted to and I prayed for the things that I thought I needed but I was limiting God. I was confused about who God was and how big he was. Each place we visited and served we prayed that God’s will would be done, not our own. I had never seen so much dependence as we all turned to God throughout the day. We worshiped him through our service and we learned to fear God by letting him take a greater control of our lives. It was scary at first but as we became more dependent on God, I learned to seek him out of reverence through worship and wanting to please him. This is the way that God was praised and worshiped in Exodus by the Israelites and this is what we should be doing each day.

Prayer:

Remind me to worship you everyday, throughout the day. Let me not forget how good you are. You are my creator and are so much bigger than I could ever imagine. Use me the way you want me to be used, not the way I have asked. Thank you so much for all that you have done and all that you will do!

By Alissa 217kids camp team leader