A sweet friend made me a compilation CD with Rend Collective Experiment for my birthday. A lot of their songs have truly touched me, you should check them out. One song in particular hit me because I shared about it on Day 4: counting the cost. I talked about how it is costly to follow Jesus. If you read about the New Testament church in Acts, you can clearly see that they were persecuted severely for their faith. It still happens! I knew some Africans, as I grew up there, that were beaten and disowned from their families for their faith in Jesus. So why do people do it?....... It's because they experience God's true love for them. Physical pain and suffering loss does not even compare to the boundless love that they know they have in Christ. What is so great about this is that the enemy can take everything from us, but God's love....NOTHING can separate from the love of God! (Romans 8:38-39)
With this in mind, think about the students at Hope Academy. They face a lot of different types of persecution for their faith. Many of them find it hard to stand firm in their faith. They know what's right, but the truth doesn't seem cool or it becomes clouded and desensitized as they are at home or in their community. Some of their peers are in gangs or people close to them either suffer from drug or alcohol addiction and/or sell drugs. Promiscuity is widely practiced and acceptable within their environment, so it becomes a very clouded issue for these kids. To follow Jesus means to say "NO" to all of these things, and it's hard. It's uncomfortable, not what they know or see around them. They could easily be rejected and ridiculed. Therefore, it's costly for them to follow Jesus!
*pray for the students that graduated from Hope Academy last year and are in High School now.
pray that they would be strengthened in their faith and would encounter other students and staff at their schools that would encourage them in that way!
*pray for those students who left Hope Academy last year or didn't come back this year, for different reasons. Pray that they would continue to encounter Jesus even within the tough environments they're living in!
*pray for the students who have committed their lives to Jesus to take it seriously. That they would impact their families and community with the truth of the gospel, as they stand strong in their faith.
*Lastly, please pray for a group of High School students who have been a part of our tutoring program for a number of years, but are making some bad decisions. Pray that the Lord would do what it takes to get their attention--to show them that they are hurting themselves and others by their choices! But more than that.....that they would experience God's love and grace in a way that would set them on fire!
Thank you for praying!!!
Watch this video about churches all over the world, counting the cost for Jesus. Ask God to show you things that you might need to give up for His sake and His glory!
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