With this moment I want to PRAISE HIM!!

Arriving home from church this evening, I am just filled with the excitement and joy that comes when God moves! I am so thrilled to tell that God is working in the hearts of the youth in our small youth group and truly blessing us. We are still praying for our youth pastor and his family as they have all been sick and unable to be with us. We are also thankful for our Sunday school teacher stepping in to teach the lessons on Wednesday nights. Our group has been studying Don Whitney's book, "Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health" and it is so convicting. We are once again touching on the subject of Godly Sorrow and asking the question:
"Do I truly mourn over my sin?"

Our times of prayer and fellowship have been so sweet and I am praising God for His hand in our lives!

-Amanda Marie

That's My King! S.M. Lockridge

I've seen this video various times over the past year or two and it is always an encouragement! Enjoy!

Recommended Reading...

Our Sunday School class has been going through this book by John MacArthur and it has been fantastic! We have been studying the fruit of the Spirit and will be going into the section on I Cor. 13 next week. Check it out at www.gty.org !

-Amanda Marie

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 3

My final entry for this little series of Special Weekends, I wish I would have done this the other way around because now in April I'm forced to try and remember the beginning of February! :)

Our first Youth Retreat in many years was held at Michindoh where we have our annual summer camp. We love this camp ground and the staff is always really kind and helpful. We went for a quick overnight stay and had so much fun. We enjoyed fantastic food, a fun hayride under the beautiful stars, making spam sculptures, and playing broom ball on the ice!

Along with all the activities we were also enormously blessed by the messages presented to us by Dan Armstrong. We were challenged through God's Word to identify
and overcome the idols in our hearts. Idols that are not necessarily in a physical form, but rather are evident in our sinful heart attitude. What is an idol? Anything that takes the place of God in our lives and anything that we are willing to sin against God to get.

We were each given a notebook and time to talk to God one on one and confess our personal idols and to raise our flag of surrender and ask God to become more beautiful to us than our sin. We studied James 4:1-7 in which we are given the steps to overcoming idols.

James 4:1-7
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

Dan emphasized the need to be truly broken about our sin and not to just feel remorse, but to express genuine Godly sorrow. Until we are truly Broken and Humbled we will not be Changed!

Nothing about the fight to Love God more than anything is easy and that includes the fight to get rid of the idols in our lives. However with God's help, It is possible!


James, Heather, Rebekah,and I were given the opportunity to lead worship at the Retreat and the song, "Give Us Clean Hands" quickly became the theme song for the event.

This song is taken from Psalm 24: 3-6,
"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah"


This is the group of girls that I was able to lead in a short devotional on Friday night. The Lord was really working in my heart during the time that I was preparing for this and showing me where I needed to be changed.

Overall this Retreat was a HUGE blessing in all our lives, we had a wonderful time and I am so thankful!





- Amanda Marie

"Peace, Perfect Peace"
by Edward Bickersteth

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus call us to Heaven’s perfect peace.

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 2

I'm working my way back to the first Retreat in February, but first I'll share a little from a conference in March.

This year our association's annual Ladie's Conference was held at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Mrs. Connie Tucker was the keynote speaker and her 3 sessions were on the thinking woman of God. We were challenged from 2 Timothy 1:7 to Think God's Thoughts After Him! and to be a woman who is actively pursuing the knowledge of God and who studies the Word of God diligently.



On our second day at the conference, we had a time of singing and testimonies which was a real blessing. Women shared stories of God's work in their lives including one in particular of a lady who was saved just recently after seeing the movie "Fireproof." After years of being in the church and believing she was saved, the Lord opened her eyes and she was genuinely converted.



The Sunday of the conference we were also blessed to hear Pastor Tucker speak at our church and speak more on this subject. The following illustration they both referred to has stuck with me...
We as Christians should be constantly taking in scripture and meditating on it just as a cow grazes all day long and later brings the grass back up to chew on it until every last bit of nutrients are out of it. We should not just let the scripture we read or the sermon we hear go in one ear and out the other, we should bring it to mind again later and think about it and think about it until we have all the "nutrients" out of it. Maybe not the most pleasant illistration to think about, but it makes it's point! :)

2 Timothy 1:7 (King James Version)

⁷"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

-Amanda Marie

Prayer request...

This past week I recieved a letter from our association's camp director inviting me to counsel at church camp this summer. We will be having youth camp at Michandoh again this summer for 5 days. I have counseled the senior girls cabin the last two years and have enjoyed it and found it to be challenging but rewarding spiritually. I would ask your prayers while I pray about whether or not God would have me to minister in this area this July.





Sovereign Grace Baptist Association Youth Camp


Summer 2008

-Amanda Marie