Centrifuge 2011 (Part 1)

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend Centrifuge at Union University with my youth group. For those of you not familiar with Centrifuge, it is a camp that Lifeway does at different locations throughout each summer. Hundreds of students go each week to learn more about God, connect with others, and just have fun. The whole theme for this year was "connect." We learned about connecting with the lost (people who do not know God in a personal wa and who do not have a relationship with Him), connecting with authority, connecting with family and friends, connecting with those that hurt us, and connecting with fellow believers.
I learned a lot while I was there so instead of one super duper long post, I'm going to do three over the next few days...

One of the days that really stood out to me was the first full day of camp. We learned about connecting to the lost. There were two passages of scripture that really meant something to me. One was from John 1:40-42...

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

The other one was from Matthew 4:18-22...

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.


In the first passage, we see that the very first thing Andrew did was tell his brother about Jesus and bring him to Him. How often do I have that urgency, the urgency to tell everyone (but especially my close family and friends) about Jesus and what He has done in my life? Sadly, it is not often enough and God convicted me about that last week.

In the second passage, Jesus calls Andrew and Peter and James and John to come follow Him. Each of them dropped everything they were doing and IMMEDIATELY follwed Jesus. Growing up I heard the phrase, "Delayed obedience is disobedience." Not only can we apply it to when those in authority here on Earth tell us to do something, but we can also use it in our spiritual walk with the Lord. How many times do I do exactly what God is telling me to do at the exact moment He is telling me to do it? A lot of times we make excuses and try to talk ourselves out of doing whatever God says the moment He is telling us to do it. But that isn't obedience because it's delayed. Also, they were all willing to give so much up for Jesus. They gave up jobs and an income, friends, family, and comfort in general. But they gave all of those things up because they knew following Jesus was worth it. I need to have that same attitude every day of my life. I need to be willing to give up anything and everything as well as drop whatever I am doing to immediatley obey what God is telling me to do.

Annie ♥