Returning to work from a four-day holiday is never fun. Even though last week was the official day of thanksgiving, I still have something to be thankful for this week – social media.

Thanks to the wonderful designs of Evan Davis, along with the diligent work of my loving husband, you can now stay connected to Pedestrian God via social media.

Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pedestriangod

Follow us on Twitter: @PedestrianGod

Thank you all for your readership and support. Now, go like the page!

My husband spent the last several weeks unsubscribing from mailing lists so that he would stop receiving spam emails.

Me? I spend the first couple minutes at my computer deleting the long list of junk messages. It’s not like they really affect me life. So what if I have 50 emails Monday morning simply because I didn’t check all weekend?

Kevin’s inbox is almost completely free from random solicitations. Mine, however, overflows and floods my computer screen.

When Kevin receives an email, he knows its contents have a purpose and directly relate to him. It took him time and effort to delete his email from the accounts,  but the results were worthwhile because he decluttered his life.

If we don’t take the time to remove the things from our lives that distract us, we never gain traction to a pure life.

The apostle Paul prayed that the Philippians would grow in “discernment to know what really matters so that they will be presented as pure and blameless on the day of Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-10)

I’m not speaking specifically toward emails here. It’s just an example to get us thinking.  Television shows empty of truth dirty my life. Music idealizing worldly possessions revert my attention away from Christ.

I wonder, what else clutters our life and disguises itself as important?

Caleb, Jacob, Rachel, and Abby joined David Curtis in leading the youth in worship during our final session. They did a great job! We’ll welcome David back any time possible.

Toby concluded the night by giving the youth a time to laugh. It’s amazing how many church bulletin typos he shared with us.

We are not rooted in God’s love if we are not joyful. The three main thieves of our joy are 1) Satan 2) Self and 3) Situations. Our joyfulness flows from knowing that our God is in control. The God who is in us is greater than the god of this world. Our actions spring from a boldness and confidence that only the Holy Spirit can give. In the words of the song “Our God” that our band sang this weekend, “And if our god is with us, then what could ever stop us. And if our God is for us, then what could stand against.”

Thank you to all of our church members who committed to pray for individual students this weekend and to write them a note. Thank you to the Sunday school class that stepped up and provided amazing suppers for the students. And a huge thank you to the brave college students that acted as small group leaders and to the church families who opened up their homes for the students to spend the night in. God has truly been at work in their lives this weekend. May all glory go to Him and Him alone.

We kicked off this afternoon with our second large group session of the weekend, led  in worship by David Curtis, lead singer of Run Kid Run. After recording a Christmas song Friday morning, he traveled to Jackson, TN to help our kids worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. You can check him out at www.davidjosiahcurtis.com.

Toby then continued our study of being Rooted in God’s love by basing his sermon in Luke 15, the Prodigal Son. As he walked us through the story, he reminded us that we don’t have to get cleaned up to come back to God. Praise the Lord that He doesn’t make us grovel for forgiveness because He already paid the debt on the cross for us.

During free time, the girl’s had the opportunity to serve Birth Choice. They painted canvases with Bible verses. Birth Choice will be putting the decorations in their celebrate life bag – the bag that they present the mothers the day they give birth to their baby.

And the entire youth group helped our church pack Operation Christmas Child boxes with one of our Sunday School classes. All together, almost two hundred boxes were packed today!

Continue to pray for the students as we will enter into our third and last large group session at 7:00. Pray for our student band that will be leading worship with David.

Mr. and Mrs. Ira Simmons enjoying dinner with the youth group.

Seventy youth and parents joined us for dinner.

Some of our leaders excitingly receiving their burrito from Sean Montes, owner of The Burrito Meal.

“There is a difference between believing that Jesus is the Son of God and having a relationship with Him.” Toby Robinson, youth minister of First Baptist Church, West Frankfort, Illinois, encouraged the youth group to examine God’s love for us tonight during the first session of our DNOW weekend.

He extended the metaphor of our theme, “Rooted,” by discussing trees. He said that a tree is as tall as its roots are deep. God uses nature to teach us about Himself. Likewise, we can only grow in our relationship with Christ if our roots are firmly planted in the truth of His love.

He posed the question, “How can we say the Bible is true if we’ve never read the whole thing?”

As I type, the youth have gathered into small groups in several church members’ houses across town. Pray for them as they discuss and reflect on the truth that God is love.

Pray for Toby as he prepares to present God’s word twice tomorrow. And for David Curtis, lead singer of Run Kid Run, as he continues to lead us in worship.