rich.

first of all,

knee drill last night was slammin. moved slowly from the fear of the Lord to the joy of the Lord. good times indeed.

secondly,

in one of my teen cells on Wednesday, we had a long, and rather in depth, holiness chat. we don't usually go that deep, believe me! but we brought forward the verses from 1 John 3, and particularly these verses:

"No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." 1 John 3:6

"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. " 1 John 3:9

we struggled through the verses with the teens.

we allowed this tension to remain: it is impossible to stop sinning, but God commands it. if He commands it, He must make it possible, otherwise He'd have to punish us for not doing something that isn't even possible to do!
it would be like if our parents told us that if we didn't jump over our house then we would be grounded. how mean is that?!
but we know that God isn't mean. so there is a tension. we let it sit.

we all agreed that our experience does not match up with these verses.
but then we agreed that we shouldn't water down the Scriptures to match our experience...rather we should pull up our experience to match the Scripture.
if our experience and the Bible don't match up, it is our experience that is wrong.

i had never seen these guys struggle with a verse so much. it was great! they actually listened to what the Word said, and that's why it messed them up so much.

"Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29
"The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon." Psalm 29:5
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

When He speaks it's like fire, a hammer that breaks rocks, a double edged sword...His voice is powerful enough to break cedars. just His voice. woah.
praise Him, i believe He spoke on Wednesday night. He burned some uncomfortable places in the teens. He smashed some mindsets they previously had. He broke into pieces some sin that they had settled into. and He penetrated, and cut deep inside.
so they won't be the same. because God spoke, not just their silly leaders.

thirdly,
these lyrics are stellar:
"I've paid my vows-- no turning around.
i've burned my bridges, they can't be found
i am Yours."
it's about covenant, surrender, and that huge leap from giving 99% of your life to the Lord, to giving 100%.
nice.