God has given Northwest Valley Baptist Church a beautiful piece of property. It sits right at the foot of a small hill that is filled with desert vegetation including several beautiful saguaro cacti. Add to that the wonderful weather in November and you can imagine the great setting for a great week.
The teens in this youth group are a blessing with which to work. They have a sensitivity to the Lord. All week there was response to the preaching of God’s Word. On Friday, we had a sweet prayer meeting where for a few minutes heart felt prayers from the teens were vocally expressed.
That evening we had wonderful testimony service. One young lady testified, “This week the Lord has been dealing with me. Bitterness is my problem. I have been so bitter towards my parents.” She explained that her anger led “to depression and anxiety”. She also explained, “All of those negative feelings were affecting everything that I did”. She finished by saying, “So, I forgave them. And now, guys, that anxiety and that depression it’s gone. And I am so happy and I’m so excited. I just don’t know. I just feel so happy inside.”
A young man testified of confessing his hiding music behind his parent’s back. He concluded his testimony by saying, “It’s just like I want to jump and scream because I finally have that wonderful joy that God gives once you confess and you are finally just right and it is over. It is just amazing.”
Another young man stood and gave this testimony. “I’ve been saved since I was thirteen years old. This week, God really spoke to me and . . . there were some things that I had to get right.” He related how it was difficult to respond to the invitation. In fact he said, “I was scared to get up, but I knew there was something inside me, which was the Holy Spirit, telling me to get up and go to that auditorium. So, I did.” There in the auditorium his team captain began to work with him. As a result of his telling the team captain his problems, he went to the principal and confessed some cheating he had been involved in. He testified, “I felt like this weight on me just lifted and came off, but not completely because I knew I still had to talk to my parents.” He told the audience that he talked to his parents that night. “As I was talking to them, I saw my mom weeping. . . I opened up my heart to them and I told them what I was hiding behind their back. One of the things was music. I knew that I had to tell them because there are rules at home that I can’t have that. So, I talked to them. To be honest, I was scared but, I was willing to pay the consequences, but what I got from them was forgiveness and there was joy. And I cried.” He told about a couple other things that the Lord led him to do. One was to talk to some friends who had spiritual needs and another step was to give a testimony. Before he finished the testimony, he challenged his fellow students to get right about sin in their lives. He concluded with the words, “I guarantee there will be joy in your heart.”
There were many other stirring testimonies and the icing on the cake was the end of the testimony service when young people began to give testimonies of being touched by the testimonies! One young lady put it this way, “And just all the testimonies . . . they just really hit me!” Amen!
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