Our team has never been to Chico, CA so this was our first visit. We enjoyed being here and seeing a growing church. Pastor Gabe Ruhl is leading the church forward in soulwinning and discipleship. During the week, the Lord worked in hearts, and we are grateful for the salvations and other decisions in the hearts of the young people who know the Lord.
Joe, the captain of the Rangers, was able to talk to a young man who had never realized the correlation between his damaged father relationship and his moral failure. He found great freedom in learning to release his dad to God and learning to let God be a father to him.
On the first war night there were two recruits on the Seals that were causing a lot of distraction during the gospel message. One of the kids left the room early but when his friend responded in the invitation he responded as well. Austin, the captain of the Marines, followed up with them and found out that both kids trusted Christ. It was neat to see the two greatest distractors of the night accept Christ!
Elaina, the co-captain of the Seals, counseled a girl after a chapel message who was struggling with bitterness. She told Elaina she hated the way she was treating her mom and sibling because of how bitter she was inside. She also needed to confess some things to her mom that she had kept from her. Elaina encouraged her to talk to her mom that night and the next morning she came to Elaina smiling and told her that she had told her mom everything.
During the Thursday war night invitation, a girl in the front row raised her hand for salvation but did not move. Elaina, the co-captain of the Seals, approached her and asked if she would go back to talk about salvation. She told Elaina she needed to get saved but was too afraid to go back. Elaina reminded her that none of us know how long we have here and that she needed to settle where she would spend eternity. Elaina invited her to get a friend of sibling to come back with her. Her sister came back with her and the girl received Jesus as her Savior!
Bethany, the Marines co-captain, recruited a young man who brought his two brothers to the final war night. The recruit had also been invited by someone at school and the friend brought them. This recruit and one of his brothers raised their hands in the invitation indicating they were unsure of eternity, however neither of them immediately went back. Afterwards, Bethany approached the older brother and asked him what he thought about the message and he admitted he did not know where he was going if he were to die. She was to encourage him to talk to a guy counselor about it. The brother agreed and trusted Christ a little while later. The recruit ended up getting saved as well. It was encouraging to see two brothers get invited through multiple avenues and both come and trust Christ!
Isabelle…asked me, what do you need to surrender completely to God? And I told her that I was called to missions, and I told God, no, because, I would be a very bad missionary just by myself. And she told me that it’s not just you, you have God on your side, and I just, I don’t have faith in God. Like, I didn’t believe that he would give me the strength. And, Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And I feel like we often use that verse…like, it’s become a cliche…and we kind of just read it and we’re like, oh, that’s very nice. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. But we don’t really realize like the amazingness and importantness of that in verse. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And so I’m using that verse and I’m gonna take that with me to the mission field.
I believe this with every fiber of my being, that our generation can do past what we can possibly imagine, if we were just willing to be honest, and I’m preaching to myself. But I want to get this verse to you, that has been on my mind for the past few hours. Ephesians 3:20 says, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. And I believe here that we have a lot of Christians who have a passion to see lives change for the sake of the gospel. And I don’t know about you, but I definitely want to be a part of it.
Brother Van Gelderen talked about how we often do prayer as a theory, and then it becomes law, when it’s a reality in our lives. God convicted me that prayer can no longer be a theory that I let other people test and I see their results. It needed to be a test…theory that I tested for myself and let God prove…himself to me rather than to others.
….When he was preaching about bitterness, I had a grudge on somebody a long time ago. And the Lord spoke to me about how I need to let go of that person and forgive them. And so I got alone with God, and I forgave that person in my life.
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