SonQuest

I just got back this afternoon from SonQuest. SonQuest is a youth retreat down in Orlando that services over a thousand youth from all over central Florida. It begins on Friday night & lasts thru Sunday morning worship services. Throughout the weekend there is a keynote speaker who speaks about 3 or 4 times. There are usually a few different types of entertainment like concerts from college musical groups or in our case Bean & Bailey who are a comic/music group. The students also have a couple of "encounter" classes they attend. Many of the youth ministers & other men from the churches will teach a class about different topics & the students are able to choose from the variety of classes to determine which ones they want to attend.

The weekend started off well. We got there & registered for our rooms & after we had dropped off our luggage we headed out to Fuddrucker's for dinner. Yum, Yum! I had an ostrich burger which was quite delicious. Each time we got to eat together throughout the weekend we enjoyed just sitting & talking about the various aspects of the retreat & what we enjoyed most.

Around Saturday afternoon as we were coming back from dinner I made the comment to another chaperone that the weekend was good, but it hadn't gone as well as last year. Wouldn't you know that within just a few hours God changed my mind. He must have been saying "Oh, you don't think it's going well? Then let me show you how good it can get!" The keynote speaker for the weekend was David Skidmore. I am not sure which congregation he attends, but he definitely was a wonderful speaker. He is funny, entertaining & really brings the message home. That night he brought a powerful message to everyone there. It really moved the hearts of quite a few of the students to ask for prayers or to rededicate their lives to Christ. Around 11:00 that night there were 20 baptisms. It was quite a night! David also spoke the following morning for worship services. Each time he spoke he stuck to the same topic of "The Artist", our theme for the weekend. God being the artist & his masterpiece being the world & each one of us. Yet each time he seemed to present it a new way & to create a new thought process of how we all viewed our lives. We saw how we were God's masterpiece & how to show it to the world.

David was a wonderful speaker & did such an excellent job each time he spoke, but my favorite part of the weekend was the singing. Too often in services I sing the songs without really noticing the words. It happens even with new songs. I concentrate on getting how the song should be sung, as opposed to concentrating on the meaning in the words. This weekend God opened my heart and moved me through the words of the songs. One in particular was very meaningful. I had sung it before, but not very often. Here are the words and if you want to hear how the song is sung this is the link to it on You Tube Give Us Clean Hands (though it is sung with instrumental music) :

We bow our hearts,
We bend our knees,
Oh Spirit, come make us humble.
We turn our eyes,
From evil things,
Oh Lord we cast down our idols.

So give us clean hands,
And give us pure hearts,
Let us not lift our souls to another.
Give us clean hands,
And give us pure hearts,
Let us not lift our souls to another.

O God let us be,
a generation that seeks,
Seeks your face, O God of Jacob.
O God let us be,
a generation that seeks,
Seeks your face, O God of Jacob.

This song reminds me that at every opportunity I need to be seeking Christ. In the middle of the day my thoughts should turn to him. When I am happy about something I need to thank him for providing it. I need to remember that he has blessed me beyond anything I could ever ask or imagine. It shouldn't be only in the dark times that we seek him. We also need to encourage our younger people, like the teens from the weekend to be the "generation that seeks" God's face. He needs to be our first thought in the morning & the last one at night. As I have heard it said before, we need to seek him & be so "involved" with Christ that others have to seek him in order to find us.

I hope that even though your weekend might not have been what mine was (busy, exhausting, but spiritually motivating), you were able to see Christ working in your life some way. There are a few other songs from the weekend that were excellent as well. If you would like to view them they can be found on You Tube as well. In Christ Alone, How Great Is Our God, Everlasting God. Enjoy your extended weekend & have a good Labor Day.