what your dad did for YOU.

here's a question for ya, what do you do when you walk into a cafeteria full of high school students who look nothing like you and are expected to make friends? answer: take a deep breath and jump on in.

that is the reality that i was faced with today when going to graham for the first time. i looked around the cafeteria and thought, well... i'm here to love girls so let's do this. we went up to table after table introducing ourselves (katy and myself) to unsuspecting high school girls. they probably thought we were crazy but they all had a smile on their face anyway! they were so sweet. we meet some great girls who seemed so genuine.

being at graham for the first time today was so surreal.. it's something that i've been trained for and have been preparing for for months! but nothing compares to walking in the doors of the high school and actually doing the contact work. i am so blessed to be working with such amazing people who will be there for me every step of the way and of course, i will be there for them.

in my small group we are studying ephesians. now if you don't know much about ephesis it was a city that was filled with sin. it was what is now modern day turkey and at the time was a major port city. since this was such a big city there was one of the largest theaters known at the time located there. in this theater it was not uncommon for huge riots to be held that bashed christians. paul started his mission in a synagogue in the middle of the city.  once people began to follow Christianity some citizens began to persecute the Christians. soon, paul was imprisoned and wrote this letter to ephisis from jail. ephesians 2:4-10 is one of the most powerful snippets of scripture i've ever read. read it for yourself then i'll tell you why i love it:


⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.


so. why do you love it?? one of the reasons i love it is because these words are the gospel. these six verses explain what jesus did and why. it explains why we don't deserve this gift and what we need to do now. this scripture covers all of the bases in just six verses!! GO PAUL! well.. GO GOD WRITING THROUGH PAUL! i want you to think for a second why you love this scripture. maybe read it again and find out what jumps out at you then think about that. there is a lot of cool stuff in there. 


my ministry with young life is me thanking god for what he has done for me as well as the world by serving him. i want to share these six verses with everyone. so, these verses have meant a lot to me over the past few months.


so, remember why jesus died for us and how amazing it is.