Be You.

2 Timothy 2:15
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Romans 8:31-32
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

The first day of our labs and small groups at DCLA was called "BE." In other words, God says a lot of things about you. He wants you to BE who you are. Did you know, "What God says about [you] is always the truest thing about [you]?!?!" That was said a lot during that day. It's so true because so often we can give into what the world has to say and in turn we believe what they say. However, you have to be proactive and identify the lies. There are so many "false messages" that we buy into and it affects us. We don't want anymore of that.

That's exactly why part of this conference was all about having small groups (and with people you didn't even know). Together you can help create an image of who God is and what he says about you. If you think what others say about you are lies, you can't correct them unless you know they are lies. So be strong and stand up for who you are. These are just some of the things we learned. Have you ever been in a small group with people you've never even known? You can learn so much.

You probably have at least two people in your life who know a lot about you (family, friends, and those from school, work, and church). Identity is defined as "the collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitely recognizable or known."

You may have positive or negative statements thrown at you by people. Neither may be true (or some or both may be true). It's hard...

I will tell you this, no matter who you are and what you are like, you are "God approved." He doesn't care about anything but YOU! He isn't swayed by what others think about you. You're good enough for God. You can tell who truly loves God because they love and accept you for who you are!

We had name tags on the first day, and they weren't just ordinary. We were to pick a name from a list of "What God says about me" (if you want that list e-mail me at heytbone92@gmail.com - Maybe I'll come back to them someday when I can't think of something to talk about). I put "God-approved" on my name tag. For the rest of the day, the goal was to call people by whatever name they wrote down. Some we're a bit long so it took forever to say some people's names. If you remembered the reason, it wasn't so hard though because you are God approved and so many other things!

Listen to the song "Who is Like You" by Tim Neufield from Starfield. I wonder if God sang "Who is Like You" as he made us. Now it's our turn to sing this to him!



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.