3DYC 2007- Transformation

I just returned from 3DYC, which was held in Grand Rapids Michigan this past weekend. Can I say what an awesome experience this was with our youth group and other fellow Christians. There is always something special whenever we have a youth conference, mission trip, or summer camp that is really hard to explain. Over the past three days, I saw many youth and adult leaders touched by the Holy Spirit and I saw a lot of lives TRANSFORMED~

God is so good isn't he?

Our speaker, Stacy Foster, shared from his heart the whole weekend and we all went away touched and challenged by his messages to us. Below I will try to hit some highlights from the weekend:

Friday:

This was all about TRANSFORMATION IN OUR HEARTS.

*God makes us choosers, not winners or losers.

*Who we hang out with is who we are going to become.

*We have all fallen short and are all sinners.

Saturday:

The morning session was titled: TRANSFORMATION IN OUR ACTIONS.

*It is not going to be easy to be transformed, we have to work at it.

*We need to chisel things in our lives that aren't like Christ.

*We need to get rid of the "ites" in our lives.

*Paul made 4 mistakes that we can't make in our lives:

1. He was unwilling to get rid of his good things

2. Living in self-deception; sin blinds us.

3. We can't play the blame game, we need to take responsibility for our own decisions.

4. Paul didn't understand the consequences of his sin. You can choose your son, but you can't choose your consequences.

The evening session was titled: TRANSFORMATION IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS:

*Stacy really challenged us with sexual purity. It was a really heavy message, but a great one. We had a great meeting afterwards as a youth group with a lot of talk about how important it is to have accountability in our lives.

*4 steps to being sexually pure:

1. We need to limit our sexual touch.

2. We need to set boundaries right away.

3. We need to take our bodies and yield it completely to God.

4. We need to make ourselves accountable to someone.

Sunday:

This mornings session was: TRANSFORMATION IN OUR WORLD.

*We have to be people of conviction.

We can't just talk, we need to walk the talk and live out our lives for Christ!

*We must be people of courage.

We have to have a lion's heart and step up to the plate.

*We need to be people of connection.

Prayer is a key to connecting to God!

*We need to be people of commitment.

We need to love God and others in our lives.

By The Tree led us in worship the whole time and that was awesome. I can't begin to describe what 1,300 youth and youth leaders sound like when everyone is worshipping as one. It was just amazing to see what was taking place there. It really got me thinking about what Heaven is going to be like as far as worshipping. This weekend was just awesome, but Heaven is going to be so much better.

This was truly a great weekend of getting to know others, getting closer to those I already know, being challenged in the word, and worshipping my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I know after being in this conference that there is going to be some TRANSFORMATION in my life and I am excited to see what God is going to do in my life and those in my youth group in 2008!

In the words of Jeremy Camp in his song ENOUGH:

You are my supply, my breath of life

Still more awesome than I know

You are my reward, worth living for

Still more awesome than I know.

And all of you is more than enough for

All of me for every thirsting

Every need you satisfy me

with your love and all I have of you

Is more than Enough~