Summer Lessons

Some of the greatest lessons I learned from the summer:

-Suffering for God is a privilege and gift from Him.
"For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1:29)
Every bit of suffering only helps you develop endurance which develops character which develops HOPE.


-Man needs a helper.
Stop doing things alone and thinking that you don't need other people's help. Do everything with a partner. Whether it be Christ or a friend, man's not meant to be an island.


-There is a very real spiritual battle going on and we need to be armed with God's Word.
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
"For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).


-"Take the good, drop the bad."
Jesus Christ is the Truth (John 14:6a). Honestly, there is no absolute truth in this world except the one spoken by God. Every Christian or theological book I've read carries some flaw in it. So, it's important to have discernment by the Spirit in order to separate the truth from the lies.


-It's only when you have nothing that you realize you have Everything.
You can't live for God without making sacrifices.
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" (Luke 9:24-25).
"You must die in order to live."
"You must give up everything in order to keep everything."
"You must become a servant in order to become great."
^All of that sounds so backwards, right? It certainly seems so but when you understand the Truth of God and have faith in it, it all starts to make a great deal of sense.
Faith transformed into action... crucial, dude.


-If you honestly want to achieve dunking a basketball within a summer, don't snap your ankle so early in the game!!!
Hahahaha.


How does all this impact me?
As the school year begins, I hope to share all these lessons with others. I hope God will use me to encourage the body of Christ, boldly and genuinely share my faith with the unbelieving, and continue to point people in the direction of the saving cross.

"Hey... I wanted to know... why do you continue to praise God everyday no matter what happens on any given day?"

***Points to the beautiful cross***