Chicago Youthcure PowerCast: Recent Episodes
Pastor Decrease Dwayne and Soul Purpose Youth
The Youth of Chicagoland United for Revival and Evangelism is excited to release its PowerCast. Scope out messages with a beat, memory verse mixes, youth collaborating on strategies to change their city and photos and info from recent events. On the youthcure.blogspot.com site give us your feedback and comments!
How to know when it is time to fast?
Click here to Download the 17 minute mp3 podcast When to Fast to be encouraged in the rewards of fasting!
(3 snapshots on fasting:)
(Jesus said when you fast...
Which leads me to ask when should we fast?)
1) Hannah pouring out her soul so much that she couldn't eat And she looked drunk.
--> we should fast when we are desparate for a breakthrough!
2).Daniel fasting in his old age seeking greater sporitual understanding. (if the guy hadn't experienced enough already with lions and hAnds writing on the wall... Amazingly he hungered for more of God and His word that he was willing to set aside all "choice" food.
--> we should fast when we want physical hunger pains to shout we want God more!
3) nehemiah breaking down when hearing his home country capital was in total devestation. He wept, he cried, he fasted!
--> we should fast when the city is a mess!
I am fasting for breakthroughs in th birth of location #15, for God to chisel me more, and for the far far northside of Chicago that has 600,000 people mostly on their way to hell:(
It is so hard to believe that the winter holidays are here.
Sometimes this season is real hard on people. Others really come
to life as it is their favorite time of the year. I can fully
understand the challenge especially for those who have lost loved
ones during this time of the year.I am writing from the passenger seat as my 18 year old son drives us
through the state of Illinois toward my real roots of rural
Oklahoma. The first Christmas I remember was there. I was seven
years old and in the first grade. My mom and stepdad went to
Florida to get a place and get settled and my younger brother and I
were living with grandma until the end of the school year. My mom
sent us a whole huge box of toys that were dollar store level. I
remember opening this big huge box of toys with my brother a couple
of weeks early because we missed my mom so much. But then
Christmas came. I remember waking up and there were no more toys.
My uncles and grandma told me that Santa must have delivered them to
Florida by mistake and they would be there in a couple of days. I
was shocked. I still remember being bummed out Christmas morning.
And then I remember a couple of days later getting my gifts and
being so happy. I was only seven but had a feeling they were not
from Santa but from my mom. One of my top ways of feeling loved is
through gifts and it always means so much to me when I receive a gift.As I head to Oklahoma for only the third time since I was at my
grandma's funeral when I was in about the fifth grade....As I head back to my humble roots here is what is on my heart:
I am proud of and grateful for my family! Now that I am an
adult and pay the bills I really see the sacrifice of my grandma and
uncles giving their time and money to take care of my brother and I
two separate years. (1st grade and 3rd grade!). Now that I have kids
of my own I know they are a ton of work and money.My grandma would send me to church every week and those were
the first seeds sown into my spiritual life! I remember my aunt
getting baptized. I remember someone bringing my grandma an audio
bible and we would listening to it often. Even though I became a
little delinquent in Miami, FL, those seeds did not come back void
and those prayers did not go unanswered!I am glad I was born in Oklahoma! Whenever I am asked where I
am from, I usually answer Miami, FL. I was proud of growing up in a
cool, tough urban neighborhood. But my family in Oklahoma gave me
so much when by some American standards they might not have been up
there on ladder of sucess. But they have so much more in love for
family, hospitality, and a slower paced life (for the most part :).It is cool to go to a part of America where being a pastor is highly
respected and up there with being a doctor or a lawyer. I was
shocked when one of my cousins thought it was cool that someone in
our family had made it. I didn't tell him that a "garbage truck
driver" makes at least twice as much as a youth pastor in urban
Chicago. I love serving God though and look forward to seeing
family. Spending quality time with them is why I love the holidays!
I am taking time to recalibrate, sharpen my sword, and get closer to God. My goal is to just juice fast for three days and to actually sry aside time to hear from the Lord. I dropped my car off at the mechanic and walked abot 90 minutes to cafe el meson. The neighborhood was good to see on foot. Walked by Hunbard where I will be teaching abstinence and also walked by my wife's parents old house which brought back old memories ... Especially of when i started mentoring tony when he was about 10 or 11. As I was walking I listened to a new hip hop album by frontlynaz and also a message by john piper on fasting for the return of the kingdom. When j got to el meson.meson saw a book called the strong willed child and knew I needed to add this to my reading collection. I read the first chapter which was refreshing to know that some kids are just different in their tempermants. Hopefully today I will hear God powerfully as I seek him!
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Colossians 4:17 "tell archippus to finish the work he has received in the Lord."
God's word is amazing and it is amazing how he uses His word to speak to us today.
Sometimes we feel like we have done enough... That we have give enough... That we have done our part.
The question is whether we have done everything God wanted! My desire is to finish what I set out to do...
The vision will come to pass.... The question is not if but when and what part wiLl I play?
I want to finish my leg of this relay race well!
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It is hard to believe that my inherited son is 18 and miles away In east Texas. It is an honor and privilidge to have been doubly blessed with not only a wife on my wedding day but also a son. God is awesome how he provides and looks out for our needs before we even know that we are going to need them.
After many years of trying to get people to study the Bible, I have come to the realization that there is this misconception that studying the Bible is difficult. In this message I wanted to break down people's misconception that studying the Bible is difficult and present a simple strategy for Scripture journaling called S.O.A.P.
S - Scripture Read and Date
O - Observations (what you see in the passage)
A - Apllications (what will you do with what you have learned)
P - Prayer (Interact with God based on the truth, pray his Word, pray for help)
The main point of the message is "Doing your devotions is as easy as using S.O.A.P."
Download the message Bible Study for Dummies to GROW in you devotion to God's Word.
I John 4:19 says that "We love because he first loved us."
Many struggle and lack the power to change because they are blinded to God's love. I have had friends turn on me. Parents fail me. Relationships disappoint me. Yet one thing is for sure. God loves me and His love for me will never fail.
The crazy thing about it is... He loved me even when I hated him.
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
In a few verses before this one, it says that we were actually enemies of God while we were sinners. God doesn't wait for us to get our act together before he loves us. No! He loves us and what's us to come to him as we are... broken in sin. Then His love will transform our lives and revolutionize us.
The power of changed life is God's love demonstrated through his grace and mercy.
The more your realize how Great his love for you is... the more you will want to love him back!
Download the audio file Who Loved Who First? to hear a two minute devotional on experiencing God's Love.
The Power of a Changed Life ... It all begins with God's Mercy!
In Luke chapter 7 we discover a powerful story of forgiveness and a life totally changed by an encounter with Christ.
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."
40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
48 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
50 Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
If you want your life to change, you need to experience God's love and mercy. And that will happen when you realize how messed up your heart is and how much you need Him. Then your love for God will be genuine and your life changed forever!
Download the audio file Much Mercy equals Much Love to hear a two minute devotional on experiencing God's Mercy.
The Power of a Changed Life. It all begins with God's Mercy.
How many of us really want to change. But the struggle is too great. The power to change begins with God's Mercy. But so many miss out on God's mercy and never receive it. What is the key to receive God's mercy?
REALIZE YOU ARE MESSED UP AND BEG FOR GOD'S MERCY!
Here Jesus tells a story to some people who didn't think they were messed up (becuase they were confident of their own righteouseness).
Luke 18
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Download the audio file Key to Receive Mercy part 1 to hear a two minute devotional on receiving God's Mercy.