There is power when someone confesses the name of Jesus. A number of years ago a good friend of mine took a detour from his walk with Christ. He became very distant from youth group and I sought him out and he became very defensive and said that there was nothing I could do or say that would convince him to change.
As he was walking out of my office I told him that he was right. Nothing I could tell him would change his mind but I reminded him about the power of prayer and said that I would be carving out time every day just to pray for him. It worked. Six weeks later he came back to my office and said he was ready to make a change. He was heavily involved in drugs and he had a tough road ahead of him. We prayed and fasted together and asked God for a miracle.

As we were praying one day I felt compelled to tell him to confess Jesus. I told him to start confessing Christ to those friends that were dragging back into that world. Two things happened. Many were unable to handle that name when he confessed Christ before them and they ceased being his friends. Others wanted to know more. With that confession of Christ this young man was set free of the addiction to drugs. But that's not the end of the story. Many of his friends that he confessed the name of Jesus to wanted to know more. They desired to be free too.

Today this young man just graduated from seminary and is now a pastor. God is so faithful. He's in the business of redeeming those who need redeeming. Confession of Christ, yeah, it's good for the soul!

11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough. Psalm 30:11-12 (message)

God wants us to be missional. He wants us to reach out beyond our borders to share what we know to be true in our own lives.

I have a saying at the bottom of my emails that says, "the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home." tonight after youth group I was thinking about how much I desperately want us to fulfill the call that God has for each of our lives. We have committed ourselves at H2O to be life long disciples of Jesus and we've committed to bringing others along with us. It's that simple. But it means we have to choose everyday to be obedient to that commitment.

This past week @ H2O we talked about the "Water Girl" or the "Woman at the Well". Jesus had a divine encounter with her and she ended up getting "clipped" by Jesus and she was changed forever. He read her "mail" and she knew this was not your average Jewish guy asking a Samaritan woman for a drink. The interesting thing that I continue to marvel at is the fact that she couldn't contain this experience she had with Jesus. She was so amazed and then she took the news that the Messiah is here among us and became the first missionary by telling that good news to everyone she could! Have you been touched by God in this way? Has He totally disarmed you by exposing truth about your life? Have you aloud him to dispense grace that abounds for all of us today? Open your heart and let God change you forever.

Are you feeling depressed? I am. In the past three weeks I've been on a Spiritual high. It started with our amazing sermon series that Pastor Rich was doing on Secrets. God really used this to touch many people's lives in our church. The following weekend H2O Youth went to Acquire the Fire and we were ushered into the presence of the Holy Spirit and God worked in so many miraculous ways. We had an incredible worship night the following Sunday and then it all culminated last weekend with the nailing of our sins to the cross. Sunday night and the kids gave testimonies of how God moved in their lives in the past three weeks and were challenged or "dared" to be truthful with God and with each other.

It was like riding one long continuous wave. And now the wave has come and gone and I'm coming up for breath and am feeling a little depressed. The weight of the world is felt once again now that the rush of adrenaline is over. I live for those moments that I'm with God and He feels like He's right next to me but I also know I have a responsibility to live for Him even when I am not "feeling" His presence as intensely.

A former first lady was dealing with depression while her husband was in office. This became public knowledge and a reporter was asking how she was dealing with it. She told the reporter that the way she got out of that depression was to focus on others. She started volunteering in the DC public schools helping kids with reading. Gradually, as she got her mind off of her problems and concentrating on helping others she was healed of her depression.

Someone once told me that we have one life to live. There's our born date and then eventually there'll be a date that we'll leave this world. In the middle of that is a dash. It's what we do in the "dash" that God cares about. Whether that means we are on a Spiritual high and feeling like God is right next to you or you are just being faithful and "being Jesus" for someone. God wants you to know that He's with you and He's given us the Holy Spirit to guide us and comfort us when we need comforting.