Kingdom [Day 1]

This weekend I was at a youth retreat called Blast at Camp Arnes hosted by the Christian Life Center. My  super awesome cousin Scott got me to go, and it was well worth it!
I had an amazing weekend, God was present for sure, I had barely been home 5 minutes and I already felt it slipping away. That's not good. I listened to Fire Fall Down by Hillsong to lift my spirits again. Just being with Jesus. Worshipping. I love it.
I don't know if any of you have ever heard Chris Karuhije speak before, but let me tell you, God is working in him. You can tell. You can see it. Amazing. He was our speaker for this weekend.
Now, while telling you about the sessions, I'm going to take everything straight from my notes. Notes are awesome, I knew that I was never going to remember everything that he said, that I would want to remember in the future. So here it goes. If I butcher any of this, so sorry!
He told us not to put a "box" around God. Not to put limits on Him. He can do everything and anything, guys. No questions. All things are possible through Jesus Christ who strengthens us! [Philippians 4:13] He told us that prophesying isn't like seeing the future, it's like encouragement, knowing what's going to happen and encouraging the person or people it's going to happen to. You know how when someone thinks about angels they think of those little naked babies with wings and an arrow? Yeah, angels are far from it! They're huge! Chris was telling us about one of his girlfriend's (Kristy) dreams, she dreamt that an angel was protecting her house, and she has a tall house, I think all she could see was the angel's leg. Another time someone saw a foot in the middle of a room. A giant foot. And they walked around the foot, it was the foot of an angel. How big does a foot have to be that you would have to walk around it?! Oh man guys, angels are always protecting us! How comforting is that? I love it. They're like the army of Heaven. Protecting us from Satan. From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” [Matthew 4:17]. 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [Matthew 6:9-10]. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. [Matthew 24:14]. What do these verses all have in common? KINGDOM. The KINGDOM of God! Guys, when we die, God wants us to be with him in his Kingdom. Matthew 4:17, Jesus is coming back, the Kingdom is almost here! He wants us to be ready! Matthew 6:10, I just love this verse. I think it's so important to not think about what we want, and what pleases us, but to think about what God, your Father, wants and what pleases Him. That's key. Matthew 24:14, people won't always believe in something until they see it. Until there's proof. That, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately at times, includes God. A testimony, your testimony, could be the thing that saves a person. When they see what God has done in your life, they'll believe. They'll want what you have. So amazing. Chris shared his testimony, and it's a good example of what God does for the people who love him. I'm not going to share it, because I would butcher it terribly, and because you're probably getting tired of reading this by now anyways, but I thank you for taking the time to experience what God has done for me this weekend. He talked about foundation. I had just the word foundation written down, so I don't know exactly what he was talking about. When I think of foundation, I think of the story in the bible with the man who built his house on sand and the man who built his house on rock. Foundation is key. If you don't have a good foundation with God, you'll crumble, just like the house that was built on the sand. You can find that story in Matthew 7 I think.
(As you read this, keep in mind that I just had 3 DAYS of mind blowing, God filled experiences, so I encourage you to keep reading, not because I want people to read this blog, but because I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to touch some one's heart.)
Ok, so as I was looking over my notes, I decided to put this into three parts (Day one, two and three) because there's a bunch of stuff here, and that way if you want to take a breather and keep reading later, you can.
Blessings,
Ariel