Skip to content

Amplify Weekend

Have you ever watched the cartoon Scooby-Doo?  As a kid growing up, Scooby-Doo was one of my favorites.  My favorite part was always the culmination of the investigation when the gang had figured out the mystery and unveiled the person behind the mask.  The mask is an aspect of the cartoon and in life that has always intrigued me.  A mask does a good job of hiding an identity- that is until it is taken off.  When you lose the mask, who you really are is revealed.  Whether it is a real mask used for a costume or a symbolic mask we use to put off a false identity, the truth is when the mask comes off, we have to acknowledge who we really are!

In just a few short weeks, our students will take part in AMPLIFY WEEKEND, formerly DNOW.  AMPLIFY WEEKEND is an annual event joining 7th-12th grade students from churches across the River Region for a weekend of worship and discipleship.  I am super excited about this opportunity for our student ministry and for the community of teenagers across the river region and the potential impact this weekend has for the eternity of so many young men and women.      

This year our theme for AMPLIFY is “No Filter”.  The purpose of the theme is to challenge students to find their true identity in Christ, rather than living their life through the filters commonly used to mask who we are and display how we want to be seen.  In today’s culture, the life of a teenager is filled with so much pressure and expectation to be somebody that culture says is successful. The temptation to mask the true identity can be desirable and so easy to pull off.  The reality is that this is not just the case for teenagers, but for all of us.  

However, there is one “mask” that is vital!  When this life comes to an end and we stand before the Judge, may we find ourselves masked in Christ.  Any other mask that we try to hide behind will be taken off and cast aside.  

Will you join with me and pray for our students during AMPLIFY WEEKEND? Pray that the false mask we hide behind will be shown for what they are. Pray that students will be awakened to their real identity in Christ and His church!

Pastor Jeff

Share this post

Related posts

FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

God Leads Us

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge…

God is Enough

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.…