Happiness♥

On Friday I left at 5pm to go to Pennsylvania at a retreat. When I arrived I went directly to sleep since it had taken about 4 hours to get there. As we arrived closer to our destination I had noticed that the retreat was in the middle of no where. Technology was not allowed and God was suppose to be the one and only thing to be talked about and kept in mind. The next day I woke up my group had to go to the chapel to hear Andy preach about God. After he was done talking about the lesson he had came up to my group and stayed after to talk to us and as he was discussing his work ethics he mentioned that coming up with lessons that relate to the teenagers who come to the retreat is difficult and especially to get them interested in it. The next day he did another lesson and he started the same way. I noticed he taught with enthusiasm and then at the end of his lecture he was serious and went straight to the point of his lecture. Andy also mentioned that speaking to a large group is complicated because the main purpose is for everyone to understand. I truly did learn a lot about how preaching is so much similar to teaching. In preaching you have to come up with a lesson to explain to your students and so do teachers. They both need to come up with ways to speak to their audience in a way that gets your point across about what your teaching. One lesson I really did like was one where he told a story from the bible where a king had made a new god and wanted everyone to praise the idol. The king invited everyone to come and bow down to the idol. Three teenagers refused to bow down and stood when everyone had bowed down. The king was furious and wanted them to be killed. Therefore, they were thrown in a furnace but did not die. They walked in the fire and another person was seen with them walking in the fire. The king wondered why they did not die in the fire and so called them out. The three teenagers told the king they did not die because they believed and would only praise their one and only god which was God. The king saw that maybe this god was truly a God. Therefore, he announced that everyone has to believe and praise God or else you will be punished. The point Andy wanted to get to us was that we have to stand up for what we believe and to stand out even if it's difficult. Andy also said that denying God or not standing up for him when someone is cursing him is not a Christan at all. If you truly do believe you will take part in his work. For example, getting others to believe in God, stand up for others, and treat others with love and forgiveness. Being a christian is more than just believing it's living in a Godly way.