Spiritual Emphasis Week

            Spiritual Emphasis Week has been very good this year, probably the best I have experienced while being at OBA.  Andy Braner is a great speaker who I have enjoyed very much.  He has challenged me in many areas and he always has a great message.  On Monday he asked,  "how do we know that God is real?"  We need to have reasons and to know for sure why we believe what we believe, such as this previous question.  He shared Matthew 22:36-40 with us and then showed us ways how to love God and put faith into action.  The big question Tuesday was, "BELIEVE?"  Starting off on Tuesday with the questions "Why do I believe what I believe?" and "Who is God?", he challenged me to know why I believe things and not just saying that I believe things.  Genesis 1:1 is the basic foundation for believing and the cornerstone for life.  You can't 100% prove that it is true, but with the small percent left, you have to live by faith.    There is very much evidence that many things in the Bible happened, but the things we can't see, we have to have faith in believing those things are real or really happened.  BEHAVE? was the big question to start things off on Wednesday.  Andy mentioned over and over that ideas have consequences.  We can be healthy if we feed on God's spiritual things and what you put in is what you become.  Junk food changes your physical shape, just like your thoughts change your behavior.  Junk food also causes heart problems and confuses your body's functions, just like unhealthy spiritual things can confuse your spiritual life.  The junk food tastes great in the short term or in that moment, but in the long term it leads to adverse side effects.  What you watch, listen to, think about, and spend time doing is what you become.  You need to make sure everything you do brings glory to God.  Andy showed us some examples of dating through the world's eyes.  At first it can be okay, but then it can keep growing if you are not careful and can become very unhealthy.  The way he showed us the examples was through a few songs.  The first one I thought was okay to listen to, but I wouldn't listen to it much.  It talks about not changing the person because they are amazing just they way they are.  This reminds me of not worrying about image and that looks do not matter.  God made you the way you are and it is perfect!  The next songs he played showed how dating can be unhealthy or bad if you are not careful.  You need to have a relationship built around God and do everything to serve and bring glory to Him.  As Andy was wrapping everything up on Friday, the big question was BELONG?  If we just BELIEVE and BEHAVE correctly, it is not enough.  There will be no benefit if we do not BELONG with everyone else.  We need to be involved and be close to people for the other to actions to do anything.  We need to follow Matthew 22:37-39 which says, "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  This is a good model to live by: Love God with everything you do and love your neighbor.  Neighbor means everyone, even enemies.  That is a great way to live!!  Like I said before, I really enjoyed Andy Braner as the speaker for Spiritual Emphasis Week.  He challenged me and made me think about everything that I do.  Why do I do what I do? I should do everything to bring honor and Glory to God.  So that is everything that I got out of this week.