Hey God, whatever you want to do with me this week, that's great with me!

Students at Smithville Christian High School began their week with a chapel Monday to kick off Spiritual Emphasis Week. "SEW Week," held every year, features daily chapels, daily small group meetings, a prayer room, and student-led praise and worship. This morning's chapel featured all three of our student praise teams, who led us in singing:

Holy, Holy, Holy,

The Desert Song ( I Will Bring Praise)

10,000 Reasons

I Will Follow

Give Me Your Eyes

and, How Great Is Our God.

 

Spiritual Life Director Gord Park said this year's theme is "The Power That Transforms" and he told students that the Holy Spirit is going to be at work in our school this week.

"The Spirit of God is going to move and it's up to you to decide what you are going to do with it," Park said. He said we can ignore it, we can decide to wait until later, or we can "deal with it right now." He invited students to pick option 3.

"It is our prayer that you will deal with what the Spirit of God brings to you today."

Park said sometimes the biggest barriers to the power of the Holy Spirit are the people who are the most important to us -- like the people sitting right next to us in chapel. He asked students to turn to the people around them and say: "Whatever you want to do with God this week, that's okay with me." Students then shouted the blessing to those in other grades, and then turned their faces upwards and said, "Hey God, whatever you want to do with me this week, that's great with me."

 

Park said the Bible is full of stories of people who have been transformed by their encounters with God: Daniel, David, Amos, Moses, Sarah, Esther, Saul, Gideon, Samson, Samuel. He said students can add their names to that list, but not because they are so perfect. "In fact, most people get in to the Bible by messing up," Park said. "The Bible is loaded with real stories of real men and women who are not perfect and who sometimes do it wrong in a big way."

But we can make it because we have a God who doesn't let go of us, Park said, just like the parent who holds our hands when we are little and gets us safely across the street. It is not the strength of our faith but the strength of our God, he said. "God has the power to transform us," he said. "The power belongs to God."

Students bowed their heads for a time of quiet prayer, in which they could pray for God to be at work in their hearts or they could pray for each other.

A video from today's chapel: Holy, Holy, Holy.