Eureka Days and Weekly Challenge

With Eureka Days coming this Friday, I have a challenge for the church, especially those volunteering for shifts during Eureka Days. Tomorrow, and every day this week, wake up in the morning with a prayer. Praise God for allowing you to wake up that day. Thank God for the breath he put in your lungs. Thank God for everything you have, no matter how much or how little it may be, because every bit of it belongs to God who has entrusted it to you. After your prayer, read your bible, even if it is just a single chapter, or 10 minutes’ worth of reading. Get into God’s word and prepare your day with praise and worship to God our Father.  
 
This week, I challenge you to ask God for forgiveness of any sins you may be carrying and forgive anyone you may need to. Do what you need to get your heart right with God. I challenge this so that you may be right with God and can hear the Holy Spirit speak to you.  Allow the Holy Spirit to guide your actions and words, especially while volunteering at Eureka Days. This is our opportunity for God to use us to bring the community closer to God.  While it will be amazing to bring people to our church, ultimately the goal is for them to draw closer to God. If they choose to go to another church, that’s great! Our goal is to plant a seed—a hope—and that they see Jesus. Our hope is that they find God and come to a point where they confess their sins, knowing that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was resurrected for us. By grace through faith, they will live eternally with Jesus, our Savior, and God, our Father. That is what truly matters. Our mission is to build God’s kingdom, not necessarily Ignite’s congregation. However, if we do our job, which is God’s will, prayerfully, both will happen.
 
Once Eureka Days is over, I challenge each of you to continue waking up each day with praise and thanks to God and to read your Bible for 30 days.  I encourage you to set aside a specific time each day to pray and read, allowing God to speak to you through Scripture and for you to get to know God’s character more intimately. This will enable you to form a habit of naturally praying and reading your Bible daily as we progress. As you read, take the time to truly understand what God is trying to tell you in each passage. As best you can, be somewhere without distractions and, as you read, focus on what each verse is speaking to you - allow God to speak to you through the scriptures. Before starting, you can pray for God to give you a book and a chapter to read, so it may speak to you. God may even lay something on your heart for you to read or investigate! If you are having trouble hearing or focusing, then take it to prayer - sometimes our thoughts, our inability to focus, tell us exactly what we need to bring to God! Command in Jesus' name that all external voices be silent, your thoughts and wills to be silent, and only the Holy Spirit be allowed to speak, then just stay quiet until the book, chapter, or whatever God intends to share with you is revealed. Make a daily commitment to grow in your relationship with God. As the church, we are Jesus’s Bride. Think about your marriage, or any relationship you may have. If you never spoke to each other, or neither of you tried to dig in and get to know and understand each other, what kind of relationship would that be? It wouldn’t be much of one, and the same is true with God. If you want to be close and have a true relationship with him, you need to speak with him daily. You need to dive into your Bible to truly understand Him.
 
My prayer for each of you is that you would give thanks and praise to God daily. Pray to him multiple times a day. Dive deep into his words and get a true understanding of his will for your life. Once you know what his will is for you, then you will have the courage, strength, and excitement to follow his will out. God Bless and have a wonderful week!  

Josh Westfall