I have heard it said that you can make it about 40 days without food, four days without water, and about 4 minutes without air; but you can’t live one second without HOPE.

The Definition of “HOPE” says that it is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Even if things are really bad, most humans have ‘hope’ that things will get better. The ultimate expression of hopelessness is suicide. I am not saying that everyone is suicidal. I am saying that many people you are around keep hoping things will get better and they need to see the hope of Christ in you.

I believe we are all born with a sense to know our Creator. I believe God placed it in our DNA. I believe you and I were born to know God. When we connect with Him though a relationship with Jesus Christ it is amazing how our mind changes and we become new creations in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have a hope and peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). It is hard to explain, but we want everyone to experience it.

Can you imagine the hopelessness you would feel if you were not a follower of Christ? What if you did not have that peace and hope? You are around people at school that need to hear about the HOPE inside of you. Look at this school year as an opportunity to take the HOPE of Christ to every student.

Where the spirit of God is moving is where the best party on the planet is happening. Was that to early to answer my question? blog over…. but wait, this leads to a question…….

Are you feeling the spirit of a party happening in your life today? The best moments of my ministry career are the moments when I hear the story of a life change. God moving in the life of a student, or teacher, or parent at school through the First Priority ministry that I played my role in. BEST PARTY ON THE PLANET. We talked perspective last week in the blog. Here is another: there are Holy Spirit parties happening all over the world each and every moment of each and every day of each and every year since the fall of man. My prayer each day: God, help me to do the work that I need to do in order to see a party happen today.

Nehemiah built the wall and labored hard for 56 days getting it done. He was simply following God’s burden for his heart. I don’t think he had any idea that massive revival would break out (see Nehemiah 12). But it did. We know that with First Priority, lives will be changed each and every day in schools around the country. With 2,500 clubs in 32 states and 31 organized communities, God is using us to do His thing in the lives of students. It is humbling. AND it IS a party.

Peace,
Brad

We all know the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, had made an idol 90 feet tall and commanded all in Babylon to bow down to it or be thrown in the fiery furnace. These three men would not bow down. It made King Nebuchadnezzer furious! They even said in verse 17 “ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Here is where this story gets crazy. Nebuchadnezzar heated the furnace up so hot that the soldiers that threw the men in it were killed by the fire. Dang! That is Hot!

Nebuchadnezzar said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Here is the deal….as Christians we are going to have problems. We dont get a pass because we are followers of Christ. BUT what we do get, is to go through trials and have Jesus walk with us in the middle of the fire! Don’t you know when those guys came out of that furnace, not even smelling like smoke, they were a little bit more fired up (sorry) for their faith! Remember a little heat in our life causes growth on our part.

Keep Fishing!
Mark Roberts

What is your $64,000 question?

We have a perspective about everything; to the point that if my title on this article didn’t catch your eye, you are already not reading this because your perspective was that it was not worth your time. As people in ministry (who make up the largest demographic who reads this blog), we have a very unique view of the community that we live in. With that view brings the good and the bad, but the thing I want to bring to light is that it is just that, a viewpoint. The people who grew up in your town, graduated from the high school, and now either work for a local business or own a local business have a different perspective. This is also true of the parents in your student ministry who moved into town. The teachers in the school have another.

Nehemiah 11 gives us an overview of who is in town, where they lived, and who they are related to.

1.” Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns.”

The image here is of a man from out of town who caught a vision and implemented it, and along the way became a man who knew the people around town. He had community influence. He started out with a ministry viewpoint and ended with a larger community perspective. Right now in your community, you have your perspective. What you need is a community perspective. So, build an initiation team with parents, business leaders, teachers and student ministers on it. That way you have a healthy balanced perspective.

Perspective brings enlightenment. In starting this ministry, that is crucial.

Peace,
Brad

PS. The perspective I care the most about is a lost student’s view of Jesus. Every lost student in your community has an opinion about Jesus. This view ranges from seeing him as the Christ, the Son of God to a curse word. If a student has never stepped foot in a church nor had a spiritual conversation with a Christian, what is their view of the Christ? I believe that is the $64,000 question…

Will You Bind Yourself with a Curse?

Sounds harsh, but once the Israelites realized what God wanted from them, they felt that they had no other choice. Check out the words of their response in Nehemiah 10.

28 “The rest of the people—priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand— 29 all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.”

They had to follow God’s direction for their life. If you have been involved in First Priority for any length of time, you understand what I am talking about in relating it to FP. Through First Priority, we see life changed one student at a time. Once the system is in place, you cannot NOT do it anymore. Your heart is bound by the opportunity to share Jesus with lost students in school. Your life is forever changed. So are the lives of students today and tomorrow in your community. Thanks for being bound to the law and commandments of God and your response in following Christ’s will and words of the Great Commission.

Peace,
Brad

Most of us can recite The Lord’s Prayer from memory. “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name...” But this is not the Lord’s Prayer I want to talk about. That was Jesus giving us a frame work for our prayers. Basically step by step instructions on our how to have a great prayer life. What I want to bring light to, is the prayer we have that Jesus prayed, just for YOU. That’s right. He prayed for you. And He prayed for me in John 17.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23

The prayer we find in John 17 has a constant them. UNITY. He speaks of His unity with the Father. His unity with His disciples. His unity with those WHO WILL believe. And HE prays for UNITY among HIS believers.

Amazing things can happen when everyone is unified. Think of the Tower of Babel. God said there is no limit to what man can do if he is united. Consider the Upper Room; they were all found “in one accord”, the Holy Spirit fell on them, and THEY CHANGED THE WORLD!

First Priority is all about helping churches come together in unity to reach every student with the HOPE of Christ. If we truly become united in our pursuit to train and disciple our students to be a light in the darkness, the supernatural will happen. It will be an “Upper Room” experience that could change our world.

What an amazing motto we have, “Connecting the Church with the Campus for Christ.” Exactly what Jesus prayed for; UNITY.

In His Grace,
Amy Hall
Adminsitrative Assistant
First Priority of America

The Results are in!

Over the summer, we have had the results of many, many groups of people come in and effect our lives. Some of these results were for the good, some for the bad, some that had lasting effects, and some that maybe barely skimmed your attention. We have had the results of Supreme Court cases blasted out. You may have heard about that one. We have had the results of the FIFA woman’s soccer championship come in the news with the U.S. victory! We have heard of the people and nation of Greece in calamity. Finally, you and I have begun a new alliance with Cuba. Fantastic! (sarcasm? maybe!?.)

In Nehemiah’s time, they were dealing with the same ups and downs of life that we do today. By Nehemiah 9, they had conquered the task of rebuilding the walls, but then got to a season of life where they read the Scriptures again for the first time. It was a time of celebration that led to “fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads.” (Verse 1) While you may not see sackcloth after starting First Priority in your community, you will hear things like, “I can’t believe we hadn’t started this years ago.” or “Why haven’t we thought of this sooner.” It is very much the same feeling as in Nehemiah’s day. People lament the fact that they let time go by without sharing the Hope of Christ with lost students in school. In verse 3 of Chapter 9 we see the people spending a quarter of their time reading and praying and a quarter in confession and worship.

I HAVE GOOD NEWS!

We have not wasted time. We have seen 7,715 students respond to the gospel in the 2014-15 school year! 7,715 people letting us know that they began a relationship with Jesus this past school year through First Priority.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us [and these students] new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” 1 Peter 1:3-4 (italics mine)

In that we celebrate! As you continue on with First Priority, may you spend time celebrating, mourning, confessing and worshiping.

Peace,
Brad

Acts 26:19 “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Jesus calls all that follow Him to be fishers of men. He then challenged all of his followers with the great commission “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16: 15)

Our calling as a follower of Christ is to preach the Good News. The Good News that God wants all people to know Him, and have real life. Paul, if you remember, met Christ on his way to Damascus. After his encounter with Jesus he said he went and started declaring the Good News in Damascus that all should turn back to God. I like to think of this as Paul starting to share right where God put him. Where has God put you? He saved you and then left you where you are to influence the people you are around. Your family, your friends, your school or work place. All of the people that you encounter at all these places are searching and looking for life and hope. You might be the only light they see or the only Bible that they ever read. It is you, don’t be disobedient to your calling. Think about the people that God has placed in your life and simply start praying for them. You might be surprised at how God will use you to influence them toward a relationship with Jesus.

The Big Picture of Ministry

I know sometimes it is hard to see the “Big Picture” of ministry. We get so drained, frustrated, and hurt, etc. All little things have a tendency to cause us to forget to see what we are working toward. As Nehemiah and his team organized to rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, something spiritual was happening to the people. They united together for a cause (rebuilding the walls) and God was working and rebuilding the people’s hearts. Look what happened when the priest Ezra opened up the scriptures.

5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 8:5-6

The people stood and worshiped God!

Is that not what we pray for and work for? That is the “Big Picture”!  Lives changed and people worshiping God. I truly believe that by uniting the church (First Priority) for a cause (school evangelism), we will bring about what we all want: the big picture in lives changed and people worshiping God.

Keep on keeping on. God is at work in people’s hearts. Let us be faithful in the task He set before us.

Mark and Brad

Acts 18:9-12 New King James Version (NKJV)

9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

The other day I was flying back home from Nashville where I had the opportunity to be on the set of the new movie coming out about Rachel Joy Scott called “I Am Not Ashamed”. Back in 1999 two boys at Columbine High School took guns to their school and started shooting up the place, 12 students and one teacher lost their lives that day. Rachel Joy Scott, a committed young Christian girl, was the first one shot. After being shot several times she was asked by these guys if she still believed in God? She said, “YES”. That would be the last word she would ever say, but wow what a word. YES! The movie about her life is coming out April 20 2016, 17 years from the day she died. For more on Rachel’s story: http://www.freeheartday.com/rachel-joy-scott-her-story-must-be-told.

As I was traveling home I was wearing a tee shirt about the movie that said in big bold letters ‘I Am Not Ashamed’. You would not believe the attention I got from wearing that shirt. Several people asked me about it, over 25 gave me a smile or thumbs up. I got 10 weird looks and 3 or 4 disgusted looks. As I read these words from the book of Acts, I am reminded that I do not need to be afraid and I do not need to be silent. There are still many of us in America who are not ashamed! We are not alone, but I am afraid we are silent because we are afraid. We forget that God is with us and if God be for us who can be against us! (Rom. 8:31) Please Lord remind us that you are with us and help us not to be silent but to say “YES”, I stand with the Creator of the Universe and I will be heard in this city.

Keep Fishing!
Mark Roberts