Kayla Bennett is a beloved Graduate Intern in Teen Mania’s ‘The School of Worship’. This is an original song written by Kayla and recorded at The School of Worship’s Studio. For more information about how you can be apart of The School of Worship Music Program please visit: www.theschoolofworship.org

Question:  Have you chosen God?

Does your heart need to be awakened?  Is your heart fully alive?  The Bible declares that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  The song below is a powerful picture of what I want my life to declare.  I want my life to to a vessel that speaks the goodness of God to the masses.  I want to scream from the mountains and valley that God is my King.  He is the ruler.  He is the protector of my soul.  He is the risen one.  He is the majestic one.  He alone removed my feet from the traps.  May you enjoy this song as much I do.

Question:  What do you want to scream out?

One of the blessings I am able to be part of is to be the youth pastor at my local church.  This past weekend we had a youth retreat.  It was a great time of fun, fellowship, and the love of God filling our lives.  Our speaker for the weekend was Honor Academy Alumnus Blaise Foret.  Watch this video and just see a glimpse into what God did!  Get ready to be wowed by God!

Question:  Are you currently part of impacting young adults with the love of God?  Is there an opportunity at your local church where you can help?

My first real interaction with Dave Hasz was at an Honor Academy Alumni reunion in the fall of 1996.  Some of us alumni had come down to the Alumni reunion to see the new campus of theHonorAcademyand also to play in the intern vs. alumni football game.  It was a good weekend as the alumni won the football game and also a good time for us alumni to see the new campus.  A few months later, my good friendKevin Cooland I decided that we were going to go on a cross walk during our spring break at college.  We decided that we would call Dave Hasz and have him buy us a one way bus ticket anywhere inAmericaand then we would spend the next week beginning our trek back toTulsa,OKwhere we started.  We gave Dave our credit card and he bought us the one way ticket.  Kevin and I agreed that we would not know where we were going until we arrived at the bus station.  When we arrived at the bus station, we opened up our tickets and the destination that Dave Hasz has chosen for us was Death Valley,California.  Kevin and I got a laugh out of the destination and had an incredible week of adventure and ministry on that trip.

The next year I came down to alumni reunion in the fall of 1997 and Dave sat down with me in the cafeteria.  He asked me what my plans were after I graduated from college in the spring.  I told him that I was starting to pray about my options.  He said that he had a position as an intern advisor for me in August of 1998 and wanted me to pray about it.  I did pray about it and accepted the position in the spring of 1998.  Dave’s vision for building a foundation of Godliness into young people and having them touch lives through their ministry placements was something I knew was impactful since I had done that during my intern year in 1994.  So, after I graduated from college, I moved down to Garden Valley and began working at the Honor Academy in 1998.  Part II will be uploaded next week.

Over the next several days I will post some of my reflections on my interactions with Dave Hasz as the Director of the Honor Academy and how he has influenced so many people.  The first post will go up tomorrow.

Last night, Teen Mania’s Global Expeditions commissioned hundreds of teenagers to go to the nations preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.  Today they are on planes to destinations all over the world.  Please pray for them and the people they are about to interact with.

Question:  Do you want to write out a prayer so we can agree with you?

I read this article by Lee Grady and agreed with what he said in the article.  Here it is:

The Bible tells men to treat their wives as equals. But in a machismo culture, this is easier said than done.

Whenever I travel to Latin America I usually carry a pair of handcuffs in my suitcase. I use them as a visual aid when I’m preaching about the machismo attitude that is so prevalent in that region. I remind everyone in the audience that esposa, the word for wife in Spanish, is the same word used for handcuffs.

Esposas. Why would the word for wife be the same word for a form of bondage? Because women in many Latin countries suffer unthinkable abuse in the home. Puerto Rico, where I spoke last week, has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in Latin America, and many women die there every year at the hands of their partners.

“When we are teaching about marriage in the church, let’s throw away the handcuffs. Let’s quit promoting erroneous notions about male domination and get back to what the Bible really says.”

You’d think this problem would exist only outside the church, but women are beaten in many Christian homes in Latin America—even in pastors’ homes. Abusive behavior is tolerated partly because of an incorrect interpretation of Scriptures about wifely submission, but also because the church has not confronted wrong cultural mindsets of male superiority.

This macho pride is not unique to Latin America. It is the reason many women kill themselves in India; it is why so many African women have been abandoned in poverty; it is why Middle Eastern women are forced to live under tents of heavy fabric in hot climates. Male superiority is a global problem—and it is the No. 1 reason Christian marriages suffer and fail.

No matter what country I visit I remind men that God created man and woman as equals in the Garden of Eden (see Gen. 1:26-28) and that male domination is a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion (see Gen. 3:16). When Christ died for us, He broke the curse of sin and made it possible for a husband and a wife to enjoy equal access to God and, as a result, intimate fellowship with each other. He never intended marriage to be about hierarchy, domination, control or abuse.

To any man who is struggling with an abusive tendency (physical, sexual or emotional) or with an attitude of male superiority, I urge them to take these three Scriptural steps:

1. Treat your wife as an equal. It’s true that God asks women to submit to their husbands, but in the same passage He tells husbands and wives to submit to each other (see Eph. 5:21). When talking about sex in marriage, Paul taught that married people have authority over each other’s bodies (see 1 Cor. 7:3-4), again stressing the concept of mutual submission. And Peter warned husbands that their prayers would be hindered if they do not treat their wives as a “fellow heir of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7, NASB).

Those skeptics who think Christianity is prudish, old-fashioned and male-dominant have not read the Bible. The gospel of Christ not only restored human beings to God but reaffirmed the dignity of women and their equal value. When a husband understands this, and treats his wife with equal respect, his marriage reflects heaven.

2. Serve your wife selflessly. Many Christian husbands ignorantly think Scripture gives them the right to boss their wives around, bark orders, demand sex or manipulate with threats. They interpret the verse “the husband is the head of the wife” (Eph. 5:23) to mean that they can sit in their recliner like a king while their wives do all the housework and take care of the children with no help from them. That is not a marriage; that is slavery.

Paul introduced a radical concept in the first century: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). This is the opposite of machismo. A husband who loves Jesus will get out of his recliner and help with the dishes, play with the children and share the burden of family responsibilities.

3. Encourage your wife’s spiritual gifts. I’ve known many Christian men over the years who kept their wives under tight surveillance. They didn’t want them to further their education, start careers or assume leadership roles because they viewed them as inferior (and because the wife’s success exposed the man’s insecurity). Yet God’s desire is for a husband to be his wife’s biggest cheerleader. The husband of the Proverbs 31 woman, for example, praised his wife—not only for her virtue but because of her success in the marketplace (see Prov. 31:28-29).

Jesus Christ, through the gospel, has the power to subdue the male ego. Jesus can also give a woman the amazing ability to be patient when her husband has not yet learned how to treat her with the respect she deserves.

When we are teaching about marriage in the church, let’s throw away the handcuffs. Let’s quit promoting erroneous notions about male domination and get back to what the Bible really says.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project. He is the author of several books including 10 Lies Men Believe (Charisma House), which is also available in Spanish from Casa Creación. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady

Question:  Do you agree with Lee?  How do we get men to start being gentle and serving their wives in America?

For the last several years, my wife and I have had the opportunity to share with all of the ladies on campus about marriage.  We count it a blessing to teach the ladies.

In the first part of the teaching we share some thoughts from the book  His Needs/Her Needs by Willard Harley.  We then talk about some points that we call Myths of Marriage.

Here is the link to the teaching(fast forward to 15 seconds as the first 15 seconds is music):

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/risen-class-with-heath-stoner/id485322193?i=113774423

What is your response to this teaching?  Please leave your response below.

The Acquire the Fire team did a great job.  The teens in my youth ministry were so impacted by the presence of God.  At church yesterday, a couple of them gave testimonies of what God in their life.  Thank you for everyone that prayed for the event.  Here are some highlights from the weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyc6_elMPjM&feature=plcp&context=C46dfeebVDvjVQa1PpcFPasxGQWLATQq-qiHWxaw9nV7ZBvUnj6HM%3D

Question:  If you attended an ATF this year, what was your favorite part of it?