Elevate Youth Church, Jasper, TX (2026)

04/26/2020

Hello all, for all you who may not know me I'm Tasia, Elevate Youth Leader at Harvest Church in Jasper and also a Senior Mom! I would like all of our 2020 Seniors to know that we are here for you. We understand that this may not be the Senior year you imagined. Take heart, you are not alone. We at Harvest stand with you in support and in prayer. All Seniors and/or Senior parents of Harvest Church please inbox me for info on how we're extending our support to you.

04/05/2020

Devotional Day 13!

The Fear of God = Hope

The American author David Foster Wallace once gave a famous commencement speech at Kenyon College, in which he said that “everyone worships something”. The point he was making was that everyone gives their lives to something; the only choice we get to make is what we give our lives to.

As a non-Christian author, this was a bold claim from Foster Wallace, but what he said is entirely true. Some people worship money and fame, some worship family or friends, and others worship God. Often, this decision of what we worship is rooted in our understanding of who, or what, is in control of the world we live in; whether God is in charge or not.

For a lot of people, they believe the world is a product of chance; where humans are the power players, responsible for their own lives. This can seem quite an appealing way of thinking, until you follow it to its root and realise that this rules out any hope for the future! If you take God out of the equation, we have no hope for God’s kingdom being established on earth, and no assurance of eternal life.

However, as soon as you add God into the equation of who is in charge of the world, you begin to see the world through a lens of hope, in which all the wrongs will be righted and all the suffering that we see in the world around us will be made up for. In today’s Scripture, we read an amazing passage in which we have this hope of what life will be like in eternity set out in clear language. It’s one of my favourite passages in the Bible, because it reminds me that there is a purpose for my life and a great future ahead!

This amazing hope for the future can only be produced through a fear of God. It is only by understanding who God is and how powerful he is that we realise the eternal hope we have. Our God holds the planets, the stars, your life and mine in his hands, and because of that we can trust that our best is yet to come.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21:3-4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

04/04/2020

Devotional day 12!

The Fear of God = Obedience

In the world we live in today, ‘obedience’ is an unfashionable word. You never hear anyone boasting about how obedient they are, and not many people would say that one of their goals is to become more obedient in the year ahead! Instead, people celebrate independence; the more you go your own way and do your own thing, the more you’ll be celebrated for making a difference in the world!

Although God has created each of us individually, and wants us to thrive as individuals, he has also created us for community. As part of that social dynamic, there will always be an element of obedience. Just as fear is misunderstood by many today, so is the idea of obedience. People think that obedience to God will mean they miss out on all the fun of living life on their own. But it’s actually the opposite; true fulfilment is found in obedience to our amazing God.

Earlier on, we picked up the story of Moses at the start of his ministry, as he showed the fear of God when dealing with God’s call on his life. Today we join the story a bit further on in Moses’ walk with God, when he is teaching the Israelites about how the fear of God produces obedience.

You may think it’s weird for fear of God and obedience to go hand in hand, but the truth is that you cannot obey someone that you do not respect. Just as you obey a parent out of respect for them, their experience, and their position, when you deeply value and revere the words that God has spoken in Scripture, you will be obedient to them!

Jesus also taught that obedience is a key component to loving God. He said in John 14:15, “if you love me, keep my commands.” And Jesus himself was obedient to his Father, to the point of going to the cross and sacrificing himself for us! Obedience has nothing to do with our salvation, but everything to do with our response to being saved.

Biblical obedience is never out of obligation, but comes out of the willingness of your heart. It is a natural fruit of the fear of God, and one that brings an incredible blessing to your life. Today, think about how you can choose to obey God in whatever you put your hand to.

“"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭10:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭10:20-22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

04/03/2020

Devotional day 11!
The Fear of God = Freedom

Medical studies have proven that fear weakens our immune system, disrupts emotive regulation and increases the chance of depression. Every fear we have in life has the same effect; it causes us to be paralysed and stops us from moving forward. Yet the biggest paradox about the fear of God is that it has the opposite effect; it causes us to be free!

This is shown in today’s Scripture, which says that we should “come boldly to the throne of God.” Even though we are called to fear God, if we are in relationship with Christ we can come with confidence to his throne, without any fear of condemnation.

The fear of God allows us to view Him as the One who causes demons to shudder in terror at His greatness, the mountains to melt like wax before Him and sin and death to bow completely at His feet. The fear of God allows us to say that no matter what the enemy throws at us, God in His infinite power, might and love will turn all things to good. And in doing so, it opens our eyes to the freedom that we are called to enjoy on earth, because we know that the God who lives on the inside of us is the same God who spoke creation into existence.

The fear of God illuminates the freedom God has laid out for his children, but it is the sense of His love for us that allows us to enjoy that freedom. Once we know that God is completely for us because of our decision to follow Him, we can walk boldly and confidently without any fear for what is ahead of us. We can walk in true freedom, knowing that God lives in us, He is for us and He has gone ahead of us into whatever we will step into.

Everything is in God’s hands, which means we are free to be who God created us to be. The challenge we face is to remind ourselves daily that God is on our side, giving us access to experience absolute freedom through Jesus. Today choose to stand in awe and experience the freedom that God brings your way.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

04/02/2020

Devotional day 10!

The Fear of God = Value

The Bible opens with a book called Genesis, which begins with a description of how God intended the world to be. It paints a beautiful image of God’s original intention for the world, before humans turned their back on God and sin entered the world; it talks about God’s perfect creation, with God walking hand in hand with humanity.

The interesting thing is that, in this image of God’s ultimate desire for the world, there is no evidence of fear! Adam and Eve aren’t scared of each other, they aren’t scared of the animals around them and they aren’t scared of God. This shows that as humans we were created to be free from fear, and that when fear comes knocking on our hearts, we can be confident that giving into that fear is not God’s intention for our life.

Many fears come our way in the world we live in today and one of them is the fear of being worthless; that our life doesn’t really matter that much. But what we learn in the Genesis story is that the fear of God is the starting point for knowing our value. Just as Adam and Eve knew God at a personal level, it is only when we truly understand who God is that we are able to understand how God sees our lives, as incredibly valuable and worth dying for.

In life, the price you pay for something determines how much you value it. And when it comes to our life, God couldn’t have paid a higher price than the life of his own Son. As it says in today’s Scripture, even before we loved God, He chose to sacrifice Jesus for us. By accepting that, the Bible says that we become part of God’s royal family, as children of God!

The fact that God, in all His power and majesty, sent His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross so that we could live, is the greatest miracle this world has ever seen. We can only stand in awe of God’s magnificent saving work and the incredible value he puts on our life. You are a child of God, created in his image, and no-one can take that away from you!

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:9-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

04/01/2020

Devotional day 9!

Stephen & the Fear of God

People in church don’t generally talk about Stephen. He isn’t as famous as Moses and he doesn’t get as much coverage as David. He’s only mentioned in a couple of chapters in the Bible, so it can be tempting to skim over his life, but his story is really inspirational! He’s one of the greatest examples of what it looks like to live with a fear of God.

In Acts 7, we read about a long speech that Stephen gives, which causes the religious leaders to become so furious that they want to kill him. You can imagine Stephen delivering this speech, seeing these people become angrier and angrier, and as it escalated you can imagine him wondering whether he should keep going or stop speaking, to ensure his own safety.

Yet Stephen was so full of the Holy Spirit that it did not matter what other people thought. Rather than being fearful of man, he had a fear of God. He was so in awe of God and so confident in his mission of seeing people saved that he chose to continue preaching the good news of Jesus. I wonder whether in our lives we are more focussed on fulfilling what God had called us to do or listening to the words of the crowd around us?

When the people began to throw stones at him, Stephen could have stopped preaching. But even as they attempted to take his life, Stephen called on the name of Jesus, because he knew that his strength was in God. In v.56 it says that Stephen’s eyes were fixed solely on God; he was not caught up in his personal circumstances but on the agenda of heaven. He was even willing to die for the gospel because of his view of God and what God had called him to!

Although we may not end up in a situation quite as serious as Stephen’s, we will all encounter trials in life. People will always attempt to discourage us from living the Christian life, but when this happens we can look to the life of Stephen to remember that walking in the fear of God frees us from the paralysing nature of the fear of man.

“Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭7:54-60‬ ‭ESV‬‬

03/31/2020

Devotional day 8!

Hosea & the Fear of God

I wonder if you’ve ever been asked to do something that doesn’t make any sense to you? It’s like you’ve only been given one piece of the puzzle, and you’re left hopeless, not knowing how it will all work out. Although when you look back you can see how all the pieces fitted together, in the moment it can be difficult to understand how it’s all going to work out. This is exactly what happened to Hosea!

The book of Hosea tells a powerful story, in which the prophet Hosea receives a word from God that he should marry a pr******te. Even though Hosea knows that this woman has a questionable background, and that he will be shamed in the society he lives in, he does what God asks and marries this woman. The story escalates further though, when this woman cheats on him after they get married.

Yet again, God asks Hosea to take her back as his wife. After all that Hosea had gone through, he still goes after this woman, takes her back and commits himself to her. I can imagine how confused Hosea must have been; he knew that God himself was asking him to do something, but God’s request didn’t make any sense or line up with the reality he was in. He couldn’t see the big picture of what God was asking him to do, yet he stayed faithful and obeyed the voice of God.

To understand this story, we need to understand the way society worked at that time. It was completely dominated by honour and shame and there would have been nothing more shameful than what Hosea went through. Yet there's no mention of Hosea worrying about what people thought. He had a fear of God operating in his life long before this request was made of him, which worked as an antidote to the fear of man.

Hosea had a choice to make; to give into the fear of man or to embrace the fear of God. All of us will have times when we can choose to give into the fear of man, and for all of us this will look differently. But the challenge is to always remember who God is! The fear of man will only cause you to fall back, whereas fearing God will push you forward into all God has for you.

“When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of w***edom and have children of w***edom, for the land commits great w***edom by forsaking the Lord." So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭1:2-3‬ ‭ESV

“And the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the w***e, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭3:1-5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

03/30/2020

Devotional Day 7

David & the Fear of God

"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands”. That was the song sang by the Israelites when David and his army returned from a mission against the Philistines. Picture the look on Saul’s face, after hearing his own people give another man higher praise than him, the king! It was from that moment on that Saul held a grudge against David, which led to him plotting to end his life.

That’s the context of today’s Scripture, in which we find David hiding in a cave out of fear for his life. David had no choice but to run as far away as he could to flee from Saul, even though he knew that he had done nothing wrong!

We read today that David has the opportunity to take revenge on Saul; to take Saul’s life in order to save his own. But David displays a fear of God, by demonstrating he has more reverence for God than he does for his own agenda of getting revenge.

Imagine having to leave your friends and family behind because of a crime you’ve been falsely accused of: how tempting would it be to start thinking of ways to get revenge against Saul? However, David didn’t give into this mentality. He decided to leave the revenge to God.

David was aware that the same God who protected him from the wrath of lions and bears when he was a shepherd was the same God who would take care of his relational issues with Saul. He walked with a fear of God that surpassed all the circumstances of life that were being thrown at him.

But in today’s age, how can we show the fear of God like David did when we get hurt by others? The simple answer is forgiveness. Often the people who wrong us won’t be apologetic and arguably don’t deserve to be forgiven, but that puts them in the same position as us: we too aren’t deserving of forgiveness, but God in his great mercy sacrificed his son so that we could be forgiven.

We can forgive others when we realise how much God has forgiven us; it may not be easy but it’s far better than holding onto unforgiveness and bitterness. Today, begin your day by forgiving those who you hold grudges against, and see the difference it makes in your life!
Read Samuel 24:1-11

03/29/2020

Devotional day 6
Moses & the Fear of God

Moses is one of the biggest heroes of the Bible. He’s famous for releasing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, taking them through the Red Sea with amazing faith and leading them with confidence on the other side. He was a man of great faith, a leader of leaders and a man of miracles.

Yet, no matter how good a leader Moses ended up being, his story didn’t start there. In fact, when you read about Moses’ life earlier on, it seems like he’s an entirely different person!

An example of this is found in today’s Scripture, in which we read about Moses responding to God’s appearance in the burning bush. When God appeared to Moses, He asked Moses to go to Pharaoh to ask him to release the Israelites from captivity, so that they could go and worship their God.

In response to this calling that God puts on his life, Moses disqualifies himself, by saying, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words.” He even goes on to ask God to send someone else instead of him! Rather than trusting in God’s wisdom and promise, Moses focussed on his own inability. Moses did end up with a fear of God that caused him to follow through on God’s call, but he started off by falling back on human excuses.

When God calls us to things we’re unqualified for, excuses will always be there. The challenge is to look at everything through a divine filter rather than a human one. Jesus rebukes Peter in Mark 8 by saying to him “you are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” What Moses shows is that with whatever obstacles come our way, we have a chance to either see things from a human or a divine perspective.

God will always work through people to achieve his purposes, yet we can too easily disqualify ourselves from God’s purpose for our lives. The great thing about the story of Moses is that it shows God’s grace; even though Moses tried to back out of God’s purposes, God worked it for good and ended up using him in a mighty way. So, it’s never too late to come back to God and commit yourself to doing what he has called you to do.

“But Moses said to the Lord, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else."”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭4:10-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

03/28/2020

Devotional day 5
This devotional is written by Hillsong Youth UK found in the Bible app!

Joseph & the Fear of God

Joseph's life was a rollercoaster. It makes for a great read but it must have been difficult to live through first-hand! To start with, he was sold as a slave by his own brothers. Then he was wrongly accused of cheating with his new owner’s wife, which in turn resulted in him ending up in prison! He stayed in prison for two years, all because of a crime he didn’t commit.

Yet through it all, Joseph’s life went from strength to strength. He realised he had a gift of interpreting dreams, which resulted in him interpreting dreams for Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was so happy with Joseph, he put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Within a short stretch of time, Joseph had gone from being a slave-turned-prisoner to being the second most influential man in the whole land!

In today’s Scripture, we join the story when his brothers have come to Egypt to buy grain. There is a role reversal, whereby Joseph is no longer the vulnerable one, but is instead the one with all the power. If he had wanted to, Joseph could have taken revenge on his brothers and sent them to prison. But instead he reconciles his relationship with his brothers, out of his understanding of God’s grace and mercy. Even though Joseph’s life had had its challenges, he understood that God had been with him, working everything out for good.

Sometimes we will go through times when God seems distant, where it feels like He has abandoned us. But know that God is always with you, just like He was with Joseph, preparing you to do greater things for Him that you could ever imagine.

Taking hold of this way of thinking is an aspect of what it looks like to fear God and to stand in awe. It’s a bold declaration to say that even when times get tough, God is still with me, he still loves me and he is by my side. Yet if we can stand firm in the valleys, like Joseph we will watch as God leads us out of those valleys and places us on mountain tops for his glory.
Read Genesis 45:4-15

03/27/2020

Dovotional day 4!
This devotional is written by Hillsong Youth UK found in the Bible app!

Abraham & the Fear of God

Of all the great Bible stories I heard growing up, there was always one that I found really confusing, and that is the story of Abraham. You see, God promised a child to Abraham when he was 100 years old and his wife was 90. I don’t know how many 100 year olds you know that have had children at that age, but I definitely haven’t met any yet! What God promised to Abraham made absolutely no sense biologically!

But the Bible reveals that God followed through on his promise and blessed Abraham and Sarah with a child. I remember reading this when I was younger, getting to this part of the story thinking everything was going to work out perfectly, and then arriving at today’s Scripture and reading that all of a sudden God tells Abraham to sacrifice his child!

God asks Abraham to give up the promise of Genesis 12 without any explanation or indication of the outcome of the situation. I know that if this happened to me, I would be pretty confused, and would feel pretty hard done by. But Abraham, rather than questioning God, instantly obeyed Him, even though it didn’t make sense to him.

As a result of his fear of God, Abraham tied his son, Isaac, to the altar and was prepared to take his life. He was willing to obey God to the point of sacrificing his son, because he intimately knew who God was and how He was in control of everything.

Abraham obeyed, instantly demonstrating a confident fear of the Lord. He had been given a promise which he believed in, but he concluded that God’s ways were higher, and he trusted in God to create a way for it to still happen. In Hebrews 11, it even says that Abraham had confidence that God would raise Isaac from the dead so that the promise would be fulfilled.

The amazing thing about this story is that God made a way out, so that Abraham could both know that he feared God, and could also hold onto the promise God had given him. When you learn to stand in awe of God, it makes it much easier to deal with situations that don’t make sense; for God’s ways are higher than our ways and his plans for our life are far greater than anything we could ever dream or imagine.
Read Genesis 22:1-14

Elevate Youth Church

04/26/2020

04/05/2020

04/04/2020

04/03/2020

04/02/2020

04/01/2020

03/31/2020

03/30/2020

03/29/2020

03/28/2020

03/27/2020

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Place Of Worship

Shortcuts

Share