“Our souls were made to ‘mount up with wings’ and can never be satisfied with anything short of flying. Like the captive-born eagle that feels the instinct of flight, and chafes and frets at its imprisonment, hardly knowing what it longs for, so do our souls cry out for freedom. We can never rest on earth, and long to ‘fly away’ from all that so holds and hampers and imprisons us here.

“If we will not be governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.”
William Penn

Pastor Joe Wright of Kansas was asked to lead the Kansas State Senate in prayer.

The great Houdini was a master magician and a great locksmith. He once bragged that there wasn’t a jail cell in the world he couldn’t escape from, provided he could go into the cell dressed in his street clothes and work in complete privacy.

“The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg you will read it and find this out for yourself–read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it.

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.

“The men who laid the foundations and reared the soaring arches of our great republic had a vigorous, indomitable, and all-encompassing belief in God. Faith permeated their thoughts, their words and deeds. We see Thomas Jefferson’s hand guiding the quill which wrote, ‘I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.’ We see George Washington, when the fires of hope had flickered to embers, kneeling in the snow at Valley Forge. And we see wise old Ben Franklin suggesting to a Constitutional Convention, deadlocked time after time, that ‘we have prayers every morning.’

“It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”
Horace Greeley

In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order.

Based upon the book: Purpose-Driven® Youth Ministry

PEOPLE
This perspective helps you identify the potential audience of students within and outside your youth fellowship. Knowing a student’s level of commitment enables you to design purpose driven programs specially meant to reach then and fulfill the biblical purposes of your ministry.