Essentials for 3DYC: - Bible - Bring to every single Session! - Journal - Bring to every single session! - Pen - To mark in your Bible and to write in Journal! - Clothes - Jeans - T-shirts - Shorts - to play sports in. - underwear - Socks - Shoes - Sandals if you want to wear them around - Pajamas - Which will be only worn in your room to go to sleep in. Not to walk around in - hat if you want to wear a hat while you are there - Cell phone - We are allowing people to take cell phones with them but we don't want this to distract from the real reason we are there, so if the cell phone is an issue we will take them and give them back at the end of the trip. - Toiletries - Deodorant - Shampoo - Toothbrush - Tooth paste - Soap - Cologne/perfume if you want to wear some. Extra: - Extra money for pizza at nights, and meals on the way there and back - Cards - Extra Pillow if you want What not to bring: - IPods -ITouches -Anything IRelated unless its an IPhone which case I will steal from you :) - MP3 players - Bad attitudes - Any weapons - Small Children - More then 1 bag! - With so many people going you need to pack everything in 1 bag.
If you have any questions you can contact me at cvmcadam@verizon.net.
Hey there everyone! I hope that you are all having a great day, and I hope that you are all going to work out sometime this week to try to work off all the pie and stuffing we consumed over the last few days!
Its amazing to me how much turkey we have left over. Wow! Ohh well......We move onward.
So this week for youth group it is a little bit different. Junior High students we are meeting here at the church, but listen very closely. Do not come in the normal doors, but go down to the door that goes straight into the Journey room. We will have some people down there hopefully directing people down there. The only reason we don't you going into the normal doors is because there will be hundreds of people here for the Pass it forward Garage sale. So if you go into the normal glass doors, you will be met by hundreds of people. So come straight over to the Journey room in your parents car! That will make it so much easier!
High school students please remember to Car Pool to Wes and Sheila Millers house! Please Please Please do this because there is not a lot of Parking room. And you can't park in the road, because your car will get hit by another car which is not a good thing!
Directions to get to Wes and Sheila Millers house: Turn Left out of Crystal Valley Missionary church and head West on US 20. Turn Right onto CR 33 Go straight thru CR 14 and their house is the 2nd house on the left on CR 33.
I hope you all have a great week! See you on Wednesday night!
You + God = a majority. If God is on your side, there is nothing you cannot overcome. Why? Because we are more than conquerors through Christ. That is reality. That isn't optimism. It's biblical realism.
If you know that God is for you, then no challenge is too great, no problem is too big, no obstacle cannot be overcome. But most of us doubt this fundamental truth. And I believe it's one of our root spiritual problems. We aren't sure if God is really for us or against us because we allow the guilt we feel over sins committed to infect our feelings. We think God feels about us the way we feel about ourselves! We need to sanctify our feelings.
You need to settle this once and for all. God is for you. God is on your side. God is in your corner. His intentions toward you are always good. Here's an amazing promise in Psalm 84:11:
"No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right.
Hey there everyone! Just a little reminder that there is NO YOUTH GROUP TONIGHT!
Because of thanksgiving tomorrow, so there will no one here tonight if you show up. You are more then welcome to come here but everything will be locked and no lights will be on, and you will probably be really cold! :) So my recommendation is not to show up tonight!
But show up next Wednesday, but the Junior High will be down in the Journey Room, and the high school students will be at Wes and Sheila Millers house! We start at the same time and we will be getting out at the same time! So That is not changing at all, just where we are meeting at is changing. So Dec 2nd we will be changing spots for a night! Don't forget that.
Here is a little Article I found that I thought some of you might enjoy.
It’s Sunday morning. You wake up, begrudgingly, and drive to church. You greet people with the basics: “How are you? How’s work? Did you do anything fun this weekend?” You don’t get much for real answers, but you’re fine with that because honestly you don’t want the real answers. You sing worship songs for 20 minutes. Sit down, then throw a check in the offering basket and zone out while your pastor gives the announcements. You listen to a message in which you hear the “5 Steps to … Being a Better Person, Praying More, Serving Your Community, Getting Into Heaven.” You get the idea. Sing one last song, and stand for a blessing. You head out the door, pleased with yourself for going to church and getting in your weekly “God time.” Ticket into heaven = punched. You feel that your duty is done, and now you can go on with your life for another seven days with no interruptions.
Does that sound like a typical Sunday experience for you.
Guess what? It does for me too. Well, not necessarily typical, but it certainly happens.
What I’ve described above is religion. What does it evoke when you think of it? What does it look like when you picture it? What does it feel like when you experience it?
For me, it looks like rules. Like big fancy church buildings. Like priests wearing all white and reading a Bible in Latin.
Religion (in an admittedly strictly Christian sense of the word) is a verb. It is an external act without internal change. It means living a life where God only exists in our daily habits, but not in our heart. It is an easy way into heaven. A way in which we give nothing up, except maybe an hour a day for a devotion. Maybe it’s even just that hour per week that you make it to church.
That, my friends, is a lie. Here is the truth: “The most important one [command],” answered Jesus, “is this … ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31, NIV).
I am sure most of you have heard this at some point in your life. The gist is quite easy to figure out actually: love God first, love people second. That is it. Do you see anything about going to church? Here’s a hint: I don’t.
Sadly, our culture has turned loving God into a one-hour per week coffee date. We’ve turned it into something we simply put on our to-do lists and weekly calendars. Think about what would happen if that was what your relationship with your spouse looked like. Or with your best friend. Would it get the job done? I won’t even give you a hint for that one because the answer is too easy.
If you are someone whose spiritual life revolves around a checklist of going to church, reading your Bible, praying, evangelizing or even serving the homeless, you are living a religion.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:2-4).
Read that last line carefully. “You have forsaken your first love.”
Jesus uses very strong language to describe the people He’s speaking to. He’s saying that they do all the right things. They don’t tolerate wickedness. They persevere. They endure hardships. They don’t grow weary. It seems like they have accomplished everything on their checklist.
Yet, there is something missing.
They are lacking love. In fact, according to the word Jesus uses, they are not just lacking—they have entirely deserted it. They have, in my own interpretation, exchanged Jesus for a set of rules. They have traded Him in for a religion. They are living the externals and neglecting the internal.
Why would they do this?
Because religion is easy.
Following a set of rules is easy.
Checking off a list of things to do is easy.
What true Christianity looks like is loving people the way Jesus did. It means living the way Jesus did, in the midst of this messy world.
That, my friends, is hard. That is being a disciple of Christ and not just a doer of religion.
hey there everyone Sorry I didn't update the last couple of days, I have been at the National Youth Workers Convention. It was a blast, Esther and I went down with a couple other youth pastors and their wives, and it was a great time of relaxation, but also was a great time to work on up coming youth group stuff, pray alot, and really fall face down before God again and continue to cry out to Him for our youth here in Middlebury.
So just a couple of reminders about tomorrow night!
NO YOUTH GROUP TOMORROW NIGHT!
Also please remember that Dec 2nd, High school students are meeting at Wes and Sheila's Millers house, and the Junior high students are meeting at the church but down in the Journey room. Please remember Junior high students that you need to come to the door down in the Journey room because there will be a lot of people here that will be in the sanctuary, and the gym in the back so we need to make sure we come in the Journey room doors!
Looking forward to hanging out with you all next week. Have a great Thanksgiving! And GO COWBOYS!
Man today was simply amazing! God is working and moving. Break down of the day!
8:00 - Wake up to Coke and Grapefruit juice at our door! Amazing service here and it was free....Great way to start our day 9:00 - Check into the Conference and walk around the convention area (Get 2 new T-shirts) 10:00 - Seminar 1: Tony Campolo - Postmodernism vs Modernism - This seminar was amazing. Talking about Niche, Darwin, Plato, Socrates, and Einstein. Tony Campolo studied under Einstein for 2 weeks, amazing. He brought up alot of science and how it relates with the bible, and how we need to be teaching our students about the fundamentals of Christianity before they go to college and get faced with a lot of higher education and they get confused in where God fits into it all. We then talked about becoming like Christ and not just preaching about Him. Allow our students to do something heroic for Christ instead of just sitting in pews and chairs! 12:00 - Lunch in the CNN center with friends, while a massive fight broke out with like 8 cops! Awesome really good story for youth when we come back! 1:00 - 1 session - Andy Stanley - He talked about leadership and how we need to 1. Clarify - What we retreat too when things are unsettling, the big rock of our ministry! 2. (I can't remember the exact word, my notes are on the other side of the room, and I am tired) :) Anyways he really challenged us to make sure we have our ministry clarified and that we rely on the Lord and not ourselves! 3:00 - Walked around the center again, no new T-shirts. 4:00 - Seminar 2: Chap Clark - Being a theological leader - This Seminar was great, because it really talked about being obedient to be who God has called you to be. Also your Vocation is Kingdom your Job is.....Whatever pays you. Your first thing you do in your life is your vocation and then your Job falls 2nd to that. I am kingdom minded by being a youth pastor. My wife is being kingdom minded by loving students and others. That is her job right now. This seminar really got my thinking about making sure I am doing what God has called me to do! 5:30 - Ate dinner with some great youth pastors and their wives! I had soup....I am trying to not eat a bunch of crap every meal 7:30 - Session 2 - Francis Chan - Great night with Francis Chan speaking on staying in tune with God. Then he asked a great question. If he interviewed the students in my youth group and then interviewed God would they say the same thing about me? Also talked about not lying to others and ourselves, Really honestly knowing that we are growing in God and getting to know the bible more and more and more. He kind of went all around but still had some great points non-the less. 9:30 - Had some great worship, and really a crying out for God! Love worshiping with a couple thousand youth workers. 11:00- finishing blog, and eating chex mix!
Tomorrow is a planning day for me here in Atlanta! I am taking some alone time with God and seeking out what He has for this Youth group back in Middlebury! To God be the glory!
We made it down here to Atlanta. There are 4 couples down here with us, and they are all youth pastors and their wives. It was an insane 12 hour trip down, but we made it and we are in one of the nicest hotels I have ever been in.
1. Tahiti - Not really hotel, but it was an amazing resort 2. W - in chicago, it was amazing. 3. Omni - The one we are staying in now!
Its really nice, and the work out place is amazing and the rooms are really nice, so tomorrow up on the slate is Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, and Crowder leading worship. Not to shabby! Also some really amazing seminars. Then Shane and Shane worship night! Its going to be unbelievable. Also getting to hang out with my wife and connect with worship.
Pray for us to be refreshed, and renewed. Also for God to prepare our minds for where God is taking the Crystal Valley Youth Group. Pray for a clear leading on where the next steps are for our ministry. We have idea's with where WE want to take it but WE doesn't equal HE! We want what HE wants!
Ideas on what to do when your "quiet time" goes silent.
Most of us know we’re “supposed” to do devotions every day. And so we slog along, crack open our Bible every day and hope to pick something up by osmosis before we forget what we’ve read. Why do devotions seem so ... pointless? What do you do when you know you should be doing them, but it just feels empty and insincere to do them? Do devotions even matter?
I wish I could tell you it’s been an easy road. It hasn’t. Oh, I’ve had my moments when my prayer or study time seemed white hot with inspiration, but those were few and far between. There have been many more times when it seemed like I was investing more energy into my devotional time than I seemed to be getting back. And, truth be told, there have been a million times when devotion time meant little more than a horrible “should” for me, and I dreaded doing it.
It hasn’t been till the past ten years or so that my devotional life has become something more for me—something I actually look forward to. Here are some reasons why. They’ve helped me, and I think (and hope) they’ll help you:
1. Fight to keep “the point” the point.
The point of doing spiritual things at all (like prayer, or reading the Bible, or singing in worship, etc.), is not so we can say we did them or to make ourselves feel like better Christians; the point of devotion is to open our deepest selves to the God who saves, to the God who engages the human heart, to the One who draws near to us when we draw near to Him. Devotional time is to be more about God than it is about us and what we do. This means we long for God’s Spirit to penetrate the various facets of our lives in real time and space. We are to come to our devotions in the hope that God will enter and shape our futures for His glory. That’s the point.
2. Devotions tap into grace.
Grace is an amazing thing. There is no way it makes sense. It is God lovingly chasing us when there is no reason for it. When the psalmist caught a glimpse of it, he cried, “This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!” Neither can we.
Grace changes things. It changes people. The task of the devotional gesture is to figure out how a person with your unique personality and mind-set can best tap into grace. For me, grace is most easily accessed as I ponder the Scriptures. As I wrestle with texts, grace seems to dawn inside me. My wife, Gail, taps into grace as she sings and worships. Others touch God’s grace most by getting together with other believers or by retreating into times of solitude. Once you find some pathways to help you succeed at living under the influence of grace, incorporate those practices into your devotional rhythm.
3. Variety is the spice of life.
I like eggs, but eggs every day, at every meal, would get old fast. One of the reasons that my devotional life took a dive early on is because I did the same things all the time. Things began to change when I discovered the many spiritual practices modeled in Scripture and church history—and there are a bunch of them (i.e. study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission, solitude, silence, fasting, sacrifice, etc. – Google these!). Now, when I practice my daily devotions, I mix it up—some days I do contemplative things (i.e. prayer, meditation, solitude); other days I take a long walk in silence and try to listen; some days I practice what’s called the Daily Office (the Daily Office is an ancient way to pray and meditate on scripture several times throughout the day); and then there are days when all I do is embrace Celtic spirituality and pray into the mundane things I do, like washing the dishes: Lord, cleanse my soul like I’m washing these dishes … scrub your church clean of whatever is not of you … , or when I clean up around the house or office: Lord, bring order into our world … let your kingdom come and your will be done …
The goal with any kind of devotional break is to balance the responsibilities of our lives with a continuous awareness of God in the back of our minds as we work throughout the day.
4. Winters come.
Winter is that season of the year when everything looks dead, cold and lifeless. But winter is actually not a bad thing. This is the time when the roots of plants push deeper into the earth, making them more healthy and resilient. St. John of the Cross talked about times when our relationship with God took on the characteristic of winter. He called it the “dark night of the soul.” St. John claimed this was the time when God’s working was imperceivable to us. In a dark night the spiritual practices of prayer or study or service would seem dead or flat, cold and lifeless, but that didn’t mean God was not working—just that His working was too deep for us to perceive it.
Madeleine L’Engle describes what sounds like the dark night: “Sometimes I just know that I am going to come down with an attack of atheism again. It’s like the flu. Spiritual flu, I call it. I get ready to endure three or four days of doubt and deep distance from God. Then, through the grace of God, I find myself spiritually well again.”
Our devotion time is not to be an end in itself; it is to be a spiraling process of ever-expanding openness and movement into God. Through these times we say “no” to the way things are, but our “no” isn’t where we stop. Our “no” implies a “yes” to something more. It is in these moments of devotion we foster a conviction about the kind of life we are to live, clarity about our role in the world, and a sense of corporate mission and ministry. There is a critical and prophetic power about them. We are not just believing differently; these times cause us to do and live differently. We end up no longer using the world for our own self-interests. We find ourselves seeking God’s will and goodness for a hurting world—we seek mercy instead of retribution, reconciliation instead of rejection and alienation. A robust devotional life causes us to live better, which helps us write our lives large for Him.
Hey there guys tonight we are coming together here at Crystal Valley to serve. And the really cool part is when people come to get the free clothes, they wont have any idea that honestly at least a hundred volunteers made this happen and we can part of this happening!
So tonight we are going to helping sort clothes, stack boxes, get shoes out, and so much more. We are going to be helping out with the Pass it Forward free garage sale tonight. So come tonight ready to serve others. This should take up our whole night for youth group, but if not we have some things planned at the end, so we will end at our regular time of 8:30.
I hope to see you here tonight, come at the regular time at 6:30, try to be here right at 6:30, because we have lots of announcements and then we want to get everyone started at once. Because we can make a serious dent in all the things they need done!
There never has been and never will be anyone like you. But that isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you absolutely unique.
All of creation is singing a worship chorus to God. And it's not just the meadow lark with its 300 notes or the nightingale finch with its 24 songs. According to the German physicist and pianist, Arnold Summerfield, a hydrogen atom emits 100 frequencies which makes it more complex musically than a grand piano which emits 88 frequencies.
For what its worth, Pythagoras said: "A stone is frozen music." Very interesting in light of what Jesus said: "If you remain silent the stones will cry out."
My point? All of creation is singing a unique song to the Creator. And you are part of that universal chorus. No one can worship God FOR you or LIKE you. God has given you a unique voiceprint. There are millions of people praying and worshiping God in every language all the time. But your voiceprint is unique. Like a parent who knows His child's unique cry or scream or laugh, God knows your voice. He hears your voice. The Heavenly Father loves your voice.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)
There are several important things to look at when examining The Lord's Prayer and applying it to our own prayer lives.
Position. God is our Father in heaven and we are his children. He loves us and wants to take care of us. He is our divine parent. James tells us, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). Paul tells us that he is our Abba, father, which is Arabic and literally means "daddy." Prayer begins by understanding that God is our loving Father and we are his children.
Praise. The second part of the prayer is praise to God's name. "Hallowed" means to make holy. We are to make his name holy through praise and worship. In other words, prayer is an act of divine worship. It begins by acknowledging and praising God for his mighty acts and greatness.
Purpose. The purpose of our prayer should be to pray for his kingdom to come and his will to be done. Jesus himself told the Father, "Not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). Prayer is not about coming to God with our personal agendas; rather, it is seeking his agenda for our lives. His ways are greater than our ways, and his plan is always better than our plans.
Pardon. No one is perfect except for Jesus. We are broken, fallen, and sinful humans who desperately need the forgiveness of God. In prayer, we must confess our sins before God. The Bible says, "He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This is God's way for allowing us to continually come before him. We can come to God broken and stained, and leave cleansed and whole. Likewise, we should forgive others as God has forgiven us.
Protection. He leads us away from temptation and protects us from evil. We need to be reminded that there are spiritual forces of darkness in this world, and we need God's help to protect us. The first thing you should do every morning is to ask for God's protection throughout the day.
Power. The prayer closes in a similar way that it started, by acknowledging God's greatness. He is sovereign and in control. The kingdom, power, and glory belong to God! When we worship and praise God, it gets his attention. He loves it when his children worship him and acknowledge his greatness.
Hey there my fellow human beings, hope this Tuesday is a good one!
Tomorrow night we are going to rocking the serve aspect of our youth ministry, when we help out the Free garage sale going on in the back of the church, they honestly have hundreds and hundreds of clothes that need to be folded sorted, and all sorts of stuff done with them so we are going to go back there and help them for the night.
So tomorrow night we will be diving in right around 6:30. So get right at the normal time of youth group, if you show up late head back towards the gym to start helping out. But we plan on doing this work until the work is all the way done or 8:30 hits which ever one comes first. So come tomorrow night ready to serve your faces off!
I am really excited about all the cool things that are happening here in the youth ministry. But we need to keep praying for this ministry to grow, and grow deeper in Christ so I encourage you today at some point say a prayer for our youth ministry, and pray for the small group leaders and other students in your small group. You will be blown away when you start praying, what God will do with your spiritual life!
Hey there everyone this Wednesday is our serve night! We are actually going to be staying here at the church and helping out with the pass it forward free garage sale. We will be doing a lot of sorting and folding. So come ready to work hard. I have talked with the ladies who are running it and they have a bunch of things for us to do, but they said if we work hard we could finish all the things they have for us, so I think we can do it and help the ladies, and in the long run a bunch of families down the road!
So this Wednesday night show up just like regular youth group @ 6:30, then we will give you instructions on where to go from there. Then we will have you get into your small groups and we will send you to the back with a specific task in mind! We will be done at 8:30 just like regular youth group so come ready to rock it out this coming Wednesday!
Also make sure you guys are selling those cards for our fundraiser! We will start selling this Sunday at church and I hope that you are all raising money for our winter retreat this coming February! Man its going to be awesome. So sell sell sell!
I will be posting more later, I have lots of things to be reading, and blogging about this week so keep checking up on here for more updates! Talk with you all later, have a great Monday!
So today I have been at the church from like 11am - and I will be here till almost 11pm tonight cleaning and getting things back in order but its all worth it because we got some really cool things happening here tonight!
We have about 60 youth workers coming to Crystal Valley tonight to learn from a great mind, Terry Linhart. He is a great communicator and he has some amazing thoughts on how youth ministry should be done and taught. He is a prof at Bethel in Mishawaka and just wrote a book called "Evangelism Remix" and its selling like Crazy. So tonight he is coming here to CVMC to teach. God has given me a heart to help other youth pastors who might not have had the schooling or even have to work another job while leading a youth group. So tonight is all about helping other people connect to students and love them as Jesus would love them.
So tonight if you think to pray for us here at CVMC that would be awesome. Also if you want to follow along with the teaching tonight I will be posting different stuff on Twitter you can follow along at adamsharp5!
I hope you have a great night, also see you tomorrow morning here at CVMC for Sunday morning worship! Talk with you later.
Hey there everyone! This is a rare Friday update. My normal day off is on Friday but I have alot going on this weekend so I am in the office for a couple hours today I thought I would update ya'll.
Please remember to be selling those cards and making money for our Winter Retreat. I promise if you sell a bunch of them you can pay for your whole trip and then even more trips down the road its going to be awesome. This summer we will be having a summer camp, whitewater rafting trip, over nighters, lots of things. So don't just think you are raising money for this one trip but lots of trips down the road! So get selling!
Also the room assignments and packing list will be up here a little bit closer to 3dyc, so look for it right around December. We have a lot of other things going on right now in the youth ministry, so we will worry about all of that later :)
Remember this coming Wednesday come and help us out at the Pass it Forward Garage sale, we will be folding clothes and sorting, and helping out the ladies who put this garage sale on. Its a great way to serve others who serve. So we will see you this Sunday to do some really cool things :)
A lot of people say you should know what you want. The idea is that if you know your desires than you will have clearly defined goals so you can get what you want. The world tells us that it is important for us to get what we want. Have you spent time thinking about what you want?
More importantly, have you spent some time thinking about what God desires? Sometimes find myself getting caught with “doing ministry,” and I forget to spend time focusing on the One it is all for. I need to constantly remind myself to spend time in the Word to understand God’s heart and what He desires for me and for His people.
I don’t want to be caught up in my desires. I want to be caught up in His.
Here are a few scriptures about God’s desires.
Psalm 40:5-6 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
Genesis 12:2-3 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
James 1:19-21 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save
1 Peter 5:2-3 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Ecclesiastes 7:14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Man last night was fun! We had tons of people here hanging out, Worshiping, and then getting a chance to talk about what a friend is.
Remember the definition we used last night to set the standard for friendship last night. Also if some of you are going to be making a friend-shift, please come and talk to us, we want to help, pray and be there for ya through this possible hard time. Its amazing to me some of the people we do call friends even though they might be the furthest thing from a friend. God still has amazing things He wants to do in your life, and through your life. So please take a look at those people you call friends and put them under the micro-scope of that definition we talked about last night. Also look at yourself in this whole picture, are you a good friend or are you the one using people, gossiping, and creating drama. The whole goal of being a in a community is to draw people closer to Christ, and for us to love God and love others more and more.
So take what we have learned last night and take the next step with it.
Also remember this coming Wednesday we are doing a serving project here at the church with the pass it forward sale. So come ready to work hard, and help a ton of people while doing it!
All the announcements like room assignments, and packing list for 3dyc will be up later, and closer to the dates of 3dyc! Also we will be posting what we are doing on Dec 3rd, next week. The youth staff still have to talk over what we are going to be doing for that night since we have to move youth group due to the Pass it Forward garage sale going on that night at the church.
Youth Group tonight starts at 6:30 and goes to 8:30, and we hope that everyone can come tonight. We have got some amazing things planned for everyone tonight, Doug has an amazing game he is going to be doing tonight, we have what would you do for a......, and we have the youth worship band bringing it tonight, and then we are going to be having a discussion on friendship and what it really means to be a friend. So bring something to write with tonight because I think everyone will want to write down some things from tonight.
God has some amazing things He wants to do here tonight so please be praying for tonight and the things that God is going to do in our students and leaders.
So come tonight, bring a friend or 5 and come to hang out with us tonight, we have a lot of announcements tonight also so we are going to be starting right at 6:30 so try your best to get here right at 6:30.
Hey there everyone! This coming Wednesday (tomorrow) We will be going over friendship and what it says in Proverbs about friendship. I was studying this the past couple days and its amazing to me the stuff we find in proverbs about friends.
How to pick friends, how to define a friend, and to look out for those you call friends! Its amazing. So come tomorrow and explore this topic of friendships! Also we will be posting the December calendar as soon it is all set, we have had a couple things change on us so that is why it has not been posted yet, but please make sure you get the November calendar which is in the archived section below! So go and check it out!
Come tomorrow night because we have lots of announcements to make and some really awesome and fun games. We will also be playing a new What would you do for a......I promise it will be Glorious!
Hope to see you tomorrow night at 6:30pm! We will done right at 8:30 tomorrow night!
Verse 1 Alright check it: let’s go back in time, brethren Divine lessons always keep your mind guessing The glory of the Triune God’s what I’m stressing The origin of humankind was fine- blessings Were plenteous- God is amazingly generous Crazy benefits in a state of innocence God told the man what he could taste was limited Not long after came our nemesis in Genesis He scammed well, man fell, damned to hell The whole human race- he represented it Fooled by the serpent, man through his work Woman through birth- even the earth ruled by the curses But instead of a wake immediately God said her Seed would be the One to crush the head of the snake Yo, wait what’s this? Whoa, a gracious gift! In Jehovah’s faithfulness He clothed their nakedness This was so they would know their Savior’s kiss And bliss- but first, many growing pains exist Suffering in the worst form, ugly deeds Eve’s firstborn seed made his brother bleed Indeed things got progressively worse Every section of the earth's been affected by the curse And though God’s judgments against sin were gory Praise the Lord! It’s not the end of the story
Chorus: It's the greatest story ever told A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold The greatest story ever told Restoring all that the enemy stole The greatest story ever told The glory of Christ is the goal, behold The greatest story ever told It's the greatest...
Verse 2 Next scene: man’s sin was extreme God gets steamed, man gets creamed The Lord is so Holy that He drowned them in the water Fire in the valley of slaughter- Sodom and Gomorrah But at the same time, He’s so gracious and patient That from one man He created a whole nation Eventually enslaved by the mentally depraved They cried out to the only One with the strength that He could save He brought them out with signs and wonders- satisfied their hunger Then He appeared on Mount Sinai in thunder Where He laid down the law for God-ruled government Commonly referred to as the Mosaic covenant Sin’s imputed- so for man to know he’s unrighteous God instituted animal sacrifices This was to show our constant need for atonement And when it came to sin, the Lord would never condone it And when His people disobeyed and went astray He raised up prophets and kings to lead them in the way But they would get foul with their idolatry- wet and wild Prophecy- send them into exile To take their punishment like a grown man Then with His own hand He placed them back in their homeland And while in their forefather’s land they dwelt They awaited the arrival of Emmanuel
Chorus: It's the greatest story ever told A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold The greatest story ever told Restoring all that the enemy stole The greatest story ever told The glory of Christ is the goal, behold The greatest story ever told It's the greatest...
Verse 3 After 400 silent years filled with sighs and tears In Bethlehem the Messiah appears God in the flesh- Second Person of the Trinity At thirty begins His earthly ministry Baffling cats with accurate, exact facts And back to back miraculous acts A stumbling block to the self righteous But the humbled- His flock, said “There’s no one else like this” He came from heaven to awake the numb Demonstrated His power over nature, son A foretaste of the Kingdom and the age to come But the reason He came was to pay the sum For the depths of our wickedness, our wretched sinfulness Bless His magnificence- He’s perfect and innocent Yet He was wrecked and His death- He predicted it Next He was stretched, paid a debt that was infinite He said that He finished it- resurrected so the elect would be the recipients of its benefits Through faith and penitence we get to be intimate His grace is heaven sent, it never diminishes Now the Holy Spirit indwelling is the evidence for heaven's future residents who truly represent Jesus, the Author, Producer, Director and Star of a story that will never, ever end!
Chorus: The greatest story ever told A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold The greatest story ever told Restoring all that the enemy stole The greatest story ever told The glory of Christ is the goal, behold The greatest story ever told It's the greatest...
Hey there everyone this wednesday night is going to rock your stinking socks off! We have got some amazing games, awesome worship planned and we are going to be diving into Friendship this week and what the proverbs says about friendship. You will be amazed at how the bible defines friendship!
So come this Wednesday night at 6:30 to hang out and have some fun. Also we will be doing what would you do for a ........... Come and find out what we are giving away this week :)
Also we are starting our 2nd fundraiser really soon, so be prepared to go out and sell a bunch of these awesome cards! We will be hitting up everyone we know. You can easily earn all your money for the winter retreat in February. We will have some more info coming later but just know that its coming up!
Also Next Wednesday we are going to be coming here to the church at our regular time at 6:30, but we will be helping the Pass it Forward project going on at our church so come ready to serve and love on others!
Hey there everyone! Thanks for coming last night and hanging out with us it was pretty awesome! I hope that you guys can learn a bunch from Proverbs 1:7! Just remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge! Man that is so true, God has some amazing things He wants to do in your lives but we have to submit to Him first. Its an amazing experience when you finally submit yourself to Christ.
So I am glad to say that we have around 50 students going to 3dyc, a little bit down from last year, but man still a good solid group going! I am excited to see what God is going to do while we are there. 3dyc has got a major overhaul since last year. So we are all in for some amazing surprises!
Alright well I have lots and lots of things to get done today! I leave with this funny video.
Tonight is going to be so much fun! We got some sweet games that we going to partake in and also the full band is back tonight to rock our faces off with some worship! Also tonight we kick off a mini-series called "The Verbs" A study of Proverbs. So I hope that you can all make it tonight!
God has got some amazing things he wants to teach us tonight, So come bring a friend or 5 it doesn't matter. :)
Also tonight is the deadline for 3dyc! So do not forget your papers, and your money! Because I do not have it tonight then you do not go!
Also we have the other fundraiser going to get started here soon for our winter retreat! So be ready for that also!
Make sure you scroll down read some other posts I have, and also get the new calendar for November! Click on it and print it off! Blessings! Hope to see ya tonight!
How the new cultural reality benefits both artists and consumers.
It’s been one of the biggest debates of the first decade of the 21st century: Is it ok to download music for free when you can buy it in other places? Does it harm the artist to not pay money for their music? And does this make downloading free music immoral? The debate has been had over and over again, pitting the angry Lars Ulrichs of the world against the pauper-poor, millennial hipsters who have known nothing BUT illegal downloading for most of their lives.
By now, we can admit that most observers would be lying to themselves if they thought that downloading music for free is ever going to go away. This isn’t to say that the debate is over or that artists are wrong to want money anytime someone gets their grubby little hands on their music. It is just to say that the future of music—in fact, the future of most everything in the cultural world—is going to be FREE. Yes, free. Free? How is that possible?
For all the worry, complaining, and lawsuits about copyright and “intellectual property” infringement that comes along with pirating and unsanctioned file sharing, there are increasing numbers of people who suggest that the benefits of an open-source mindset outweigh the negatives. Lawrence Lessig, copyright guru and Stanford law professor, is one such voice. In his book, Free Culture, Lessig argues that digital technology enables a new sort of democratic creativity in which many can “participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that reaches far beyond local boundaries.” Giving things away things for free, letting the audience share and remix and consume things as it sees fit, is a boon to the collective strength of the culture economy.
Another intellectual champion of “Free” these days is Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. In his new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Anderson describes the rise of “freeconomics” and argues that “free” is not a thing to be feared for those who want to make money; rather, it’s a thing to be embraced.
Free, says Anderson, “is a word with an extraordinary ability to reset consumer psychology, create new markets, break old ones, and make almost any product more attractive.”
And it doesn’t mean profitless. It just means that “the route from product to revenue” is more indirect. It means that Wal-Mart might lure you into its stores with a $12 below-cost DVD, with the completely reasonable hope that you will spend $100 on other stuff while you’re there. It’s called a loss-leader.
In terms of music, it means that bands might give music away for free (Radiohead!) in hopes of creating new fans and reaching more people who will one day attend a concert or (gasp!) buy an album. It’s about creating a relationship with the audience, tapping into the collaborative spirit of the networked age and recognizing that music (and other cultural work) was never intended to be a commodity that lived primarily in the transactional, economic space between producer and consumer. On the contrary, culture has always been firmly rooted in community and a shared sense of understanding and making meaning together.
Derek Webb, a musician who is familiar with this new cultural reality, began NoiseTrade in 2007 to distribute music on a pay-as-you-go model. "A great record is its own best marketing tool,” says Webb. “All the marketing dollars in the world can't accomplish what one great record can, especially if it's set free to roam around and connect with the right people.” Culture is a community activity
But as it turns out, thinking about culture in this light—as a community activity and not just a commodity exchange—is more than just a “for the benefit of all” act of goodwill. It also translates to dollars and cents. As MIT media theorist Henry Jenkins so keenly recognizes in his book Convergence Culture, media corporations are increasingly mindful of the “emotional capital” of their audience—the “importance of audience investment and participation in media content.” Why? Because when audiences are invested and participate, they also promote. The concern for those in the media “industry” these days should not be a fear of downloading, but rather a promotion of sideloading: the activity of forwarding, linking, viral buzz-building and passing along from one consumer to another at no cost.
What does this mean? Basically, it means that the people in charge of record companies shouldn't worry about downloading. At least, not as much as the should work on working on a community of people who love music—especially people who will Twitter about it, make their Facebook statuses about a band they've just found, blog about their favorite new music, email links and so on. Record companies should realize that this "sideloading" is so valuable—and is completely free promotion for them.
To fight the tide of free is foolish in this day-and-age. Anyone under 30 simply will not pay for things that they know will be available online somewhere for free. Why is craigslist killing off newspaper classifieds sections? Because people can post listings for free on craiglist. It’s simple economics. As Anderson writes in Free, “Sooner or later every company is going to have to figure our how to use Free or compete with Free, one way or another.”
But giving things away for free as a marketing strategy only works when the product you are giving away is good and stands out in the overcrowded cultural market. The cumulative effect of being able to get more music for less money (or no money) is that each consumer listens to a ton of music. And in this glut of consumption, only the very best will be remembered, cherished, passed along and multiplied. Only the strongest will survive.
The new economy
In a 2008 Wired article, Chris Anderson makes the point that money is not the only scarcity in the world anymore. Time and respect are increasingly scarce and the corresponding “attention economy” and “reputation economy” are increasingly important factors in the economy at large.
“There is, presumably, a limited supply of reputation and attention in the world at any point in time,” writes Anderson. “These are the new scarcities—and the world of free exists mostly to acquire these valuable assets for the sake of a business model to be identified later. Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today.”
So even though on paper it might look unwise for an artist to encourage the distribution of their music for free, they should consider that in the freeconomic scene, economics has as much to do with sheer number of credit card swipes as it does with popularity, exposure and interaction with audience (which eventually will translate to credit card swipes).
It may be difficult, but this is the way forward. Debates can continue to rage about the morality of amassing free music, but the reality of the situation is that music is about the producer and consumer, and “the music industry” will not survive without a mutual respect and cooperative spirit between both parties. To let music suffer or die on account of an inflexible refusal to recalibrate old models would be the truly immoral thing. The future of music’s economic viability will depend not on the ability to secure payment for every download, but rather on each musician’s ability to get people passionate about music again.
"While we ordinarily first bring our own needs to God in prayer, and then think of what belongs to God and his interests, the Master reverses the order. First Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will; then give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us… In true worship the Father must be first, must be all." —Andrew Murray
Pray Like Jesus
When the apostles said to Jesus, "Lord teach us how to pray," it was because they knew he was a man of profound devotion and prayer. The gospels tell us that Jesus prayed at every major event in his life: his baptism (Luke 3:21); the choice of apostles (6:12-12); his transfiguration (9:29); before the cross at Gethsemane (22:39-40); and on the cross (23:46). The Bible tells us that he continues in prayer for us. Hebrews 7:25 says, "He always lives to make intercession for them." He sets the example for us to follow:
"And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone" (Matthew 14:23).
"And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place" (Luke 4:42).
"But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray" (Luke 5:16).
"In these dayshe went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12).
"He took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray" (Luke 9:28).
"He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed" (Mark 1:35).
The secret to Jesus' powerful prayer life is found in the most important prayer of the Bible, commonly known as The Lord's Prayer. It is one of the most popular passages of Scripture read at funerals, weddings, and church services throughout the Christian world. But few people really grasp the meaning of this little prayer. It is Jesus' definitive teaching on prayer. It is an outline by which we can shape our own personal prayer life and begin to learn how to pray according to his will.
Hey there everyone. The deadline for 3dyc is tomorrow so make sure you get all your registrations turned into me by tomorrow night! I can't accept anymore after tomorrow because all day Thursday I am putting rooms together and teams together. So make sure you get all your stuff into me TOMORROW!
Also we are starting a cool new mini-series on Proverbs. This book is chopped full of amazing tid-bits of wisdom so you and I can grow closer to Christ we are going to be talking about a couple really cool things tomorrow night so come ready to learn how to grow closer to God in some really practical ways!
Did I mention that tomorrow is the 3dyc deadline? Because if I didn't it is tomorrow! :)
Keep checking on here for cool articles I post or just different Idea's that I write down for ya'll! Talk with you all later.
Hey there everyone! I hope you are all having an awesome day. The weekend went by way to fast. This coming Wednesday we are going to be having tons of fun we got some sweet games we are going to rock out, great worship, and a start of a new 2 week series we are going to go into.
We are starting to talk about Proverbs and how important wisdom is in growing closer to Christ. God has some amazing things for us this Wednesday so come and hear some amazing proverbs, also I have got some funny stories for ya from my past that I am going to share with ya.
We hope to see ya from 6:30 - 8:30pm this Wednesday night, Also a little reminder that 3dyc Money is due this Wednesday with all your forms filled out! Do not forget about this! We want to take as many people as we can to 3dyc this year. So come with all your stuff this Wednesday night. Also Bring the money you owe. It costs 149$ to go. If you have earned money please email me so I can tell ya much you owe.
Also this week I am putting out the new Calendar for November and December so you all know whats going on. So look for that later today here on the blogspot!
Hope to see you this Wednesday night for youth group!
Jesus brought the disciples out of their comfort zone
When Jesus walks on water his disciples are horrified. They've seen Jesus break the laws of nature several times over, but this miracle pushes them outside of their level of comfort. Jesus reassures them, and they take comfort in God's sovereignty by seeing that his power has no bounds—he can do literally anything, even walk on water.
Jesus also puts the disciples in situations where danger is imminent. The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because he kept saying that he was God, and the disciples thought it prudent to hunker down and let the mob's anger pass. When Jesus hears of Lazarus' death, the disciples protest going back to Judea in hopes to save their own tails. Jesus responds by telling them that if they are doing good before God, why hide before men? They are putting their safety before the saving of Lazarus' life, and Jesus pushes them through their fear gently—not in a rebuking manner, but in a clear, focused, and resolved manner.
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