We ask for a $16 donation to help offset the cost, but the more important thing is that we get the Word in everyone’s hands.   

We will talk about how people can rely on God even when things are super and when things are lousy.  The songs throughout this book are powerful, but draw us back to the knowledge that God is God and will always be there with us.

To end the series we are going to share our own expressions of worship.  So if you praise God with sings, dancing, sports (we have seen lateral basketball before), potter, painting, photography…you name it.  Come and share it with the rest of the group so that we can give God our praise together.

We have so many connections in our lives we don’t know what to do with them all. On my birthday a couple of days ago I literally had hundreds of facebook wall posts, text messages, emails, cards, phone calls…. to wish me a good day. In the same vain we neglect a great number of those connections while nurturing others.

Sometimes connections are just greater for some rather than others. As I have been Reading Philip Yancy’s book “Prayer” (My first Yancy book ever that I can remember) something in the very beginning of the book caught my attention. He writes that Prayer is, “a privilege and not a duty.”

I let that simmer for a bit as I thought about the way that I approach prayer. I through about the conversations we had at Monday night small group about prayer and some of the primal questions the act of prayer brings with it. Though there may be questions about prayer, there is also this overarching understanding that our connection with God does not in any way have to be the way that it is.

There is a connection that is made through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that opens the door and the Holy Spirit then becomes the conduit for connection (or cell tower with full bars all of the time). All we need to do is to plug in and get connected.

Prayer should not be looked on a a duty but as a relationship that takes discipline (like any other) so that it may grow. Prayer offers an avenue for the veil between God and humanity to drop so that we might catch a glimpse of God in a new light. Prayer allows us to take a break from the fast paced world where we feel we have to do everything. It is an invitation to put down our baggage (if just for a bit) in hopes that we leave with less than what we came with. Prayer is a way that we can be reminded of the grandness of the world is larger than just the slice of creation (or stack of mundane to-dos) that we have right in front of us at the moment. It allow us to step back and see life from a different point of view. It allows us to be us and lets God be God.

This is a study that branches off from our last teaching series and is aimed at addressing some of the things that bog us down.  Come join us Mondays at 6

Last Saturday Eden and I went to Baker park and walked the park, played on playgrounds, pet dogs, made new friends, took pictures, and she fell asleep 100 years before we got back in the car to go home.  For the past 2 days I have been able to dust off the bike and get a couple of road rides in, and I hope that I can do the same today.

I have been telling Katie that i have NEEDED to get out for the past little bit, but I don’t know that I realized how much I needed to get out to do something physical.  The days after a ride I wake up sore, but I am also mentally less tired and more ready to face whatever the day will bring.  I feel like I am less grouchy and so much more productive.

Many times we talk about the need to get our and find rest through Sabbath.  It is times like this that I realize the real value in letting your soul rest in things that set it free.  What a blessing this weather has been.  I hope it continues.

¹ My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my soul!Psalms 108:1 (NLT)

During lent we are studying a book written by Mark Batterson, the lead pastor at National Community Church in DC, called Primal.  It is a really great book that calls us back to the heart of our faith.

With this in mind, when I came across an analogy about how God is like the umbrella of our lives i gave it another read.  The book talked about how we need to have God covering all the other things and areas in our lives rather than being just another piece of the puzzle that makes us who we are.

This in itself might not seem like it is too Earth shaking.  I have heard that God needs to be in everything a ton of times and I have preached it 1,000 times too.  I have always had this image of God being the foundation that everything rests on (which I still hold to be true).  But, I think that we need a “God Umbrella” too.  We might not notice it when things are going well and school, sports, dance and work are fine, however when it starts to rain we can enjoy the drops around us without feeling like we are drowning in the storms of life.  With God covering us we can see through the storms because the rain isn’t dripping into our eyes and we will not loose hope in the middle of adversity because we know God is surrounding us if we have a firm foundation and covering of God.

When have you felt like God was covering your or protecting you?

My trip to Africa, was basically one of the best things I have ever experienced. As the plane landed and we were driven to our compound, I could not believe that we were actually in Liberia. We met tons of people, including the Bishop! We became his special guests at many different events, very cool. Meeting the staff, teachers, and students of the school was really awesome. I loved being able to sign with them and learning new signs and different styles. Totally cool!! The kids were all such great participants in VBS, they loved the simple things like coloring. We tried to play soccer with them, but they were ridiculously good! We introduced frisbee to them, they picked it up quite well and had fun with it. They loved getting their pictures taken with us. We all became very attached to them and were sad to leave them. We all came back with plenty of pictures, souvenirs, and stories. Gods love was felt so strongly over there, these kids who struggled everyday just to survive were so thankful for us coming. And how hard they were working to help with their school was unbelievable, I can never take the things I have for granted. Someday I hope to go back and see these people again.

After coming back home, the first stop was a BK for the hungry travelers who wanted anything that didn’t have rice in it. I then spent a day home getting ready to leave for college. Wow, what a turn around! I was running on auto-pilot it seemed, I couldn’t really believe everything that was happening. But, it was all so amazing. I moved into my dorm finally, with no worries of my roommate, I knew she would be awesome. I was worried about what I would forget, where and when I was going to put everything in my room. How I was going to fight jet lag, how everything flowed here, who I was going to hang out with…I felt like I knew no one. The school threw us into Welcome Week activities and somewhere in all the fun I caught up on sleep, managed to buy most of my text books, settle in and find some great friends. As classes started, everyone was freaking out, there was no routine yet and all those syllabi…slightly overwhelming. I almost lost my sight of God in some of this my focus wasn’t on him, It was on myself. I was struggling through the week, not getting enough sleep and not having focus on anything. So I finally decided to go for a run, then I attended worship with my dorm, and went to the FCA meeting. It all brought me back, straight back to God. I had finally slowed my life down enough to hear God.

Here’s some questions and thoughts to think about:

Why do we seem to lose our focus so many times? What can you do to keep your focus on God? Take time to STOP and listen to what God may be trying to tell you.

I miss you all and will be writing again soon…hopefully!

P.S. wow, sorry that was long people, kudoos to those who stuck it out and read that whole thing!

The book began with this sentence: “Let me begin with a promise- if you read this book cover to cover, think about what you’ve read, and discuss the principles with other leaders, I promise you’ll never be the same.” Quite an optimistic outlook. Doug told his story on how he became a leader; when he was in 9th grade, his youth pastor asked him to go on a youth leadership retreat because he saw potential in Doug. After that, Doug says that his life was changed; now, he’s the director of youth something something at Saddleback Church, which is a mega church (for more information, Google it.)

After more explanation on what the book is, Doug asks us these questions:

Are you ready for this leadership trip?

Yes                     No

Do you consider yourself a student leader?

Yes                     No

What do you think? Are you a student leader? Do you want to become one? If you answered no to any of them, Doug responds with this:

If you have leaership potential, then

1. You have a relationship with God.

2. You have  aheart and mind open to learning and growing.

3. You want to help others.`

4. You can handle being challenged.

5. You want your life to count for something.

NOW, does that describe you?

Yes                               No

Doug goes on to say that leadership isn’t about popularity, being cute, having charisma, or speaking in front of others. “If you want to serve God and have a heart that gets excited about helping others, then you’ve got what it take to be a leader.”

Before Chapter One begins, Doug asks one more thing of us: to write down our CURRENT definition of student leadership. He says that there is no correct answer, and that you shouldn’t worry about being “right.” At the end of the book, he’ll have us write down a new definition based of what we’ve learned, and to see if we’ve learned anything.

Give it a shot!