This Life

This week at Vibe Chris talked about the life we have on earth and how we live it.



 Jesus says in Matthew 7:26-27, "But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” More often than we think, we are foolishly living our lives.


So often we get caught up in things that don't matter! We spend most of our life working toward something. When we are children, we can't wait to be big kids! When we're teenagers, we can't wait to be adult, make our own decisions! When we're adults, we can't wait till we get settled down and are retired!

We set goals that have will have no impact beyond the end of our life. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

So the things we do now matter! The things you do, would they be something to be proud to lay before the feet of God?

Paul uses another illustration (one you might have heard of it) in Philippians 3:12-14. We are running the race! Paul encourage us to forget what is behind us and to strain toward what is ahead. We strive to be successful. But do we strive to please God with our prize?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field." -Matthew 13:44


Follow-up study/questions:
Read Matthew 6:19-21

- Which treasures sound better? Why?
- What is the ultimate treasure we will receive in heaven?
(Being with God!)
- What "treasure" do you value? Where do you spend the most money, time, effort?
- In light of this passage, how should we live our lives? What kind of lifestyle leads to the permanent rewards?
(Kingdom focused as opposed to self – focused (Serving others as opposed to serving ourselves), being obedient to God)

All You Need is Love

We're back!!! We are finally back in action after two weeks off due to the snowy/icy weather! Love was definitely was in the air, especially since it was the first Vibe after Valentine's Day! So in honor of this day of LOVE, we wanted to talk about what love and God have to do with each other!

First, check out this video we made on the topic of love!

If you randomly asked people, you are probably going to get a lot of different answers! God is the universe! God is you, He's in all of us! These are answers you won't find in the Bible, but even Christians have a hard time figuring out who God is! One answer you might hear a lot is God is Love!

We see that this is true in 1 John 4:7-8, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Chris has Bieber fever!

So He really is love! But how do we know what love is when we hear people use love in so many different ways! I love this video game! I love this car! I love Justin Bieber! (something Chris confessed to us!) Love is a word that we hear all the time! The word is one of the most abused word in our language. And sometimes, we can abuse others in the way we love.

Too often, we stop loving things or people when they stop benefiting us! We practice a selfish love. We no longer love our phone because it is not as nice as the phone someone else has. We no longer want to be friends with someone because there isn't much in common. The world says that things will make you happy. If you have that new phone, you will be happy. Somehow, we are never happy enough though. So the choice is yours, what do you believe, the world or Scripture?

What does Scripture say? We read in 1 John 4:7-8, Love doesn't come from things! Love comes from God. If we look further down in chapter 4, we see one of the best examples of God's love. In verse 10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Even after sin separated us from God, God loved us! So much that He sent His Son as a sacrifice, a way to be with us again! That is how great His love is!

Let that sink in with you, God loves you. truly loves you.