New Years!

First off, HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

What a great time to celebrate the blessings God gave us in the year 2009! Also, we get to look ahead to 2010 and make some goals for the new year. Those goals are what we call new year's resolutions. If you just think about it for a couple of minutes, this holiday is actually a weird holiday! It is one of very few holidays that all the countries celebrate on the same day. You can watch fireworks from all over the world, Syndey, Beijing, Paris, etc. We even get a day or two off work. So much celebration for one night/day, and after the celebration is done we start all over. A new year, a fresh start!

Matt led us through a talk about New Year's, and we looked at Leviticus 23. In this chapter, we read about the feasts of the Lord and the Sabbath. These yearly feasts were a remarkable event much like New Year's, but they were not to be observed more than what we call the Lord's day or day of rest. This Sabbath day of feasts was holy and a time meant to glorify God! How often do we think of New Year's as a time that is holy?

This new year, think some changes you would like to make in your life. Think of how you can glorify God with these changes. So as you think of what your new year's resolutions are... whether it's giving more, being more loving, or losing weight.. It can be done for the glory of God.

Acts 20:35, "And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'"

Matthew 5:43-45a, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

Happy 2010, a new start!

~Ash

The Conspiracy - Love All

Hey Tribe of Vibe,

It was another great night as Matt ended the Advent series at Vibe. After last week's gingerbread house story, you probably couldn't wait to hear what matt did this time. Yep, bubbles! So often we live in our own little bubble. We live in a culture where our needs are met. Also, our lives are so small when you put it to the world. Just like in any room, one bubble would be really small in comparison to that room. Matt literally made some bubbles while on the stage to show us this. He also showed us how easy it is to pop those bubbles too!

In Matthew 2:1-3, we took a look at the Magi, also known as the "Three Wise Men". They were indeed wise as they studed stars and much more. Guided by the star, they went to Jerusalem to worship the birth of the King, Jesus! The Magi came ready to worship a king by bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I'm sure they were surprised when they got to Jerusalem because no one was celebrating like they were. So they went to King Herod to see if he knew where this King was. Herod tells them to come back when they find him because he also wants to worship the King. But we know that he truly wants to kill anyone who would dare to threaten his position as king. As God planned, the Magi did not return to Herod after finding and worshipping Jesus. This is why Herod ordered for all young children in Bethlehem to be killed. That's how determined he was to make sure he was the only king around!

Man, what a difference we can see in the kingdoms of Jesus and Herod. It's clear that they were opposite! In Jesus' kingdom, you will find love, grace, eternal life, etc. In Herod's kingdom, you will find fear, death, etc. It's clear that anyone would want to live under Jesus' kingdom, instead of Herod's. Jesus would have taken the time to listen and talk with you! That's how loving He is! Somehow, I just don't picture Herod doing the things Jesus did. What a difference in these two kingdoms!

Now how could we make a difference in the world!?! Especially, when we are the size of a bubble in a large room. It starts with thinking of others more! Get out of that comfortable bubble we live in and think about the needs of others that aren't being met! Don't go and put your life above God's plans! God's most important command is to listen to and love God! (Mark 12:29)

It is such a cool thing that we get to do this together at Vibe. Matt revealed that we have adopted a kid from Ethopia through Compassion. What a great example of loving others! Some more action points from the night is to give and serve! We are rich in so many ways, so share the wealth of hope, time, prayer, etc. Another one is to talk to friends about your faith! What do you love about Jesus most? What difference has He made in you?

Soon you will be opening presents from family and friends, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and many other traditions. Make a new tradition... give Jesus a gift, the gift of love!


Matthew 25:35-40
For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.' "Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?' "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'


Have a great CHRISTmas!
Ash

The Conspiracy - Give More

Hey Tribe of Vibe!

What a great talk last talk! Matt talked to us about the incarnation! How often do we hear that term? Yet incarnation is what we celebrate during the Christmas season! For those wondering what that word even means, it’s a term used for the coming of God’s Son into the world as a human being! It’s crazy to think of such a big, mighty God coming down to earth in form of a baby!

Matt showed us an illustration on stage of what this was like. Ryan, one of the students, was called up on stage and was asked to go inside of a house! One small problem! The house was a gingerbread house that was probably the size of his face. Clearly, Ryan, at his height, could not get inside! It was fun seeing him try as we got to see some gingerbread house smashing! Just like Ryan was trying to get in the house, God had to come down to earth to be with us, except it was possible for Him!

I want to share with you another awesome illustration about God coming down to earth. In The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancy learns about incarnation with his fish!

Management of a marine aquarium, I discovered, is no easy task. I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the nitrate levels and the ammonia content. I pumped in vitamins and antibiotics and sulfa drugs and enough enzymes to make a rock grow. I filtered the water through glass fibers and charcoal, and exposed it to ultraviolet light. You would think, in view of all the energy expended on their behalf, that my fish would at least be grateful. Not so. Every time my shadow loomed above the tank they dove for cover into the nearest shell. They showed me one ‘emotion’ only: fear. Although I opened the lid and dropped in food on a regular schedule, three times a day, they responded to each visit as a sure sign of my designs to torture them. I could not convince them of my true concern.

To my fish I was deity. I was too large for them, my actions too incomprehensible. My acts of mercy they saw as cruelty; my attempts at healing they viewed as destruction. To change their perceptions, I began to see, would require a form of incarnation. I would have to become a fish and ‘speak’ to them in a language they could understand.

As you can see from these illustrations, it’s a big deal that God is Immanuel, God with us! (Isaiah 7:14) It required a lot for Him to be with us. It started with Mary, a virgin, having a Son called Jesus, the Messiah! Although Jesus was born human, we can take comfort that God has always existed. He became flesh as John 1:1 states.

We read about the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25. I encourage you to go through this passage one more time; this time think about how this is not just a birth of a child but God coming in the form of man so that we can be with Him! Now that is love!

Main points of the night:

1. God is Not Far Away

2. God cares about me

3. Certain about Heaven

Remember how Immanuel means God with us! God is never far away from us! We know God loves us through his actions! He cared enough about us to come down to earth! What a relief it is to know that you can have eternal life in heaven! (1 John 5:13)

So What!?! (what we can do)

Be Present

Serve

Love

Whenever people we care about are going through tough times, we seem to struggle with what to do. How can you truly comfort people!?! When it comes down to it, they won’t remember what you said; they remember that you were there! Being present is the best gift we can give! There’s no better time than the holidays to serve! There are so many ways to serve, from the Angel Tree to the food bank. Jesus tells us to love even our enemies in Matthew 5: 46-47! Being present, serving, and loving are great ways to respond to God’s love and celebrate this season!

So let’s celebrate!

~Ash

Tough questions - Theological issues

The Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil is an amazing sight. It stands over 100 ft. tall and overlooks the beautiful city of Rio De Janeiro. It serves as a beautiful reminder that God is watching over us as we stand there and look out at His beautiful creation. It amazes me how simple everything can look from that high up, but how complex it really is when you get up close. The same is true for a lot of theological issues we face. At first, we accept them as truth, but as we draw closer to God in our relationship with Him, we begin to realize how complex these issues can be.

Two of the most complex ones can be God Himself and Eternity. We all have some questions about those things that we want to know the answers to. A couple Wednesdays ago, we wrapped up our Tough Questions series where we answered some really great questions about those topics.

One question you guys had dealt with where God comes from? The short answer is nowhere. God has always existed, and always will exist. No one created Him. Revelation 1:8 tells us "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." This is a foundational truth for God's character and for who He is as our Lord and Savior.

Another great question y'all had was why did you (God) sacrifice yourself for me? What a great, loaded question that a jr. high student asked! Sin had to be dealt with, and it was dealt with by sacrifices in the Old Testament before Christ, but Hebrews 10:11 tells us that those sacrifices could "never take away sins," so Christ had to come and offer a one-time sacrifice for sins to make "perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Hebrews 10:14) Second, He sacrificed Himself, because He loved us. John 3:16 could be the most popular verse in the Bible, and it's one that taps into God's heart for us. The context is a Pharisee, Nicodemus, is coming to Jesus in the middle of the night, and Jesus knows that he wants to talk about entering the Kingdom of Heaven. After a little discussion on that topic, Jesus says something to him that I hope speaks to all of us. He tells Him that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should no perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) What a great and powerful statement! God loves us enough, and wants to know us so much, that He is willing to put His own Son through intense agony knowing that it was the only way for Him to have an intimate relationship with us, and it was all because of His love for us!

Finally, there were a few questions about eternity. There was a great question about how Jesus can be in Heaven if He took our sins. It's because He took sins to the grave with Him and defeated sin with His death on the cross, and He defeated death when He was resurrected from the grave. Sin did not come with Him, "because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:7) Next, there was a question about what our bodies will look like when we die. Well, if you're a Christian, 1 Corinthians 15:35 - 49 gives us a glimpse of that future body. Our physical body will be transformed into a spiritual body, just like a pumpkin seed transforms from a seed into a pumpkin rather than just growing into a larger seed. Finally, the last question dealt with what hell is going to be like. Between the lake of fire mentioned in Revelation 20:15 and the everlasting destruction mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, it doesn't sound like a fun place to spend eternity at all! However, the worst part of that is the end of verse 9 where it says that those who don't know Christ will be "shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." The worst part about Hell is going to be not having the joy and pleasure of being in a relationship with God! These were all great questions asked by you, our very own junior high students! All of you are incredible, and I encourage you to keep asking these tough questions and keep seeking to draw closer to Christ and love and know Him more! It's an honor to be a part of your lives. God bless all of you, and I hope I get to see everyone this Wednesday after what I hope was an awesome Thanksgiving filled with a ton of food, family, and giving thanks to God for everything we have. See ya!

-Kyle

Tough Questions - Does God Care?

The past few weeks have been tough. There have been shootings at Fort Hood where 13 people were killed and about 31 wounded. Shortly after that incident there was an office shooting in Florida where 1 person was killed and 5 people were wounded. The jobless rate in our country is at an all time high and more than likely, a lot of your parents have been affected by that. Swine flu continues to wreak havoc and there seems to be constant unrest in the middle east.

It might raise the question, "Does God Care?" Well we asked that question in a variety of different ways last night. The answer of course is "YES" God cares. As a matter of fact, God cares more than we do. But it doesn't always feel that way. Another way to phrase the question might be "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Last night I asked the question, "Why do good things happen to bad people?" Which I think is a fair question.

There was this guy named Henry Cavanaugh who had serious anger problems, to say the least. One day this ex con decided to mug an elderly lady, so he did. After mugging her, for a whoppin' $28, he hoofed it (that's Texanese for "he ran"). He ducked into a camera shop on a nearby street and was greeted by....cheers! You see Henry was the 1 millionth customer and had won 1million dollars! What tha heck? Are you serious? Instead of getting apprehended by authorities he became a millionaire. Not cool.

The crazy thing is that we are sort of in the same boat with Henry. We often like to lump ourselves in the "good person" category when the Bible has a different view of us. If you take a quick look at Romans 3:10-12, you'll see that man kind isn't really considered "good". BUT we still have a hard question to answer don't we? If God is good, how does He allow suffering?

This really is a tough question because I can't answer why certain things happen. Like I can't explain why a child gets cancer. I can't explain why certain people die way before "their time". What I do know is that God is good. 1 John 1:5 states that God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. There is no trace of evil in God. 1 Peter 3:12 goes so far as to say that He is against anyone who participates in darkness. God hates evil!

So when something bad happens, God is grieved. When a school shooting takes place, God did not make it happen but allowed it because He allows us to make choices for good and for evil. I also know that God warns people who commit acts of evil that they will have to face Him. The example that I gave last night when we were talking about child abuse was from Matthew 18:5-7. Jesus warns His listeners that if anyone misleads one of his little ones, I realize that Jesus was talking about His disciples but it includes children, that it would be better for a millstone to be tied around their neck and thrown into the ocean. A millstone was a huge stone used for grinding grain so that is a pretty strong statement. God takes His children, both old and young, seriously! He loves them and wants the best for them more than we do.

So, that being said, God cares about you! He cares what happens to you! When we go through tough times, God can use the bad stuff to help us grow stronger in Him (Romans 5:3-5). He also promises us that when the waves of suffering hit us and knock us down (Psalm 69:1-3) that He is our anchor (Hebrews 6:19), He alone keeps us from being pushed around by the bad stuff that happens in our life. When we cling to Christ during times of suffering, He is there, even when it doesn't feel like it.

Matt Snellings

Junior High Pastor

Chase Oaks Church

Are You a Vampire...Peggy?

Are You a Vampire ...Rocky?