Fall Baptisms

One of my favorite nights this fall/year was the night of baptisms, check out this video!

A NEW SCHOOL YEAR

Hey Vibers!
It has been a while since we've updated y'all on what's happening at Vibe! We've been having a lot of fun as we have welcomed the new 6th graders! Check out this video of one of the ways we welcomed them. (we have the practice takes in the beginning of the video, go to the 3:09 mark to see the real deal live)

Yes, we had an awesome time that night!
The very next week, we had our HUGE back to school event! We had lots of fun there too! Check out this recap video of the fun night!

AND this past week, we finished our first series called Vibe 101. We took these last three weeks to discuss the basics behind Vibe, why we do what we do at Vibe. How we want to welcome students as they are, we want to see change happen in their lives, and we want to see students making a difference!

Next week, we will be starting a new series called FLUSH. Where we will talk about what things we need to flush out of our lives in order to grow closer to God. We're looking forward to the start of the series and will keep you updated as we go!

James 2 - How we should treat each other

Hey Vibers!  Just wanted to recap a little of what we talked about a week ago when we talked about the 2^nd chapter in James.  God’s really been teaching me a lot about just how important community is in our lives.  

The need for relationship with others is one thing that drives all of us whether we are Christian or non-Christian. We, by nature, understand that we need each other.

James wrote to a church where division was starting to happen, and people were starting to act in ways that contradicted what they said they believed.  One way this played out was favoritism.  Certain people in the church were starting to show distinction to the people above them while neglecting the poor, and treating them as if they were inferior.  James launches an attack against this, and brings up two great points that I think we can even learn from.

One, why are we judging those “below” us when they are the very people who will inherit the kingdom of God as Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount?  Why should we dishonor the very people God is going to honor?  It doesn’t really sound like a good idea to deliberately hurt and take advantage these people now does it?  My question for you is this: Who are those people in your life that you’re taking advantage of?  You probably think they’re below you, and James flat out tells us that we have “become judges with evil thoughts” when we treat them differently in this way.

Second, James points out that they’re trying to please the very people who are oppressing them.  Why do we want to impress and gain the approval of those people who take advantage of us?  Do we so desperately want to be part of the “in-crowd” that we’ll do whatever it takes to get there?

James taps into one of the most common struggles I know of, and that is people pleasing.  

Chances are these people were trying to gain the approval of those above them, because they could gain something from it.  Whether it was a ticket into the in-crowd, or to be able to say they know someone in a high place, they were nonetheless seeking the approval of man over God.  Are you doing this in your own life?  I know I’m prone to do it at times, and chances are that you are too.  Take a little bit to evaluate your life and make sure you’re seeking to please and glorify God rather than gain the approval of man.  It’s one of the easiest pitfalls to struggle with, and we need to constantly be wary of it.

We all fall short, but fortunately a trusting belief in Christ’s sacrifice allows us to become Christians and move under the law of liberty that James mentions in 2:12.  We are now free to obey God, and we gain rewards in Heaven for doing it as James points out in that same verse. (Also see 2 Corinthians 5:10).  In the end mercy is going to triumph over judgment, so we need to be willing to extend mercy to everyone.  This is the way James calls us to act.  Rather than be judgmental and think of ourselves as better than others, we need to learn to love and show mercy to everyone we come into contact with.

We ended the night with a song talking about our need for each other, and you can watch it below.  In the song “We Need Each Other,” by Sanctus Real, there’s a line that says, “if we’d only learn to love.”  That is so true!  Loving others does not come naturally.  It’s not our default.  It’s easier to love ourselves before God and others.  We talked about it briefly, but our actions need to line up with our faith.  Do people look at you and know that you love others.  Your actions are going to show what you truly believe and value.  A faith that does not produce works is a dead one according to James.  

If we’re going to say relationships are important, it’s time we stepped up and showed it.  We need to LEARN to love and SHOW others that we love them!

~Kyle Davison

Trials and Tribulation

Hey Guys! This is Ashley! Last week, I was able to share with the students and leaders at Vibe about my story and experience as we started the new series, where we will be reading through the book of James!

This is an awesome book! And there is a lot of stuff in it. I really want to encourage y’all to be reading this book in your own time. It has lots of practical goodness, and I have really enjoyed going through it myself.

We spent most of the night talking about what James writes in James 1:2-4, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So James writes “if you face…”, NO! he actually says “when you face…”. There's a huge difference! James knows that we all will, if we haven't already, go through trials. There's no if's. And James goes on to say "trials of many kinds". Trials can be any kind of struggle you may be going through. Some of y'all might not be looking forward to school because there are some bullies there, maybe you're in a relationship that is hurtful and even abusive. There are many kinds of trials, but I want to share with y'all a trial of mine.

One of my trials was a trial I was born with. I was just about to turn four when my family found out that I couldn't hear (here I am in the pic as a four-year old with my teachers). The reason I could not talk at the time was due to the point that I could not hear for the first four years of my life. For the next couple of years, I would have to work harder to catch up to everyone else in my class. When the class would have recess or play time, I would go to work on my speech with my own teacher. It was clear to me that I was different than everyone else. I was getting some extra attention that I didn’t want. I would get so frustrated because I couldn’t say a word right or when someone spoke for me because someone couldn’t understand me. Even today, there’s a clear difference, day and night, in the way I am when I have my hearing aids on and when I don’t. I go from confident to self-conscious. I immediately feel the anxiety because I lose control.

And if I'm reading this right, James is telling me to consider it pure joy! Take joy in feeling frustrated because I am in a situation I can't control. There are many kinds of trial, but there is a common theme to the trials, it’s the lack of control. As much as we try to control the situation, we feel helpless.

Take some time to watch this video, it's a story similar to the story I am sharing with y'all. This man has a great perspective on how to consider his trial as pure joy. 

In this video, John talks about how given the choice to have his hearing loss taken away, he’s not sure that he would take it. It’s sounds like crazy talk even to me as I say it, but I’m not sure that I would either.

The dictionary defines Perseverance as a steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. 

James later writes “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial…”

Though it is hard to be hearing impaired, I consider my hearing loss is a blessing. How? Through my trials, I’ve had to depend on God in a way that I might not have ever did without those trials. 

Your circumstances, your situation may not be normal, and it may be hard. You might be suffering. But God is not just an observer in your life. He’s not punishing you. He loves you. He is real. And He is going to carry us through our trials.

It's not going to be easy sometimes, but as Christ-followers, we have a promise we can hold onto. We persevere through the trial and tribulation because we are on a course with a purpose!

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

Mission Trip 2011

Hey Vibers!
It has been a while since we've last updated you on here. Two weeks ago, we went back to Joseph City, Arizona with a group of 20 for a week full of service and love. It was an awesome week as we got the privilege of working on several projects, running a VBS during the week, getting to know one another, and loving the Naomi's kids. Enjoy this video that shows you only a glimpse of what we did during the week.

Where is your hope?

Last week we had a great time talking about hope.  Hope is a theme woven throughout Scripture.  It’s hard to miss it.  However, hope is also something that we all experience regardless of what we believe spiritually.  Most of us probably hope for “something” each day whether it be for pizza, a good day at school, or for God to do something in our lives.  That is why we need to have a proper perspective on hope.  We need to understand what hope is, what makes it so good, and what our hope is ultimately in.

            We started off by talking about how hope can be defined as desire with expectation.  The expectation part of hope is what we probably forget about most of the time.  If you take that out, then all you have is a wish.  You want something to happen, but you also see it as something that most likely won’t happen.  With hope, we confidently expect that our desire will be fulfilled.  Now, this isn’t an arrogant confidence, but rather it’s a humble confidence that understands God’s plan may not include saying yes to our desire.  It seems almost contradictory to be confident, but say it might not happen at the same time, but that is what we need to be.  We need to be confident that God CAN bring about what we desire to happen.  I shared how I had hope that my fiancé was going to say yes when I proposed to her, and pointed out how this was hope rather than a wish.  I expected her to say yes, and I’m really glad she did.  I would have been really confused and upset had she said no.  This does however lead to another question we talked about last night.  Is hope always good?

            We watched a clip from the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” last night where Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, was talking with Tim Robbins’ character, Andy, about Andy’s time in “the hole.”  Andy had mentioned how the music he had inside his head brought him hope that there was more to life than prison.  Red pretty much rained on his parade there telling him that hope was pointless in prison.  He had obviously given up hope that he was ever going to leave the prison.  Suppose for one second though that Red finally found some hope, and he started hoping he would get out, but never did.  In this situation (watch the movie to see if this is what really happens) Red dies an old man in prison.  Was his hope of getting out a good one?  To answer that I take you to Proverbs 13:12, which says,

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

When our hope doesn’t come to pass, it hurts.  We don’t like to be let down or disappointed.  Hope CAN be a bad thing.  However, when we place our hope in the right thing, it’s like a tree of life.  It encourages, replenishes, and refreshes us like a cool glass of water on a hot day.

            So, as Christians what do we put our hope in?  We talk a lot about it, but if a good hope is one where we confidently expect something, and it comes to pass, what do we hope in?  We went through Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus heals a paralytic to see this.  Four friends brought their paralyzed friend on a mat to see Jesus only to find out that the house he was in was packed to the brim.  There was no room in there.  However, that didn’t stop them from getting to Jesus. (We had the students act out this next part, which was really cool to see.) They got on the roof, dug a hole in the ceiling, and lowered their friend in front of Jesus.  They had such a hope that if they could just get their friend in front of Jesus, He could heal him.  Their faith and hope in Christ drove them to act and ignore the obstacles that could have stopped them.  In the midst of this, Jesus declares to be God by healing him, and essentially saying, because you can see that I have the authority to do the visible act (healing this man of paralysis), you can trust that I have the authority to do the invisible act (forgiving him of his sin).  Only God could do this, so Jesus made a bold statement by declaring Himself to be God!  Now, who knows if the paralytic came there looking for forgiveness of sins, but he at least came looking for physical healing.  However, Jesus got to the root issue, and the same root issue that plagued the paralytic (sin) is the same one that plagues all of us.  We need to put our faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection in order to be healed of this.  We all struggle with sin, and we can’t fix it ourselves no matter how hard we try.  It is only through putting our faith and hope in Christ that we can be healed.

            The cool thing is that in placing our faith in Christ, we also get to enter back into a relationship with God that we could not have had before because of the effects of sin.  When sin entered the world, we could no longer have that ongoing, personal relationship with God. That is fixed when we place our faith in Christ.  We now have a hope that comes to pass in that we get to enter into an everlasting relationship with our creator.  That’s right, everlasting!  It doesn’t end when we physically die.  It goes on forever and ever and ever… you get the idea.  Nothing can separate us from this unending, growing relationship with our creator.  However, our hope is even bigger than that.  That’s hard to believe when we’ve already talked about having an everlasting relationship with our creator, but it’s true.  Our hope in Christ also looks forward to the day when Christ returns, because that will be a day when he finally redeems the world in totality.  All of creation is moving towards this day where Christ returns and brings in a perfect world.  One of favorite passages in Scripture describes this day in Revelation 21:1-4, where it says,

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

This really is a glorious hope.  We get to spend an eternity worshiping our creator in a perfect place where no more evil exists.  That is going to be an amazing day that I hope we all look forward to.  Until that day, we need to live with an attitude like the friends of the paralytic had where they didn’t let any obstacle stop them from getting to Jesus.  Be encouraged by them and pursue Christ no matter the cost.  He is our glorious hope, and He is faithful to do what He says He will and is worth pursuing!

P.s. Below is the song we sang at the end.  It’s a great song that calls us to look toward that time where we Christians will get to spend eternity with God in that new heaven and new earth.  It really will be a glorious day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8gkDiTvloc

~Kyle

Camp Eagle 2011

Well just last week, we took a group of students to Rocksprings, TX for Camp Eagle. What a fun, awesome week! God did some incredible stuff while we were there. And this week at Vibe, some of the students were able to share what God did in their lives this past week.

The theme of the week was STORY. Each day, we went through the questions of what, why, who, how, and when of our story. As we examined different elements of story, we were challenged to figure out what our story is, why we're telling the story we're telling, who the characters are in our story, how we want our story to look, and when to start living that story.

In each day, we were given the opportunity to personally experience Scripture in some kind of way. The first day, we started off being banished from camp (like Adam and Eve) because we ate some candy we weren't suppose to on our first night. So we spent the day out in God's creation, doing activities and hiking a lot! The next morning, we woke up to "Manna" (like the Israelites in the wilderness),  a.k.a. breakfast provided for us on the ground! Later that day, we saw the Christmas story on stage! The next day, we learned about what a sacrifice really looked like in Bible times (thankfully we didn't witness it). On another day, we ate a Passover dinner and the counselors continued to serve us by washing our feet. What a cool night! These are a few of many cool experiences that we were able to learn and grow from throughout the week.

And if you still don't believe we had an awesome time, check out these pics on the slideshow and the epic video during the mudfight!

 Slideshow of Pics

Mudfight!

Hope you were able to get a taste of the week from the videos! Praise God for doing great things at Camp Eagle and in our stories!