We’ve attacked the problems in two different ways. This week we’re looking at a third – simply reviewing the basics of the Gospel. We tend to quickly forget these things.

The awfulness and shear scope of our own sin.  The most easily-proven doctrine is the most taken for granted. There is no one righteous – no not even one! (Romans 3:10) The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (Gen. 6:5)

“The struggle to accept our exceeding sinfulness is everywhere in the church of Christ… when we are approached about our own sin, we wrap our robes of self-righteousness around us and rise to our own defense.

But only when you accept the bad news of the gospel does the good news make any sense. The grace, restoration, reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, power, healing and hope of the gospel are for sinners. They are only meaningful to you if you admit that you have the disease and realize that it’s terminal.”*

The importance of the heart. We talk a lot about behavior. People are doing this or that. We setup goals and measurable observations. – But God looks at the HEART. “The heart is the steering wheel of every human being. Everything we do is shaped and controlled by what our hearts want… Lasting changes always comes through the heart.”  We need to guard it and try and learn what this means: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

The benefits of Christ for RIGHT NOW: Jesus RULES the all things (Ephesians 2:22-23) Right now Jesus is putting all his enemies under his feet. (1 Cor 15:25-28) We can live courageously without fear.

Jesus calls us to Grow and Change: We can’t just coast. We need to be free from sin, from our selfishness, from our pride and take on Jesus’ character. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4)

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11-13)

* Quotes and some of the content from How People Change.

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You do not have… because you do not ask.

One of my favorite nights of youth group events is our Prayer Night. About twice a year we take the bulk of a night and go in groups through prayer stations. By far, my favorite part is having an open mic after it’s all done and listening to what we experienced.  I love hearing students testify about experience God’s personal presence.

“I’m just overwhelmed by God’s grace.”

“I can’t believe how much God loves me even though I fail”

“Our world really needs God”

This last Friday we had five stations:

1) PRAY FOR THE COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD

What’s going on?  Cry out to God about politics, war, drugs etc.
On the tables are newspapers from this week. Start looking over the headlines and articles. When you find one that catches your attention take a Highlighter or marker and highlight that article and then pray for that situation/problem or praise God for how he is working in the situation.  You can write your questions and your prayers right on the article as well.

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, 
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalm 22:27,28

2)  PRAYING THE PSALMS On the table is a list of all the Psalms and their topics. Read through the list and choose a psalm off the list that you are drawn to, take time to meditate on it.  Read through the psalm a few times. Notice a specific verse that stands out to you. Write the verse and the reference on an index card.  Keep the index card in place where will see it everyday.

3) PRAYING FOR YOUR SCHOOL

4)  PRAISING GOD FOR GROWTH Trace your hand on the tree. Inside write a thanks to God for how he has helped you to grow in a specific way.  Next trace your other hand. Write a request to God for a way that you would like to grow in the future.  (see graphic at top)

5) CONFESSION: Students spent time confessing sin by writing it on a piece of paper, then burning it in a camp fire as a symbol of how our sin are gone when forgiven.

It was an incretible night, and maybe an important reminder that God is always accessable to us. I want to thank EmLam for all of her help putting

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Christmas Card... Side One

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Last month was amazing! I started listing some of the events we’ve had but it seemed like it was easier just to post some of the pictures and let you in a way see for yourself. This month like most months I am very thankful for our hard-working youth leaders. In November they’ve really gone above and beyond to serve our students and help them grow. I’ve also been very proud of our students—some of whom have taken courageous steps—starting clubs at school, organizing coat drives, collections for orphans, getting others to help at rescue missions—the list goes on.

I’m also really excited about iFace (Influence, Friendship, Accountability, Confidentiality, Encouragement)) our way of encouraging students to get involve with prayer accountability and mentoring. It still needs some work but I’m really excited about its potential to help kids grow.

December tends to be a hectic month. Dec 2nd is our Wallyball night—please see Sam for details, Dec 9th is “split night” Dec 16th is our annual (awesome) Christmas Party. We do not have Friday youth group Dec 23rd, or Dec 30th. We may add some day events over break, but overall we’re going to encourage students to keep each other accountable and pray that family time goes well. We do post a lot of other announcements on facebook—I’ve been impressed at how many things there are for our students to get involved in. —visit our group at www.facebook.com/groups/DixHillsYouth/

(pictured, IFACE game time – Carol and Laura put together a night of team-building activities to encourage friendships: A stack of home made sympathy cards from our Sr High Girls small group: Picture from Guys Small Group winter weekend at “The Captian’s” cabin. And Star Goalie)

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I ask that you help me be your voice in Northport. There are many issues. Drugs, sex and alcohol abuse. Help me to be your voice. I ask that others will listen to me and start to get to know you. You are the way, the truth and the life. Help the kids in Northport see that. Help them find a youth group to go to Friday Nights so they don’t party. Help them see you. – Sarah

Lord, I pray for all my fellow students in NHS. I don’t know what each person’s weakness is, but I know a lot of problems like drugs, sex and alcohol take up most of their spare time. Even some of the teachers do not seem to have their lives going in the right direction. Help me be a light in my school, that I am not afraid to tell people that I am a Christian. Lord, I pray that someone or myself will not be afraid to start up a Bible Club. Amen. Abby.

Dear God, please help everyone to know your name and that more people show up at churches. Please help people know your word and your presence on earth. – Michael 

Dear God please show yourself at my school by surrounding us with the safety and kindness. Bring the courage to people to learn about you. Thank you.

“please pray for the kids in the advantage program that their needs get met and that God intervenes in all situations” Jennie

I pray that you can help me to be strong in my faith and use my young years to teach or tell my friends about God. I pray that you can help me be a leader in my school and set a good example and tell people how awesome and holy you are. James.

 Dear God,  No more drugs. Bible club. Can talk about Jesus without being cast out by others. – Nora

Start God Club. To love like Jesus. You know what he sees and hears everyone in the school – Help others to stop cursing, making out in the hallways and to do school work.. – Jenny

Help with the major problems on the buses. cursing, bullying, etc – Nicole

Dear God, please help our school. There’s bullying under pressures and joking and it’s difficult for Christians. Please help with the language and the kids that don’t have God. They need you. Marianna

Dear God please help with the school’s safety and please help more Christians be lights and spread the word around our school.

Dear God. Please help change the people of HHS to be like you and to help with inconstancies – like dealing drugs, malicious behavior, alcoholism and tons of other problems. Keith

Dear God. This year I would like to see more people being leaders for Christ and I would like to gain the courage and strength to speak about God to my friends – Rachid

Dear God. I would love to see you more in school. I guess part of the problem is me not talking to people about you. So I guess if anything, help people talk about you more. It might be interesting to see who are Christians. – Charissa.

Dear God. I pray for the students and people at Whitman that they would be confident and passionate about their faith. I also pray for the teachers and faculty and violence would be minimized. I pray that you would help me be an example and for the drug situation because in the most common thing in a locker is drugs/illegal substance . In your name I pray. – Aren.

Dear God. I just pray that there will be no fights, constantly going on in school . That our school stays a positive school. I also pray that you keep our school safe from any dangers that may come upon us. Thank you Lord! Kellyjane.

Dear God. Please give me the wisdom to talk to people about you. Please help me to change their lives. Thank you for giving me freedom for all my days. – Amy

Dear God. I pray that you help more people in my school to learn about you and follow more in your name. I pray that you help me become more of an example to other students. – Kyle

Dear God. I pray that this year you help me to be a light to me peers and that you use me and give me the strength and wisdom to help others and talk about you. Also that the many kids who are in need of you in their live are guided and let you into their lives and see how great you are. Lauran

Dear God I pray that you help me make myself an example of you at school. I haven’t been doing a great job. But I pray you would change me into a man of your word and that I would be an amazing example of you during this year’s football season and school year. – Luke

I pray that we will be able to say what we believe. No more cursing, drugs, sex. Lord please be beside through everything. Please help other people believe. Help us to make better choices. – Danielle

I pray that 8^th graders don’t act mean and that they stop cursing on the bus and in the school building. I also pray that kids would joke about appropriate things. – Sofie

I pray that everyone in school can succeed this year. – Kayla

I pray that more people will join our Christian club and grow closer to Christ as well as people coming back to Jesus – Andrew

I would like to lift up before you the students and staff of Hills West. I pray that the Christians in our school including myself would be bold. I also pray that the issues in the school like drugs, alcohol and sex would be lessoned. Please make yourself known through our activities in not only Hills west but in all the schools like it. – Mariah.

Lord, I ask you to watch over my school and help others with all sins they make. Help me and others to grow closer to you. – 

I pray that you make your presence felt in our school among students and teachers. That there are many non-Christians so I pray that you keep the faith of the Christians strong. – Chris

I pray that the problems in the school such as drugs, sex alcohol and greed – the love of money are lessened. The love of money may be the worst and can only lead to evil. Joe. 

Dear God. Please give the security guards and the teachers/staff wisdom. I pray that there won’t be any more violence. Give all of the students confidence and reveal yourself.

Dear God. Please bring wisdom and boldness to the Christian Students and teachers on this campus. I would love to see the Christian Bible club grow so much that it needs the whole senior lunch room for gathers. Keep your children from sin and temptation! Help them to shine on this dark campus! All for your glory and our joy! – Laura

 

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This (above) is a video from our VBS picnic – mostly our youth band covering DC Talks Jesus Freak . In retrospect we should have practiced, or maybe even figured out the chords out ahead of time… But (it’s kinda funny) –  And it does a good job at reminding me of how hard growing up as a Christian in public school can be.

I’m really grateful to everyone that prays for teenagers.  Last Sunday our church made up handouts of schools represented by students in our church and lots of people took the half sheet handouts with a school listed on it and several of you have told me how you’re praying for the youth group kids at that school when you sit behind school buses and as part of your normal prayer time. I was a encouraged and overwhelmed to put together a list of students involved in our programs in the last year and to count around 100 students. Encouraged, because it says that our students are good at bringing more people into good things. Overwhelmed, because that list represents a lot of needs and hearts that God needs to change.  Keep praying—we really need God to move in the hearts and lives of young people.  We’ve seen some great things so far—a vibrant prayer night, movie night, small group kick offs, mini golf outing, and plans for a more purposeful students accountability program.

This week we’re encouraging kids to be a part of next week’s  see you at the pole—a national gathering of students across the nation to pray at their school’s flag pole. For most of the nation it is an encouraging event where students discover that they are not alone – that there are more Christians at their school than they realize. For most of our students it’s a day where many of them will be standing alone praying for their schools. Please join them in your prayers

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(listen above or download here) I spoke this week at our two AM services – it was more or less a thanksgiving themed message.  I’ve been really happy for all the encouragement I’ve received from people – I love it when God’s Word touches people through its’ simple presentation.

You can learn a lot about someone by simply listening to what they’re thankful for.  In this week’s reading, the Apostle Paul expresses thanks and comfort to a local church.  By listening to what he said, we can learn a lot about how to live while waiting for Christ to bring peace and justice.

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The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

Every spoken word is an attack in a battle that is a War of Words between God and Satan. For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to teach students that their words have incredible power for great good and great evil. Honestly, I began planning the topic out of a sense of what was going on in our own group of students and their relationships. Little did I know that when I planned on teaching from Prov 18.21 that the nation’s eye would begin to focus on this very problem as stories began to unfold about kids literally dying as a result of verbal bullying.

We have one more week talking about War of Words – a series titled after a book by one of my former professors. This afternoon I’m speaking on the same subject at a local high school. Keep students in prayer. – Imagine what would happen if we used our words to build up each other according to their needs and that we could be known as people who are a benefit to listen to.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14-15a

If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:15b

[Only speak] what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

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2009 was a great year, but like any year it had its ups and downs.  I guess you can’t appreciate the ups until you realize when you’re climbing out of the downs.  Ministry at our church has been time consuming but worth it.  We started the year of with a winter retreat at beloved Camp Spofford.  Through out the spring and summer Sam cooked up ideas of service projects at local ministries like Helping Hand Rescue Mission and perhaps the most successful event – our youth group put on a VBS program for Roosevelt Bible Church.  Like last summer, our group also partnered with Grace Bible Church in Philadelphia for a week of exposure to ministry in an urban setting.  I love the youth at our church.  Watching them grow and mature is a joy and a privilege.  After many hectic weeks Sam and I ended the summer by celebrating our 1^st Anniversary on a nice, relaxing vacation in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  We did nothing but be beach bums, it was amazing!

On a much more personal note, this year was definitely colored by one painful event.  In April, I was surprised to find myself pregnant. We were overwhelmed by the pregnancy but our worries and concerns gave way to joy and on Mother’s Day we revealed the news to our families.  For reasons unknown, I miscarried our baby by the middle of May.  I feel this event will haunt us for the rest of our lives, but “hope is born of suffering” and I marvel and the comfort and peace God provided through some dark days.  On our mantel sits a box with the sonogram picture of our first child God knitted in my womb.  It is also filled with the kindest notes and prayers I received due to that loss.  I have never been more thankful for supportive family, kind friends and our church’s tender and loving community.  Most important to me were the relationships formed and strengthened with women who had experienced the same tragedy.  It was their words that made the deepest impression on me, especially those who made a point to reach out to me weeks and months after the event.  I remember that day as the saddest in my life but I also remember it as the day I saw on a deeper level how much of a treasure Sam is to me.  I wonder at how God has been so kind to me in that area. I wish you could have seen how gentle Sam’s eyes are – from when he looked down on me as I lay in the hospital bed before going into the operating room to four months later as he patiently dealt with me as I continued to work through my grief and frustration.

Autumn quickly turned into Christmas-tide.  In that time we’ve celebrated multiple weddings of family and friends (going to weddings is sooo much fun when you know how much marriage means to you), kept up with normal schedules, welcomed a second nephew into our lives, got another dog and discovered we’d have another nephew in the spring.  Thanksgiving also took on a new meaning as our first niece was born prematurely—we continue to be grateful for her continued growth and health.  Soon, she’ll be home with her mom and dad and we couldn’t be more thrilled.  I am looking forward to meeting this little one who has consumed my prayers! Christmas ’09 was quite the busy one! I am proud of Sam and I.  Every now and then I’ll look at him and think “we did it!”  In 11 days, we hosted 15 different people and 2 dogs (not counting our own) at our home.  Some stayed for a night, some for a few days and some for a week, but not all at the same time! Throw in a wedding, a blizzard, Christmas and Sam generally being busier with the church Christmas schedule—well, I don’t know what that makes for, but it’s crazy fun! By our front door hangs a plaque we received as wedding gift.  It reads “whether you come to visit or just to rest, when you enter our home may you be blessed.”  That is my hope for our house.  We were delighted that our home could be the hub for Sam’s family during his brother’s wedding, enabling most of his side to celebrate Christmas a few days early.  I also was delighted to celebrate Christmas with my entire family. With one brother in Cali and the other in Louisville, this isn’t going to happen a lot and I’m grateful when we can actually pull it off. Well there ya have it! If you want more details, all you have to do is ask.  Sam and I recouped by spending a night in New York City.  Nothing like starting the new year off on the right foot! Beware, I plan on “blogging” a whole lot more in 2010.  Thanks for taking the time to care about us, whoever our readers are (hi mom)!!!

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