It's Christmas Time!

Advent is here! Can you believe it? Can you believe that it's December already? Can you believe that Christmas is 21 days away?

If you are like me, I feel like I don't have very much time to get my heart ready for the greatest Christmas gift of all time. And yet, we don’t have much of a choice…Christmas is definitely coming – and FAST!

With all the stuff we have to do this season, how will we ever get ready in time? With all the parties, lock-ins, shopping lists, wrapping, cookie baking, and decorating, how will we ever find the time?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot this year. How can I make sure that my heart is focused on what really matters this season? How can I be sure that I am really preparing my heart for the coming of Christ?

Well, I’ve decided to do a few things. First, I found a great Advent devotional that I have and will continue to read every day. This is a way that I can center myself on what really matters.

Another thing I’ve been really called to do this year is spent less on gifts and more on missions. If you were at church Sunday, you saw that cool video about the Advent Conspiracy (if you missed it, check it out at http://www.adventconspiracy.org/). This video talks about how much we spend on Christmas, but how little we spent on missions.

So, this Christmas, I’m going to be giving to missions. Did you know that $1 can provide water for 1 year for an African? ONE BUCK saves a life for a year! Can you imagine what we could do if we gave several dollars? Well, I hope you will consider giving to the Advent Conspiracy this year that our church is supporting. We could really make a difference.

So, what will YOU do this season? How will you prepare your heart for the coming of Christ? What will you do to make sure that you focus is on the real reason for Christmas? I hope you will seriously consider these questions and choose something that will be meaningful to you.

Let’s all work to make this a season to really celebrate!

Fall Retreat!

Well, it's that time of year again! Can you even believe it? Fall Retreat is upon us!

I wanted to take a minute and tell you all about how amazing our retreat is going to be this year.

We will be headed to Lake Williamson in Carlinville Friday Nov. 7 - Sunday Nov. 9.

For those of you who remember our retreat last year, this post will hopefully remind you of the great time we had. Or, if you didn't go, maybe it'll convince you to go.

On retreat, we do tons of fun stuff. Like what, you might ask? Well, here's a run down:

• Hayride
• Bonfire (with s'mores, of course!)
• Open Gym time
• Lots of laughter
• An AWESOME t-shirt
• Time with friends
• Enjoying Cool Weather
• Football (and this year, perhaps, a rousing game of toilet paper football!)
• And most importantly - Time with God!

And let me just say one quick thing about the last item listed. Fall Retreat is a time for us to connect with God. Time to step outside our normal day to day lives and really get a glimpse of God and what God has planned for us. It's a time of great worship and learning about the Bible. You definitely don't want to miss it!

So, I hope you will join us on the trip this year. It's going to be great, I promise!

Interested in coming? Only $50! Sign up on the youth bulletin board (scholarships are available!).

When it rains, it pours!

Tuesday the youth were asked to go around the neighborhood and hand out door hangers about VBS which is next week. So, we head out to begin our jobs. We get about two blocks away from the church and what happens? We find ourselves in the middle of a downpour! We were all soaked. I mean SOAKED! We laughed the entire way back to the church, knowing that we had at least made a good memory!

This sudden summer storm was a reminder to me about how things unexpectedly come up in our lives. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Sometimes it’s not. But one thing I know for sure – life is always unpredictable!

This got me thinking about a passage of Scripture that I read this week. The passage was John 5:1-9, which is the story of paralyzed man who waited at a healing pool in order to be healed. We are told that every time the water is stirred, the man would try to get into the pool to be healed. This never happened for him.

One day, Jesus walks by and asks the man if he wants to be healed. What the paralyzed man didn’t know was that something, SOMEONE, unexpected had just walked into his life. Needless to say – Jesus heals the man, who gets up and walks for the first time in 38 years. How unexpected is that?

It’s true that Jesus isn’t walking around on earth these days, but he can still unexpectedly move into our lives. When was the last time you unexpectedly felt God move? When was the last time you had an unexpected blessing from God? I bet if you really think about it, you could think of several times God has moved in your life as of late. Isn’t it good to know that God is still working amongst us?

Yes, God can be quite unpredictable. But, you know, I can’t imagine serving a predictable God. How boring would it be to always know what was going to happen in our spiritual lives or how exactly God was going to use us during our lifetimes. I am so glad that my God is unpredictable, because it means that He can do things that I cannot even imagine! I love those moments when God blows my mind by doing something totally unexpected!

Let us all take time this week to thank God for the unexpected moments he works in our lives. And the next time you get caught in a rainstorm, remember how awesome it is to have a God that is full of the unexpected!

Apology

Camp!

This past week I was away for a week of camp. I went down to Little Grassy Camp - which is near Carbondale. I was the preacher for the week and got to speak to jr. and sr. high kids about God.

It was an amazing week. We had wonderful weather, the camp site was awesome, and the kids totally rocked.

I was pretty excited to go back to camp because Little Grassy held some significance for my life. See, I went to Little Grassy as a kid. I started going there when I was 9 and continued until I was in jr. high. I remember so many things from camp - meeting new people, having cool counselors to hang out with, buying fun things at the concession stand, swimming in the lake...the list goes on and on.

My best memory of camp, though, was from when I was 9 years old. We were sitting in the dining hall for worship because it was raining outside. And the guy preaching was an army chaplain by the name of John. He spoke a message and at the end invited anyone to come up who wanted to pray to accept Jesus into their heart.

My friend Melissa, who I had come to camp with, and I looked at each other and we both said "will you go forward with me?" It was at the moment, praying with Chaplain John, that I invited Jesus into my heart for the first time.

Every time I step foot onto Little Grassy's camp grounds, something comes over me. I was told once that God lived there in the summer. I think that must be true. It is obviously holy ground. Who knows how many people have come to know Christ there throughout the years. This year 3 people invited Christ into their hearts for the first time. I guess it's just something about that place.

Hopefully you can join me next year. God will still be moving there.

Out of Gas

This week a bunch of church members went to go see the Gateway Grizzlies game together. We had a fantastic time. I mean there were $1 hotdogs! What could be better? The weather was gorgeous, and the Grizzlies won. It was a perfect night.

As we were driving home in the big white bus, we heard a big backfire. Then another. Thankfully, we had just pulled off the interstate and were on a more rural road. I immediately stood up to see what was going on.

Our bus driver exclaimed, “we are out of gas. I guess I forgot to look at the gas gage.” What followed was an hour of sitting on the side of the road, waiting to be rescued with some gas.

I thought this was a perfect metaphor for life. We are cruisin’ along, having a wonderful time, and then BAM. We feel spiritually exhausted. At some point along the way, we forgot to check our spiritual “gas” gage and we simply run out. How unfortunate…but let’s face it, it happens, doesn’t it?

Let’s think about the woman at the well. If you are unfamiliar with the story, take a few minutes and read John 4:1-26. This woman is tired. She is worn out – emotionally and spiritually. She craves something to fill her up, to fill her tank! And then Jesus comes with an offer, “Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Jesus offers to fill up our spiritual gas tank so that we never run out, but it takes effort on our part! This is why we constantly need to be connected to God – praying, fasting, reading our Bibles, going to church, talking about our spiritual lives with others, etc. All of these things are like checking our gas gage. All of these things ensure that we do not run out of spiritual gas.

Thanks be to God that we have each other to help remind us to check our gage before we run out of gas!

You Are My Joy

Yesterday was our last day of confirmation class. Pastor Allynn spent our time talking about joy. Each of the students were given a piece of paper upon which they could draw the things in their lives which brought them joy. Needless to say, it was a pretty interesting exercise.

The entire time they were drawing away, I could only think of one thing - a song by David Crowder Band. It is called "You Are My Joy."

In the song, DCB sings "you are my joy" over and over and over again. He is singing this praise to God, saying that nothing else in this world matters because it is you, God, who brings me joy.

At one point in the song he says that he is letting himself go. In other words, he's not going to focus on himself or getting himself stuff or doing stuff that he thinks is fun. All is is going to focus on is God being his joy.

And towards the end of the song he says (after singing "you are my joy" several times), "I need to catch my breath." I love this part because I love the thought of being so caught up in praising God that you forget to breathe. Doesn't that sound amazing?

Anyway, watch the video of the song below, and read the lyrics if you want. I promise it is an amazing song.

But mostly, I want you to spend some time today telling God that he alone is your joy. Nothing else. Not summer vacation. Not sports. Not hanging out with friends. God is our joy. Tell him so many times you need to pause and catch your breath. After all, he is pretty awesome.


lyrics:
And He set me on fire, and I am burning alive.
With His breath in my lungs I am coming undone.
And he set me on fire and I am burning alive.
With his breath in my lungs I am coming undone.
And I cannot hold it in
Remain composed.
Love's taken over me
So I propose the letting myself go.
I am letting myself go.

You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.

And He set me on fire, and I am burning alive.
With His breath in my lungs I am coming undone.
And He set me on fire, and I am burning alive.
With His breath in my lungs I am coming undone.
And I cannot hold it in and remain composed.
Love's taken over me and so I propose the letting myself go.
I am letting myself go.

You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.

I need to catch my breath, I need to.
I need to catch my breath, give me a moment now.

You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.
You are my joy.

I'm laughing so hard
And I'm laughing so hard
And I'm laughing so hard