Update from Steubenville

so here is an update!

also check out my blog www.threethingswillremainforever.blogspot.com cause i always do updates on there…so that is a great source for information!

this week we had four groups.  two from penn, one from ohio, and one from long island.  we had a total of 65 people! biggest week yet!

work projects this week finished painting a house.  Gloria’s house, the lady that runs prime time here at the church! so that was really good.  they also spent time working with the parks dept, cleaning up one of the parks by clearing trails, there was only one case of poinson ivy…so that was good! then we also spent time working with habitat for humanity by cleaning out a house, painting, and doing yard work, they are turning this house into their office, so they can get on their feet and start doing work here again in steubenville.  the groups really loved working at that house!

kids club was super great this week! there was only one big fight! which is such an improvement! at the beginning of the week the numbers were low, but by wed and thurs they were back up.  on thurs the firemen brought their hoses over and we had a water time.  it was super fun for the kids and it basically created a lake in the parking lot!

the nursing homes were a huge hit again, they always are.  the old people just have a way of winnig the groups over and they are always a favorite!

evening activities were also a smash this week.  the pastor everette at tower of power gave a sermon on PUSH this week (pray until something happens) it was great.  it is just a reminder that we cant give up on prayer.  it is the most powerful thing, and you just have to keep praying, and eventually something will happen because God always answers our prayers.

YE was also great this week! (you can read more about that in my blog)

God overall just really did great things here this week.  most of the participants here were people who were on the track that was heading away from God when they came at the beginning of the week, and they left with a new look, and a new path to go down.  it was such a blessing to see.

looking forward to next week we have 49 people coming, 4 groups.  2 from penn (AGAIN!!), one from new jersey, and one from north carolina.  we have a lot of youg believers coming and ones who don’t really know anything about God. so if you could just be praying for that.  and that God just really works in everyone’s heart here this week so that when they go home they are just on fire and excited about God!

remember to keep updating me on what you guys are up too.  i am still super bummed that i am not there this weekend! but i send my love to all of you and we miss you guys!!

have a beautiful day,

kryn!

Logo!!!

The News Ticker….

Hey, hey, hey! Have you heard the latest beat from the street???

group status update

We have a NAME!  CCBG Student ministries are now called PULSE, and we’ve got a sweet logo.  Have you checked out the Facebook group yet? You should! Send an invite request to either Brian or Kristin and join.      All the cool people are doing it   (okay…erm, something like that.) 

Once you’re on in the Facebook group, add a post to let everyone know your choice for PULSE’s key Bible verse.   If we can narrow it down to a few, we’ll put up a poll on this site for voting.  For those of you who don’t have a Facebook account, just send an email to ChristsChurch.BowlingGreen@gmail.com .  This is the email account for the current webmaster.  Just be sure to write out your name and your vote, and we’ll make sure it gets counted.

grab your tennis shoes…

A prayer walk will take place on Saturday, July 11th from about 9am to 2pm.  All those aged 18-24 are invited to attend.  We are meeting at Cafe Marie’s in Perrysburg and then carpooling to Sidecut park in Maumee.  Q’?s: contact Nathan at 419.349.8038 or nathaniel.j.martin@vanderbilt.edu

WWJD???

Have you checked out our Get Involved page? It’s pretty empty for right now, so let’s fill it up!  If you didn’t go to Steubenville, ask someone who did what their experience was like.

Counterfeits

Over the last two months we have talked about spiritual gifts and the week before last was an introduction to the purpose of false teaching. In the last class we turned to the counterfeit gifts themselves. Counterfeit gifts, of course, being those abilites that are meant to appear as though they are of God, but are actually of evil origin.

In particular we looked at divination and witchcraft. Divination is the ability to foretell the future or gain insight about a person through spiritual means. Of course, when I say “spiritual” I am not using the word in the Christian sense. I’m using in the sense that a diviner seeks the assistance of spirits in order to gain his information. Witchcraft is similar in the sense that the practioner uses spirits to accomplish goals, but the purpose is not usually to gain insight or tell the future. Witchcraft is typically used to “bless” or “curse” individuals or ambitions. These blessings and curses are accomplished by use of spirits. Let’s look a little deeper.

Divination has been around for thousands of years. It is specifically mentioned as a sin punishable by death at least 5 times in the Bible. (Leviticus 19:26, 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Numbers 22:24; 1 Timothy 4:1). Divination typically several components – sacrifice, prayer and reading. In most cases of divination a diviner would offer an animal as a sacrifice, pray to some god or spirit, and then spill the entrails of the animal out onto the ground. The way in which the entrails laid was interpreted and was supposed to tell god’s message. Other methods involved throwing chicken bones and interpreting the way on which they were stacked upon each other. Still other methods involved breaking open the eyes of fish, sheep or cows and interpreting the way in which the fluids pooled.

Witchcraft is a far more ambiguous sort of practice. In today’s society, witchcraft is more often referred to as Wicca, Shamanism, White Magic, or earth worship. But it should be clear, they are all wicked. The practioners of witchcraft say that their magic is used for “good” because they believe in the credo, “whatever is done will return threefold.” Witches, wiccans, etc., will use their magic for everything from seeking a mate, to success on a job, to bringing harm to some rival. I have personally received death threats from witches, so don’t believe the notion that they “seek no harm.”Witchcraft is also listed as a practice punishable by death. (Deuteronomy 18:10; Galatians 5:20).

Some might ask the question, “if good results, is it really that bad?” The question is a trick – evil cannot be used to accomplish good. The Bible says that “God is good.” This means that “good” is what God is. In other words, if the source of the power is apart from God, it is not good. It doesn’t matter if the result is something that appears good, but whether it actually is good. Remember, one of our enemies main tactics is to make a wicked thing appear good so that we do not automatically reject it.

High School Class – 01/18/09 – False Acts

This morning’s topic was the fifth in a line of studies on spiritual gifts. The first four weeks we discussed the gifts of an apostle, an evangelist, pastors/teachers, and prophecy. The idea was to look at what these gifts of the Holy Spirit look like and then contrast them with their false counterparts. In other words, we wanted to look at God’s versions and Satan’s perversion of them.

Today’s study was an introduction that had the  goal of explaining the purpose of false teaching. We didn’t want to simply talk about why Satan would use false teachings, because that question has several obvious answers, but we wanted to talk about  how Satan uses false teachings. In other words, what does false teaching look like; why are there so many people who follow false teachings; and what are a few examples of false teaching? The overarching question we used to answer the others was, “If I was Satan, how would I go about deceiving people?” The purpose of the latter question, while inflammatory to some, is to understand the nature of evil and its manipulative methods.

In class we mentioned that Jesus (Mark 13:22), Peter (2 Peter 2:1-3), Paul (2 Corinthians 11:13, 26; Galatians 2:4), and John (1 John 4:1) all talk about false teachers, prophets, miracles, and even false christs. In each case, the speaker/writer tells the hearers to be on guard against these false teachers, apostles and christs. We also read that Satan masquerades as an angel of light in an attempt to deceive believers (2 Corinthians 11:14). Specifically we looked at a few examples where Satan has been effective in his deception – Islam and Mormonism.

In each instance, the religion was founded by individuals who claimed to receive divine revelations from an angel – Mohammud claimed to be visited by the archangel Gabriel, while Joseph Smith claimed to be visited by an angel called Moroni. In both cases the angels told the men that Christianity had been perverted from Jesus’ original message and that the angels were sent to correct these perversions.

We then talked about why these messages would be compelling, despite the warning from the Apostle Paul that even if an angel was to preach a gospel different than he had preached, that the person is eternally condemned. (Galatians 1:7-8). We discussed the fact that many inside the church are discontent with many of the goings-on, with some of the hypocrisy, or with some of the teachings. We also talked about how many outside the church are turned off by Christianity by what they perceive to be the two-faced behavior of Christians. Now, imagine that someone you respect comes to you and says that he has received a message from God, through an angel, and that God was saying that his message had been corrupted. Wouldn’t that sort of message play right into the discontent people have – of course it would. And it did. Islam is the second largest religion in the world, and Mormonism is the fastest growing.

The reason that so many religions and belief systems are so compelling is because they mix truth with self. In other words, Satan has taken people’s selfish desires and mixed them with just enough of a truthful message that people feel like they are doing what is right, when the truth is that they are simply doing what they want.

Now, why would Satan mix truth with self? Because it looks and feels good enough to accept. Imagine if you will that our goal is a bullseye 1,000 miles away. If one starts off headed directy at the bullseye, he’ll make it. But if he is just a single degree off, by the end of that thousand miles, he’s not even close to the bullseye. In other words, one of Satan’s primary tactics is to make a person think that he is on the right track when he’s really a degree off target. Satan knows that when a message sounds like its true, its easier to accept. I’m sure many people have heard the old line that a lie is always more believeable when its mixed with a little truth.

The only way to guard against false teachings is to know the truth. You CANNOT avoid deception if you don’t know you’re being deceived. And you can’t know your’re being deceived unless you know the truth.

Site dedication

Today marks the beginning of the new weblog for the students of Christ’s Church in Bowling Green.  Students of CCBG, this site is dedicated to you by your teachers, and by the developers of this site—former students who wanted something more for the future generations of CCGB youth.  May you use this resource as a tool to connect not only with your peers, but also with a deeper understanding of God’s amazing love for you.

God’s blessings,
The developers

“For attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;
for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
for doing what is right and just and fair;
for giving prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young–
let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance–
…The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

–Proverbs 1:2-7