Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Welp, for those of you that came to 3D wednesday night, thanks for coming and spending time with all of us =] For those that couldn't sorry we missed you. =[ We had a lot of fun playing all sorts of neat-O Christmas games and had some Christmas Trivia. We had a White Elephant gift exchange and I think this year we saw more stealing going on which made it a blast!!

There will not be any youth group the next two weeks due to Christmas and New Years, so be safe, have fun, remember that Jesus is the real reason to celebrate Christmas and see you all next year Lordwilling. We love you all!! =]]

Zechariah

For those of you who didn't get to make it to 3D tonight, we learned about Zechariah. Zechariah was a prophet who's name means: "Yahweh Remembers" which was a very key point to the entire book. In the book we learned about God's message to Zechariah and to the people of Israel. How He wanted them to complete rebuilding the temple that was started over seventy years after it had originally been destroyed. The main point of the book of Zechariah is this: God remembers, God delivers, God restores.

If God has called you to do something, go and do it because you have no idea how He is going to use you in the process of moving and following God's will.

Jeremiah and the Lock-In

So nathan brought the message to us last night on jeremiah [the weeping prophet] and the people of israel. Israel had been really backsliding and began to put other things before God and jeremiah had told the people the violence and destruction was going to come out of what they were doing.

I think one of the verses he shared last night should be one we think about this week and try and work on it in our own lives.

"Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is given to covetousness; And from the prophet even to the priest, Everyone deals falsely." Jeremiah 6:13

We need to understand that none of us are perfect and we will all make mistakes. This verse points out that EVERYONE, not just some, is given to things that are unholy and that we all deal falsely, lying, cheating, stealing etc...

Not a single one of us is excluded from this and whether we like it or not we are and always will be sinners, but if we truly repent, make a 180 degree turn and confess to the Lord our sin and choose to follow after Him, He will forgive us.

Lock-In Info

Our 3D lock-in starts next friday night on september 24th at 7pm at the church where we will meet fer a game of sardines before going to the libertyville sports complex fer tons of games, food, prizes and loads of fun!! It'll go till Saturday morning at 8 so come and see!! The last day of registration was last night so hopefully you all got yer checks and waivers sent in. Sorry I didn't get around to putting this notice up sooner. We look forward to seeing you there =]]

God bless and have a greatastic week!!

Surrender

Tonight, Everett shared from the book of Isaiah and we had a time of reflection and prayer on and with things in our lives that we thought may be hindering us from fully serving the Lord. If we repent, God grants us salvation, if we don't, there is nothing but destruction that awaits us.

Is there something in yer life that you want to change?? Give it to God today. Last week I challenged some of my girls in small groups to give up something that they normally can't do without and use the time spent on that one thing to spend more time with God in prayer and in His word. Fer some they chose to do certain things fer a couple days, some one-two weeks on others. If you feel like yer making something other than God number #1 in yer life then maybe its time fer you to take a "sacrifice challenge" see how you do, and see if you feel closer to the Lord when yer actually making time fer Him. Fun things are ok and their not bad things, its just how you moderate them ;]

Have a great week guys and be blessed!!

Also, don't forget to wish cathy, sarah [i believe it was] and vince a happy birthday!! =]]

Words of Wisdom

Tonight noah brought the message to us on solomon and the things of this world. He took us through the first few chapters of ecclesiates and brought forward some very interesting points, one that will stick to my mind well is "chasing the wind" how the bible explains that certain things we strive for here on earth will be meaningless when we die and depart this world, it will be like chasing the wind as it says multiple times in the book of ecclesiates [which is another great fact that noah also pointed out]

Take some time to read through ecclesiates 7 and try and determine what you think the verses could mean, back then, and also fer today.

God bless~

Trusting in the Salvation of the Lord

Everett brought the message to us last night and we read along in psalm 13 where king david is feeling distressed. We learned that when bad things happen to us, whatever they may be, whether losing a loved one, or just having a bad day in general that its ok to pour our hearts out to the Lord and be angry with him. Its ok so just be like: "God why is this happening?? where are you??"

Now even though you may be upset in the moment there will be some point where you'll get through it and in that moment, be sure to praise him fer the things that he has already given and blessed you with. Trust in him to bring you through the hard times and know that his saving grace, and unfailing love is more than enough.

Carried to the Table

Tonight we talked about king david and mephibosheth. How david extended his kindness to mephibosheth in completing his promise to his good friend jonathan. We talked about how mephibosheth was lame in both his feet and how david had him eat at the king's table as one of his sons, gave him the land that ziba tended with his sons and servants.

Mephibosheth being quite stunned at this wondered how in the world could a king like david come to him and openly give him all of these things when he was considered nothing but a "dead dog" which was good fer nothing.

This picture of david's kindness is just how Jesus carries us to his table to eat with him and become one of his children. Although some of us may not be lame physically we are lame spiritually, sin hinders us from approaching the throne of God. We can try all with all our might to get us there but having the disability of being crippled will sadly get us no where. After a while we may even get frustrated trying to do everything on our own and become overwhelmed. Some of you may know someone who is at that point, if you see their need, step out and help them. We shouldn't pick and choose who is more worthy than another to receive a good deed from us out of the same kindness Jesus has given us.

God bless~

*amaris*

Practicing Humility

So taking from what everett was talking on about tonight, [king david's humility] in all his troubles, and understanding that some of the things that happened to him was because he sinned [which nathan the prophet brought to his attention]

Over the weekend and until we meet again at 3D, as you go about yer daily activities and the like, try putting humility into practice. If yer not sure what being humble actually means and how to put into action, look it up. To save you some trouble though I'll post the definition here

Blessings to you all~

Memory Challenge

God told Joshua not to let the Book of the Law be out of his mouth, that he should meditate on it day and night. Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." A great way to do that is by memorizing scripture. Memorizing can be hard. Not everybody can do it word for word just by reading it over and over to yourself (though that's a great way to go if you can). Often you can remember better if you learn it as a song. Here's a site with some good memory songs. However you memorize, remember that if you don't seek to do what the word says then memorization won't be anymore beneficial than memorizing all the songs of your favorite band or a bunch of baseball stats. (Trust me, I know just how worthless both of those things have proved in my own life.) I know how hard it is to memorize even when doing it is easy. Here's my pledge to you. I will memorize a new passage of scripture each week. Put me to the test on Wednesday nights.

Here's my challenge to you. If anybody memorizes Deuteronomy 30:11-20 or Joshua 1:1-9 and recites it to me on Wednesday night (May 26 or June 2) I will buy them $1 worth of stuff from the Underground Cafe. If nine verses is too much then memorize one or two verses from anywhere else in scripture and I'll at least give you an airhead. The only catch is that they've got to be new ones. No airheads for something you already know.

Eat the word. It's good. (Psalm 19:10)

PADS night

Dianne had the priviledge to be on the team who went to set up beds and make juice at the shelter. We made up 43 beds for a definite 37. It just boggles my mind that there would be that many in this area. Apparently, after this month those 37 people have to find the outdoor places to live until October when the shelter is reopened. I wish I would have thought of it then to pray for the people that would visit the shelter tonight. I'm gonna do it now.

Dear God,
I thank you that you are a God who cares about the people that have to live in a shelter tonight. I pray that you would reveal yourself to these people that you do care. Open their eyes to see you. I pray that you would bless their sleep tonight and bring people or resources in their lives to help get them to where you want them to be.
Amen

Leviticus

Tonight we talked about the book of leviticus. Yes I know for most of you this book in the bible could put you to sleep [emi lol] but we talked on some pretty interesting points. For those of you who haven't read it yet, read up on chapter 19 in leviticus. I read through some of it with my small group but we were kinda running short on time, however when you have the opportunity, read it through and check out all the laws that were set in order to keep the people from sinning.

Could you keep all the commandments?? I know I couldn't and I haven't, which is why offerings were in order. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, he was perfect and instead of having to use a scape goat to send off and that would come back "symbolizing our sins" with Jesus having given his own life for us, he washed our sins away completely!! what good news!!

That Hebrew Song from Prince of Egypt

I almost cried tonight when the Jews were going out of Egypt and the children started singing the Hebrew bit in the middle of the song "When you believe". I got curious what they were actually singing so I looked it up. Here are the lyrics in Hebrew and English.

"Ashira l'adonai ki ga'oh ga'ah
Ashira l'adonai ki ga'oh ga'ah
Michamocha, ba-elim adonai
Michamocha nedar-bakodesh
Nachitah v'chasd'cha, am zu ga'alta
Nachitah v'chasd'cha, am zu gaalta
Ashira, Ashira, Ashira..."


Translation:
"I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously.
I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously.
Who is like You, O Adondai, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness?
In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed.
In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed.
I will sing, I will sing, I will sing..."

"Adonai" means Lord and is a substitute for God's personal name Yahweh. Whenever you're reading in the Old Testament and it says "LORD" in the English that's where a Jew would say "Adonai" instead of pronouncing God's name. Anyway, the song in the movie is based on the song Moses sings in Exodus 15:1-18, specifically verses 1, 11 and 13. I thought it was awesome seeing the joy of people as they came out of slavery into freedom.

Choosing Not to Be a Prince of Egypt

A couple more thoughts about the movie we're watching. Last night we watched the first part of Prince of Egypt, about the life of Moses and the Exodus. We talked about the different ways the movie changes the story from what's in the Bible. One thing I think it really missed, and I wish I'd thought of this last night, is that Moses chose to leave the palace and join his people before he ever left Egypt or killed an overseer. This isn't in Exodus so I don't really blame the movie guys for leaving it out but the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament says Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than be considered a prince of Egypt. Hebrews 11:24-26 says,

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."

Moses thought it was more important to be approved by God than to live with all the pleasures and treasures of Pharaoh's palaces. Sometime when he was grown up he remembered or learned who he was and chose to leave all the royal life behind him. He didn't blunder into it by accidently killing an Egyptian. He chose the life of a slave and then went into the wilderness where he spent 40 years tending sheep before God called him. I like the movie, but I think that's a big difference. Read more about it in Exodus 2-4 and Hebrews 11:23-28.

The other thing we didn't talk about last night that I think is "awesomemazing" is Jethro's song about how we have to look at our lives through Heaven's eyes. I know that way too often I try to judge how good my life is by comparing it to other people around me. That's stupid. I don't know what they think and I don't know how their story or my story is going to end. I just see snapshots and memories without seeing the whole picture or where it's going. God knows that whole picture because He's been drawing and painting it since before the beginning of time. He knows how my experiences and problems combine to make me who I am and how that affects other people. He knows way better than I do all that I am and all that I can be. I know enough about the end of my story to know that I will live in the house of the Lord forever, but I don't know much about how I'm going to get there. So I've got to judge my life not based on what I know but what God knows and what I know about God. He loves me and He will work all things to my good even if I don't see it now. If you know Him that's true for you too. If you don't know Him, ask Him. He will answer.

!!!DUN DUN DUN!!!

Here they are, videos from winter retreat!!!! Sit, Laugh, and Enjoy!! ^_^

Finger Fencing: Gio vs. Everett

Giant Swing: John and Gio

Party in the U.S.A.

Egyptian Rat!!

Extreme Pens!! [aka pigpens] Gio vs. Everett

Round 2 [pigpens] Gio vs. Everett

Toe Jam...

Eating Candy Necklaces

Pop in a Sock...

*!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANNE!!*

First off I'd like to wish dianne an offical "happy birthday" from myself and all of our awesome 3D students and leaders. For those of you who didn't know, dianne's birthday is on the 12th of march!! [that would be this month ;] ]

We celebrated after 3D at Bakers Square for some.... FREE PIE!!!! and it was yummay!! So once again, happy birthday and may yer day be awesomely blessed dianne. ^_^

JOB

Now, onto other news. Everett expanded on our study of Job tonight and the main idea was, how job, being in as much pain as he was and cursing the day of his birth, [which you can all read in chapter 3, so do so when you have time. And if you are still captivated, read on in chapter 4 where job's friends begin to give their reasons for why he was going through all that he did]

There's a point in the story where the Lord presents himself in a storm and asks Job questions. Like everett suggested, read through it and ask yerself if you know any of the answers to them. See what you find interesting and if you'd like to share what you've discovered, feel free to share here by adding comments or sharing it with us next week.

Everett reminded us what the reason was for all of the tragic things that were happening to Job and it was because he LOVED GOD. Serving the Lord isn't for the faint of heart. There will be lots of trials and tribulations that come as part of the price for follwing Jesus. However... when you truly put ALL of yer faith in him, whatever yer facing doesn't always seem so terrible because you know that God is bigger than it all and in the end, he will be glorified and bring you through whatever hard times yer having. So it will be worth it. Hang in there.

RUMANDUNG FRANSIKA TAMPUBOLON

This is the name of our new compassion child in indonesia. Some of you may've forgotten what her name was since mike introduced her to us, and if you did, welp.. here it is ^_^ We will be supporting her and our same Tuukuo Merin. Fadia Haya from indonesia has left the compassion program. We don't know the reason why, but just because she has, doesn't mean that we should forget about her. Feel free to shoot up a prayer to God for her whenever she comes to mind.

MISSIONS TRIP TO CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINA

If you haven't decided whether or not you'll be going on this amazing God-filled, serving, missions trip in july, there are a few spots still open but you'll have to talk to mike soon!! I'm not sure how much longer he's leaving this open so if you feel like God is calling you to do some hard missions work and share Jesus, don't hesitate, just sign up!! I know that the Lord is gonna do an awesome thing this summer with it.

VIDEOS

Just a side note. I have some videos that I took from the winter retreat REVOLUTION MISSION POSSIBLE of some of the boys going on the GIANT SWING and others of us playing X-TREME PENS!! [dangerous?? o_O] perhaps gio would have an idea of how that game went down with everett ;] I'll try to get those posted up as soon as I can so that you all can enjoy the rest of our great moments during that weekend.


TODAY I WENT TO HELL

If you click on that link above "today i went to hell" you'll be able to see more about what mike was talking to us about in kenya. For natalie, the woman who wrote this story is Kristen Welch.

_______________


Welp, I think I've covered just about everything. Write any of us if you any questions or just wanna say, "hey!! what's up??" otherwise...

God bless~

Oh yes and one more thing. Gio you are sooo on for egyptian rat next wednesday. I am making it my personal goal to beat you =P

More on Job

So yesterday we talked more on Job and some other things he had to go through. Not only did he lose alot of things that were important to him, including his children, but satan also caused him to break out with sores ALL OVER!! Can you imagine just how painful that had to be?? They bothered Job so much that he used a broken piece of pottery to scrape at them... YOWZERS!!

While he was dealing with that, a few of his friends came by to sympathize with him, knowing that he had just gone through a very HUGE ordeal. They sat with him for 7 days in silence. That's pretty impressive, I'm sure that maybe most of us couldn't stay quiet for more than a day. But after seeing how much pain Job was in, even his wife, along with his friends, told him that God was the one who had caused these awful things to happen and that he should just curse God and die!! His wife just wanted him to be done with it already, but Job knowing the Lord, would not curse God, but praise him.

His friends were saying tons of things of why these things happened to him and that there had to be a reason, that maybe he was just a bad person. Well when we all read the story of Job we know that he was an honorable man, so it wasn't that at all. All I know is that it must have been absolute torture to have to go through something like that and not even being supported by your closest friends.

Everett will talk to us next week and we'll be able to get more in depth of what's happening in this true story.

God bless~

JOB

Wait... what?? you want us to get a job you ask?? Nopers, but we are talking about a pretty cool dude named Job!! Mike opened up the story for us this past wednesday introducing us to this very wealthy man who loved God. In this story Job's sons and daughters would get together and have feasts in each other's houses and when they did, Job would go and offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord and said "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." and so he did this regularly.

Now there was a day when the sons of God [meaning "beings" or "angels"] came to present themselves before the Lord and satan came as well. So God said to satan "From where do you come?" and satan answered "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth in it." God then said to satan if he considered his servant Job and that there was "no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." Satan says to God, well of course he loves you because he has everything he could ever want. So think about it this way, a type of "lets make a deal" begins. Satan says that if something bad were to happen to Job then he would curse God to his very face!! =O God says to feel free to do what he wished with Job but that he is not allowed to touch Job himself.

Well now that satan was given "permission" there was a day when Job's sons and daughters were having another one of their feasts a messenger came to tell him that some bad guys came and attacked and he lost all his oxen and all his servants were killed!! and he was the only one that escaped to tell him.

Another messenger then came and told Job that fire had fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and that he was the only one that escaped to tell him.

Another messenger came and told Job the chaldeans came and stole all his camels and killed all the servants and that he too was the only one that escaped to tell him.

Then... would you believe it?? ANOTHER messenger came to tell him that while Job's sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck down the four corners of the house and it COLLAPSED on them and that they all died!!

How do you think he received this news?? 4 different servants came and brought him this bad news... and what did Job do?? "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped." Wait.. did you just say worshiped?? yup yup, that's exactly what Job did.

How would you react if something you loved was taken away from you?? How would you respond to God??

In the first chapter of this story the last verse says "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." WOWZERS!!

Mike will be continuing another part of the Job story next week so tune in to see what else happens to him!!

God bless~ ^_^

Revolution Winter Retreat 2010!!

Welp... first off let me just say what an amazing time our 3D students and leaders had on this trip "REVOLUTION MISSION POSSIBLE" in Lake Geneva WI.

There were lots of activities and workshops that they got to choose from, card games, and gross games and everything in between, but most importantly their encounter with GOD!! They all truly served as an inspiration to me and I'm sooo glad that I got to be a part of their growth during the retreat. To see them worshiping the Lord and praying for each other as well as other kids that they didn't even know.

I am very excited to say that we had a few middle schoolers who accepted Christ for the very first time!!!! We also had 3 new girls who came and they really enjoyed themselves as well. It was wonderful to see them open up with each other and with us as leaders.

Enjoy this slideshow as it shows just a portion of all that happened over the weekend!!