James Week 2

Wow! What a crazy week! It was the first morning the new 6th graders joined the JHIGH, and it was a blast! I am definitely impressed with this new group of students and I am confident God is going to use them to do some great things in the JHM over the next few years.

As far as the message from this last weekend is concerned, we looked at James 1:5. We asked ourselves, how can we make wise choices in the everyday decisions we face. We looked at the connection between our character and our choices. More specifically, how our character determines our choices, and our choices reveal our character. We left the kids with three things they can do to help them make wise choices:

1. Seek wise counsel: Proverbs 1:5 "Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance"

2. Check your choices with the bible: 2 Tim 3:14-17 "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

3. Pray about it! Listen to God! John 10:27 "27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

As a parent ask your kids these questions:

1. What do you think are the most important choices you will make while your in junior high?
2. Who do you go for wise counsel?
3. How can we listen to God?

Excited to hang with you guys this coming Sunday!

-Jay

"The Book Of James" -- All summer long!

On Sunday, we started our summer series on the book of James. Each week we will be posting a recap of the message, and some discussion questions here on the blog. We hope that these can create an opportunity for fruitful discussion between you and your junior higher.

Last Sunday, Doug taught on James 1:1-3, and spoke on trials. He taught about how trials and the testing of our faith are guaranteed in our walk with God, and how He uses them to build our character. He stressed the importance of how our character and who we are becoming is more important than our comfort. While it may not always be fun to grow up and go through difficult times, it is necessary because God is growing us through them and leading us towards perseverance.

Discuss these questions as a family:

1. What does the word character mean to you? Why is it important?

2. Parents discuss a time that you went through a difficult trial growing up. How did it you’re your character?

3. What are some ways that we can prepare for the trials in our lives? (Reading God’s word, prayer, accountability etc...)

4. Read James 1:12. What does that verse mean to you?

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Frog Blog

There is a frog in my backyard and he’s VERY loud. My wife noticed it first. One night as we were both falling asleep she said, “That frog has to be huge, for all that sound he’s making!” That first night, I figured it would be a one-time disturbance. I was wrong.

To be honest, I haven’t had much experience with frogs, nor given them much thought. I have never had an opinion about them for better or for worse. You could say I have always been pretty ambivalent when it comes to frogs. Not that I have anything against them, but I never really cared. But this particular frog is different; I can’t stop thinking about him.

Mainly, because he won’t let me. You see, it’s at that beautiful moment when the busyness of my day collides with the comfort of my pillow, that this frog likes to make sure that I know he is there. He sounds off every night, trumpeting out his throaty “ribbits” to remind me, it seems, that the two of us are on different schedules. When I want to sleep, he wants to sing, and his timing is uncanny. To put it simply, what started as a mild annoyance has grown into a deep hatred. This frog, has become the bane of my existent, my nemesis.

Last night, my irritation reached an all-time high. I HAD to find the frog and put an end to the sleepless nights once and for all. I began to formulate a plan. I thought about getting dressed, grabbing my jacket from the closet and a flashlight from the garage. I asked myself, “Are you ready to end this?” “Yes.”

“Do you want your life to be different, to be better? Yes.”

“Are you ready for things to be back to normal? Yes! From the very core of who I am, yes!”

Then I rolled over and went to sleep.

I woke up tired this morning and as I was drinking my coffee I couldn’t help but think about that frog and how, strangely enough, he reminds me of God. Well not really God, he’s not my nemesis. I was thinking more of my relationship with God. Too often, I respond to God the way I responded to the frog - with laziness and ambivalence. I hear God; I know he is there. He keeps interrupting me. He intrigues me until I want to look for him, to find him, to find rest. But my desire is rarely desperate and action rarely follows.

I believe Jesus when he said, “If you look for me you will find me. If you knock I will answer.”

How do we actively look for God? How do we move from desiring God to seeking him? Where has God been interrupting you?

Are you listening?

Worshipping a Prodigal God - by Kevin Carey

PRODIGAL: prod-i-gal 1. recklessly extravagant 2. having spent everything

"Jesus is showing us [in the the story of the two sons] the God of Great Expenditure, who is nothing if not prodigal toward us, his children. God's reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life-changing experience," (Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God).

God is a prodigal God. He is a God that loves His Creation with "reckless grace," with spendthrift love. He has spent everything to be in a love relationship with us. And we are simply asked to come join the party, to love Him in response to Him first loving us.

If we knew that and lived that, our lives would constantly exhibit the freedom and abandon that I believe Adam and Eve lived with during their time in Eden before the Fall. What I'm talking about is a perfect relationship with God, a relationship unscathed by sin, the relationship that humanity was designed to experience when we were first created in the image of God - with none of the constant brokenness that reminds us that this life is messed up compared to what it once was.

If we are to worship this prodigal God, we have to first understand that "He first loved us" (1 John 4:19) and, because of that, we can love Him in return. Worshiping God is a response to what He has already done, what He is doing at the present moment, and what He will continue to do tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, and on for an eternity. The Bible takes on a whole new meaning when we realize that it is the story of God working in the midst of humanity, showing us how God interacts with humanity and how humanity is to interact with Him.

If we recognize that, our lives can take on a totally different dimeanor, one where our choices and our lifestyles and our work habits and our arts and our sports and our churches and our Sunday servies are a reflection of God Himself, not merely a production created by human hands.

"So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us," (2 Cor. 5:20, NLT) - as if to say, God wants us to show the world was He looks like and acts like.

Everything that God is about is meant to bring us into relationship with Him. A.W. Tozer puts it this way:

"The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of thier hearts," (The Pursuit of God).

I would hope that, when Sunday comes, we "may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of our hearts." More than that, I hope that we experience that no matter the day, no matter the time or the place.

God is accessible here and now, a truth made possible by the fact that Jesus took our brokenness with Him to the cross and absolved us of our sinfullness. As Charles Wesley says in his hymn "Arise My Soul Arise:"

"Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

We can worship Him in this moment, because He is a prodigal God. It's not about our brokenness anymore. It's about His faithfullness and love for us and His grace towards us. That is a reckless God who is worth giving ourselves to today and for eternity.

Jr. High Summer Camp 2011!!!

The days are flying by and before you know it summer will be here! We are so excited to be going back to Hume Lake for our Jr. High Summer Camp, June 19th-25th. Don't wait to register; it's going to be a blast!

Click here for more camp info and to register online

Click here to check out an awesome video from last year's camp

R2R:Resolute

A new year, a new resolution. But how many resolutions improve our spiritual life? Join our Saturday Night Jr. High Service for a new series about Resolutions. We will be talking about Resolving conflicts, how to live a Righteous life, how to make Reading the Bible a priority, and how to Resolute to resolute.

Resolute: firmly resolved or determined; set in purpose or opinion

This is the cool place to be on Saturday nights!