FBCF Youth

Month: January 2010

  • Pictures this Sunday and Cross-Training

    Lots of stuff going on this Sunday. Of course, we’ve got another week of Cross-Training planned! This week we’ll be talking about how we knew there had to be a Cross, and why Jesus knew he had to die. Your salvation and mine hinges on the events that happened at this Cross, so you’re not going to want to miss this week!

    Also, if we have time, we’re going to talk about (and see pictures!) of our adopted orphan, Oliver, that we are supporting through Compassion International. We got all his information in the mail this week, and so we can start writing him letters and sending him stuff as soon as we want. That being said, don’t forget to bring your 50 cents so we can keep raising enough to support him this month!

    And finally, plan on taking a few pictures with the youth group so we can put them in the new Church directory that is coming out. We will either do this in youth, or right after church, so don’t forget to hang around long enough to get it done. Also, the Kitchen committee is doing a “Stove Fundraiser” this Sunday after church, so if you want to hang around and eat lunch with everybody downstairs, bring $7 for a ticket and meet us in the basement after church.

    “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” – Colossians 1:27,29

    Love y’all,

    Hank

  • I Sure Don’t Feel Like a Priest

    This Wednesday night in the YouthRoom, Drew will be teaching out of 1 Peter 2:1-12. It’s gonna be freezing cold outside, so plan on coming at 6pm to get some awesome, hot home-cooking down stairs — and then heading up to the YouthRoom at 7pm for some awesome, soul-stirring teaching! This week we’ll find out how God describes YOU in the Bible, how we are called to respond because of it, and we’ll learn how to see the things that don’t define a life renewed by Jesus Christ.

    Plus, if you didn’t get your 30-Hour Famine info and fundraising packet last week, you can pick it up Wednesday night. And we’ll be watching a promo video to get us pumped for the 30-hours of fasting and prayer! It’s going to be thebomb.com/awesome.

    Be there.

    ‘Hank

  • Bringing Us to Him: How Does God Do It?

    “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” – Hosea 6:1

    Christians, we should tremble more. But I know why we don’t. And so do you.

    If we could only see the depths of our wickedness. How dirty we are. How unlovable. How unworthy. Constantly overflowing with our own sinful desires. Even in the midst of so great a salvation, we take our relationship to God for granted…

    As if God owes us his love. As if he owes us the power of prayer. As if he owes us forgiveness. As if he owes us even common grace – in the sunlight of a autumn afternoon, or the starlight of a cool summer night. God owes us nothing – besides a just judgment and condemnation of our sin and rebellion.

    It makes me wonder…how does God do it? How can he look past my constant rejection of Him, and my inbred idolatrous nature? How does he deal with my lip service and half hearted displays of affection towards him, and still see my double-minded heart? How does he not cut me off every time I shrug off his omnipresent grace?

    If we were honest with ourselves, it is very seldom (if ever) we love God with ourwhole heart. We are an arrogant, half-hearted people – with a complaining spirit, and fallen minds.

    But God is faithful to us, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness to him. Seriously, you have to ask yourself, how does God do it?

    Hosea 6:1 points us to the answer: God does it through Christ. It’s all through Christ. All the good, all the forgiveness, all the grace, all the love, all the mercy, all the blessings, all the faith – all mediated to us, through Christ. We know God through Christ. We are reconciled to God through Christ. We are made right, and righteous before God, through Christ. And only inasmuch as we are IN CHRIST can we ever be pleasing to God. Our very presence (not to mention our so-called Christian life) would be repulsive to him, if not for the cleansing and covering that we have in Jesus Christ.

    If you don’t know this Jesus, come to Youth this Wednesday and let’s talk. If you do know Him, get on your knees today and thank Him for the healing that comes to you in Him.

    ‘Hank

  • This Weeks Cross-Training: the Shame and Horror of the Cross

    This week in Cross-Training (Sunday Morning @ 9:45am), we’re going to be focusing on the shame and the horror of the cross of Christ. Last week we began to discuss why the cross became the sign and symbol of Christianity and talked about why the Apostle Paul could say “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14) The only thing that Paul boasted in was the Cross. For him and the rest of the writers of the Bible, the Cross was the central event in all of history. It’s just as true for us! Just like last week, we’re going to watch a powerful video about this week’s lesson, see what the Bible has to say about the cross, and learn what it means to “[look] to to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:2

    It’s going to be a great time in the Word and in fellowship, so make plans to be there now! And don’t forget to bring your 50 cents for our new adopted orphan, Oliver!

    ‘Hank

  • Totally Like Whatever, You Know?

    “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” – Matthew 7:28-29

    “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” – Colossians 4:6

    It’s easy to speak like the world, but when Christ redeems us, he seeks to redeem all of us — even our speech! Here’s a humorously serious video of the need for our generation to say something valuable — especially when we’re to be representing the Lord Jesus Christ to those around us.

  • Do You Desire God?

    To be a disciple or follower of Christ, Jesus said that you must first sit down and count the cost (Luke 14:28). The Christian life is by no means the easy life. It is a life of joy, no doubt, but it is joy in knowing the Savior of your soul. Consider today if you have ever counted the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ, and if not, ask him right now for “his terms of peace” — and the Bible promises that he will hear and answer your prayer (Romans 10:9). Do you desire God?

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngSq7mABZGE]

  • Quote of the Day

    “The devil’s aim today is to keep one away from the Bible…Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will keep you from sin.” – Leonard Ravenhill

  • New Creation….Now What?

    This Wednesday night in the YouthRoom, Drew will be continuing through 1 Peter, teaching a lesson entitled, “New Creation…Now What?” If you haven’t been able to make it on Wednesday nights yet, or if you’ve missed a couple of days here and there, tomorrow night would be a great time to come and catch up on what we’ve been learning about the power of the Gospel in 1 Peter. Nothing is more precious and more powerful than the Word of God, and we can’t wait as a youth group to see it work in our lives.

    “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God…” – 1 Peter 1:22-23
    ‘Hank

  • It’s All About Christ

    Here’s a video from Paul Washer that we watched this past Sunday Morning @ Cross-Training. It rocked us. Hope it rocks you. It is, indeed, all about Christ…

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5caksOsm88]

  • Orphan Sponsorship: Starting this Sunday

    Along with our new Cross Training series that’s beginning this Sunday morning, we’ve decided as a Sunday School class to sponsor an orphan through Compassion International‘s sponsorship program (we got the confirmation today!). Y’all know that it’s extremely easy to go through every day of our busy lives and forget that there is a huge world out there that Jesus loves just as much as he loves Fairdale, Ky. In 3 John 1:4, the apostle John says that he has “no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” John shows the rest of the church what God’s heart is for all people — to walk in the truth, by worshiping Jesus Christ as risen Savior and King. Children in particular have a special place in Jesus’ heart and so they should have a special place in our hearts as well. When the disciples tried to stop a group of little children from getting to Jesus one day, he rebuked them saying “”Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)  I hope and pray that as a class and as a Church this step in serving and loving “the least of these” will set fire to our hearts, and give an unrelenting passion to love well, love often, and love for the glory of Christ.

    ‘Hank

    P.S. – Youth, don’t forget: bring 50¢ to Church on Sunday so we can start raising our money for this month!

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjJv7SQ9Wvg]