Categories
Author: jgreene
The summer internship is over. This year is the first time we have been able to have Youth interns, and it came to an end today. The three interns worked every week the entire sermon break. They worked on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sadly, today was the final day.
I am so glad that we did this! All three of them did an incredible job. I was so impressed with their ability. They took the internship very seriously, and in my opinion there has been much fruit in it. I think the entire church and student ministry has profited from their work.
For the interns, their summer consisted of a variety of things. From cleaning up outside, to designing posters, to writing & mailing letters to little kids, to reading and praying a lot, to helping Mrs. Wanda organize the History Room, to visiting shut-ins, to doing just about anything I asked them to do, Dalton, Emily, & Brigette did a wonderful job serving Christ and His church this summer.
My hope and earnest prayer is that this summer had a lasting impact on these three teens. I hope that they will grow up in the faith and become better students and leaders. Their potential is high and the difference they can make for Christ is limitless.
I love these three youth so much and I feel that our very close friendship was strengthened even more this summer. I thank God for these three kids. My heart is fully attached to them, and in so many ways I feel very connected to them as a big brother or father to them. As they continue to grow in Christ and build on many of the life principles they established this summer, my prayer is that they would truly begin to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” -Titus 2:10
I can’t wait to observe their growth and godly change over the upcoming months.
To God be the Glory!
Categories
Lou Bats & Holiday World!
Well, School starts back in less than a week. Tuesday, August 12th is the first day. The students are all tired of summer and bored with it, but at the same time they are dreading going back to school.
(Here are 2 pics of some of the guys with their polar pops.)
To bring a great ending to another great summer, we spent monday and tuesday hanging out together. Our Youth group along with the youth from New Heights and South Jefferson got together on Monday night to attend a Louisville Bats baseball game. It was a blast! The Bats are so good this year and they won 11-0 against Toledo. After the game, we spent an hour playing Ultimate Frisbee down by the Ohio River on the waterfront park.
Then on Tuesday, us three Youth groups travelled together to Holiday World up in Santa Claus, Indiana. We had a great time there spending most of the day in the waterpark.
After Holiday World, we returned back to New Heights for a worship service. Two awesome girls, Courtney and Nadia, from New Heights Youth Group did a fantastic job leading all of us in worship. Then Dalton Stivers from FBCF’s Youth Group gave an encouraging testimony of how he came to know Jesus and become a true follower of Christ. Then the long day ended with myself speaking to the group. I challenged the kids to commit their whole selves to Jesus. I asked them to live “Wide Awake.” Looking at Luke 12:37, I challenged them to live fully ready for Jesus to return and save them.
The two days were a lot of fun. It is awesome to see different church groups coming together and becoming friends with each other. We are planning to do much more in the future.
Categories
the love of God
“The love of God is not God’s making much of us, but God’s saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever.” -John Piper
Categories
I hate not being there.
Last night, Wednesday night, August 6th, I was not able to be in Youth. I hate it when I miss. I was at church working most of the day, and I was even there until church began right at 7 o’clock. But during the afternoon my stomach blew up on me and it was too much to overcome. I had hoped to perservere through the cramping so that I could still teach, but I couldnt. I am so thankful for Josh Wamble. He is a dear brother, and he was able to teach youth on very short notice. I look forward to being back with the youth on Sunday morning.
Categories
Youth are the future!
“Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worse fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible, they were bored with it – while these never heard of such a thing as writing.” -Jim Elliot
“I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.” -Whitney Houston
“Brett and I firmly believe we are living in historic times. We further believe that God is raising up a generation of young people, specifically those in the Christian, homeschool community, who will one day assume positions of leadership in all spheres of life: social, political, and spiritual. This is not a call for the complacent or the lackadaisical. This is not a call to those who are willing to lower their standards to meet the expectations of their culture. This is a call to the rebelutionary.” -Alex & Brett Harris
“The Rebelution = a teenage rebellion against low expectations.” -a movement of Christ-centered young people across the world
Categories
Carey
“Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” -William Carey
Categories
Ryle
“Prosperity and worldly comfort are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ.” -JC Ryle
Categories
Ask Anything!
Last night during our K2G (wednesday night youth) service, I did something that we don’t do too often. I took about 30 minutes to allow the youth to ask me any question they wanted to. I introduced it by praying to God about how all of us have hearts and minds that are full of so many thoughts, concerns, and questions. Teens are curious and have many things they would like to have answered.
Many are way too shy and would never speak up in front of many of their peers to ask a serious question, but some did. Here are some of their questions.
-What is Psalm 90 about?
-Is it possible that we aren’t the first things God created? (could God have created more before this creation in Genesis?) Great question by the way?
-Will God allow someone into heaven that does not love Him?
-If someone has never sinned, but they don’t believe in Jesus, will they still go to heaven?
Those are just a few of the good questions they were asking. I like to see them think and open up their minds. Society is teaching kids more and more to not get serious about anything. So I like to see them taking very serious the things in life that should be taken seriously…namely, Jesus and His death and His Word.
By the way, I did my best to answer from Scripture all of those questions. Then someone asked, at the end when God judges everyone and He divides the sheep from the goats, where will that take place? So we turned to Revelation 20 and I taught on the defeat of Satan, the great white throne judgement, and the new heaven and new earth. Verse 20:11 says that “from His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” Then verses 12-15 are the judgement and dividing up of people to heaven or hell. And then in 21:1 John sees the new heaven and new earth.
So the actual judgement takes place somewhere in the midst of all that. We know this, it is before the great throne of God. it seems to be not on earth. The old earth has fled and the new earth is not yet. This is possible because with God we don’t need anything. We won’t need food, or light, or anything. He will sustain it all. So I suppose we wont need an earth either. Maybe judgement will just be us and the throne.
Here’s the point. Verse 20:15 says “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
I asked “is your name there?”
Christ was slain by God so that you wouldnt be. Will you turn from yourself and turn to God for forgiveness and life? And will you through faith in King Jesus find your name in the Lamb’s book of life?
Growing up in the ’80s, I can remember those days when my mom would be cleaning house and playing the stereo so loudly that she could hear it over the vaccuum cleaner. As I laid on the couch never thinking to help her, I would attempt to turn the TV up even louder so that I could still hear SportsCenter over Mom’s blasting stereo and vaccuum. Well since then, a lot about me has changed. I think ( i sure hope) now that I would vaccuum for my mom and allow her to rest.
But one thing I remember clearly from those days is one of the songs my mom played so loudly. Its been 23 years (1985) since Whitney Houston put out that great song “Greatest Love of All” and somehow I still know all the lyrics.
What I learned though comes from the first line “I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.” I agree with this line of the song. Children are our future. They are the future of our families, future of our country, future of our schools, and future of our churches. The things we treasure and stand for now are totally dependent in the future upon the next generation. And I am mostly writing concerning our churches, our faith. We must, absolutely must, we gotta, we have to, teach them well and show them how to lead the way. If not, our churches will fall to laziness, half-heartedness, apathy, and indifference.
Over the last five years, God has really impressed this truth upon my heart. Young people are so important. May we not overlook them. Please do not overlook them or minimize them or underestimate them. Remember, Paul wrote to Timothy encouraging him to “set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” …in his youth.
I hope we believe that children are our future and that you will work to teach them well and let them lead the way.
-J Greene