It’s about that time folks! This year’s Disciple Now is coming up on January 8th-10th.
We’re gearing up for the best D-Now yet, and you’re definitely going to want to be a part of it. There’s only a few days left to make your plans, and invite your friends! Be sure and bring your t-shirt order form to the YouthRoom on Wednesday so we can be sure and order enough awesome shirts for everyone.
Know to Grow,
‘Hank
From John Piper at Desiring God:
In this smelly place he lay,
Smelly like the swine,
Smelly like the rotting hay,
Like your sin, and mine.
Do you see how low he lay?
Do you see how low?
There is lower yet to go.
Lower yet to go.
He is lying where they eat,
Lying where the swine—
Lying like a piece of meat
Where the hungry dine.
Do you see the flow complete
Do you see the flow?
There is greater love to show
Greater love to show.Such a happy toddler there,
Happy like the birds,
Happy like the morning air
Filled with happy words.
Does he see or know or care?
Does he see or know:
O, how deep will be his woe
Deep will be his woe?Knowing God was born like this
Knowing this is he,
Knowing somehow this is bliss
For the swine and me,
Is this loves full glow and kiss?
Is this love’s full glow?
There are deeper things to know,
Deeper things to know.
Mary musing every year,
Musing on her son,
Musing with a rising fear
Who will be the one:
Who will strike the blow and spear?
Who will strike the blow?
Does she know that blood must flow?
Know that blood must flow?Jesus hanging on the tree,
Hanging like the meat,
Hanging there for swine like me,
Gives his flesh to eat.
Here is Life brought low and free.
Here is Life brought low.
O, how vast the debt I owe
Vast the debt I owe.
I hope you feel the same undeserved debt to the grace of God this year because of Christ. What an amazing Savior we have!
“To be much for God, we must be much with God…” – Leonard Ravenhill, “Why Revival Tarries”
Tonight in the YouthRoom, Drew brought the Word to us out of 1 Peter 1:3-9. 
The apostle Peter had a whole lot to say about the need that every person has for salvation in Jesus Christ, and how that salvation delivers us from the penalty of sin in the past, the power of sin in the present, and the presence of sin in the future. That kind of news changes lives and we got to hear and see that in the Bible tonight. Nobody can ignore the brokenness that comes with a life lived in bondage to sin. Our youth especially know the pain, guilt, and regret that comes with sinful hearts that refuse to honor God in their thoughts and actions. But, praise be to God, there is the good news that Jesus Christ came — on the very first Christmas about 2,000 years ago — to live a perfect life on our behalf, and then to die a death in which he took all our sins upon himself. He canceled all the debt that we owed to God because of our sin. He delivered us and set us free — causing us to “be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
That salvation is for everyone and anyone who is willing to humble themselves and call out to God for forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) As a church and a youth group, we want every person to know that the greatest gift they could ever receive this Christmas would be to be born again to a living hope by faith in Jesus Christ. May this be the year that you find your hope in the Savior who was born, crucified, and risen for you!
‘Hank
Tonight in the YouthRoom, Drew is going to start a brand new bible study on the first book of Peter!
If you’ve never read through 1 Peter, or you haven’t ever taken the time to really study it, this is a fantastic opportunity to jump in and get started! Like all of God’s Word, this book is chalked full of truth that will change the way you live life. The apostle Peter doesn’t mess around when it comes to telling it like it is. He wanted the Church to understand how much the Father loved them, and the reason that He sent Christ to die for them. This is good news, because Peter was writing to a group of sinners, much like us — to encourage, warn, and teach them how to love Jesus more. Tonight Drew will be introducing the book and the background to us, and laying a foundation for the rest of the chapters. It’s gonna be awesome!
We’ll keep the light on for you…
‘Hank
“The more we pray, the more we shall want to pray. The more we pray, the more we can pray. The more we pray, the more we shall pray. He who prays little will pray less, but he who prays much will pray more. And he who prays more, will desire to pray more abundantly.” – Charles Spurgeon
We had a great time tonight up in the YouthRoom learning about why the songs of Christians absolutely change the world and us!
Not only do we sing because of the awesome truth that God has saved us from our bondage to sin through Jesus Christ, nor is it just because the Bible tells us to sing (though it does from beginning to end!), but we sing because we are in the middle of a war!In fact, we are in the middle of the greatest war that there ever was or ever will be! God declared it in Genesis 3, won it on Calvary, and will finish it off in Revelation. Until then, we get to rally every Wednesday and Sunday together as an army of God’s redeemed, singing of God’s deliverance of our souls, His promises for our future, and His power and victory over the devil and sin. The songs of the Christian declare that the King is coming soon, and complete and final victory is coming with Him. Hallelujah! Now that’s good news!
A fellow freedom fighter for your joy and the glory of Christ,
‘Hank
Two awesome vids on war. The first on making war in life – and the second on prayer as a war-time walkie talkie. Add ’em to your arsenal…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrY0h33coR4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2J1PYKB-R4]
Have you ever wondered why Christians sing in church?
That’s just what you do at church, right? But if you think about it, there’s a lot of places you go where groups of people don’t just break out in singing. When you go to school, you don’t carry a hymnbook to class and then sing a couple of songs before learning about U.S. History, do you? There aren’t usually choirs serenading in the supermarket, are there? No worship leader at Walmart, right? So what’s the deal with church? Why do people meet every Sunday morning in churches all around the word and sing? What’s the big deal?
Those are great questions — with even greater answers, answers that just might change your life. And we’re going to tackle them this Wednesday night in the YouthRoom. Be there at 7pm and find out why the Church’s singing puts American Idol to shame…
Grace and Peace,
‘Hank
An awesome video of a sermon jam from the ministry of John Piper…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBJzUnxiKwA]
The book of Ephesians, chapter 2 is one of those chapters in Scripture that pierces your heart, and then binds you up all at the same time. The Apostle Paul does this kind of thing will many of his letters. First he wants us to see the brokenness of ourselves and our sins, because only then can we truly see the perfection and perfect gift of a Savior in Jesus Christ. Here’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. Oh man, so good…
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands– remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:1-22)
On that note, here’s a little free flow, free verse for your free time in honor of the free gift of everlasting life in Christ Jesus our freedom fighter.
===
what it is?
i’ll tell you what it is.
it’s rough stuff guys.
we’re in it deep, and we’re as dead as can be.
all that service of sin has yielded its wages, and its a payment we’d rather not receive.
go ahead and call us all Lazarus, cause we died a long time ago.
our king was ourselves, and our sin.
our prince, yeah – he’s known as the power of the air.
our status: children of wrath, sons of disobedience.
our hope: no hope and without God in the world.what it do?
wrong question.
Who it do? that’s better.
what it is, has been changed by Who it do.
the Who, is Him. the God who said this is what it is “but”
but what? but who?
But a rich God of mercy.
But a gracious gift of God.
But a hostility breaker.
But a de-alienator.
But an atonement maker.
But a justifier.
But a sacrificer.
But the Who it is, changed the what it is, by the what He did.now we –
brought near, blood stained and smiling
jew-ing and gentile-ling
our Savior reconciling
atoning for our defiling
by Spirit-ually applying
His dying
to my dead soul.now that’s what it is.
and Christ is Who it do.
you feel me?(W.Hank Balch (c) Nov 2007)