Sunday Night

Hey High Schoolers,

Many of you have heard by now, but for those of you who haven't, my Grandfather passed away earlier this week. This has been especially hard on me and to make matters slightly more difficult, the funeral services have been planned for Sunday afternoon at 4pm.

I've changed my mind 100 times this week, but have decided that our Kickoff Youth Group will still be happening! You and I have all been waiting a long time for this. :)

So-we'll be meeting at the Kaufmann's at 6pm on Sunday evening for swimming and a cookout! The Kaufmann's live at 8220 Farmington Cemetery Road just outside of Farmingdale. If you need directions just click here.

Looking forward to getting back into rhythm!

-Bryan

Dear, ____________

In John 4, Jesus is sitting at a well when a Samaritan woman comes to draw water. They talk, she realizes He is Christ, and then she goes back to town and tells everyone she sees that they need to come and meet this guy. What she does seems rather simple. She met someone great and wants others to meet Him too. She does all she can to introduce others to this man.

We do this all the time. Think about the last time you met someone new (that you thought was great!) Maybe it was your future spouse, a potential best friend, or someone famous? Regardless, you likely went and told someone all about this interaction afterward.

I love telling the story of how I met my wife. The events of the story aren't what make it great to share. Instead, it's the person in the story that I'm wanting to share. I want to tell everyone about my wife because she's awesome. So awesome, that if I'm given the opportunity to introduce someone to her, I'll do it in a heartbeat! I've found something great, and I have to share that with others.

It's likely that you have felt this same way. You've met someone that you've deemed worthy of introducing to others for some reason or another. At times this may be a selfish, rub it in your face type of motive; but I would venture that more often than not, you want to share this person because they have something valuable to share with others. Maybe it's a talent, a great sense of humor, the ability to counsel?

You see, this is exactly why the Samaritan woman wanted to introduce others to Jesus. It wasn't just that He benefited her, it was that He could benefit others as well. This was too good to keep to herself! This guy was special. This guy could save them from death! This guy was definitely worth sharing!

Unfortunately, I've struggled to introduce Jesus to others. You probably have too. Yet, I know how great He is. I know what He has to offer. I know that He is worth sharing. Why do I keep someone, who could be so valuable to others, to myself?

There are a ton of reasons and excuses. We all know what they are. It's time to get over the excuses though. It's time to start introducing others to Jesus.

When my wife was in the 6th grade she received a note from a close friend. It had the typical teenage girl smalltalk about boys and classes. But, there was something else in the note that made my wife keep it in a safe place for the past 14 years. Her friend asked her if she knew Jesus. If not, she said, she needed to meet him.

That note led my wife to an eternal relationship with Christ!
John 4:39 says that many of the people from town came to have a relationship with Jesus because of the Samaritan woman.

Are you introducing others to Jesus? Maybe it's time we take an example from an unlikely source in the Bible-a Samaritan woman.

Dear ____________,

Do you know Jesus?

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Summer Youth Group

The summer is finally here! That means that the Western Oaks Youth Groups start to look at lot different. Every summer we get rid of our normal weekly schedule and mix it up with weekly Bible Studies, fun events, FUGE Camp, and Mission Trips! Our schedule is anything but regular or consistent, but it is set.

You'll notice that there are loads of things on the schedule (Click here or here for schedule), but that they are all different colors. Anything that is Blue is for the Cutting Edge Jr. High Youth Group-kids who have completed 6th-8th grade. The events written in Orange are for the Sunday Night Live High School Youth Group-students who have completed 9th-12th grade. Finally, anything in Green is for both the Cutting Edge and Sunday Night Live Youth Groups.

We're also very excited for an addition to our "staff" this summer. Noah Adams, a former student and now college Sophomore at Judson University, will be interning with the youth program at Western Oaks. Noah is majoring in youth ministry and also focusing on psychology. He'll be working primarily with the Cutting Edge Jr. High group this summer, but will also work on mission events with the High School.

Finally, we wanted to remind you of all the great ways to keep up with what we doing here at Western Oaks.

• Website: www.westernoaks.org
  
• Youth Blog: http://wobcYouth.blogspot.com
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/wobcYouth
• Facebook: search for Cutting Edge or Sunday Night Live
• E-mail: youth@westernoaks.org
• Phone: Bryan 691-6715, Noah 801-3150

We're really looking forward to this summer. We hope you are too!

...with all your strength."

For the past few weeks I've been using the book, Primal, by Mark Batterson to write a sermon series for the high school youth group at Western Oaks. Last Sunday was Strength Sunday. This was all about loving God with all your Strength.

When I think of strength, one of the first things that comes to mind is my lifting regiment during college. I was on the Track and Field team at Illinois Wesleyan and was required to lift weights every day after practice. Needless to say, I hated this. If you've ever seen me before you'd understand why. I have crazy long toothpick arms. That being said, lifting weights isn't my forte. I did have strength though-everyone does. It is just that my strength didn't lift nearly as much weight as my teammates' strength did. Although the amount of weight we lifted wasn't equal, the amount of sweat we released was. As we all left the weight room every evening we would be pouring in sweat.

That is what loving God with all of your strength is about-sweat. Loving God with all your strength means that you are sweating for God. It means that you are working hard for kingdom causes. It means that you are expending energy to glorify God. (No matter how much weight you can lift).

Thomas Edison said that energy is 90% perspiration. If loving God with all your strength means sweating and expending energy then we should be doing something. James 2:20 tells us that faith without works is dead! Do you have faith? Well then you should be sweating!

Some of you reading this post hate sweating. It's sticky, uncomfortable, and (let's be honest) smells pretty bad. Sweat is uncomfortable. Who ever said that love was comfortable though. Who ever said love was easy? Who ever said love smelled good?

Do you love God with all your strength? Are you sweating for his kingdom?

I'd love to hear how you are sweating for God's kingdom. Fill us in by writing a comment below.

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Treasure

Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. -Luke 12:34

What's your treasure? Is it your spouse, children, job, bank account? Maybe it's something you've accomplished? I've learned in the past week or so that my treasure is something which I hoped it never would be.

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about loving God with all your heart. In it, I quoted Mark Batterson: "Loving God with all your heart means having a heart that breaks for the things that break God's heart."

Recently, my heart has been breaking over change; most specifically change in scenery. Months ago, my grandfather moved out of his home and into a retirement home. This was no big deal at first, but then he put his house on the market. To be honest, this crushed me. There were so many memories that occurred there! How could we get rid of something that had so much potential for future memories?

Last week though, my grandfather's health started to fail. As I write this, he lay in a hospital bed. Our hope is that he will soon be transferred to a nursing home. Unfortunately, it was this change that helped me to realize that my heart had not previously been breaking due to change. It was breaking because a possession that I loved was soon to be lost. It wasn't breaking because my Grandfather was becoming less independent. It wasn't breaking because he was lonely. It wasn't breaking for the same reason God's heart was breaking.

It was breaking because I didn't want to lose a house. I found my treasure. I found my heart. I just didn't find it where it should be.

In the past week, though, God has straightened my heart out. Although I'll miss being able to go to the house, what I'll miss more is, someday soon, not being able to go visit my grandfather. My treasure is no longer a house, my treasure is my loved ones.

What is your treasure? Once you find it, you'll find your heart. Then the real question is this: Does your heart look like God's?

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...with all your mind,

For the past few weeks I've been using the book, Primal, by Mark Batterson to write a sermon series for the high school youth group at Western Oaks. Last Sunday was Mind Sunday. This was all about loving God with all your Mind.

"A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape." -Oliver Wendall Holmes

For years we thought that the human brain had a limit. Once you reached that limit, the more you learned, the more you lost. You could only put so much into your brain. Your brain could only grow so much. Then a few years ago, a research group in London discovered something. Your brain actually can continue to grow, in particular, your posterior hippocampus which plays a key role in long term memory.

This research group proved that our mind was created with the ability to continually grow, stretch, and learn more. God created us this way! Loving God with all your mind means taking advantage of this.

A few years back, Illinois Wesleyan (among many other colleges) did a study where they took a group of high performing juniors and gave them their final exams twice-once at the normal time, and once 2 weeks after that. Both exams were identical, but the second time students scored on average of 40% lower! It's as though they hadn't used their hippocampus at all! (Ever crammed for a test before?)

We also live in a culture where we stop corporate education around 22 years old. Our average life span is nearly 80 years though! If our mind can continue to learn, grow, and expand, why are we quitting so early!? 1 Corinthians 8:2 says "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know." Do you think you know something?

Loving God with all your mind means that you never assume that you know something. It means that you are never satisfied with what you've already learned. It means that you constantly seek to know more. It means that you read, explore, ask questions, create, try, fail, and learn! Loving God with all your mind means that you abuse the fact that your posterior hippocampus can continue to grow!

Ask yourself this question: 'Am I really loving God with all my mind?'

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...with all your soul,

For the past few weeks I've been using the book, Primal, by Mark Batterson to write a sermon series for the high school youth group at Western Oaks. Last Sunday was Soul Sunday. This was all about loving God with all your Soul.

"The average person looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feelings, eats without tasting, inhales without the awareness of odor or fragrance, and talks without thinking." -Leonardo da Vinci

Loving God with all your soul means that you see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and think. Loving God with all your soul means that you recognize God's creation and presence. Loving God with all your Soul means that you're in awe of what God has done and continues to do.

1 Peter 1:18 puts it this way-Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. (Message)

Have you ever really considered God's words in Genesis as he finished creating the universe? "...it was very good." Genesis 1:31 Even God himself was in awe of His creation! Are you? If you blow through life forgetting to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and think, chances are you aren't in awe of God.

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Angels in the Outfield

In the Disney movie, Angels in the Outfield, there is a 'memorable' scene where the coach holds a press conference in order to clear up any confusion about angels helping his team. At the conference, he is prepared to deny all the rumors about angels. Something ends up coming over him though and, instead, he ends up saying that he actually believes that angels have been helping his team. (If only this were the Cubbies!) Most kids likely don't question anything about this movie-probably because it seems like nothing more than a fantasy. It does bring up an interesting question though: do angels exist? And if so, what role do they play in our lives? As abstract of a topic as this is, we are going to tackle it this week at Cutting Edge. We'll be challenging the students with a story from Acts 12 where Peter is freed from prison by an angel sent by God. We'll be using this passage to teach the students that not only do angels exist, but they have God ordained roles in our lives. Not sure for yourself? Neither was Peter. For a while, he thought he was dreaming as the angel was rescuing him! Once his chains were removed, though, he quickly stopped doubting.

Check out Psalm 91:11- "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways..." Maybe the term 'guardian angel' isn't so cliche after all? We're shown in many places throughout scripture that angels do, in fact, exist. I think we are just skeptical though because we've made angels out to be recycled dead people floating around the world with butterfly wings, halos, and harps! The bible doesn't give us concrete evidence of any of those things! Instead, it does show us that angels are real, that God created them, and that he uses angels to protect His people-just like the angel that rescued Peter from Prison in Acts 12!

Love God with all your heart....

Did you know that hearts have cellular memories and brain-like hormones? Probably not, but research suggests as much. Research has also shown how the majority of heart transplant patients receive a whole new set of sensory responses, cravings, and habits.

Thankfully, neither I nor my loved ones have had to experience the thought of getting a new heart. At least not in the physical sense. In Ezekiel 36:26, though, God makes it pretty clear that I have experienced a heart transplant in a different sort of way. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

You see, when you decide to follow Christ, it is your heart that is changed. More often than not though, we tend to let our heart stay the same, and merely change our behavior.

God calls us to something different though. He calls us to a life where we receive a new heart-a heart that has new cravings and new habits. You see, it is important that our behavior changes to reflect God's love in us; but the reason that behavior changes should come from a new heart.

That is what loving God with all your heart is about. It's about noticing pain and suffering and doing something about it. Mark Batterson puts it this way-Loving God with all your heart means that your heart breaks for the things that break God's heart.

Primal: A Reading Rainbow Moment

Two weeks ago I dove into a new book. This one has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I've felt rather guilty about it as the author sent me a copy for free. (By the way, thanks Mark Batterson!) Anyhow, I was captivated within a page. Batterson is a great story teller and he doesn't mess around with fluff at the beginning of his books.

A friend of mine always asks what the nugget of any book is. This book's nugget is pretty clear: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." -Mark 12:30

As this is the greatest commandment, you'd think that Christians would spend a lot of time making sure we're doing it. I don't know that we are though. I think that is why Batterson spends nearly 200 pages on what it means to fulfill this commandment.

Primal made me think. It made me question. At times, it made me hurt.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend this book to you. Definitely read it. If you don't want to buy it-I'll give you mine. (Seth Godin told me to.)

I thought it was so good that I wrote a High School sermon series based off of it. I'll be blogging about that soon! I hope you'll read this-really, I do.

Once upon a time...

....I scheduled an hour every Monday to write a new post.

For my two readers out there, I am deeply sorry. The posts will begin again roughly about now.

3rd Place

Last night Matt Mead, head coach of the Lady Eagles basketball team of Robert Morris University, came and shared with us during halftime of the Superbowl.

He had some great things to say. One comment really stood out to me though. He told the students to put themselves third.

In today's culture this isn't something that is easy. More often than not we are thinking of ourselves first. We want to be noticed, be the best, look the best, have lots of friends, fit in, win. Just think of the whole premise of the Superbowl-both teams were there to win! They weren't putting the other team first at any point during that game!

If we live in a culture that enforces being the best then how is anyone supposed to put themselves third?

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells us to love God, and love our neighbors. These are the greatest commandments.

Put God first, others second, and yourself third.

Are you third or first?

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Daddy!

This last week at HS youth group we took a risk and opened up a can of worms. For the past few weeks we've been talking about love. This week we wanted to get the students to really think about the love that God has for them.

They know God loves them. You probably know it too. You've sang the song (Jesus Loves Me), you've read it in the Bible (John 3:16, among others), and you've probably been told a time or two.

But do you really know? Do you really feel God's love? Do you really think God loves you?

In Matthew 7:9-11 we get this great description of a dad. It finishes up, though, by telling us that God is our dad. There is a huge difference though between our dads on earth and God being our dad. You see, God is perfect-in every way.

Thus, the can of worms. Some of the students in our youth group have great dads, others have OK dads, some have crappy dads, and still others don't even have a dad. You also fit into one of those categories. Regardless of which, though, everyone shares this common bond: the dad that they do or don't have is not perfect. He has flaws.

God calls himself our father. A lot of times we refer to him as our father. For some of us though, that's a hard thing to think about because we aren't fond of our earthly dads (or don't have one).

When a child is little they have this ingrained perception that their parents are perfect. Eventually that wears off though, and they realize that their parents have faults (there is a psychological term for this, but I can't remember or find it!).

One of our youth volunteers, Steve, puts it this way:

• "The point is that our Heavenly Father is perfect without flaws and needs to be seen on a different level than our parents. When we are little our parents seem like gods, until we see them make a mistake. But no matter your relationship with your father (or mother) it is very important to keep improving your relationship with God."

That's awesome insight right there!

When a child loves someone (especially a parent) and they see them, their natural reaction is to run to them. I have a good friend who's son will run to him and scream "Daddy!" every day when he gets home from work. He doesn't schedule time for his daddy, he doesn't plan a conversation with him-he runs to him. Why? Because he knows his Daddy loves him and he wants to love him back.

Do you love God like that? Do you know that God loves you like that?

Your daddy is supposed to love you. Whether he does or doesn't or whether you have one or not, your heavenly daddy loves you-seriously loves you.

God's your daddy. Will you run to Him?

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What day will you die?

You don't have any idea. Well, you might think you have an idea, but unless you are on the brink of death as you read this then you're probably wrong.

Really, though-you could die today or maybe tomorrow or maybe not for 80 years. (Check out James 4:13-14. It paints an interesting picture of this!) That being the case, are you living your life like every moment could be your last?

Now I don't ask that to encourage you to go sky diving, buy a new car, or go elope. I ask you so that you'll be encouraged to make God the center of your life right now.

Think about a typical day:

• Is God someone you have to really try to make a part of your day?
• Is God someone who is consistently a part of your day?
• Is God all of your day?
  

In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan portrays God as the main character of the story. Everything that happens in the story is supposed to be geared around this main character (think about a movie). A movie without a main character is a really bad movie. It has no direction.

Whether you like it or not you are in the story-the one God created. Are you recognizing that He's the main character or are you trying to be the main character yourself?

1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us that everything we do is to be for God's glory. Are your actions for God's glory or are they for yours?

If they are for your glory-get over yourself! You are not the main character! You are a supporting role in this story. Your job is to bring glory to the main character-God!

Being a supporting role isn't so bad though. God is a pretty cool main character. He knows His support staff! (Matthew 10:30-31)

Please know this: your story matters. You just aren't the main character in it. God is.

You could be the next person in the world to die. Do you believe that enough to change how you're living?

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Do you love God or believe in Him?

This post is a bit late-sorry!

Two weeks ago at HS youth group we challenged the students with this:

• Do you love God or do you just believe in Him?

I really think those are two totally different things. Anyone can believe in God, just like anyone can believe in Santa Clause. Believing in Santa Clause doesn't take much though. Ask him for some things throughout the year, and then hopefully get those things on Christmas day. Ask God for something things throughout the year, and hopefully get them....right?

That isn't love.
That's believing....hardly.

Loving God means that you stop just asking Him for things and start praying, really praying. That means listening too-not just talking! That means making God your life rather than trying to make God a part of your life. That means seeing God for who He is, not who you want Him to be.

In Ecclesiastes 5 Solomon tells us not to rush into God's presence with words.
In James 1 we're told to be slow to speak and quick to listen.
In Romans 1 we learn how we can see God (through His creation).
In Psalm 19 we're told of how the heaven and earth praise God for who He is.

Do you mimic those 4 passages? I know it is hard for me to. I tend to start my prayers out with words. I like to talk first and listen second (if at all). At times I struggle to awe at God's creation. And I definitely forget to praise Him for who He really is.

You see, when you love God-He comes first.

Good husbands do the dishes.

My wife, Kendahl, and I have always had a rule about dinner: You cook, you clean. There is one problem with this rule though-we tend to only follow it when we're lazy. Meaning, if I don't cook I will generally help out in the kitchen, unless of course I'm too lazy, then I'll pull that rule out of my back pocket. Well, tonight was one of those nights.

First let me say this much-Kendahl made an awesome pork chop and zucchini dinner. So awesome, that I ate too much (thus my laziness). Afterward, we were in the kitchen and Kendahl asked me to do the dishes. That's when I pulled the "You cooked, you clean" card. After some harmless bickering back and forth, she told me to go upstairs and blog about what it means to be a good husband. I saw this as a great opportunity to not do the dishes. So here am I.

What does it mean to be a good husband? I hope you aren't looking for anything awe-inspiring or prolific here. But I do think it is laid out pretty clearly for us in Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:25-27

• ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In my words: husbands, sacrifice for your wife. Sacrifice your pride, your money, your time, and even your life if necessary. When Christ loved the church, He did that.

Husbands, do the dishes-even when your wife cooked.

Convoy of Hope

A lot of people are wanting to help out with Haiti. However, a lot of people have fears that their time, resources, and money will not be used in the right ways. I can understand this fear. When you cannot see, first hand, where your gift(s) are going, it's hard to trust it.

That being said, you should check this out. It's a blog that gives the stories of missionaries, non-for-profits, etc. that already have roots in Haiti and that you can trust.

Kendahl and I decided to pick one of these organizations this weekend and invite some students along to help out in an area that needs it more than we can even understand. After some research we chose Convoy of Hope. You can check them out here.

You can help out with the needs of the Haitian people through Convoy of Hope in two ways. You can either give money, or you can make a hygiene kit that will be used at many of the shelters Convoy of Hope is setting up in the earthquake area. We decided to make some hygiene kits.

Long story short-this is what it looks like when 5 students come together and give of both their time and of their money (their own money)! That's 18 hygiene kits! What's in each kit? 2 hand towels, 2 bars of soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, 2 combs, shampoo, and $3 for shipping. These are going to go a long, long way.

Want to be a part of this? Click here and make one yourself!

Actions Speak Louder than Advertising

Did you know that WalMart sales increased after Hurricane Katrina? You'd think it was because of an increased need for inexpensive stuff, right? Wrong. It was actually found that the more service work WalMart did after the hurricane, the more its sales went up outside of the hurricane area. You see-Walmart's actions served as advertisement. People wanted to go to Walmart because Walmart was doing something good for the community.

Why is it that so many churches miss this? I feel like a lot of churches focus on phonebooks, websites, promo mailers, door hangers, program inserts, and the like in order to spread the word.

Maybe it is time to take a lesson from Walmart (of all people). Lets begin to realize that advertisements don't make any sense-actions do.

What will you do today in order to spread the word. Do you have something to give? (refer to last blogpost) Is there someone near you that has a need you can fulfill? Will you serve someone today?

Don't tell people about Western Oaks, don't tell people about church-BE church.

Actions speak louder than advertisements.

James 2:15:17