Treats for Troops

Hey everyone, some of our Campus Life students in the National Honor Society  at George D. Warriner are collecting items to be sent to soldiers serving in Afghanistan.  The following paragraph is from their flier:

“The Warriner NHS is holding a drive to collect items to send to our troops overseas.  Please consider donating some of the items listed below to our drive.  We will also be gladly accepting monetary donations to help cover the cost of shipping.  We will be taking donations until Friday, January 29th.  You may drop off all items at our high school, 721 North 6th Street, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53081.”

You may also drop off items at Campus Life.  The following is a suggested items:

Personal Hygiene
Toothbrushes/toothpaste
Shampoo/soap/body wash
Deodorant
Shaving cream/razors/razor blades
Q Tips
Wet Ones
Kleenex (box of individual pack)
Bath sponges
Hand-held mirrors
Lip care (blistex, Chap Stick)

Entertainment
i-tunes gift card
Magazines
Decks of cards
Puzzles (crosswords, sudoku, word-searches)

Other Items:
Fleece Blankets
Candy (M&M’s, Licorice, Hard candy)
Gum (any kind)
Purex 3 in 1 Laundry

Items not allowed
Battery operated items
Things that make noise
Knives, weaponry
Alcohol

Please note that the unit that will be receiving these items is made up of all male soldiers.  Keep this in mind while choosing items especially when it comes to the personal hygiene items.

APTAT

The last few weeks we have been in a series in Galatians talking about faith and grace verses works.  We’ve been talking about how our salvation is not dependent upon our works, but it is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ his son who died on a cross so that we could have eternal life.  Today I wanted to give you some practical advice on how to try to live the Christian life so that you can say it is “not I but Christ,” it is not by the flesh but by the Spirit that we live.  We’ll use the acronym APTAT as provided by Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN.  Begin your day with this, and follow it when it takes some effort to do the right thing in your life.  The goal is that this way of thinking and feeling will become so much a part of you that you will approach all of life in this way.

“A” -

I acknowledge that apart from Christ I can do nothing of eternal value (John 15:5). I acknowledge with Paul in Romans 7:18, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” I acknowledge that the old “I” which loved to deny this fact was crucified with Christ.

“P” -

I pray. I pray with Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3:12 that Christ would make me abound in love. I pray that grace might reign in my life through righteousness (Romans 5:21). I pray that God would produce in me the obedience he demands (Hebrews 13:21; 2 Thessalonians 1:11).

“T” -

I trust. This is the key because Galatians 3:5 says, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” In other words, the ongoing work of the Spirit to enable us to love as we ought happens only as we trust the promises of God (Galatians 5:6). So by faith I lay hold on a promise like Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” I trust that as I act, it will not be I but the power of Christ in me and me only clinging to him in faith.

“A” -

I act in obedience to God’s Word. But, O, what a world of difference now between such an act and what Paul calls works of law. The acknowledgment that I am helpless, the prayer for divine enablement, the trust that Christ himself is my help and strength—these transform the act so that it is a fruit of the Spirit, not a work of the flesh.

“T” -

Finally, when the deed is done and the day is over, I thank God for whatever good may have come of my life (Colossians 1:3–5). I thank him for conquering, at least in some measure, my selfishness and pride. I give him the glory (1 Peter 4:11).

APTAT: A—Acknowledge your inability to do good on your own. P—Pray for divine enablement. T—Trust the promises of God for help and strength and guidance. A—Act in obedience to God’s Word. T—Thank God for whatever good comes. If you feel that this makes too little of you and too much of God, then I urge you to check your testimony against that of Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” And in Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me.” So we are back to the main point of 3:1–5 stated in 5:5. Through the Spirit (not the flesh), by faith (not works), we wait for the hope of righteousness. Only when that is true can we say, “I am sure that the one who began a good work in me, he (and he alone!) will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

(excerpt from John Piper’s sermon  “Can You Begin By the Spirit and be Completed by the Flesh?”)

Galatians 2:15-21

This past Monday night we started our “Religion Saves” series, which is all about how religion doesn’t save, it is our relationship with Jesus Christ that saves.  We kicked the series off in Galatians 2:15-21.   In the preceding verses we see that Paul (the writer of Galatians) was having a dispute with Peter and Barnabas because the had stopped eating with the Gentile Christians because they were not following Jewish dietary laws.  This was like saying “If you don’t follow these rules, then you are not good enough to be accepted by the church or God.”  Paul reminded Peter and Barnabas that no one is good enough to get to heaven.  We can’t do enough good things to earn salvation and gain entry to heaven.  It is only by the grace of God and the work of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross that we are able to receive His free gift of salvation.

Picture this, God gave the law in the Old Testament as a railroad track to follow in life.  The power of God in His grace served as the locomotive to move us along this track.  Our faith in Him was the coupler that joined our car to God.  What religion tends to do is take that railroad track, set it up on end, lean it against the doors of heaven, and say climb this to get to heaven.  On a railroad track, you can have a railroad tie missing here or there and still be ok to travel that line.  With a ladder every rung is important for safely reaching the top.  When the laws and rules of the Bible are laid out as a railroad track to guide us, we can mess up on some of them and, through the grace of God, still be ok – as long as we have put our hope and faith in Jesus Christ as our savior.  When we have to climb the ladder of the law every rung becomes important as we try to essentially be perfect to gain entrance to heaven.

Here’s the bottom line.  The laws, the rules, the moral standards put forth in the Bible are meant to serve as a guide.  Should we try to live by these standards in every area of our life?  Yes, of course.  But realize that salvation – heaven – does not come through our works, but only through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior (Ephesians 2:8-9) Only then can our screw ups be forgiven, forgotten, and over looked as Christ welcomes us to heaven.

If you have any questions about this or how you can begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, please do not hesitate to ask.  Leave any question or comments you may have and after I review them I’ll get them out there.

7 Aspects of John the Baptist’s Greatness Pt 4

He was an Evangelist

Luke 1:77-78 we see that John was an evangelist; “…to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God.”  John was an evangelist; he loved to see people come to know Christ as their personal savior.  Here’s the bottom line, people belong to Satan or God; they’re either going to hell or heaven, that’s it.   Everyone who has ever lived fits in one of those categories.  Race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic background, and sexual preference that is all secondary. The big issue is two teams: Satan-hell, Jesus-heaven.  Salvation is being saved from hell to heaven, Satan to Jesus, sin to forgiveness, death to life, that’s it.

John knew that people, left to themselves, belong to Satan and are going to hell, but he wants to see people liberated, rescued and become children of God.  So he tells them about salvation.  Here it is:  you and I have sinned against a holy and righteous God; he has come into human history as the man, Jesus Christ, to reconcile men and women to God; he’s lived the life we have not lived, the life without sin; he’s died the death we should have died, the death for sin; he has risen to give the gift we cannot earn, forgiveness of sin.  When we put our faith in Christ that he has done that and he is able to rescue us then we experience salvation.  John never grew tired of saying this and calling people to repentance and salvation in Christ, and so, he is an evangelist.

So let me ask you this: if you’re a Christian, who in your life – family, friend, classmate, coworker, neighbor, enemy – who in your life needs Jesus?  Who should you be praying for?  Not because you have to, but because you get to, because there is still hope for them, they’re still breathing!  One of the greatest joys in my life is seeing people become Christians.   I have seen people rescued from a life of drug/alcohol addiction, cutting, mediocrity, demonic oppression; I have seen them meet Jesus and be set free and it is an awesome and wonderful thing.  But it is not because of me, it is the work of the Holy Spirit and I get to participate and experience that joy!

7 Aspects of John the Baptist’s Greatness Pt 3

He Humbly Prepared the Way for Jesus

John’s whole purpose in life was to prepare the way for Jesus and His ministry.  It was not all about John, – he was the assistant, not the president; he was the fullback, not the tailback – and John loved his role, he loved that it was all about Jesus.  Something that I think we misunderstand is that humility does not mean that we are not willing to be great, humility is being willing to do things God’s way.  If you’re going to be great, then it is going to be on God’s terms.  John understood that and because of that, he went down as the greatest man in all of history.  John’s ministry lasted only 6 months, but in those 6 months he had built up a following of thousands or people.  He was baptizing them, preaching about the need for repentance and about the coming savior.  Later in Luke, when John baptizes Jesus it marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  At this point John tells his followers, this is the One that I was telling you about.  This is the guy that you need to worship and listen to and follow.  Then John is arrested in thrown in jail marking the end of his public ministry.  So are you willing to be humble and let God work in your life His way rather than trying to do it all your way?

Seven Aspects of John’s Greatness Part 2

He was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:15 says that John was filled with “the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”  And Luke 1:66 says that the Lord’s hand was with him, that’s another way of saying that he was filled with the Spirit.  Now this is important.  It is easy as when we do character studies of people in the Bible to look at the good things they did and look at the bad things they did then say “okay, I don’t want to do the bad things and I want to do the good things.  The result is something called moralizing. Anyone can moralize scripture; you don’t even need to be a Christian to moralize scripture.  One of the great errors of Bible teachers is to say “don’t do the bad things, do the good things.”  The way that John the Baptist was able to become the greatest man ever to live in human history wasn’t my moralizing, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.  The thing here isn’t to do what John did, but to be filled with the Spirit like John was.  Through faith in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you enabling you to live under the guidance and power of the Spirit.  Otherwise it is just a list of do’s and don’ts.  If you do well you’re proud of yourself if you don’t do well you are unhappy with yourself and become depressed.   John was filled with the Holy Spirit, that’s how he did it. There is no secret. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. God’s power enables us to be who we cannot be and do what we cannot do because it’s God power.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 3 of the Seven Aspects of John’s Greatness.

Seven Aspects of John’s Greatness part 1

Last night at Ground Zero we talked about John the Baptist.  We talked about how he was the greatest man to ever live in all of human history outside of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is in his own category, God in the flesh, yeah he gets his own category.  But even Jesus said that John was the greatest man ever.  In Luke 7:28 Jesus says “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John.”  So we are going to take the next seven days and look at seven aspects of John’s greatness.

The first aspect that we are going to look at today is that he came from Spirit-filled parents.  In Luke 1:41 it says that “Elizabeth” that’s his mother, “was filled with the Holy Spirit” and in the remainder of this passage she goes on to prophesy over Mary.  In Luke 1:67 it says that “Zechariah,” his father, “was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.”  But what does it mean to be Spirit-filled?

Now when we talk about the Spirit, we are not talking about some impersonal force out there.  We are talking about God.  Jesus says the Spirit is “he” not “it.”  He’s a personal being that could be grieved, quenched, and resisted. The Holy Spirit is God; he is the third member of the Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit- and he loves, glorifies, and honors Jesus.

So what does it mean to be Spirit-filled?  Allow me to use this analogy.  In the book of John, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit being like a wind that is always blowing.  To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we see our lives as a ship with the sail, and we always keep our sail up.  So that that sail could be filled with the Holy Spirit, that his presence and his power would direct our life and our life course.  That he would take us where he wants us to go, that we would become who he wants us to be, that we would do what he wants us to do, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But here’s the problem, the wind is always blowing, but some Christians take down their sails through unrepentant sin, unbelief, believing lies over truth, foolish doctrine, and bad life decisions.  Sometimes those people wonder, “Why is God not active in my life? Why don’t I see his power? Why am I not moving and progressing? God, where are you?” And he would say, “I’m right here, put the sail up, repent, read your Bible, pray, be in community with God’s people, keep your sail up, keep your sail up, and I’ll lead you, and guide you, and empower you, and enable you, and gift you, and encourage you.   I’m perfectly willing to do all that and more, but you’ve not made yourself available to my presence and power.” God wants every Christian to be Spirit-filled. The Holy Spirit is available to every Christian, and repentance, and

faith, and truth, and reading your Bible, and trust, and obedience is the way in which we keep our sail up.

John comes from Spirit-filled parents.  They prophesy over him and the pray over him.  They allow Jesus-God-to direct their lives.  And it is my prayer that all of you would allow yourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  That you would put the sail of the ship of your life up and allow the Spirit to fill it and to give you direction in life.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments leave them below.  Be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon for part two of the seven aspects of John the Baptist’s Greatness.

Luke 1:26-38 part 2

This is part two of the Birth of Jesus Foretold posts.  This one may be considered a bit more of a rant, but it is definitely inspired by this passage as well as the next passage-which Sara-Jean will be talking about this coming Monday night at Ground Zero.  So here’s the deal, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she is going to give birth to the incarnate, God in the flesh.  God is adding to Himself humanity by coming to earth as a person in Jesus Christ.  It tells us in this passage that Mary was betrothed to Joseph which is a fancy way to say that Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married.  At that time a girl could be betrothed at 12 and married by the time she was 13.  Mary was likely 12 to 14 years old when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to give birth to God!  That’s amazing! Mary is essentially a junior high girl from no-where-ville Nazareth and she is going to give birth to God!  Then comes one of my favorite parts about this passage; at the end of their conversation here is how Mary responds: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”  Way to step up to the plate Mary.

One of the things our society has done is to say that there is this time in life when you become a teenager that we don’t expect much out of you.  In fact, we expect you to be resentful, rude, obnoxious, loud, and rebellious.  That’s a load of crap!  Uneducated, junior high aged Mary gave birth to God in the flesh.  I think teenagers today can handle a little more than what society is expecting from them.

So teenagers, I expect great things from you.  I’m done saying “Oh, they’re teenagers; don’t expect them to accomplish anything.”  Why?  Because you are capable of great things.  So here’s the challenge: Read your Bible…regularly.  Not a devotional book, not a blog, not a Christian book, read the Bible.  Take your time, let it sink in, see what great things God is calling you to do and do them.

Christmas Series

This past week at Ground Zero we hit week two of our Christmas series in which we are working through the first chapter and a bit of the second chapter of Luke.  This week we looked at the birth of Jesus foretold to Mary in Luke 1:26-38.  There are so many things that we can learn from this passage, but I would like to focus this post on what we talked about Monday night at Ground Zero.  There are ten things that we can learn about Jesus from this passage.

1. We learn in this section that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scripture.
   Isaiah 7:14 says “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Mary is that virgin! Her son, Jesus, is Immanuel which means “God with us.”  All of scripture is about Jesus and he is the fulfillment of prophecy in scripture.
2. We learn here that Jesus is fully man.
   Jesus was born.  He had a mother who held him and fed him and changed his diaper and blew his nose and taught him to walk and talk.  Jesus was a man who identified with us from the womb through birth and experienced life as we do.
3. Not only was he fully man he was fully God.
   The angel gave him the divine title of “Son of God” which means that he is the same stuff, the same attributes and he is, for all intensive purposes, the same as God.  Jesus took all of his attributes, all of his divinity, and added to it humanity when he became a man.
4. He was fully sovereign.
   Even as a man he still had complete authority to rule and exercise his command.
5. Jesus is king.
   The Davidic Covenant is established in 2 Samuel 7:8-16.  This was a promise that was made that David would be a king, but that through his family line would come the King of kings who would rule and reign over all kings and kingdoms forever.  Jesus came as the fulfillment of this covenant, this promise.  In this first coming he came humbly to proclaim who he was and is and that he would return, but when he returns the next time he will return as the King of kings to establish his throne on this earth.
6. Jesus is eternal.
   The angel said that he would “rule and reign forever” and that he would “have a kingdom with no end.”  Jesus existed before his physical birth and he lives even now after his death and resurrection.  In fact he is eternally existing, meaning that he has no beginning or end.
7. We learn that Jesus is powerful because “nothing is impossible with God.”
   Simply put, God can do anything.  And as we established earlier Jesus and God are one in the same.
8. We learn here that Jesus would be sinless.
   The angel declares that Jesus would be “holy.”  He was in fact sinless, and he is (and will be) the only person in all of humanity that can make that claim.
9. Jesus is our Savior.
   His name literally means “he saves us from our sins.”  We are all sinners.  Not one person can stand before God and say “I’ve lived the perfect life.”  We are all guilty and Jesus is the only one who can be and is our Savior.
10. Jesus is humble.
    He could have come into this world any way that he wanted, but he chose to be born to Mary.  An uneducated, illiterate, poor girl who was likely 13 or 14 years old, from the tiny town of Nazareth.  And here is the great news about that; if he was humble enough to come to Mary, he is humble enough to come to us today and be with us.

New Series Starting Tonight

Well, last week at Ground Zero we wrapped up the series on Ruth.  The big focus of Ruth is how God works through everyday circumstances and decisions to bring blessings into our lives and to redeem us to him.  Tonight we are going to be starting our Christmas series in which we are going to spend the next five weeks working through the first two chapters of Luke.  Tonight we are starting with Luke 1:1-23 where the Birth of John the Baptist is foretold.  Next week we’ll move through Luke 1:26-38 which is where we see the birth of Jesus Christ foretold by an angel to Mary.  The following week Sara-Jean is going to look Luke 1:39-56 where the pregnant mothers of John and Jesus meet.  Then I will be back to walk through Luke 1:57-80, the birth of John the Baptist.  We will wrap up the series the week of Christmas with our Christmas at Ground Zero party and we will spend some time looking at the birth of Jesus Christ as we get ready to celebrate at Christmas on the following Friday.

If you’re in 9th-12th grades then I hope you will join us on Monday nights at Campus Life (6426 S. Business Dr).  Hope to see you there!!