To Save a Life

I went and saw "To Save a Life" today. Can't wait to take the group this Wednesday, January 27th to the 5pm showing at the Promenade for a very special Milkshakes with Mikki. Don't miss it!

For this reason, make every effort...

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if any of you do not have them, you are nearsighted and blind, and you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:3-11

What do you spend of your time and energy working toward? Is it school and trying to get good grades? Is it work and trying to make money? Is it relationships? Sports? (Dare I say) video games?!?! When I look back at the goals or accomplishments that I've focused my efforts on, very few of them actually exist still today. Now, as I try to look toward the future, I'm don't know exactly where I'm going or what I'm doing. I have an idea, but things change. However, when I look to the future, I have a crystal clear picture of the man I want to be. The husband and father I want to be. I know exactly what kind of Christian I want to be. Maybe more so, the Christian I don't want to be.

Simon Peter is telling us in this passage that we are to "make every effort" in developing our character. Often times, we focus on accomplishments and we push our character aside. You can probably think of someone in your life that did this and achieved neither the accomplishment nor character. A perfect example is someone who focuses all their energy in "finding the right person" instead of becoming the right person. Then when they find the right guy or girl, the right guy or girl has no interest in being with them.

Verse 3 tells us that "His divine power (or the Holy Spirit) has given us everything we need for a godly life” and when we participate in the divine nature, we escape "the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." For this reason, make every effort. Because we have the Holy Spirit in us and we have the potential to live a godly life apart from the corruption of the world, make every effort to build your character. If we do, we "will never stumble, and we will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Dear God, am I doing this right?

When you pray, only one of three things will happen: God will either say "yes", "no" or "maybe/later". Do you ever wonder why some people seem to hear nothing but "yes" while others hear nothing but "no"? If you do, you're not the only one to ever think about that. There are many people who try to figure out the exact words, in the right order, in the proper posture at the appropriate time to maximize the efficiency of their prayers. Was prayer meant to be a ritual? Do you ever wish you could just walk up to Jesus and ask Him how to pray?

You're in luck. In Luke chapter 11, we get to learn from Jesus how to pray.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his desciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: " 'Our Father in heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' " Luke 11:1-4

Instead of copying Jesus' prayer, we need to understand what he's saying in his prayer so we can have a powerful prayer life. The first thing that Jesus begins his prayer with is Our Father in heaven. He doesn't start by saying, "Almighty God and creator of the universe" which God is. He says "Our Father". He's talking to someone that he has an intimate relationship with. He's talking to someone that he loves, not just someone he can get something from.

Next Jesus says, holy is your name. Jesus is conceding that God is holy and if we're going to have an intimate relationship with a Holy God, then there are going to be some moral implications. When we go to God in prayer typically, we want him to care about us, but we don't want him to care about our character. To have a powerful prayer life, we need to allow God to invade every aspect of our lives.

Then Jesus switches gears and says your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here Jesus is recognizing that God's kingdom is big and his will is in action. In fact God's story has been a freight train through the history of the world, including now forward. As for us, we're either on that train or we're not. Our lives are either aligned with Him or they're not. Our prayers are either in God's will or they're not. If they are, then we may get a lot of "yes' " from God. But if we hear a lot of "no's", then we need to get back in alignment with Him.

Give us each day our daily bread. We may live very comfortably in our country where we don't have to worry about where we'll sleep tonight or how we'll eat, but Jesus is saying that our dependence needs to remain in God. That being in God's presence is a daily occurrence, not just one day a week (most weeks).

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. This is a reminder that we receive grace from God. We're all sinners deserving of death. God doesn't want us to go to him with a "look how good I'm doing attitude." We're not to look at others like we're smarter, better, or more righteous than anyone. Sin is sin and we're all sinners. But we receive grace from God so that we can have a relationship with Him. That grace came at a price, and we should recognize and remember that by going to God in humility. And when we receive His grace, we should give the same grace away to others.

If you forgive others. If you choose love over bitterness, generosity over greed, servanthood over self-centeredness. If you choose to pray not for what God can do for you but what God can do through you. You will begin to live a life that is powerful. And your prayer life will not only change you, but the world around you. You can live in intimate communication with God. That is Jesus' invitation to you when he taught you how to pray.

AO Student Website

All Out Student Ministries now has it's very own website!!! At aostudentministries.org you can find general information as well as info on sponsors, events, parent resources, messages and media.

Check it out now and sign up for the high school Spiritual Gifts Fall Retreat or the middle school Xtreme Challenge.

When I grow up, I'm gonna be just like my dad...

When you're little, everything you do and say comes from something other than yourself. For example, my 20 month old has a vocabulary of "I'm a mess" from her Gammy, "more please" from her mother, and "boom, boom, boom" from the Black-eyed Peas. (If you're wondering what she got from me, you should see this girl throw).

When I look back on my upbringing, I see that I'm no different. When I was little, I used to see my dad read his bible at the breakfast table, so I would do the same. I was also a policemen a time or two for halloween. I didn't do those things because my dad told me to, I did them because I saw my dad do them and that made me change how I acted.

My friend Jesus has a similar story.

"Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed." John 5:19 &20

Even Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior of the World only does what he sees his father doing. So all that cool stuff that Jesus did on earth... he didn't just make it up. There was a source. John 12:49 & 50 takes it a step further.

"For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

Jesus obviously had a great relationship with his father. He was constantly looking at what his father was doing so he knew what he should do. Because of Jesus, we can have the same relationship with God the Father as he did. We can look to the bible and we can look all around us and see what God is doing. But question is this: does seeing what God does change what you do?

Don't value the gifts more than the Giver.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

Deep down in our hearts, I believe that God created a void. Within all of us there is something missing, there's a whole in our soul that only God can fill. The problem is we try to fill it with all kinds of different things. The "bad" people fill it with alcohol, drugs, sex and rock and roll. But not us. No, we fill it with good things like playing in the band, sports and other productive activities. Baseball: my anti-drug. That's good, right?

Here's the problem. God created people to give him glory. Then he blessed us with everything around us as gifts from Him to us. Then, with our sinful nature, we took these gifts from God and we made them more important than God Himself. We took God out of that place in our heart and replaced Him with something that He gave us. Instead of keeping it external to us, we give it way more meaning than it was intended. Having stuff isn't bad. It's what that stuff means to us that gets us into trouble.

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 16:24-25.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

Whoever loses their life for me will find it. In confusing but spiritual way, I guess that makes sense. But what does that look like?

Way back in the book of Genesis, there was a guy named Abraham. When Abraham was old enough to be a grandfather, God blessed him with a son, Isaac. Abraham loved his only son so much that he became the light of Abraham's life. That sounds sweet, but at the same time, Abraham took God out of the void in his heart and replaced Him with the gift that God had given him, Isaac.

In Chapter 22, God tests Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his only son (sound familiar?) to God as a burnt offering. At that point, Abraham had a choice. He could either keep his son and disobey God, or he could lose his son for God. He chose to sacrifice his son before God stopped him. Abraham allowed God to reclaim his rightful spot in the shrine in his heart and God blessed him for that.

"and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." Genesis 22:18

If you read on, you find out that Jesus came through Abraham's offspring. If Abraham would have chosen differently, the Old Testament would've looked drastically different.

If and when we replace God in our hearts with the gifts He's given us, we too will be tested by God. We'll have two choices and the choice we make will greatly impact our future. Ready?

High School Group time changed for tonight only!!!

For an unknown reason, All Out High School group will meet from 4:00-5:30. See you there.