September 24, 2007
Contents
1. 180 News
2. Something for Your Heart
3. Surf Report
4. Birthdays
5. Forgettable Fact
6. Potent Quotables
7. Parting Shot
1. 180 NEWS
See You At The Pole
Gather this Wednesday morning around your school flagpole one hour before school starts to pray. Join with your other brothers and sisters to seek God together. Be amazed at what He does!
Gather with us this Wednesday evening for a time of further reflection, celebration and prayer. This will be a combined MS and HS event and there will be no Danger Zone on Thursday evening. If you do not make it in the morning to the flagpole, please don't let that stop you from joining us in the evening.
MS Fall Retreat
Hey MSers this Sunday is the final day to register for our Fall Retreat at Camp Tadmor. The dates of the retreat are October 5-7 and the cost is $80. Talk to anyone who has been with us in the past. They will tell you....you won't want to miss it!
Go here to see pictures from last year.
2. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEART
For many Christians denominations act as fences—barriers that keep them apart from fellow believers. The desire to stay with one’s “kind” is a powerful urge. And taken to its extreme, it can be a damaging urge.
As I see it, denominations are simply groups of people who tend to focus on specific verses in the Bible. Pentecostals tend to focus on passages that deal with the Holy Spirit’s active work in the world today. Baptists tend to focus on passages that urge us to spread the gospel around the world. Methodists tend to focus on passages that call for community involvement. Presbyterians tend to focus on passages that affirm the traditions of the Christian faith. None of those groups is right or wrong; each simply has a different focus in its application of Scripture.
I’m pretty sure that when you die, God isn’t going to quiz you at the pearly gates to make sure you got all the right answers to every issue. He isn’t going to interrogate you on your views concerning predestination, soteriology, and epistemology. All of those issues are important to understand and work through; however, to think that God has a special place in heaven for the person who “figured it all out” and attended the “right” church is to deny the fact that God gave us unique points of view.
Look at Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
It’s quite all right to disagree with a fellow believer about the details of our faith. Just make sure that love supersedes your disagreement. You can still love someone you don’t agree with. You can befriend people who don’t cling to the same theological pillars you hold. Remember: We’re all in this body of Christ together!
I can think of a few truths in Scripture worth going to battle over: the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the fact that salvation is available only through him, the fact that he came to serve, the fact that God made the world. Those are all essentials as far as I’m concerned. I will defend those truths until my last breath.
Other elements of Scripture are less essential to me. For example, I would not go into battle with someone who claimed the streets of heaven are paved with 24-karat instead of 18-karat gold. The argument would not be worth the potential damage it could cause to the body of Christ.
As you continue to work out your salvation (see Philippians 2:12), you need to determine which parts of your faith are worth battling for and which call for an agree-to-disagree stance. Focus on the elements that set Christianity apart from other world religions. Leave the rest for spirited coffee table discussions.
When I get to heaven, I plan to corner Jesus for a few millennia to ask him about things I don’t understand. I want to know how he created the earth. I want to know why he refers to us as “predestined” children. I want to know why he healed some people and not others. I want to uncover the mysteries theologians have debated for centuries.
Until we have those answers from Christ himself, we must not allow debates and conflicting interpretations to divide his body here on earth. Remember that we have the potential—and the responsibility—to help the world understand Jesus’ love through the way we treat each other. Let’s not blow it over issues that have no eternal significance.
**
Taken from “Love This!” by Andy Braner, copyright 2007, Zondervan/Youth Specialties. Used by permission. Order the book here.
3. SURF REPORT
~ 100 Samurai Puzzles
~ 180 Student Ministries
4. BIRTHDAYS
We've got 3 birthdays this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sydney Freyer, Matt Brooks, and Callie Freitag!
5. FORGETTABLE FACT
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan".
6. POTENT QUOTABLES
"The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”
- G.K. Chesterton
===========our|sponsor===========
LOVE THIS!
“Love this!” contains real-life stories of people like you who’ve found ways to love their neighbors. This book will challenge you to make a difference in your world by loving people who are often ignored or unloved—the homeless, the addicted, the elderly, those of different races, even your enemies—and show you tangible ways to demonstrate your love.
Order book here.
Also available in your local Christian bookstore.
=================================
7. PARTING SHOT
Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's a cargo?
1. 180 News
2. Something for Your Heart
3. Surf Report
4. Birthdays
5. Forgettable Fact
6. Potent Quotables
7. Parting Shot
1. 180 NEWS
See You At The Pole
Gather this Wednesday morning around your school flagpole one hour before school starts to pray. Join with your other brothers and sisters to seek God together. Be amazed at what He does!
Gather with us this Wednesday evening for a time of further reflection, celebration and prayer. This will be a combined MS and HS event and there will be no Danger Zone on Thursday evening. If you do not make it in the morning to the flagpole, please don't let that stop you from joining us in the evening.
MS Fall RetreatHey MSers this Sunday is the final day to register for our Fall Retreat at Camp Tadmor. The dates of the retreat are October 5-7 and the cost is $80. Talk to anyone who has been with us in the past. They will tell you....you won't want to miss it!
Go here to see pictures from last year.
2. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEART
For many Christians denominations act as fences—barriers that keep them apart from fellow believers. The desire to stay with one’s “kind” is a powerful urge. And taken to its extreme, it can be a damaging urge.
As I see it, denominations are simply groups of people who tend to focus on specific verses in the Bible. Pentecostals tend to focus on passages that deal with the Holy Spirit’s active work in the world today. Baptists tend to focus on passages that urge us to spread the gospel around the world. Methodists tend to focus on passages that call for community involvement. Presbyterians tend to focus on passages that affirm the traditions of the Christian faith. None of those groups is right or wrong; each simply has a different focus in its application of Scripture.
I’m pretty sure that when you die, God isn’t going to quiz you at the pearly gates to make sure you got all the right answers to every issue. He isn’t going to interrogate you on your views concerning predestination, soteriology, and epistemology. All of those issues are important to understand and work through; however, to think that God has a special place in heaven for the person who “figured it all out” and attended the “right” church is to deny the fact that God gave us unique points of view.
Look at Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
It’s quite all right to disagree with a fellow believer about the details of our faith. Just make sure that love supersedes your disagreement. You can still love someone you don’t agree with. You can befriend people who don’t cling to the same theological pillars you hold. Remember: We’re all in this body of Christ together!
I can think of a few truths in Scripture worth going to battle over: the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the fact that salvation is available only through him, the fact that he came to serve, the fact that God made the world. Those are all essentials as far as I’m concerned. I will defend those truths until my last breath.
Other elements of Scripture are less essential to me. For example, I would not go into battle with someone who claimed the streets of heaven are paved with 24-karat instead of 18-karat gold. The argument would not be worth the potential damage it could cause to the body of Christ.
As you continue to work out your salvation (see Philippians 2:12), you need to determine which parts of your faith are worth battling for and which call for an agree-to-disagree stance. Focus on the elements that set Christianity apart from other world religions. Leave the rest for spirited coffee table discussions.
When I get to heaven, I plan to corner Jesus for a few millennia to ask him about things I don’t understand. I want to know how he created the earth. I want to know why he refers to us as “predestined” children. I want to know why he healed some people and not others. I want to uncover the mysteries theologians have debated for centuries.
Until we have those answers from Christ himself, we must not allow debates and conflicting interpretations to divide his body here on earth. Remember that we have the potential—and the responsibility—to help the world understand Jesus’ love through the way we treat each other. Let’s not blow it over issues that have no eternal significance.
**
Taken from “Love This!” by Andy Braner, copyright 2007, Zondervan/Youth Specialties. Used by permission. Order the book here.
3. SURF REPORT
~ 100 Samurai Puzzles
~ 180 Student Ministries
4. BIRTHDAYS
We've got 3 birthdays this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sydney Freyer, Matt Brooks, and Callie Freitag!
5. FORGETTABLE FACT
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan".
6. POTENT QUOTABLES
"The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”
- G.K. Chesterton
===========our|sponsor===========
LOVE THIS!
“Love this!” contains real-life stories of people like you who’ve found ways to love their neighbors. This book will challenge you to make a difference in your world by loving people who are often ignored or unloved—the homeless, the addicted, the elderly, those of different races, even your enemies—and show you tangible ways to demonstrate your love.
Order book here.
Also available in your local Christian bookstore.
=================================
7. PARTING SHOT
Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's a cargo?
