Open Sundays @ 11:00 am
events
rock groups
missions
parents
blog & podcast
contact us
Elizabeth Barry
My Favorite Books
Previous Posts
- It Starts Now!
- What's A Weapon w/out a Target?
- If You Don't Use It We All Lose It
- Sow Some!
- Smells Like Sewage
- Take the First Step
- A Sure Foundation
- Free At Last, Free At Last
- Fail!
- You're the Best!
Archives
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- November 2010
- December 2010
- January 2011
- April 2011
- May 2011
- July 2011
- August 2011
- January 2012
- February 2012
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Skylar's Blog & Podcast
Dead
Death to probably all of us is considered a bad thing. No one likes dying, not too many people want to die, so it's safe to assume if someone says they're going to die you're not going to be super excited and want to throw a pre-passing away party. On the other hand, death is a good thing. If you have ever watched Rob Bell's nooma video Tomato then you might have an idea where this is going, but in fact death is actually needed in a lot of cases for their to be life. One perfect example is in the plant world. A plant springs up, grows, and turns into a beautiful flower, cabbage, or (insert random vegetable here). However, after it reaches it's peak of life it begins to die, but before it dies it does something...can you think what it is? It releases seed. Now if this process never happened and if plants never died then there would be no new plants. It is only through death that life can occur. This puts Paul's teachings in 2 Corinthians in a whole new light! In his letter Paul says:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Cor. 5:17
And this isn't the only time the Bible talks about our death bringing new life. How about Romans 6:1-4, Ephesians 2:1-5, Colossians 2:13, etc. Isn't it weird how important death is. Paul, Peter, and the rest of the Bible are clear: it is only after we die that we can truly live. We have to die to ourselves...to our focus on what we think we want, our selfishness, our anger, our lust, our greed, we have to die to the idea that we have rights and things we deserve from God. We must let go of all of those things that distract us from our true purpose: to glorify God. If we do not die to ourselves and make Jesus our One Thing (remember...this last Sunday...City Slickers) our lives will be miserable, unfulfilled, and chaotic. Today, think about one way you can die to yourself. Whether that's talking to that person who annoys you, or sitting next to that guy who know one likes, or letting know your parents how much they mean to you and offering to help around the house in some way. Let's truly live today!
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!!!
For those of you who weren't around for the fifties or you haven't seen Newsies yet the title of the blog is what paperboys would scream out while selling their newspaper on street corners. Now, I don't know how many of you are into watching the news or reading newspapers. I'm sure there are a few of you who really enjoy being up to date on what's going on, some of you care more about the soap scum in your bathtub, and the rest of you are in between; but even if you have never watched a news program or read a newspaper in your life you still receive news of some sort. What do I mean? Here are some pieces of news you've probably received over the last few weeks, months, or years: your grades from school, Obama is president (for those of you who didn't know that...well there is no hope for you), gas prices have gone down (HALLELUJIAH), I am your youth pastor, people are still doing steroids in baseball (shocker), Fall Out Boy has a new CD, the Dark Knight got jipped at the Academy Awards (ok maybe that's a personal opinion), etc. You also have received news from your friends(both good and bad, regarding their life and events going on in your circle of buddies) and parents (again, both good and bad). We are always receiving news from some source. Now, here's where you have to think. How would you answer if you had to guesstimate what percentage of the news you received was good news and what percentage of it was bad. Is it 50% good news 50% bad news? Is it 10% good news 90% bad news? Is it 100% good news? If your answer was the last one then you are way too optimistic...jk!!! I can safely say around 30% of the news I receive is good and 70% is bad. On Sunday we're going to talk about good news...THE good news. So, I want you all to think about your guesstimation and on top of that I want you to think about some good news and bad news you've heard in the last month. We're going to talk about all of these things so come prepared!!! I'll see you soon.