• if you’re sick
• if you want to be aware of what is going on in the spiritual world around you
• if you have a friend who needs help and support
• if you need to be forgiven
• if you are worried about something but want to trust God
• if you need to confess and “get right” with God - and want to pray powerfully
• if you want to build, or show thankfulness for your fellow Christians
• if you want to help protect your weaker, hurting Christian friends and support them against the evil forces that want to hurt them and mess with their minds
• if you want to have a good perspective on life
• if you want to be an ACTIVE part of the worship in your Church - praising your God
• if you want to do what God wants you to do and you want to make Him happy

Would you like more reasons than that?  Do you want to know more about prayer? If you do, talk to Rudy, Gayle, or your small group leader and we’ll find them together.

these are opportunities to serve others.  these are needs.  these are different kinds of ways - for different kinds of people - to show your faith is real to the world around you.  missions trips to other countries and across the street.  widows and orphans.  the least of these.  do you want to be great in God’s kingdom? .serve. 

You definitely should take the opportunity to recharge after a long year of classes and homework.  Don’t take a break from God.  Don’t skip church to sleep in.  Resist the temptation to live a life less pleasing to God due to having a vacation mindset.  When we have a lot of time on our hands, we need to be more disciplined than normal… obedience is tougher when there is no schedule and plenty of free time, and sin is easier.  Well, maybe it is as easy as normal to sin, but there seem to be more opportunities  :) 

just something to think about…

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 TNIV

So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 _the message

Have you ever heard the story of the Prodigal Son?  If not, CLICK HERE.  If you have… here’s a challenge: a lot of us have probably felt like the prodigal son before, being stupid and wasteful and then running back to God’s waiting arms.  BUT, have you ever considered that we have probably acted like the prodigal’s brother as often as we have acted like the prodigal?  If you remember, the prodigal’s older brother got mad when his father threw a party at the return of his selfish, sexually-immoral brother.  Why did he get mad?  Here’s why: ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

His father (a picture of God) corrected him, and encouraged him at the same time, by replying: ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’

So the challenge is this… when you see someone come back to youth group after being gone for a while, maybe after doing some stupid things, do you rejoice and celebrate - or do you complain and whine and gossip about them?  We will all have our opportunity to be the prodigal son, returning to God from our mistakes and sins.  And I assume we have all been like the older brother at one time.  But, BUT, we also all will have the opportunity to be like the prodigal’s father… welcoming the less-than-perfect (aren’t we all) back into our church home, helping them become healthy again…

rescuing them (and US) from our ordinary lives!  

Poor and underprivelaged people have been around for a long time.  Jesus even says they will always be with us as long as we are in a fallen world.  However, this was not Jesus dismissing the poor and homeless… even though some may say so.  For one, Jesus was homeless.  Even more plain is the amount of care you see Jesus and His disciples showing people who could not help themselves; from the paralyzed to the widows.

 In Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about whether He would only go after the rich and famous, the popular, and the powerful… which we Christians can get caught up in just like everybody else (when was the last time you saw a guest speaker at a Christian conference who was a “nobody” and not some famous name?)  Jesus offers His salvation and His grace to everyone, rich or poor, but “those who have a lot” often don’t feel like they need Jesus.  “Having a lot” could mean you are sucessful in business, are popular at school, have rich parents, or maybe you are just very respected at church.  God spent a lot of time bringing salvation and comfort to the people who didn’t have much, and so should we.  Jesus’ parable above talks about the king (Jesus!) sending his servants (us!) out to go and invite the people on the street corners to a royal feast.  What common person with little in their pockets and less in their stomach would refuse that?!?  Now, the less-fortunate people in this parable fall into lots of categories, not just poor and homeless.  Here are a few to think about:

• Jesus was mainly talking about the Gentiles (non-Jews) - in our day, we would probably think of these people as non-Christians, since we are mostly Gentiles ourselves and we are a part of the Church!
• Jesus was probably also referring to “sinners” - the people with less-than-perfect reputations and obvious sins in their life.

What challenges me about this is a very simple question.  Simple to understand, but not easy to answer:  are we, as Jesus’ servants, going to the people on the corners and in the streets… or are we just hanging around with other servants?  For those who were sitting on their street corner, putting up with another hungry day of being unnoticed, being invited to the feast certainly changed their lives forever.  The parable-story Jesus told is about the hope of Salvation.  For those of us who have been “invited” and enjoy Jesus’ grace and salvation - we have truly been rescued.  How many less-fortunate people do we walk past each day who need to be:

rescued from their ordinary lives?    

As the Mexico team heads home, here’s a last thought on 1 Corinthians 13.  Why is love “greater” than faith and hope?  Here are two suggestions:

1. “faith” and “hope” are future-based.  You hope for something you don’t have yet, and you have faith in a God you can’t see.  But when we are in heaven, face-to-face with the invisible God, we won’t need faith - the object of our faith (the God we believe in) will be there with us!  And we won’t need to hope for anything - all of our Christian hopes will have come true.  Actually, faith and hope are a prt of Christian love (read verse 7).  But love - love will be forever.  From the beginning of time to the end of time… love will be a part of our lives.  Love will be perfect when we get to heaven: no more apologizing to the people (or the God) we love, we’ll finally know perfect love. 
2. God IS love.  God is forever, He is eternal, so love will truly never die.  Love is truly “greater” than faith and hope. 

The people our Mexico team are working for and working with will be a part of our Christian lives forever, just like our Christian friends back home who didn’t go to Mexico.  This is one of the great joys Christians can hold on to.  It is also what should motivate us to tell people who do not know Jesus as Lord the message of the gospel.  If you have more questions about this, contact one of your leaders, Rudy, Gayle, or just comment here!  WELCOME HOME, MEXICO TEAM!

Love never fails.  for some clarification on this passage in 1 Corinthians, let’s put our Big Greek Thinking Caps on for a few minutes (I promise it will be painless).  In fact, to prove that anyone can do the same thing I am doing below because it’s nothing fancy, I put the links to the webpages I used for the research… just click on the words or verses if you are interested.  OK, Let’s take the three words in reverse order:

• Fails - the word “fails” comes from the Greek ekpipto which means “to fall, or to perish.”  Like a leaf or a flower that falls of, dries out, and dies.
• Never - the word “never” comes from the Greek word oudepote and means “not at any time” but it is not talking about frequency, like: how often does love fail?  never, it’s always successful!  No, it is talking about time or duration, like: at what time will love stop- 6pm?  not at any time!  not when Jesus went back to Heaven, not when He comes back, not ever!
• Love - the lord “love” comes from the Greek agape which means.. well, “brotherly love”  :)  It is a perfect and intimate love, like you would have with your best friend, or close relative.  It’s deeper than saying “I love tacos.”

Love Never Fails.  This verse is saying love will never die.  It will never go away.  Ever.  It is NOT talking about the success of love, or how you will always win at whatever you do if you love… no, Paul is telling us to keep our focus on the right thing.  God IS Love… God is eternal, and since God IS love, love will never die or stop.  We will begin to understand love a lot better when we get to heaven and see love face to face - that’s for sure! - but our job is to love NOW.  What are you doing to love those around you?

Love is not easily angered.  As simple as this is… it is NOT easy.  it is simple because we know as Christians and as people called to love others, we should not be angry or quick to lose our temper.  However, it is not EASY to live this way.  it is tough.  Anger is natural, and not a sin.  It’s what you do with the anger.  Don’t believe me?  Click on the sentences below to see some verses from the Bible that talk about anger:

God gets angry, so it CAN’T be a sin just to get angry (God cannot sin)

However, God is slow to get angry and shows patience, even when anger is justified (think how patient God is with you - and me!)

The Bible tells us to be careful and not let our anger steer us into sin (That’s Paul quoting King David in the Psalms)

HERE’S THE CHALLENGE.  will you act on this verse and be slow to anger, or will you just get angry anyway?

Love does not boast, it is not proud.  this verse is all about bragging.  we, as Christians, are not to brag.  now I am sure this isn’t saying we can’t partake in some joking and trash talk with friends while playing basketball or video games.  but when brag about our greatness and mean it, or think of ourselves as superior for some reason… we are not living in love.  How do we deal with the fact that we live in a VERY boastful culture, while our faith stresses humility?  How do we live with the people we live with, play the sports we play, have the talents we have and not become proud or boastful?  Looking for posters here… comments anyone?  Anyone??

“If we give away all we have, while we withhold the heart from God, it will not profit.”