A New School Year ...

By Susan Greeves

So here it is school time. Kids going back to private school, public school, charter school, and home school (or for some of us home schoolers it's just getting into a structured routine). I've been impressed upon that people tend to stereotype every avenue of choice there is. I've heard several times that people will say, 'oh your children are so well behaved, they must be home schooled' It boils down to this; it isn't the choice of education that makes the children the way they are; it's being raised in a Christ centered home that makes the difference. I'm going to use this as a springboard for some thing that has been on my mind lately. It's not the actions of the choices you make but what's in your heart of why you made those choices. No matter what area in life you are talking about; nursing-bottle feeding; eating organic-eating the best food your finances can buy; 'regular' birthing opposed to planned c-sections; homeschooling, private schooling, public schooling; EVERYthing has at least two sides to it, and it's only the heart that God is concerned with in the choices that aren't sinful either way(is this glorifying to Him and His kingdom--is Christ's reputation at the center of this thing we are choosing and He is allowing?). He is grieved if we "don't care" and just live life like we don't read the bible and don't measure our choices by what He says. It says in James 1:22" 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says". And He is grieved when we don't show our faith by our actions in matters of choice concerning sin.James 2: 24 "24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." But a lot of things we do in this life, are choices He allows us to do different from one another, and are not sin issues. Choice and His allowance of the follow through or outcome of that choice will glorify and honor God on His terms, not ours. Romans 8:28"28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him" and Ephesians 1:11b "according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will".

This brings me to being a good steward of what He gave us, children, earth, resources, schools of all types, etc etc. Wikipedia defines the biblical world view of stewardship as: "'Utilizing and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of His creation.' The central essence of biblical world view stewardship is managing everything God brings into the believers life in a manner that Honors God and impacts eternity." We need to use this definition as something to measure our choices up against, even the ones that have so many sides to choose from, and none of which are sins. And we aren't all going to choose or be able to choose the same things. We may want to, or not want to, but if God wants us to or doesn't want us to, then it will or won't work out-His outcome, after a heart that wants to glorify Him. We need to be edifying each other, building each other up, encouraging each other to keep Christ at the center, not whatever the choice is (as if it's a better choice than someone else's).

History repeating itself!

By Steve Ranney

Genesis 47:13-26 "Joseph and the Famine"

In olden times when Egypt had a serious famine, everyone ran out of food, so Pharaoh bought up all of the grain and sold it back to the people. When everyone ran out of money, Pharaoh took over their livestock for grain. And when they ran out of livestock, Pharaoh took over their land for food. Eventually the people were fully beholden to Pharaoh.

2010. We are broke. Homes have been forth closed. Health plan has been taken over by the government. Banks, real estate typhoons, the auto industry and others have been taken over by the government. Almost half of the entire population in the USA are being supported by the government by either subsidies of some sort or paying no taxes. Who can retire without the government and social security? Everyone is in bondage to the government, just like Pharaoh.

We only have one God, and that is not the government. Moses lead the Israelites out of bondage from Egypt. Our country was built out of tyranny in England and with Christian values. We cannot allow our county to return to the bad ways of the past.

A Response to a Call to Disciple

By Susan Greeves

Wow, Pastor Dan's sermon was excellent and hit the nail on the head in every way that God has been speaking to me! Challenging me to continue with discipling, not only discipling my children, but having a humble-a teachable spirit to BE discipled continually too.

Wikipedia defines the word disciple as this: "The word disciple is used today as a way of self-identification for those who seek to learn from the teachings of Jesus, such as the Sermon on the Mount." Wikipedia also says that while Jesus had a large number of followers, it was not clear if they were actually disciples (my own paraphrasing). I would agree, just because someone knows about Jesus, doesn't not mean they are actively seeking to learn His ways--the difference in "head" knowledge and "heart" knowledge.

I find that I say that I want my life to be submitted to God to allow Him to transform me, but I find myself taking back that submission over and over again (not necessarily in all areas of my life at once, but different ones at different times). I need to continually become humble-to allow my spirit to be teachable. Praise God that it's my heart that he looks and not my outward actions--it's my continual renewing of seeking His knowledge that He is able to glorify Himself through His transforming power in my life. What a wonderful power His transformation is, without me changing myself on my own power, I look back and see how He has changed me in so few years since accepting His son as my Savior and Lord of my life.

Let me switch gears here for a minute to what I've discovered discipling is not: I've realized that discipling is not telling someone else HOW God should be working in their life or that He will "come through" for them the same way as He did in my life. He works completely different in one life to another. When we disciple another we help them seek Him and His way for their responses to their circumstances in life (allowing Him to glorify Himself through us). We may use our similar experiences to prove God's faithful, but not to say that's how He will work in their life. We have to becareful not to tell someone else how God will work, but to encourage that He IS faithful and will work, if we seek Him wholly. Praise God!

A week in Haiti

By Eric Miller

(to see more pictures check out his blog - www.ericmillerblog.com)

I had the awesome opportunity to spend a week in Haiti from July 29 to August 5th and I can honestly say that it was one of the best weeks I’ve had in a long time. I’m also convinced that for the past 6-8 months, God had been preparing me BIG time for this opportunity. I’d like to tell you a little bit about the story of how I got to Haiti and let the video and the pictures tell the story of the week. I know that’s not usually how these things go, but if you’d like to hear more specifics about the week ... then you’ll have to take me out for coffee :) because I’m convinced that the coolest part of the story is what God did leading up to this week!

(I know this is long, but trust me ... you won’t regret reading it!)

In December of 2009, I had some hard decisions to make. The short version of the story is that I was about to take a significant pay cut at the church due to the economy and I was questioning whether God wanted me in Frederick as the Youth Pastor still. I spent several weeks praying about it and seeking the Lord’s Will the best that I could and by the beginning of the new year I was sure that this is where God wanted me to be ... right here in Frederick. The funny part is that I knew this would be the place where I would have to depend on Him the most and depend on myself the least. Little did I know what he had in store.

In January of 2010, with the pay cut now in effect I knew that I would need to start looking for a part-time job. And I found one working at a local middle school with an after school program. Truth be told, I really wasn’t all that excited about having to do this job just to supplement some of my lost income and was bummed that I was losing hours that I felt I needed to fulfill my role as Youth Pastor at the church. At the beginning my attitude probably wasn’t where it needed to be and I was pretty much just focused on myself. But I knew that this job had some potential because not only would it help me make the money I had lost in my pay cut, but I knew that it could open some doors and give me an opportunity to get to know some more students in the community. So I tried to make the most of it and gave it my best. What I quickly found out was that God was truly at work here. I ended up making $5 a month more than I had before my pay cut (see God does have a sense of humor - now I was “making money.”) But more importantly it was in the relationships that I built where I saw Him working the most. The director of our program was also in full-time ministry as her husband is also a Youth Pastor and I got to work along side Adam Forsberg as well, who was a part of my Youth Staff at the church and would later become my summer intern. Also on our staff at the school was another area Youth Pastor and a guy who lead a college aged Bible Study! If it hadn’t been for this part-time job, I might not have ever met these wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ and partners in the ministry.

In February, God started breaking my heart for some of the students at the school. Adam & I decided that we were going to start praying for them specifically by name and that we would were going to look for opportunities to encourage them if we could in any way. One of the students came on our Winter Retreat with our youth group and one other has since come to our Youth Group and many of the students from the program have started going to the Youth Group of the other Youth Pastor! It was amazing to see God use us as we built relationships with these students. But more than that, it was a wonderful partnership with those who I worked with. SO much so that my director’s husband got in contact with me and presented me with another opportunity. His name is Justin and he told me that he had recently co-authored a book with a good friend of his, Jeremy, and that he was in a band and they would be going on a book tour soon to promote their book. Well they asked if I’d be interested in having them come to our Youth Group to close out their tour. After learning that the band was WILLET and realizing that I had met them a year or so before at a Youth For Christ event that I spoke at (and they lead worship for) I was very excited to have them come. It was awesome getting to know Justin & Jeremy better as we prepared for that night and I learned that they are as passionate as it gets for the Lord and that God was doing amazing things in their lives.

The night that they came to our Youth Group, they presented our students with an opportunity to sponsor orphans in Haiti. We quickly learned that Jeremy’s wife, who is a full-time missionary in Haiti, works directly with many of these orphans and that she was in Haiti when the earthquake hit. I felt strongly that night that God was calling me to do more than just sponsor a child, but at the time I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Our students ended up sponsoring 25-30 orphans for a year and we invited WILLET to come back to our church again a few weeks later to lead worship on a Sunday morning. That Sunday, they gave the same invitation for our church to sponsor some children and another 45-50 were sponsored. It thrilled me to see this partnership with WILLET and our church and to see how God was moving in these two times that they were leading us in worship. So I talked to my former roommate (Matt Johnson) who had heard about WILLET’s matching grant for their book and we decided that we needed to do something else to help them raise some money for Haiti relief efforts. And thus our Dodgeball for Haiti Tournament was born. We were able to raise over $12,000 for disaster relief funds through WILLET and Food for the Hungry and this matching grant. This also gave us another opportunity to present the gospel to students in the community that we wouldn’t normally be able to reach.

Finally, this past spring, my college roommate sends me an email and says that he recently signed up for this one week trip to Haiti and that there’s only a few spots left and I should sign up to go. I truly wanted to go, but my mind quickly went to all the reasons why I wouldn’t be able to ... I had already been gone a lot from work over the summer, where would I come up with the money on such short notice, my passport had expired the summer before and on and on! Well I decided I’d at least ask our Senior Pastor to see what he’d say and he was really excited for me to have the opportunity and said I should go. So in less than 2 months time, I was then able to renew my passport, raise all the money that I needed, got my airfare booked 3 days before I left town and had a summer intern to cover for me at the church!

And while I was in Haiti, God truly renewed my heart for his Word, for His people and for the work that He’s doing in Haiti on a whole new level. It truly was a wonderful week and I cannot wait to help lead a team from Grace Community Church with Matt Johnson back to Haiti sometime in the next year or so (assuming God allows it!)

WOW! And seriously ALL of that happened because I made a hard decision to put my faith and trust in God when humanly speaking it made no sense at all. Praise God for my pay cut and for having to get a part-time job!