The Golden Boy & The Prodigal

By Matt Johnson

On my way into work this morning I heard this song by Jason Gray.  It really hit me hard. 

Do you have two personalities?  One that you hate and the one you want to be?  I know I do. 

Listen to the video or read the words.

In particular listen to the last verse of the song.  Jesus didn't come to earth to die for your made up self or fake self.  He came to die for the broken.  He came to die for the person you hate - the one we wish we weren't.  He came to die so we no longer had to pretend to be something we aren't. 

The Golden Boy & The Prodigal
By Jason Gray



There are two sides to every person
Like the two sides of a dime
Heads or tails it depends upon
Who's watching at the time
Though I hate to say it
Mine is no exception
One part is the prodigal
The other part: deception

Like the prince and the pauper
Like Jacob and his brother
Each hide a different heart
Each a shadow of the other
Me and my doppelganger
Both share the same blood
One I have hated
The other have I loved

One of them's the Golden Boy
The man I'd like to be I show him off in the parades
For all the world to see
The other is much weaker
He stumbles all the time
The source of my embarrassment
He's the one I try to hide

The Golden boy is made of straw
His finest suit will surely burn
His vice is the virtue
That he never had to earn
The prodigal's been broken
And emptied at the wishing well
But he's stronger for the breaking
With a story to tell

I'm not easy with confessions
It's hard to tell the truth
But I have favored the golden boy
While the other I've abused
And he takes it like a man
Though he's longing like a child
To be loved and forgiven
And share the burden for awhile

So take a good look in the mirror
Tell me who you see
The one who Jesus died for
Or the one you'd rather be
Can you find it in your heart
To show mercy to the one
The Father loved so much
That he gave his only son...

Colossians 3:17

By Pastor Eric

We’ve been studying Colossians chapter 3 for well over a month now and every time I read this chapter I keep getting caught up in verse 17. It says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” I can’t stop thinking about this verse. I can’t stop thinking about the implications of it; IF I truly lived this out like I know that I should. What if, every single day, the very first thing on my mind was this verse and I made it my personal mantra that day – every single thing I do and say will be for Jesus. And if it doesn’t qualify as something that I should say, then I don’t say it. If I have a choice of something to do and I ask myself, “can this be done in the name of Christ?” then I go for it. And what if every single one of us lived this out every day. Wouldn’t that absolutely allow us to live up to the statement that Jesus makes to his disciples in John 13:35 where he says, “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I would love nothing more than for the body of Christ to be know as people who are “loving, kind, sincere, authentic, passionate, gentle, joyful, patient, faithful and honest” (to name a few) rather than so commonly spoken of as “no different than anyone else, prideful, fake, discouraged, selfish, lying and exclusive.”

How has your day been filled with words and deeds in the name of Christ? Have your actions reflected Christ’s love to everyone around you? If so then let’s give thanks to God the Father. And if not, then what changes need to be made so that “all men will know we are his disciples”?

Dodging Myself

By Matt Johnson

Time for a confession. I am really bad at trusting in God. While he has proven Himself faithful over and over again to me, I don’t really trust him with anything. I always think that I must do something first in order for God to do His work. Once I get things in order, then God will be able to work his “magic.”

The latest example of my lack of faith was with the Dodgeball for Haiti tournament. God did some amazing things with the dodgeball tournament – I just had to get out of the way.

As many of you know, back on May 1st, Grace Community Church put together a high school dodgeball tournament to raise money for Haiti.

The idea for a dodgeball tournament came about after the Band WILLET performed at youth group. During their performance, they talked about the work their organization was doing in Haiti (www.willetmissions.org).

Pastor R came up to me the next Sunday and handed me the business card of Jeremy Willet (the lead singer). He said something like, “see if you can find some way for our church to help support their mission.”

Eric Miller and I got together one evening in late March to discuss how we could help raise money for Haiti. We decided a dodgeball tournament would be the way to go. Kids love dodgeball, and we could reach out to the schools to make this event much larger than Grace Community Church. We figured we would end up having more than 200 kids participate in the tournament.

God proved himself faithful throughout the process of planning the tournament. We were able to reserve space at Middletown High School. We had an awesome team of volunteers step forward to help put together the tournament. Businesses donated money and prizes for the tournament.

Everything was going great except for one part….no kids were signing up!

We promoted this tournament like crazy! We sent messages to every youth group in Frederick. Eric talked about it at youth group every Wednesday night. We sent messages to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) leaders of every high school in the area. We created a Facebook page. We created a website. We contacted all of the local newspapers and radio stations. We did everything we possibly could to get students to sign up for the tournament.

Yet four days before the tournament, we had 6 kids (1 team) signed up to play!

I was seriously stressed out (and depressed) about the tournament. I made a few phone calls and was considering calling it off. I kept saying to myself – “God, I’ve done my part, now it’s your turn to step up and do your part.”

It was at this time that I realized I had been trying to put together this tournament without God’s help. I never stopped to pray about the tournament. I never asked God for wisdom. Many others had been praying for this tournament, but I had not been.

Four days out from the tournament, I finally gave it over to Him. I tried to do it on my own and failed miserably. I began to pray that I would get out of His way and that He would work to make this tournament happen.

The next day (three days before the tournament) kids started to sign up. Slowly, I started to receive e-mails from kids staying they were going to play. The day before the tournament we figured we had about 60 kids sign up to play. I was ecstatic. We went from 6 kids to 60 almost over night!

But God had more in store….on the day of the tournament more kids showed up. We ended up having more than 80 kids come out to play.

The tournament was a huge success. The kids had a great time. One kid came up to me after the tournament and said, “When are you going to do this again? This was seriously the most fun I’ve had in years!”

At the end of the day, we raised $12,614 for Haiti relief efforts and more than 80 kids heard the Gospel. God’s hand was on the tournament – I just had to get my hands out of it.

How has God demonstrated his faithfulness to you?  Do you ever need to get out of the way?
______________

Here is a recap video of the tournament.  Enjoy!

Summer Intern - Adam Forsberg

Hello, my name is Adam Forsberg, and I am the Youth Intern for this summer. I’m really excited to be working with the youth group, and to see God work in the lives of the teens. I graduated from Walkersville High School in 2008, and went to Word of Life Bible Institute in New York for a year. After studying the Bible for a year, I took classes at Frederick Community College this past year, and will be attending Liberty University in the fall. I plan to major in communications and minor in youth ministry. My favorite book of the Bible is Philippians. I love how Paul teaches us that we can have joy in any situation because of our salvation from Christ. God has been using Philippians to teach me a lot in the past few months, showing me that my focus in life needs to be completely on Jesus.

This summer I will be working with the student leaders, helping them plan out lessons and games for Wednesday nights, and discipling guys in the youth group. Discipleship is definitely a passion of mine, so I am really looking forward to pouring my life into these guys this summer. I will also be planning outreaches for the Wavorly community, and encouraging the teens to work in this ministry as well. I honestly believe that God is going to do huge things this summer in our youth group, and all throughout Frederick County. I’d like to ask for prayer from the Church Body as I’m working in this ministry this summer. Here are a few ways that you can be praying for me:

*Humility - that this summer would not be about me at all

*Wisdom - when meeting with students

*Opportunities - for the students in the youth group and myself to share Christ with unsaved people

*For the youth group to truly be a lighthouse to the community

*That everyday I would be amazed by what Jesus has done for me and that my Christian life would never become so routine that I forget about the wonder of the Cross

I want to thank the church for giving me this opportunity to serve. I’m really looking forward to this summer and for the big things that God has in store for this youth ministry.