Prayer...A first response or last resort?

I was watching the news the other night and all the news station were covering the story on Cardinal George's health problems with bladder cancer. One thing mentioned consistently was that people were praying for Cardinal George. However, a few comments or responses really drew my attention as parishioners talked about praying for the Cardinal.

One individual said, "All we can do is pray", while another said they were "grateful our prayers are working". As I started thinking about these comments, I was thinking about what prayer is.

By saying, "All we cand do is pray", it almost sounded like prayer was a last resort. We can't do anything else, so I guess we can pray. But for the believer, prayer (dependence upon God) is to be a way of life. Prayer should be our first response when times are tough and when times are great. It is a privilege that we have to converse with God, to cast our cares upon Him; every care.

The comment concerning being grateful our prayers are working made me think that individuals sometimes think our prayers don't work. Are we trying real hard to convince God to take our side. Prayer is depending upon God. When we depend on God, our attitude should be that God's will is best. God does not always answer our prayers the way we want, but He always answers our prayers. (yes, no, wait). I don't really think of our prayers as working or not working. Our prayers don't tell God anything new. We have the opportunity to depend on God in all aspects of our lives, and we rejoice whether our prayers are answered they way we wanted or not. We realize that we are depending upon God who is far wiser and greater than we are. He is in control of all things.

I don't say these things to bash people praying for Cardinal George. I say these things because I really think people don't even understand what prayer is. Prayer is a privilege for the believer. An access that the child of God has before his/her Father. I guess when I hear comments like these, I wonder if those folks even have a relationship with the Father and if they even have access to the Throne of Grace.

Praise the Lord for prayer!

Denying Self through the Cross...

The last two Wednesday nights we have focused on Self Denial and The Cross.

As we looked at self denial, we saw that man tries many ways to deny self or overcome the sin nature. Some try to get out of the world, but the problem is that the sin nature goes everywhere with us. It dwells within. (It is also interesting that we are told to be a light in the world to others which is kind of hard to do when you are hiding from the world). Others try real hard to take care of self themselves. But self never casts out self. Others try to always be involved in church activities and church education to overcome self. While being involved in these things is not bad...these things will not overcome the sin nature. We cannot make the sin nature better. It is as bad as it can be and does not get better.

What we really need to know and be taught is that the sin nature has already been defeated. The victory came at the cross. The old sin nature was crucified with Christ so that it would no longer have power over us. The power of the sin nature has been rendered inoperative in the life of the believer. While man tries many ways to overcome self, God has but one way...the cross.

We often think of the cross as the means for salvation, and it is. Praise the Lord, we have a relationship with God and the assurance of eternal life because Christ has provided salvation for us by His death on the cross. We must simply believe (faith). But our sanctification was also provided for us at the cross. When we realize that our old self was crucified with Christ and by faith count this as true in our lives, we realize that not only were we freed from the penalty of sin at the cross, but also freed from the power of sin. Sin no longer is our master; sin no longer controls me. But just as we believe by faith that our salvation is provided at the cross, we must believe by faith that our sanctification was provided as well. Colossians 2:6 , "so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him" We received Christ by faith and we should live by faith.

Oh the freedom we will have when we rest in the victory of the Cross not only for our salvation, but also for our sanctification.

The Amazing Race...

Last Saturday, July 22nd, we had the CBC Amazing Race for the Sr. Highers. The concept was taken from the CBS television show Amazing Race where teams travel all over the world racing against each other as they participate in different challenges. Obviously we did not have the time or money to travel all over the world, but we did travel all over Aurora.

We had two teams of four. Team 1 was made up of Brad, Jakob, Melinda, and Annie. Team 2 was made up of Jess, Jess, Rick, and Alyson. These two teams participated in 11 different challenges and different people's homes from CBC. Each team had a driver and videotaper. Team 1 was driven by Mrs. Arnold and taped by David. Team 2 was driven by Mrs. Mulligan and taped by Ryan. Each team was given an envelope with instructions in it about the event, and when they had finished the event they were given another envelope with further instructions and usually a map to the next place.

Do you want to know what they did? All right here are the details:

1. We started at the church. The first challenge involved solving a giant word search puzzle. One player found the words and circled them. The other 3 players could help but had to stand behind a line in their help. The focus of the word search puzzle was the attributes of God.

2. The next challenge involved driving to the Wick's home where 1 team member was blindfolded and had to reach into a bag with 30 balloons. Each balloon had a message written on it, but most just conveyed the idea that they had to keep going. They were looking for the balloon with the word "Congratulations" on it. The other team members stood at a distance and when the balloon was blown up by the blindfolded team member, they could read the message. There was also "Delay" written on one of the balloons, and team 2 found it. A delay meant that the team had to stop for 5 minutes and wait before continuing the challenge and race.

3. From the Wick's home, the teams went just around the corner to Linda Weddle's home. Here they were given gloves, a shovel, and a trowel with the instructions to fill a box with weeds. When the box was filled to Mrs. Weddle's satisfaction, the kids received their next clue.

4. The clue told them to go to the Scarbrough's house in North Aurora. At this stop 1 team member had to take a Bible quiz of 25 multiple choice questions. What the kids did not know was that the first test they were given was not the real test. The instructions said to read all the questions before beginning. Question #23 told them this was not the real test (I have actually had this trick done to me when I was in school). But both teams did not realize this until they got to question #23. Then they got the real Bible quiz. The other team members could be told the question by the one person taking the test, but they couldn't be told the answer choices. Every question on the test had to be answered correctly, and if there were questions wrong, the host could tell them how many they missed but not which ones they missed. This made this challenge last a pretty good amount of time. By the way, at the end of this challenge, Team 1 was in the lead by a few minutes.

5. The next challenge involved the kids going to a local store parking lot and rounding up grocery carts. Each team had to round up 20 carts at one location. The carts had to be taken to one central cart hub that the team chose. And as the kids deposited the carts, they had to say "Yee Haw" or "Get along little doggie". Once the 20 carts were "rounded up" the team's driver gave them their next clue.

6. The teams now had to go to the Anderson's home. Here they were given 3 20oz. beverages. One was water, one was Sprite, and one was Coke. Three team members had to be chosen for this event, one for each beverage. The beverages had to be drunk completely. When the first team member completely finished his/her drink, the next team member started. When that team member finished, the final team member started. When that team member finished, he/she had to burp and say "Thank you very much". They then received their next clue.

7. The next two challenges took place at the DeVries home in Oswego. One team member was chosen to build a banana split with all the ingredients given. All ingredients had to be used entirely. The banana split would be judged by the DeVries and the winner of the best looking ice cream treat would be rewarded with 3 minutes off their time. Once they were finished constructing the banana split, the teams were given their next clue. The next clue told the teams to eat the banana split as a team. Everyone had to have at least a little bite. The funny thing was that Team 1 left the DeVries home and got in their van before opening their clue. So they then had to get back out and come back inside losing a few minutes. Team 1 still was in the lead, but only by a minute or two.

8. The next challenge involved going to our (Bonner's) house and having 1 team member search through empty boxes (still left from the move last August) looking for the next clue. When the next clue was found, it gave instructions about the next place to go. However, scattered with the clues were envelopes that had a "Delay" in them. And team 2 got this delay as well. Team 1 was now further ahead.

9. The next challenge involved going to Warren and Kris Scharbert's home. However, this was just the beginning of this challenge. At their home, they left a little red box with streamers that contained the next clue. Warren and Kris were awaiting the kids elsewhere. The clue at the park told them to walk or run to Lincoln Park, just a couple of blocks away and look for familiar faces and the sound of thumping. There was also a bonus opportunity - the kids were to bring six balloons with them (these were attached to the outside stairs at the Scharbert's home). Once the kids got to the park they were given their next challenge. This challenge involved them shooting a free throw with a basketball. Sounds easy? Maybe, except two team members had to do it together with a hand from each team member on the ball at the same time while shooting. The teams were required to make 3 free throws with a different combination of shooters, but only 2 if they brought the balloons. (Both teams came bearing balloons). When this was completed, they received their next clue. It told them to walk or run from Lincoln Park to the church (about 6-7 blocks away). Team 1 was still in the lead by a few minutes.

10. Once at the church, I was awaiting them with their final challenge. Letters were hidden all over the church. These letters when unscrambled spelled out a phrase. The team had to find all the letters and then unscramble the letters. When the puzzle was solved they would be finished with the race. The answer to the puzzle was "Congratulations you finished the race". Each word's letters were a different color to give the teams a little bit of a hint. However, the letters were hidden all over the church and some were hard to find (like the one taped under the toilet seat lid). While Team 1 came in with the lead and the 3 minute bonus for the best banana split, Team 2 was able to come back and find all the letters first to win the race.

Overall, it was a great race. It also took 4 hours to complete. And the kids were worn out at the end. Who knows, this may be the first of many races to come. We'll have to wait and see. Congratulations to both teams for a race well run!

Wednesday Night Bible Study, Part 2...

Well I know everyone is just sitting by the computer with baited breath just waiting for Part 2. So since you are so anxious, I'll continue with our Wednesday Night Bible Study. This time we'll focus on what we talked about in chapters 8-10.

Chapter 8 was entitled, "Identification". Our identification with Christ speaks of our union or joining with Him. The focus of this chapter dealt with the believer not only understanding that Christ died for our sin, but that we died with Christ. As we begin to understand this principle and that this is our position in Christ, we will begin to understand the fact that the old sin nature no longer has control or power over us. Romans 6:11 tells us to count it as true that we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The position is ours as soon as we trust Christ as our Savior. The question is, are we counting it to be true?

Miles Stanford quotes James McConkey, "Because He died 'death hath no more dominion over Him.' and because of our union with Him 'sin shall not have dominion over you,' even though it is present in you. Our 'reckoning' ourselves dead to sin in Jesus Christ does not make it a fact-it is laready a fact through our union with Him. Our reckoning it to be true only makes us begin to realize the fact in experience."

Chapter 9 was entitled "Consecration". Consecration involves a dedication or devotion. Many times we hear of people dedicating or devoting their lives to the Lord. While this desire is not bad, many times believers proceed to consecrate themselves to God based on a wrong basis or motivation. The motivation is often that we will dedicate our lives to God because of all God did for us or because we love Him so much. While gratitude and love are certainly great to have, these things will not produce the power needed by the Christian to live a consecrated life. Our lives are to be consecrated to God because we recognize and see Him as our very life. And it is not the Christian trying real hard in the strength of his/her flesh to produce Christ's life in us, but rather the Christian resting in and yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. If our dependence is upon God and we are continually making the conscious decision to yield to the Holy Spirit, the a consecrated life will naturally be produced in our lives. The old self life cannot be consecrated to God, because even for the believer the old self life still holds nothing good.

Chapter 10 was entitled "Self". This chapter deals with a very important key in the Christian life: understanding self for what it is - worthless. The self life is who we were before Christ and involves the old sin nature. Now as Christians, we have a new nature and an old nature. The old nature has been rendered inoperative by our union in death with Christ. However, the old sin nature has not been eradicated from the life of the believer. And because God has given us free will, we can choose to depend upon self and allow the sin nature to have power in our lives. So we must come to see that in myself dwells no good thing as Paul reminds us in Romans 7. We must see that depending upon self will not produce anything that brings glory to God. Sure we can do a lot of good things through the power of self, but we will not be glorifying God by doing these things if it is in the power of self. God may receive glory in spite of our wrong dependence, but we will not be glorifying Him through our actions. Often for the believer, it takes time and going through the struggle experientially for the believer to begin seeing self for what it is. Life springs out of death. Stanford closes the chapter with a rather thought provoking and pertinent quote: "there are many 'separated from the world' Christians who are not 'separated from themselves' Christians."

So that brings you up to date on the Wednesday night Bible Study. Tonight we will look at Self Denial. And I hope to be able to keep you updated here on the CBC Youth Blog about our studies on a more consistent basis. Hope to see you tonight!!

Wednesday Night Bible Study, Part 1...

Well, I have been meaning to make a few posts regarding what we have been studying on Wednesday nights, but have failed to do so lately. And since the last post concerned chapter 4 of Miles Stanford's The Complete Green Letters, and now we are on chapter 11, I thought I might should get on it.

So I just want to give a brief synopsis of the chapters we have covered up to ch. 11 that we will be looking at tomorrow night. Today I'll focus on chapters 5-7 and tomorrow on 8-10. I really feel like we have covered a lot of ground over these past 6 weeks.

Chapter 5 was entitled "Preparation". In this chapter we focused on the principle that God uses need to bring conformity to the image of Christ (our purpose). Many times this need involves a struggle, involves hardship to get us to the point that we see we must be depending upon God and have the attitude, "Not I, but Christ." One of the greatest struggles involves us understanding the total inadequacy of self, and the total adequacy of Christ.

Chapter 6 was entitled "Complete in Him". Obviously the Him is Jesus Christ. We as believers are complete in Jesus Christ right now! Complete means that nothing can be added. Growth in the Christian life is not about adding anything by our production, but it involves understanding and receiving what God has already given us (like every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus - Ephesians 1:3). And then by depending upon Christ in us, we apply what we have so that Christ's life is seen through our life.

Chapter 7 was entitled "Appropriation". Appropriation simply means application; to take for one's own use; to put into practice. In order to apply, we must "see what is ours in Christ, be aware of our need for it, and then give God the necessary time to work the appropriation into our everday walk." We see what is ours by studying God's Word. Practical life as a believer will make us aware of our need for what is ours in Christ. Again, many times struggle will be involved, and it takes time for us to get from the point of seeing our need to apply what is ours in Christ to the point where we are naturally resting in what is ours in Christ so that the application of God's Word is what characterizes our lives. Application of God's Word demands us to go beyond admiring God's Word and what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ, and get to the point where we are standing on our position in Christ. Stand on the truths of God's Word in faith.

I'll try to look at chapters 8-10 tomorrow.

Taming the Bull...

Our Great America Trip was great. We left the church about 8:30 a.m. and made it to the park right when it opened around 10:00 a.m. And from the get go we were off and running...after we put on our sun screen that is.

First we headed to Superman where we promptly stood in line for about 40 minutes before spending one and a half minutes on the ride. But it was worth it. On Superman, they start you seated (see pciture to left) and then when the ride starts the seats pull up so that you are riding the roller coaster like you would by flying. Pretty cool.

Although the wait was long, the neat thing is that while you are standing in line you actually stand underneath the ride. So you get to watch many people go before you even get there. And you are somewhat prepared and know what to expect. And they have the walk covered when you are going to be directly under the ride...I guess so if someone is throwing up it won't get on you.

From Superman, we took off to the Batman roller coaster. And that one shakes you up pretty good. You're feeling nice and dizzy when you get off.

A special note needs to be mentioned here. As you see in the above picture, the only people who did not ride any roller coasters were Melinda and Alison. Trust me, we tried to use peer pressure to get them to ride, but they weren't having it. And that was fine. They stood in line with us the whole way up and talked with us and people watched. But when it was time to get on the roller coaster, they headed to the other side and held everyone's stuff while we rode the coasters. So I thought it would be nice for you to see what they did most of the time. They did ride on the teacups and the family innertube ride where you get wet. And then they spent a couple of hours at Hurrican Harbor on the lazy river and in the wave pool. I'm just glad they had fun.

Now back to the roller coasters. After Batman, I can't remember where we headed. But we rode the Iron Wolf, the Eagle, the Viper, and then the Raging Bull. Now some people (Jess) were afraid at first to ride the Raging Bull. It has a ginormous drop and there are no harnesses just things around your waist, so you feel like your coming out of your seat on the way down. However, its good to know peer pressure still works on some people (at least concerning roller coasters). So we talked Jess into going with the rest of us (Steve, Ruth, me, Jakob, Andrew, and Heidi). And of course she loved it like the rest of us. (The picture to the left is of us getting ready to tame the bull.)

The Raging Bull to me was the best ride in the park. It was really cool and a really smooth ride. Plus we saw where the camera (the one that takes your picture while your riding the roller coaster) was stationed and we posed everytime we came to it and then got to see our pictures after we got off the ride.

In fact the Raging Bull was so great that we rode it three times and so we really tamed the bull. Some of us also rode the freefall, which is a giant drop straight down. It takes you higher than any roller coaster in the park. And you sit up there for about 3 seconds just waiting and it drops you straight down. You get down in about 4 seconds. It was awesome. Second best ride in my book.

And we did other stuff like the Whizzer, and the teacups, and the boats roller coaster, and the family innertubes, and the swings, and just about every ride in the park. Overall it was a fun day but very tiring. Can't wait until next year though.

Great America

Hey Sr. Highers, don't forget about the Great America trip on Saturday!

We will be meeting at CBC at 8:30 a.m. and leaving shortly thereafter to head to Great America. We will spend the whole day there riding rollercoasters or hanging out at Hurricane Harbor (the water park).

We will head to our vehicles in the parking lot for a quick lunch. The lunch will be provided for you and is free to you. And then back into the park for a whole afternoon of more fun.

We will probably leave around 7 p.m. from the park, stop for a fast food dinner on the way home and plan to be back at CBC by 9 p.m. for pick up.

Don't forget that the cost is $20/person for admission and you also need to bring money for your fast food dinner (and any other money you may be planning to spend there). You will also need to make sure I have your medical release form so you can go.

And it probably would be a good idea to wear a little sunscreen and bring some swimwear and a towel if you are planning to go to the water park. And don't forget your cameras.

See you Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The day should be a blast!

Soaked...

So we had a great time at the Jr. High Swim Party. We swam and swam and swam and then we ate and ate and then we swam some more (after of course waiting twenty minutes to let our food settle).

There were chicken fights amongst the ladies, many different jumping and form contests, a little Marco Polo, and some breath holding contests. And overall we had a really good time hanging out and splashing around.

One thing I was not expecting, however, was getting pelted with water balloons. Now the water does not really scare you because you are already wet and wearing swim gear. (Although when the water balloons first appeared I had been out eating and dried off a bit).

You see the water balloon thing started a couple of weeks ago at VBS. Mr. Rios had a game to play similar to throwing eggs back and forth and backing up a step each time. Only he used water balloons. Then when we got done and were about to have a snack, a few water balloons were thrown at me (as I remember it) but we put an end to it quickly and no damage was done. However, what the girls who threw these at me didn't know was that I had put one in my pocket. So as soon as they got their snacks and sat down together, I ran up and threw it hard on the floor in front of them so it would pop and spray them with water. And of course that insighted chaos and I got pelted with a few more balloons but most did not pop.

So that brings us back to our swim party, where the balloons made another appearance. However, these balloons were not filled to maximum capacity, so most just bounced right off. But I would have rather them hit me and popped then bounced off because they hurt when they hit me. So for the most part I was outnumbered and abused by Jr. High girls who pelted me with water balloons that wouldn't pop. Just take a look at the picture. See how innocent I am. Ok, maybe I threw a few also.

But overall we had a good time. Thanks to all who came and thanks to Tom and Ruth Schmidt for making their home and pool available to us and for cooking us a great dinner.

Summer Missions...

We have a few missions opportunities taking place this summer that our youth are involved in.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we have some of our girls involved in CEF Backyard Bible Clubs. In addition to this group, we will have a big group from CBC going to Utah at the end of July to help with some practical needs of Ron Thompson's ministry. A few of our youth will be going on this trip.

We also have two individuals going on missions trips. Samantha Seven, who graduated last year, just returned from Guatemala. She spent a little over two weeks in Guatemala with a friend of hers. They were helping a missionary friend there with some practical needs. We look forward to hearing about her trip.

Brad Mulligan is on a missions trip right now through the Awana Missionary in Training program. He will be leaving tomorrow night to go to Romania for a few weeks. There they will have the opportunity to teach children and share the gospel with them.

Please pray for all of these opportunities this summer for these different groups and individuals. It is great to see our young people involved with serving the Lord through missions opportunities.

CEF Backyard Bible Clubs...

We have a few girls in our group involved with Child Evangelism Fellowship this summer. They will be involved with Backyard Bible Clubs. These are great opportunities to share the gospel with kids and see them come to Christ or grow in their relationship with Him.

Melinda will once again be teaching these clubs and leading them after spending two weeks in CEF "boot camp". Kathleen, Elisa, Katie, and Liz will be Jr. helpers and will be telling the missionary story. These girls have chosen to spend some of their summer serving the Lord through CEF. Please be praying for each of these girls this summer.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend a club that Melinda and Kathleen were doing. They did a great job.