Olympic moments...

So have you been watching the winter Olympics any? Well, I must tell you that I really enjoy the Olympics. I am a huge sports fan and I enjoy watching many sports that we do not see so often on TV. There is also the fact that I could probably never do what any of these athletes do that intrigues me.

Snow and ice are definitely not where I fit in the best. In fact the last time I was trying to play a game on ice, I lost my footing and fell face first into the ice. So I am not the most graceful needless to say. And that was with snow boots on. So when I see these skaters, balancing on only a thin blade, jumping in the air and landing perfectly or weaving in and out of one another at top speeds I am rather impressed. When I see the rubbered knees of a mogul skier combined with awesome acrobatics in the air I am impressed. When I see a "flying tomato" spinning and flipping in the air and landing flawlessly on a snowboard I am impressed.

These athletes spend much of their lives training for these events. So when you see them achieve victory you are very happy for them and for the country they represent. And when you see them fall or slip you feel a little bit of pain for them because they have worked so hard to get to that point. Countless hours of work have been put in by each of these athletes and they have one chance to make it pay off. Their desire is to achieve the prize (the gold medal) they have worked so hard for. And when they achieve that prize, all the hard work was worth it.

The apostle Paul tells us that we too should live our lives on this earth as believers in a way to acheive the prize. The prize he speaks of is not going to heaven or salvation, but Paul is speaking of eternal rewards for the believer. He uses the illustration of running a race in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. And at the time Paul wrote this, the Corinthians would know what he was talking about because they had their own Olympics.

Paul says for us to run in a way to get the prize. This takes focus and discipline. For an Olympian on this earth, this means hours of physical training. For the believer, this means we should be training spiritually. We should be disciplining ourselves in a way that Christ is the center of our lives. We should be filling our minds with His Word and looking to Him for the strength that we need to finish the race and get the prize. Sometimes this means not doing or saying what everyone else is doing and saying. This means separating ourselves from the world and separating ourselves unto God. This takes discipline, it takes focus and it demands us being dependent upon God. But our purpose for life and our desire is to be pleasing to God. And there is no greater prize than we can receive than a prize that will last forever. Those medals given at the Olympics will one day be destroyed. But our prize will last forever. And as hard and difficult as it is sometimes here upon this earth, when we get to heaven and receive rewards from our Heavenly Father, it will be more than worth it.

So as you watch the Olympics, as you watch the medal ceremonies, never forget that you too are in a competition so to speak. You are in a race. It is your life as a believer on this earth. And our desire should be to gain that eternal reward. And if you think it is awesome at the Olympics when they receive the medals, it will be much more awesome in heaven. Let us live our lives to bring honor and glory to God.

Journey/JV Quizzing

Put on your thinking caps, we're starting quizzing practice this Saturday morning, February 4th at CBC at 10:30am. Make sure your bring your books with you. That means Journey quizzers should bring their 1 Corinthians books and Faith Foundations, and JV quizzers should bring their Sprint manuals. We will practice for a couple of hours and then eat some lunch together. We should be finished around 1pm.

While this is going to be fun, it is also going to be challenging. These are not just easy breezy questions that anyone would know without going through the material. Verses have to be said word perfect with NO helps! Wow! And although there won't be hundreds of questions, you have to be very thoroughly knowledgeable of your book because you never know where a question could come from. So be prepared.

But our main objective is to do the best we can and bring glory to God by our actions. But I know you quizzers are capable of doing well. Can't wait to see you Saturday and try to make your brain hurt.

LIT Training

Hey LIT's (you know who you are), don't forget that on Saturday morning we are going to have a special training for you. Since we missed the Awana Fall Conference this year due to a conflict in schedule, our Awana missionaries, Ken and Denise Krup, have graciously volunteered to come to CBC and give our LITs the training session that you missed.

Going through a training session is a requirement in order to receive your awards, so make sure you are here. The training will be Saturday morning, February 4th at CBC from 8-10:30am. And...the Krups are even going to bring us donuts. Wow, we have some awesome Awana missionaries. See you Saturday morning, bright and early.

Check it out...

Well, sorry I have not posted anything in a while, but...ok, no excuses this time.

I did, however, want to remind everyone of the worldview weekend this Friday night from 6pm-9pm. We will be viewing the documentary, Beyond the Gates of Splendor, which recounts the martyrdom of five missionary men in 1956, and then shows how the Lord used their work and the work of their families after them to reach the Waodoni people with gospel of Christ. It is truly an amazing testimony of God being in control of all that takes place and of forgiveness.

We now have this reminder up on our youth web page at centralbible.org and there is an icon you can click on to have the opportunity to find information out about this documentary. So go and check it out and see what you can find.

And we look forward to seeing our Jr. Highers, Sr. Highers and Parents at the church on Friday night to view this documentary. Don't forget we're having sandwiches and chips. By the way, some of our college group is going to join us too. It is going to be a great night. Hope to see you there.

Happy...Belated...New Year!

Well, I am really late in posting a Happy New Year, but better late than never...right? I guess so. I hope everyone is enjoying this New Year that is upon us. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were celebrating the beginning of 2005, and now we are in to 2006. Wow, I'm getting old. Time is flying by...and it seems to only go quicker the older you get.

So by now most people have broken their "resolutions". Some may still be going. But here is one of many awesome things about being a believer, about having a relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. God never breaks HIS promises and He never changes. So while we change from 2005 to 2006 God is still the same God He has always been. And while we make promises and resolutions and fail to keep them many times, God always is faithful and truthful. He never falls short when it comes to His end of anything. And I have a personal relationship with a great God, and so do you, if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ. A personal relationship...that means God cares intimately about everything taking place in my life. He is not some far off immortal being that cares nothing for His creation. He cares for me as His child, and that is why we call Him, Father. You see God is always in the same place, He never changes. Many times we are not taking advantage of this personal relationship with God. We ignore our greatest friend ever. We don't spend time with Him, and our relationship with Him does not grow. That is because of our failures, not God's. That is because we are not taking advantage of the greatest relationship we could ever build. We fall short. Can I encourage you to take advantage (not in a bad way) of your relationship with God. Cultivate it so that it will grow. This takes a renewed mind, a new focus. This takes a mindset that is focused on and sees the priority of spending time with the Heavenly Father. You cannot see Him, but we know He is there...we believe this by faith, we take God at His Word. Get to know Him. He is the only One who will always be there for you and who will never change. And He loves you, and He loves me.

Now that is awesome and is good to be thinking about as we start a New Year that we have no idea what it holds. But God is always the same and is there for us in any and every situation. How great it is to be a child of God.

Happy New Year, y'all.