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.