Bought For A Price

Last Wednesday, we discussed Numbers 22. In it Balak sends messengers to summon Balaam. Verse 7 states that the messengers went "taking with them the fee for divination". Balak wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites, and he knew that Balaam could be bought for a price.

Has there ever been a point in your life that you could be bought?
Maybe, someone bought you gifts to get you to help them with something you knew was wrong? Maybe, someone buddied up to you so they could cheat off you during a test?

Remember:
God bought you for a price, so that you wouldn't have to be bought for a price!

Are We Really Following Christ?

Sometimes there is a big difference between Following Christ and "going to church".

Which one do you do?

Change Is Coming!

2012 is a New Year!
I am encouraging everyone to begin to read the bible in one year. If that is a little too much for you, start by just reading the bible everyday. We need to take every opportunity to get the word of God in us. The WORD OF GOD will change you!
Romans 10:17 - "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Hosea 4:6 - "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

If we take the time to read the bible, which is the living word of God, we will see change in our lives!

What does it mean to be SOULED OUT?

This is sort of our unofficial Youth Group song, Souled Out by Lacrae. Saying that you want to be SOULED OUT is not something that is to be taken lightly. Lacrea asks God in the song to Break him, Shake him and Mold him.

That is an awesome prayer that we should all be asking God on a daily basis....
- Break me, of the chains that are holding me back from being closer to you!
- Shake me, so that all the junk I collect on a daily basis is removed!
- Mold me, into the image of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Do you want to be SOULED OUT for God?
If so, ask God to help you..... to break you, shake you, and mold you. Start your journey by reading one chapter of the bible a day, then make it two. Or start by devoting 15 interruption-free minutes a day to God in prayer, then make it 30. Before long, you will be well on your way to becoming SOULED OUT!

The Seed And The Sower

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of The Seed And The Sower. Jesus tells how seed was sown on different types of ground. About a month ago, we took learning about this parable a step further. We took seed and gave it to a few youth members. The first, threw seed along a path. The second, planted their seed in a pot with rocky soil. The third, planted their seed in a pot with high grass and weeds. The fourth, planted their seed in a pot with very good mulch, but was not to take care or even water their seed. The fifth, planted their seed in a pot with very good mulch as well, but was asked to take very good care of it. We asked the youth members to take home their seed project and bring it back in a month, so we could gauge the results.

The results were as follows:
- The seed along the path: No harvest at all. We could not even tell there was seed that was sown.
- The seed in the rocky soil: A small plant sprang up quickly, then died when a dog knocked over the pot. In the end, we could not even tell that there was anything planted in it.
- The seed in the weeds: A small plant sprang up quickly, but then died almost immediately. Like the bible states the plant was not able to draw enough nutrients, water and sun from the soil to survive.
- The seed in the good soil, not cared for: A tiny plant sprang up quickly, but also died quickly. The moisture in the soil allowed a tiny plant to spring up, but without consistent water the plant died. In the end, we had a hard time finding the seed/ plant in the soil.
- The seed in the good soil, cared for: A plant sprang up quickly, and continued to grow with very good results.


What we learned:
We must prepare our hearts to receive the word that is sown into our lives. But it doesn't stop there... we must continue to nourish the word that was sown in our lives with bible study, prayer, and fellowship. By continuing to nourish it, we guarantee it's survival and ours!

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Sowing Seeds

When we sow seeds, do we always realize what we are planting?
Many times we sow terrible seeds without even knowing what they are doing. When we make fun of the way someone looks or dresses, we are planting bad seeds in their life. No matter how harmless "we think" our jokes are, they can have a very damaging effect on people.

This week decide to have a positive effect on people's lives.

Try to let that old saying guide you.... if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all!