Hurricane Jimena

Over Labor Day weekend a hurricane hit the coast of Mexico and dumped over 2 feet of rain in about a day and a half. The rain caused flash floods, mudslides, and massive destruction to roads, buildings and homes in several towns along the coast, including San Carlos and Guaymas, the towns we had gone to two years ago for spring break and where we are planning to go this coming spring break. For those of you who went 2 years ago, you can imagine what all that rain and flooding did, especially in some of the poorer areas, where the streets are dirt and the homes are not well built. Many of these neighborhoods are without electricity or running water, and the people are somewhat trapped because of the damage to the roads. Many people have lost cattle, sheep, chicken, and other animals from the flood, animals which they lived off of.

Some people from Flagstaff will be heading down to San Carlos this weekend to deliver food, water, and clothing to these communities. If you have some old clothes, you would like to donate, please bring them to the church as soon as possible. Another way you can help, is to plan on coming on our trip over spring break. Even before this hurricane, Guaymas and Empalme were areas of great need, and now, with the damage from this storm that will take months and months to recover and rebuild from, it seems that God is sending us there with some huge needs that we can help meet by serving these communities and sharing the message of Christ with them.

Here is a link to some more pictures from the hurricane.

Concert!!!

So the band Attaboy is going to be passing through Flagstaff next Wednesday, July 22nd and was generous enough to offer to do a concert for us for free at youth group! They sound good and my hope is that it will just be a great time for all of us to enjoy their music and have some fun, so bring a friend!!!

Are others worse offenders than you?

On Sunday I got a phone call from my parents and learned that my Uncle Tommy who lived in Portland, OR was killed this weekend when his apartment caught fire from electrical problems. As with any news like that, it was sudden and shocking. It caught me by surprise, and it was a little strange to watch news clips online that were talking about someone I knew. I will be travelling to Portland for the funeral this week, so because of that and Vacation Bible School, there will not be anything planned for Wednesday night this week.

In Luke 13, Jesus was asked to comment on a tragic situation in which some Jews were killed by Roman soldiers in the Temple, probably for political reasons. It is interesting to note the way it is worded in Luke 13:1, "There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." They had gone to the Temple to offer sacrifices to God. The blood of those sacrifices was a substitute for their own sins, for their own guilt, so if God is sovereign over all things, the Jewish leaders of that time wondered why God would allow such an ironically horrible thing to happen to those Galileans. Why would God allow their blood to be spilled in the very place where they had come to offer the blood of animals for themselves? The conclusion that these religious leaders came to was that those Galileans must have been really horrible sinners and that is why God allowed them to suffer and die in that way.

But what did Jesus think? Before he answered, he made things a little more complicated. He mentioned another disaster in which a tower fell on 18 people and killed them. This disaster wasn't the fault of an evil ruler like Pilate. The tower just fell. Perhaps it was faulty construction, or the tower was really old, or something else. But the tower fell and those people died, so Jesus asks us if we think those 18 were worse offenders than any of the other people in Jerusalem at that time? Were they worse offenders than you and I? Jesus' answer is basically that we're all going to die one way or another, and he used the opportunity to call us to repentance because death is ultimately unavoidable.

I read a few different news articles and watched news videos about my uncle's death, and I was a little frustrated as the news channels were so quick to move from the death of a person to a safety lesson. We don't want to think about our mortality. We don't want to stare that fact in the face, even though that is what Jesus would draw our attention to in a situation like this. However, if we can be told what someone else did wrong, how they didn't have smoke detectors or how they should have been more careful with their extension cords, then we can go practice being safer and not deal with our own mortality. Instead, it would be wise to heed Jesus' words, recognize who we are, and turn to him for indestructible life.

Camping trip...

As most of you know, what was going to be Gospel Journey Flagstaff has been shortened by a day to something a little more low key… but something that’s going to be a lot of fun, nonetheless. We are going to be camping and having some fun in the woods near Flagstaff, so I have included some updated information about the trip.

Packing List: sleeping bag, pillow, hiking shoes, toiletries (you won’t have access to running water), sunscreen, flashlight, water bottle, small towel, clothes for warm and cool weather, hat, Bible, a small backpack for day use. This list isn’t necessarily exhaustive. Pack wisely, but don’t overpack, for spending a couple days in the woods. Oh, and each person also needs to bring 3 cans of food (any kind of food) for one of our activities.

The cost will be $20 per person

Please make sure we have a Parental Permission/Medical Information form filled out from you. You can download them from fcfyouth.blogspot.com.

We will meet at FCF at 8:00am on Tuesday June 9th and return on Wednesday June 10th at 9:00pm.

If you or your parents have any questions, please let me know,

Thanks,

Jeremy

Undercover at Liberty University

I just listened to an interview with a guy named Kevin Roose. He is a non-Christian student from a public university who pretended to be a Christian so he could spend a semester at Liberty University, a Christian college, then write a book about his time there. He shared with his interviewer some of the oddities and interesting experiences he had spending time surrounded by people who all assumed he had the same beliefs as them when he really didn't. He shared about the strange rules that he had to follow while living in the dorms such as not watching R rated movies and not drinking. He told about how he had to modify his vocabulary and train himself not to cuss anymore. He even shared about a true/false question related to dinosaurs on a test and how he really thought the answer was false, but the professor had taught that the answer was true, so he had to compromise and answer true to get the point, even though he thought the professor was wrong.

While he still holds strong to his non-Christian beliefs, he was not totally hostile to Christians and Christianity in the interview. It seems that he actually enjoyed some aspects of his time there. However, he and the interviewer seemed to enjoy musing about the odd little situation he had put himself into where he was expected to be someone he wasn't and the challenges he faced trying to play along.

As I listened, though, I thought to myself that his daring semester in a strange world really isn't as unique as he may think. After all, Liberty University isn't the only college that has an assumed religion in force on it's campus and in it's dorms. Public universities do as well. Just as Kevin Roose spent a semester with professors who assumed the existence of God and the authority of the Bible over our lives, a Christian student who enters into a public university will likely be sitting in classrooms where the professors assume that belief in the existence of God is ridiculous. They may also find themselves living in a situation where they are expected to behave in certain ways, to monitor their speech and be careful not to use certain words, and not to challenge their professors but simply to fall in line with what everyone else around them believes and with what everyone else around them is doing.

Some of you may be facing a situation like that in the near future. May I encourage you to let others secretly play along if they desire, but God will be more glorified and you will be more satisfied if you let others know from the start that you are an impostor in their world, that you have chosen to play by different rules.

Jeremy

p.s. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) to learn what those different rules are.

GJ#4: Why are there so many religions?

This week the issue is brought up about why there are so many religions and can they all be right. The world's answer to that question is that religion is the expression of different people from different cultures and while they have some minor differences, they are all basically the same in their attempt to know and worship God. However, if you take a close look at different religions you find that this is not true. Religions are not fundamentally the same with some minor differences. Religions are fundamentally different with some minor similarities. As author Steve Turner sarcastically puts it:

"We believe that all religions are basically the same
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation."

If you carefully look at the teachings of the Bible, you will see that Christianity sets itself apart from other religions as the only source of life and hope and truth.

Don't be dead wrong a short article
Jesus among other Gods a good lecture (no that's not an oxymoron)

GJ#3: What is the purpose of life? Part 2

Last week we focused on what the purpose of life is. This week we will talk more specifically about what your purpose for life is. I always find it encouraging to read about others who have made living for Jesus Christ the highest purpose of their lives, especially when doing so cost them greatly. I would encourage you to visit www.jesusfreaks.net to read some stories about modern day people who have suffered for Christ, as well as some ancient stories from Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Enjoy,

Jeremy