Discussion Time

Thanks to all the students who made last night's discussion interesting. You better all be there next Wednesday so I can tell you all the answers to the worlds problems. (Just kidding, but be there).

Normalcy

Hello everyone, summer is over and all our big events for the season are done, so we are back on a normal schedule for youth group. 7-9PM on Wednesdays. See you all there.

Pictures

Well the summer trip is over and we had a great time. If you want to check out some of the Pics go HERE!

Tombstone

I wish I were this cool!

Vessels

"Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." 

Romans 9:21-23

We just finished studying these verses as a youth group. Originally, this was a very difficult piece of scripture for me to deal with, and still is in many ways. Our minds cannot fully understand the greatness of God and His perfect nature. Some part of me always wants to say that it is not fair for God to create some people for glory and some for recipients of His wrath. In that sense I need to get over myself. There is nothing within me deserving of God's mercy, there is everything within me deserving of His wrath. Justice would be destruction. It is a hard thing to swallow the depth of our depravity, however, it is even a harder thing to understand why God still has mercy.

Dream House

So Nina and I came across a house for sale that seemed to good to be true. It was nestled in a old neighborhood at the very top of a hill in San Clemente. It has 3 bedrooms, a 2 care garage, and amazing view of an empty canyon overlooking the ocean. It is also the cheapest house in all of Orange County. I told you it sounds to good be true. The listing said the house needs geological work. Well when we got there we noticed the house was also falling of a cliff. The pictures show the amazing view from the backyard, they also show that the house that was once next to it no longer exists as it has fallen off the cliff already. You can see that the backyard is already going over the cliff as well as the master bedroom. Stupid cliff. Other than that it is our dream house.

Election

We have been working through the doctrine of election here at Grace and have been having some really good discussions. Here is a Spurgeon quote to ponder on the subject. 

"Do not imagine for an instant that I pretend to be able thoroughly to elucidate the great mysteries of predestination. There are some men who claim to know all about the matter. They twist it round their fingers as easily as if it were an everyday thing; but depend upon it, he who thinks he knows all about this mystery, knows but very little . . . I think that if we kept more simply to the teachings of the Bible, we should be wiser than we are; for by turning from the heavenly light of revelation, and trusting to the deceitful will-o'-the-wisps of our own imagination, we thrust ourselves into quags and bogs where there is no sure footing, and we begin to sink; and instead of making progress, we find ourselves sticking fast. The truth is, neither you nor I have any right to want to know more about predestination than what God tells us. That is enough for us. If it were worth while for us to know more, God would have revealed more. What God has told us, we are to believe."      - From Charles Spurgeon's sermon Jacob and Esau. You can read the whole sermon here.