Grace Youth

"616" Tonight

2010-03-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

Hey yall, we haven't had one in a while so "616" is tonight. Bring some food and come early. See you there.

Discussion Time

2009-09-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T13:47:00.001-07:00

I wish I were this cool!

Vessels

2009-04-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-03-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Anticipating the King

2008-11-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

Scott over at Anticipating the King has been posting some good stuff. Check it out at:

www.anticipatingtheking.com

Real Questions

2008-07-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

Finally a blog that asks the difficult questions. Check it out and leave a comment.

Questions for the Day

Enjoy.

Can't Buy Me Jesus

2008-07-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

We all know advertising is everywhere; we deal with it every day, subliminal messages from every angle trying to pry their way into our lives. We have become accustomed to it in our society; everyone has a product they want to sell. It does scare me a little to think that Jesus is often one of these products that we sell. We market Jesus, we advertise Jesus, and to many people He has become just another product that we buy to maintain our image. There is a fine line between an evangelist and salesman. As churches we often find ourselves trying to reach people the same way any other money loving company would. We find a target audience to sell Jesus to. We change the way Jesus looks, making him pretty and likeable so the consumer will want him. We lie about the attributes of God and never bring up important aspects of his character such as his wrath and justice. These characteristics of God are essential to the gospel. However, they are also offensive, and apparently that is not good for business if you know what I mean. Why do we think that we have to be cool or smart to win people to Christ, we do not posses the power to change peoples hearts. I am pretty sure that is all up to God.

Summer is Here

2008-07-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Well, Summer is already well underway. For all the students who went, we got back from our summer trip a few weeks ago and you can check out some of the photos here.

www.gracechurchyouth.org

Enjoy.

Living Our Doctrine

2008-05-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

We recently had a discussion in the High School group about the importance of doctrine and making it a visible part of our lives, rather than just knowing what we believe we need our doctrine to soak in to the depths of our hearts. On another blog, What's Wrong With the World, there has been discussion about the gap we often see in people who have strong doctrine but lack the life change that Jesus requires of us; and on the opposite side people who have no doctrine, or very little, but we see them living out the call that Jesus has placed on all our lives to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the sick. My question is "Why have we separated the two?"Isn't scripture and doctrine the very reason for why we should clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and comfort the sick.

While I don't usually agree with Richard Rohr I do like his quote from Jesus' Plan for a New World, he writes, "The call to the gospel life is not really a call to be moral, law-abiding and good, although many seem to think so. It is, rather, to follow Jesus- who keeps us on the path of letting go and rediscovering, which is very different from just being good."

As Christians being a good person is not our call. We are called to do good things, even great things, but the call is deeper than just being a moral person.

To fully understand God and the call he has placed on our lives we need to understand both sides of spectrum. What good is knowledge and understanding of God if it never really impacts your heart. There are plenty of people who can quote scripture and explain doctrine that don't follow or even believe in it. There are also plenty of people who want to save the world but have no reason why they should. I pray for myself and all believers that as we grow in knowledge of God's word that we will continue to let it shape our lives and make us into the people that God wants us to be. And in all things let us glorify our God, whether through our understanding of scripture, or through our daily actions.

Heaven on Earth

2008-04-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

At Grace Church we have been talking about the characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven, also referred to as the Kingdom of God, understanding that the Kingdom is not just in the afterlife but it is here and now; we see it everyday. Jesus even told us to pray for it in the Lord's prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." So how can we bring God's Kingdom to people everyday? I once heard a quote that said, "We can't say, Thy Kingdom come unless we're willing to say, My kingdom go". Becoming part of the Kingdom of God is all about letting go of the control you have in your life and giving it over to God. The first line of the beatitudes, as written in Luke 6, begins with "Blessed are the poor, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs". The greek word used for poor in this passage is ptochoi, referring to the bottom 10-20% of the peasant class. Richard Rohr writes that the direct translation of this word is "the very empty ones, those who are crouching". So the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who have nothing left, to the people who let everything go, the very empty ones; it is for the people who do not hold on to things, but for those who are comfortable with being still and letting God fight for them. Who is in control of our lives?