Saturday
Father to the Fatherless
Memorial Service John & Mary
The following video by Mercy me is something that we as a group pray will help you in this time.
Please note that if you Tom or your wife Amy need something please feel free to contact us.
with love
from everyone in the central station young adult ministry at COTN.
Memorial Service
for
Denghui Cheng & Caixia Geng
lovingly known to many as
John & Mary
Sunday, June 19, 2011
3:00 P.M.
at Church of the Nations
The memorial service will be followed by a potluck reception in the gym. If you
plan to attend please bring a dish to share.
(You may bring food to the gym prior to the service.)
Thursday
Take a Break!
Yes even as college students we/you have to take time OFF from the phone,computer,facebook and the CELL PHONE AND TEXTING...
Wednesday
NewSpring is about Jesus, not Perry preaching
Saturday
Friday
Great American Easy Gourmet Review
This cookbook is fairly easy to understand and the recipes are not overly
complicated. I have enjoyed every dish that I have made from this book. My wife enjoyed the Strawberry Soup. It is a cold soup. That was my first experience with a cold soup. If it was a little bit thicker, I could have poured it into a glass and made it a smoothie. I enjoyed making the Penne with Sausage and Eggplant.
I am glad the recipes in the book are easy to understand because I have no idea what they are supposed to look like. There are hardly any pictures in this book. I am guessing the lack of pictures helps to keep the overall price of the book down. I would have been more than happy to pay a few more dollars for pictures of the recipes so that I know what the dish is supposed to look like when it is finished.
The lack of pictures is my only issue with the book. Other than that, it is a great book to buy and learn new dishes. There are no secret tips or tricks. This is just a book of compiled recipes. If you are looking for dishes that do not take a lot of time and are easy to prepare, I recommend this book.
You can buy Great American Easy Gourmet book here.
Did you buy it? What did you think about it? Hit up the comments.
Thursday
Three Areas of Discipleship
Blessings,
Betts
Three Areas of Discipleship
Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18
Matthew records three things that Jesus said that we must do as Christians. It is not optional. You can say that you never heard it before and that is fine, but after tonight if you HEAR and do not DO, you are walking in willful rebellion. Following Jesus in complete obedience shows that we have put all of our faith and confidence in Jesus and that we believe without a shadow of doubt that God will do everything He has said and promised that He would do. Failure to obey is rebellion…Either out of personal preference or lack of confidence or lack of faith. Either way we do not believe that God will deliver on what He has said in His Word. How can you serve someone or call yourself a follower of that person if you do not believe in what they say?
We are going to cover three things tonight that Jesus said we must do as disciples. The first one is giving. Verse 2. Jesus said when you give. Not when you think about giving, not if you choose to give, WHEN you give. People act like giving is painful. They do not want to part with any of their money or their stuff. They believe it is theirs and all theirs. What is wrong with giving? Why do we treat it like we have to cut off an arm to do it? We would rather give a kidney than $20. Why? This is not about tithing. I do not even believe that you should pray about tithing. Why should you pray about something that God has commanded us to do? If you want to pray, pray about how much God wants you to give. The Bible says that anyone that does not tithe is a thief. God does not answer the prayer of thieves. You cannot rob God and expect to have your prayers answered. Giving. Giving of yourself, your time, your things, your money, is what giving is all about. Anything you do above your tithe is considered an offering. You are offering yourself, your time, your money, your stuff for God to bless it and for Him to be able to use it in a way that He wants to use it. Giving is also considered planting seed. Your money, or your stuff or something that you did that God told you to do could be used to help someone come to know Jesus and that person could be saved because you gave. Giving is not a money issue. It is a spiritual issue.
If you are not giving, you are walking in disobedience – willful rebellion.
Luke 6:38 says: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over,will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
God blesses us so that we can bless others. However, this does not mean He will give it to you on your time or your terms. You cannot expect to throw money in the offering plate as it is passed and expect there to be money under your pillow when you get home. God is not the supernatural tooth fairy. God works on the idea of seed time and harvest or sowing and reaping. When you give, you plant seed. The more seed you plant, the more you will harvest. Corn illustration.
The more seed you plant, the more you will harvest. The second thing we are to do as disciples is pray.Verse 5. When you pray. We love to talk about God but when is the last time that we really talked to God? We may all think that we know how to pray. Some of us get discouraged because we do not think that we can pray. It is not about using big words or trying to be holier than thou. It is about going to God and talking with Him and letting Him know what is on our hearts and praising Him and thanking Him for everything that He has done. Prayer is not going to God as the Holy ATM machine. God wants to give you good things and bless you but you must pray in the right way. Everything you ask must be in God’s will. People get mad when they ask for something and do not immediately receive. God looks at your heart when you pray. Are you sincere, what are your motives for asking? What is your relationship like with God? A relationship is more than one-sided.
Prayer is also a two way street. There is also a part of prayer that many people do not think about. They go to God and deliver their praise, their petitions and they clock their time in, and then they leave. When is it God’s turnto speak to you? How is God supposed to speak to you if you are too busy to listen? You are all wrapped up in your own plans, life is flowing, you are cool with it, and the only time your relationship with God matters is when you go to Him with what you need. Maybe God is telling you to slow down. Listen.
God has things to tell you too. God’s plans are always better than anything that we can come up with. Listen to what He has to say. God knows what direction He wants us to go. He is not going to tell you in flashing lights, or shout it out with a bullhorn. He speaks in a still small voice. If you are not quiet and still, you will never hear Him.
Fasting. Verse 16.
Fasting is not about Oh Woe is me! Fasting can be adventurous. It does not have to be painful. Fasting is not dieting. It is not Weight Watchers. Fasting is a spiritual discipline. It is redirecting our appetite heavenward. We are taking our focus off material things and focusing on the things of God. It is a discipline. We are taking our focus off the things of this life and focusing on the source of life. We do not fast to get what we want. God is not a genie. It does not work like rubbing the lamp and out pops God. Therefore, it does not mean that when we fast, God gives us our new house or our Lamborghini. Fasting is not about getting. When we fast, we will end up wanting what God wants. God wants us to want what He wants.
Our appetite is not always about food. You can have an appetite for greed, lust, power, knowledge, and sex,whatever. If you hunger for such things, than your appetite is out of control. What do you focus your appetite on? Jesus said, I am the bread of life and I am living water. Psalm 37:4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Fasting is our part. When we fast, we are able to get on the same page as God. Our thoughts become His thoughts. Our desires become His desires. He will give us the desires of our heart because they will be His desires. God can speak to us through fasting. Breakthroughs and revelations can come through fasting. God goes into your spiritual kitchen and cleans out the pantry. He throws out moldy stuff, get rids of toxic garbage, chunks the transfat. We go through a spiritual detox. God’s wants for us are far greater than any want that we can come up with by ourselves. Our convictions come into light. God shows us what is really important. In Numbers 11, the Israelites have been under the leadership of Moses for a long time. God has been providing them with Manna from heaven every day so that they could eat. The Israelites went to Moses and complained that they wanted meat or that they wanted to go back to Egypt because it was better when they were slaves. So, God sent quail. Tons of quail. There was so much quail that they were stacked three feet off the ground. The people thought they knew better than God what was best for them. They ate quail and ate quail and ate quail. Quail burgers, quail stew, quail hash, quail mac and cheese, quail everything. Then God sent a plague on the Israelites to the ones who complained about not having meat. They all died. Thousands of them died. They never made it into the promised land. They ate themselves out of the promised land. They missed the blessings God wanted them to have. Why? Because, they focused their appetite on what they did not have instead of what God was giving them. Matthew 5:6 says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled. We can be on the same page as God as long as we keep our focus on God. Give. Pray. Fast.
Tuesday
College is a waste of time
Thanks,
Betts
(CNN) -- I have been awarded a golden ticket to the heart of Silicon Valley: the Thiel Fellowship. The catch? For two years, I cannot be enrolled as a full-time student at an academic institution. For me, that's not an issue; I believe higher education is broken.
I left college two months ago because it rewards conformity rather than independence, competition rather than collaboration, regurgitation rather than learning and theory rather than application. Our creativity, innovation and curiosity are schooled out of us.
Failure is punished instead of seen as a learning opportunity. We think of college as a stepping-stone to success rather than a means to gain knowledge. College fails to empower us with the skills necessary to become productive members of today's global entrepreneurial economy.
College is expensive. The College Board Policy Center found that the cost of public university tuition is about 3.6 times higher today than it was 30 years ago, adjusted for inflation. In the book "Academically Adrift," sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa say that 36% of college graduates showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning or writing after four years of college. Student loan debt in the United States, unforgivable in the case of bankruptcy, outpaced credit card debt in 2010 and will top $1 trillion in 2011.
Fortunately there are productive alternatives to college. Becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or mastering the phrase "Would you like fries with that?" are not the only options.
The success of people who never completed or attended college makes us question whether what we need to learn is taught in school. Learning by doing -- in life, not classrooms -- is the best way to turn constant iteration into true innovation. We can be productive members of society without submitting to academic or corporate institutions. We are the disruptive generation creating the "free agent economy" built by entrepreneurs, creatives, consultants and small businesses envisioned by Daniel Pink in his book, "A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future."
We must encourage young people to consider paths outside college. That's why I'm leading UnCollege: a social movement empowering individuals to take their education beyond the classroom. Imagine if millions of my peers copying their professors' words verbatim started problem-solving in the real world. Imagine if we started our own companies, our own projects and our own organizations. Imagine if we went back to learning as practiced in French salons, gathering to discuss, challenge and support each other in improving the human condition.
A major function of college is to signal to potential employers that one is qualified to work. The Internet is replacing this signaling function. Employers are recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook, StackOverflow and Behance. People are hiring on Twitter, selling their skills on Google, and creating personal portfolios to showcase their talent. Because we can document our accomplishments, and have them socially validated with tools such as LinkedIn Recommendations, we can turn experiences into opportunity. As more and more people graduate from college, employers are unable to discriminate among job seekers based on a college degree and can instead hire employees based on their talents.
Of course, some people want a formal education. I do not think everyone should leave college, but I challenge my peers to consider the opportunity cost of going to class. If you want to be a doctor, going to medical school is a wise choice. I do not recommend keeping cadavers in your garage. On the other hand, what else could you do during your next 50-minute class? How many e-mails could you answer? How many lines of code could you write?
Some might argue that college dropouts will sit in their parents' basements playing Halo 2, doing Jell-O shots and smoking pot. These are valid but irrelevant concerns, for the people who indulge in drugs and alcohol do so before, during and after college. It's not a question of authorities; it's a question of priorities. We who take our education outside and beyond the classroom understand how actions build a better world. We will change the world regardless of the letters after our names.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dale Stephens.
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| Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/03/stephens.college/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2 |
Monday
The COST for Catalyst vs. Passion
Now you see the title and so I want to know what you think
and I will leave you with this and a question at the end... "Pay the price to grow and develop as a leader (see Proverbs 4:7!) Don’t always expect everyone to hand you something for free. Conferences cost money! Books cost money! Quit complaining about tPay the price to grow and develop as a leader (see Proverbs 4:7!) Don’t always expect everyone to hand you something for free. Conferences cost money! Books cost money! Quit complaining about the cost! Great leaders never whine!he cost!
this is from Perry Noble letter entitled "An Open Letter To Leaders…"
The question: What is your view of the price of the cost of a GREAT tool???
CATALYST FEE
Super Early Bird Before 6/23 Early Bird Before 8/25 Regular Pricing After 8/25
Single Ticket $259 $289 $319
Group of 2-9 $239 $269 $289
Group of 10-19 $219 $249 $269
Group of 20+ $199 $219 $239
Student* $159 $179 $199
Labs $99 $119 $129
Pre-Lab $19 $19 $19
PASSION FEE
Registration fee schedule:
$139 through May 1
$169 through July 15
$189 through Oct 1
$199 through Dec 1
$219 at the door
Friday
An Open Letter To Leaders…
June 1, 2011
Dear Leader,
Leadership matters! It is listed in the Scripture as a spiritual gift (Romans 12:8), there are books in the Bible dedicated to what happens when God empowered leadership is embraced (Ezra, Nehemiah, Judges, Esther) and God has called you and raised you up for the purpose of making a difference.
You are going to have to make hard decisions…ones that will cause you to be unpopular and misunderstood. Remember, the Bible says that fear of man is a snare that leads to a place you do not desire to be (see Proverbs 29:25)…and also remember that if it is your goal to be popular, understood and loved by everyone then it is impossible to do so and be a fully devoted follower of Jesus (see Galatians 1:10). MANY people see the problems…very few people actually possess the courage to do something about it…and that is what God has called, equipped and empowered you to do what you do.
God has not called you to do this alone. One of the most amazing things about leadership is that the Lord WILL surround you with men and women to come along side to serve with you and help you do all that God has placed in your heart. LISTEN to other people (See Proverbs 15:22) and understand that being the leader DOES NOT mean that you are the smartest person in the room! (When you believe that…it’s over, the smart people will leave and eventually, over time, you will be the smartest person in the room in a room full of morons!) ASK FOR HELP OFTEN…it doesn’t mean you’re weak, it actually communicates to those you lead that you are strong!
You are going to get hurt…all great leaders do. People you thought loved and cared about you will turn on you, attack you and make false accusations against you. This will cause tremendous amounts of insecurity, pain and frustration; however, don’t allow one person who goes Judas on you cause you to believe that everyone you have around you will eventually betray you. I’ve seen so many leaders isolate themselves because of things like this happening and it just isn’t necessary. The only reason that you believe leadership is lonely is because you have most likely chosen to isolate yourself.
Your character can never be compromised–EVER!
Don’t feel the need to waste time responding to every critic. Life is too short and hell is too hot for you to come down off the wall and have a conversation with people who have a history of attacking others and who make ridiculous accusations against you but have never even taken the time to try to get to know you! (See Nehemiah 6:1-4.) AND…STOP obsessing over what “they” say about you…and my friend Craig Groeschel says, “Becoming obsessed with what people think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.”
Pay the price to grow and develop as a leader (see Proverbs 4:7!) Don’t always expect everyone to hand you something for free. Conferences cost money! Books cost money! Quit complaining about the cost! Great leaders never whine!
And remember, He who has called you is with you…He will never leave you…He will finish what He began (Philippians 1:6)…you should NOT give up (Galatians 6:9)…and He has called you to fear no one or no thing but HIM (II Timothy 1:7!)
Thursday
4 Ways to Approach Unsaved Church Members
A dear pastor friend of mine contacted me recently with what he felt was this exact dilemma. I have faced it. Many of you have faced it. All pastors are grateful when individuals desire to be at church and want to commit themselves to the church. There is, however, a problem when the most basic requirement (for most of us anyway) to become a church member is that they have indeed been “born again.” For whatever reason, there are those who desire church membership who show no signs of it. Pastors cannot see the heart, and yet are charged with protection and care of the flock.
Therefore, how do we discern as pastors what to do with someone who does not articulate a knowledge of the gospel clearly and/or fails to demonstrate any genuine fruit of conversion? Here are four suggestions to consider as you talk to a prospective church member. My hope is that they fit in many different contexts of taking new members into the church:
Ask simple and clear questions. Pastors are trained and gifted to be able to respond to tough, challenging questions asked without any warning. Many people are not gifted that way. When talking to someone in this moment, ask simple, clear questions. It is very possible that someone could freeze in response because you failed to state clearly what you wanted from them. Make sure their less than clear response to your questions is not the result of your poor word choices.
Carefully evaluate the meaning of their words. My first membership interview did not go as planned. I had my list of questions and “expected responses” I wanted to hear. About half way into my talk with this woman, I just threw my sheet out the window. Do not listen for the exact wording you desire to hear, but whether their words mean what you need to hear. For example, we do not have to hear them say the words, “repent” or “imputation” to know they still understand the gospel, love Jesus, and have submitted their life by faith alone to Christ. Be open and listen well.
Seize it as a gospel opportunity. Oftentimes as these interviews go downhill we can begin to panic, wondering, “What should I do, how will I explain this to the church, what if they leave if I tell them they cannot be members, etc.” Instead, if you conclude this person does not understand the gospel, seize the opportunity to talk to them about it. After all, they want to join the church. They want to hear you teach from the Bible. They want to be around the other members. Tell them you want to spend four weeks meeting with them discussing a clear understanding of the gospel before you proceed any further with the membership process. Pray and expect that the Lord could bring them to saving faith during that time. If they reject your offer or are offended by the gesture, you may have gotten the answer you were looking for.
Trust the Lord will give you discernment. We are not God, only shepherds of His sheep. God is not expecting us to see and know the heart, ultimately. Pray for wisdom. Ask good, clear questions. Involve other pastors if you have them. Then, make the call trusting the Lord will be gracious to you and the church in it. Two of the most beloved members in our church now were very questionable at the conclusion of my interview with them years ago. They both serve in leadership today. Keep in mind, how willing your church is to discipline church members (Matt. 18:15-17, 1 Cor. 5:1-8) matters when making a decision of uncertainty like this.
May the Lord give each of us grace and discernment beyond our years and abilities as we face these matters for the protection of God’s people and the purity of Christ’s church.