Collision Course: The Story of Jeremiah

Never before in human history have we had such an acute sense of what is going on in our world. The world is seemingly spiraling out of control. There are wars breaking out with ISIS and Syria. The threat of super powers are on the rise again. Fatal diseases are spreading in west Africa and slowly creeping their way into America. Add in the ingredients of famines, pestilences, natural disasters, and moral decadence and you have yourself a recipe of disaster and despair. 

These weighty matters combine with our everyday burdens, which we pack on ourselves. Issues of poor self image, loneliness, addictions to porn and pleasure, stress from school, work, college and career decisions, all combine to make our lives seem to spiral out of control too. It seems we are on a collision course of epic proportion and there is no way off the crazy train. 

There is hope! These issues are not isolated to our generation. In fact, our world has seen the ebb and flow of human suffering and one of the peek moments came during the time of an old testament prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah's story is a Collision Course with the super power Babylon, the morally bankrupt Israel, and family and friends who would despise and reject him. 

As we look at Jeremiah's life over the next 6 weeks we will hope to find some of the answers in dealing with pain and suffering. We will be asking the question where is God when it hurts? The book will give us some hope and inspiration to keep pressing forward. It is an ancient book with some practical principles to apply for our postmodern generation. The book will end with a promise of a new way. The whole series will lead to this new way. We know Him as Jesus. He is the answer. He is our hope. 

I'm praying God does some amazing things over the next few weeks to stretch our thinking and challenge us to go further and deeper than we ever have before. If you want to follow along and read ahead, we will be in Jeremiah chapter 1 this week. See you sunday. 

10/5/2014: Guest Speaker - Rob Mcqueary

Great job Rob McQueary with the message! The message centered on Romans 5.  God desires more for us than to be happy which is completely dependent on our circumstances. God wants us to be joyful which radiates from within us when we are walking with Jesus in our lives, hearts, and minds.

Through trials and hardships we can still be joyful.  These "bad things" often help us appreciate the blessings in our life, they help us relate to others who are going through similar challenges, and it causes us to lean into God.  Rob also spoke about salvation and how we often think about it incorrectly.  Salvation is not a scale weighing your good works and bad works.  Jesus is responsible for our salvation and our spirit and we are responsible for pursuing him.  Once a person begins to follow Jesus that is when the Holy Spirit enters them.  
We don't have to be "happy" or fake all the time because we can instead be joyful.  We can be joyful only because Jesus is always in us.  Joy is not about how your week went, it's about Jesus living in you.  Jesus is ok with us asking and doubting but He wants us to always be seeking Him. 

Think of the example illustration:
Jesus is within us but we are also within Jesus and all things are within God.

Romans 5: 

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith^[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we^[c] rejoice^[d] in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only that, but werejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

I was reflecting on the message and thought this worship song went really well with the message. We often find it easy to praise God when everything is going well but even "on the road marked with suffering" Blessed is the name of the Lord!

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say,

Blessed be the name of the Lord

09/28/2014: Corn Dawgs Corn Maze

Thanks to all the students who came out and made this such a fun event!  Also big thanks to the adults who chaperoned.  Here are some pictures from the Corn Maze event: