Thanks and Giving to the poor

This past week we talked about God's grace for us, and how we don't have to walk in our short comings and failures. We looked at Peter and his relationship to Christ post resurrection and post denying Him 3 times. We talked about being "crowned with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5) and how Jesus interrupts situations with grace (such as the women caught to be stoned for her sins). How we can walk in this grace and feel called and fit and actually BE Kingdom bringers!

So it was a good week...

          So this next week I thought we could put some of it into action. We will be giving Thanks this week and Giving this week, and we will be doing this with some of the more less fortunate and homeless right near our church in Scranton. I have tons of winter hats and gloves and socks to give out to people (or even if we just make it to the soup kitchen to pass out or drop off) and i think this will be good for us. Ministry opportunities  like this open us up and broaden our world view of what is going on so close to home. At the very least it will give us something to be praying for.

So let your parents know and think about it yourselves and i will be getting in touch with you guys this week about making this happen for sunday.

We will have Youth Leaders going with us, Pastor Matt Miller is willing to come as well, and we would be leaving at 9am from church and just walking down together. I will keep you all informed as the week goes on and i will be trying to contact parents and all that good stuff.

-kyle

Tearing the Walls Down

                                                      ...just to recap

This past Sunday we learned about "tearing the walls down".

We were in Ephesians 2:11-22 on being "one in Christ".

We jumped into Acts 21:27-30 and then back into this letter to the Ephesian church to show why Paul was writing from prison, why there is this section in his letter, why he is writing with this "worship language" and why this passage historically is so intense.

We also were in Isaiah 56:3-8 and read about how God even of past really didn't intend for this division in His house. That even the "foreigner" is not to say that he is not welcome.

                       So why then was the temple like this?
                                     Is this our God?
                                                  Is this what He intended for with Israel and Blessing the Nations?

      By Paul's time even more walls are up in the temple to separate groups of people from the house of God.

"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants .....These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer..."

But in Christ and through His resurrection the world was forgiven and we have now equal access in ONE Spirit to the Father!
                                                               This is good news!

we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

Last week we watched a video teaching done by Rob Bell called "breathe", we were able to discuss our thoughts a bit and then we dove into scripture.

Last week we really sat on Ephesians 1:11-13.

I highly recommended (and still do) that we re read this passage this week and even read through the book of Ephesians with our discussion on our hearts. We HAVE this Holy Spirit, that was promised, and it is sealed in us. We are crowned with glory and honor, and we not only have our breathes that God has given to us, but we as a people of God who have heard the Word of Truth and excepted the gospel of our salvation, also have the inheritance and promised Holy Spirit sealed in us.

This is great news.

We will be talking about the Holy Spirit a lot

We will be talking about God a lot

We will be talking about Jesus a lot


                              We will be learning to consider that "He is able" in all things, and that we can trust in Him

Discussion Questions for Compassion week

Guys, I meant to be using the board last week and have some stuff written for more of a discussion but the stupid markers didn't work so I thought maybe we could do that here.

I'll post a few questions to get our minds going and lets just talk back and forth this week about some of what we are going through this week with all this compassion on our minds.

1. How can we as Christians, see others around us the way God sees them? Or in other words, how can we encourage one another to see the people we interact with (friends, family, enemies, strangers) the way that  Jesus saw people "with compassion"?
2. To show compassion for another person we may need to do a few things in our hearts first. Two things I can think of are; FORGIVE one another in order to have compassion and or PRAY for one another. What are some good passages from scripture that could help and encourage us in doing this?

Verses we talked about this past Sunday were:

• Matthew 5:46-48 on loving our enemies
• Matthew 9:35-37 on Jesus having "compassion" on them. Like sheep without a Sheppard
• John 4:7-27 on Jesus having compassion for the Samaritan woman
• John 8:1-11 on Jesus having compassion for the woman caught in Adultery
• Luke 23:34 on Jesus having forgiveness for those who were killing him.

Lets get a good discussion going on this topic.

-kyle

Compassion week

This week (10-16-11) we will be reading into the topic of compassion. I am very excited to explore a small bit of this topic, because i think that God is really going to speak into our lives this sunday and we will have immediate application with this topic for our lives.

We will be looking into the gospels and jumping around throughout all of them, looking at stories of Jesus' compassion and how that played out. We will look at how the way we show compassion may be a "law breaker" when it comes to the worlds standards of showing compassion and who we should show it to.

So come prepared with pure hearts and ready for God's word to speak to us as we read and discuss together a pretty sweet topic.

-kyle

OKAY THIS WEEK IS LUKE AND JOHN FOR SURE!!!

So this Sunday we WILL be finishing up talking about Luke and John's gospels and throwing in a little activity at the end and THEN we will begin Jesus stories and His character the following week.

HERE IS THE RECAP OF MATTHEW AND MARK FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT:

                 MATTHEW                                                                 MARK

Style:    He writes as a TEACHER                                          Writes like an action story teller

Goals:  To prove Jesus as Messiah                                         Shows Jesus is AWESOME! shows His ministry

To Whom:  To the Jewish                                                       Gentile/Roman 

Matthew has things such as genealogies, Old Testament cross references and background that educated Jewish people would be able to relate with and understand upon hearing.

Mark writes on behalf of Peter who actually knew Jesus and walked with Him. He writes with stories and physical things that Jesus did to show that He was the Son of God. Things that people (the gentiles) would be able to grasp and understand upon hearing.

SEE YOU SUNDAY!!

Luke and John's Good News

This week we will be continuing our discussion and learning about the last two gospels according to Luke and then John.

Last week was really good and I'm glad that we are getting through this stuff in two weeks now so that it can soak in. Getting to know the simple backgrounds of each gospel and the writing styles and the history involved is great to always keep on the back burner while reading through the accounts of Jesus' life.

Prayer this past week was amazing!

Keep in mind who we are....we are the Church! We are the children of God called to come together for one another! We will ALWAYS carry one another's burdens and ALWAYS share all that we can with one another. There is no reason why we should be sitting in a room with people that are overwhelmed with sadness and at the same time people that are overwhelmed with gladness...we ought to come together and life one another up! And I'm so stoked that that is what we began to do last week with a time of prayer for the needs that were going on in that room! God honors obedience and I'm really proud of this group.

9/11

This Sunday we will be coming together to begin our look at the life of Christ! I'm stoked about it and I hope you guys are too. We will be looking into all 4 gospels this Sunday and through out the next 4 weeks or so we will be in and out of them looking at Jesus and His life, character, and how we can be more like Him.

Last Sunday we talked about "striving for peace" and striving for "holiness" for without which we will not see the Lord. Looking at the life of Christ is gonna be THE answer for these things. Looking at the way He had peace, showed love, and was holy, and how He interacted in this world is going to show us PEACE and HOLINESS!

So I'm excited to explore these things together and strive together as a people of God that want to understand God and His mission to us (to be holy and like Him) and to aid in our walk in this world of being a light to those around us. 

Hebrews 10 and Guilt

You guys,
Today was a great group. I really felt that the Holy Spirit was moving in our conversation and wanting some healing to take place! And that's awesome! Some pretty awesome things were brought up and dealt with using this passage to encourage us to remain in the faith, and remain in God's promises to us, and remain guiltless in our issues and know that He is forgiving, strengthening, and loving.
If we have anything we want to go into with this chapter and with the talk we had today...let's do it here!

I was so encourage today.

THIS SUNDAY 8-14-11

Okay guys,
 This Sunday we will be doing some good stuff with Hebrews 10. We are going to be in a more discussion style group this week (instead of lecture feeling) and we will be going through some good stuff together and tying in what we have learned the past few weeks with the text.

I'm super stoked on this group you guys...every one of you make this what it is and it's really awesome and i'm glad for everyone in this group. This is what we make it! So come willing to give it your all and ask and speak whatever and whenever with no shame and this will be super beneficial.

We'll see you guys Sunday!!!

The Day of Atonement and Jesus makin it all good!

Alright guys, I wanted to create a place where we can continue discussion and talk back and forth in hopes to answer and further excite this group on the Word. This is a place where we can bring up questions that we forgot or didn't feel lead to bring up in the group on Sunday's and here we can say it how ever we want.

So let's start this off with last Sunday's topic of priesthood and sacrifices and all that good stuff.

If you guys haven't read Leviticus 16 (day of atonement) and Hebrews chapter 10 (Christs sacrifice once and for all) then go ahead and do that.

            So what's up? What are you guys thinking about?

                             Let's get this discussion going.

                                           After reading these two chapters and referring back to your notes...What connections are we making? What things are stirring up in us on this topic?