Archive for August, 2009

Hello everyone!

We started our new youth series tonight and it’s a little different than our normal series.  We are using a book to help look at a timeless truth from Philipians 4:8.  Tommy Newberry wrote an incredible book called The 4:8 Principle that helps us to shift the way we think to focus on positive things and not on negative things.

It’s amazing how much our thoughts control who we are and Paul really knew this.  When he wrote to the Philipians, he told them to think on the things that are good, true and praiseworthy.  Through this, we truly find the joy that God wants for us.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is that “Joy is not some distant destination that we want to get to, instead it’s a path that we choose to take every day.”   If we can focus on the positive things in our lives and “count our blessings” we will know an incredible joy that lasts.

If you want to see more of what we cover in this series, take a look on the right side in the youth sermons box and click on forrest gump, the 4:8 principle.  I will blog each week that we have a lesson and let you know what we covered.  It’s going to be an amazing series!

In HIM,
Gary

Ok, so today we had youth day at the lake, and just about everyone showed up.  It was insane.  We had to have three boats (all carrying 12 teens each) just to take us to the rope swing!  Plus we had at least 15-20 adults!  I think at one time we must have had 75 people there, it was AWESOME!

I’m not sure how you measure success in events like this, but I’m pretty sure we were off the charts in all catagories.  The kids had a tremendous time, we welcomed the rising 6th graders in, the food was incredible, the tubing was tons of fun, everything was just simply amazing!

But God is, isn’t he?  Simply Amazing!   What makes these events so incredible is that God is there with us and is what bonds each of us together.  Our love of Christ shows through when we love each other and put aside all differences and just spend great time together!

I want to thank the Goodings for opening up their house to all of us and the countless hours they spent making this event happen.  Thanks to all the adults that came and spent time with the teenagers just hanging out and watching them swim.  Thanks to Don and Greg and Jeff for driving the boats and most importantly, thanks to Christ for being there with us, giving us a beautiful day together, and helping us grow!

Pictures are up on the gallery at the top of the page.  I hope you take a moment to check them out!

Sincerely,
Gary