Student Spotlight - Jose Quezada

Hey my name is Jose Quezada this week has been a blessing in the making, God has worked in great ways for me this week. Though I have had some speed bumps on my journey this week God was there to show me how to overcome it not only by myself but with Him also. This Wednesday at CSM God worked through Ryan Weber amazingly, Ryan said everything that I needed to hear and it was no coincidence. This past CSM was on Luke 10:30-37 (NASB) a.k.a the Good Samaritan. At first I had no idea how this could apply to me, but as Ryan went on discussing the story and breaking it down I realized how big this story relates to the week I am having so far. I learned to not only apply the Christian life at church but everywhere. This week I tried so hard to define the Christian lifestyle to accommodate me, but God has planned otherwise. When Ryan was talking about not defining the Christian life to our standards but to the Lord’s standard, it hit me. We all try to define our Christian life to the point where we only act that way when it is in our favor.  A lot of us students try to keep our religion to ourselves and maybe share it with a couple of close friends, God wants us to expand our religion to all those who are broken and weak.  God wants us to help those who are in need and are broken, because that is what Jesus loved to do when he came to earth. We as students need to get invested in our community and spread the word of Jesus, as Ryan so nicely put it, do not just get involved from behind the fishbowl, but jump into the ocean, it might seem scary but Jesus will always be there so that we do not drown. Wednesday‘s message talked about showing compassion to others, and help all who need it, then I realized that in our society today we are not the good Samaritan but the priest and the Levite. It made me realize and hopefully others too, that we can’t just stand by and not do anything because a lot of these world issues are occurring in our own back yard, and the statistics were frightening. We the students need to go out there and help our neighbors, by neighbors I mean all those who are broken, all those who are lost, all those who are weak, we cannot just stand aside and let these problems go on while we turn our backs. If we want to get involved we need to have the initiative to take action. Ryan’s sermon was incredible because I don’t know if it was just me but it hit close to home and to my heart. CSM was incredible as always those who are reading this and have not yet taken that initiative to come, don’t be nervous because it is awesome. God Bless.

Hole In Our Gospel Journey - Week 1

What a great start to the Hole In Our Gospel series at CSM.  Will did a fantastic job in opening up our eyes to the needs of the world around us.  I know it's difficult at times to think through all that stuff, that these sorts of things happen and are happening now on a daily basis.  Here are some of the stats that were mentioned last night:

• Close to 1 Billion people do not have access to clean water
• A child dies every five seconds due to starvation
• It would cost $30 billion dollars per year to eliminate world hunger.  The United States spends $100 billion dollars per year on Christmas alone
• 400,000 people have been killed in the last five years from the genocide in Darfur, Sudan
• There are currently 27 million slaves (most are shipped as sex-traffickers and child-laborers)

It is tempting for us to look at these statistics and get overwhelmed, and I guess that was partly the point of yesterday's message: to overwhelm you with the need in the world. 

So I would encourage you to come next week, on October 20th, we'll be talking about not just being people of intention, but people of action.  Invite a friend to come, they will want to hear this message, all about challenging the church to BE the Church rather than just DO church.  So make sure you are here this next Wednesday, and continue to let God challenge you to greater things, and challenge us as The Cove Church to reach the broken, poor and hurting with His hope and life.


Also, the VIP Party was a huge success, be sure to invite friends to come so you can hang out, have some ice cream and you'll have a chance to win an iPod so bring tons of friends (the more you bring, the better your chances of winning).