Cove Student Ministries

Too Much Good Is Just Bad

2012-01-30T17:50:00.004-05:00

I hope there are some sushi fanatics reading this blog, because today we are talking about WHASSSAAAAABBBBBIIIII, more commonly known as wasabi.

You know what wasabi is, that green stuff you put in your soy sauce to dip sushi in. Now I love wasabi on my sushi. It is delicious, and the only reason to buy little slices of fish for $9 a roll (if you’re lucky). My father loves wasabi, my uncle, my cousins, but the only one who doesn’t LOVE wasabi is my brother. I mean, he likes it okay, but he doesn’t need it smothering every bite of his sushi or anything. However, one time in a desperate measure to fit in my brother made the claim, “I love wasabi,” he took a spoon full of wasabi threw it on his plate and added a splash of soy. The rest of my family looked at him like he was crazy and anxiously awaited what was surely about to be a youtube moment. My brother took his first piece dunked it in the “liquid” and took a big old bite. Instantly you could tell he hated it, but he was determined to not be proven a fool. He continued, and powered through that plate of sushi as my cousins and I watched in amazement and slight disgust. Tears poured out of his eyes as his body yelled, “STOP STOP!” and he choked as he pushed out the words, “mmm, it’s so…good”. I realized that this wasabi was literally killing my brother, I gave it a try and instantly hated it. My whole family gave it a taste and none of us asked for a second. That was the day it became clear, you in fact could have too much wasabi.

This stands true for all that the world has to offer. You can have too much of anything. See it isn’t that the wasabi was evil or bad by design. It is quite good in the right amounts, but too much of it is terrible and I would imagine takes years off your life (okay maybe not but can someone do a school project on this?). Like wasabi, there are many things in our lives that aren’t evil or displeasing to God, but too much of them can drive us away from God. Video games, TV shows, shopping, eating, friends, work, boyfriends, girlfriends, JUST ABOUT ANYTHING.

For instance, my wife Erin and I love to do TV show marathons. Now it’s not that the shows we watch are evil or of the devil, but seven straight hours of LOST is not the healthiest way to spend our time. Or football, nothing wrong with it, but is it really God honoring to spend 15 hours in a weekend watching football? I know there were whole weekends where the only prayers or praises towards God were about the Chicago Bears. That is not honoring to God. We need to make time to get away, alone, quiet and be with God. And sometimes the things of this world, good or bad, can hold us back from doing that.

I have also been held back by friends. Now, my friends in college were the best. They loved the Lord, they wanted to grow with Him, and we wanted to grow together. But there were days we spent 16 hours together and spent 0 hours with God. Too much of a good thing, is just bad.

Check out 1 Kings 19: 1-9. To better understand it you may need to read 1 Kings 18: 16-46. Think about some of these questions…

When Elijah was hurting and depressed, what did he do? How does it help? Is it possible for us to do what Elijah did?

When you don’t spend that time with God, what do you do instead (let’s call it Activity X)? Why do you chose Activity X?

Can there be too much of Activity X? What happens when you “spend” too much time with Activity X?

Challenge: Look at Activity X and make a commitment that you will spend quiet, still, alone time with God before you ever start Activity X.

Update: Student Mission Trip to Jacksonville, Florida

2011-04-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

CSM currently has over 40 people in Jacksonville, Florida, working to share the love of Christ through serving others.

A few highlights from the team are below:

* High school students having been working with a local church to help renovate an older homeless shelter. They did demolition work on the shelter’s porch, as well as scraped, primed and painted it.

*Middle School students worked to prime and paint two houses in the area.

* Great Bible studies are happening each day, with students studying and learning together.

February Updates!!

2011-02-24T13:14:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone!

What an incredible week we’ve been having in CSM! It was a huge privilege to be able to work with Justin Griesinger on the message for this week, he did a fantastic job and I know there are so many proud people of this awesome man of God. He definitely has great things in store for him.
He talked about the need for having a brother/sister who will keep you accountable for your relationship with God, maintaining your walk with Him and staying upright. He talked about the story of David and his adulterous and murderous affair with Bathsheba. He tried everything he could to hide his actions but had a brother in the prophet Nathan who cared more about David’s relationship with God than pleasing the king, or even his own friendship with David. Through Nathan’s guidance, David was brought back into a right relationship with God and was set on the right course again. Justin’s challenge to us was to find our Nathan, find that person who we can share everything to and we know they are going to give us Godly advice to bring us back into right standing with God. So I would encourage, find your Nathan, or maybe be a Nathan for someone and see how God blesses that friendship!

Also, there is some incredible news about the CSM charity: water campaign! The campaign is complete and I looked at our campaign webpage and… (remember the goal was $5,000 for one well), our final total was $12,257.51!!! What a huge outpouring of love to the people who are desperate for water, we have forever changed the lives of over 600 people! AWESOME!!!!! So proud of you guys!

Remember, no CSM next week so we will see you back on March 9th for the start of a new series called “Common Senses!” Enjoy the cloudy skies and let’s go out and change ourselves, our schools, families, friends for the name of Jesus Christ!!

Incredible End to Incredible Year

2010-12-20T16:21:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to briefly talk about the night we had last week at The Christmas Extravaganza last week. The Student Ministry staff and team members were praying for over 300 students to enter into the doors for the night. We have averaged around 230 for the year and thought 300 would be a great goal to shoot for during the service.

We had 349!!

I knew people were going to come to Christ during the night. I go into a message with that expectation every time I get up to preach. But the thought hit me while Greg and Lisa were playing "O Come Let Us Adore Him," that this whole night could be about ONE person coming to Christ. What a beautiful thing God would ordain, that an entire night be dedicated to one special person to change their life for eternity. Because each one is eternally valuable to God... so much so that His blood would have spilt for that one person alone. So I prayed for just one person to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ.

And 13 came to faith in Him!!

In short, God takes expectations and blows them out of the water. We should come to expect it from a big God to do HUGE things, almost to a point that it should become mundane. But time after time, I find myself placing limitations/expectations on God, and time after time, He shatters them. In the hands of God, everything is truly possible.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas, be sure to come and enjoy the Christmas Eve services at The Cove, invite your friends, it's going to be another incredible, eternity-shattering week.

No CSM until January 12th when we will kick off a series called Unlikely, and we will be talking through the life of Moses. You won't want to miss it!!! Let's take 349 and see how God blows that number up in 2011!!

Gearing Up for the Extravaganza!

2010-12-13T14:40:00.001-05:00

Wow!

That pretty much sums up my feeling from the Night of Worship last week at Student Ministries as well as my excitement going into the Christmas Extravaganza from 6:00-8:00 on December 15th. The band absolutely rocked, it was the loudest I've ever heard the auditorium on a Wednesday night for a Student Ministries event.

I got up to share what I thought was going to be a brief, 10-15 minute message, but God got a hold of the night. What was a planned, short devotion turned into a 40 minute, Holy Spirit experience that led to tears, inspiration and motivation for life-change by the end of the night. I challenged the students to desire to leave a legacy with their lives by pointing people to God's Son, it is not only a huge part of our mission statement here at The Cove ("Introduce Our Friends to Jesus), but it is our purpose as Jesus followers to be a witness to the ends of the earth as to what He has done.

I asked the students to think about friends that they knew who need Jesus Christ, and challenged them to write down their names and pin it to the cross we had in the back of the room. God wanted me to tell them, "If you bring your friends to church, I will bring them to Christ." So with that motivation in mind, I asked the students to respond, and respond they did:

In my desk drawer are all of these cards and I along with the Cove Church staff and volunteers are praying hard for these names.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do with this night on the 15th. God has placed a great message on my heart and I'm just putting the finishing touches on it now. If you are a student who regularly attends Student Ministries, remember these names that were placed on the cross, pray for them and bring friends to hear the message of Jesus Christ. If you are a parent, please be in prayer for this night as well as encourage your student to come, encourage your friend's children to come. I know that this will be a night that many students will look back on and remember as the day that God got a hold of them and with His eternal love, never let go.

Student Spotlight - Moriah McNeil

2010-11-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

Hello CSM, my name is Moriah McNeil and I am still reflecting on the amazing “Hole in Our Gospel" series. Over the past six weeks we have been challenged in so many ways to truly take our eyes off of ourselves, refocus, and make an impact in our world. Last week was no exception when Will called us all to action.

As the rich young ruler was challenged to go beyond the safe and secure life he had acquired, even though it was good, he couldn’t walk away from his “stuff." To me this story is one of the saddest moments in the gospel. (Luke 18:18-22) Will transitioned so dramatically our playing it safe life to an amazing performance on the balance beam. We all laughed when we saw him hanging on and barely moving his feet forward; however, isn’t that the way we often live our lives? Balance Beam is an incredible athletic event unlike any other. For a gymnast the skills themselves are not extremely difficult. If we could stand on the floor and perform them on a line they would be perfect every time. The balance beam becomes challenging when we have to perform these same skills on a four inch beam, four feet in the air. Add wearing a leotard into the mix and it gets really scary. Fear paralyzes you. That’s when you have to remember your foundation, remember your basics and trust your training. When I used to perform at gymnastics meets, I would always pray “ God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, strength, and a sound mind.” (II Tim 1:7) Then I would go, much like last week and even after not training on balance beam for over eighteen months—the foundation was still there. I believe if the rich young ruler would have relied on God instead of his other god (stuff) he would have changed the world.
But there is more to the story, continue reading, verses 24-30 illustrate beautifully how sad this picture of the rich ruler was to Jesus and his understanding of how hard it is for the rich (that’s us) to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The comforting words of verse 27 should be our foundation. “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”. If he is truly our cornerstone, our life, our reason for being; then stepping out in faith will not only become easier, it will become our greatest reward. (v30)

How do you let go of the beam and step out into your Olympic sized dreams? Practice and train, soak in the word of God, step out of your comfort zone, put on your serving towel and wash some feet, give up your stuff, open up your life to his will, and don’t let the fear of anything stop you from trying. You might fall - rewind - you will fall, I did! But you get back up and you perform for an audience of One!

So let go of the beam, flip, jump, dance, fly. God wants to make your life a perfect 10.

Love in Christ,

Moriah

Student Spotlight - Justin Griesinger

2010-11-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

Hello my name is Justin Griesinger and CSM this week was absolutely amazing! All the people that came, the new smiling faces, and the powerful message! What else can you truly ask for? God really moved in a big way as a eight students came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!! God is great! This week was the combination of week four and five of The Whole In Our Gospel series it was about how Christians in America need to stop following the American Dream and follow Jesus. America today says that the key to success is how much money you make, how cool your car is, how big your house is, or what clothes you wear. Gods way is the way to go! We talked about Mark 12:41-44, this is about the poor widow that put in all she had to give to Jesus and he said to everyone she was the one who gave the most. Mark 12:43-44, "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on.'" The other people who were wealthy put more money but they didnʼt give until it hurt like the widow did. She was living with audacious faith like Steven Furtick talks about in his latest book Sun Stand Still. Audacious faith is having total faith in God and standing for him with no fear, trusting that he will provide. I want to be known down the road as someone who had audacious faith. We need to learn that the money we get isnʼt our money at all, it is Godʼs money. This brings me to helping the people who arenʼt as fortunate as us. Lets face it, even as teenagers with a part time job if you make 100 dollars a week you are still in the top 15 percent of the world in annual income. That is 75 percent of the worlds population below even teenagers with part time jobs. Our challenge for the week was to give something up whether it be not going out for coffee to not buying that new video game to help someone! The students of CSM are deciding to do something about it we are sponsoring a well for children who donʼt have clean drinking water through charity: water. So far we are around 30 percent there and have 70 percent more to go! To be honest I wasnʼt open to the series at first, but now I am ready to go out and change the world as a youth group and this is how we are doing it! I cannot wait to see what Will Kranz has to say next week in our last week of the Hole In Our Gospel series. I want to invite you next week to come to CSM if you havenʼt been before! It is one of the highlights of my week coming to CSM and its something I always look forward to! Love you guys! God Bless yʼall!

Justin

Student Spotlight - Jose Quezada

2010-10-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-14T15:09:00.000-04:00

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).

Last Night at CSM!

2010-09-30T08:33:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

Sitting here reminiscing a little about last night at Student Ministries! What an incredible night God gave all of us. We had NINE people raise their hands to either pray to receive Christ or rededicate their lives to Him!! I'm so amazed at just how incredibly powerful the Gospel of Jesus Christ is.

Yesterday, God allowed us to bring back the wonderful game of dodgeball, it was awesome to watch you all get pegged :) Though, not going to lie... I got pegged a fair share myself. Also, the ping-pong table is downright legit... any challengers just let me know, I will beat you down.

We talked about proving the faith we have in Jesus by the good works that we do. If we have a saving faith in Christ, it should be shown by the good things that we do. So often, when we think about things we need to do for Christ, our minds automatically go to the huge things: save my school, start a church, launch an orphanage in Africa. I am a firm believer that God has given each and every one of us a divine purpose... He's saved us for a reason. There is something huge that God wants to do through you. But that huge work needs practice. That's why our deeds need to start small. Just like Daniel-son had to start by "wax-on, wax-off" and Nate has to start by climbing stairs before running a marathon, we have to serve our family, our friends and our church well if we are going to fulfill the huge purpose that God has destined for us.

So think today how you can serve those around you... I mean really serve. We talked about how Jesus knelt down and washed His disciples' feet, a job for the slave of slaves. How can you be that type of servant to those around you today?

Keep inviting people to CSM and MiPods!! God is doing some incredible things and everyone deserves to be a part of it!

Reminder! No CSM or First Wednesday next week!! So make sure you come on October 13th for the start of our church-wide series called "The Hole in Our Gospel," it's going to be awesome. Love you guys, see you this weekend!

Thursday Always Comes

2010-08-26T11:09:00.002-04:00

Wow! What an amazing night we had at CSM last night! I honestly went into the night not expecting that. I was so thrilled with the feeling that I think the entire group had as we left the auditorium after the service was over. I just felt like there has been some sort of beautiful breakthrough within our group, like something is going to be different now. I think all of us came away from last night with a desire to do, be and say more for Christ on behalf of the Invisibles around us.

But Thursday always comes, a time to put our intentions into practice, our desires into footsteps, our hopes into reality. I have prayed for all of you today heading off to school that you would be given the boldness to stand out for Christ. To join with Jesus on His mission to "seek and save the lost." Coming away from a night like last night and seeing no tangible results makes last night completely wasted. Touch an invisible today.

Love you guys, see you next week for First Wednesday!!

Middle School Film Festival

2010-08-16T17:38:00.003-04:00

Hey Guys!

Wanted to remind you about the Middle School Film Festival coming up on Friday September 3rd at 7:00! The movie has to be under 5 minutes long, it can be about anything your imagination is capable of and you have to send me the video by August 27th so I can see it before we flash it on the big screen. We'll have food and really corny prizes to give you so try extremely hard!!

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail at rweber@covechurch.org. See you guys on Wednesday!!

Middle School Film Festival from Cove Student Ministries on Vimeo.

Back to School Bash!

2010-08-02T12:52:00.002-04:00

Hey Guys!

Wanted to let you guys know about an AWESOME opportunity coming up on AUGUST 2Oth AT 7:00 at the Mooresville campus at The Cove. Our Back to School Bash is going to absolutely rock this year.

We're going to have a ton of inflatables and games in the atrium and the smaller auditoriums with as much food as you can possibly fit into your stomachs.

Marion Karr is going to be delivering the message for the night, if you haven't ever met Marion before, he is such an awesome guy. You'll be better for hearing him speak, I guarantee that.

And to wrap us up, we are going to have KJ52 come and perform for us (check out his website). If you've been anywhere around The Cove for the past couple months, I'm sure you have heard his awesome dance song called the Tweezy dance, you can watch and listen here.

So invite your friends, this is going to be an event you will not want to miss... AUGUST 20TH AT 7:00!!!

Hola from Costa Rica!

2010-07-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

Hola from Costa Rica! We're not sure when this will be posted, but we are writing this Monday night after two full days in Costa Rica. After we landed and went through Customs, we boarded a bus to Playa Junquillal, or the beach. Once we got settled in our hotel, Tatanka, we explored the beach, swam in the waves and the pool, and played some Ultimate Frisbee. After dinner, we had Late Night. Now, Late Night is a time for the group to bond by playing games and just doing crazy stuff. After Late Night, we had worship and small groups. Each group has about eight people and we use that time to talk about our devotion/quiet time with God.

Te following day was all about the beach. More Ultimate Frisbee, along with some soccer, sand fights, and lots and lots of riding/ tumbling/ body/ surfing / screaming/ laughing/ nearly drowning in the waves. It was a day full of fun and laughter, but by the end of the day, we were all exhausted.

Monday, today, was bus day! There were curvy roads, curvy roads, oh and more curvy roads! Once we arrived at the camp, two groups went into town to invite people to the Revally on Saturday. We asked shop owners if we could put posters advertising the concert that will be taking place on Saturday.

Right now, everyone is preparing for our day in the Indian village where we will be doing VBS. Please pray for us to be able to communicate with the kids and teach them about the love of Jesus Christ. Later on in the week, on Wednesday and Thursday, we will be at a different location for VBS. Friday is free day and Saturday is our Revally day.

As we go through our week in Costa Rica, pray for safety, open hearts of the Costa Ricans and ourselves, and especially for God's love to be seen through us.

Buen Dia!
From Hannah and Taylor: Your Official Costa Rica Correspondees

Come and Listen

2010-07-12T15:59:00.001-04:00

Excited to start blogging again! Hope you are all having an awesome summer and are wearing enough SPF to keep you looking chicly tan. We’ve got a lot of awesome things coming up as the summer moves forward so make sure you keep updated by coming to CSM on Wednesday nights and checking out the blog and CSM website.

This Wednesday, we are talking about things that stink… good and bad… so you don’t want to miss it. Invite a friend so they can stink with you.

I don’t know about you guys, but there are a lot of times through the course of my walk with Christ where it feels like God is just not there, or He feels at least a thousand miles away. You know God is real, you love Him, you go to church, you serve, but you just can’t feel is presence. I think these times can be the most frustrating times for a Christian, trying to move forward when you just feel stuck.

But what I’ve learned this week is that God never moves, He may hide His face from us for a bit, but He never leaves. That truth puts the ball in our court. We have to come to Him, whether it’s through prayer, bible reading, singing, just being in His presence. Then we have to listen. And this is so hard. To just shut up, turn our televisions off, switch our iPods off, stop texting in the middle of our quiet time and just let God speak to us.

I would challenge you, if you do feel far away from God right now or if you’ve never heard the voice of God speaking directly to you, come to Him and listen. You’ll be surprised at what you hear.

Vertical Element 2010

2010-06-16T17:26:00.004-04:00

Hey guys! Soooo, if you've been hiding under a rock and you haven't heard of Vertical Element, then you need to peek out and look at the sun for a second. Then, after your eyes stop watering and your vision has been restored, watch this awesome video! After that, you will need to sign up for VE because if you've been hanging out under a rock, then your skin is probably a tad pasty, and VE will fix that.

Here's some basic info:

It’s a weekend retreat for students at Camp Longridge, SC that you won’t want to miss! Come to connect, get motivated and leave energized to follow God.

Middle School Vertical Element
July 23-25, 2010
Early Bird Registration: $60 (by 6/21)
Regular Registration: $75 (by 7/19)

High School Vertical Element
August 6-8, 2010
Early Bird Registration: $60 (by 7/5)
Regular Registration: $75 (by 7/26)

So sign up!!! Go to http://www.covechurch.org/events for more info.

Middle School Updates

2010-03-10T10:25:00.003-05:00

Hey Dudes,

Looking forward to an awesome night at CSM tonight, the message is called "Game Plan." We're going to be talking about what kind of person we are supposed to look for when we start dating. Very cool stuff... Disney princess will make her appearance tonight too.

We've got our Dodgeball tournament coming up on Friday, March 26th. Please be ready to be pegged by the sheer force of my biceps. It's two dollars at the door and you have to register online so we know how much pizza to order. So go to www.covechurch.org, under the Programs tab and the Events/Registration link to sign up for that. And remember the 5 D's of dodgeball... Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge :)

See you all tonight!

This Week at CSM

2010-02-25T11:03:00.004-05:00

Hey Guys!

We had an awesome night last night... major props to Madison and Jeffrey for the sweet skit... I went home and had some ice cream because of you.

Reminder, we've got the basketball tournament at Monticello School in Statesville, I don't mean to bash on David "The Rain Maker" Porter, but my threes will be falling all day. Hope you can make it out there on Saturday at 11:00.

No CSM this next Wednesday due to First Wednesday, but we'll pick it back up on March 10th when we continue our sex series. Be sure to invite your friends, I've been looking forward to this third week for a while so it's going to be great.

By the way, I'm so glad the banana pudding was eaten yesterday, that made my day :) Guys, you need to work on your banana passing skills.

Sex at CSM!

2010-02-15T18:14:00.002-05:00

It's what everybody sees in the media, what almost everybody is pressured to do in some way and what barely any church is comfortable enough to talk to you about: SEX and we're diving into it for the next four weeks at CSM.

So I challenge you to invite some friends, make your parents come and listen, because you don't want to miss this. In Mooresville, Brett is going to be talking to the High Schooler's, Ryan will be talking to the Middle Schooler's and in Statesville, David's got the ball.

It's going to be a great night so I hope to see you there!

VOLT!

2010-02-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

Hey Guys, here is the VOLT that I did for today. Hope this helps you get started! Remember, a great place to start is the book of John, he's awesome. Just post your VOLT's on the comment section of this post!

Verse – Esther 2:10, “Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.”

Own Words/Observation – Esther was a Jewish woman who was in captivity in the Persian empire, she was being brought before King Xerxes so he could see if she was beautiful enough to be his queen (it sounds like Xerxes was a jerk). Mordecai was her cousin and he raised her as if she were his daughter. Mordecai wanted Esther to show she worshipped God before saying she worshipped God, wanted her actions to speak louder than her words. I thought this verse was interesting because it taught me that sometimes God will want us to wait to reveal the fact that we are a Christian until we have been able to gain the respect of the people around us. Once we are able to gain a relationship and have people see how cool we are as people, we can then show them that we are a Jesus follower and they will be more open to listening to us. Let them see our actions and how this points to Jesus. I also learned that we need to listen to the people who are put in positions of authority, even if we might not understand why they tell us to do something. If they fear God, they are looking out for our best.

Live It – There are a few people in my life that I have a hard time accepting commands from, but if they are my authority, I need to listen and obey what they tell me. Also, I’m going to go to Colorado in March to tell my cousin Adam about Jesus. I think I need to spend some time with him just being his friend before I start talking to him about his faith.

Talk to God – Dear God, help me to listen to the people who are in authority in my life. Sometimes listening and doing what they ask is hard but I pray I can be humble enough to do that. I also pray for my talk with Adam coming up in March, I pray that I can show him Jesus by my actions before I tell him about Jesus. I want him to see what an awesome life it is to be able to follow Jesus. Help me find the right time to finally sit down with him and share the gospel of Your Son. Thank you for this story of Esther, it’s taught me a lot so far. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

First Post!!

2010-02-09T17:06:00.000-05:00

First CSM blog post in the history of CSM! Well, except for the test post… dang it. I’m excited to be able to keep in touch with you students as well as parents about what is going on in CSM. This will just be a place to update you with more information about what’s going on, recap what has already happened, and give you an opportunity to get into our crazy minds as we go through our week getting everything ready for you guys!

We’ve got CSM tomorrow night and we’re wrapping up our series called Hooked, dealing with temptation. If you missed last meeting, you missed an awesome night, virtually everyone came up to the cross and gave Jesus a sin they’ve been struggling with. Check out this video from Audio Adrenaline, this song is what was going through my mind as we were all up at the cross, a great picture of what happens when we give our sins to Jesus.

What an awesome thing to be a part of. You don’t want to miss it tomorrow, invite some friends, and then make them get up for games and embarrass themselves :)

Random Ryan thing today: my sister tried to tell me yesterday that I was bomb… but it came out Bob Dob. I was like, “Who the heck is Bob Dob? My name is Ryan.” So now whenever I want to tell somebody that they’re awesome, I’m going to use the phrase Bob Dob, it will become the next new phenomenon. Just watch.

I think I’m all ready for tomorrow, excited to see you guys. I gotta admit, I’m a little tired of staring at this computer, my eyes are bugging out of my head, so I’m going to log off and go find some grub to eat. See you all tomorrow!