Monday, April 05, 2010
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Sunday, Sept 5, No Core due to holiday. Bring your Fall Retreat waiver and $150 to Merge Sun, 9/5, 11am.
Wed, Sept 8, Weds @ Westover begins. 6:30-8pm. Fall Retreat deadline!! Form on left.
Sundays @ 11am, MERGE in Core room Café.
Fall Retreat is Sept 24-26. Brochure to the left under FORMS. Deadline 9/8.
Subscribe to our TEXTING program! Link below. Students ONLY please:
https://secure.symt.us/subscribes?key=8992aa405006ff4509ccd84c8df3024f%3A4f6feb4b730dc1ee5c361763e21ff3a0%3Ad448da3672ffd8eb081f4687a20ebe21%22%3eSign
The David Crowder Band is coming back to Westover! Thurs, Oct 21. Go to www.westoverchurch.com for more info and tickets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from the August 2010 Newsletter...
We believe the most important thing we do in high school ministry happens within our small groups. Though we value our large group time at The Core, it is in our small group communities where important connection happens, both among one another as well as with the Lord.
We want all students to be in a small group without having to worry about extra-curricular activities interfering. We want you to be able to spend un-hurried time with the people in your small group, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do that on Wednesday nights.
There needs to be a change. Change can be hard. It can be scary, uncomfortable and sometimes lead people to divide. But have you ever sensed when change could be a good thing? Or have you sensed God wants change but you are not sure what it is? Well, that is where I feel like we are as a youth ministry. So, yes I am nervous and uncomfortable about busting up routine but confident that God is in this.
We sense His leading to move all small groups to Sunday nights and move our large group gathering to Wednesday nights.
Aside from the fact that we want every student to have the opportunity to be involved in a small group, we also sense a need for a change in our large group setting. This will not be "The Core on Wednesday nights." When do we have an opportunity to serve in our own community? When do we have opportunities to serve one another? There isn't currently space in our large group setting for these types of things.
It is time for us as a youth group to make the space. It is time to create an environment where God can speak, and we can actually, corporately, listen. It is time for us to take the heart of our summer mission projects and spill them out all over Greensboro as well as those in our own church. We want Wednesday nights to be that time: to dig deeper into his Word and to embrace what it says by living it out. We want to move from being just a youth ministry to being youth IN ministry.
Our transition will happen after Labor Day Weekend. Our first Wed. night large group gathering will be on Sept. 8th. Our first night of small groups will be Sunday night Sept. 12.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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1 Cor 6:17-20
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. ESV
Prov 25:28
A man (or woman) without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Song of Solomn 2:7
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
Prov 12:18
There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Prov 31:30
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Phil 4:19-20
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Eph 5:31-33
As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Prov 4:23
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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Merge - Sundays 11am (Cafe of S001): The purpose of this class is to integrate students into what we believe God is doing in our youth ministry & church. This class is not to replace attending the Core, big church or serving on Sunday morning. We want new students to have a place where they are introduced to others and challenge everyone to find their place of service on Sunday morning. The class will involve a video driven curriculum and will be discussion oriented. Have questions? contact Carol Edmiston
cedmiston@triad.rr.com
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
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John started a series called "Healthy Dating" this week at the Core. Here are a few notes from his talk:
Eph 5:21-25
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her ….. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself… 31 As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband
PAUSE – seeing my marriage as a covenant union with Emily 2 quick things – security with her – we will not leave each other – we walk thru life together – we share so much – that has enhanced our physical oneness.
HOW????? Your Union with Christ gives you everything you need to WAIT and BE PATIENT and be CONTENT until you get married.
STRONG WORDS OF PAUL: out of concern!!
1 Cor. 6:16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
If you are taking advantage of someone that is a believer – touching them… Jesus is right there! They are a temple of God – how does that make you feel?
Thursday, March 04, 2010
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v DESCRIPTION OF MESSAGE TO MASK
We hear different messages throughout our lives, and sometimes certain ones stick. They make us feel something, usually something shameful, and so we end up believing something about ourselves that isn’t true. When we deal with things about ourselves that we want to hide, what do we do? We put up a mask.
v Mask of PERFORMANCE
Ø Message: My dad isn’t excited about a new baby.
Ø Feeling: Rejected.
Ø Belief: I was worthless.
Ø Mask: I have to earn my worth with PERFORMANCE.
v Mask of STRENGTH
Ø Message: My dad regularly forgot to tuck me in at night, come home for dinner, or remember anything I had going on.
Ø Feeling: Forgotten and alone.
Ø Belief: I’m invisible.
Ø Mask: I don’t need anyone. I AM STRONG.
v Mask of RESPONSIBILITY
Ø Message: You’re not important enough to take care of even though I’m the only adult in your life.
Ø Feeling: Unloved.
Ø Belief: I’m the only person who can take care of me and my sister.
Ø Mask: I AM RESPONSIBLE.
v Mask of INDEPENDENCE
Ø Message: My dad doesn’t care about my best but his best.
Ø Feeling: Angry.
Ø Belief: I wasn’t wanted.
Ø Mask: I don’t need you. I’m INDEPENDENT.
v Mask of BEING BETTER THAN YOU.
Ø After my father left for a year and a half, I was so good at my masks that I didn’t feel abandoned; I felt sorry for him and better than him.
Ø Message: He doesn’t care about me.
Ø Feelings: I don’t care about him!
Ø Belief: I’m a great daughter and a great person, and you’re stupid to let this slip away.
Ø Mask: I’m BETTER THAN YOU.
v THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Ø Psalm 63:7 But the more I thought about it and the more the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I realized how significant that verse was to me. God is my help, and because of that, I can sing and experience joy all while being hidden in the protection of God, not hidden by my masks. He had protected me my entire life, and for whatever reason he chose to do that, I was so humbled and overwhelmed with how much He loved me. It was after that that I started to identify my masks, take them off, and replace them with truth.
v THE PROCESS OF REMOVAL
Ø We all wear masks. Identifying one mask or one problem doesn’t make everything better, just like my dad leaving didn’t take all the hurt away with him. There’s a fear of taking off masks because you’re afraid you’ll lose who are, but the truth is that you become more like Jesus.
Ø First, you have to have an attitude of humility.
Ø Second, when do you feel unsettled, angry, or defensive? INVESTIGATE.
Ø Third, remember that lies lose their power when you call them out as lies.
Friday, February 26, 2010
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If you have been at the Core you know that there was a collection for Kelly's run for Haiti. Well, Kelly and her friends were in the paper this week! Check it out.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
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Verses from Sunday's Core:
2 Cor 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ….
ESV
"Of Benjamin he said,
May the beloved of the Lord
Dwell in security by Him
who shields him all the day
and he dwells between His shoulders."
Deut. 33:12
Ways to help with Haiti relief:
The is a POD at the Home to Home house that is open 8-5 daily except on Sunday (1-5pm) We will only have until Friday February 12, 2010 to collect these items for shipment.
Items needed: PRIORITY IS SHELTER (TENTS AND MATS)
Enclosed Camping Tents – 2, 4, 6 or 8 man Sleeping Cots Lightweight Sleeping Bags / Ground Pad (not air mattress) Tarps Food: No can goods - Haitians will not eat can goods – no way to open – adds to trash – bugs THE ACCEPTABLE FOOD SUPPLIES ARE: Cooking oil, Bags of dry rice, Bags of dry beans, Hard Plastic dishes for orphanages (no soft plastic) Medical supplies – bandages, antibiotics, Neosporin etc
You can also bring your spare change to the Core and drop it in the marked water cooler!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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Two Room:
Analogy of the way we live = 2 different rooms
Receive Christ – places you on this path…
Fork in the road – chose one and it leads you to the room of Good intentions (host gives you a mask)
PLEASE GOD PATH – make him happy with me
COME TO THE DOOR: plate that says: “Striving to be all God wants me to be”
I am going to try hard and then I will be able to be intimate with God
OVER THE DOOR KNOB: “self effort” – God helps those who help themselves
Walk in and HOSTESS comes to you with a BIG smile: “welcome to the room of good intentions”
EVERYONE IN THE (full of people) ROOM – smiling, laughing, hey how are you… I am fine?! Then someone comes up to you and asks how are you? Before answering the hostess says shhhhh – and hands you a mask. LIKE DISNEY.
Explore in the room and you notice a theme or banner – written in different places – “shamed into hiding”… you must measure up to be close to Christ. You must deal with your sin before you are to be close to Christ
Students many of you – believe in Jesus but you have so much shame – you feel inwardly flawed – something is WRONG with you and all you know to do is PUT ON A MASK – I am guilty!
List different masks…
- “I’m happy” mask
- “I’m better than most” mask
- “I’m a victim of others” mask
- “I don’t care” mask
- “I am very important” mask
- “I am the expert” mask
- “I am not hurt” mask
- “I am the funny guy” mask
- “I am the partier” mask
- “I have the answers” mask
- “I am independent” mask
- “I am cool” mask
- “I have self confidence mask”
- “I will just please others” mask
- “I am calm, just carry on” mask
- “I am perfect” mask
I PUT them on – wear them – for safety and the masks become apart of us
I have to stay loved… I can’t let others see me struggle… I feel so flawed… Jesus is far away.
Shame motivates… same word for shame = anxiety. Shame also keeps you in addictions.
Stumble back to the fork of the road try a different path
There is a new path – and a new room – leave the old room and hear a new VOICE and THEME
Tired, stressed, get real
Come to a door
Plate on the door that says: Living out who God says that I am
Above the door knob – says humility
Hostess says welcome to the Room of Grace
Another room full of people. I cant do this – fake it… lie about everything is ok… as you began to storm out you hear a voice that says “you will fit in just fine here”
There is a garbage can by the door you came in that catches your eye – in the garbage cans are masks. The hostess is actually collecting masks and disposing them.
Banner – Standing with God who takes away my shame and intimately helps me live this life/ deal with sin together
Table set- set for royalty - so inviting – you start to head that way – and a powerful story comes to mind
COVENANT DAVID MADE WITH JONATHAN
2 Samuel 9
v. 1 And David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" ….v.3 Ziba said to the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet." 4 The king said to him, "Where is he?" And Ziba said to the king, "He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar." (SHAME/pastureless) 5 Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 6 And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, "Mephibosheth!" And he answered, "Behold, I am your servant." 7 And David said to him, "Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always." (HONOR AND SECURITY) 8 And he paid homage and said, "What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog (SHAME) such as I?" 9 Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, "All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson. 10 And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall always eat at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king, "According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do." So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the king's sons. 12 And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants.
ESV
Friday, January 08, 2010
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· John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
· Narrow Minded?
· What do college students have to say about it?
· Not narrow minded it its right!
· How do we know Bible is right?
· If word of God then…
o Consistent
o Revered
o Best Seller
o Accessible
o Works
o Longevity
o Unique
· # Sold
o Book of Mormon 140 million = 25ft (from Mormon Times 08)
o Quran 800 million = 143 ft
o Bible 6 billion = 1,071ft
· Most Translated
o Quran 47 full, 67 partial, 114 total (University of Penn)
o Book of Mormon 83 full, 25 partial, 108 total (lds.org)
o Bible 392 full, 2287 total (biblica.com)
· Oldest
o Mormon – 1830 by Joseph A. Smith
o Quran – 610-630 by Muhammad’s companions (Encyclopedia Britannica)
o Bible – 1450 BC – 95 AD by 40 authors (allabouttruth.org)
§ ALL AGREE!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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Matthew 22:34-41 ESV But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
HOW? Do this? Love a God who judges me? ALWAYS LOOK AT THE AGREEMENT/ Covenant:
1. Backstory – look at the agreement OLD COVENANT
conditional love based on Sacrafices and works
Deut 6:5-6 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
2. Better agreement
Heb 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
Heb 8:8-9 For he finds fault with them when he says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah…
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
Heb 8:10-11 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds….
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
Heb 8:12,13
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more."
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.
And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
3. What Christ HAS DONE – the agreement between Jesus and the Father – the blood shed – HAS ALLOWED US TO HAVE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR THOSE IN CHRIST.
4. LOVE AND VALUE = the Same
$50 ILUSTRATION
· Creased, crumbled, stepped on – still worth $50
· You mess, struggle, give in to old addictions, pride = still worth max amount to Jesus – LOVES you
· GOD’s value/love is rooted in an agreement/ covenant =>unconditional LOVE
· EVERY SOUL LONGS FOR!
5. HOW do I love the Lord God with all my heart, soul and mind?
A. Mind – Listen you have control what goes in your mind – you may not believe that – set you mind on what is true about God’s loving relationship with you.
B. Transformed by the renewing of your mind
C. Know His presence with you is LOVING – ALL THE TIME!!! Is He grieved when you mess up – sure – but
that is different from ANGRY!
D. I will post some verses on our blog that you can let wash over you (westoverhighschoolministry.com)
6. HOW will you know? To love God is RESPOND to His love EVERY PART OF YOUR BEING!!1 (he Loved us first)--- LIVE --- BE A KID --- LAUGH --- FREE --- EYES OFF YOU--- ADDICTIONS GO AWAY ---LOVE YOURSELF---- BASK IN HIS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD… COOLEST VERSE IN THE WORLD IS
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
7. Spills out of you!!!!! Manure Illustration?
8. Aware and Unaware---- REFER BACK TO $50 bill… just like you would receive this 20 in a heart beat = HE WILL RECEIVE YOU!!!!