Weekly Update 3/28 ***New Opportunity***

Hey gang,
While there is nothing going on this Sunday for the youth program, we would still like to make sure that you know that you are invited to join us for Easter on the Hill. We will be having an awesome worship service beginning at 10:00am at Van Meter Auditorium on the campus of WKU. We hope you will join us.

Even more, we hope that you will help us take part in a ministry opportunity. We had previously been granted the opportunity to give postcards out to those kids who attended Potter Gray. However, someone raised issue with it and we now have a lot of postcards just sitting here in the office. So, we are calling on our youth to be the hands and feet of Christ and hand these suckers out. We want you guys to organize yourself with your family, or just your friends, and deliver these cards to people in the community. They do not have postage, which means they can't simply be put in mailboxes. They need to be handed out or left on doors. If you are interested please shoot me an e-mail (jared@bowlinggreenchristian.org) or give me  call in the office with how many cards you want to take and hand out. Let's be an example to the church and the community by showing the love of Christ and inviting others to accept the invitation of love that God has given to us!

Jared

3/28 Senior & Junior High Sunday School "Hosea"

Senior High-Steve Briggs, Junior High-John Baker

Introduction

Have the students get in two groups. They each will have one White-Out bottle and will be asked to go through an article laced with typographical errors. They are to change/erase anything that is wrong. At the end of the time, come together and see who caught the most errors.

Today, we are finishing our series on Hosea. We’ve covered a lot of material the last three weeks. We started out in Hosea 1, which showed us God telling Hosea to take for himself an adulterous wife. We find that the wife, Gomer, continued to cheat on him and we only know that Hosea is the father to one of the children that Gomer has. The next week we looked at Hosea 2—3, where God shows Hosea that the Israelites were quite like Gomer. They were supposed to be in a covenant relationship with God, but they had decided to suit their own interests and likings. At the end of the lesson, we see God instructing Hosea to go to Gomer, and to stick with her, telling her to turn from her ways. Last week was a little gloomy. We went through God’s speech to the Israelites, telling them about all the wrong that they had done to Him. We find that there are many parallels between the Israelites of that time, and the Church today.

Today, we are going to look at the final restoration that God has for the Israelites. See, God invented White-Out. He has, even with a huge list of transgressions, forgiving His people when they saw the error in their ways and repented. He sent His Son to die on the cross so that we can be forgiven, and that we can be made white as snow.

Lesson

Have the students get out their Bibles and turn to Hosea 11

Read Hosea 11:1-11

Take a look at verse nine. God knows His creation all too well. He knows that their first instinct when someone wrongs them is to go in anger towards the one who wronged them. God says, I’m not like you. I am holy. With this verse in mind, how do you view statements made by Christian conservatives who say that Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake were results of God’s wrath against people for not following Him?

Another lesson that we can take out of this verse is the fact that many people mold God into thinking exactly like they do. They want God to react in the same manner. God does not conform to our image of Him. He is holy and is not bound by human emotion or theories.

God, for the next two chapters resorts to calling out the Israelites for their wickedness and adultery against Him. However, these are a little different, because they are prefaced by the love of God. He wants to reiterate the fact that He always loved the Israelites. ALWAYS. He goes back to what they have done. Kind of a “I love you, and I want you to know that, but look what you have done to me”

Read Hosea 14:1-3

Hosea makes a plea to the Israelites. He tells them to ask God to forgive them, but also turns from their ways. Repentance is kind of a Christian-ese word. It’s something that we have said so many times but we rarely live it out. How many times do you ask for forgiveness but not do anything about it?

Read Hosea 14:4-8

Let’s go through and show the symbols that God uses there and say what they mean: Dew=Representation of a new day, Water to a dry heart. Green Pine Tree= Everlasting God

Read Hosea 14:9

This sounds a little like a proverb. Who are the people who are stumbling in the ways of the Lord? Allow them to answer, but point out that nowhere in this book did God talk to anyone who was not already a believer. God is talking about believers who are stumbling around because they continue to do what they want instead of what God wants.

Another question we could ask is this, can we tell people who are not living right without seeing their actions?

Application

What is the evangelistic message that was given to the world through Hosea? (That no matter what you have done and how long you have been running, God is still there waiting to use White Out).

Weekly Update 3.24

Sorry that this week's update is coming to you on Wednesday, but I've been sick the last two days and have basically been useless.

Sunday, March 28
We will conclude our series on Hosea this Sunday  morning. Steve Briggs will be leading the senior high class while the Bakers will be doing the junior high class. We hope you will join us.

Sunday night we will be concluding our "March Madness" series with a talk about love and romance. The band will be playing, so come for a night of worship in the auditorium.

Mission Trip
We have six spots remaining for the mission trip (July 11-17), please get your deposit in ASAP to reserve your spot. Also, at the end of this week, we will be filling our remaining spots with people from the church who want to go.

CIY:Move
Remember to get your deposits, or at least inform someone that you are attending CIY. We are looking forward to a big group coming this year and sharing in a wonderful experience.

3/21 Senior & Junior High Sunday School "Hosea"

Devotion: Jared Graves

Introduction

Instruct everyone to think of all the times that they were wronged in the last week.

There are two things to learn here. Number one, we are really bad at forgiving and forgetting. Number two, when we are wronged it sticks out. For many of us, we would rather be wronged a million times and never know it, than to be wronged once and know it, and feel the full effect of it.

Hosea is going to be the mouthpiece to the Israelites on behalf of God. He has been taught his lesson, and now he is a worthy bearer of this message. Think about it, Hosea would be a legitimate person to speak on adultery, and someone cheating on their true love. It happened to him all the time!

Before we go on today, let’s make sure that we are all on the same page. Who is Hosea? A prophet of God who was told to marry an adulterous wife. What has happened so far in the book? Hosea marries Gomer, Gomer cheats on him. God uses this as an opportunity to show how Israel has cheated on God. God shows that one day He will step down, take matters into his own hands, and reconcile Israel to Himself, and asks Hosea to do likewise with Gomer.

Lesson

Have everyone open to Hosea 4.

God’s charges against Israel:

· Hosea 4:1-9. How bad has it gotten in Israel? Even the priests are sinning against God. They are no longer holy, or setting an example for their people. Just to be honest, there are plenty of ministers out there who are serving their own wants and needs. They are simply allowing their flock do whatever they want to. There are plenty of people in the ministry for their own selfish wants. Obviously, we still haven’t learned the lessons of the past.

· Hosea 6:4-11. Ouch. Do you think God has ever said to you “Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears”? 
What do you think about the statement “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offering.”?

· Hosea 8:2-4. The Israelites chose horrible kings, and those kings forgot God and lead the people away from Him. Kings were supposed to lead the Israelites in a godly way, keeping God first. Are there things that God has given us that we have used for our own benefit?

Application

What parallels are there between the Israel of that time and the Church of this time?

Weekly Update 3.15

This Week
We don't have anything planned this week except our normal Sunday schedule. We will be continuing our series in Sunday School looking at Hosea, and Lindsay will be speaking Sunday night at Ignite about the pressure to succeed.

Mission Trip
We have 8 spots remaining for the mission trip. Please see Jared if you are going.

CIY
Also, we had our CIY meeting this past Sunday night for those who will be in high school next year and those who are entering college as freshmen. The deposit is not due until April 18, however, we would like to know how many kids are going so we can start making plans (we could have as many as 30). Please let Jared know ASAP if you are going on the trip. Just a reminder, the dates are June 14-19.

Life's Toughest Questions
Lastly, we want to remind you about our series coming up in April and May. We are calling it "Life's Toughest Questions". This series is going to be based upon the questions that we receive from people in our church and outside of church about faith, or aspects of faith. We want you to send your questions one of two ways. Either text your question to the youth's phone number (502) 517-9170, or e-mail them to questions@bowlinggreenchristian.org. We will reply to those texts when we know what date we are going to be addressing those questions. Please help us spread the word, we want this to clear up questions from people within and outside of the youth program.

3/14 Senior & Junior High BFC "Hosea 2 & 3"

Senior High-Jared Graves, Junior High- Sandra Baker

Introduction

Let’s review last week. The main guy in the story is? (Hosea) And God tells him to do what? (marry an adulterous woman, Gomer) What theme is brought up by God towards the end of the chapter? (You are so far away from being the person that I created you to be I don’t even know you. One day, I will. I’m going to make sure of it).

God is going on a soap box rant here for a little while. We know that it is God speaking, yet let’s try to read it in two different perspectives. Let’s read it as God’s words to Israel, but also as God speaking to Hosea and saying everything that he is feeling.

Lesson

Have everyone open up to Hosea 2:2.

Hosea 2:2-8 (Israel’s Sin)

God looks at the people that He created, He delivered, and that He loves and sees what they are doing to Him. We talked about adultery from a human perspective last week. How would it feel if our wife/husband cheated on us. But let’s see exactly what God is going through. God created every fiber of these people’s being. He created them with love and care. He made it possible for them to be born, he delivered their ancestors, He has done everything possible for them, yet they turn from Him.

Hosea 2:9-13 (Israel’s Sin)

God is going to get revenge for everything that the Israelites have done to Him. Does that sound like your God?

If we look at this carelessly, we would see God as a very vengeful God, but see what is happening here. God is saying all these things that you have perverted and turned into something for other Gods will be turned back to me. God is basically saying before you come home, I have to get everything else. Remember the commandment “No other gods before me”?

Hosea 2:14-23 (God moving to redeem)

Look at what God is going to do. 1) He is going to take Israel away to the desert. He is going to seclude her and take her away from all distractions. 2) When all distractions are taken away God is going to give back all the things He took, except now they are holy. 3) God will bring peace. With no competing gods, there is no need for battle.

Heaven is going to be awesome. This is what it is going to look like. This is God’s ideal existence; one with His creation.

Read Hosea 3 (Hosea application to God’s story)

It’s almost like God says, “If I can do this, Hosea, you can too.” Hosea learns that God knows what it feels like to be cheated on.

Basically now, you have Hosea marrying Gomer, paying a slave's ransom for her, and then saying let's do this relationship the right way. Does that sound familiar? God made us, married us in the old covenant, then as we sinned and went away from Him, He paid a price, His Son for us. Then, when we come back, we are told this is a new way of  life, and this is what the relationship is supposed to look like. God shows that He loves us so much that He is going to make the first move. This was John 3:16 hundreds of years before John 3:16 was written.

Application

If there is infidelity in a relationship the blame is usually on the unfaithful spouse. However, is the other spouse at fault if they do not try to reconcile differences?

There is an entire world out there that does not realize that God has made the first step in reconciling them and restoring a perfect relationship. That is where we come in.

What are your questions? (From Jared's Blog)

So let's all be honest. We don't know everything (though I do know most of it, just ask my wife). There are some questions that really bother us, and most of those have to do with our faith. We believe, but there are just some times when we have questions. We want to know why this happens, or why we can't do that.  We are scared of being asked that one question that we truly don't know the answer to. Beginning next month, we will be starting a series at Ignite called "Life's Toughest Questions." We want to give people (in church and out of church) a chance to ask whatever questions they have. I, along with our leadership and teaching team, will take a look at all these questions and will try our best to answer them. We are going to talk about this more on Sunday night at BGCC, but we want you to start getting the word out. We are going to open up the opportunity to text your question immediately. You can text your question to (502) 517-9170.

We will text you back to let you know when your question will be addressed. So, what are your questions?

Weekly Update 3/8/10

Wednesday, March 10
We will FINALLY have our first "10th for the Lord" this Wednesday. We have decided to dedicate the tenth of every month to God and serving His people. We were derailed by snow the first two months of 2010, but it looks like we will be good to go for Wednesday. We will be working in our adopted part of the campus, as well as painting the nursery and toddler rooms. Please come dressed appropriately. We will close up shop so that everyone will be done by 6. You are welcome to come as early as you want after school lets out. See you there!

Sunday, March 14
We will be continuing our Sunday School series on Hosea. I hope you will look at the blog to find out what you missed if you were not here on Sunday.

At 5:30 we will be having a meeting for those current 8th graders through seniors who are interested in attending CIY:Move this summer. We hope you will come for the informational meeting and so we can start planning for the number of kids that we are going to have.

At Ignite, we will be continuing our March Madness series. We are looking at some of the things that makes our life, well, mad. We are seeking to show how to live a less stressful life, and how to deal with tough situations by looking at what God says for us to do. This past Sunday we talked about good & bad belonging, and how to find our place in this world. This Sunday, John Baker will come and talk about peer pressure. We will find how to deal with it, and how to figure out the difference between good peer pressure, and bad peer pressure.

Congratulations
We also want to pass along a hearty congratulations to Ben Luna on his lead role in the BGHS musical Curtains. Ben did a great job and should be very proud of his performance.
Reminder We have 10 spots left on the mission trip for this summer. Please get your deposit in ASAP.

3/8 Ignite "March Madness-Belonging"

Devotion- Jared Graves


Summary:
At this time of the year, when it comes to NCAA basketball, there are many teams who are trying to prove that they belong in the NCAA tournament. While all conference winners get into the 65-team tournament, 30+ spots are still out there to be filled by "at large teams". These are teams who did not win their conference, but still deserve to belong in the tourney based on their win-loss record and who they beat throughout the season.


A few years ago there was a team called George Mason. They did not win their conference tournament and they got in as an at-large team. Now, they were from a small conference so there were plenty of people, notably CBS Commentator Billy Packer, who stated that there were more deserving teams that got left out of the tourney. They basically said George Mason did not belong.


As a 13 seed, George Mason made it to the final four. They were one of the last four teams playing for a national championship. They proved that they belonged.


We are constantly longing to belong to something. We don't want to be left out, and we do not want to be socially inadequate. Sometimes we change things about ourselves in order to fit in. Sometimes we decide to take on new hobbies or interests in order to find a group of people to belong to. Belonging is important. However, we need to find out what type of belonging is healthy, and what is not.


1 Peter 2:9-12


Christians were now at a crossroads. They had to leave everything they knew and adjust to a new way of thinking and living. Some of these people were confused as to where they fit in with their new morals and way of life.


Bad belonging (two extremes):

• Compromising our beliefs or friendships. This is never a healthy belonging. This always causes you to discard what is right and the good relationships that you have in order to seek acceptance from someone else.
• Secluding ourselves, or becoming social hermit. We are not called to live in isolation. Peter did not tell the Christians to isolate themselves, rather to be a key part in the world. They just needed to safeguard their hearts and actions to make sure that they were not doing anything contradicting their beliefs. Belonging to comfort-zone groups who look, think, and act like us is not healthy.

Good Belonging:

• Wide variety of people from different races, colors, and backgrounds
• A community that you can give and receive freely

3/7 Junior & Senior High Sunday School "Hosea"

At what point is the weight too much for you to hold on anymore? Many marriages have to answer that question day in and day out. At the beginning of marriage, questions like: What would you do for your husband/wife? What lengths would you go to show them your love? are dumb. “I will love them no matter what.” And then no matter what happens and you have to figure out if you are going to hold on, or are you going to let go?

Many marriages are even based on the idea that God ordained the marriage. Everything happened so perfectly that there is no doubt that God had a hand in it. Yet that marriage struggles, and sometimes falls apart. Now, most will probably point towards their marriage as being God’s will based on circumstance rather than a burning bush saying that they should marry that other person.

Yet, there is one man, at least, who was told that God wanted him to marry someone. Hosea is one of the most interesting books in the Bible. Can you think of instances in the Bible where God has someone go through a life situation, and then at the end of it He says, “You see what I did there?” We are going to study the book of Hosea this month. We are going to see God put Hosea in a sticky situation and then shows him a truth from Hosea’s experience.

Lesson

Have everyone open the Bibles to Hosea

Read Hosea 1:1

Hosea begins his ministry during the end of the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel, which was a prosperous but morally void time.

Read Hosea 1:2-3

This goes against everything we stand for. Usually people get a wife/husband, and then that person becomes and adulterer. However, God is telling Hosea to get a wife who is an adulterer before the marriage even starts. What would you say in this situation?

Read Hosea 1:4-10

Note that we know for certain that Hosea was the father of ONE of the THREE children.

How does God go from seemingly breaking apart the covenant to hinting a restoration? He says I am not your God, and then God’s split personality comes out and then contradicts Himself. No, God is saying listen. Right now you are so far from who you are supposed to be I don’t even know you. And then in verse ten He changes to, but one day you will. One day something, someone is going to happen that will bring you back into your proper existence.

Application

Let’s start to put together some obvious symbols in the story: Adulterous Spouse=Us, Hosea=Jesus.

What seemingly ridiculous situations have you found yourself in only to find that God was using it as a teaching tool?

Weekly Update 3/3

Mission Trip 2010
Last Sunday, we had a meeting on our summer mission trip which will be July 11-18 in Gatlinburg, TN. We have 10 guaranteed slots left. To get your spot, you need to turn in a $50 deposit by March 14. If you need more information about the trip, contact youth@bowlinggreenchristian.org.

Sunday, March 7

Sunday morning we will start new Sunday School series on Hosea. Senior high meets at 8:30, and junior high meets at 9:45 in the youth center.

Sunday night we will start a new series called "March Madness". This series will focus on all the things that make our life, well, mad. We will focus on how to deal with an unhealthy urge for belonging, peer pressure, success, and love. We hope that you will join us!

2/28 Junior & Senior High Sunday School "Ethos-Knowing Your Mission"

Senior High-Jared Graves, Junior High- Sandra Baker

Activity

Review Ethos: Knowing the facts, knowing your story, knowing your audience

This week we are talking about knowing your mission. All of what we have talked about is of no importance unless you have a purpose for your activity.  You have to set goals, you have to have a reason for why do you what you do.

Lesson

Everyone turn to 1 Peter chapter four. We are going to read the first eleven verses today.

Read 1 Peter 4:1

Does this mean that we are all guaranteed suffering?

Could this verse go towards answering the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Read 1 Peter 4:2-5

When you become a Christian, life changes. Your friends that you used to have now reject you because you wont’ do the same things that they do. Peter urges people not to let others drag you down to their level?

How does Peter know that this danger is out there? (He was pulled down by Jewish-Christians to discriminate against those Gentiles who were becoming Christians. Paul had to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with Peter to show the error in Peter’s way.)

Read 1 Peter 4:6

How does this apply to the following situations?

· Homosexuality?

· Abortion?

· Assisted suicide?

· Gossip?

· Lying?

· Drinking?

Read 1 Peter 4:7-11

This is Peter’s charge to his readers, and to us today. This is our mission.

Let’s dissect the mission to see if we are doing a good job doing it.

Read through the mission and measure on a level between 1-10 on a personal and youth program level.

Application

Do you wake up each morning and make a list of things that you need to do that day? What if we woke up each day with a reminder of what God has called us to do? How would that change our ways of thinking and how we live our lives?