Weekly Update 7.26

Tuesday, July 27
We hope you will join us for our final Summer Olympic competition tomorrow night at Southern Lanes. We will have four lanes reserved (one for each team) from 6:00-7:30. Please be on time so that we make sure everyone gets a chance to play.

Sunday, August 1
This Sunday night we will be saying goodbye to our departing seniors. We will have our second annual Senior Roast. We are thankful for Ryan, Tori, and Rachel for all that they have done and wish them best in college. We know that they are going to represent us, their family, and their faith well.

Saturday, August 7
August 7th will be Water Wars '10. We will all be together from 2:00-4:00 playing a lot of wet games at the church. We hope that you will invite your friends as a good way to kick off the school year.

Mission Trip 2010

Our youth took part in our annual mission trip July 11-17. We traveled to Seymour, TN (right outside of Gatlinburg) and helped with home repairs and landscaping. We worked for Mr. Eddy, who takes care of his wife, who has had three strokes and is unresponsive, and his father, who suffers from dementia. Mr Eddy's mother died three weeks before we arrived.
Below is a slide show that shows some of the things that we did throughout the week. Our kids completed two weeks of work in just under four days. We also had quality time hanging out in the afternoons and evenings, and on our free day Friday. Thank you to all who prayed for us during the trip and those who supported us by tithing to BGCC.

Most of all, thank you to a wonderful group of kids who worked hard, didn't complain, and came together as a family. A special thanks also goes out to the sponsors who sacrificed vacation time, and parts of their summer to come, work, and support these youth. Enjoy the slideshow and be proud of our kids:

7/25 Senior & Junior High Sunday School: One Thing-Having an Eternal Perspective

Lesson by Jared Graves

Introduction

What comes to your mind when I say the words “Second coming”?

What do you believe a Christian’s attitude should be concerning Jesus coming back?

This week and next week, Josh and I are going to give you one challenge for the school year ahead. My challenge for you this week and for this school year is to keep an eternal perspective. When school starts, it is really easy to become narrow-minded. We focus on what we have to do right then and there, and we do just enough to make it through the day. What if we were not promised tomorrow? How would we act, how would we treat people? My hope through this lesson is not to scare you into doing something, it is to motivate you to make a difference and have a different outlook on life.

Lesson

2 Peter 3:3-4

This is kind of like the fire drills and tornado drill you go through in school. When you were younger, you took them seriously. Now, they are a complete and utter waste of time. You know there is no fire, and you just go through the motions. There is no urgency.

Many of us have heard, over and over again, that Jesus is coming soon. However, we have begun to think that this is just like those fire drills. Soon to us is tomorrow, or at least within the year. So Jesus still hasn’t come, so we begin to let our guard down and think, “This isn’t happening today.” The thing is, it could.

2 Peter 3:5-10

We are on God’s time. While this seems like a cop-out, it is true. While we do not know the day, we can find some warning signs in Scripture to let us know that the day is coming. Remember though, these signs are not steps in a map, like a treasure hunt. They are birth pains (like Jesus says in Matthew 24). Also, we cannot say that something hasn’t happened, so Jesus can’t come. Lastly, don’t get caught up in how and when, just focus on the fact that it is going to happen. We just need to take a look at the frequency of the birth pains. Here are signs we can look for:

Signs in nature (Matthew 24, Luke 21)

Earthquakes, famine, sickness, disease

Wars and rumors of wars

Until 1914 no universal world, then we had two. Death toll from conflicts since then set to top 23 million

Isaiah says that we will call evil good, and good evil (Read 2 Timothy 2-9)

We will be tolerating on everything but the things of God.

More people will hear false teachers of God than truth.

Matthew 24 says that Christians will be persecuted. Now, we don’t see this really where we are today, but if you look at the past century, there have been more Christians martyred than all the time leading up to this past century combined. There are 200,000,000 Christians who face persecution, death, or torture every day. (Persecution.org).

(Matthew 24:14) There will also be a revival in people coming to Christ. Everyone will be reached with the Gospel. Is this happening?

The most telling is that people will ignore the warning signs.

2 Peter 3:14-15. God is waiting until all possible people can come to know Him.

Conclusion

I tell you all this to tell you this:

Don’t get caught up in figuring out when Jesus is coming again. Just know that He is. Just know that when He does, there are no more chances. No more chances to reach out to people. No more chances to live a better life. No more chances to grow closer to God. This school year, and every day from here forward, I challenge you (and myself) to live with an eternal perspective. Know that this could be your last day, your last breath. Live it to the fullest and leave nothing on the table at the end of the day.