Journey Ministries

Paid in Full?

I couldn't put my finger on it last night, but the "paid in full" exercise we did last night, I hope, is not something we plan on doing when we invite the unsaved to our sessions. Unless one has made a commitment to Christ, they will be judged by their sin. Their sins are not "paid in full" unless they accept Him ("there is one sin that is never forgiven, and that is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit" {blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject salvation and not let the Holy Spririt fill your person}). And as we agreed early in the session, we are not about coercing others. I certainly hope we don't plan on doing the "paid in full" with the Christian group members only as a pressure tactic for our unsaved friends. I would find this inappropriate - but I don't know if this is the plan. Would you advise or provide clarification?

P. Paying the Price for Our Sin Jesus Died and Rose Again

Gabcast! journey-ministries #4

S. Sin cannot be removed by good deeds!

On Sunday night in our small group time we discovered through the GOSPEL JOURNEY that Sin cannot be removed by our good deeds.
Greg Stier said in the video that our sacrifice for sins must be a blood sacrifice. This is what God desires. Although we understand that today we don't make sacrifices of animals anymore, because Jesus became for us the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. He was our blood sacrifice. He, just like the Lamb of ancient Israel's sacrifices, would take the place of us in the wrath of God's judgment. He bled on the cross for our sins, He suffered for our mistakes and wrongdoings.
We also realized that we have need for our sins to be removed, because in and of ourselves we will never be good enough. The 10 Commandments were given for us to be able to see that we would never be able to keep the moral law. We will always fall short. Sin is missing the mark or falling short of God's law. Just as a judge brings judgment on someone who disobeys the law in our judicial system, so God will bring His judgment upon those who disobey His laws and commands.
We all fall short, there is none that is able to keep the law. However, there is one who has kept the law and has come not to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. This is Jesus. He was born without sin and was the only one to remain without sin. He was God incarnate in the flesh. He is our spotless Lamb.
Yes! We do need a Savior, our sins cannot be removed by our good deeds!

Bon Fire!

Come One, Come All! Everyone is welcome!

Youth bring your friends!!

Ok, so this is the night! We all have waited for it to arrive! The night of the BON FIRE! (The Fire Dept. has been notified)
This will be a great time. I would like for you to please bring something to roast your marshmellows and/or hotdogs!
We will being the evening with a few hardy games! I have a basketball hoop and Nerf football for anyone interested. Also I have planned a few games of my own!
If everything works out! One game will involve pumpkins and a large target on the ground. (I will let you use your imagination)

There will be an egg toss so please dress in something appropriate.
Your families are welcome to come everyone is invited!
We will enjoy the fellowship of one another and God.
Any questions call the church office and I will be happy to answer your inquiries.
In Him,
Devin

Journey Ministries

Journey Ministries

10 Commandments...

From Sunday's video. God setting us up to fail? Ouch! That's a pretty harsh accusastion from Ashley! But it's a fair question all the same, given her background. A different way to look at it is we humans want to "do" to achieve. So God shows us - here's a list of 10 "works." Jesus reveals the "riddle" of the 10 Commandments "I come not to break the law but to fulfill it." What does He mean by that? God let us use the 10 Commandments to reveal what needed to be covered. Works were not sufficient. Jesus said, "Clean the inside of the vessel, and then the outside will be clean as well." He meant that we need to change our hearts, which is inward. And we can't change our hearts as much as we let God change them. Jesus threw out an interesting challenge to the Pharisees regarding the "works" aspect of the 10 Commandments. Since they believed everything was outward, including sin (it came from the outside, or was sensorily induced, not from the inside, namely our wicked hearts), Jesus told them, "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out." Owwww! You see, the eye doesn't cause you to sin. It's the heart inside you. So are you going to base your faith in works, or trust in the Savior? Let's talk!

O. Our Sin Separates us from God!

Listen to a brief overview of what we found to be true on Sunday night Small Group
The Gospel Journey

Gabcast! journey-ministries #3

How do I witness to a friend that is difficult?

Whoa! This is a tough one. How do I share my faith with someone who believes in something so totally opposite from what I do. God will give you boldness and strength but you must do some work to prepare yourself. Hence.. the whole GOSPEL JOURNEY on Sunday nights. Just for your information here are a couple places to go to get prepared.

• www.dare2share.org
• http://www.dare2share.org/my-difficult-friend

And last but not least I have taken this directly from dare2share.org It is a list of how to share with very specific believers.

How to Share Your Faith with...

Have friends who are atheists? Agnostics? Into Wicca? Or New Age? Which of these belief systems have you encountered before? Did you talk to them about what they believe? Were you able to share the gospel with them? Fourteen predominate worldviews are explored, providing insights on how to be effective in sharing your faith with others.
Which one of your friends do you want to share your faith with?
Alisha the Agnostic
Andy the Atheist
Bailey the Buddhist
Erin the Evolutionist
Hari the Hindu
Jenna the Jew
Jordan the Jehovah Witness
Marty the Mormon
Mo the Muslim
Nicole the New Ager
Ryan the Religious
Sid the Satanist
Tara the Typical
Willow the Wiccan

GOSPEL Journey- Sunday Night Oct. 8

I promised you all that I would post the 4/1 Defense Strategy on the Blog so here it is as promised.

• "What do you mean by that?" (This makes them define the terms in their argument.)
  
• "How do you know that to be true?" (This makes them explain the logic of
  their argument.)
  
• "What difference does it make?" (This makes them defend the value for their argument.)
  
• "What if you're wrong?" (This makes them think the unthinkable about their argument.)

Important Reminder * (If you don't have the answer to a question don't make something up. Let the person that you are talking to know that you don't know the answer but you will get back to them.) We do more damage by not admitting that we don't have all the answers than we do by simply saying we will find out! Don't delay find out and report back to them as soon as possible. This will keep the dialogue going. Remember it is not your job to convince or to coerce your friends into Christianity. It is you job however to present a clear picture of the Gospel and an opportunity for them to respond.

Cool?

Journey Ministries

Journey Ministries

Thoughts from Sunday's video:

From our video Sunday night, think about what the young man who claimed to be an atheist had to say – that mankind “evolved” to a point where they knew right from wrong. Right and wrong from an atheistic standpoint can only mean right and wrong to others, not God, since an atheist doesn’t believe in God.

Now, if that’s true, then the concept of societal cooperation and trust would have had to develop. This is fairly foreign to other species. Wolves exhibit this to some degree in killing as a pack, but there is a clear order, from the alpha wolf all the way to the omega (the lowest in the pack). The alpha gets the best spoils of the hunt, eat first, etc. although they may not do any more work than the rest of the pack in making the kill. Cooperation is for their very survival, but there’s clearly not a concept of “fairness.” The weak are the first ones to die off, even with the pack mentality.

We humans do have a concept of fairness. If you really buy the concept of survival of the fittest, then the concept of fairness (as a later development) would open up the being offering it to exploitation – exploitation to the potential point of death. It doesn’t even make sense in the evolutionary model. As an evolutionist, one really should exploit the weak (perhaps still within the confines of the law, as the “law” is stronger than the individual) since there won’t be any long term consequences. Showing mercy or kindness would be a sign of weakness. Of course, one would probably be pre-disposed to love one’s family (Jesus Himself said even the sinners do that), but no love to strangers or the weak.

Here’s an example of what I mean by “exploit:” you go into a store, buy something and pay for it. The clerk makes a $10 mistake in your favor. Unless there is some obligation or personal gain to be had from the cashier (very unlikely) by returning the money, an atheist would be a fool to return it. The clerk might have to reconcile the $10 from his own pay, or lose his job, but his weakness was the cause of him losing it in the first place – ergo, he doesn’t deserve a break.

If anyone would like to provide a refutation to this, drop a line and we’ll talk!

HOW WE BECAME HUMAN

That's the title of the cover story in Time Magazine's latest issue. I invite you to read the article at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1541283,00.html. Here is an interesting excerpt:

As scientists keep reminding us, evolution is a random process in which haphazard genetic changes interact with random environmental conditions to produce an organism somehow fitter than its fellows. After 3.5 billion years of such randomness, a creature emerged that could ponder its own origins-and revel in a Mozart adagio.

The article states that scientists have compared the human DNA with a chimp's DNA and they're 98.77% alike, but somehow that 1.23% of difference is a huge one and they can't quite figure out why, oh, but they're working hard on it, real hard, like they have been for 150 years since Darwin came up with the whole evolution theory.

Do you find it sad or comical that scientists continue to spend millions of hours and millions of dollars a year trying to prove a theory based on randomness and haphazard genetic changes in order to discover our origin? Or, just maybe, perhaps one day, scientists may actually be able to disprove evolution altogether and those molecular geneticists and anthropologists and biologists can focus their lives on a new study, starting in Genesis Chapter 1!

I encourage you to respond to the Time Magazine Editor at letters@time.com

Hello from your leader!

Gabcast! journey-ministries #2

Evolution vs. Creation Challenge C-Team

This debate will definitely be a challenge. It seems as if the E-Team has some strong defenses. We will have to do our best to be able to explain the truth. God has called us all to be able to stand for the truth.
How can we stand for the truth if we don't know it. Hopefully this will be a challenge that will bring us all closer to a better understanding of the truth.
Ok...C-Team let's give it a go!
I would say that God has given us plenty of evidence that He has created things. How can you logically conclude that all of this has come together through random collisions of matter that had to exist somehow. So my first question for the E-Team is this if you believe that all this is a random series of events and that matter just collided to become this planet and universe. What or maybe better (Who) started the first reaction and where did the matter come from in the first place?
Give it a go E-Team!

E Team Kick-off

E Team

Let's make the creationist team really work to refute our arguments! We'll all learn something from this. Even if you don't believe the argument you're advancing, think of those that many who believe in evolution advance. Let's pray that our brothers and sisters have wisdom and give us a refutation that would knock your socks off!

I'll start our team off with one:

When Darwin did his studies in the Galapagos islands, he found four species of birds, each that came from a common ancestor. The interesting point is that the tiny island had four very distinct geographic regions, and these birds developed survival traits that would help them in each of these environments (rain forest, desert, mountain ....can't remember the fourth). The traits had to do with the type of beak that developed for the kind of food. There may have been other characteristics, such as need for water.

Surely, this example speaks to the idea of natural selection...survival of the fittest, so to speak. This is a key point to evolution, is it not? If that doesn't convince you, the fossil record shows an evolutionary growth in the length of a giraffe's neck. Obviously, the giraffes with the longer necks could reach more food to sustain themselves (higher in the trees). The ones with the longer necks survived, while the others died out.

Let's hear your refutation.

Describing Jesus A-Z

Middle School -

Here's the list of words describing Jesus you came up with in Sunday School--great job!

Awesome
Brilliant
Caring
Dude
Excellent
Friendly/Fantastic
Great
Happy
Intelligent
Just
King
Loving Lord
Mighty
Noble
Omniscient (all-knowing)
Prince of Peace
Quick
Respectful
Special
Tremendous/Tough/Truthful
Understanding
Victorious
Winner
eXhuberant
Youthful
Zealous

your assignment -
sometime during the week, leave a comment about how you have experienced Jesus in one of these ways.

Remember Mark 1:41, "Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched [the leper] and said to him, 'I will; be clean.'" Remember that Jesus knows your circumstance and doesn't want anything to come between your relationship with Him. He pities us because we are living in this world, and He desires to heal us from our sin and estrangement (being away from Him).