Creation Fest 2009 was AMAZING!!! FUEL rocked the Gorge, and had an absolute blast doing it. From Hawk Nelson and Skillet opening up the festival to hardcore river keepaway, it was a nonstop riot. My favorite bit was hearing Margaret Feinberg teach about hearing the voice of God in the midst of our circumstances. Comment below to tell us your favorite part of Creation!
Monthly Archives: July 2009
T-Minus 44 Hours!!!
Creation is coming up fast! Here are a couple of things to remember:
• Please be at the church at 7:00am on Wednesday. We will be loading up and taking off from there, so don’t be late! (Leaders, please come at 6:30.)
• We will be returning Sunday afternoon, approximately 4:00. Students will be able to call parents from the bus if this changes.
• If you haven’t gotten them in yet, be sure to bring (1) permission slip, (2) Creation rules and (3) payment in full. If you’re not sure, check with Matt (matt@rcckent.org / 253.332.1828).
• If you need a copy of the forms, you can download them under the Creation tab at the top of this page.
• Bring a folding / collapsible lawn / camping chair if you have one. Make sure it has your name on it.
• Bring a modest bathing suit. Guys: trunk-style. Girls: two-piece is fine, but please keep it decent. If you’re not sure, check with Holly (funnygurl_2003@hotmail.com).
• If you have any questions, or need any clarification, please contact me. The sooner, the better.
If You Can’t Walk the Walk…
“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24)
Why would God hate practices that he instituted? Religious festivals, offerings and songs were ordained by God for the Israelites to practice in worship of him. Society had become so corrupt, however, that God is here calling for a halt to hollow ceremony performed by insincere people. God is essentially saying to his people, “If you’re going to continue oppressing the poor and disregarding my commands, don’t bother with the ceremony; it’s a waste of time.” Worse yet, it’s an insulting caricature, a satire of something God created to be holy, and a steaming load of skubalon.
Jesus’s message is similar when he lambasts the religious elite of his day. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23). He is here pointing out the fact that the religious leaders followed the law down to the most minute detail, but failed to even notice the larger overarching themes of justice and compassion.
In both cases the problem is the same, and many Christians in our day share the fault with these two corrupt societies. We are often guilty of being more concerned with making sure that everyone shares our understanding and our way of worshipping God than we are concerned with seeing God’s will actually done in the world. We can get so bogged down over the minor details of our disagreements with other Christians that we neglect the opportunity to work together with them to effect change in the world. Make no mistake, we ought to seek proper understanding and faithful interpretation of Scripture, even on minor points, but not to the exclusion of the recognition of its major themes. God wants justice; God wants faithfulness; God wants the poor to be cared for. God doesn’t care about who scored debate points over something that doesn’t matter at the end of the day. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
Matt Honstain
Creation is Almost Here!!!
Alright guys, we’re T-minus 9 days ’till Creation 2009. You can get the forms at www.rcckent.org or by clicking on the Creation tab at the top of the page. If you still need to get stuff in, or haven’t registered yet, call Matt (253.332.1828) RIGHT AWAY!!!
Do you ever have water in your ear?
Do you ever have water in your ear?
I think this is the worst. It takes forever to get it out and it makes it hard to hear. Sometimes you just feel like you got clogged up. What are your thoughts on this situation?
Independence Day
As we all know, the 4th of July is a huge holiday celebrated across America. After all, it is our independence day! This year, the Smiths came over to our house. All 5 of them: Tim, Jenny, Blake, Maddy, and Holden. Blake’s greeting was not at all necessary. I was bending over the cooler innocently, searching for something to drink, and he pushed me and I hit my head on the table, moving the table and chairs and all. Thank you for the bruise, Blake. Every year we buy those small flags and stick ‘em all over the house. Sometimes my grandma even visits my uncle Tim’s grave; he died before I was born. His birthday was July fourth, 1967.
All the boys went and bought $46 worth of fireworks, and brought them back to play with them. We all sat around the cul-de-sac watching Holden and Gabe pretend they’re cool by lighting roman candles. Around dark, we all sat on the trampoline and watched the fireworks from far away. They were pretty nifty. When it started to get cold, Maddy and I ran back inside and watched “The Princess Bride.”
Our very own youth director MATT had quite a fun holiday as well. Lynne, Olivia and he went over to his parents’ house and barbequed steaks. But sadly, did not light any fireworks, whatsoever.
Destini Miller
Creation is Coming Up!!!
Coming up on July 22-25 is the most life changing experience many of you will ever have. The Creation festival is back for the 12th time to the Gorge in George, WA. Although Switchfoot will be missed this year, there are still a lot of great bands to look forward to. Kicking off the festival on Wednesday night is Remedy Drive. Soon after, the much anticipated Hawk Nelson and Skillet will perform. Skillet will likely play their new hit single, “Hero”.
The following night, Kutless will play, followed by Casting Crowns before we head into communion. Reggie Dabbs will be speaking on Friday night. Many of you may remember him from last year, as he pointed out Darius from way down on stage. Following up on his speech will be Thousand Foot Krutch and Chris Tomlin.
On the last night, before Creation packs up and leaves again until next year, we will get a chance to hear David Crowder Band and their awesome songs including “Never Let Go” and “No One Like You”. Following them up will be Relient K performing “Sadie Hawkins Dance” and other favorites under the stars to finish off Creation Northwest. Amidst all of this, FUEL youth group will be eating, swimming, hanging out, and just having a great time. As you can see, there will be plenty of great bands and Creation will be a blast. Don’t miss out on this amazing experience.
BMX Highlights
Check out some highlights from the BMX show at our Seth Franco Youth Rally last month!
Ever Feel Like a Pawn?
“‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger’” (Job 1:9-12)
God gave Satan permission to screw Job’s life up, but that’s not what Satan was asking for. Satan was asking God to do the screwing up himself. Almost as if to say, “I’ll let you do this, but I don’t take orders from you,” God turns Satan loose on Job’s family, property and wealth but then adds a restriction. He says, “You can mess with his stuff, but don’t touch him.” There is another similar interchange in 2:5-6, where God puts Job himself in Satans hands, with the lone caveat that Satan can’t kill him. God is demonstrating his sovereignty by defining the bounds within which Satan is allowed to act. This is not a mere authoritative restriction but an absolute block. Satan is completely unable to transgress the boundary laid out by God. God also demonstrates his providence by having his way in the world, demonstrating the character and faith of his servant Job, despite the evil wreaked by Satan.
This begs the question: what about Job? Surely there must be some reward for his faithfulness to God, but instead he loses servants, oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, children and health. Yes, he regains the same number of sons and daughters, along with double the livestock, at the end of the story, but he is forced to endure unimaginable agony in the meantime. Is he really just a pawn in God’s demonstration to Satan? Is this the behavior of the omnipotent Deity, perfect in love? The answer comes again to God’s sovereignty and providence. God will have his way in the world, and it will often not look the way we might imagine, and it will often be completely beyond our comprehension, but that is precisely why he is God and we are not. Sorrow will come; tragedy will interrupt whatever prosperity we may have the good fortune to enjoy; that is the pattern of life on Earth, but there is a loving God, with an eternal purpose, who will see his will done in the end.
Acknowledging God’s goodness in the midst of life’s crappiness is the response modeled by Job, and it is the calling on us as individual Christians. With everything going wrong for him, “Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:22).
Matt Honstain
Summing Up High School Home Group
Last Wednesday was the last night of Home Group. After the ten week study of Ephesians, we all took away something important from it. For some of us this was our first group bible study, and it was very interesting. I think we all liked the conversation style and casualness of home group, and it helped us feel more relaxed and it was easy to learn. We had about 8 students and 3 leaders show up a night on average.
Over the ten weeks we learned about Paul and Ephesus (1:1-23), predestination (2:1-10), the inclusion of Gentiles (2:11-3:13), prayer (3:14-21), unity in Christ (4:1-10), Christian maturity (4:11-16), desensitization (4:17-32), imitating God (5:1-20), submission (5:21-6:9), and the armor of God (6:10-24). On any given night everybody walked away with something to do and something to think about for the week ahead. This I thought was a good way to get people to think about the message throughout the week, and even though people didn’t always do the homework, they still were thinking about what was spoken.
After every home group we would watch Wipeout. This TV show is awesome! If you ever want to see Joey rolling on the ground and laughing his head off, turn on Wipeout. We all had a great time over the course of the ten weeks and can’t wait until fall.
