Monthly Archives: November 2009

Less Than Three: Coming Up

Posted by Matt Honstain on

We just wrapped up our “Living It Out” series at FUEL, talking about the plan that God has for your life and how that plays out in everyday situations.  We’re going to be zooming in and going into more detail in our upcoming series, ”Less Than Three.”

“Less Than Three” is going to be a series in three parts talking about dating and relationships, but don’t get too worried.  This is guaranteed not to be just one more lecture with cranky old people trying to ruin your fun.  You’re going to hear from your leaders, discussing the right and wrong ways to have relationships, how to screw them up and how to make them work.  You’re going to hear our hearts on this one.

The series starts out with TWITTERPATED, serving as an introduction to the series and to a godly perspective on dating in general.  We’ll be talking about the difference between dating Christians and dating non-Christians, and we’ll do a cost-benefit analysis on middle/high school dating.  Following that is ALL TIED UP, where we’ll be discussing the purpose of dating, commitment levels in relationships, what’s appropriate (commitment) and what’s not, and how that can play out in your future.  Finally, we’ll be closing the series with FAITHFULNESS, which will give us a better, more detailed idea of what dating should look like.  We’ll be talking about faithfulness to your spouse, whom you may not even have met.

It’s going to be an awesome series, and we’re excited for it.  Don’t miss out!

Decision Time

Posted by Matt Honstain on

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

In a culture where we are often more afraid of offending others than we are passionate to comprehend truth, the claim that Jesus was a great (but merely human) moral teacher seems an easy solution.  Unsure of who Jesus really was, or unwilling for various reasons to identify too strongly with one side or another, many will choose this as a middle ground.  In doing so, they pay a certain amount of respect to Jesus, who was undeniably a man of great and lasting influence, without committing themselves fully to belief in his claims (let alone adherence to his commands).  Thus, they position themselves in a sort of middle ground, neither too close nor too far from opposing poles, in the hopes of avoiding alienation.

This unwillingness to choose can be due also to a dichotomization of the person and teaching of Jesus.  Even the most intelligent, most earnest, most eloquent, most sincere individuals can fall into this middle ground when they pick and choose those claims of Christ they are willing to accept.  One of these eminently great men writes, “What, then, does Jesus mean to me?  To me He was one of the greatest teachers humanity has ever had.  To his believers He was God’s only begotten Son.  Could the fact that I do or do not accept this belief make Jesus have any more or less influence in my life?  Is all the grandeur of His teaching and of His doctrine to be forbidden to me?  I cannot believe so.” (Mahatma Gandhi, I Am But a Seeker After Truth)  Make no mistake, Gandhi holds Jesus in high esteem and, frankly, pays him more respect than do many Christians.  In order to do so, however, he has partitioned Jesus’ teaching about morality from his claims about himself.  He is, in effect, accepting the teaching without accepting the teacher.  This, in reality, is not to revere Jesus at all, but simply to acknowledge points of agreement and ultimately to set himself, not Jesus, as the final authority in matters of morality.

You have to make a choice.  Jesus, after asking his disciples what the perception of him was among the people, makes it more personal.  “‘But what about you?’  he asked.  ‘Who do you say I am?’” (Matthew 16:15)  The implication, of course, is that they are responsible for either allying themselves with Jesus and acknowledging his identity as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16) or admitting that in their minds he is not only less than divine but deceptive and manipulating as well.

The time for decision is now.  We need to hear once again the words of Joshua to the people of Israel, “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

Matt Honstain

Youth Highlight: Anthony Mickel

Posted by Joshua Hart on

A very important part of our youth group is a person named Anthony Mickel. He is always vibrant and pumping up our youth group. He plays bass on the worship team and is a true rocker. He brings life to the youth group every sunday night.

His hobbies all revolve around music. He plays bass, drums, and piano. He also sings and is learning guitar (maybe to become a one man band?). He loves to worship musically no matter where he is.

When asked what makes him unique he answered, that unlike most teenage boys, he has chosen to follow Christ. He not only has chosen to follow him, but he shows it in every aspect of his life, even around his non-Christian friends. Which can be a very difficult task for a lot of teenagers. He also added that following Christ has helped him grow a lot and that only Christ can make him the man he is. He is also never afraid  of being awkward around other people. He is just going to be his true self (also a very impressive feat).

The following is his testimony of how he came to know Christ:

“When I was younger I was in a really dark place. I had a girlfriend whom when I broke up with her, told everyone that I did it so I could date a guy. So kids called me gay and made fun of me and tore me down. Then from my emotional state, I started gaining weight and I got fat and I was made fun of for that also. Then one night I cried out to God and asked him, “Why am I treated this way? Why am i here? Why am I living?”

He spoke back to me and he said. “Anthony, I love you, and to me you are beautiful. Why does it matter what these kids say about you? If i love you, then why do you care? That night I started following Christ with all my heart.

Is Belief Really Enough?

Posted by Matt Honstain on

“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

Belief on Abram’s (later Abraham’s) part is credited as righteousness.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds just a little too easy to me, and yet this man is viewed as righteous by God and revered as a great man of faith by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.  We have only to follow the progression of events described in Genesis, however, to see how far short Abraham sometimes fell from anything we would consider righteous.  Following this divine promise, the father of many nations and focal point for all three of the world’s great monotheisms sired an illegitimate son by his wife’s servant (ch. 16) and later allowed his wife to be taken into the harem of a foreign sovereign (ch. 20).

As disappointing as Abraham’s behavior may sometimes be to us, it should give us a great deal of hope for our own lives as well.  Frankly, though we may not share his particular failures, we do share his propensity to fail.  Paul argues in both Romans 4 and Galatians 3 that our salvation is based solely upon God’s grace and owes nothing to our own behavior, using this righteousness credited to Abraham as the foundation for his reasoning.  Abraham’s righteousness is a model for our own; it is a gift, freely given; we do not and can not earn it.  It is this truth that separates Christianity from all other religions.  Our salvation is an unearned, unmerited, unwarranted, undeserved gift.  To assume that any efforts toward holiness on our part could change this is to cheapen and slander the gift that we’ve been given.

As we are given hope by Abraham’s (at times dismal) example, we should be simultaneously challenged by it.  James argues, again using the Patriarch as his model, that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)  How can this be?  Is our justification based on what we do, or isn’t it?  The answer is not quite so simple.  Our actions can never earn salvation, but salvation will inevitably produce good behavior.  The question is one of progression.  Justification, based solely on God’s grace and accessed only through personal faith, once in place, will spur one on to righteous living.

In order to apply this practically to life, I find it useful to view our past through the eyes of grace, realizing that nothing we’ve done can either qualify or disqualify us for salvation.  At the same time, we must view our future through James’ challenge.  Ours is no salvation at all if it does not produce righteous living, because it is based in hype, peer pressure, emotionalism, guilt or obligation; it is not rooted in faith.  On the contrary, a salvation with a vibrant, living faith at its core cannot help but permeate our lifestyles and irrevocably alter our lives.

Matt Honstain

The Lights Dimmed

Posted by Taylor Hart on

The highly anticipated Skillet Alive tour came to the Kent Showare Center on Halloween night. They went on tour with Hawk Nelson, Decyfer Down, and The Letter Black to reveal their new album, Awake. After the huge lines wrapping around the Showare Center dissipated and the stadium was packed, The Letter Black started off with a few songs to set the mood and get people pumped up. Decyfer Down followed them with some of their new songs such as Fight Like This. Once everyone was excited and anxious for the rest of the night, Hawk Nelson took the stage. Their lead singer Jason came out in a bright orange suit, a matching top hat, and a cane. He was obviously ready to have some fun. They played some of their new songs like Live Life Loud as well as many of their old songs that everyone knew. He got the crowd into it by making comments about them and making conversations. At one point he threw his water bottle to someone in the crowd to which one of our youth group’s student leaders, Josh, reacted by shouting, “Swine Flu!” This got some laughs out of the crowd; more than what Hawk Nelson had been getting all night with their attempts at jokes. After Hawk Nelson had finished, the crowd was more excited than ever. The only band yet to play was Skillet. After a short period of setting up for Skillet, the Skillet banner dropped from the ceiling, the lights dimmed, and the Skillet intro began to play. The crowd erupted. They started the night off with Whispers in the Dark. They played what seemed to be every song they know, as they were playing for almost two hours. They played Comatose, The Last Night, Hero, Monster, and so on. Their song Monster also had the growl in it. For those who don’t know that, instead of them singing “Feel like a monster” in their normal voice, they distort the microphone to make it sound like a real monster. Also, in their song, Yours to Hold, the drummer, Jen Ledger, sang a verse from it, which they only do in concerts. They let every band member play their own solo near the end of the night. This included Jen Ledger, and their violinist. The band left the stage, came back, and ended the night in their Halloween costumes. The concert definitely lived up to it’s expectations and it was a joy to be there and experience that with a huge group of other christians.

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Harvest Party

Posted by Joshua Hart on

Last Sunday, FUEL had an awesome Harvest Party! There was candy, games, and some awesome costumes. All of that made it a fun night at FUEL.

One of the funner games was Strobe Light Tag. This was super fun, because you couldn’t hardly see where anybody was. We also played Limbo. This was fun! Heather Hollis won the game of Limbo due to her flexibility and height advantage.

There was also some crazy costumes. Blake and Brady both dressed up as girls which was absolutely hilarious. Joey dressed up as Braveheart and his costume was super realistic. Matt dressed up as Sarah Jessica Parker, which was also incredibly funny, but the overall best costume, voted on by the students of youth was Brittney and her ladybug costume. Some other neat costumes were an iPod, Pocahontas, and a bumblebee. We also had three different pirates.

It was a great night for FUEL!

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Dear Granny…

Posted by Granny Trudy on

Hi there y’all.  This is Granny Trudy, and I’m going to be starting my own advice column on this here FUEL Gauge.  If you have any questions or need advice, y’all can just email me and I promise you can stay confidential.  Here’s a couple questions I’ve already gotten:

Dear Granny Trudy,
I’m in ninth grade, and my best friend’s boyfriend doesn’t treat her very well.  He’s always talking down to her and making her feel bad about herself.  I tried talking to her about it once, but she just got mad and said I didn’t understand.  What do I do?
- Upset Underclassman

Well, the first thing you need to do in this situation is to pray.  Now I know that might sound a little cliche, but it’s true.  Pray for her to see the situation for what it is, and pray for you to have the wisdom and courage to confront her about it.  If she’s your best friend, even if she gets mad at you at first, she’ll eventually forgive you, because she’ll see that you really care about her.  Let her know how much you care about her and that she’s too valuable to you and others, not to mention to God, to allow herself to be treated in that way.

Hi Granny Trudy,
I have a kinda big rash on the inside of my thigh.  It’s been there for a couple weeks.  At first I thought it would go away on its own, but it’s just getting worse.  Help!
- Scratching in Seatac

Hi Scratching,
Go to a doctor.  I give advice, not medical attention.  When I was your age, we just used leeches for pretty much everything.

If you have questions or would like advice, please send your correspondence to granny_trudy@hotmail.com.  Even if your letter is not chosen to be published, Granny will respond to you.  If your question is not answered to your satisfaction, please feel free to follow up with Granny at any time.

Some Crazy Hybrid

Posted by Matt Honstain on

For a little over a month now, we’ve had our very own Student Leaders at FUEL Youth.  Joshua Hart, Jacob Popoff, Blake Smith and Destini Miller came on board officially at our fall kickoff on September 27th and have been digging in and working hard ever since.

When they first started, we gave each of them a “project,” ranging from video production and presentation to worship and other media involvement.  They’ve been taking these responsibilities on like champions, as well as working to develop themselves as Christians and as leaders.

You’re going to see more and more of these individuals as they continue in their added duties, and some of them will begin to lead teams of their own.  They’re working hard, so be sure to encourage them and let them know they’re doing a great job.

If student leadership is something you think you might be interested in, you can check it out under the “student leadership” tap at the top of the fuelline.  The standards are high, and not everyone will get in, but the opportunity for personal growth is worth it.  If you interested, have your application in by November 15th.  Any questions, just ask any of the leaders or student leaders.

Matt Honstain