Servanthood: The Great Gamble

Indulgence is popular in our culture. Any ads or commercials encourage the biggest, best, newest…or in the case of technology, the smallest, fastest and newest. When we pursue the stuff, stuff we want rather than need, we start focusing on ourselves. And we begin centering our life on what we want, on ourselves. Eventually we have to ask ourselves this question: Will I serve Jesus and serve as He did, or will I be limited by self-centeredness?

So often we have the attitude of only doing things that provide a benefit to us. In Matthew 19:27, Peter says to Jesus “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”
It is not easy to follow Christ, but it is definitely worth it – this from Jesus himself!

Jesus tells us another story to paint us a picture of something He wants us to understand. He explains things to us in John 13:12-17:

“So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Jesus keeps things simple for us. When nobody else would wash the disciples feet, as would normally happen before a meal, Jesus saw something that needed to be done, a need to meet, and stepped up to do it. Then He asks the disciples if they know what He has done. He tells them they are knowledgeable first that they understand that He is indeed their Lord and Teacher. Then He tells them that because He first washed their feet, they then should wash each other’s feet. He uses the story as an example that we should do what Jesus did. He reminds us again that the slave is not greater than his master, nor is Jesus greater than God. Finally, he tells us that if we know these things, and do them, that we will be blessed.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus says we must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him. First we must deny ourselves and go against our cultural norms where it’s all about me! Then Jesus says we have to take up our cross daily; in other words, commit ourselves daily to Christ. Finally, we have to follow Him. We’re back to the beginning question. Ask yourself: Will I serve Jesus and serve as Jesus did? Or will I be limited by self-centeredness? If we follow Christ’s example from the story and imitate Him by washing each other’s feet, if that is the need to be met, we are serving Jesus and serving like He did. The needs could be feeding the hungry, hugging the unloved, or just being obedient to an adult. However, if we focus on ourselves, satisfying our wants and ignoring the needs of others, we will be limited in our lives because we are being self-centered. So instead, let’s model Jesus with reckless abandon!

Challenge: THE GREAT GAMBLE

Be ready to serve. Test God’s promise that if we know the things Jesus commands/does, and do them, that we will be blessed. For the month of November, take every opportunity to serve God and others even if it seems small and insignificant. Keep your servants towel handy and be ready to wash feet. And monitor your heart: Am I gaining or losing?

Examples of serving others:
Clean up the lunchroom after lunch at school.
Clear your friends trash from the lunch table for them.
Help someone carrying a lot of stuff by lightening their load.
Offer a ride to someone.
Make an effort to be the one to always open the door for others.
Donate clothes that are too small to someone in need (Goodwill, family affected by fire, clothes bank of Elkhorn Association).
Volunteer to do someone else’s chores at your house.
Help out with meals, with permission.
Help out an elderly person with chores, or just visit. Same with a new mom, single parent, etc.
Volunteer at a charity (God’s Pantry, Salvation Army, All God’s Children, The Refuge Clinic)
Volunteer at church for setting up for events, cleaning, etc.

Posted by Morgan Cooper

How much do I give?
The tithe is just the starting point of our giving. In biblical times “tithes” went to the temple to maintain it and provide for those who worked in it. This is separate from “alms” or giving to the poor. Today, the “offering” would be anything additional to our tithe. In addition, we read in the New Testament how individual churches supported the missionary ministry of Paul and others.
God tells us in 2 Chronicles 9:7 that He loves a cheerful giver, and advises us not to be pressured into giving. But He does command us to give, in Leviticus and Malachi, a tithe of 10%. This is just a starting point, a minimum effort in obedience. We have been reminded over and over that the money we have in our bank account isn’t really our money, but God’s because He provided it. You may have worked for the money, but the Lord provided the job, the house, the car, the food on your table and so forth. He has provided us with everything we need, and we should share everything we have.
We may have a different perspective about giving if we keep in mind that we aren’t GIVING God 10%, He is giving us 90%.
Remember these things:
1. God care more about the motives for giving than the amount. Our motive is to be obedience to God, to please Him and show Him that we KNOW He has GIVEN us what we have.
2 Corinthians 8:12 tells us that any tithe/offering is acceptable if you give eagerly of what you have
2. God measures our giving by our sacrifice, not the amount. Mark 12:41-44 tells of the woman who gave all she had, which was 2 coins. Christ compares this to the hefty sums given by the rich and says the measure of her gift is GREATER!
Many parents teach children not to ask how much a person makes. And parents warn never to tell people how much is in the bank account. But we “tell” people how much we make, or how much we want them to THINK we make, by the stuff in our life. We also “tell” people what we think is most important in life by the same stuff that is in our life. We show people this with how we spend our money. Have you ever heard someone say “Put your money where your mouth is?” If you tell people you are a Christian, that you put Christ first in your life, that above all else is God…but you put all your resources to getting more stuff, to buying the latest ______ just because you want it, then you may need to check the message you are sending to those people you encounter every day.
In Malachi 3:10, God asks us to test him. He asks us to bring our tithes to Him and then says that if we do, the windows of heaven will be opened for us and a blessing will be poured out. Go ahead, try Him out on this one!

Posted By Morgan Cooper

Who Owns All This Stuff Anyway?
One of the most well known “owners of stuff” in our culture today is Donald Trump. With so MUCH stuff, he couldn’t manage everything himself. Thus, the idea for the famous show The Apprentice was born. Contestants on the show would compete to win the spot to help Donald Trump help manage his immense resources.
Now, let’s think bigger. Like as big-as-the-universe big, like the ultimate owner AND creator of all – God. He created everything from the dirt, the ocean, the trees, the leaves, and the animals to even us as humans. Knowing He created it all, we have to acknowledge He owns it all. While He created it, owns it and is in control of all it, we still have a responsibility with His stuff. We have to figure out how to be wise managers of the money and possessions He has blessed us with.
A couple things to consider:
1. God owns everything.
In Psalm 50: 11-12, He lets us know this as well. The entire world is His.
I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Back in verse 8, God says He doesn’t turn away our offerings, but He doesn’t need them either. In the Old Testament, people would bring their offerings to God and we can understand how we might think the biggest bull would impress God. But it doesn’t, because He owns it anyway, and He doesn’t NEED anything from us. He is pleased with what we are willing to offer, with our generosity. This is the same today, with our monetary offering; He doesn’t NEED it. Rather, He has blessed us with it, and He is pleased with our willingness to give it generously.
2. God allows us to manage His possessions on earth.
In Genesis, He commands us to fill the earth and govern it. He charges us to take care of it. The way we do this today is by caring for the environment and trying to maintain the beauty God created. Another way is to care for the people God created. We forget that all people are created by God, and therefore we are to care for them as well.
3. God will reward those who manage His possessions well.
Perhaps you have heard your parents say that once they can trust you with something small, then you will have the chance to be trusted with something big or important. God fathers us in a similar fashion. If we haven’t managed a few of His possessions well, why would He pour out more for us to manage? Again, you may have been told by adults “this isn’t a right, it’s a privilege.” We should approach the responsibility we have for taking care of God’s stuff the same way. If we are thankful for all He has provided for us, then we would want to do the best job we can at taking care of that stuff. And by stuff this means money paid to you for a job, the car you drive, the clothes you wear (because even if your parents bought it, He owns their money too). In Luke 12, scripture tells us:
v. 46 From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Those blessed with a lot of stuff, God expects more of those people. He expects them to give more to others, of time or money or possessions. He expects them to use their stuff in a way that pleases Him.
Think about one of your favorite possessions. If a friend wants to borrow your favorite sweater or your Ipod, you want them to be careful with it, not stain it or break it, and to treat it like you would. Right? Same with God. We’re here on earth temporarily using His stuff, so we need to approach that job with the attitude of “does this please God?”
Finally, let’s wrap up with the advice I hear a mom give her two year old on a regular basis. Whenever someone wants to use his toy, or have one of his fruit snacks, she reminds him with this: “If we can’t share, we can’t have it.” I think God would agree with that statement; HE SHARED HIS SON WITH US.
So keep in mind when you get that babysitting money in hand, or cash your paycheck. If God has let us have it, He expects us to appreciate it, recognize that it’s His, and to be ready to share it – with your neighbors, community, church or even strangers.
More things to consider:
What possessions, talents or accomplishments in your life do you take pride in?
Are you using those possessions, talents, accomplishments for God or only for yourself?
Check out Psalm 24:1.

Posted by Morgan Cooper

It’s not too late for a fresh start!

What is your vision for a fresh start? We love having a fresh start. Think January 1st, the first day of the NEW year or maybe it’s the NEW school year. Some of us may need a fresh start with friends, grades, work, our parents, at church or with God. Whatever it might be, here are a few steps to get us on our way…

Identify the pain…This is why we want a fresh start, to get away from the pain. We have to do just that: leave it behind. God wants you to bring the pain to Him; His power is perfected in our weakness. This pain may be after a tragedy, or it could be physical, spiritual or even within a relationship. It’s okay to admit that you don’t like how you feel, to say you feel hopeless, to acknowledge that you make bad decisions. God can handle it, even when you think you cannot.

WHY should I change? Because pain hurts, it leaves you empty. And if you don’t change, it will continue as a cycle. If we don’t identify our pain, we often check out or do things to try to escape the pain.

Recognize that it’s all about God…and don’t reach for temporary fixes. It’s not about me. Isaiah 6:1-3 describes the Lord seated on a throne being exalted by angels. The angels were singing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” God is holy, almighty, all powerful and all knowing. Only He can give you a new start. You can’t, your parents can’t; people cannot give you a new start. Because God created you, you have value and worth. That’s just the way it is. Because of God, we have to think “He created me for a purpose, I don’t want to waste my life…I want to/can/will change.”

WHO is my God? What does your life center around? Whatever is the center of your life, this is your god. Is it your appearance, your friends, your body, your job, school, or sports or even yourself? IF IT’S NOT ABOUT GOD, IT’S ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE.

Reveal the truth about yourself…look at your life in comparison to God’s greatness. The truth is we are pretty small. In Isaiah, he cries out to God “Woe to me!” He realizes that he’s not worthy of glory and that God is deserving. Remember, it’s all about God. What is the truth about your life? Does it show that you are trying to poing to Christ, to give God everything? Is there anything in your life that shows you know God?

WHERE is my heart? On a scale of 1 to 100, 1= Jesus Jr. and 100=Pure Evil. Where are you? Remember the two sided mirror – think about the side that magnifies everything and shows every little thing.

You release the past…God doesn’t want us to dwell in the past or on our regrets. In Isaiah 6:7 the angel touches Isaiah and tells him “…your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for…” This means that you are forgiven. If you tell God about your past, not because He doesn’t know but to show that you know you shouldn’t have done certain things and to show that you are sorry, then ask for His forgiveness, HE FORGIVES YOU. Once and for all. Just like Jesus died for your sins to be forgiven, once and for all. To live in forgiveness is freedom because you are good with God. Keep in mind that Satan will try to throw your regrets back in your face to distract you. You have to remember, as it says so often in God’s word, that all your guilt is gone. Only believe what God says.

WHAT am I holding on to? Don’t be paralyzed by the past when you can be motivated into the future. REGRETS ARE INEVITABLE, FORGIVENESS IS AVAILABLE.

Say “yes” to God…God asked Isaiah “Whom will I send?” Isaiah answers, “Here I am. Send me!” Isaiah said “yes” to God. What is God asking of you? Is He asking you to just say yes to allowing Him into your heart, into your life? Is He asking you to say yes to committing to read your Bible daily to get to know Him better? Is He asking you to say yes to the forgiveness He is offering to you? Say yes.

WHEN will I get started? Should be and can be NOW.

What will your fresh start be?
Accept a relationship with Christ today.
To rededicate your life, to come back to Christ.
To be renewed in Christ and be ready to go further through Bible study and prayer.
To respond in obedience and be baptized.

So… I have just changed the domain name for this blog to www.myxatsix.com. You can still get here by using the old web address, but everything will point you to www.myxatsix.com.

Second Full day is over and there was no rain! Yay! The students and adults had a great day today. I am uploading pictures to my Facebook account if you would like to see them. Comments will come as I can. Highlights from Day 3…
We had a good game of spoons. Although some of ours that know how to play still fell for it. POIs were great. Everyone participated in C4 Team building time. Our group works really well together. Zach Dame took the lead on one of the tasks and did a real great job. Amy, Mason, Melissa, and Kerri came to visit for an hour or so. Mary Beth brought us goodies. Worship was awesome! Brent (Talker Dude) completely got out of the way and allowed God to speak through him. Mr. Wilson even told him, “Tonight was the first time you got out of the way and let God talk” It was cool! Continue to pray for these kids. They are really dealing with sin in their life and even starting to hold each other accountable to sin that they are finding out about.

One last thing… Chicken On A Stick!!!!! WOW!

Ok… So Yesterday was really different for Camp. It rained all morning which wasn’t that bad since everyone was in Bible study. It cleared up for the afternoon, but started to storm again causing the POIs to be cut short. This really affected those on the tower and ziplines. Hopefully there will be night climb to make up for that. Brad and I pranked ourselves and watched the madness break out as 3 of the boys turned on each other and to draw suspicion away from themselves. This went on for several hours before we finally told them the truth. SO funny! We did have a reenactment of an old Brady Bunch episode (Don’t play ball in the house!). Needless to say some old picture frame was a casualty. It was Rachel’s birthday and the girls threw her a big party. We sang to her at lunch and drew all kinds of attention her way. Cindy was called the Ringer at Frisbee yesterday. Church group time was filled with tears and hearts broken over friends. I have seen these students grow so close to each other this week. I have also seen many of them begin to understand what a Christian life is supposed to look like. It may take them a while to figure out how to implement that at home, but they are striving to do that here.

Ok… We have Day 1 out of the way. So some stuff to fill you in on…

All the staffers Love our new shirts and have been very coveteous of them.
Not only was Samantha (the preacher’s daughter) the only one to not bring a Bible to CHURCH Camp, but she was also put in a all High School Guys Bible Study. I don’t think she minded though. But I did get that changed pretty quickly.
Tommy has a new nickname of “Aeireday” given by the camp pastor.
It isn’t fun to eat supper in the rain.
Hamburgers and Hotdogs don’t really do well with vegetarians.

I am sure there will be more to come…

For the past couple of years I have been trying to figure out a way to bridge the gap between our older, more mature adults in the church and our youth. At our church the adults tend to come more on Sundays and the youth more on Wednesday nights. I have tried to get some of the adults to play a more vital role in the youth ministry and some have jumped in like gangbusters. Others have stayed on the fringe like they are a 5 year old scared to jump off the diving board.

We have been talking about fellowship and mentorship for the past few months as a staff. In fact, May is our fellowship focus for the Sunday School time as each class will be learning about fellowship and thinking of ways to incorporate it into the life of the church and community. The high school Sunday school teacher came to me with this idea and it was awesome. A Wii Bowling Pro/Am where the students are the pros and they are partnered with an adult as the amateur. This is a great way to foster some conversations between the student and adult, to build teamwork, and to hopefully build a relationship that will last a lifetime.

So, here is what we did…

I pitched this idea to the adult first and got about 20 of them to commit to being apart of this fellowship/fundraiser for camp. Then I paired a student that was going to camp with an adult. I did the pairings so that I could be very intentional teams that were being formed. I gave each of them a pledge sheet to collect money to offset the cost of camp (similar to Big Brothers/Big Sister Bowl-A-Thon).

The day of the big event we set up 5 TVs each with a Wii. We provided lunch for all participants and I assigned 2 teams to each TV and they played 3 games. We took the highest score of the 3 games for that individual and used that for the donation per pin figure and also to determine the winners of the prizes. It was very encouraging to see the youth and adults interact in ways they never did before. We are going to make this an annual event and may do a winter event as a golf scramble. It should be a lot of fun.

Things I learned and would do differently next time…

• Big Screen TVs – Go to a rent a center and rent several big screen TVs for the weekend
• Alternate games – Don’t have the teams play all three games in a row if you have other teams waiting to play.
• Inform players of time commitment – granted we didn’t know it would take 3 ½ hours, but we should have expected it to take longer than we thought.
• Provide childcare for those grandparents that bring their little ones.