Well, since the DHEFC website is acting up, I’ve posted our summer youth group schedule here – we have some really exciting things planned! You don’t want to miss it!

Check out The Summer Schedule for Youth Group 09 !

At the start of our very busy  weekend, we celebrated our graduating class from Youth Group. I always love our senior banquets because they are reminders of how our students develop and grow in their lives and in their faith. Perhaps more importantly senior banquets are a reminder of how much our church cares for Jesus’ sheep and how our diverse body can come together to celebrate the accomplishments of our students. I’m really thankful for our church and for how much they care for the mission of Jesus to support students. I’m really proud of our students and how God is and will use them – and I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing them grow and going on to do great things!

Last weekend was pretty busy – on Friday we did a youth rally with some of my friends from Bethel Lutheran and Huntington Baptist Church – along with John Bernor and his youth group. On Sunday night – we had a really great kids program – check out some pictures in the video above.

With National Day of Prayer being celebrated today, and talking about prayer for youth group this Friday and “Does God Answer prayer as the topic for this week’s Sunday “You Pick” sermon – I’m posting some of my favorite verses from Hab 3 – we talked about this in prayer meeting last night – the whole chapter is worth reading – check it out.

Lord, I have heard of your fame;

I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.

Renew them in our day,

in our time make them known;

in wrath remember mercy.

 

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

^[1]

^b A word of uncertain meaning; possibly a musical term; also in verses 9 and 13

^[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Hab 3:2-19). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

So, for our Sunday Night The Way Worship – we’ve been looking at some of the Psalms in detail and thinking about how the Psalmist worships God. We’ve been challenging each other to write music from these Psalms and sing them together – The recording (above) is our first take on some good words – maybe when we finish writing more, we’ll try and do a better recording of it – but it gives some idea of what we’re doing.

Refuge And Strength

Be Still and Know I am God (3x)

(Instrumental Chorus)
V1 -
A river flows whose living streams
blesses the city of our God
The place where heaven’s glory dwells

(Prechorus)
So Fear Not, Don’t lose heart
remember,  God’s with us

Chorus
God is our refuge and our strength
In our distress a present aid
Our God will set the world to rest
Be still and know that He Is God!

v2
The nations rage,  the whole world shakes
His voice goes forth – the conflict breaks
From earth the scourge of war he takes

v3
God is with us, We will not move
In all the earth his pow’r is known
And in my heart his glory shown.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the past couple weeks reading and thinking about the Psalms. I love how firmly the Psalmists speaks about the power and strength of God despite his own doubt and struggle.— I love watching the this light come on for students and adults who are looking for some sense of purpose or desperately looking for a place to go to find refuge or escape from and are able to look to Jesus for both. The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. (NLT) Psalm 24:1-2

We have a lot going on in the Month of May and a ton going on during this summer. God has been doing some incredible things with our students group—pray for them as they grow and are stretched to serve God in exciting ways.

May Events

Fridays, May, 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 All Junior and Senior High Students are invited to join us for a night of Games, Worship and Teaching. We work hard to making this a place where it’s easy for students to have fun and make good friends, by playing interactive games, and thinking about how great our God is.

Friday, May 1st 7pm—Youth Group Rally —We’ve invited two other youth groups to join us a Friday Night meeting with a guest band, drama, and Christian power-lifter John Bernor this will be a great night to invite friends to.

May 9th—Run For Youth Fundraiser —Signup ASAP—raise sponsor s and go on an early beach run to raise money for trips and missions.

May 29th Senior Banquet (7PM)— We’ll be honoring our 09 Graduating class. —Alexa, Amanda, Mary, Larry, Tori & Yassmina.

Summer Events

Start marking your Summer Calendars ASAP— We want to challenge students to invest their summers in the Kingdom of Heaven – In addition to the things to the right, during free weeks we’ll be taking one day as a beach day and encourage students to invite non-Christian friends to join our community, also we’ll take one day during free weeks to do mini-missions trips to help out with local missions. (not to mention the famous Friday Night pool parties!) -

Sunday, June 14th —Jones Beach Evangelistic Crusade with Greg Laurie, Delirious, Jars of Clay

Saturday, June 27 — Morning trip to help at Helping Hand Rescue Mission

Tuesday, July 7th —Trip to Great Adventure

July 13-17—Dix Hills VBS

July 20-26— Urban Missions Trip to Philadelphia

July 31-Aug 1— Rock the Sound —NYC (Newsboys, Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp, Pillar, Superchick, Shane & Shane, Phil Wickham, and more)

Aug 3-6 —Putting on VBS at Roosevelt Bible Church

There are a thousand way of painting a picture of selflessness. The Noticer is the story of Jones told from Andy’s point of view – one a ragged voice of older wisdom who can mysteriously can read people and speak wisdom into their lives. The other, a misdirected homeless kid. The story uses the best of well-established brushes and colors, such as the all-knowing sage and the classic “keep the fork because the best is yet to come”, to paint a portrait of one man who the lives of others by taking life slowly enough to notice the lives of others and the tact to speak wisely into their lives.  The book manages to blend the genre of fiction and non-fiction by teaching good principles of relationship through an interesting narrative. By the end of the book Jones has touched dozens of lives saving people from divorce, bankruptcy, suicide, etc.

I love the idea of looking outside of ourselves and to encourage people. – Andy has even taken it a step further with the Noticer Project (http://www.thenoticerproject.com/ ) – He is encouraging people to notice people who have influenced their lives and thank them publically. I love the idea of empowering people to “counsel” others. The book serves the church well to encourage people to passively notice or actively hearing problems and then thinking creatively about helping them. People can help people – and few problems are so big or complex that a concerned person cannot help.  Frankly, it’s not the kind of book that speaks to my learning style per se – and the information isn’t especially helpful to someone whose mission it to notice and help people. But I can’t be encouraged enough to notice and help people – so the book is a worthwhile, and enjoyable short read for me.

(I am a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program . )

It’s true – I now have a new project vehicle- needs some work… but hopefully we’ll be able to get it out on the beach during the summer. Looks like some sweet adventures ahead of us.

I’ll never forget taking an evangelism class with John Leonard at Westminster . One of the things I’ll remember is him talking smack about Christians who are really into the idea of going to parties to witnessing to non-Christians. At the time it was popular and courageous for Christians we knew to enter the "devil’s turf" and go or bars and try and engage people in conversations. John simply pointed out that more effective place to go is to the hospital or funeral home. People there are usually more ready and more happy to talk about the Gospel.

That’s what I was thinking about as I read What would Jesus do on spring break? – a chapter of an intriguing journal from a non-Christian who enrolled in Liberty University undercover to covertly document the Evangelical Christian world.  His article is worth reading for those Christians who engage in evangelism.  – His book seems interesting too. It made me think about

1. How easy it is for people to enter our community unchallenged by the gospel – and the rarity that we speak Gospel to those in the fold.
2. How sometimes the least opportune time to talk about the Gospel is at the high points of people’s lives. –  People don’t really need Jesus when they’re living in the short-lived illusion of good times. They need Jesus when they’re recovering from a hangover the next day, or when they’re trying to figure out what happened to their job, or health.

So, my personal challenge of the day – 1) expanding the scope of the Gospel to include conversations with Christians around me 2) talk to hurting people about the hope of Jesus.