The Ultimate Gift Giver

I love giving gifts to the people I care about.

It's one of the ways I express love.

I love seeing the look on their faces when they unwrap an unexpected present or a desired gift.

If we give gifts to show our love, how much more or better would God give?

Think about it.

If we greedy humans love to give gifts, how much more does God, who is pure and perfect, enjoy giving gifts to us?

Jesus asked, "If you hardhearted, sinful men know ho two give good gifts to your children, won't your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask for them?" - Matthew 7:11 (The Living Bible)

God's gifts reveal to us His good and generous heart.

The colors He paints for us in the sunset.

The cooling breeze blowing through the trees.

His power echoed in a thunderclap or a lightning bolt.

The warm embrace of someone we love.

A kind smile from a friend.

Every gift shines a spotlight on God's love, but no gift reveals His love more than the gift of the cross - The gift wrapped in His passion, mercy, and love.

God is so excited to shower you with gifts and sit back to watch your reaction. Look for His gifts and blessings this week, and praise our generous God!

Student Night of Worship This Sunday!

Switch students! Don't forget - this Sunday, March 25th at 6 PM, we will be joining together with the youth of Brevard Wesleyan Church for a night of worship and praise! It's going to be an awesome time to come together and worship with other students! Meet at the Wesleyan Church, located at 583 North Broad St. (directly across from Ingles in Brevard). Bring some friends! We'll see you there!

Righteousness Is...

First things first:

2 events coming up you don't want to miss!

Meet at the Wesleyan Church, located at 583 North Broad St. (directly across from Ingles in Brevard). Bring some friends! We'll see you there!

Secondly,

In our “Lost in Translation” series, we started out with looking at what faith is, and this past Sunday, we investigated the meaning of “righteousness”.

What does righteousness mean to you? We all want people to do right by us and do the right thing.

Check out these passages to look at what God says about righteousness in scripture:

Proverbs 11:6, Proverbs 11:18, Proverbs 13:6, Proverbs 21:21, John 16:8, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Timothy 6:11

Scripture shows us that righteousness is important to God. He wants us to do what is right and to pursue righteousness, but here is where the misinterpretation happens:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Matthew 5:6

Here’s how most people interpret this verse:

“Blessed are those who do what’s right or strive to do what’s right…”

But here’s what’s wrong with that thinking. How many times a day do you mess up and sin? We make mistakes on a daily basis, right? From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, we mess up. But what if you’re trying really hard to be good, would that number go down? Maybe some, but not much.

See, the problem with interpreting that verse that way is that if we are only blessed based on the amount of right things we do, and the amount of wrong things we don’t do, then we would never be blessed. The point God is trying to get across to us is that YES, righteousness is extremely important when it comes to our relationship with Him, but it is not as important for me to focus on doing what is right as it is for us to focus on the One who is right!

See one of the attributes of God is righteousness – He is always right and He is the only one that is truly righteous. What this verse is really saying is blessed are those who seek and hunger for God (the only righteous one). But for so many of us our relationship with God is about what we do and about what we can bring to the table.

Be honest. When reflecting on your relationship with God, how many of you have said, “Well, I just need to…” or “I need to stop…” or “I should do….” We all convince ourselves of these things, but these statements lead us to focus on our actions and behavior. The truth is that our PURSUIT of God is the most important thing.

Have you ever really had the craving for something? This is how we are meant to feel about God. We are meant to hunger and thirst for Him – to desire Him and seek Him. To seek God, there must be an action like reading the bible and praying. We don’t do these things because we feel like we should, but rather because we really desire to know Him.

God wants your affection, not your silly obedience. If you pursue Him, everything else will fall into place.

So here’s the question: What role is righteousness playing in your life? Is it about trying to do what is right, or is it about pursuing the only One who is right, and letting your life reflect this pursuit?

Join us this week as we wrap up this series by breaking down the meaning of “Salvation.” We’ll see you there!

Fun Depot Trip Coming Up!

On Friday, March 16th

MSM is going to Fun Depot!

But this time will be a little different than the last...

We'll be there from 11 - 2 a.m.

Every so often, Fun Depot hosts a night for youth groups to come at a lower cost, for a longer amount of time.

So get ready.

Laser Tag. Go Karts. Arcade Games. Bumper Cars. Rock Climbing. Mini Golf. Batting Cages. Late Night Fun.

Meet at 9 PM in the Student Center - we'll eat some pizza and head to Fun Depot.

We'll stay out late and your parents can pick you up at 3 AM the next morning!

You don't want to miss this! Invite your friends!

Here's a link to our permission slip form:

http://www.bcsm.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=yPeeS0mqMUs%3d&tabid=73&mid=396

New Series Starting Sunday / Fun Depot Trip

First order of business:

We're about to start a Sunday series called "Lost in Translation."

We've all used words while being a little uncertain of the actual meaning. But when it comes to words like "belief", "righteousness" and "salvation," our understanding makes a huge difference in how we live our Christian faith and how we view God. So we're going to take a look at these commonly used words and figure out not only what they mean today but what they meant to the writers of the Bible thousands of years ago. And, in doing so, our aim is to let these new definitions teach us more about all God has for us and wants for us. In other words, over three weeks we are going to take what may have been lost in translation and recapture and rethink it in a way that could transform us in ways we never imagined. Here's what topics we're going to cover during the next three weeks. We're praying for God to reveal incredible things during this series. You don't want to miss it!

Week One: Refining the Relationships

Belief is a word that we use often in the Christian faith. We talk about believing in Jesus. We talk about believing in the Bible. We talk about believing in God's church. But what if we are just scratching the surface when it comes to our understanding of belief? What if instead of simply believing in Jesus, we started to believe Jesus? Believe who He says He is and believe what we read about Him in the Bible. WHat if we saw the word "belief" as having more to do with a person and less to do with a set of statements or ideas? In this session, we look at the word "belief" in light of who Jesus says He is. We turn the tables on a belief that resonates with facts and instead resonates with the person of Jesus Christ.

Week Two: What Matters Most

We all believe in righteousness. For some, righteousness is a lot like fairness. For others, it is the definition of how to live without messing up. Whatever our definition of righteousness, if we haven't made it about the state of our own hearts, we've missed it altogether. While God has provided us with His Word to help us understand how He wants us to live, His purpose isn't for us to work at being better Christians on the outside alone. He wants our lives in line with Him on the inside. When we get our hearts right with God, our actions follow and we have the power to impact the world around us. We get to be a part of God's bigger story of restoration, in our own lives and in other's. True righteousness begins when we line our hearts up with God's heart.

Week Three: Save Me

What do most of us think of when we hear the word "salvation"? Maybe for some it's heaven. For others, it may be the fear of hell. And for others it may be Jesus' face on a get-out-of-jail-free card. But what if there was more to it than just guaranteeing a future destination we don't know that much about? It could be salvation is more about healing and help, not just once our lives are over, but in the here and now. Salvation is God's plan to bring us to a place of restoration so that He can lavish His love on us as we walk through the difficulty, joy and pain of everyday life. Salvation is available to us in the middle of our parent's divorce, as we are struggling through our relationships, when our hearts are broken and even when life seems to be going great. Salvation is about letting God take us where He has planned for us to go, not just when life is over, but right now, in this very moment. Salvation isn't just about being saved for the future, but being saved for the present.

Second order of business:

On Friday, March 16th

MSM is going to Fun Depot!

But this time will be a little different than the last...

We'll be there from 11 - 2 a.m.

Every so often Fun Depot hosts a night for youth groups to come at a lower cost, for a longer amount of time.

So get ready.

Laser Tag. Go Karts. Arcade Games. Bumper Cars. Rock Climbing. Mini Golf. Batting Cages. Late Night Fun.

Meet at 9 PM at the Student Center

We'll eat some pizza and head to Fun Depot.

We'll stay out late, and your parents can pick you up at 3 AM the next morning!

Cost = $20

You don't want to miss this!

Here's a link to our permission slip form:

http://www.bcsm.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=yPeeS0mqMUs%3d&tabid=73&mid=396

Invite your friends! We'll see you then!