Cove Student Ministries

John 9

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:58:00 +0000

John 9

This story starts with Jesus encountering a blind man. The immediate question I, “Why is this man blind.”

Why does Jesus say this man is blind?

In our lives do we ever ask God why He does things/allows certain things?

Could your struggles, pains, or shortcoming be to God’s glory? How?

At the end of the day, the question we all need to ask ourselves is…Is this about me or God. All things can ultimately be to God’s glory.

When Jesus has his final conversation with the blind man we see that the man does not know who the Son of Man is. Sure he may have heard of a messiah, he knows God exists, and even understands the teachings. However, he did not know the Son of Man. He did not know who Christ was. In our life, many may know the bible, believe in God, and even be a good person. But none come to the Father except through the Son.

Who in your life does not truly understand Christ? Do you truly understand why NONE come to the Father except through the Son? If you need clarification please talk to me or your parents.

John 5

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:31:00 +0000

John 5

The first thing we see in this passage is Jesus healing an invalid (sick person, often too sick to care for themselves). He heals the man and reminds him to stop sinning or something worse may happen. What we also notice is Jesus come to the man and has the first words. HE REACHES OUT TO THIS SICK NOBODY!

How has God reached out to you to show his love? What are some of the blessings in your life? Have you thanked God for them?

What is this something worse Jesus is talking about? Are there things worse than earthly suffering?

Jesus then explains a little more about his relationship to God. He makes it clear that he does what his Father does (much as we do what our Dad or Mom does).

Who are the dead? Who are the living?

Why does God choose dead vs. living in this analogy?

Jesus gets to judge, but how does he choose to judge?

When you are given power, how do you choose to judge?

Finally we see Jesus remind his listeners that eternal life does NOT come through the law. Back then many knew the law inside and out, but didn’t even recognize God’s Son when he stood right in front of them. We are often guilty of this too aren’t we? We know what is right. We know the laws. Don’t drink, cuss, or have sex before marriage. That is right to follow those laws, but Jesus makes it clear that we will be judged next to the law and even one sin makes us guilty.

What gives us eternal life?

Should we just throw away the law?

Can any of us gain eternal life through the law?

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, please facebook me at William Kranz or post on the blog site. We are excited to continue this walk with you.

John 4

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:09:00 +0000

John 4

Here we see one of the most famous “Jesus interactions” of the bible. The woman at the well is an interaction that reminds us of the love our savior has for his people. First it is important to note that Jesus was a Jew and this woman is a Samaritan. These two “cultures” don’t get along and are typically on non-speaking terms, so the fact that Jesus addresses her right off the bat catches her off guard.

What is the living water that Jesus talks about?

Why does Jesus ask the woman to get her husband if he already knows her past
and current situation?

What does Jesus tell the woman about worship?

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus tells this woman about living water even though he is perfectly aware of her life of sin. Not to say he accepted it, Jesus clearly doesn’t want that life for her, but he invites her to learn of the living water. She then returns to her home WITHOUT THE WATER BUCKET. She came for water and discovered Jesus. Suddenly, the water was the least of her concerns.

What things tend to distract us from meeting Jesus? What things do we need to “leave at the well” in order to refocus on him?

Jesus then explains in verses 34-38 that he is sustained by doing his Father’s will.

Can we say as an individual/as a youth group that we are sustained and filled by doing God’s work here on earth?

Reread verse 42. The people believed first because they heard someone else’s testimony. Then they met Jesus and believed for themselves.

Do you believe because you have taken the time to know God or do you believe because you have heard others talk about him? How can we experience God for ourselves?

John 3

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:27:00 +0000

John 3

We start John 3 with a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Reread verse 6-8.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

In verse 8 Jesus explains that the wind blows every which way and we as humans cannot understand it or predict it. He then draws a comparison between the wind and the Holy Spirit.

How can we know when something is of the Holy Spirit vs. our own desires?

What are the fruits of the spirit? (Check out Galatians 5: 22-23)

When you are acting in line with the Holy Spirit, how should that look?

Jesus goes on to explain his mission to Nicodemus. Reread verse 16-21.

Why do we so often think God is out to get us? Where does this attitude come from?

In what ways do you want to stay in the darkness?

Finally, we see John humble himself in verse 30. We see a guy that truly “gets it”. It’s not about his success, his kingdome, or his followers. It is about doing what God tells him to do (prepare the way for Jesus).

In what ways do we need to become less so God can become more?

John 2

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:42:00 +0000

John 2

This was much easier to read than John 1 wasn’t it. We see two very clear stories in John 2. As you read these stories, understand there are multiple levels. First, it is real. Jesus really came here, really interacted with people, really turned water into wine, and really flipped tables at the temple. Second, we can learn God’s character through Jesus. John 1 established that Jesus is God; therefore, we can better understand the creator of the universe and what he wants for us by studying who Jesus was on earth.

When Jesus turns water into wine there are two things you can immediately notice…

1. Jesus was about excellence. He didn’t make weak wine or even the same wine that was already being served. He made great wine for the guests.

2. Verse 11 says he revealed his glory and the disciples put their faith in him. It took a miracle, but the disciples put their faith in Jesus when they saw something they simply couldn’t explain.

When have you seen the glory of God? Have you ever seen something that could only be explained by God’s power?

In order to see Jesus’ miracle, the disciples had to follow. Had they not followed, they never would have seen Jesus turn water into wine. Had they not seen water turned into wine, they wouldn’t have put their faith in him. We need to put our faith in God to see his miracles and as we see these miracles we can put more faith in God.

You can start small! In what ways can you trust God and put faith in him? Tithing? Sharing your faith? Standing up for what is right? Setting aside a special time for God every day?

Make it your prayer that GOD WOULD REVEAL HIS GLORY TO YOU.

In the second story, we see Jesus drive “thieves” out of God’s temple. He wants worship to be pure with no other motives. Jesus did not take God’s house lightly and was passionate about defending it.

Are your motives always pure when it comes to worshipping God? Do you worship in hopes of “having God on your side” or to let other know we are good people? How can we make worship pure?

Windows Wide Open

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:20:00 +0000

Are your windows open?
By: Michael Weber

Last night that was the question Curt left us with. By “windows open” we mean: Are you living out your faith for everyone to see?

Like we heard last night, a big part of living with your windows wide open is not being ashamed of your faith. It’s being able to live totally following God in any situation and not worrying about what people think, just like Daniel. The reason Daniel was able to do that was because he was consistent. If Daniel only prayed to God a couple times a month, whenever he felt like it or whenever Babylonian Idol wasn’t on TV, then there’s probably a good chance that he wouldn’t START praying when King Darius made it illegal. The same thing applies to us as well.

For us, a consistent relationship with God would include letting God speak to us during our quiet times, prayer, and Bible reading. In addition to maintaining our personal relationship with God, we must also focus daily on how we can follow God with our actions. To name a few, this would include: the way we talk to/about other people, the things we choose to do or not do in our free time, or our willingness to talk to other people about what God has done in our lives.

Now if we don’t commit to consistently maintain that relationship with God when we are alone in our room during our free time …. How will we magically start following God when we are at with people criticizing us for being “Christiany”? Think about it, if you hardly ever pray or read your Bible, what are the chances you will pray at the lunch table before you eat or read your Bible in study hall when everyone can see you? This is exactly why it is so important to be consistent. It won’t happen overnight, but we need to start working toward that consistent relationship with God. Eventually we won’t even have to think about it when we are around other people; following God won’t have to be a tough choice, it will just be what we ALWAYS do.

Take some time and think about each of these questions:

(Write down your answers and remind yourself this week what you want to work on)

1) What do I do to maintain my relationship with God?
2) What are some actions that I choose to do or don’t do because I am trying to follow God?
3) What are some things I need to do more consistently?
4) Am I living with my “windows open” no matter where I am?
5) What are some things that keep me from being consistent?
6) How can I overcome these barriers?

John 1 Devo

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:23:00 +0000

John 1

Okay, anyone else saying what in the world is going on? Please know before you get frustrated and give up you are reading through the TOUGHEST PART OF JOHN in verses 1-18. DO NOT GIVE UP HERE. In summary, verses 1-18 establish that Jesus is the Word, he is God, he is a separate entity (being) from God, he is the way to eternal life, and when you receive him you have the right to be a child of God. If you want to dig in and really study these verses you can check out the Blog post Is Jesus God on this site, but that is as far as we will go on this devotion.

In verses 19-28 we see John struggling to let others know he is not Jesus. John is clear that he cannot save anyone, he is not THE light, and he cannot give someone the Holy Spirit. He is the table setter preparing the way for Jesus. We need to acknowledge that we, like John, can save no one. We can’t make someone meet God and we are not the leaders. GOD IS. We are not the shepherd, we are the watch dogs running around in circles trying to help the sheep look at the shepherd. God is the shepherd, we are just watch dogs.

Do you ever get over focused on the watch dog and lose focus of the shepherd? Do we ever try to impress others with our faith? Parents, pastors, friends, girlfriend/boyfriend? Take this time to refocus on God over anyone else.

Reread verse 29. What does this mean? Why/How would the Son of God (Jesus) do this?

Jesus calls on Simon and names him Peter (rock). As you will see, Peter is anything but a rock. He doesn’t think, he is over anxious, he lacks wisdom, and even unfaithful. However, when Jesus dies Peter pick up the baton and helps start the first churches that follow Christ. Even though Peter was a mess, Jesus always had a plan for him.

Do you know that God has a PLAN FOR YOU?

As you follow Jesus that plan becomes more clear and attainable. ARE YOU OPEN TO GOD’S PLAN?

We also see the calling of Nathanael. I love that Nathanael doesn’t believe and then something simple like Jesus saw him under a fig tree instantly turns him around. Jesus basically says, “Why do you believe in me because I saw you under a tree? I could have just been using binoculars! You have seen nothing.” Jesus tells Nathanael he will see great things when he follows. We also see our second title for Jesus: “Son of Man”.

In what ways have you seen God do great things? If you are struggling to answer this, in what ways have you truly followed him?

As we commit to truly following Christ in our day to day walks, in what ways do you want to see God show up? This is not get a raise when you skip work, find a new girlfriend when you don’t shower, or get a great grade when you didn’t study. What ways do you want to see God show up for his kingdom?

The disciples had Jesus to follow, but how can we follow God in our lives? What is God calling you to do for Him?

THANKS FOR READING GUYS AND GALS. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE BLOG OR IF IT IS PERSONAL YOU CAN FACEBOOK ME AT WILLIAM KRANZ.

IS JESUS GOD?

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:21:00 +0000

Is Jesus God?

This post will quickly look at John 1: 1-18 and explore the question…Is Jesus God? So we start at verse 1, the fact the Word is capitalized tells us right off the bat something different is happening here. We are talking about the beginning (same start as Genesis 1:1 the beginning of the world). Okay, we see that the Word has always been, it was with God, in fact it was God. Word=God got it.

Now in verse 3 we see this him that we are not really sure of. Do we assume him is the Word? We will get there, but this unknown him we will refer to as “him”. We see that all things are made through him and that in him was life. This makes me think of John 14: 6 when Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life (paraphrased). Are we talking about the same life here though? We also see that this life is a light to all men (not a feminist issue, when you see the word men, know we are talking about people), a light in the darkness.

Verse 6-9, we see that John comes and he is going to prepare the way for “him”, the light. John was not the light himself but only setting the table.

Verse 10-13, we see that he (“him”) was in the world and the world was made through him. Any that receive “him” and believe have the right to become children of God. Not through any decision you can make, but through receiving “him”. Okay “him” is definitely sounding like Jesus, and it is safe to draw that conclusion. Get ready here comes verse 14.

Verse 14, “The Word became flesh…” (NIV). Wait, how did we end up back at the Word? Weren’t we just talking about “him”? We see that the Word became flesh and lived with us. We now have seen his glory, and by his we are talking about the One and Only as the bible puts it. So this “Word Flesh” is one of a kind from the Father full of truth. Remember in verse 1 we had the simple equation Word=God and it appears that Word=Jesus.

THE ICING THAT HOLDS IT ALL TOGETHER. In case you are skeptical or unsure if we have made any jumps too far verse 15-18 brings the whole thing back together. Verse 15 we see that John the table setter has confirmed that this “him” is Jesus. Verse 16 addresses that we are all blessed through his grace and in Verse 17 we specifically see the name Jesus Christ. And then there is verse 18. It says no one has seen God except God the One and Only? Oh by the way this “God the one and only” is at the Father’s side and has made him known to us. Simply put nobody has seen God but God and no one has seen God but Jesus.

John 1: 1-18 states clearly that Jesus is God and yet a separate entity sitting next to God. How can this be? Now that is not for us as humans to fully grasp as God’s ways are simply higher than ours. But we see clearly that Jesus is the Word, he gives us life, he knows the Father (thus he must be God), and he is separate from the Father (you cannot sit next to yourself).

Let's Party

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:31:00 +0000

By: Curt Kennedy

WHERE’S THE PARTY
Aren’t we always looking for the party, wanting to have a great time, hanging out with friends, doing fun things?

Well never let it be said that Christians are dull and never have fun. We can party; we just have to go to the right party.

Not long ago, we learned about David celebrating before the lord.

2 Samuel 6:14-15 - "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets." (NIV)

In the Bible, Christians celebrated many times for many reasons, the exodus from Egypt and the Wedding celebration where Jesus turned water into wine. God wants us to have fun, enjoy life and realize the beauty of his creation. He wants us to celebrate, just not make it about us but in a way that is honoring to him.

We must be careful about where and how we party, worldly parties can be very dangerous, lead to dire consequences and even damage to our bodies and souls. In 1 Peter, we are warned against the wrong type of party.

1 Peter 4:3 - "You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols." (NLT)

Are you looking for the right party? Let’s think about things and actions that are Godly and worth of praise, lets party, have fun and enjoy life with God as our focus. The last chapter of Psalms is our party planner.

Psalm 150:1-6 - Let Everything Praise the LORD
150 Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens![a]
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!

I want to party, come join me!
At Student Ministries, we have many opportunities to party together, mission trips, all nighters (coming up shortly) and other functions, get plugged in.
May God bless you!

God vs. Dog

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:39:00 +0000

Do you remember your first dog (or really any pet, but since dogs are superior to all other animals we will go with them)? I remember begging my parents for a puppy day after day. I didn’t need a really expensive dog or a pure bred, just a big old mut would do.
The issue was not money, the question was would I take care of it. “Oh, of course I will take care of it!!! I will feed it, give it water, walk it, give it baths, and I’ll even pick up the poop!”

Finally my parents agreed and we ended up with Chet the dog. I couldn’t get enough of Chet (not sure why that was the name we chose but okay), but after about two weeks I started shirking my responsibilities. The first thing to go was picking up the poop, after all, there was nothing funnier than my unsuspecting friends wrestling in the backyard only to find Chet’s treasures. Then the bathing, dogs clean themselves right? He didn’t need walks because Chet had a yard and I will just leave the toilet seat up so I don’t have to give him water. What started as “I will do anything to have a dog,” quickly turned into, “Do dogs really need to be fed EVERY day?” Suddenly, I was doing the bare minimum to keep the dog alive.

Do you remember when you first accepted Christ? When you first realized that God loves you? I remember that excitement! I began to turn away from sin, went to youth group, prayed, read my bible, and told others about my new hope. The first thing to go was telling others, awkward. Slowly stopped reading my bible, too much work. Praying seemed like talking to the ceiling. Sports got in the way of youth group. What started as “I love you God, thank you for your grace, I want to follow you,” quickly turned into, “What do I have to do to get to heaven.”

THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS NOT HEAVEN. It is to build a relationship with God and follow him. Heaven is an awesome bonus. What if we were a church that didn’t obey God out of obligation but out of love. What if we didn’t do things thinking of our rewards but thinking of God’s plan. Mike had a great challenge to our church, WHAT CHANGES DO YOU NEED TO MAKE IN YOUR LIFE? What changes does God want you to make?

Join us in reading the book of Daniel during your quiet time as we look at Daniel’s obedience to God. Really make a list of things that need to change in your life to honor God like he is God not a dog.

DON'T TOUCH IT

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:32:00 +0000

By: Michael Weber

So, this week we looked at 2 Samuel 6, where David and his men were trying to move the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. As we learned, the first attempt didn’t go well, Uzzah was struck down by God for touching the Ark. I, for one, am REALLY glad God doesn’t deal with all sin this quickly, or I would have been dead a long time ago.

When you first heard this story, did you think God was being really harsh? I know that was my initial reaction. After hearing the message, you hopefully understand a little better why God punished Uzzah, but you still may be thinking God went a little overboard by killing him on the spot. I’m sure many of us feel that way, but the fact that we feel that way is just proof that we are guilty of the same sin Uzzah was. We are not fully honoring and respecting God for who he really is. This is probably because we have gotten comfy-cozy with God, just like Uzzah got used to the Ark. When we get used to God, we fail to honor his position as the all-powerful creator and ruler of the universe.

Think of it this way….The word “holy” literally means, “set apart.” You probably know that holiness is one of God’s attributes, in that he is totally set apart from sin. But I don’t think any of us really appreciate the degree to which God is “set apart” from us and our sin. In the Hebrew language, repeating a word was a way of strengthening its meaning. So, if something were “holy, holy” then it would be REALLY REALLY holy; more holy than just about anything else. In Isaiah 6, angels in heaven say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” Now that you understand a little about how the Hebrew language worked. This should make your mind EXPLODE!!! Isaiah is saying that God is a million times holier than the holiest thing that’s ever been holy! To put it in eight year old terms, he is double holy time infinity!!!

So, when Uzzah reaches out and touches the Ark of God, Uzzah is essentially bringing sin into the presence of the holy, holy, holy God. God cannot let this happen, and strikes him dead. God talks about the same thing in Exodus 19 when the Israelites are at Mt. Sanai. God says if any person, or animal, other than Moses, touches the mountain where his presence is, they have to die. It’s that same separation that exists later in the temple between the “holy of holies” where the Ark sits, and the rest of the temple.

Here comes another mind exploding thing to think about….. When you become a Christian, the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you and you have that exact same presence living inside of you that was in the Ark or on Mt. Sinai (1 Cor 6:19). Having that relationship with God and having the Spirit living inside of you is the AMAZING thing you could ever have. But remember how big a deal it is to God when sin comes into his holy presence. If we continue to sin after accepting Christ—by the things we put into our body, the things we do with our body, or the thoughts and words that are formed within it—we are essentially doing what Uzzah did, and bringing sin into God’s presence….Scary huh? Looking at sin this way can help us get an idea of just how seriously God takes it, and why he says we should be different once we have accepted Christ (1 Peter 1:15-16).

Here are some things to think about:

How accurately do you think you see God for who he really is? (Jeremiah 9:24; John 17:3; 1 John 3:2)

In what ways do you “touch the Ark” and bring sin into God’s presence? (1 Cor. 6:19; Romans 8:9; 12:2)

How might you do a better job of living the way God calls us to live? (Romans 8; Col. 3; Heb. 10:19-39)

Just a Piece of the Bigger Picture

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:49:00 +0000

So this week at CSM, we were in 1 Samuel: 16 starting our series ‘Honor and Respect’. We studied how David came to be anointed as the king of Israel even though he seemed like the LAST pick to take on such a huge job. David’s brothers were all stronger, tougher, and better looking. Even Samuel, a prophet that God specifically picked to find the next king didn’t get it. When Samuel saw David’s oldest brother, Eliab, Samuel thought, “SURELY this is who God is going to pick!” But Eliab wasn’t the guy; and neither were the next six brothers.

If you back up to 1 Samuel 16:5 you will notice that when Samuel arrives he has David’s father and brothers consecrate themselves—which means “to make holy/ready”—by cleaning themselves thoroughly and washing their clothes. [See Numbers 8:21; 11:18] But as we know from later in the passage, David isn’t there when this happens. He is out in the pasture tending to the sheep. So, not only was David the youngest, weakest brother, he was also not “made ready” for the ceremony because he was dirty, sweaty, and smelled like sheep poop…. Despite ALL of this, God selected David as the next king. But WHY?!? Why would God skip past so many people that seemed so much more qualified to be the next king???

Well, 1 Samuel 16: 7 tells us exactly why! When Samuel sees Eliab God tells Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NIV 1984)

David’s older brothers all looked better, because Samuel, or anyone else, was really only seeing a small piece of the whole picture. When we look at each other, we see an appearance, achievements, and some basic facts we know about one another. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of what God sees. God can see to the very depths of our hearts and minds. This is the reason why NONE OF US, not even a prophet like Samuel, can make an accurate judgment of someone’s true potential.

We may see someone as the “last pick”, but God may be planning on using that person in big ways because He can see their heart. Like David’s brothers, there are many people that look great on the outside, but their hearts are far from God [See Matthew 23]. It is easy to focus on how others see you and forget that God sees and judges your heart as well. [1 Thes. 2:4]

Check out Isaiah 53. This chapter is talking about the “suffering servant,” which if you read the whole chapter, is a very detailed prophecy about Jesus, hundreds of years before he was born. In verse 2-3, Isaiah writes, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.” Again, Isaiah is writing this prophecy about how Jesus’ life was going to look. So, just like David, Jesus was also seen as the “last pick” by many. The Bible tells us that, among other things, Jesus was harassed for not living in a pretty city and for coming from a poor family. How terrible is that!? God himself actually came and lived on the Earth as Jesus Christ, and we are so caught up on the outward appearance that many missed GOD IN THE FLESH. We simply do not and cannot see the whole picture.

So, how can we, just normal human beings, ever move past the “outward appearances” that usually distract us? First, we need to remember that every person is made in the image of God, and that God has a plan for every single person he brings into the world. But, we can’t see the big picture of someone’s heart and what God has in store for them. For this reason, we need to let God be the captain and leave the “picking” up to him. Just like 1 Peter 2:17 says, all we can do is treat every person we meet with Honor and Respect, no matter how we see them from our perspective.

Post By: Michael Weber

Too Much Good Is Just Bad

noreply@blogger.com (William Kranz) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0000

I hope there are some sushi fanatics reading this blog, because today we are talking about WHASSSAAAAABBBBBIIIII, more commonly known as wasabi.

You know what wasabi is, that green stuff you put in your soy sauce to dip sushi in. Now I love wasabi on my sushi. It is delicious, and the only reason to buy little slices of fish for $9 a roll (if you’re lucky). My father loves wasabi, my uncle, my cousins, but the only one who doesn’t LOVE wasabi is my brother. I mean, he likes it okay, but he doesn’t need it smothering every bite of his sushi or anything. However, one time in a desperate measure to fit in my brother made the claim, “I love wasabi,” he took a spoon full of wasabi threw it on his plate and added a splash of soy. The rest of my family looked at him like he was crazy and anxiously awaited what was surely about to be a youtube moment. My brother took his first piece dunked it in the “liquid” and took a big old bite. Instantly you could tell he hated it, but he was determined to not be proven a fool. He continued, and powered through that plate of sushi as my cousins and I watched in amazement and slight disgust. Tears poured out of his eyes as his body yelled, “STOP STOP!” and he choked as he pushed out the words, “mmm, it’s so…good”. I realized that this wasabi was literally killing my brother, I gave it a try and instantly hated it. My whole family gave it a taste and none of us asked for a second. That was the day it became clear, you in fact could have too much wasabi.

This stands true for all that the world has to offer. You can have too much of anything. See it isn’t that the wasabi was evil or bad by design. It is quite good in the right amounts, but too much of it is terrible and I would imagine takes years off your life (okay maybe not but can someone do a school project on this?). Like wasabi, there are many things in our lives that aren’t evil or displeasing to God, but too much of them can drive us away from God. Video games, TV shows, shopping, eating, friends, work, boyfriends, girlfriends, JUST ABOUT ANYTHING.

For instance, my wife Erin and I love to do TV show marathons. Now it’s not that the shows we watch are evil or of the devil, but seven straight hours of LOST is not the healthiest way to spend our time. Or football, nothing wrong with it, but is it really God honoring to spend 15 hours in a weekend watching football? I know there were whole weekends where the only prayers or praises towards God were about the Chicago Bears. That is not honoring to God. We need to make time to get away, alone, quiet and be with God. And sometimes the things of this world, good or bad, can hold us back from doing that.

I have also been held back by friends. Now, my friends in college were the best. They loved the Lord, they wanted to grow with Him, and we wanted to grow together. But there were days we spent 16 hours together and spent 0 hours with God. Too much of a good thing, is just bad.

Check out 1 Kings 19: 1-9. To better understand it you may need to read 1 Kings 18: 16-46. Think about some of these questions…

When Elijah was hurting and depressed, what did he do? How does it help? Is it possible for us to do what Elijah did?

When you don’t spend that time with God, what do you do instead (let’s call it Activity X)? Why do you chose Activity X?

Can there be too much of Activity X? What happens when you “spend” too much time with Activity X?

Challenge: Look at Activity X and make a commitment that you will spend quiet, still, alone time with God before you ever start Activity X.

Update: Student Mission Trip to Jacksonville, Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:11:00 +0000

CSM currently has over 40 people in Jacksonville, Florida, working to share the love of Christ through serving others.

A few highlights from the team are below:

* High school students having been working with a local church to help renovate an older homeless shelter. They did demolition work on the shelter’s porch, as well as scraped, primed and painted it.

*Middle School students worked to prime and paint two houses in the area.

* Great Bible studies are happening each day, with students studying and learning together.

February Updates!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Hey Everyone!

What an incredible week we’ve been having in CSM! It was a huge privilege to be able to work with Justin Griesinger on the message for this week, he did a fantastic job and I know there are so many proud people of this awesome man of God. He definitely has great things in store for him.
He talked about the need for having a brother/sister who will keep you accountable for your relationship with God, maintaining your walk with Him and staying upright. He talked about the story of David and his adulterous and murderous affair with Bathsheba. He tried everything he could to hide his actions but had a brother in the prophet Nathan who cared more about David’s relationship with God than pleasing the king, or even his own friendship with David. Through Nathan’s guidance, David was brought back into a right relationship with God and was set on the right course again. Justin’s challenge to us was to find our Nathan, find that person who we can share everything to and we know they are going to give us Godly advice to bring us back into right standing with God. So I would encourage, find your Nathan, or maybe be a Nathan for someone and see how God blesses that friendship!

Also, there is some incredible news about the CSM charity: water campaign! The campaign is complete and I looked at our campaign webpage and… (remember the goal was $5,000 for one well), our final total was $12,257.51!!! What a huge outpouring of love to the people who are desperate for water, we have forever changed the lives of over 600 people! AWESOME!!!!! So proud of you guys!

Remember, no CSM next week so we will see you back on March 9th for the start of a new series called “Common Senses!” Enjoy the cloudy skies and let’s go out and change ourselves, our schools, families, friends for the name of Jesus Christ!!

Incredible End to Incredible Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:21:00 +0000

Just wanted to briefly talk about the night we had last week at The Christmas Extravaganza last week. The Student Ministry staff and team members were praying for over 300 students to enter into the doors for the night. We have averaged around 230 for the year and thought 300 would be a great goal to shoot for during the service.

We had 349!!

I knew people were going to come to Christ during the night. I go into a message with that expectation every time I get up to preach. But the thought hit me while Greg and Lisa were playing "O Come Let Us Adore Him," that this whole night could be about ONE person coming to Christ. What a beautiful thing God would ordain, that an entire night be dedicated to one special person to change their life for eternity. Because each one is eternally valuable to God... so much so that His blood would have spilt for that one person alone. So I prayed for just one person to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ.

And 13 came to faith in Him!!

In short, God takes expectations and blows them out of the water. We should come to expect it from a big God to do HUGE things, almost to a point that it should become mundane. But time after time, I find myself placing limitations/expectations on God, and time after time, He shatters them. In the hands of God, everything is truly possible.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas, be sure to come and enjoy the Christmas Eve services at The Cove, invite your friends, it's going to be another incredible, eternity-shattering week.

No CSM until January 12th when we will kick off a series called Unlikely, and we will be talking through the life of Moses. You won't want to miss it!!! Let's take 349 and see how God blows that number up in 2011!!

Gearing Up for the Extravaganza!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:40:00 +0000

Wow!

That pretty much sums up my feeling from the Night of Worship last week at Student Ministries as well as my excitement going into the Christmas Extravaganza from 6:00-8:00 on December 15th. The band absolutely rocked, it was the loudest I've ever heard the auditorium on a Wednesday night for a Student Ministries event.

I got up to share what I thought was going to be a brief, 10-15 minute message, but God got a hold of the night. What was a planned, short devotion turned into a 40 minute, Holy Spirit experience that led to tears, inspiration and motivation for life-change by the end of the night. I challenged the students to desire to leave a legacy with their lives by pointing people to God's Son, it is not only a huge part of our mission statement here at The Cove ("Introduce Our Friends to Jesus), but it is our purpose as Jesus followers to be a witness to the ends of the earth as to what He has done.

I asked the students to think about friends that they knew who need Jesus Christ, and challenged them to write down their names and pin it to the cross we had in the back of the room. God wanted me to tell them, "If you bring your friends to church, I will bring them to Christ." So with that motivation in mind, I asked the students to respond, and respond they did:

In my desk drawer are all of these cards and I along with the Cove Church staff and volunteers are praying hard for these names.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do with this night on the 15th. God has placed a great message on my heart and I'm just putting the finishing touches on it now. If you are a student who regularly attends Student Ministries, remember these names that were placed on the cross, pray for them and bring friends to hear the message of Jesus Christ. If you are a parent, please be in prayer for this night as well as encourage your student to come, encourage your friend's children to come. I know that this will be a night that many students will look back on and remember as the day that God got a hold of them and with His eternal love, never let go.

Student Spotlight - Moriah McNeil

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:49:00 +0000

Hello CSM, my name is Moriah McNeil and I am still reflecting on the amazing “Hole in Our Gospel" series. Over the past six weeks we have been challenged in so many ways to truly take our eyes off of ourselves, refocus, and make an impact in our world. Last week was no exception when Will called us all to action.

As the rich young ruler was challenged to go beyond the safe and secure life he had acquired, even though it was good, he couldn’t walk away from his “stuff." To me this story is one of the saddest moments in the gospel. (Luke 18:18-22) Will transitioned so dramatically our playing it safe life to an amazing performance on the balance beam. We all laughed when we saw him hanging on and barely moving his feet forward; however, isn’t that the way we often live our lives? Balance Beam is an incredible athletic event unlike any other. For a gymnast the skills themselves are not extremely difficult. If we could stand on the floor and perform them on a line they would be perfect every time. The balance beam becomes challenging when we have to perform these same skills on a four inch beam, four feet in the air. Add wearing a leotard into the mix and it gets really scary. Fear paralyzes you. That’s when you have to remember your foundation, remember your basics and trust your training. When I used to perform at gymnastics meets, I would always pray “ God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, strength, and a sound mind.” (II Tim 1:7) Then I would go, much like last week and even after not training on balance beam for over eighteen months—the foundation was still there. I believe if the rich young ruler would have relied on God instead of his other god (stuff) he would have changed the world.
But there is more to the story, continue reading, verses 24-30 illustrate beautifully how sad this picture of the rich ruler was to Jesus and his understanding of how hard it is for the rich (that’s us) to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The comforting words of verse 27 should be our foundation. “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”. If he is truly our cornerstone, our life, our reason for being; then stepping out in faith will not only become easier, it will become our greatest reward. (v30)

How do you let go of the beam and step out into your Olympic sized dreams? Practice and train, soak in the word of God, step out of your comfort zone, put on your serving towel and wash some feet, give up your stuff, open up your life to his will, and don’t let the fear of anything stop you from trying. You might fall - rewind - you will fall, I did! But you get back up and you perform for an audience of One!

So let go of the beam, flip, jump, dance, fly. God wants to make your life a perfect 10.

Love in Christ,

Moriah

Student Spotlight - Justin Griesinger

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:24:00 +0000

Hello my name is Justin Griesinger and CSM this week was absolutely amazing! All the people that came, the new smiling faces, and the powerful message! What else can you truly ask for? God really moved in a big way as a eight students came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!! God is great! This week was the combination of week four and five of The Whole In Our Gospel series it was about how Christians in America need to stop following the American Dream and follow Jesus. America today says that the key to success is how much money you make, how cool your car is, how big your house is, or what clothes you wear. Gods way is the way to go! We talked about Mark 12:41-44, this is about the poor widow that put in all she had to give to Jesus and he said to everyone she was the one who gave the most. Mark 12:43-44, "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on.'" The other people who were wealthy put more money but they didnʼt give until it hurt like the widow did. She was living with audacious faith like Steven Furtick talks about in his latest book Sun Stand Still. Audacious faith is having total faith in God and standing for him with no fear, trusting that he will provide. I want to be known down the road as someone who had audacious faith. We need to learn that the money we get isnʼt our money at all, it is Godʼs money. This brings me to helping the people who arenʼt as fortunate as us. Lets face it, even as teenagers with a part time job if you make 100 dollars a week you are still in the top 15 percent of the world in annual income. That is 75 percent of the worlds population below even teenagers with part time jobs. Our challenge for the week was to give something up whether it be not going out for coffee to not buying that new video game to help someone! The students of CSM are deciding to do something about it we are sponsoring a well for children who donʼt have clean drinking water through charity: water. So far we are around 30 percent there and have 70 percent more to go! To be honest I wasnʼt open to the series at first, but now I am ready to go out and change the world as a youth group and this is how we are doing it! I cannot wait to see what Will Kranz has to say next week in our last week of the Hole In Our Gospel series. I want to invite you next week to come to CSM if you havenʼt been before! It is one of the highlights of my week coming to CSM and its something I always look forward to! Love you guys! God Bless yʼall!

Justin

Student Spotlight - Jose Quezada

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Hey my name is Jose Quezada this week has been a blessing in the making, God has worked in great ways for me this week. Though I have had some speed bumps on my journey this week God was there to show me how to overcome it not only by myself but with Him also. This Wednesday at CSM God worked through Ryan Weber amazingly, Ryan said everything that I needed to hear and it was no coincidence. This past CSM was on Luke 10:30-37 (NASB) a.k.a the Good Samaritan. At first I had no idea how this could apply to me, but as Ryan went on discussing the story and breaking it down I realized how big this story relates to the week I am having so far. I learned to not only apply the Christian life at church but everywhere. This week I tried so hard to define the Christian lifestyle to accommodate me, but God has planned otherwise. When Ryan was talking about not defining the Christian life to our standards but to the Lord’s standard, it hit me. We all try to define our Christian life to the point where we only act that way when it is in our favor. A lot of us students try to keep our religion to ourselves and maybe share it with a couple of close friends, God wants us to expand our religion to all those who are broken and weak. God wants us to help those who are in need and are broken, because that is what Jesus loved to do when he came to earth. We as students need to get invested in our community and spread the word of Jesus, as Ryan so nicely put it, do not just get involved from behind the fishbowl, but jump into the ocean, it might seem scary but Jesus will always be there so that we do not drown. Wednesday‘s message talked about showing compassion to others, and help all who need it, then I realized that in our society today we are not the good Samaritan but the priest and the Levite. It made me realize and hopefully others too, that we can’t just stand by and not do anything because a lot of these world issues are occurring in our own back yard, and the statistics were frightening. We the students need to go out there and help our neighbors, by neighbors I mean all those who are broken, all those who are lost, all those who are weak, we cannot just stand aside and let these problems go on while we turn our backs. If we want to get involved we need to have the initiative to take action. Ryan’s sermon was incredible because I don’t know if it was just me but it hit close to home and to my heart. CSM was incredible as always those who are reading this and have not yet taken that initiative to come, don’t be nervous because it is awesome. God Bless.

Hole In Our Gospel Journey - Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:09:00 +0000

What a great start to the Hole In Our Gospel series at CSM. Will did a fantastic job in opening up our eyes to the needs of the world around us. I know it's difficult at times to think through all that stuff, that these sorts of things happen and are happening now on a daily basis. Here are some of the stats that were mentioned last night:

Close to 1 Billion people do not have access to clean water
A child dies every five seconds due to starvation
It would cost $30 billion dollars per year to eliminate world hunger. The United States spends $100 billion dollars per year on Christmas alone
400,000 people have been killed in the last five years from the genocide in Darfur, Sudan
There are currently 27 million slaves (most are shipped as sex-traffickers and child-laborers)

It is tempting for us to look at these statistics and get overwhelmed, and I guess that was partly the point of yesterday's message: to overwhelm you with the need in the world.

So I would encourage you to come next week, on October 20th, we'll be talking about not just being people of intention, but people of action. Invite a friend to come, they will want to hear this message, all about challenging the church to BE the Church rather than just DO church. So make sure you are here this next Wednesday, and continue to let God challenge you to greater things, and challenge us as The Cove Church to reach the broken, poor and hurting with His hope and life.

Also, the VIP Party was a huge success, be sure to invite friends to come so you can hang out, have some ice cream and you'll have a chance to win an iPod so bring tons of friends (the more you bring, the better your chances of winning).

Last Night at CSM!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:33:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

Sitting here reminiscing a little about last night at Student Ministries! What an incredible night God gave all of us. We had NINE people raise their hands to either pray to receive Christ or rededicate their lives to Him!! I'm so amazed at just how incredibly powerful the Gospel of Jesus Christ is.

Yesterday, God allowed us to bring back the wonderful game of dodgeball, it was awesome to watch you all get pegged :) Though, not going to lie... I got pegged a fair share myself. Also, the ping-pong table is downright legit... any challengers just let me know, I will beat you down.

We talked about proving the faith we have in Jesus by the good works that we do. If we have a saving faith in Christ, it should be shown by the good things that we do. So often, when we think about things we need to do for Christ, our minds automatically go to the huge things: save my school, start a church, launch an orphanage in Africa. I am a firm believer that God has given each and every one of us a divine purpose... He's saved us for a reason. There is something huge that God wants to do through you. But that huge work needs practice. That's why our deeds need to start small. Just like Daniel-son had to start by "wax-on, wax-off" and Nate has to start by climbing stairs before running a marathon, we have to serve our family, our friends and our church well if we are going to fulfill the huge purpose that God has destined for us.

So think today how you can serve those around you... I mean really serve. We talked about how Jesus knelt down and washed His disciples' feet, a job for the slave of slaves. How can you be that type of servant to those around you today?

Keep inviting people to CSM and MiPods!! God is doing some incredible things and everyone deserves to be a part of it!

Reminder! No CSM or First Wednesday next week!! So make sure you come on October 13th for the start of our church-wide series called "The Hole in Our Gospel," it's going to be awesome. Love you guys, see you this weekend!

Thursday Always Comes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:09:00 +0000

Wow! What an amazing night we had at CSM last night! I honestly went into the night not expecting that. I was so thrilled with the feeling that I think the entire group had as we left the auditorium after the service was over. I just felt like there has been some sort of beautiful breakthrough within our group, like something is going to be different now. I think all of us came away from last night with a desire to do, be and say more for Christ on behalf of the Invisibles around us.

But Thursday always comes, a time to put our intentions into practice, our desires into footsteps, our hopes into reality. I have prayed for all of you today heading off to school that you would be given the boldness to stand out for Christ. To join with Jesus on His mission to "seek and save the lost." Coming away from a night like last night and seeing no tangible results makes last night completely wasted. Touch an invisible today.

Love you guys, see you next week for First Wednesday!!

Middle School Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:38:00 +0000

Hey Guys!

Wanted to remind you about the Middle School Film Festival coming up on Friday September 3rd at 7:00! The movie has to be under 5 minutes long, it can be about anything your imagination is capable of and you have to send me the video by August 27th so I can see it before we flash it on the big screen. We'll have food and really corny prizes to give you so try extremely hard!!

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail at rweber@covechurch.org. See you guys on Wednesday!!

Middle School Film Festival from Cove Student Ministries on Vimeo.

Back to School Bash!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Hey Guys!

Wanted to let you guys know about an AWESOME opportunity coming up on AUGUST 2Oth AT 7:00 at the Mooresville campus at The Cove. Our Back to School Bash is going to absolutely rock this year.

We're going to have a ton of inflatables and games in the atrium and the smaller auditoriums with as much food as you can possibly fit into your stomachs.

Marion Karr is going to be delivering the message for the night, if you haven't ever met Marion before, he is such an awesome guy. You'll be better for hearing him speak, I guarantee that.

And to wrap us up, we are going to have KJ52 come and perform for us (check out his website). If you've been anywhere around The Cove for the past couple months, I'm sure you have heard his awesome dance song called the Tweezy dance, you can watch and listen here.

So invite your friends, this is going to be an event you will not want to miss... AUGUST 20TH AT 7:00!!!