Christmas Boxes

I know we mentioned this project a couple weeks ago…and then went on vacation. I’m following up now with the details. We’re partnering with East Pointe and Operation Christmas Child to fill shoe boxes with toys, hygene and clothing items, school supplies and even hard candy for children oversees. Here’s the skinny. Sunday morning we’re gonna have a box packing party. We’ll bring food, you bring stuff! The guidelines for packing boxes are at this link:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/       Decide how many boxes you want to do, shop to fill those boxes and bring $7 per box for shipping. The church has boxes for us, so you don’t have to worry about that and I’ll bring wrapping paper. 

Some good places to find things:

Target has $1 spot with lots of pencils, paper, stickers, even toys and balls.

Walmart is always good esp. for any clothing items like hats, sunglasses or socks.

Big Lots and Dollar stores may surprise you, too.

Happy Shopping, please call me with any questions.

Lauren

 

Community

In light of our most recent Bible study – building true community amongst ourselves and our church – we will be going to the beach sunday morning before church to see the sunrise.  We can use this as a time of “solitude” (even though we will be with each other) and just really prepare for worship before church.  Let’s meet at 5th south (it’s the park with the beach volleyball court and the boy riding a dolphin, no that’s not weird)  We are gonna watch the sunset and then go get some breakfast somewhere.  Oh…and we need to meet at 6:30.  Sunrise is at 6:41.  Hope to see you there!

Bible Study 10/8/08

So, ideally this would be done well in advance of having bible study but I’m a bit late (Mark, I can tell you’re shocked).  Just wanted to give the scriptures that we discussed this evening so that you guys can go over them and just let God speak to you through them…

*Take up your cross

~Matt 16:24, Matt 8:34, Mark 10:21, Luke 9:23

*The Cross as a Curse

~Gal 3:10-14

Prayer Requests:

~the future of our country

~Kelly’s decision on going back to Liberia

~Jamie (Holmberg) leaving for Central Africa

~Jenni’s new baby

First Love

You have probably had a first love at this point in your life.  And you probably felt that it was the only person in the entire universe that could possibly make you happy and that if you didn’t end up with that person you would never find true happiness because true happiness was only to be found in that person.  And then what happened?  It probably didn’t work out and you realized “Eh, no big deal.”  I hate that, as Christians, when we first come to Christ we have these feelings of love for God that we can’t even put into words.  Something that might describe how we felt is, “God is the only one that can ever make me happy!  How in the world did I not realize this before?!  God you are so awesome…I love you SO much!”  And then what happens?  A few weeks…months…years pass and all of a sudden it becomes, “Eh, no big deal.”  What happened?  We lost our first love.  We walked away from it.  Christianity became a religion for us.  It became a set of rules, a way to live, to be a good person, and we do all these things for God and there is no love.  If you knew how God was described in the Bible, His physical appearance, it would blow you away.  Do you have a minute or are you too busy?  Read Revelation 1: 12-16.  That is God.  And he gave all that up and He emptied Himself of all of that because He passionately loves us and He passionately desires a relationship with us.  Passionately…Passionately.  Where is our passion?  Where is the love we once had for God?  It is funny that this has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks because that is what Mark (Baughman) spoke about Sunday Morning – passion for Christ.  We need to remember the heights from which we have fallen and repent.  God is not interested in religion. He is not interested in lukewarm Christians.  He would rather us pick a side – hot or cold.  Let’s resolve to be known as passionate followers of Christ.  Christians who take the greatest commandment to heart – love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.  Let’s be known as those people.  

Bible study tomorrow night will be from Revelation 2: 1-7.  Sorry it is so late and I am just telling you this but if you happen to read this in time and want to read up on those verses, maybe we can talk about it tomorrow night at Panera.  Love you guys…

Now that im eating the book it tastes really good…

I think that for 24 years and 5 months I wouldn’t take part in the most sumptuous meal ever offered to any person on this planet(we all can eat of this meal)! I have been known to enjoy many wonderful meals, i like food, but until i realized the simple fact that there are many meals that satisfy so much more than anything wolfgang puck or bobby flay or even emerill legasse can create for us to enjoy!,(They are good cooks i hear…) i was so unsatisfied. What brought me to this realization? A man named Louie Giglio helped me realize that i was longing for a good book to satisfy the longing hunger that I had continued to a state of deprivation. Ok this may make you think that any book is a good meal but no they aren’t.I am Not but I know I Am by Louie isn’t even the book i refered to in the title of this short view into my small significant life! the book is just one of many that have given me a growing hunger for reading in general. If you know me i have always been defiant to sitting down for long periods of time to devote to reading. Unless of course it was the sports page or a video game magazine…this fact leads you to a true belief that i suffer from a depraved or nonexistant bible reading life, even after i had succesfully broken free from some tough addictions that Jesus got me out of a few years ago. I still couldn’t find it in my heart to devote time to setting the table and getting a good meal out of the book in question…the Bible…I think that im getting hungrier day to day! and that is a good thing because I now know Gods word will always satisfy!

Why does paper and ink taste good to some and not so good to others? I am one who didn’t enjoy that combination for a meal especially when it required me to commit many hours to one thing…i mean come on 400 pages and you have to start at page 1? Why must i be tortured so…? You know why because it shows discipline! Im sorry to say that im still working on that a bit but i found a way to avoid being disciplined in this manner. The way to do it is read 8 books at the same time! I think at one point I was reading Irresistable revolution, I am not but I know I Am, Falling for God, The Barbarian Way and the sports page all at the same time(well not at the same time in front of me bit working my way through them all together) And yes i still read the sports! But wait a minute, i didn’t mention the bible there! I hadn’t gotten to the point where i wanted to in may. Louie got me on the track but i think that Kyle strobel got me running towards my dinner table! well i think that this food analogy has run its course(pun intended) Haha! anyways so back to me not reading my bible til louie and kyle got me back on the right track, well Metamorpha gave me opportunities to read a very thought provoking book(still only halfway into it) about what the church has become and this made me think that i can’t really be an example if i haven’t metamorphed, and though i am a nice guy and I love the Lord, I can’t do what i want to accomplish by my own understanding! i think that we as followers of Jesus are ill-equipped if we are not in the word daily,and yes i actually read the whole book of genesis in one day on thursday, and i want more! Exodus your nextFor all who read this i want to tell you to get hungry and enjoy the meal God has prepared!

-Aaron-

And to reinforce this i have attached a sermon from Dr. Brian Wilkerson Senior Pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA His sermon is called “eat this book”, obviously my title is inspired by the true story of his sermon that he preached.

http://gc.reelworship.com/gc/audio/GC_021008.mp3

Pura Vida!

A.W. Tozer once said that the most important thing about you is what comes to mind when you think about God.  Whether you think he was right or wrong, I think we can all agree that this is at least very important. Welcome to the Metamorpha class blog.  Hopefully you will find this a safe place to be challenged, stretched and encouraged in your faith journey with Christ.  We need to challenge what we think we know about Christ by going back to the Scriptures and we need to renew our faith in Him by applying our lives to those Scriptures.  Our hope is to create an environment of true community with one purpose – the Glory of God. The reason we are called Metamorpha is because we are seeking true transformation through the Holy Spirit working in our lives.  Like Mark said last Sunday in church, “The question is not ‘Where are you?’, but ‘Where are you going?’”  That is the question.  Spiritual transformation, not moral transformation.  We don’t merely want to have “right opinions” of God, but rather be affected by them; be changed by them.  Hopefully this blog will be an aid in getting us to where we are going.  We will post notes and thoughts from Bible study and Sunday School, as well as random thoughts on what God is teaching us right now.  If you have something you would like to share, please do.  Email me (Kevin), Jeff, or Mark and Lauren at metamorpha.epc@gmail.com.  We can post it.  That is our prayer – a community, a place for the exchange of ideas and testimonies as to how God is working within the hearts of those in our community.  We will post prayer requests and praises, videos and pictures. We will link to our calendar as well as post upcoming activities…anything and everything – within reason  Again, we pray this will help pull your mind out of it’s comfort zone when it comes to Christ and really challenge you to grow in your faith.  PS – for those who are wondering, “pura vida” means “pure life” or “live pure” in Spanish.  Please stay tuned…