April 29
The Service Team needs your help this Saturday! Here are the details from Chris D.
We’ll meet at the church at 8:30am and we’ll drive over to the home of a single mom who attends Parkside and lives right Solon. We’ll be working from about 9am-12noon. Afterwards we’ll just head back to the church so students can get picked up if they need to. I’s pretty simple. we’ll need about 10 people.
Questions? Want to help?
Chris’s cell phone: (216)-334-4667
Chris’s Home phone: (216)-751-6353
Chris’s E-mail: Durbs36@aol.com
April 25
I finished another chapter of Ryle again today (Faithfulness and Holiness from the Real Retreat) and wanted to post another quote from his chapter on Growth. If you have been this book too please Make Some Noise about what you have been learning!
“Let us know, furthermore, that ‘growth in grace’ is one way to be happy in our religion. God has wisely linked together our comfort and our increase in holiness. He has graciously made it our interest to press on and aim high in our Christianity. There is a vast difference between the amount of sensible enjoyment which one believer has in his religion compared to another. But you may be sure that ordinarily the man who feels the most ‘joy and peace in believing,’ and has the clearest witness of the Spirit in his heart, is the man who grows.”
April 24
I read another chapter in the book from the Real Retreat, Faithfulness and Holiness. Today’s chapter was called The Cost. J.C. Ryle begins the chapter by emphasizing that it required the blood of Jesus to save a Christian’s soul….nothing more, nothing less. With this truth as foundational for our understanding of Christianity he then considers what a Christian must be ready to give up if he wishes to be saved. Of if you like, to live a life of grateful obedience to Jesus because of all that he has done. Here is one quote that jumped off the page at me and thought I would share for you additional thoughts.
“It will cost a man his love of ease…He must take heed to his behaviour every hour of the day, in every company, and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imaginations, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible-reading, his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace.”
April 23
The theme of the Real Retreat was holiness…the process that every Christian goes through in looking more like Jesus. Students had the opportunity to share what they had been learning on the retreat by writing their thoughts on poster board that was up in the room. This was one of the anonymous comments left that really seemed to be at the heart of the what the weekend.
“As I begin to go through the stations, I wrote a lot in my booklet. I copied quotes, I began to realize that in all I wrote I would put “we”, “us”, or “our”. I thought for a while. Then I went back and changed “we” to “I”, “us” to “me”, and “our” to “my”. I re-read some of the things. And it really, really helped me realize that I need to be holy and I must strive to be more like Christ. Peter has called me to do these things and to be self-controlled. It was and is huge for me to look at it upon that perspective.”
Check out pics from the weekend>
April 23
It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, I know that I am a Christian, that my sin has been forgiven but why do I still struggle with doing the wrong thing? Will I ever not have to deal with sin?” Thanks for the great question.
This is a question that I have been asked a number of times in various forms. The struggle against sin is one that the Christian will face every day of her life on earth. However, the day will come when she passes from earth to heaven and sin will be no more. She will dwell in the presence of Jesus and will finally be free from the tentacles of sin. I was reading another chapter in the book (Faithfulness and Holiness) we got at the Real Retreat this past weekend and came across this statement by Ryle on this subject. It was a great encouragement to me and I hope that it will be the same for you.
“We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Gal. 5. 17). Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification.”
April 22
This past Thursday night at Student Impact Jei M. shared some things that have been going on in her life over the past few months and how God has helped her through these challenging days. You can download what Jei had to say by clicking here. If you find yourself relating to similar challenges please drop me (McAlvey) an e-mail and I would by more than willing to talk.
April 14
The Real Retreat registration is now full. If you would like to be on a waiting list please call Nichole (440.708.2117). For those of you who are registered, please be at the warehouse at 6:15pm this Friday for dinner. After that we will head out to Camp Burton and be back at approximately 6:30pm on Saturday.
April 10
The summer calendars are now completed and a printed copy should arrive in your mailbox in the next week. In the mean time you can download the May-August calendar right now. You can also always check out the Google calendar if you prefer the digital route. Here are a few highlights:
- Impact Awards - May 16th
- Senior Dinner - May 21st
- Freshman Rafting Trip - June 13-15th
- SI “OTR” Cookout at Solon Park - June 26th
- Cincinnati Service Project - July 20-25th
- SI “OTR” Indians Game - August 14th
- Creation Museum - August 16th
April 9
It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, I was reading a book and wondering why it said God is jealous?” Thanks for the great question.
To answer this question I have pulled some excerpts from a book called Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I often turn to this guy for answers and quickly realized that his unpacking of God being a jealous good to be much better than anything I could come up with…
“Although the word jealous is frequently used in a negative sense in English, it also takes a positive sense at times. For example, Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘I feel a divine jealousy for you’ (2 Cor. 11:2). Here the sense is ‘earnestly protective or watchful.’ It has the meaning of being deeply committed to seeking the honor or welfare of someone, whether oneself or someone else.
Scripture represents God, as being jealous in this way. He continually and earnestly seeks to protect his own honor. He commands his people not to bow down to idols or serve them, saying, ‘for I the LORD your God am a jealous God’ (Ex. 20:5). He desires that worship be given to himself and not to false gods.
Thus, God’s jealousy may be defined as follows: God’s jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor.
People sometimes have trouble thinking that jealousy is a desirable attribute in God. This is because jealousy for our own honor as human beings is almost always wrong. We are not to be proud, but humble.
It is not wrong for God to seek his own honor, however, for he deserves it fully. God freely admits that his actions in creation and redemption are done for his own honor (Isa. 48:11)…It is healthy for us spiritually when we settle in our hearts the fact that God deserves all honor and glory from his creation, and that it is right for him to seek this honor. He alone is infinitely worthy of being praised. To realize this fact and to delight in it is to find the secret of true worship.”
