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Student Ministry - July

Dear Church Family,

This year has been marked by change and adjustment. I can say confidently that no one’s plans for 2020 have come to fruition the way they thought they would. And that is the strange thing about plans. No matter how well you map things out, they can change on you in an instant without your consent. While that is generally true, it has been especially the case this year. With COVID-19, quarantine, social uproar, and election year, 2020 is sure to be one to bring monumental and lasting changes.

As Christians, however, we are not overwhelmed by this. These things surely cause much anxiety, but we know that “The Lord is near.” So we are “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” we will let our “requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard” our “hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5-7)  We trust in God who is in control over all things. When we get overwhelmed, we cry out and He hears our prayers and comes to our aid. He is with us and guiding us as we continue to follow Him.

Over the last weekend of June we took a group of students on a Summer Retreat. We had about two weeks to plan it. We decided to theme the weekend: If the Lord Wills. It seemed to be an appropriate theme considering our context. We stayed at a wonderful AirBnb, went tubing on the lake, played tons of corn-hole, and had God glorifying worship. The retreat certainly lived up to its name, because none of our plans went exactly how we thought they would. But it went precisely how God planned it, which was the whole point. In order to convey the idea that Christians don’t need to be overwhelmed by change in life, we went over the following passages.

From Proverbs 16:9 we learned that: We are not in control. But God is, and we can trust Him with our life plans. From James 4:13-17 we saw that: We walk the balance of making plans and trusting God by holding our life with open hands and following Jesus as He directs us in the next right step.

Jesus had this attitude because He loved God and knew that God would turn even the worst possible thing into the greatest possible good. In the garden He prayed that the cup of God’s wrath would be removed from Him, but He knew that God’s will, no matter how difficult it was, would turn out to be His ultimate good (see Romans 8:28). So He prayed “not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39)  It is because Jesus trusted the Father through the worst possible circumstances that we now have access to God and are forgiven of all our sins! Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father in all His glory. God’s will turned out to be awesome! And now, we who are in Christ can also have this attitude of love for God and trust in His plans no matter how hard they may be.

We all need to remember this truth. But students who are still in the formative days of their youth desperately need to be shown that change happens, but God’s plans and His love for us never change.

Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren 

Student Ministry - June

Dear Church Family,

The Summer has begun, and things seem to be returning to something like what we would call “normal.” For the Student Ministry this is great news! The students have been itching to spend time together, so now that restrictions are loosening and groups are permitted to gather again, they have never been more excited just to hang out. That said, wisdom is still necessary to continue to love our neighbors and ensure that people who are at-risk are not needlessly endangered.

We are planning events for students to safely gather together and enjoy fellowship and be built up in their walk with the Lord during the Summer. At each of these events we want to be sure to have a short devotional time. For these devotional times the family ministry intern (Trey Scott) and I will be discussing the Fruit of the Spirit as given in Galatians chapter 5. This past week we started that discussion with the fruit of Love.

Here is an overview of that devotion:

Love is something that is produced within those of us who have the Holy Spirit, which is anyone who has a relationship with God through faith in Christ. If we know God, then He will produce love in us. So what is love? Not the world’s definition, but God’s definition.

Love is a choice, not only an emotion. It is a choice to 1) value something or someone, and it is a choice to 2) take action that expresses that value. The world sees love as an emotion or a strong desire for something. It is when we really want something, or really don’t want to lose something. But the world doesn’t see love as necessarily valuing and respecting something.

We know that godly love is valuing something or someone because God Himself shows us that He chose to value our good so much that He willing sent His Son to the cross in our place (John 3:16). Jesus loves the Father and loves us enough to willingly give up His own life for our sakes. That is true love; valuing someone and their wellbeing enough to sacrifice for it. We confuse love with lust all the time in this world. We think because we want something really badly that we love it. Students want a relationship with someone so badly that they think that they love that person. But do they truly value and respect them? Will they seek that person’s wellbeing, or are they just pursuing a selfish desire?

We also know that godly love involves action. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a clear list of what love really looks like. And in that list each item is some form of physical action or an act of the will. Either way, genuine love displays itself for the good of that which is loved. We think love is about how we feel. But often the reason why we don’t feel love for someone is because we have not been acting in love toward them. And sometimes we say we love someone (like our family for instance), but we do not display marks of true love towards them, proving us to be hypocrites.

But we need not lose hope if we see that we do not always love the way God loves. If we have a relationship with God, then we know that the Holy Spirit will produce that fruit within us. We simply need to turn back to God and ask for this transformation of the heart. When we look to the One who loves perfectly, our love will be made more and more glorious as time goes on. I hope that we all will seek the Lord and love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if any of us is struggling with godly love, I pray we turn to the Source of love itself and ask that He grow and change us to be more like Himself.

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren