My Final Post

Circumstances Change, But God Changes NOT!

Changes happen all the time. It's no different for adults. You know the changes of life can be sublte or drastic. You can experience change when friends move, when your boyfriend/girlfriend breaks up with you, when your school changes, when your parents stop talking about divorce and start court proceedings, when a friend or a family member dies, or when you contract a disease. No matter how circumstances change. God changes not!

How does God not change? He says to you, "I am faithful. I am always gonna' be there no matter how circumstances change. I am good."

God is faithful. "This is a true saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself ( II Timothy 2:11-13)." God is always faithful. You may not feel you are always faithful to God. But God will be faithful. You can trust Him for He changes not.

Think of the geyser in Yellowstone National Park--Old Faithful. Check out this webcam with predicted eruption times. Every twenty or thirty minutes the geyser erupts. For decades this pattern has continued. Yet God is more faithful than a geyser. He is the everlasting God. He changes not! He is consistent. He changes not!
God is always there for you. "I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are
there (Psalm 139: 7-8)." God will be there for you. You may experience elevated highs or the deepest of lows. No matter. God wil be there for you. No matter how changes occur. You can trust God.

God is good. "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in him! (Psalm 34:8)." How do you taste God? You suggested that you can taste the Lord by licking the wall, by reading the Bible, by doing good things, and by observing the godly attitudes of other people. I suggest that you taste God by eating foods that are good to you. What satiates your appetite? Watermelon? Apples? Oranges? Pizza? Fries? Ice Cold Mountain Dew? Double mocha Frapp No Room? God is good like the taste of your favorite food. God is good. Trust Him.

The Chronicles of Narnia reflects the uniqueness of God. Aslan the Lion is good but you must still fear Him. The book shares this dialgoue between Lucy and the Beavers.

“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly.
“Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of Wood and the son of the great
Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan
is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh,” said Susan, “I thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver,
“if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees
knocking, they’re either braver than most or else silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver
tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But
he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

God is good. You can trust Him. He isn't safe--He's the God of the Universe, the Everlasting God. Check out Chris Tomlin's present worship song; "Everlasting God." One to buy!

If you don't have God in your life as the boss of what you do, then you have no access to his help. God provides great things for His followers. You can experience pain and joy and have no hope. But with God you
have hope that you can trust Him. Why? Because God is faithful, He will be there for you, and God is good. You can trust Him!

My life circumstances have changed As of today, the Elder Community of Northwest Chapel has directed me to shift all student ministries responsibilities to a transition team so that I can pursue what God is calling me to do for the future. I am still on staff at Northwest Chapel. But I will not be responsible for Student Ministries at midnight tonight. I have been given the gift of time to focus on missions--to discover what God wants me to do for the future. So I commission you to be advocates for God's church. Responsibilities change but my relationships with you does not. So stop and talk with me anytime.

But please don't eulogize me. I am not dead! I am embracing this decision and I agree that this must occur. I trust God and His leadership team. So keep this verse in mind as you respond and react to this news: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)." If you have concerns, then go talk with your parents, volunteer staff, or our elder community. May you speak the truth in love while in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:3). While circumstances change, trust God for God changes NOT!

Til' you see me,

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

New Classroom change for This Sunday

This Sunday morning you will gather in Room 121 for our next session. So look for directional signs. You will gather in room 121 downstairs for our high school hour. Thanks.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Mornings

How to Develop Healthy Relationships

This week you will discover why expectations may lead to disappointment in relationships. You will learn how to develop trust and how to measure reliance on someone else as you seek to build a healthy relationship. Every student needs to figure out how to measure how much you can trust someone and how much you can rely on anyone. These skills will help you in any relationship that seeks to honor God.

So come and learn how to grow in your understanding of trust and reliance in relationships. Ask a friend to come and join you.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

How to develop healthy relationships

This week you got to focus on making your relationship last. In the get-to-know the person category, you must consider the family of origin and the person's own actions and attitudes. Next you seek to discover compatibility in the areas of personality, values, and lifestyle.

You ask the question of compatibility. The prevalent cultural norm is to live together first and discover compatibilty before even considering marriage. Yet God's word states that God intended marriage to be a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman where they are no longer two persons, but one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God instituted this marriage covenant. He expects commitment prior to marriage. In the ancient near east, marriages were arranged. Man and wife were put together by families. God spoke into that culture and shared how things were intended to occur. One man and one woman would become one flesh. Compatibility was no concern. Yet today it is a significant issue--in fact, you look at eharmony and compatibility is a major concern. So rather than disregard compatibility you can include it in the process of making a marital commitment to someone.

You were shown three areas to consider: personality, values, and lifestyle. For personality, the points to consider were intelligence, emotional styles, energy levels, chemistry, openness and expression of confession, and sense of humor. Each point has a range of possibilities, discover where you are and where the person you like may fit. I wonder if you have questions like these to consider when pondering who to be with for the rest of your life. It's important to consider these prior to beginning any relationship. In my opinion, you need to at least think through each point with a parent(s) or with friends. Personality is the first point of compatibility.

The next one is values . What values are most important to you? Three you need to conider are spiritual values, family values, and material values. How important is spiritual life to you? How critical is it for you to have a small or large family? How significant is it that you make lots of money or just enough money? Questions like these you need to ask and you need to answer. What is most important to you?

The last area of compatibility to consider is lifestyle. Work ethic, leisure interests, and recreation fall under this category. It matters if you are highly motivated and someone else is not. It matters if you like being with family and people and your lifemate is not--more of a loner. It matters if you enjoy non-active recreational pursuits whereas your lifemate is an action-sports fanatic who participates in races and competition. Assess your lifestyle and measure it with your lifemate. Are you both willing to commit to life together in spite of the small similarities or wide differences? Is your lifestyles compatible?

Compatibility gave way to a brief overview of evaluating your past relationships. Ponder the past relationship patterns of you and your present love interest. Do detective work and ask the hard questions.

Lastly, gather relationship communication skills. Mrs. Feusse shared how you must cultivate better listening and speaking skills. Don't merely repeat the facts but figure out the feelings involved with the facts. You need to be better communicators. I need to be a better communicator. God's word gives us insight, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Moreover, "Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)." These skills will improve any relationship. Everyone would do well to improve listening and speaking skills.

Mrs. Wendy Feusse and I trust you will use this relationhsip tool to develop healthy and godly relationships in your life. May God bring you great relationships to surround you when poor relationships occur.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

How to Develop Healthy Relationships

This week you will focus on compatibility questions in relationships. This can be a point of confusion. So come and discover how to use the compatibility appraisal to improve your relationships. Mrs. Feusse will return to teach. I trust you can make it and learn how to build quality relationships with friends.

High School Sunday Morning Series

How to Develop Healthy Relationships
You were challenged to consider how to assess where you may be in relationships with someone of the opposite sex. Relationships can be complicated. But with God's truth as your guide you can alleviate some of the pain and the strain. But you both have to commit to God's way. So capture the levels of building a relationship with someone. You can build great relationships. You can.

The tool we offer is one where you consider five key concepts: know, trust, rely, commit, and touch. Ideally, each builds on one another. You can only progress as you get to know someone. With each situation you observe actions, attitudes, and clarify thoughts. You use discernment, you assess where this person is. You must know them well before testing how much you can trust and rely on them. Again, this is only a tool. Process it yourself. You have some options: discard it, implement it, integrate part of it into your life, modify it, or just think more about it. It's up to you to decide how you build relationships. This tool could help.

You need more ways to make this tool your own. So I suggest you evaluate relationships you see on TV, at the movies, or on DVD. Much like you did today. Evlautate what you watch. Use your brain. Think. Think about where you are at and consider where the other person is at. Engage life with some tool for relationship building. Use or lose this tool. It's one way to build godly relationships. It's up to you.

One student outlines "10 reasons why you really do have a choice about your life." God challenges you, "

If you decide that it's a bad thing to worship GOD, then choose a god you'd rather serve--and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you're now living. As for me and my family, we'll worship GOD." (Joshua 24:15 The Message)

You can choose God's way. So live it!

Pastor D

High School Sunday Morning Series

How to Build Healthy Relationships

This week you are going to pause and to assess how relationships remain healthy. You will view various film clips and use your best judgment to discern where the person is on the Relationship Attachment Model. When you are in a relationship, it is hard to discover where you are and where you are going. So Mrs. Feusse wants you to digest and to decide how to assess your relationships. Come ready to discuss and to question how you determine healthy relationships based on the model presented. I can't wait to discover where you are at.

Pastor D

Sunday Evening Discipleship

I came across by Charles Swindoll that helps illustrate the point that we are in a spiritual battle. We need to march forward for our King. He has made us his princes and princesses. Just like C.S. Lewis' story the Chronicles of Narnia. You need to armor up and join the battle for God's truth. You need to think the truth. You need to live the truth with love. You need to speak the truth in love.

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Christians were routinely persecuted for their faith by the Communist regime. We have many inspiring stories of courageous Christians behind the Iron Curtain who were willing to die for their faith during this difficult period in world history.
One such story involves a house church in a city in the former Soviet Union. The small group of believers who gathered there were afraid to carry Bibles, so they memorized large sections of the New Testament and recited Scripture to each other.
Each week they would arrive at the house at different times, to avoid arousing the suspicions of KGB informers. On one particular Sunday the church members were all safely inside the building, with the windows closed and doors locked. They began the service by softly singing a hymn and praying.
Suddenly, the door burst open and two soldiers armed with automatic weapons walked in. One shouted, “All right, everybody up against the wall. If you wish to renounce your faith in Jesus Christ, you can leave now and no harm will come to you.”
Two or three church members left, then another.
“This is your last chance!” the other soldier warned. “Either turn your back on this Jesus of yours or stay and suffer the consequences!”
Another member left. Two more covered their faces in shame and slipped out into the night. No one else moved. Parents with small children trembling beside them looked down reassuringly. They fully expected to be gunned down on the spot—or, at the very least, imprisoned.
After a few moments of silence, the soldiers closed the door and looked back at the church members left standing against the wall. One of them said, “Keep your hands up—but this time in praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. We, too, are Christians. We were sent to another house church several weeks ago to arrest a group of believers. But instead, we were converted.”The other soldier added, “We are sorry to have frightened those who left, but we have learned that unless people are willing to die for their faith, they cannot be fully trusted.”

So live for God's kingdom.

High School Sunday Morning

How to Develop Health Relationships (part two)





"You need this tool to help you." So said the lady at Lowe's.

Often I am reluctant to payout more money just for a tool to help. I can either pay 'em now, or pay'em later (after struggling and stressing, and swearing--oh yeah, not swearing). You can use the relationship model tool to help you begin to develop relationships. If you are already in a relationship or even with your friends you can use the tool to nurture bonds, not to shackle yourself in bonds. I feel that you need this tool to help you. I hope you come and learn how to use it.

You will begin to learn how to engage your head. This is the part where you get to know someone. The two areas to explore in your relationships are family background and childhood experiences as well as attitudes and actions of the conscience. How you were shaped in your family unit affects relationships. How you developed your conscience affects relationships. How you have matured (or not) impacts relationships. So come and learn how to develop great friendships and to nurture deep relationships. Invite a friend to come.


Pastor D

High School Sunday Morning

How to develop great relationships

I was listening to radiou on 88.7 and this song by April Sixth called "Dear Angel" was playing. I post the lyrics for you because relationships can feel so hurtful and alienating. You feel all alone and hopeless. Instead, God is near. No matter how many times people fail you, God will not! He promises to be with you, to never leave you nor forsake you. He is the best friend you'll always have. Nurture that friendship so that you can avoid feelings expressed in this song. I wonder where you can download it. I tried itunes but came up empty.

Dear angel of mine,

Where do I start to express how I feel?

Well, my love's gone blind.

Now all that I feel is what I hear.

Your words rip and tear, and

through my heart so weak and pure.

Now I find myself wanting to die…

CHORUS

I bleed for the second time tonight

holding the love that's in my mind.

If only my love could be with you.

If only this pain, this pain died too.

So I break you away, away, away from me.

As I sit here alone

thinking about everything that you said.

You know since I'm alone.

Well, maybe after all, I was better off dead.

Cause without you my life's gone down...

What do I do, when I find myself wanting to die?

This song shares how you could feel like dying. But think before you do. Consider the markers for relationships that you are learning on Sunday mornings--know, trust, rely, commit, touch. Where is this person? Could you use the relationship tool to mark where he or she is at? Come learn how to cultivate great relationships with God's help.

Pastor D

Sunday Evening Discipleship

Bread Series--conclusion this Sunday Night 6:30-7:45pm

The final discipleship session for the school year focuses on God's forever Kingdom. God's people in the Old Testament waited and waited for a Messiah--a Deliverer. They thought when this Messiah comes he would arrive in a big, spectacular way. They thought His coming would instantly, perhaps violently, radically change the world for them. They thought their enemies would be struck down, their lives would become prosperous, and their faith would be embraced by all. They were wrong, God's kingdom didn't and doesn't work that way.

Jesus explained that God's kingdom is like leaven. Leaven is a small, simple ingredient that works itself in and through the dough--transforming the dough and giving rise to the dough for bread to be baked for eating. God's kingdom is like leaven--it's truth works itself in and through you, transforming you and giving rise to a person living out the truth in real life. You can see your role--your place to live out God's radical and revolutionary ways in your own world. Your unique place is one that you can see work slowly and mightily through you. It is a lifetime transformation that God desires. You can pick up new pieces along the journey. You can make a radical impact these final weeks of school. God can do His kingdom work through you. You are his princes and princesses in battle for Him. Go and make a difference for Him!

Join us this Sunday night for a challenge and praise time to ignite your life for living for God this coming week. May it fuel your soul and impact others for Christ!

Tips for Small Groups:

• Praying Together--some students will be uncomfortable praying out loud. Let them know that everyone feels self-conscious when praying out loud for many times. Some people don't get over it. But students can work at it with you. Share how you learned to pray out loud with others or how you still feel challenged about praying out loud with others. Remind them that each one is simply talking to God who is the perfect Father and just wants them to share with Him what's on their minds as we have directed them this evening.
• Prayer Help--Try using a fill in the blank sentence; e.g. I want to thank You, God for _____; or I want You God to help me with _______. You may want them to write out their prayer and then read it back to God. Encourage students to try. This may be the only time they get coaching on how to pray and you get the chance to help one student become a great prayer warrior for the rest of his or her life.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning High School

We will proceed with the second-part of our five-part series this Sunday regarding how to develop healthy relationships. Mrs. Feusse had a tough Sunday afternoon. Her daughter Katie broke her leg in a championship game in Cincinnati. I have not got an update but I'm sure there is some recovery time needed.

This week we will unpack a little more about how healthy relationships work. I wonder if you have any movie clips or songs that could depict or describe how relationships are perceived in student life. I have a distant perspective. But you could provide some more insight to help us on Sunday morning. Please offer your suggestions here by posting a comment and adding links to the content you discover online. Thanks.

Pastor D

High School Relationships

Sunday Morning Series: How to develop healthy relationships

This Sunday begins our five week study on building healthy relationships. This theme is critical for students in high school. Growing good relationships is a skill anyone needs for creating a great life. All students want great friends. All parents want great friends for their children.

Mrs. Wendy Feusse challenged students to consider a new tool for fostering great relationships in boy-girl friendships. We used a relationship tool where five features were shared: Know, Trust, Rely, Commit, & Touch. Students need to define what selfishness looks like and feels like. We showed two clips. Selfishness rules over all relationships. The only way to overcome this natural tendency is to have Jesus come into your life and to help you overcome it. Without Jesus you have no hope. You can only expect heartache and pain with each new relationship These recurring "awful" relationships keep emerging. Yet with Jesus you will still experience heartache and pain but you'll survive it and grow from it and set the foundations for great relationships.

I was talking after church with a parent who discovered what we were sharing. This parent came up with a good point. Rather than avoid marrying a jerk, avoid dating one! I thought that was a good point. This tool is one way to work through guy-girl relationships but it eventually ends up with each person making up their own minds. I can't wait to hear how this tool will help students foster healthy and godly relationships. Plese post a comment about tools or models that guide your relationships. I wonder what you use. I know that if I had this tool I would have done better in my relationships.

Pastor D

Sunday Evening Equip

Small Group Info and Tips

This Sunday night we will explore how God is our Father. You can call upon Him everyday to meet your needs and trust in His provisions. Your relationship with God should be shaped by these truths. I will email the abbreviated outline for Sunday Night. I learned from last week that I need to make things shorter so that students can gather in small groups.

I want all the students together to create a corporate worship experience filled with music, teaching, and small groups. This short three-week series will fill the gap between the end of the last session and the summer break. I am still experimenting and learning when to integrate and how to integrate all age groups for a corporate experience. I expect high school students to model a walk with Christ so that the middle school students would "idolize" their remarks and actions to foster a legacy of students committed to follow Christ better. I expect the adult leaders to gather with a small group of students and to engage in one meaningful conversation about your walk with God where students "rub-shoulders" with you and peer into your own walk with God right now.

I provide the list of questions for adult volunteers to target their discussions in small groups around the main theme. Yes, you will need more time to get to know them. But try to listen well and rephrase their responses so that you communicate that you really heard what they said.

What if there is silence or a "I-don't-know" reply? Allow for silence. Then ask, "Who wants to help (student's name) with this question?" If there is still no comment. Say, "If you had to guess, what would you say?"

This week I will try to give more time to small groups. You can change, modify, or throw out the list of questions and the proposed scripted lines. But please stay true to the main point for the session. You will wrap up the lesson and help them take God's truth home with them for the week ahead. My prayer is that you will help prepare them to live out God's truth in real life for the coming week. Please offer suggestions by leaving a comment. I'd really like to hear from you.

Other Small Group Tips:

1. Pick 5 minutes one day to pray for the students who will come this sunday night.


2. Show up ready to talk with students discovering what he or she is interested in this week.


3. Seek to actively listen. To be heard is to belong.


4. Take turns praying for one another.

Pastor D

Sunday Evening Equip

The Bread Series



This week we will target how God is the provider for our daily bread. Many people memorize the Lord's Prayer, or DIsciples' Prayer. But I wonder have you spent some time unpacking it and really thinking about what Jesus said. This Sunday night you will unpack these familiar verse differently. Come to engage in learning how God is your Father. You will learn how to relate to Him better as your Heavely Father. Your Heavenly Father provides for you. He cares for you. He loves you!

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Lesson

Students are bombarded with the message that "hooking up" is acceptable. Because the media, peers, and public school staff tell them that it's okay, students need to hear the other side of the story in a positive, nonjudgmental way. This series discusses how to foster great relationships with the opposite sex. Our goal is to let students know God's views of relationships and not feel guilty about relationships gone bad. But students need to know the facts about fostering great relationships. This series will share how to foster healthy relationships and to discern how to recognize unhealthy relationships with the opposite sex. Using recent data, our five-part series will focus on challenging students to "use your head and your heart." The main thrust for students this week is to know the other person and to seek to develop healthy biblical relationships. So I wonder what the media says about girl and guy relationships. I wonder what TV shows or movies portray guy-girl relationships. I wonder if they depict a healthy, biblical model. So come this Sunday and learn how to use a tool for fostering great guy-girl relationships. Hope to see you Sunday!

Pastor D

High School New Series

Starting Sunday, April 29 How NOT to marry a jerk/jerkette

Certified Instructor Mrs. Wendy Feusse will facilitate our discussions regarding relationships. Students often become relationship casualties. This five week series will target how students can learn to manuever through dating relationships before marriage while lessening the risks of injury during the process. The series will be an open class allowing for new students to attend every week. Each session will "stand on its own." We will explore these sessions Sunday mornings starting April 2 through May 27.

Watch this news story and interview by Meredith Viera of young women's view of the term "hooking up." Please read what I posted earlier. More to follow.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Connect 11am

High School Lesson

Your world seeks guidance for life. When tragedy strikes, you want answers. You want guidance. The free video from bluefishtv.com of the VA Tech Prayer Vigil shows how students want direction in the midst of life's challenges. Yet the culture around you offers many avenues for guidance. One is dreams. In the movie trailer for premonition you can see how your dreams could shape or re-shape the future or any outcome. Where do you get your guidance for your life?

You read a daily reading from a real horoscope. You said it was untrue, a sham, a fun thing to do but you wouldn't follow its insights. You even described it as foolish. But many students look for guidance in life, but seek it in the wrong place where you create more problems. You watched a satirical look at someone who seeks wisdom from a horoscope mini-scroll. Someone has to buy them! Then you created mottos or bumper-sticker summaries of the following Bible verses: Exodus 15:13; Psalm 23; Psalm 25, 5,9; Psalm 31:3; Psalm 32:8-10; Isaiah 48:17. You can get guidance from the Bible! But are you?

I wonder if many times God can't guide you because you are either too busy following something else, preoccupied, or filling your time and mind with way too many things that drown out His voice. I trust you will take the challenge to spend at least five minutes each day listening to God and reading His Word in the Bible. You can do it! I am striving to fulfill my commitment. Today is not over. Make time to hear God's voice. I'd love to hear how God is speaking to you. Please share.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Lesson

Where to find genuine guidance in life

This Sunday morning I've decided to target where to find genuine guidance in life. If you've seen the trailer to Premonition, you can see how our culture views guidance of a supernatural nature. How do you know if what you discover in life is really true. A lot of people look for guidance in life , but seeking it in the wrong place is likely to do nothing but create problems. Many people run to all kinds of things, even weird things, to get guidance for their life. But they ignore God. If you've ever wondered how God guides His followers, then you need to be here on Sunday morning. You'll discover where anyone can God guidance from God.

Sunday Morning Lessons

I find it challenging to address the needs of both high school and middle school students. This coming Sunday is the last installment regarding habits or addictions students use to cover-up the emptiness in their lives. I wanted to address this by highlighting how busy students are--too busy to hear God's voice. So i challenged them to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n. Next I targeted snap-judgments--students need to take a long and honest look at his or her life before putting down others. This week I am torn what to target--either where to find genuine guidance in life or putting God first is the missing detail in many stuents' lives. So I will ask God for help in targeting one or the other. I pray to discern His guidance by tomorrow.

I will need some help with either option. I wonder if you could comment if you are available this week to help out. Thanks.

Pastor D