Review from April 3rd

Here is what was going on in Club 56 this past weekend.
On Saturday Night, we had a great time with our April Fool's night theme.  Wyatt picked up some bonus points for his team by being the first one to solve the word search puzzle.  That pushed the boys to their first win in the new points competition.  We also talked about how the Devil is a trickster, a roaring lion looking for souls to devour.  He wants to trick us into not living up to the potential God sees in us.  He wants us to be tricked into thinking our "little" sins are ok and judging others for their "big" sins, or he wants to trick us into thinking that our "big" sins are so big that God doesn't want to use us anymore.  O he wants to trick us into doubting God's power or even God's existence.  The best way to keep from falling to these tricks is to spend time with God every day, reading our Bible, memorizing and applying it to our lives, learning at church, serving others, praying, and building strength on God our foundation.

On Sunday, we continued our discussion on relationships by talking about boundaries.  In groups of 5 we had 1 person stand inside a small circle and spin around 10 times, then keeping their eyes closed, they had to walk around in a small circle without stepping outside or on the line.

The others sounded an alarm whenever the boundary was crossed, and were also challenged to find ways to keep the person inside the boundaries.  I like the symbolism of this.  We don't always know the boundaries that God has for us, although often we do, but because we are human, it is hard to stay inside these boundaries.

God has set some boundaries in place for us to follow in our relationships both with a special someone of the opposite gender, and in other friendships as well.

We read these passages from the Bible for our discussion

1- Psalm 86.11 & Psalm 119.9-16 - These verses reveal that the most important relationship that we can work on, and where we should always be focusing our attention above all else is on our relationship with God.  The second one talks about reading/studying the Bible, obeying God, memorizing scripture and applying it and telling others about God.  Great things to work on and build!
2- 2 Corinthians 6.14-18 - tells us to be careful in our relationships with non-believers.  I like the picture of this too.  Some translations talk about being yoked together - But if our lives are not heading the same direction - if we are living for God and the other person is living for themselves, there will be hard journeys ahead.  So don't attach yourself too closely to non-believers.
3- Romans 13.12-14 & 2 Corinthians 7.1 - These verses call us to be pure in our lives, fleeing from or ridding ourselves of all the things that pull us from God.  As we talked about on Saturday - the enemy will never stop coming at us until he is dealt with permanently.  So we need to be building up our defenses (asking for God's help) every day - many times per day.
4- Hebrews 10.24 - Lastly, we looked at this verse which shows us that we are also responsible to look out for others, spurring them to live a life alive in God, too.  We are to challenge each other to be accountable to God's calling.

So there are some great things to think about from last weekend at Club 56.  May God guide us as we look to Him for help in living as His witnesses, His light to the world around us.  Let's take that responsibility seriously and build our relationship with Him first and foremost.

have a great week - check back tomorrow or thursday for some bonus point opportunities from Pastor Ivan's sermon on Sunday.

~~Chris