Mostly I’m posting today to let you know that the summer calendar is available for download on our calendars page, http://242.nlcfonline.com/downloads/calendar. Check it out, download it. Let me know if you have any questions. There are some items that are not on the calendar – especially for Junior High Students – that are still in the works and we’ll let you know when the details are available.

Again, I’m hoping to update stuff more often and do some finishing work on the site really soon. In the meantime I look forward to everything we have going on in the summer and seeing everything that God is doing in the group.

Woo-ha!

Joe

Dating, when we say this word people think of many different things. One that not a whole lot of people think about is, well it’s more of a name, God. God is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about dating. It was not always this way. In fact for a long time I put dating before God. My second year of high school it was my life goal to get a date. I thought that being with someone would make life better, I would not feel so alone. I was looking for someone to, “complete me.”
A year went by and no date, but not for lack of trying. I had my friends ask all the girls for me and all them said no thanks in their own words. I was so upset that I said that dating was stupid so I stopped looking for a date, or so I thought. It was not until this year I realized I was still looking for a relationship; it was just no longer my life goal. This year I’ve been trying to put God first in my life and I was doing okay, until dating came back up. I began to revert back to some old habits. It was so hard for me to try and put God first, it felt like I cutting my foot off, but I did it – put God first not cut off my foot. God has begun to work inside me so that when the hard things in life come up I know how to ask him for his help. I’m not saying dating is a bad thing; in fact it is great, if you can do it in a way that is pleasing to God. Your heart should be focused on God first, but that does mean you can’t date. I once heard someone say that, “A girl’s heart should be so focused on God that to get to her heart you had to go through him.” This is exactly how it should be and same thing goes for guys. Dating and God can be hard for some people to understand but once you finally figure it out it can be something beautiful. So the next time you think about dating I hope one of the many things that pops into your head is God.
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Mark your calendars! May 15 is this year’s golf outing – our best fund raising event of the year. We’ll need people in the early morning and around lunch to help set up and tear down. Sign up in the lobby at church if you want to work the event.

Next week we will launch a web page where people who want to play in the event and get more information about sponsorship. Check back here for the link March 1.

Each day, over 25,000 children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths.

Each year, we at {2:42} are a part of the 30 Hour Famine, organized by World Vision, in order to help combat the destructive impact of hunger and poverty world wide.

This year we will be doing the Famine on April 23-24. Students pledge to not eat for 30 Hours and seek to raise sponsors for the event. We’ll spend the night at the church and also have a pancake breakfast for the community to help raise extra support.

Sign Up in the lobby at church if you want to be a part of this year’s Famine. You can also find the permission slips for the event on our forms page as well.

For the first time ever, we are taking our Junior High students to an conference exclusively for them. The Believe event is a two day event that tours the United States and is put on by Christ in Youth and is supported by Youth Specialties. This year we will travel up to Anderson University’s Reardon Auditorium each take to take part in the weekend’s events.
Our expected arrival and departure times are as follows:

Friday: Leave Church – 6 p.m.
Arrive Home – 11:30 p.m.
Saturday: Leave Church – 8 a.m.
Arrive Home – 6 p.m.

I’m excited to announce that because this is our first year attending Believe, we get a discounted rate of $25 per student for registration. The total cost for the event will only be $38 after money for gas and breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Registration and payment for the event will be due by Youth Group on March 14. The permission slips are available for download in on our forms page. Hope to see you there!

Right now it’s only 9:22 a.m. and I’ve only had my radio on for about five minutes and I’ve already heard at least 2 commercials that present a hidden message about what I am supposed to believe about sex and women. I would be surprised if someone could go a day consuming today’s media without hearing a message about sex, whether that message is in your face or whether it’s hidden. As disciples of Jesus, we need to answer the question, “Is this story we hear every day true?”

This past Sunday we looked at what Jesus said about sexual desire and how it’s related to God’s intention for our sexuality and sexual expression and we can only come to the conclusion that the story we hear day in and day out is false.
In Matthew 5:27-30, Jesus says the following:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Jesus makes a stunning comment about our sexual desire here as he equates our passionate desire for another person to whom we’re not married to adultery. This is a big deal because according to the Jewish Law (found in the Old Testament of the Bible) people caught in adultery are supposed to be stoned to death. Therefore according to Jesus, having lust in our hearts for someone is worthy of death? That sounds so harsh today, and yet we have to realize the ways in which God has designed our sexuality to function.

In Genesis 2:24, after having created Eve out of Adam, we are told that when a man and a woman come together as husband and wife, they are to unite in new and mysterious ways. Part of that union takes place in the act of the sexual union shared between the two, and according to Jesus to be burning after someone other than that person to whom you are wed threatens that union to the same degree that adultery does. If we take a look at our culture are we surprised by this? Pornography is only a click away in all our households, and objectifying images of women in our media send messages to both men and women that tell us that sex is really all about satisfying our own desire, not creating a God created union between two people. Is it any wonder then that as a culture we are experiencing so much confusion about not only sex, but love and marriage and commitment?

What we have to do is change our goal, change the very thing we are aiming at in order to find fulfillment for our desires. Imagine a great treasure stored in a case, and that case is set in the middle of the room. Everyone in the room has the choice to head straight to the chest without turning to the right or the left. If the chest represents God’s best for our lives, anyone who would focus on this would find themselves meeting at the chest, and there in the will of God meeting that one person with whom they can share theirs lives and enjoy the gift of sex that God has designed for them. However, if someone chooses to focus on chasing after sex or even chasing after person after person to try and find that special “one” they may never reach the goal God has for them. Our challenge then is to ignore the constant lies our culture tells about the nature and purpose of sex and desire, and instead focus on God, trusting that his will is good and worthy to be trusted.

What do you think? How hard do you think it is to remain sexually pure in today’s world? How can we support one another in our attempt to honor God with our bodies?

Here’s two things I know;

1. Valentine’s Day is approaching…
2. …and there are a bunch of teens hoping to go to Orlando, Florida this July for IYC 2010.

So, we’ve put these two things together and began planning another Parents’ Night Out fundraiser! If you are a family in the church and you want to be able to have a night out just drop your young–uns off at New Life at 5 p.m. on February 13th and plan on picking them up again at 9. Then go do, whatever it is you’re wanting to do! Enjoy the evening!

All we ask in return is that you make a donation of your choosing at the end of the night to help offset the cost of our trip to Orlando. There is a sign up sheet in the lobby if you are going to take advantage of this evening. Please let us know how many kids you have for us to watch and their ages, and enjoy the evening!

Sign Up Here

The professional football team based out of Indianapolis is playing in the championship game in South Florida next Sunday! How exciting is that? WAY exciting that’s how exciting it is, and we’re going to cheer them on together! Next Sunday, February, 7th, we will be having a Party for the Game that is Super at Danny and Laura’s house. Kick-off is at 6 p.m. and we’ll be enjoying pizza and snacks and soda for the evening. If people want to play Apples to Apples or other card games that will be available as well, but mostly we’re going to scream our heads off rooting for our local football heroes! If you need directions to Danny’s call Joe or Danny and we can help you out. Hope to see you there!

By the way, we’re bringing back an old {2:42} practice of having those students who are in the Junior High (6th, 7th, and 8th Grades) leave at half time and allowing the older students to stay for the duration of the game.

The Challenge Page

Here you’ll find a new discipleship challenge, meant to encourage people to live more disciplined lives before God. There will be an ever-growing amount of resources on this page so come back often. I’ll also announce when new challenges have been posted at {2:42} on Sunday nights so that students will know when to check it out.

The Forms Page

Forms may seem boring, but they’re important and many parents like have access to them when needed. That’s what the forms page is for. (There’s also a downloads page that will contain other types of materials to download as well).

The Events Page

Want to know what we’re doing in the coming weeks? Check out the events page and get the 411 on everything that’s going on!

So those are some of the more interesting things to check out. Of course there’s the ongoing blog that I’m hoping to update multiple times a week so bookmark the page, come back often, and leave comments whenever you want. This site is meant to be as interactive as possible and I’d love to hear from everyone!

God Bless,

Joe Watkins
Youth Pastor