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Summer Camp Tomorrow

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | No Comments

Friends,

I can’t wait for Summer Camp Tomorrow!

I will be posting updates here with pics throughout the week. Check back.

Also, you can go to facebook for some videos I will post.

Please pray that God works in big ways!

Here’s my pre-camp game face…

Beware of the Mountaintop!

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | 2 Comments

(another great blog from our brother Jay Hobbs!)

Well, it’s June again, and that means but one thing in the life of Student Ministries–Summer Camp!

Nothing like the combination of camp-dirt and milk-chug, along with the nightly camp fire and daily time of sitting under the Word in both individual and community-wide meetings.

But this blog is written as a warning to would-be campers, especially those at our beloved Northpoint Church, nestled in the heart of that center of the universe known as Corona.

The warning is this: Beware the Mountaintop.

Maybe it’s a dated expression by now, but I remember like it was yesterday my old pastor, Jim Holmes, talking about a phenomenon he called a “Mountaintop Experience.” Now, Pastor Holmes was about 80 years old when I knew him, and he’s since gone home to be with the Lord, but his expression has stuck with me ever since I was a little boy.

When Pastor Holmes talked about the Mountaintop Experience, he meant that ‘spiritual’ high that has always been so common among believers when we’ve been surrounded by God’s Word and God’s People for a weekend.

The problem with the Mountaintop is that it’s all-too-often an illusion because it’s all-too-often based on emotion, not on Truth.

There’s a great story about my favorite musician of all time, Rich Mullins. He had a great line for people who would come up to him after his concerts to share about how the Holy Spirit had moved in their hearts during one of his songs. Rich would look at them and say, “No, that’s actually when the kick drum and the bass came in. It’s easy to mistake energy and emotion for worship.”

When you go up to Summer Camp at the end of this week, dear Northpoint Student, pray to the Lord that you would not mistake emotion for worship, experience for obedience.

How do you know when you’re really worshipping? It’s when you’re obeying difficult commands of Jesus, like loving your enemy. Or, more to the point, it’s when you come down off the mountain and obey your parents with a genuine heart.

Another way to tell whether or not you’ve actually encountered the Living God up at camp is to ask yourself this question: “Do I want to be part of the community of believers (at Northpoint) week-in and week-out?”

You see, emotional experiences destroy real community, because they hold community to an unrealistic standard. We believers are at the same time fallen sinners and beloved saints, so real community means that we’ll bump into each other’s sin and interact with each other even on our off-days.

The Mountaintop Experience expects my brother to be on his game all the time, and so when I see him struggling with pride and selfishness, I reject him because he’s getting in the way of me and Jesus. I shout at my brother from my lofty Mountaintop perch, along with the Rolling Stones, “Hey, you, get offa my cloud!”

Friends, let’s come down off the mountain after this summer camp and love each other more deeply with the type of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”. After all, that is the kind of Son-sending love that God has shown us.

“Nothing is easier than to stimulate the glow of fellowship in a few days of life together, but nothing is more fatal to the sound, sober brotherly fellowship of everyday life … It is not the experience of Christian brotherhood, but solid and certain faith in brotherhood that holds us together.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together)

Elephant in the Room

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | No Comments

Friends!

I was so encouraged by our time yesterday! It was great to see you all taking God’s Word seriously and planning out how you will “Redeem your Summer!”. I’m looking forward to seeing how God will work this Summer in each of your lives! Don’t forget to help each other and hold each other accountable to what you have made as goals. Also…the most important thing is to continue in prayer…you can’t redeem your summer without God working in you to do so.

I’m also very excited about tomorrow night! Tomorrow night, our BIG Tuesday Summer Kick-Off, a good time will be had by all! We will have some sweet competition…that may involve water balloons. We will have a sweet time of worship together. And we get to hear from our Lead Pastor, John Sloan. Pastor John will be coming to teach the Word and will specifically talking about “The Elephant in the Room: What does God Think About Homosexuality?”

I know that more and more you are being faced with this issue…in your schools, on tv, with friends, etc…and we need to know what God thinks and how God calls His church to respond.

I know this may not be your typical “summer kick-off” message, but I really believe it will be helpful for all of us…helping us know what God thinks and helping us know how to respond with both love and truth.

Please join us for our BIG Tuesday Summer Kick-Off! 7-9pm in the Student Ministries Room @ Northpoint!

See you then,

Ken

Redeeming the Summer

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | 1 Comment

What would a Summer that was well-spent look like?

This coming Sunday, we will be mapping out what a well-spent Summer looks like in small groups…each of us having opportunity to physically draw out what this looks like. When August 11th rolls around and you once again darken the doors of your high school…will you be able to look back and say that Summer was not a waste?

We will be looking into God’s Word this Tuesday night to see what it means to “redeem time”…who knew time could be redeemed?! We will specifically be talking about redeeming our Summers. On Sunday, we will get into small groups and map out what we want our Summers to look like…better yet, what God wants them to look like.

I don’t want to have a Summer of low-hopes, unmet goals, and wasted opportunities…I want to make the most of this Summer. I hope you’re with me!

I remember coming home from college every Summer with lofty goals of what I would accomplish…read these 10 books, answer these theological questions, run 5 miles every day…only to end the Summer with a fizzle. I hated the feeling of a wasted Summer. I determined to make the next Summer end on a different note.

So…as we approach this coming Summer, let’s desire something great! Let’s make big goals! And then, let’s commit them to God in prayer and ask Him to work in big ways. If we don’t depend on Him, our summers are destined to end with a fizzle instead of a bang.

Start thinking about these and be ready to make a plan this coming Sunday.

Anyone want to share your goals/dreams/aspirations for the Summer here? What would a Summer that was not wasted look like for you? Be realistic and give some tangible ideas.

Senior High Summer Camp

Posted by Billy Blakey in Event, Senior High | 1 Comment

Where: Frandy Campground on the Kern River

When: Friday, June 25-Wednesday, June 30

Cost: Early Registration (May 27-June 6): $190.00 with $50.00

deposit

After June 6: $200.00 with $50.00 deposit

Optional: $20.00 for half day/single run, 4 mile trip on the

Kern River

@ Info Center, Tuesday nights @ SH Bible Study, and during

the week in the Church Office

Contact: Carolee Jefferson at cjefferson@northpointcorona.org

Gospel Vaccination is a Bad Thing

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | No Comments

(Post by the inveritable Jay Hobbs)

“When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)

There’s certain times when I notice a sort of Gospel vaccination in myself. It’s like I’ve got just enough Gospel truth on my mind and in my heart to render the Gospel ineffective to change me.

Then a text like this bowls me over with the unsearchable depths of God’s love for sinners.

The text says that we who have made Christ our life by faith will one day appear with Him in glory. That is incredible news, and it’s much better than the watered-down version of the Gospel that I settle for so often.

It would be good enough news that the God of the Universe, for whom and by whom we have been made, takes pity on those who have rebelled against his kingdom and taken the life of His Only Begotten Son, but that’s not the extent of God’s love.

God’s love consists of much more than pity, it’s more like God inviting us to inherit all that is His by the blood of Christ.

Far from an isolated text throwing out a tentative truth, this text functions as one thread in broad biblical tapestry. Consider a few more passages that draw out God’s inviting us to glory:

“Fear not, little flock, for it is my Father’s good pleasure that you should inherit the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:16-17)

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one…” (John 17:22)

If this is too much for you to handle in one sitting (which it sure is for me), then think about this: Jesus is not ashamed to be called our brother. My brother, Jesus.

Our perfect High Priest and holder-together of all things visible and invisible delights to share His throne with us, His brothers and sisters.

God save us from that false humility that robs us of the joy of anticipating that Day when we will appear with Jesus in glory.

Don’t Waste Your Summer

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High, Video | No Comments

Summer…the smell of fresh-cut grass, lemonade, sunscreen, and boat fuel mixed with water brings me back…back to the days when I spend my summers growing up on Timberlake, the lake I lived beside. We had a floating dock with a basketball goal attached and diving board that my dad had built. Every summer day was the same…wake-up, swim, eat lunch, wait for the food to digest so I didn’t get a cramp (so my mom said), and swim more. Nights were filled with neighborhood games of capture-the-flag and night swimming in the lake…jumping every time a fish grazed your calf, thinking it could be a life-ending water-moccasin.

Those days were some of my favorites, and they didn’t revolve around the tv or computer (I’m not sure computers even existed). Those days were so great because I got to experience God’s creation with great friends. And although I didn’t know it at the time, those days would shape me for years to come.

Why do I say all this? I don’t want you to waste your summers. I want you to look back and remember your summers as time well-spent. Most importantly, I want you to have a greater love for God and for God’s people at the end of the Summer than you had at the beginning.

Although there are many ways to make the most of your Summer, there is one sure-fire way to use it well and grow closer to God and His people…

Go to Summer Camp!

Sr. High students, join us on the Kern River for an exciting week from June 25 to June 30th. The cost is only $190 if you register before June 6th (it goes up to $200 after that)!

Jr. High students, join us at Carpinteria State Beach for an exciting week from June 25 to June 29th. The cost is only $180 if you register before June 6th (it goes up to $190 after that)!

Stop by the Student Ministries table in the foyer of the Worship Center this Sunday to sign up or come by the office during the week!

The Awkward Dance, a.k.a. Corporate Prayer

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | 2 Comments

(Some great stuff from Jay Hobbs on Corporate Prayer!)

You can picture the scene.

The young bucks cluster on one end of an empty dance floor and dare each other to go ask one of the pretty maids in row to dance. Meanwhile, the pretty maids–unbeknownst to the aforementioned bucks–secretly conclude that the reluctance of the bucks has everything to do with their own perceived unattractiveness.

“Dancing is for sissies anyways,” declares a severely intimidated buck, but if he’s like any of the others, he knows good and well the only reason that he hasn’t broken the dance-floor-sized gender barrier.

He doesn’t go because he’s fearful. He doesn’t know because he’s anticipating (or recalling) a toe-curling turn-down at the other end of the floor. So, he resorts to comfort in the form of shooting spit-wads or kicking out his fellow bucks’ legs out from from under them.

Who will be the one to cross the floor and extend his hand to an awaiting maid? I’ll tell you who, it’s the buck who knows (or is confident enough to assume) the response ahead of time.

Once the confident buck goes ahead and asks his pretty maid to dance, the party begins. Air is put back into the room and once-petrified stags take to the dance floor.

Praying together is a lot like the awkward dance.

We Christians know that we ought to pray together, and we even may agree that there’s joy in praying together. We may even be comfortable complaining and moaning that we don’t pray together enough, but when it comes time to take to the dance floor of prayer together, we wimp out.

Prayer is nothing less than communicating our hearts and lifting up our concerns to the God of the Universe, who created everything with the Word of His mouth and currently sustains everything by the Word Become Flesh.

Not only that, but when we pray, we have a great Mediator, a Great High Priest, who is interceding for us with the Father. Jesus himself is at the Father’s right hand, pleading our case by His blood whenever we pray, and that give us confidence.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

This is the kind of confidence it takes for the first buck to cross the dance floor and ask that pretty maid to dance. We know our God, and we know that His Son stands and pleads our case before Him. We know His response will be loving acceptance, as if Jesus Himself were coming to Him in prayer–which He is!

So why should we feel awkward to pray together? I may not know how you’re going to react if I ask you to pray with me, but I do know how God will react. I’ll be able to conquer the initial awkwardness of prayer only when I remember that you and I are approaching the Living God together, and He is on our side.

Cross the dance floor of corporate prayer, young buck. You first.

- Jay Hobbs

Ethiopia Mission Trip Video

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High, Video | No Comments

Ethiopia in 3 Days!

Posted by Billy Blakey in Senior High | 2 Comments

We leave for Ethiopia in 3 days (on Thursday) and I’m taking a break from our “California Idols” series to ask you to pray. Pray big! Don’t just think of us…call in the airstrike for us.

I’m very excited about this trip…here’s why:

We get to talk to people about the Gospel in Addis Ababa for 3 days…3 days of getting to go with evangelists from the Akaki Church to share the hope that God, our King, offers them life and joy…if they rest in Jesus.
We get to forge even stronger relationships with the Akaki church. I’m excited to meet the elders and to be blessed by these godly men. I’m also excited to fellowship with so many believers and be encouraged by them.
We get to see life outside of Southern California. It won’t always be easy to see things we see, but we will get to see what life is like for so many believers around the world. I pray that God will use this to break my heart of my idols and to help me value Him above all else.
We get to love some wonderful ladies that have been greatly and irreversibly affected by the AIDS epidemic. Well…almost irreversibly. We get to pray with them, be blessed by them, and be with them, while hoping with them in the day when God will reverse the grip that death is making on their frail bodies.
I have the honor of getting to preach for the Resurrection Sunday services at the Akaki Church. I’m going to preach from 1 Corinthians 15. Death has lost its sting!

Will you please pray for these things with us?

Pray for Jill, Vinoj, Steve, Taylor, Ken, Theresa, Abby, Keanna, Beth, and Sarah.

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Go to Summer Camp!

It would be encouraging if you left comments below with some of the things you are praying for the team!