Retreat's cancelled, but the snow's not stopping us!

It's the blizzard of 2010 and it's cold outside, but we still have stuff cooking! Here's the list of Snow days activities:

Saturday

2 pm - Sledding, meet @ Kay

6 pm - Dinner, Kay Basement

7:30 pm - Worship, Kay Chapel

Sunday

6 pm - Super Bowl Party in the Tavern

There's plenty of stuff to do--don't hibernate, grab a friend and join the fun!

The Cell's Design

The Cell's Design is happening tonight @ 7 pm in Kay. Check out the facebook event and invite a friend (or 100). Can you test if creation is really the handiwork of God? Dr Fazale Rana will be addressing this question in regards to the human cell. It's going to be an incredible night to learn and to clear some scientific hurdles to faith. Here's how you can be involved:

1. Invite a friend. Use the facebook event, post it up on your wall or status, or better yet, make a phone call or knock on a door or two. Yeah, it's going to be that good.
2. Join us @ the table. We'll be handing out flyers in the lobby of MGC from 2-5 pm. Connect with me or Kera if you'd like to get involved, or just show up.
3. Come early. We'll be setting up in Kay @ 6 pm. If you can plug in some cords, move some chairs, or hand out a flyer join us.
4. Just don't miss it!

New Things

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert

and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

Welcome back to AU! I hope you had a great Christmas break. I can't wait to see what's coming with the new semester!

Are you watching for new things to happen in your life? I remember watching my oldest son, Sam in his first few months. Jen and were aware of every move. We knew that development happened fast and we wanted to make sure we caught it all. Sam was doing new things all the time and we were there to record it and share it with anyone who would listen. Most of my life isn't like that though. Instead of living in anticipation of the new, I operate more often in the comfort of routine. I find days running into each other--not a whole lot to report except a few witty phrases on my Facebook status.

The turn of the calendar and the opening of a new semester is a great time to evaluate how we live. We don't have to be a prisoner to our past or a slave to routine. God wants to do a new thing in us, but it can't happen if we're not open to it. Put yourself in a position for God to work in you, keep a lookout for what He wants to do and you can be assured something will happen and, in keeping with His character, that something will be good. We'll be talking about living with anticipation at our first Thursday Night Worship of the year which kicks off this week. Come by and you'll also hear about our new small groups and some of the other things we've got in store for the semester. I hope you'll make it and feel free to spread the word.

Overcoming Discouragement

This hit my email inbox from my friend Mike Olejarz this morning and I had to share it. It's another great perspective on the power of giving thanks:

We all have these kinds of days. You have trouble getting out of bed because you feel crummy about who you are. You come back from class, slam the door, and fall onto the couch in dejection. Your friends seem distant. You and your roommate cannot seem to get along on anything. Your professors do not seem to care. You say to yourself that if you did not have bad hair, acne, disappointment and rejection, you would have nothing at all. You wonder if you should call your mom and ask her to come take you home.

The ironic thing is that everyone goes through these lonely and depressing episodes. Even those who seem so carefree about life and declare they have life figured out will ultimately conclude they face times where they feel like the fifth person on a double date.

Those days, weeks, or seasons of inner tumult are hard. It is easy to beat yourself down and talk yourself into sadness. It takes more effort to discipline your thoughts, stay focused on the positive and possible, and believe in who you are. Society, pop culture, your friends, peer pressure, and advertising execs may suggest your body type is not ideal, your skin is lacking, your clothes are not hip, and your major may not fast track to financial success. But whose voice should carry the most weight in your life?

Whether or not you are follower of Jesus, there is someone to approach for help in those times. You are not on your own, hopeless, discarded in an impersonal universe. Read Philippians 4:8. It says to think about stuff that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable - think about such things. What are ways to apply those ideas?

First, tell God how grateful you are for who He is. You must remember the value God has set on you. Feelings come and go, but must not be allowed to define who you are. Left to feelings and circumstances, my identity and sense of security can be battered and bruised. God showed you mercy when you did not deserve it. You have a Savior, a heavenly Father, an Advocate, a Shield, Helper, and Friend.

Second, remember that you have access to God's strength. The real battle is not with people (even though at times they do a good job of making you think so), The real enemy is Satan and his fallen angels who want to destroy you. Read Ephesians 6:10-18. God's solution is for you to put on the armor of God, face the battle, and overcome the enemy by the word of your testimony and God's grace on your behalf.

Third, think about what you have to be content about: Your future is secure, your past redeemed, your present stable. Christ is your hope and you depend on Him. The people around us party to forget their troubles, while we party to remember whose we are and where we are headed. Contentment comes from Christ, not our circumstances.

It is not unusual to find yourself getting discouraged now and then as you battle through life. The danger happens when you do not stop it from overtaking you. Try not to allow one of those days to become one of those weeks. What is bothering you today? How can your faith in God make that issue not so big a problem? Who do you know that seems to know how to avoid discontentment? What can you learn from him or her? Think theologically. Every day you give to God will be a great day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

As I'm writing this, many of you are at home or preparing to make your way there for a holiday vacation. I love Thanksgiving! The time with family and friends, a break from work and of course the great food are all reasons to give thanks. In the midst of this celebration, let's not forget that Thanksgiving is a day set aside to help us remember the blessings of God in our past and prime the pump for thankfulness in the coming year.

Here's a way to make it practical. Before you immerse yourself into the Macy's Parade or football games or the great Christmas sales, spend some time with God. Reflect on the year and give thanks for the many blessings He's brought into your life. Keep a pen and paper handy and write a few of these things down. When you finish, look over the list and make note of the people that God has used to make this year special and thank them with a quick email, card, or phone call. I guarantee you'll make someone's Thankgiving memorable and you'll feel better too!

I want to thank all of you for making Chi Alpha what it is. So many of you have gone above and beyond to share the love of Christ with our fellowship and the AU community. It is a pleasure serving Jesus with you. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Ordering Your Private World

My child, listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1-5

A few of us AUXAers went on a search for wisdom last night and we found it at Georgetown's Protestant worship service. Bestselling author, Gordon MacDonald was speaking on Ordering Your Private World. He reminded us that what we see on the surface of lives of those around us doesn't share the whole story. MacDonald encouraged us to focus on building our lives on a solid foundation and gave us four questions to help us put our private world in order. I thought I'd pass them along to all of you:

1. What's the organizing principle of your life? Determining your main goal is the only way you can set the course for your future.
   
2. What are you doing with your baggage? How you view the actions of others and circumstances you can't control will either bring freedom in your life or imprison you in bitterness.
3. What dream are you living for? Is there something that's motivating you to greatness? Finding your unique God given role in your current context will give you a reason to get out of bed every morning and enable you to reach beyond yourself.
4. How are you disciplining your life now, to allow God to make you the person He wants you to be? Sacrifice is necessary to free you to focus on what's truly important. Submitting to discipline in the little things is the only way to accomplish your dream.

It's wisdom to live by! Those questions gave me a lot to think about. I hope they're helpful to you too. I pray they will make this week and every week in your life full of purpose and joy.

Pure Religion

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

James wrote this passage into a social context that had no programs to take care of widows and orphans. If you found yourself in this position, your chances of living in poverty were very real. James speaks of widows and orphans specifically because they were the most likely to be overlooked. Those who follow Christ take care of those who have been overlooked by society.

The process of interpretation requires us to translate James' specific first century references into today's language. Who are the overlooked in our world today? I can't imagine any group that fits into this category than the victims of modern slavery. Until a few years ago, I thought of slavery as a 19th century problem, but thanks to the work of several great Christian organizations like International Justice Mission (IJM) and Project Rescue, I've seen how real and issue this is. It's been obvious to all of us in Chi Alpha that we can't stand on the sidelines in this current fight for freedom.

This week we have a chance to do something to make a difference for those who are longing to be free. Wednesday @ 9 pm in McKinley 108, we're showing the documentary, To End Slavery. IJM has produced this film to draw attention to the problem and to recruit modern day abolitionists to join the fight. Will you help? Put this event on your calendar for the week and don't forget to invite a friend. I can't think of a better way to practice pure and faultless religion.

Read on for more info on this and other upcoming Chi Alpha events and I'll see you on campus.

Working together

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

Stefanie Chappell, our guest speaker @ this week's TNW touched on this verse as she spoke on living our lives openly before God and each other. When the message was over she invited us to move into the light by making a private confession to the masks we wear to hide our true selves. Anonymously we wrote down our inadequacies, our failings, and our sins and symbolically released them to God as we dropped them in the front of the chapel. It was a powerful act of choosing to walk in the light. For some of you, it was the probably the first time you've ever confessed to the things you wrote--maybe even to yourself. When the service ended the words a friend and mentor, Harvey Herman, wrote came to mind.

"For Jesus to bring freedom into our lives, we need both deliverance and discipline. Deliverance is an encounter with Christ by the Spirit. These are moments when Jesus comes strongly into our lives and breaks the power that has enslaved us in some way. God has intervened and we will be different from that time on. Discipline, on the other hand, is not instantaneous. It is by nature experienced over time. Discipline is repentance lived out. Spiritual disciplines in our lives are ways we continue to express repentance and turn our lives to the Lord."

It's easy to allow our personalities to move us to one side or the other. For those who are in the deliverance camp, this past Thursday night could mark a significant moment with God that can carry us along in our journey with Him for a little while, but if it's not followed up soon by another "God moment" we can find ourselves losing spiritual momentum. For those in the discipline camp, it's easy to discount what happened on Thursday as purely emotionalism or the power of suggestion and set about to focus our efforts on how to manage our relationship with God. What my friend Harvey is pointing out in the above paragraphs is both of these mindsets are lacking. We need those "God moments" to remind us of His love toward us and his desire to work on our behalf, but we also need to actively pursue Christ and the transformation He has promised by continually and consistently placing ourselves in a position to receive his freely given grace. My prayer this Thursday and always is that you would recognize the light our God lovingly shines on us and that you would choose to walk in it every day.