Put off Lies / Put on Truth-telling

So...

As another semester of school and ministry begins to pick up steam, we've had a great couple of weeks here in the Student Ministries @ CRPC. Last week we had our official "kick-off" for both Middle School and High School. For M.S. we had a wonderful time running, swimming, slipping and sliding @ our "Wet-n-Wild" Gangway. As for H.S., well, let's just say it was AWESOME! We had a great group of students participating in 4 different heart pounding, strength testing and gut checking events @ our "Gladiator" Gangway. All in all, it was an adventurous 2 nights!

From slip-n-slides and sock wrestling to gathering for fellowship and study, we began our regularly scheduled mid-week activities this week.

On Wednesday we had about 50+ Middle School students gathered in Bay D basically causing havoc on the entire South end of the church! They were jazzed for Gangway and it showed in their energy and rambunctiousness :) I hope to continue that energy and excitement, but perhaps just contain it and direct it a little bit better (sorry Wendy).

We began our time playing a game called "2 truths and a lie." We got a couple of students to come up and, as convincingly as possible, tell us 2 truths and 1 lie about themselves. Then the rest of us had to try and guess which one was the lie. The good news is that most of the students were terrible liars! The only one to successfully lie to us was Zoey Masters - way to go Zoey :)

On Thursday night we had about 15+ High School students (darn WA sports BBQ!) gathered for snacks, songs and, of course, fun (hopefully)! I am hoping that since we pretty much have the run of the facilities on Thursday nights we can begin to pack the place out - so students... START BRINGING FRIENDS!

The night started out with a real treat and blessing in that we had our newly formed Student Music Team leading us in praise and worship! I need to say "thank you" to all the team and especially to Matt Tyson for his work with the students - you're the man! It was a wonderful time of singing and praising and enjoying God together. Then we recapped for all who didn't make it last week what fun we had @ "Gladiator" Gangway - this was made possible by Dylan's expert technical video making skills!

The discussion for both nights were centered around the same text and theme. We looked at Ephesians 4:17-25. We talked about how this text is calling for action, not just belief. We saw that there are 2 ways to live; according to the old self or according to the new self. We, as Christians, are to live according to the new self, putting to death the old self. So, Paul gives us in Ephesians a principle to follow; the Put Off / Put On principle. We need to, by God's grace and empowerment, put off certain thing and put on other things.

But, how? What does this look like?

Well, we looked at vs. 25 for the first application of this principle - put off lies / put on truth telling. We discussed the reason for this and the implications, both positive and negative of living this principle out. If we live according to the old self, as liars, there will be negative implications, both for us and for those around us. If we live according to the new self, as truth-tellers, there will be positive implications. We noted that living as liars or truth-tellers doesn't only affect us, but those around us - family, friends, community, church... It was a real good time of fleshing out practical ways of living according to the new self.

All of this is to say that we are having a great time here in the Student Ministries! However, please continue to pray for us, as we continue to pray for you and may God bless us as we endeavor to train up students in the way of Godliness!

For His Kingdom...