WOW -- 90+ Middle Schoolers laughing, screaming, going crazy with gifts, candy, the big sub and more. What a way to end the 2006 year and get ready for 2007. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT coming soon -- yes it is the biggest thing that happened to the student ministry since the cappuccino machine -- just kidding, but you will like it and it will make a Jesus impact on the Kalamazoo community.

Fruit Basket
The last two days our kids and us have been putting together these huge things that we call fruit baskets, but they are really stuffed full of candy, gardettos, oreos, and stuff like that. Every year we make all of these baskets that we give out to the people that have meant a lot to us this past year. It started as an appreciation for the volunteers who help lead the student ministry and has now expanded to so many more people. This year we are up to over 50 baskets. The awesome thing is that our kids have a desire to give people in their lives gifts. This year they started with a list of about 20 people they wanted to make fruit baskets for and we had to limit them to around 7 each. Yesterday we showed up to school with our van packed out with these baskets -- we took out the middle seat and just packed the van with them. I think we had 30 in there and the girls got out of school and they ran to the van and grabbed their fruit baskets for their teachers and proudly marched them into the school and they were on a mission. They love to give, to serve and they were beaming as they went into their classroom and proudly gave their teacher these masterpieces -- I hope their teachers like ring pops, tootsie rolls, and bubble gum skittles. They were so excited, proud, and understood what it meant to give without expecting anything in return. That's Cool.

Christmas is coming and my girls remind me what it means to give with a clear heart, with an attitude of joy, happiness, and appreciation. Tonight we get to rock with 80+ middle schoolers as we share what it means to have Christmas together. Should be fun.

Zach Zoomer
There is or used to be a roller coaster that was called Zach Zoomer or something like that at Michigan's Adventure -- 2 parks for the price of 1. Every summer on our annual bike trip of joy, we stop at Michigan's Adventure and the first year there I remember riding this little roller coaster like a gazillion times with the guys I was with. This coaster is so small that my legs would barely fit into the seat and it was rough. It would jerk you around and I felt bruised at the end of it.

As I talk to people about life I see a lot of people who are stuck on Zach Zoomer roller coasters in their life. They just keep going on the same ride because they know the ride and know what to expect even when they have outgrown the ride. What I am saying is that I see many people who have grown up and are ready to go where God wants them to go, but they just can't get the confidence to get out of the little roller coaster and onto the big one. Growing up maturity wise is tough to do, it is about taking risks, looking at the future with excitement even if you don't know where that will take you. Kris and I have been taking some steps recently to getting out of the Zach Zoomer of our lives, wow it is great to follow God fully, when we do that, that is when the fun stuff happens.

Don't just enjoy the ride, make a difference.

REEL CHRISTMAS -- Real Lives
We had a great weekend with an opportunity to speak to 150+ students and adults about the power of kindness, the power of what you say, the impact you can have on this world TODAY! It is amazing how the statements of I BELIEVE IN YOU, YOU ARE IMPORTANT, I WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU, can change someone's life. I remember the people who told me I would never amount to anything and I also remember the people that encouraged me and told me that I was worth something.

My grandma was one of those people -- Even before I liked Jesus, she would look at me and say you are going to be a preacher. I would laugh at her and tell her she was crazy. I was going to make some serious money and be successful -- Little did I know God gave me everything I could want as soon as I let Him control my life. I have a great family, a great group of people that I work with in the high school ministry, a great gift that God has given me.

I will always value the importance of the power of the words of encouragement.

FRIENDLY FIRE
This morning a verse just stopped me in my tracks. Galatians 5:13-15.
Man, the power of these verses and the meaning they have to me and our society today. You could spend hours soaking in the truth that is in there.
THREE POINTS
1) Don't let your freedom from hell, give you the idea that you can do whatever the sinful part of you wants to do. Do you get this. Just because you go to church, love Jesus, doesn't mean you have free reign to do whatever you want to because Jesus loves you and He will forgive you. Don't rationalize the selfish things that you want to do -- gossip, ingest inappropriate images or language, live on the wild side, mouth of to your parents or your kids -- as ok because Jesus forgives you. Don't abuse the grace of Jesus.
2) Everything is summarized by this -- Love your neighbor as yourself -- there you go -- the meaning of life. Love by the way is an action not a feeling. Love means going out there and doing something about a situation that is unfair, it is actively finding food for someone who is hurting, it is turning towards someone in need rather than turning the corner and acting like you didn't see them
3) If you go on hurting each other you will destroy each other -- WOW, should that be the theme verse for so many families, so many marriages, so many relationships in our world. IF YOU KEEP hurting each other you will not might destroy each other. Did you get the deepness of this truth. You can not continue to fight without eventually destroying -- no, oh they know I love them stuff. Also do you get who gets destroyed -- EACH OTHER -- both people in the relationship. If you hurt someone, you are also destroyed. If you doubt that look at any marriage that is breaking up, look at any parent child relationship that is exploding, look at any friend relationship that has dissolved -- both parties are destroyed

To change our culture, our society we must learn to actively love people, use our freedom in Christ to help others, not for FIRE INSURANCE, and we must stop hurting each other. This is a shift for many people. Lets make a difference.

When traditions fail us.
Over Thanksgiving we went to my families house and spent some time with them which was good, but we came back with a special gift called the stomach flu -- last week was a full week of extreme grossness. We have never bleached our house more than we did last week. Everything stunk -- literally, but it also gave Kris and I a chance to stop and look at life in a different way. We both like traditions of going to see family, but many times we come back exhausted, missing something, feeling like there should have been more of something. Sometimes traditions can fail us maybe because we have bad expectations, maybe because we don't have a clue what we are doing, but we are doing things out of obligation or habit.

I have spent some time that last couple of weeks wrestling with the thought that as a church we may be leading people in traditions that lead people away from Jesus. Do the traditions we have help people see Jesus or are we inadvertently leading them towards us, or towards the church as an organization. I came upon this quote this week that I have been thinking about, helping me to shape my perspective.

Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living

It is time to jump into the fight for reality, to fight against the deadness of our world, of our church to live life the way Jesus wants us to, not the way we want to.