i love mbs

for the second post in a row i get to write about new thing at kettle: Bible study. the second installment of morning bible study was definetly another success. but the story since then starts yesterday. when ali and i, got to go make an announcement in front of chapel about morning bible study. the announcement wasnt the best speaking either of us have ever done, as we both heard from people, but we got the message out. so this morning, when i got to school at 6:50 (bs starts at 7:15) and started to prepare my devotion. with my trusty jawdroppers book in hand i looked through the list of stories and found one called welcome to pinkville. this story focuses on how peer pressure changes us and how it causes us to lose our focus. bassically a guy moves to a town where everyone only wears pink. in the end he starts wearing just pink to fit in and loses his dream job. as you prolly guessed the story is about peer pressure and how it can cause us to change. the book also included 2 bible references that applied with the story: the part of the bible where Jesus talks about us as salt and then hebrews 12:1-3 which states how we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and not on the things of this world. i was totally set.
eventually aaron and ali showed up with doughnuts drink and cups and we started to set up. more and more people started coming, beyond the usual camp crowd of aisbet, corrine, and sarah thurs as well as me aaron and ali but people i never would have expected. eventually we had 17 people there!!! fortunately we had enough supplies and even better, we had to combine 3 tables. the librarian mrs ehlke didnt even mind us having food in there. the best thing about it was that everyone who was there, wanted to be there and because of that people really focused on the devotion and the bible passages. and the discussion was definetly better than i expected. even though alot of people were shy to participate, they still listened intently. eventually we went beyond the topic of peer pressure and discussed why we get desensitized to the bible and how it can lose its effect. one thing that we really accomplished with the bible study was that we didnt really have any objectives. in alot of bible study materials they have a set conclusion your supposed to find at the end. we didnt have that it all, we just stayed focused on what people cared about and what the bible had to say about that and i think people got more out of the discussion that way. this bible study exceeded my expectations in every way i could have predicted.

from tom to bs the acronyms are really pilling up

hey everybody, i hope its good to read my posts again and if its not well.....ok. im proud to report that wednsday marked the first ever morning bible study at kettle. i really want to thank ali german on this one, i dont think i ever would have been involved with something this amazing if it wasnt for her. i know kettle wasnt as cool as she hoped it would be but her coming has made kettle cooler than i ever thought it could be. we started planning this during the summer and it turned out amazing. i got to school at 6:45 and eventually around 7 or so met up with aaron schulz and ali who brought doughnuts for breakfast. we set up shop in the library and eventually had me ali, aaron, corrine meshke, sarah thurs and amber drenski who just happened to be at school that morning. we started with welcoming everybody and eating food and then i read the short story, "when the fitness movement came to town" by steven james. actually i thought the story got a little long winded but redeemed itself with such lines like, finally friends whatever is healthy, whatever is nuitritious, whatever is homogenized whatever is low in saturated fat, brothers devour such things. check the book jawdroppers out its actually by steve huhn (james is his pen name) who was the program director at camp before jay (just in case all you camp newbies didnt know that one). the story was actually about how people take the faith and how it can be lost over time. i felt this really applied to the morning bible study because were all excited about it now, but its something that could easily be lost in the shuffle as other activites and school take up more of our time and energy. so we discussed how we can make sure bible study doesnt die, how we can get more people to come and what topics we can discuss. the only thing i think were really sure right now is that no matter what were gonna do IT IS NOT GONNA BE CHRISTLIGHT or as like to write it Christlite: bad taste and spiritually unfullfilling. whatever happens though i am not going to let morning bible study fail.

bs isnt all i have to write about today. today was my first day of the taste of ministry program at kml. this program allows kml seniors to go hang out with teachers at schools and pastors for 2 days and just as the program says, get a taste of the ministry. i absolutely loved it. i got to go to crown of life, which is extremely small so i had to help with grades 5-8. when i got there mr cohoon and i talked for a little bit. and then he gave me a stack of papers to correct. that was tough but its part of the job. and very funny when half the kids spell which witch and then i couldnt tell between a c or a d. man that brought be back to the days when if i didnt know the answer id wright my letters so they could pass as 2 different ones. boy i thought i was clever.i got to lead a devotion on the importance of God's word and eventually taught math and geography. my math class had all of 2 kids but that allowed me to really work with them on the subject. plus they both pretty much knew it all anyways. the best thing about the whole day was seeing one of my old campers. we reminicesed about female drivers steak and spicy nachos for a while (chrissy knows about the last two). and then saw another girl from camp that i remembered eric simmons having a crush on. rh humor never dies. in the end i came home completely confident that i want to be a teacher. even after one day i already love those kids and the idea that i could work everyday to bring kids like them closer in faith is whats gonna pull me through the doldrums of high school just as much as camp will, because i know that my purpose for working at camp and as a teacher must be the same. its for the kids.

Predestination Essay

As the universe dawned into existence the Divine Creator saw into a future filled with human tragedy, rebellion and sin. In this future he saw each and every individual who would ever live. He saw them not as one might see a stranger in the crowd or even as a casual meeting but rather he saw every moment of every person’s life. Even understanding every thought, emotion and answering every prayer in his own way. God saw that none of us would deserve his love. That each of us sin every day and deserve an eternity without his everlasting love and only one of the justice we deserve. Yet God loved us too much to let us rot in our own cesspool of destruction. As the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2: “But because of his great love for us God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dean in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” We have grace from God so we need not fear his wrath or punishment for our sins.
God knew for the beginning of time those would experience his wonderful gift of forgiveness. In fact God chose who would be with him in heaven. Ephesians 1:4-6 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves.” God not only knew who would receive his salvation, he chose them. From this one might try to logically conclude that because God chose those who would receive grace he must have also chosen those who would receive justice. Yet this thought may seem to make sense to the logical mind, one must realize that the human mind cannot possibly fathom the inner workings of God. God taught a similar lesson to Job: Job 38:2-3 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me.” We can be sure that God did not choose people to go to hell because no where does the Bible say this. On this matter the Bible only tells that God chose us and sent his Son to save us.
God did not predestine us for any reason other than his love and grace. There is nothing we can do to work toward God’s grace or earn the Lord’s love. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” One important thing to notice about this passage is that it explains our motivation for doing good works. Paul does not tell us to work hard for God’s grace. Rather, Paul tells us that what motivates good works is God’s grace flowing through us. After all, the creator and lord over the entire universe willingly sacrificed his own son that we could be saved. How can such love not flow through us in our every action? God chose us to be his not for our works, not for our choices, not even for our good looks but simply and purely because of his love.

my top five

everbody else's list was wrong so........
1. Jesus
2. George W. Bush
3. Tyler Shinnick
4. Chris Farley
5. Keith Hackbarth