Selfish Christians...

Hey Guys!
Man this week was good, I felt like things were back to normal which was good! We had some new faces which is always refreshing and even some old faces we haven't seen in a long time which is cool...over all the night went well.

The message Wednesday focused not on non believers, but primarily on people who profess faith in Christ and proclaim that their life is now for Him. America is a selfish nation, i don't think many people would argue that but when it comes to our faith have we bread our faith with our selfish mentality? I think in a lot of ways we have and that was the heart of the message.

So many people within the church are so caught up and concerned about them self that they are blinded to those around them that are truly in need and are those to whom God calls us to minister too! I tried to illustrate this Wednesday night to the students by NOT providing any chairs for the students to sit in and force all 150 of them to sit on the floor. We are so spoiled within the American church and I really believe God is calling us to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them where they belong, on Him and begin to care about the things He truly cares about!

We looked closely at two passages of scripture from the book of James that talks about our deeds and good works being evidence of a true and genuine faith in Jesus Christ. James urges followers of Christ to not just listen to God's Word and what He commands but to live it out and I challenged the students to not be so self consumed that they miss out on loving others as much as they love them self! It was and probably will always be not the most popular message, but one that I think is so relevant. We as Christians have to be obedient to the whole Bible, to all of God's commands, not just the ones we like and choose to follow!

With that said, this upcoming week is spring break and we have NO FUSION next Wednesday night!! Please plug your student into one of our Spring Break activities next week that is listed above!! Also we need drivers on Monday and Wednesday to take students to and from the beach, so if you can help we need it!! Thanks...

Scriptures Used...
James 1:22-25
James 2:14-26

tom

The recipe For Life...

Hey Guys!
Last night was a very welcomed break from the norm we experience each week within fusion. We had about 50 less students here last night than normal and I'll be honest, it was nice to have a little smaller crowd for a week! On top of that we as a ministry were blessed to have Trinidge Stone with us leading us in worship! If you have never heard of them, they are a local group that include 2 students from this ministry, and God has placed a high call on their lives to lead others in worship! Last night they were awesome and played some fusion favorites like "We Shine" and "All I Need Is You" but also introduced a new song called "Seek the Love" which is an amazing worship song! Anyways it was nice to have them with us last night!

The message last night was on following God with all of our heart! I used a demonstration for the students where I baked...yeah that's right I baked, but anyways I baked two trays of brownies. One tray I followed the directions that the lovely Betty Crocker gave me and the second tray I followed some of the directions but then added my own ingredients hoping to create a new way to make awesome brownies! I brought a student up to taste test the brownies and tell me what they thought of them. The first tray, the tray I followed instructions on he loved. The second tray, the tray i sorta followed instructions for but also added my own ingredients he took a bite of and almost threw up!

My point to the students was so many of us in our lives we want things the Bible promises like joy or hope maybe some peace or happiness or even love and genuine acceptance. We crave those things because God made us to crave them, yet we don't follow the steps that God lays out for us to experience them. We Don't follow God's recipe for life, we try and make our own recipe and sometimes our recipe might even have some of God's ingredients in our own mix of life, but we don't follow His way exactly how He asks us to and thus we don't get the finished product we are looking for! We miss out on joy, hope, peace, love and even more importantly salvation. I challenged the students who felt like their life was like the second tray of brownies to start over and turn to Jesus Christ, accepting Him in their life as being the first step in God's instructions on how to live life His way! We had over 30 students stand last night, count the cost of following this man Jesus Christ, and receive Him as being Lord over their life...PRAISE GOD!!!!!

Please pray for our ministry, that more and more lives would be changed. Also we need help! Our leadership team is shrinking when our growth is increasing...that's not good...if you are interested in serving at fusion please contact me and let me know and I would love to meet with you and talk about this ministry!! Please just let me know...

Scriptures Used...
Matthew 13:44-45

tom