The Mission Day 3

We set out on Friday morning with similar purpose as the days before. This was the smallest group we would be bringing. On Wednesday and Thursday we had nine people and this day we had only 5. Ryan had been the first two days with myself, and Amy (one of our newest leaders) had come on Thursday, and the other two guys Brian and Chris were new.

We arrived and almost immediately it was different. It was different because we were greeted by my friend Keith (who I'll blog about tomorrow). He asked if we would want Carlton to share his story with us. I didn't know Carlton, but I'm always game for hearing someone's story. We sat in a private room and heard an amazing story from Carlton and his life journey from being picked on and rejected as a kid to seeking acceptance as a teenager and college student to eventually becoming an addict to cocaine, and then his amazing recovery.

We then went downstairs to serve lunch to the residents and then to the public. With only having five people, some of us had double duty on serving, but everyone was fed, so it was all good! After lunch we helped stock their shelves that people are allowed to take 2 or 3 items from. When this was over we had Emily (the public relations coordinator) give our group a tour of the house since we didn't get to do it the day before.

After the tour we headed over the warehouse and once again bagged clothes, sorted shoes, and separated belts and bags! There was a large pile already being worked on by three of the residents of the mission and they looked relieved when we walked in. Just as we were making a dent, another truck arrived and the dumped alot more clothes into the pile! Some of our students were clearly getting tired so I just said "Ask God for some extra strength". I guess I kind of said that because I just wanted to take away any excuses to work, but a few of them did ask God for some extra help, and they told me that God did give them energy to finish! And we finished all of the clothes that were set before us!

We made our way back to the Mission, ate with the residents, said our goodbye's and came home. What a great experience we all had. It was different each day, and God moved in our students differently each day. Thanks to all of you who were praying and keeping us on the forefront of your minds! Have a great day!

Ron Foster

The Mission Day 2

We set out once again for the Frederick Rescue Mission on Thursday morning. From the beginning, it just seemed different than Wednesday. For one, it was all new people except one that we would be bringing. Then when we got in our cars, one of them wouldn't start right away. We waited for about 10 minutes to be able to leave.

The first thing we did upon arrival was serve the meals. Our students jumped right in there with smiles, talking with everyone coming through and good attitudes all around! After serving the meals, and then eating ourselves, we stocked the shelves of the pantry. That went pretty quick. We headed from there over to the warehouse to bag clothes (just like yesterday). We had a little more time than the day before, but it seemed like there weren't as many clothes to bag. We were done within an hour (with 2 more hours we could have been there). Just as we finish a truckload of more clothes arrives. We were actually excited to see all the clothes so we would have some more work to do! We mowed through the clothes and bagged up everything that came in, with a half hour to spare!

We headed from there back to the mission to serve dinner to the residents. We got there and the cook (Scott) told us that there was only 2 items really to serve and that they were all impressed with how we worked in the warehouse, so they wanted us to just eat with them, and we did. It was a hard working day followed by a good meal with the residents of the mission.

This has been a great experience for our students as they get out of their comfort zone a little bit, and put others needs before their own. Continue to pray for us as we head out again on Friday with a different group! Have a great day!

Ron Foster

The Mission Day 1

This morning a handful of us set out from the church to Frederick, Maryland. It seemed like an unlikely place to be heading to serve meals to the homeless and recovering addicts, but away we went. After getting oriented with the facility (the former Frederick County Prison dating back to the late 1800's), we began stocking the pantry shelves with lots of baked items such as cakes, loaves of bread, pies, potato chips, and cookies. Almost every shelf was filled. There was so much food! This was going to be food that as those receiving meals would come in, they would be allowed to pick several items from the shelves to take with them as they left. I couldn't imagine that much of it would get taken, but we stocked them full just the same.

We began serving meals to the approximately 25 residents of the mission, and then we opened the doors to feed the homeless. The numbers were staggering. They kept coming and coming. They told us that there were between 150 to 200 people that came through! When it was all over, we walked down the pantry aisle that we had stocked so full and to our shock, discovered that it was vacant of most of the food we had just put on these shelves. I mean, they were bare!

We headed to the Mission's warehouse after lunch to help bag and sort clothes. We made our way through piles of clothes and were able to finish up all of the clothes that were there for that day. It gave our students a real sense of accomplishment to be able to finish out all of the clothes in there. To close the day we headed back to the mission and served dinner to the residents. Needless to say, our students were wiped out on the way home, but the experiences and conversations they had today were priceless. I can't wait to bring the new crew of students in the morning to allow them to experience it all over again! Keep praying for us this week!

Ron Foster

Parting Shot

So we had a full day on Thursday! After our morning game times, devotions with each other, morning service, and lunch we started getting ready for the day. Some of the group headed out for some paintball (the whole group originally was going to go, but then got scared when they realized they might get shot) and the rest of the group started prepping for our flour fight! That's right, I said flour fight. In case you don't know, a flour fight is when everyone gets soaked, then gets their own bag of flour. We say go, and it's every man for himself reaching in the bag pulling out heaps of flour and throwing it at everyone else. Don't worry, I captured alot of this on tape, so you'll get to see some of it.

After dinner we got ready for the evening service which was very powerful and went an incredible 4 hours! Our students were ready to keep singing at the end even! It just goes to show you that teenagers will listen and participate! We had a great time as a church sharing decisions and burdens. For some of these students, they were able to get some stuff off of their chest that had been burdening them for years and hadn't spoken out loud. What a great thing to share the load of your burdens with Jesus and with other Christians!

After our car ride home, we made it safe. This camp proved to be what we hoped it would...a catalyst for our students to begin taking their relationship with God for real! Now they're ready to put it into practice! Let's make sure as a church to come alongside of them and help them along with their journey! Thanks for praying! Thanks for supporting!

Ron Foster

Did I Forget To Mention?

Did I forget to mention that our group is HILARIOUS? So, at camp we have different teams for spirit points. They are simply broken up by color. Churches will typically come with lots of clothes and things to go along with their color for spirit. Our kids? Oh no. They have to take that one step further. A couple of days before camp, most of them gathered at my house to come up with some special themes that they would dress like during camp. Monday night they had a black out night because we had made shirts that were black so they just said let's make all of our clothes, black. Ok, I get that. But then Tuesday night they decided to make that "Formal" night. Yeah, formal night. Like I'm going to a sweet 16 party or prom! So we had our kids decked out on Tuesday night. Everyone thought it was great! But then last night, we topped it. Our kids had decided to make it Cowboys and Indians night! Yeah. So we had a whole lot of cowboys and cowgirls and one Indian (Maureen). The rest of camp was basically saying, "why didn't we think of that?" Our kids are awesome!

Last night was a very challenging, but needed message. Our speaker spoke that if we are saturating ourselves with God and His Word and in communication with Him in prayer, then we won't need any gimicks or motivation to go and tell people about Jesus. Telling people about Jesus will just start coming out of us because we've been filled up with Him, and now it is overflowing. Our students were really challenged with this as was I, and plan on coming back and challenging the rest of our church with this. What a great night! I hope you'll tune in with us at 10am and 7pm today at www.liftstudentministries.com to watch us live!

Ron Foster

Wa-Wa-Wednesday!

Last night the service was amazing! I got some texts from some of our church members telling me they were watching online! That's pretty cool! The topic was RUN using Jonah as an example. We looked at it from a different perspective than normal, not focusing on the great fish, but rather on Jonah himself and how he was running from God, but could never outrun God. We had two from our group that prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and stop running from God!

When the service was over, we went to do some serious roller skating. All I gotta say is that a 32 year old youth pastor, a 31 year old intern, and a (we don't know the age and we're not asking) southern belle outlasted ALL of our teenagers out on the rink! I mean, seriously, come on. How are these teenagers gonna let us show them up like that?

It's been a great Wednesday so far. Service and our group times were good. We've had kind of a lazy afternoon, hitting up some swimming and then relaxation with the rain and thunderstorms on us. I can't wait to see what God wants to do tonight! It's gonna be great! Make sure to watch us online at www.liftstudentministries.com at 7pm tonight!

Ron Foster

Oh Tuesday!

So far we've had an adventure filled day! Let's see, we got up bright and early to head to breakfast followed immediately by what we call "Morning Fun" time. For this, the camp gathers in the auditorium to scream and shout for their teams, and win points for their teams by doing stupid, funny games. What's great about that is that I get to run the games! We had students squirting alka-seltzer tablets that were taped to each other's foreheads, scream to see who could get the loudest decibals, peel a banana with their feet and then eat the banana, eat a blowpop as fast as they can and blow a bubble, blow up a balloon until it pops with their nose, and some fun racing games around the auditorium!

Devon was our balloon guy and almost had it blown up, but then he dropped it and lost the lead. Kenneth ended up eating the banana.

Our speaker, Aaron Cavin is doing a great job. You know, it's funny. Aaron and I were in college together, and I never thought he was really going to make it in ministry, but he has been doing an incredible job, and God is using him so much to make an impact on our students!

We hit lunch, then had a team for volleyball. They fought a good fight, but fell in defeat in the end. It was all good though, because there was makeshirft waterslide on campus. We got muddy and wet. It was great! Maureen, Hailey, Eric, Devon, Will and I sure were a mess when leaving that place! In the mean time, the rest of the group made use of the movie room eating popcorn and having fun. We're now relaxing a little bit before dinner, then service, and some roller skating tonight! Make sure to watch us online at www.liftstudentministries.com at 7pm tonight! We're having a great time! Talk to you later!

Ron Foster

Boy oh Boy!

Our high school students met at the church this morning to leave for camp. We set out on a nice little road trip to go just north of Philadelphia to LIFT camp at Philadelphia Biblical University. We had a great trip up here, and finally made it!

These guys had a great time exploring the campus figuring out what they wanted to do during the day. After dinner, we headed to the evening service. It was great to see our teens enjoying the presence of God through singing and through the message.

We ended up doing a little bit of bowling this evening for the late night activity. Now that we're back, I'm falling asleep as I type this. So with that being said, I bid you all a good night, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Ron Foster

And Away We Go!

We got up Friday morning did the breakfast thing, the getting ready thing, the clean up cabin thing, and pack the vans thing. I always tell our leaders we bring with us that spending one week of camp with our students is worth one year's worth of relationship building. Our leaders were awesome. We brought Matt Toeneboehn and Maureen Cook. Everywhere the students went, they went. After the long journey home, our leaders were definitely exhausted, but also very fulfilled. They had just as much fun as the students did, and they got an opportunity to lead and share. I'll just share that they came through with flying colors. If you see them around church, make sure to let them know it too!

So camp is over now. We're home. We've all come back a little different then the way we went. The fun has just begun, and I can't wait to see how the group will continue the friendships and the decisions they made in the days ahead. Thank you parents for trusting us with your kids. I hope you were able to get some rest while they were away as well! Make sure to check back in to this blog from time to time as we do more then just the camp blog here. Have a great day guys!

Ron Foster

The Big Day!

Thursday is the last full day of camp. Everyone knows this, so we try to get the most out of our day. The day started out in it's typical way: Wake up, Breakfast, Shower, Morning Service, Small Group Time. In our morning service, we talked about Superman being the Man of Steel that can deflect bullets from his chest. We related that to how it's not so easy for us to deflect words from hurting us and our words hurting others. We had some good discussion as a youth group on this.

Following this, we headed to the Rec Room for our annual Carpetball Tournament. If you don't know what carpetball is, catch me later because it's too complicated to explain here. I'll just say it's really easy to play, and really fun. Because it's so easy, practically the whole camp plays! It was pretty cool seeing the whole camp in our Rec Room at the same time!

After lunch we had our big group games. The girls' game was so funny. They had 4 soccer balls covered in shaving cream that they had to run with and try to get into these buckets. Then, the ball would get covered in shaving cream again! These girls were covered in shaving cream, it was awesome! The guys were playing some serious dodgeball up in the gym. It was funny to see some of their tactics of staying in the game, like hiding in the corner and making themselves seem like they weren't in the game. Good times.

After the big group games were over, the real game began. I challenged our girls bball team to a 1 on 3 game. If they won, I would take our whole group for some cold drinks. If I won, they would babysit for us! Without getting into much detail, it ended up with me driving our group to get some cold drinks. :(

The night's service was awesome as usual. We saw several students come forward for decisions at the end of the service. My favorite part came next where we could take our kids for some recap time of sharing. Our students shared with each other the decisions that they had made this week. There were some hugs, some tears, and some giggles. Right after this, we did this thing I simply call "Compliments" where the students can go around and share a compliment with one of the other people in the group. This ended up being one of the longest sessions of this that I've ever done. It wasn't because they had so much to say, but because some of them couldn't make up their minds who they wanted to compliment (Brooke and Charlie), some others couldn't stop laughing (Morgan and Erin), and others couldn't stop crying (Katie). All in all it was a great night though!

The rest of the night was a bonfire where as a camp they could share decisions with each other and some late night ice cream and dodgeball in the gym. Our kids eventually got to sleep, but it was indeed a great night of camp!

Ron Foster

Oh what a night!

Worship led us into another great meeting with our speaker, Mike Haley. A thing about our speaker is that I've known him for about 15 years, so we have alot of shared experiences together. He keeps sharing some of those experiences with the camp and embarassing me, and our students are loving that!

Following the service, we had our 2nd annual talent show. I have to say, this is one of my favorite parts of camp now. These kids were so funny to watch! They'll do anything because at their age, they still don't care what other people think! We had Erin Crowley say a few of her corny jokes, Charlie Barton did a card trick in front of everyone. Katie Kinsey did this whole stretching and bending thing where she put her legs behind her feet, and Dan Giles gave this whole V for Vendetta Speech. Katie ended up winning the whole Talent Show!

So we finally got everyone up to their beds and sleeping, and now it's time for a little rest and relaxation for the leaders. So I bid you goodnight until the morning and wish you a good night!

Ron Foster

Wednesday!

Wednesday is a simple, yet tiring day. That's because it's Water Park Day! Before we hit the water park, however, I have to tell you that our morning service was incredible! Everyone was really, really, into the worship. That led to our speaker having an altar call before he even started speaking, and 5 students went forward to accept Jesus as their Savior! What an awesome God we serve! We talked about making good choices, and what to do when we've found ourself stuck in a web of bad choices that we can't seem to get out of. Obviously, the hero was Spiderman!

After our group discussion, we got on some buses, and headed to Camelbeach Water Park in Tannersville, PA where our students wore themselves out on water slides, surf simulators, and wave pools! We just got back, ate some pizza for dinner, and are now in the worship service that is so incredible with the Scott Kemper Band leading worship! I can't wait to see what God will do tonight! Talk to you guys soon with more updates!

Ron Foster

Catching Up! (Tuesday recap)

Ok, so I missed updating Tuesday for everyone, so I'll do two updates.

Tuesday was such a busy, long day! After breakfast, the students headed into the auditorium for our morning service. The morning services are a little different in that we do just a few songs, and our speaker introduces a topic that we discuss later in our church group. The topic focused on overcoming fears, especially the fear of telling others about Christ. We had a great discussion as a group together.

After group, we headed up to the gym for the basketball tournament. Chase Hite jumped on a team that won their first round game, but lost shortly afterward. He did great. He was all over the place. The talk of the camp, however, was our girls team consisting of Morgan Merkert, Erin Crowley, and Katie Kinsey. They all dressed up really funny and put their hair in pony tail buns. They then did a very intimidating warm up with some crazy passes to each other. They lived up to the hype too! They crushed through every game like they were playing 1st Graders. It was an amazing thing to watch! The whole camp started cheering for our girls! It was incredible! They won the girls tourney!

After lunch we had some big group games out in the fields and up in the gym. I'll say this. All of our boys came back from their game covered in shaving cream! Awesome! We spent the rest of the day all over the camp with free time where our kids went out on canoes and kayaks, swam in the pool, and I had the longest and most challenging game of teatherball with our guy counselor, Matt Toeneboehn! Matt won :(

The service was another home run, where our students worshipped with all of their hearts, and listened to a powerful message that spoke to thier identity in Christ, and how we can get closer to Him. Our students really connected with leading several of them to make commitment to make Jesus 1st in their lives!

After the service we had some crazy games up in the gym, followed by a basketball game that the whole camp watched: our girls vs the boys champs! Everyone, and I mean everyone was cheering for our girls! They were so happy! They did so good! At one point it was all tied up 6-6. Baskets went back and forth, with the guys finally taking the win with a score of 11-9. Everyone cheered our girls in defeat. It was like a movie! In fact, I got alot of it on video, so I'm sure you'll get to see some of it at some point!

What a great group of kids we have here at camp. I'm so pumped for them to be here! I'm so excited to see how God is moving in their hearts! Stay tuned for another update shortly!

Ron Foster

Game On!

July 7th, 2010.

So we left the church around 8:30am on Monday morning with 13 students and 3 leaders. It seemed like a long trip especially with the "I have to go to the bathroom" comments tagged with the "Is it time to eat yet?" questions. We pulled into the camp @ Rock Mountain Bible Camp just 30 minutes north of Scranton, PA, and it was on!

Our students went on a scavenger hunt after getting settled into their cabins to get acclimated with the camp setting where they saw the lake, the pool, the rec room, the all important dining room, and soccer field. It was great to see our guys and girls walking around and doing stuff together in their free time leading up to dinner.

I think our kids were blown away with the service. We started off with some screaming for our team (DC Comics), followed by some incredibly loud and awesome worship from Scott Kemper and his band, mixed with video and lighting that was off the charts! Our students were up front with a big crowd of the majority of the camp jumping up and down singing along. They sang and jumped so much that the floor was bouncing up and down! I'm not gonna lie, it smelled like some serious body odor when they went back to their seats!

Our speaker, Mike Haley introduced the camp to the greatest Hero of all time, Jesus. He shared how he prayed a prayer when he was 5 because other people were doing the same thing. It wasn't until he was 14 that he understood what accepting what Jesus did meant, and gave his heart to Christ. Our students really connected with this part of the message, as we had some great conversations in the cabins later about this very point.

The game for the night was Capture the Flag in the dark, separating the teams with glow sticks. Then the rain came. The whole camp was so pumped up to play capture the flag in the rain! It was seriously one of the coolest, funniest things I've seen. I walked out to see glow sticks all over this open field, slipping and falling and all you could hear was rain and laughter! What a great time!

We closed the night with some in-cabin discussions and wrap ups from the day which was probably my favorite part of the day. We have some great guys and girls that we brought from our church.

My camp duties put me in bed around 2:30 am. Woke up at 6:00 am to get a 3 mile run in, had counselor meeting with all of our leaders, and ready to start the new day! Make sure to check in later for some updates of how the day is going! Thanks for stopping in!

Ron Foster

What A Run!

I know I just mentioned that I'll be updating this blog for Middle School Camp, but that doesn't start until next week, and I just had to write about my morning!

I've been running. Some people know this if they've been keeping up with me on facebook. In my office, I have a running chart of goals I am trying to hit each week as to how many miles each week, broken down by days. I missed Monday just because I was being lazy. I planned on running Tuesday night, but it started to downpour. So I had it in my mind that I would try a 7 mile run this morning to start making up for missing the other days.

(applicable only if you live in or around Annapolis) I drove the route to make sure it was 7 miles: Start at Gemini and Forest Dr. (where I live) going up Forest. Turn right at Chinquapin Round Rd. Left at West Street. Cross over Solomon's Island continue up West Street toward the mall. Turn right at Bestgate Road. Right at Medical Parkway. Eventually curves around back to West Street and Solomon's Island Rd. Head back down West Street. Right on Chinquapin Round Road. Left on Forest Drive and end at Gemini Dr.

I hadn't run further than 6 miles since well, in a long time. I started out the run by seeing 3 deer just off to my right. As I got closer to them, they didn't move. They just looked at me and watched me run! I was about 5 yards away from them! It was awesome! At about the 3.5 mile mark I got pretty fatigued, so I walked about 1/2 mile to the mile 4 marker, where I began running again. About the 5 mile mark, I began praying. "Lord, today is Yours. Please take my decisions. My thoughts. My actions. I want them to honor You!" This all stemmed from a series we are doing with the students called "24: Spending a Day With God". It's a 3 week series covering the morning hours, your during the day hours, and evening hours. Giving my day to God was a great start! I then thanked Jesus for getting me up so that I could pursue making running a habit, and then He reminded me that there was another habit I had yet to make happen today. You know what it is. So I asked Him to help me remember to open up His Word and not rush it, but soak in what He wants for me to know! I did open up His Word and am still thinking about the words that I read and how God wants to change me as a result.

You know, habits are hard to start and hard to break. Getting into the habit of running hasn't been easy and I wasn't able to do six and a half miles when I started. It's been a process. Just like opening up God's Word on a regular basis. There will be times when it all makes sense and it's awesome. But there will be times when your mind is somewhere else. In those times, pray that God will get your focus. He'll bless you for it. And the more you do it, the more you'll get out of it!

On a side note, some songs that kept me running as I was getting tired throughout the run:

Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Jesus Paid It All - Kristian Stanfill
Rain Down - Hillsong United & Delirious
I Am Free - Newsboys
Yours - Toby Mac
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
All Star - Smash Mouth
I'm a Believer - Smash Mouth

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Camp Updates!

For parents, friends, and members of our church:

I will be posting to this site updates as we go through our week of camps. The first camp will be our middle school camp which happens a week from today (July 6-10). I know some think I'm wierd or a little crazy for spending a week at a time with teenagers, but it's not a task for me, nor is it a burden. I am stoked for camp! I can't wait! I love the ride up (as long as everyone doesn't have their headphones on...that's not fun), I love walking around doing different activities with the students, I love staying up late and goofing off! More than anything though, I love the services, where I see our students freely getting into worship, then responding to God's message to them through the speakers we bring in and seeing their lives changed! It's incredible! Nothing like it! So keep up with us during camp. I'll try to post something twice a day, but at least once for sure! To see more about our camps check out http://www.eastcoastyouthnetwork.com/ for middle school camp and http://www.liftstudentministries.com/ for high school camp (July 27-31).

Ron Foster

What made him different?

I remember my junior high years like they were yesterday. They are so vivid in my memory. I loved those years. I remember wearing a jean jacket to school with rips in the elbows (done on purpose), tightrolling my pants (or "pegging") because that was how you wore your pants, sporting some high tops (even though I wasn't on the basketball court), and wearing my New York Mets hat (even though we lived in San Jose, CA) backwards every day to school. School wasn't difficult. I played every sport offered to me. I had friends. I was starting to get the whole relationship with Jesus thing because of Mr. Dahl (our Jr. High director in church at the time). Life was great.

But there was this one guy, Eric (I can't remember his last name). Eric was a year older than me. Eric was also a lot bigger than me. I could run faster in soccer, shoot better in basketball, and field better in baseball than him, but he was just a lot stronger than me. It seemed to me that Eric's life goal was to torture 7th graders (me especially). Every time he saw me, he would pound on me! It got to the point that if I saw him in front of me, I would turn around and go the other way, and walk around the entire building just to avoid getting pounded by Eric.

I know this is a poor analogy, so please don't make a direct correlation, but in the Gospels of the Bible, it seemed that every time that Jesus spoke to or about the Pharisees, Sadducees, or other religious leaders it was always harsh and direct. Granted, it was deserving, and the religious leaders were doing their part to trip up Jesus, but Jesus didn't hold back on these guys. When I read some of the stuff that Jesus said to these guys, I start doing my Tiger Woods fist pump! Go Jesus! You tell 'em!

Well, I noticed in Mark chapter 12, that one of these "teachers of religious law" had been standing in the crowd listening to Jesus' words and observing. There seemed to be something different about this guy than the other Pharisees though. He asked Jesus, "Of all of the commandments, which one is the most important?" Now we know that Jesus normally wouldn't answer a straight up question like that, but Jesus , knowing men's hearts, I think sensed a genuine question for once and not a trap. So Jesus answered it. His answer for the sake of space is "Love God with everything, and the 2nd is just as important, Love others. All other commandments support these two."

Get this. The teacher then says, "You know what? That makes total sense, Jesus. It also makes sense that God would want us to focus on loving Him and others as opposed to our offerings and sacrifices." I wouldn't have seen this coming from a Pharisee, and I think Jesus response is incredible. Jesus looked at the man and said, "You are not far from the Kingdom." After looking at many commentaries on this statement, we might say in other words, "You get it. You understand it. You're almost there. You just need to believe (trust) it now." This man understood a truth that can be hard to understand. He understood that doing all of the right things don't mean anything unless your heart is right, and your heart can't be right unless you love God with everything!

What a cool insert in the Gospel of Mark! Love that! You might be wondering if anything ever happened with Eric. Well, as the year went on, I started gaining more confidence toward Eric, but I knew something was going to happen when I took his starting spot at 2nd base. I avoided him for days, when finally I turned the corner and there he was. He grabbed me, grabbed my cap, put me in a headlock and started pounding me. Something inside of me snapped. I pushed away with all I had, punched him in the stomach as hard as I could, and shouted "Don't you have anything better to do than to go around picking on 7th graders? Get a life!" With that said I was expecting the onslaught of blows he would give me. Instead, he looked at me, tossed me my cap back, and said, "It's about time. I was just waiting for you to stand up for yourself." And from that day on, Eric never bothered me again.

I stood out to Eric in a way that was different than all of the other 7th graders, and this teacher stood out to Jesus. He didn't stand out because he shouted at Jesus, but rather understood the notion of getting one's heart in love with God's. So how about you? Do you get it? Do you get that you need to fall in love with Jesus as opposed to trying so hard all the time to do the right things that might make God happy with you? Maybe you can start today with just spending some time with God and give Him your heart.

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Sit down for a spell

In Mark chapter 12 of the New Testament, the very first verse starts off with these words: "Then Jesus began telling them stories...". I love that! Jesus knew more than anyone that to capture people's attention and hearts is through a story! Why do so many people watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition every Sunday night? Is it to get house building tips? Is it to see how Ty Pennington will scream into his megaphone this week? Perhaps a little. It is to see what the family's story is, and how this new home will help them out!

Take the Cadigan-Scott family for example. Within a matter of months, this family lost their mother and father! Now there was a college age daughter, along with a few older siblings, to try and keep the family together. So the Makeover crew came in, built a new home, and took care of expenses! I'm sorry, but if you can make it through an episode of one of these shows without crying then you have no soul! Just kidding, but not really! HA HA!

My point in all of this is that truth can be told in stories. You don't just have to lecture, argue, or debate. In fact, a story, in most cases will be much more received then just spurting words at someone. I want to encourage you to share your story with someone. How has God changed your life? It is said that the story of Jesus Christ is the greatest story ever told. Well, the second greatest story ever told is YOURS! Go and tell it to someone today!

Ron Foster

A simple request, a loaded answer, an amazing outcome!

I know some people that can read large amounts of a book or the Bible and retain it all. I'm not one of those people. I take things in small amounts, digest them, incorporate them, and then move to the next little chunk. So that is how I tend to read the Bible...in small amounts at a time. Today's little chunk was just awesome to me! I found it in Mark chapter 10, verses 46-52.

It's not a crazy teaching passage, or some super ginormous thing that happens. You have Jesus walking down the road, and there is this blind guy named Bartimaeus that hears about Jesus coming through. He doesn't know where exactly Jesus is at so he just starts screaming for Jesus. "Jesus! Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!" (it's interesting here that he did not call Jesus of Nazareth, but Jesus, Son of David which is a term reserved for the Messiah...he was showing faith by calling Jesus this title).

People around Bartimaeus are getting annoyed and embarassed of their local blind beggar. As they were telling him to be quiet, Jesus calls for him to be brought over.

Jesus asked Bart what he wanted Him to do. Bart has one simple request. "I WANT TO SEE!"

I think that Jesus was pleased with this answer because in that moment, Jesus not only granted Bart's eyes to see, but his heart to see as well.

Jesus tells him, "Go your way. Your faith has healed you."

How do I know that Bart's heart could see too? Well, the outcome tells it all.

Verse 52 says that instantly Bart could see, and then he followed Jesus down the way!

Jesus told him to go his way, but out of his gratitude and thanks, He followed Jesus!

Let me ask you today, have you allowed Jesus to open your heart so you can see? What if you were to ask Him today, "Lord, help me to see You clearly, and to see people the way you see people." Do you think something would change with how you treated others? What about how you saw the grocery store checkout person? The mailman? The drive-thru attendant? Your waiter? Is your response to follow the way that Jesus leads you? If not, why? Why don't we go down the way that Jesus is going and see where He takes us? Give it a try. I know you won't be disappointed.

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Friday

Today represents a day that changed everything. Today represents the day that Jesus accomplished on this earth what He came to do. He came to die. What happened on this day? I found a cool site that walks you through the final week of Jesus (click here to check out the full week). But let's look at what happened today.

1:00-1:30am Jesus is confronted by Judas and the soldiers

1:30-3:00am Trial 1 with Annas

1:30-3:00am Trial 2 with Caiaphas (Jesus is beaten between trials)

3:00-5:00am Jesus held at Caiaphas'

5:00-6:00am Trial 3 w/Jewish leaders

6:00-7:00am Trial 4 w/Pilate ("I find no guilt in him")

7:00-7:30am Trial 5 w/Herod (Jesus silent, so sent back to Pilate)

7:30-8:30am Trial 6 w/Pilate (tries to appease people by flogging - 39 whips with a cat of nine

tails - Jesus...people demand death, so Pilate grants it)

8:30-9:00am Roman soldiers continue to beat on Jesus, place crown of thorns on His head

9:00-12:00pm Jesus forced to carry cross through town, nails in His hands, nail in His feet,

raised up on the cross

12:00-3:00pm Final 3 hours on the cross

3:00pm Death

? Burial

Did you know that Jesus went through all of this voluntarily? Why would someone choose this? Well, the answer is simple...YOU. Because our sin separates us from God, and the payment/penalty of our sin is eternal death (separation from God forever), the only one who could pay that penalty for us did. The righteous Judge, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords who pronounced us guilty got up from His throne, took off his robe and traded it in to pay the penalty for us and make a way for us to now have eternal life (relationship and communion with God forever). Thank you, Lord, for thinking of me, for loving me as You went through this horrific and good Friday.

Have a great day,

Ron Foster

Great to What?

Have you ever had something great happen only to be followed by something that totally bummed you out? This morning in our teen study we looked at one of those instances. In Mark chapter 8 right after 2 really cool miracles by Jesus, He is hanging with just the disciples and he has a quiet moment with them. He asks, "who do people say I am?" The disciples give some of the thoughts that are out there, then Jesus looks them in the eye and point blank asks, "who do YOU think I am?"

Enter Peter. The quick answer, "You are the Messiah!" Great answer! This showed great faith! Way to go Peter! A spiritual breakthrough with a great statement of faith! Way to go Peter!

Immediately following this, Jesus lets them in on what will happen to Him with his death and resurrection. Peter doesn't like the news because in his mind the Messiah was going to set up an earthly kingdom and Peter would hopefully be ruling alongside Jesus. So Pete pulls Jesus aside and tries to rebuke Jesus. "I don't think you should be saying things like that, Jesus. It's not good." So Jesus looks at all of the disciples and then back at Peter. "Get behind me, Satan! You're looking at things from your perspective and not God's."

Ouch! Uh...deflation. Peter was just on this huge high, and now he is being called the enemy of Satan! Why? Because even though Peter had faith in Jesus, he was still operating on what he wanted Jesus to be and do, rather than go along with what the will of God was which was the salvation of man. And while Jesus wasn't specifically saying Peter was posessed by Satan, He was relating Peter's actions to what Satan tries to do...prevent the will of God.

I know today was long, but think about this thought. Did you make any decisions today that stood in the way of the will of God? Did any of your actions prevent someone from coming to know Jesus? I know there are too many days that I'm guilty too. It's easy to blame Peter, but we deserve some blame too. I want to have the great proclomations of Peter, not the poor decisions of standing in the way of Jesus. How about you? Which side would you rather be on?

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Um, gross!

I was reading in Mark chapter 8 today, and there is a short, little passage thrown inbetween two big passages. They are the verses 22 to 26. The progression that has happened leading up to this is that Jesus has yet again fed a large crowd (at least 4,000 men) with little food (7 loaves and a few small fish). The faith of the disciples is challenged then and later on the boat as Jesus reminded them that He can meet any need.

So now they get off the boat, a blind man is brought to Jesus and the people that bring him are begging Jesus to heal him. Jesus, for his own reasons, decides to not allow the crowd to be around for this, so He leads him by the hand out of town. Get this...Jesus faces the man AND SPITS ON HIS EYES! Can you picture that! Jesus probably grabbed his head, leaned back to get some trajectory and spit at the dude's eyes! Jesus then asks him if he can see anything. First of all, do you think that Jesus didn't really know whether the man could see or not? Just a thought. Then, the man says he can see, but it's blurry, and he sees men, but they are like trees walking around. So Jesus puts his hands over his eyes and tells him to look again, and this time he could see everything clearly.

So why this story? It's obvious that this all happened for a reason, but what's the point? Why have this man see, but not very clearly, and then have him try again and this time see everything clearly?

It reminds me of how when we are exposed to the truth of God's Word, it starts to come to light for us, but it doesn't all quite make sense and we can't fully understand what God wants us to know. That is until we are fully accepting of what God wants for us and we give our life to Him and it is at that point that we can see Him clearly. I think God wanted to show us that it is only through our giving our life to Him fully that we can truly have life, that we can truly see life for what it truly is!

So let me ask you, does life just seem to be a little distorted to you? Are you living life through some darkened blurred lenses? My question now would be have you fully surrendered to Jesus? It is only through our full choice of Jesus that we can see life for the way it is. I don't know about you, but I would rather know the truth of life rather then see the lies that Satan tries to pull over my eyes. How about you? Your move.

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Duh!

I've had many conversations about how it seemed unfair that some people could put their faith in Jesus as a child, and live their whole lives believing, trusting, and living for God. Then on the flip side a criminal at the end of his rope, and about to be executed, can pray a prayer of belief and trust in Jesus, and both people will end up in the same place. I used to go back to the thieves on the crosses next to Jesus how one acknowledged his faith in Jesus and Jesus responded to him that they would see each other in paradise. The best argument and I still think is a good argument is that they will have a different "state" or "presence" in heaven. Obviously, the one that has been living for God already has his relationship with God established well, and there are many treasures in heaven waiting for him, whearas, the criminal has had no time to establish neither a relationship nor treasures. He has to start from there.

But today, I came across a story in Scripture that made the whole thing come together for me. Forgive me, if you've already had this epiphany, but I get excited about such things. In Matthew 20:1-16 we find a story of a land owner who went into town looking for workers for his field. The story goes that at 9:00 he hires some men and agrees to pay them at the end of the day. Then at noon he does the same thing, getting more men to come work. Then at 3:00pm and at 5:00pm. So he had people that were working starting at 9, 12, 3, and 5 (pretty spread out). At the end of the day (6:00pm) the owner lined them up to receive their pay. He started with the ones that only worked 1 hour and gave them a full days' wage. He gave the same amount to those that started at 3:00pm, the same with the ones from 12:00 and the same amount from those that started at 9:00am. Obviously, the ones that started at 9:00 and 12:00 were upset at this, but then the owner reminds them that they agreed on the payment and it's his right to show kindness to others with what he owns.

It makes sense to me now that it is fair for the criminal! It is fair of the long standing Christian! Why is it fair? Because neither is DESERVING of God's grace! It's not my grace to give out, it's God's! The owner in the story didn't have to hire any of them! But he did! Jesus didn't have to die on a cross for any of us, but He did! It's His grace to be spread to as many as will receive! I'm so glad that God said, "whoever" believes in Him will have eternal life and that it's based on God's logic and not mine!

Have a great day guys!

Ron Foster