oasisCHURCH

a worship gathering for youth

THIS SUNDAY NIGHT
5:00pm-7:00pm
AT THE AMERICAN LEGION BUILDING

This Sunday night is going to be our first ever worship gathering specifically for youth. Everything we do, sing, say, eat, etc... will be prepared with YOUTH in mind. The theme for this first gathering is LOVE. I want to encourage each of you who either are in your "youth" years, or who have kids in their youth years, or know kids in their youth years, do everything you can to get them to our youth gathering. I promise you it will not be boring. We're going to have a great time in all that we do. It will be a very enjoyable evening. But it will also be very challenging.

I believe that young people are very capable of receiving the challenges presented by the Gospel. And I believe that the Gospel is the best tool to use to attract young people to Jesus... not entertainment, not coercion, not even food (although food is a very good idea). What I am saying is simply this. Jesus will be the center of our youth ministry. Jesus will be the focus. Jesus will be the source. Jesus will be the one who draws them to himself. All we will do is facilitate a place where those things can happen. And that is our goal.

Please bring your kids. Come with them. Hopefully you will see what I a mean for yourself.

Oasis BodyLife News

Hello friends. I have been attempting to send out the Oasis Email Newsletter for the past hour, and I cannot seem to make it work from my hotel room here in Wilmore, KY. So, rather than email it this week, I am going to post the link right here. If you know someone who does not normally check the site, or does not have email, please print the newsletter for them and give them a copy.

February 24 Oasis BodyLife News Link

The Exodus Challenge

Keith Wasserman is teaching this Sunday and he has a challenge for us.  Just in case you weren't around on Sunday I wanted to make sure you could have access to the "mission" Keith has for us in Exodus.  So below I've put the "mission" in two forms.  The first is the sheet that Keith had for us to take home on Sunday.  The second is a downloadable version of the sheet.  You'll find this study rewarding so please take advantage of it.  It's a good opportunity to learn some fresh things about and old story. 

Assignment for Sunday February 26^th Oasis Gathering

Keith Wasserman

Exodus Chapters 1-4

Topic: “Your mission should you choose to accept it”

Question: What is your mission in life right now? Do you know it? Can you define it? Can you write it in a sentence or two? Given the unique gifts, abilities, connections, relationships, experience, training and perspective you have, what is God calling you to do?

Read Exodus chapter 1 through 4. Read it two times in two different translations. Think about the following questions;

1. What is the definition of “oppression”. Why were the Israelites oppressed?

2. Why did the midwives “lie” to Pharoh?

3. What was unique about Moses birth?

4. Why did Moses kill the Egyptian? What was bothering him?

5. Why did Moses run (flee?) to Midian? Was he running from God?

6. Where was Moses and what was he doing when he heard God speak to him? (Exodus 3:1)

7. What did God use to get Moses’ attention?

8. Why did God tell Moses to take his shoes off? Is God calling you to remove something in your life (even for a short time) in order to hear his call? Something you think is essential?

9. What does God say he has seen and heard in Exodus 3:7?

10. What was Moses reaction when God declared Moses was the man God was sending to      Pharaoh?

11. What were the five questions Moses asked God in Exodus 3 & 4 as he began to understand God’s calling on his life? Can you identify them?

12. How and in what ways does the message Moses was sent to give the Israelites (Exodus 3:16-17 and 6:2-8) compare to the “gospel” Paul was sent to give the world? In what ways were they      different?

Download Exodus Challenge

It's That Time of Year Again

Well, baseball has officially begun. I just got home from the first day of pitchers and catchers practice for the Athens High School baseball team. This is always an exciting time of year for me. I love everything about the game of baseball. It has always been special to me. A couple of years ago I wrote a personal story about how baseball has been a major part of my life for a long time.

My prayer for this new season of baseball is that it would not be about baseball only. What a shame it would be if I merely participate in coaching some kids in playing a game, and not see the ways God wants to glorify Himself through my involvement with the team.

What kinds of things do you really enjoy doing? Recreational activities? Sports? Hobbies? How does God reveal Himself to you through those activities? How have you glorified God in those activities?

What an important question for a Christian coach to keep in the front of his mind...

Hello From "Believe"

Just got back from the first set of worship sessions at the Believe Conference, and I was pleased to find that our hotel has free ethernet, so that means I could say hello to you.

Here's a little video clip of a dance the kids learned tonight.

There are 5,000 people here this weekend. Lots of Jr. High students. So far all of our kids have been great! Thanks for your prayers.

"Believe" Conference in Cincinnati

In just a few hours 13 people from Oasis will load into two vans and head across Route 32 toward the wonderful city of Cincinnati, home of the Big Red Machine. But this trip to Cincinnati is not to sit in Great American Ballpark to watch the greatest recreational game God gave to humanity. Rather, we will be next door in the Synergy Convention Center for Christ In Youth's Believe conference. It's a conference designed especially for Jr. High students, and appeals to a wide range of teenagers. I know our kids are looking forward to it. Please pray for everyone who is attending. Here is the list of who's going so you can pray more specifically:

Adults: Des Jeffers, Amy Perrin, April Stewart, Chris Stewart
Youth: Ryan Jeffers, Justin Arnold, Casey Arnold, Timothy Wasserman, Joe Finney, Cara Lawless, Emma Perrin, Brock Stewart, Kaylee Stewart

We look forward to worshiping together when we return. See you Sunday!

Don't Waste Your Cancer

This is the title of John Piper's most recent article on Desiring God (www.desiringgod.org). He wrote it on the eve of his surgery to have his prostate removed. I was first introduced to Dr. Piper in 1996 through one of his most influential books called Desiring God, which has been the namesake for his radio and internet ministry. Dr. Piper is also the preaching pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. Without ever meeting the man face to face, I am his student. He has an incredible passion for the Word of God and for the Supremacy of God in all things. Which is evidenced in his most recent article on the eve of his cancer surgery. One thing I have learned in listening to John Piper's sermons and in reading his articles is that he has an amazing way of speaking of the sufferings of Christ (which, by the way, we are promised will come our way too). He emphasizes ten points about suffering, by using his cancer as an illustration. Below is an abbreviated list of those ten points. Some of them may cause you to go "huh???" at first, and even cause you to scratch your head a little. If so, then be sure to read the rest of the article here.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

By the way, he came out of surgery on Wednesday and was sent home to recuperate and continue healing.

What you may not know about February 14

Here's a little history of this day from one of my favorite sites, Wikipedia.

The history of Valentine's day can be traced back to a Catholic Church feast day, in honor of Saint Valentine. The day's associations with romantic love arrived after the High Middle Ages, during which the concept of romantic love was formulated.

The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as St. Valentine's Day was possibly one of three different martyred men who lived in the late 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Claudius II.

As far as we know, little if anything at all is known about the lives of any of these martyrs. Many of the current legends surrounding them were invented in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of February 14 became associated with romantic love.

So, for your Valentine's Day historical entertainment, here is one of the men's stories:

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commended him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14.

Nice story, right. Thanks for sharing. I suppose this illustrates how another one of our holidays completely ignores our Christian brother whose name it bears. The fact is, February 14 is the day a man's head was chopped off because of his love for Jesus.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! May our love run as deep and be as passionate as the first real Valentine.

God Did

Last night I taught the song "Yearn" to my kids. It's a really good worship song that you can find on three different Shane & Shane CDs. Bedtime is always a good time to learn new worship songs. I have really come to appreciate the music of Shane & Shane (Shane Barnard & Shane Everett), two guys who's style is simple and smooth, but lyrical content is deep and solid. I highly recommend Shane & Shane's music if you are looking for something new to listen to in the car, at work, or on the headphones late at night. Listening to them is a little bit like listening to a good sermon on God's grace. Here's a sample lyric of one of the songs that was ringing in my head yesterday. It's a song called "God Did".

Growin’ up I overheard
All the grown ups sayin’
You better be prayin’
And sayin’
All the right little things
At the right little times
And I had it down
At least on the outside
I’d put my best side forward
I could smile with the best
And dress like the rest
Of the messed up church folk singin’ a song

Are you sitting down
With all your sin and shame all stored up
Are you ready to live
For what the law could not do
God did

Could it be that morality
Got the best of you and me
Got us thinking
That we’re on the brink
Of a drink of the cup that’s all filled up
With the cross havin’ even a little to do with us
It was His day
It was His way
To the glory of His grace
Took our disease
Enough to please
The Father of lights
To bruise Jesus

Maybe do’s and don’ts
Were made to show
How much we do
And don’t ever make it

“Lord, help us to understand the depth of Your ever sovereign sacrifice in Jesus. That what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh…” (Rom 8:3)

Notice that last stanza. Maybe do's and don'ts were made to show how much we do and don't ever make it (on our own). That's good stuff.

House Church/A Little Heaven on Earth

The scriptures say that wherever two or more are gathered, God will be there in our midst. One only has to become part of a house church to see that this is so true.  There is just something about meeting with a group of people in someone's home that seems to bring out a special measure of God's anointing.  I believe there are many factors which cause this to be true.  First of all, you are in someone's home. You are relaxed and it is so much easier to lower those "walls" that we tend to put around ourselves. It seems to be easier to open up in a smaller group setting.  We can be "real" with one another.  If we have had a bad day, we can share that, and draw strength from one another.  This too is scriptural.  God tells us to "bear one another's burdens."  It is healthy both physically and spiritually to get things off our shoulders.  It's like therapy, only you don't have to pay a hundred dollars per hour.

A big part of our house chruch gathering takes place around the dinner table.  Sharing a meal together, just seems to be conducive to great conversation, and sharing, and believe me the topics vary greatly. We can go from deep spiritual discussions, to who got voted off Survivor, in the blink of an eye.  We have great converstaions. 

Once we have finished our dinner, which takes the better part of an hour, (Good food and conversation can't be rushed), we usually move to the living room and spend another hour or so reading, discussing God's word, praying and sharing whatever the Lord puts on our hearts.  As good as the first hour is, this hour is even more satisfying.  I guess it is mainly because "God shows up."  Don't misunderstand me.  I know that God is always with us, wherever we are.  But during this gathering, when we pray, open the scriptures, and begin sharing what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us, there is NO doubt who is directing this time together; it is God Almighty.  The way things flow, and how one person can say a word which ministers to someone else just confirms that The Lord is there.  It is really hard to describe, but God is definitely in the room, of that I have no doubt. It is simply awesome. 

I love this time that I spend with my Church family.  I would encourage anyone who is looking for a deeper walk with Christ and wants to be a part of something that will change your life, to try house church. You will not be disappointed.