Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 12:56PM Connections Youth will be meeting next on June 1st at the Jericho Building in Danbury. You won't want to miss this opportunity for a fun filled night. Pastor Rocky will be speaking to us so come prepared to hear from God!
If you have any questions contact Jordan.
The Jericho Building
13 Rose Street
Danbury, CT 06810
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 12:45PM Connections Youth group joined forces with Bethany Assemblies of God again for a big Youth Bonfire!! blow-out!
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:29AM "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
Those words were spoken to a young man likely between the ages of 13-17.
Before you were born, before you even existed in your mothers womb, before your parents even knew you existed, and honestly before your parents existed I KNEW YOU
stop and think about those words
I- meaning Jehovah, the I AM, the God of the universe, the creator of everything in existence
Knew- to perceive or understand as fact or truth; to apprehend clearly and with certainty
You- that is You individually, that's not You like a general everyone, it means each and every single person on this earth, YOU
before I created YOU I knew YOU
God knew exactly what he was doing when he created Jeremiah, before he ever existed God said I am going to create a young man and I am going to set him apart and give him a specific purpose on this earth.
The truth is that God HAS called you as well.
Before he formed you in the womb God had a plan and a purpose for your lives.
It is so important for us to realize this, but often we stop there.
Sometimes we need to focus on the I rather than the YOU
Its very easy to only focus on the part of that scripture that pertains to us. The part where it says God has a plan for ME, and God wants to bless ME, and God wants to protect ME
Our First Resolution for 2010 is to Recognize who God is
One way that we are able to identify who God is, is by looking at what He has created.
Its not identifying who we are, what we want, and how God is going to do everything for me.
We already know all about ME, about who we are, its time that we start focusing on who God is
if we are ever really going to discover the purpose that God has for each one of our lives, we first have to really understand the one who gave us that purpose in the first place.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 40, God asks
25"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
The truth is there is no one you can compare our God to, there are none who are is equal.
Yet that same God knows each one of us by name, has set each one of us apart, and has a unique purpose for each one of us!
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
The Video below does a great job of expressing that reality of the "hugeness" of our God.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 3:10PM For the last few months in Generation NOW we have been dealing with the theme of RECAPTURE. Identifying the things in our lives that we have placed before God and allowing Him to recapture our hearts.
A recent survey suggests that on average, young men and women (ages 12-24) spend 30 or more hours a week on the internet. (if you do the math that's a little over 4 hours a day) Frequenting social networking websites such as facebook and myspace. Following their favorite celebrities on twitter and msn, and downloading over 2.5 million songs a day on iTunes.
Why is it that our generation as a whole have such a desire to connect with one another, to know the latest details of everything going on in the lives of so many different people? From our friends and family down to people we have never met?
Some would argue simply because we can, never before has a generation had such access to the world around them. With the internet and google there are virtually no ends to the information we can access. No matter if it is something/ or someone in our own backyard, or someone literally on the other side of the world.
The same goes for entertainment, you don't even have to leave the house anymore to listen to your favorite music, or to watch your favorite movie or tv show on demand.
You don't even have to pick up the phone to see what your 1,674 friends are doing, what they’re thinking and what they had for lunch. But if you did want to use your phone, don't worry, “there’s an app for that”. So yeah sure, availability has a lot to do it.
The question is however, is our desire to be entertained an effect of having all of this available to us, or is it the reason it exists in the first place?
I think it would be safe to say that the desire to be entertained, the desire to be fulfilled in some way, the desire to find satisfaction in life outdates facebook, itunes, the internet, bill gates, movies and television by a good 6 thousand years or so.
From the time man was created he has searched for fulfillment. When Adam and Eve were in the garden they found that fulfillment in their creator.
They found their purpose on earth, bringing glory to God.
But we know what happened, they tried to find their fulfillment in something other than God. From that point forward, from the point when sin entered the world and a separation was created between them and God, man has desperately tried to recreate the satisfaction that can only be found in one place alone. In God.
The desire we have in our lives is nothing new, it is simply a place in our lives that was created by our creator for our creator.
When we look in this world and see so many people hurting looking for answers, looking for their fulfillment in drugs and alcohol, in relationships with men and women. It is an attempt to fill that void.
But the truth is that when we look to anything else besides Jesus we are doing the same thing, trying to fill a void that with temporary fixes that will never last.
Jeremiah 2:13
“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!
We are looking for satisfaction
Satisfaction- to fulfill the desires, expectations, needs, or demands of an individual
a satisfaction that can only be found in God.
but how is it that we find our satisfaction in God?
how can we go from a place of finding satisfaction from the things of this world to finding our satisfaction in the one who created the world?
it simply comes down to a choice that only we can make
it is a choice to bring glory to God
we were created in His image, we were created with a purpose, we were created with a desire to know our creator, to fill that void that only He can fill.
But because we’ve made the decision to glorify so many other things we have removed God from that place in our lives and we’ve filled it with worthless distractions that will never ultimately fulfill or satisfy our lives.
yet we don't even realize it.
None of us ever believe that we are bringing glory to anything else but God but when we find our satisfaction in something else that is exactly what we are doing.
Here are the numbers to prove it
Itunes brought in 1.9 billion dollars in revenue last year, 1.9 billion that $1,900,000,000
According to forbes lil wayne and kanye brought in 50 million each last year
(A-Rod only made 25 million to put that in perspective)
In 2008 Starbucks had 10.383 billion dollars in revenue
Facebook alone brought in $500 million
While you will never spend a dime to use facebook, companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertisements to reach youth between the ages of 12-24 everyday.
When we find our satisfaction in these avenues someone is getting glory out of it, and by these numbers it looks like a lot of glory
but what happens when we find our satisfaction in God?
when we find our satisfaction in our salvation? In the fact that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our lives to be spared? For the ability to connect one on one with the creator of the universe? For being blessed restored and redeemed by our father?
WHATEVER WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN IS THE THING THAT WE BEST GLORIFY- john piper
when we find our satisfaction in God our lives become a reflection of who He is
You want to make a difference in your life, you want to see a difference made in this generation?
Then glorify the God and Savior who is the only one that can truly change our lives and the lives of those around us.
We have the answer, but the only way others are going to see that is when they see it in our lives, when they see his reflection.
That only happens when we stop looking to the world for our satisfaction but when we instead look to God.
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 10:05AM 3 days and 2 nights of basketball, football, kickball, dodge ball, a dance contest, awesome worship, and a great speaker would be a few ways in which you could describe the youth camp that we attended this past month.
However looking back it is easy to see that those activities were only the tools in which God used to impact our lives. Both as a group and as individuals, often when we were not even expecting it. Like the 2 hour drive to the camp (in the rain) that God used to bring us closer together.
And even as dodge balls went flying by your head you could feel the love, until one happened to hit you and then of course it meant war. Someone may have even hit the guest speaker in the face, although no one was actually able to identify who had thrown it…oops
But even that couldn't stop Pastor Tony Cruz from delivering great messages that really spoke not only to the youth but to the leaders as well. Helping us to identify and to remove the masks we wear on a daily basis often without even realizing it.
Not to mention some of the most entertaining examples that we’ve ever heard…such as “10 things never to say when you get pulled over” and a rendition of “Jesus take the wheel” that wont soon be forgotten…man that baby in the backseat should get an oscar.
One thing that I believe we learned from this camp is that when given the opportunity to impact our lives God will often do it in ways that we never would have imagined.
All we have to do is to continue to make ourselves available to him…
Generation Now~Fall 2009
Generation Now~Acting Goofy as always
Trying to get everyone in a picture...
Finally we got everyone in...Connections Church teams up with Bethany Assemblies of God Church in Stamford CT for Fall Youth Camp!
