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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Journey Update

FUEL FOR NIGERIA. Join us for a special Fuel event this Friday (4/25), as our guests Tunde and Titi share about their work in Nigeria and how we can partner up with them to be the difference.

$7 BLESSING.
Also remember this month's challenge. Take $7 and meet a need. Come to Fuel this Friday to share how you used your $7 to be a blessing in someone's life.

SIDEWALK SUNDAY. We need your help this Sunday (4/27) to get the word out about the Journey and all we have to offer. All you have to do is smile, pass out a few brochures, and let young adults know there's a place for them at Centerpoint Church. If you can help at 8:50-9:20am, 10:10-10:40, 11:20-11:50, and/or at 5:45-6:15pm, please email Marla ASAP so that she can plan accordingly: marla@towardtruth.com.

Monday, April 21, 2008

The First Marathon and other historical factoids.

“Such is our love of freedom that we fight.”

Cyrus the Great became the King of Persia in 559 BC after which he conquered most of the Mediterranean. In turn that meant most of the subjects of his empire were not of Persian descent. The Persian Empire became the most powerful empire in the world and indeed the most powerful the world had ever seen. Persian rule was relatively light with all the benefits of the empire; it does not matter, because people hate being ruled by foreigners, and therefore it was fear that kept the subjects in line.

In 540 BC, Persia conquered Ionia, which was populated by Greeks. In 499 BC, the Ionians rose up in rebellion, knowing the limits of their power and the might of the Persians they asked their Greek brothers across a gulf of water for help. Unfortunately most of the Greek Polis’ were busy that weekend, however it just so happened that Athens and Eritrea were available to answer the call. Athens and Eritrea send Hoplites (Greek foot soldiers) and Naval Vessels to assist the Ionians.

In 494 the revolt fails and the Ionians are crushed. Darius I, who succeeded Cyrus, was bent on revenge. Darius understood that the empire was held together by the fear of his power. In 490 BC, Darius sends an army to Greece to punish Athens and Eritrea in order to remind everyone the extent of his power.

Twenty thousand soldiers arrive in Eritrea, the size of this army was nothing to the Persians but it was the biggest army the Greeks had ever laid their eyes on. Persia demands Eritrea’s surrender. Eritrea refuses. “Geography is destiny,” as someone once said. Eritrea is weak and has very little natural defenses. The Persians punish the Eritreans resistance by destroying the city (completely). The remaining citizens were displaced a 1000 miles east.

The Persian army leaves Eritrea and travels by Sea down the coast of Greece where they land at the city of Marathon. The Persians send a messenger from Marathon to Greece, which is a distance of 26 miles. The messenger declares that resistance is futile and demands the Athenian surrender.

In the Greek Polis, the soldiers were the citizens and as such the politicians. The citizens of Athens assemble and debate the course of action for which they must take. They send a messenger back, declaring that ‘we know your power is much greater than ours, but such is our love of freedom (eleutheria) that we will fight.”

After the assembly decided to fight, they go home, grab their armor and march out. They are not forced to fight but are fighting to defend their homes. In all, the Greeks number ten thousand (Persians have 20k, 2 to 1 odds) and they march out to confront their fate at the Battle of Marathon in 490BC.

To make a long story short the Athenians were victorious in a huge upset. In all, seven thousand Persians were slaughtered, whereas only one hundred and ninety-two Greeks fell. The freemen fighting to defend their homes were more motivated to fight then the subjugated Persian army.

After the battle the Athenians send a runner back to Athens, he runs the entire way, upon his arrival he shouts in great exuberance, “victory, victory, victory!” Then he dies, thus completing the first ever Marathon.

After the defeat, Darius imparts on a slave one job and one job only. Everyday this special slave was to remind Darius to punish the Athenians. Darius dies before he ever gets the chance, but his boy, Xerxes will not soon forget the loss they suffered at the hands of the Athenians.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Storyline Challenge: Numbers

Today (Thursday, April 17) we begin to read Numbers, the fourth book of the Bible, which picks up where Exodus leaves off at Mt. Sinai, and follows Israel’s forty years of wandering in the desert. It is the story of God’s faithfulness and compassion despite His people’s disobedience. It shows how God prepares His people to conquer the land He promised them through Abraham (in Genesis). In fact, the book—Numbers—gets its name from two main sections in chapters 1-2 and 26-27, each where a census is taken to determine the number of able-bodied warriors there were in Israel. There is also a genealogy of Aaron’s family and the Levites (those who performed priestly duties) in chapters 3-4, which is important because the book is also concerned with the purity of the people who offer proper worship to the Lord. The flow of the story may seem a bit random. But the big picture is that this Storyline book is the bridge between the Israelites being freed from Egyptian slavery (in Exodus) and conquering the Promised Land (in Joshua).

Take the Storyline Challenge and establish a personal habit of Bible reading by reading just one chapter a day. Here is our schedule:

April 13 – 19: Exodus 37-Numbers 3
April 20 – April 26: Numbers 4-10
April 27 – May 3: Numbers 11-17
May 4 – 10: Numbers 18-24
May 11 – 17: Numbers 25-31
May 18 – 24: Numbers 32 – Joshua 2

To learn more about the Storyline Challenge go to Bible.TowardTruth.com.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Thanks to The Journey!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. Everything has been crazy busy for me and Rex. We had to try to find a place to live, I've been looking for a job, trying to get through school, deal with having only one car, my choosing to volunteer with the preschoolers on Sunday mornings, and all other every day occurrences.

It has been a long road, but much of it has paid off. Rex and I found an apartment in Colton (5 1/2 blocks from church), and many Journey members helped us move! Thanks to everyone's help, we got moved in ONE DAY! Rex and I are so grateful to everyone who was there. We never could have done it without you guys and gals!

As far as school, it's going well. I should be done in August. I'm expecting to graduate in May, and as soon as I get all the details, all Journey members are invited to attend! It's going to be the first Saturday in May, but I'm not sure of the time. I also know it will be at Cal Baptist, so we know the location. I promise I will let everyone know what time the ceremony is! I hope you can all make it!

I still haven't been able to find a job, but now that Rex and I live in Colton, the car situation is much simpler, since it only takes 10 minutes to get to Rex's job. So, either I can take him to work in the morning if I need the car, or he can come home for lunch, and I can take him back to work so I can have the car. Or, if I don't need the car at all, he can just take it, and still be able to get home quickly, if I need anything.

Rex was okay with me deciding to volunteer on Sunday mornings. In fact, he took it better than I expected. He knows I love kids, and it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I knew that Jodie and Wandica used to do it, and Cristina is still doing it, so I wanted to do it too! The nice part about finally volunteering is, Cristina and I are both teaching during the 10:30 service, and she's in the room next to mine! I teach the 3 year olds, and she teaches the 4 year olds. I also get to see Regina and C.J. Hill in the big room for worship and storytime! It's great to be around so many other Journeyers!

Thanks to all of The Journey, for being part of our lives, and being so supportive in all of our endeavors. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives, and we look forward to many years with the group. We love you all!

Watch Expelled Friday night at 9:25pm!

Get tickets to join The Journey as we watch Expelled this Friday after FUEL: April 18, 2008, 9:25 at Edwards Ontario Palace Stadium 22.

Tickets are $10.50 for adults, $9.50 for students, or $11 online here.

Watch the original "super" trailer for Expelled now...


Read Relevant Magazine's review here.

Go to the Expelled website here.

The Journey gets expelled!



Watch EXPELLED with The Journey this Friday after FUEL.

The Journey Update

We have an action packed schedule for you in the next two weeks—blessings, Ben Stein, dodge ball, and being the difference!

$7 BLESSING - In case you missed FUEL on the 4th, we handed out $7 to everyone there, along with a challenge to meet a need or be a blessing to someone with that money and come back on April 25 to tell us how you used it. If you weren’t there, I would challenge you to take $7 of you own and think about how you can use it for others. Be creative. You may want to buy something that you can sell for more money. You could buy a card or a gift for someone who needs encouragement. You could buy lunch for someone on the street. You could donate to a ministry or missions organization. Or you could give an offering to Centerpoint Church. Remember, God blesses us with all we have in the first place. We’re just using a little bit of it to bless others in Him name.

GET EXPELLED WITH BEN STEIN – One of my professors got to see a prescreening of the documentary-style movie, “Expelled,” and said it was funny. That may be true, but there’s a lot more to it than that. In the movie, Ben Stein goes on a quest to find out why professors and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired for exploring evidence that there might be design in nature. Join us at the movies this Friday after Fuel (4/18) as we watch this entertaining expose of evolution. Bring money for your movie ticket.

REIGNING CHAMPIONS – The ATTIC (All The Truth In Christ), another youth and young adult ministry in Riverside, is hosting their 2nd Dodgeball Tournament this Saturday evening (4/19). Last time our team won the championship. This time we’re going to defend our title! If you want to join our team, email Paul (paul@towardtruth.com) immediately. We will meet at Centerpoint to carpool at 7pm.

TUNDE & FRIENDS AT FUEL – Next Friday, April 25, at Fuel, we will have special guests, Tunde and Titi, sharing about their plans for ministry in Nigeria this summer and how we can help. Tunde and Friends Ministries mission and outreach to Nigeria includes free medical screening, disability awareness in churches and communities, providing wheelchairs, building ramps to make churches wheelchair accessible, introducing Disabled Students Services programs to the colleges and universities, and "True Love Waits" services for local churches. You will not want to miss this great time of fellowship and partnership. Fuel starts at 7pm in the Student Ministries Building; or come early for dinner at 6pm.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Autism Walk 2008

Autism Walk 2008
By Jessica Cox

As most of you know I have a couple of things that I am one hundred percent passionate about. One of them is autism.

Last fall, the agency that I work for decided to host our first annual Walk for Autism to benefit the Coachella Valley Autism Society of America (CVASA). We set out to have 250 walkers and raise 25,000 dollars. We knew it would be a huge task but thought that with hard work (and prayer as far as I was concerned) we would be able to pull it off. As we got closer to the date, we started looking for people and groups to volunteer and to walk in the walk. That's when the Journey began....

I first approached Shawn about forming a group for the walk of people from the Journey. Little did I know that my "favorite" employee and, more importantly, my friend was ahead of me. She formed a team and started recruiting people like crazy. Later, we needed some signs made for the walk itself and my boss suggested that the young adult group from my church make the signs. So one late night after Fuel, some very dedicated and creative young adults made approximately 25 signs. They were beautiful. Even the brown donations sign.

The day of the walk approached and my coworkers and I had tried to think of every possible crazy thing that could go wrong. The night before the walk we had to close online registration because we already had 516 people signed up. We were freaking out. I was praying.

The day arrived and we were up early. Well, I slept through my alarm but I still was up at 5:45. On a Saturday. But I digress. We started setting up and prepared for an awesome day.

And it was.

People started arriving at the walk and we were continually blown away as we kept seeing more and more people arrive. Journeyers arrived and started to congregate in the middle of the lawn. Soon, my boss approached the Journeyers and asked if they would be willing to stand along the walk route and direct traffic and encourage the walkers. They willingly volunteered and were quite enthusiastic along the route.

At the end of the day, nothing had gone terribly wrong, which was good. But the best part was, we raised 34,000 dollars and had approximately 600 walkers. It was amazing! Seeing so many people out, united for such an important cause was fantastic.

The best part for me was after the walk, my boss approached me and said how grateful she was for the people from the Journey that helped out along the walk. It was really awesome to know that the Journey came together to help people that they didn't necessarily know and didn't necessarily have to help. Not only that, but it made a difference in the lives of the kiddos that I love and the people that I work with. I try to be a light in my workplace in everything that I do, and with the help of the people of the Journey (whom I love so so so so so much!) the lives of my coworkers have been touched.

Look out for Autism Walk 2009!!!!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Holy Scripture, Part 3 - Ignorance, Blindness and Vice

"Nothing more obscures Christ and the glory of God, nor induces more blindness and all kinds of vices than does the ignorance of God’s word. If we profess Christ, why are we not ashamed to be ignorant in his doctrine, seeing that every man is ashamed to be ignorant in that learning which he professes? That man is ashamed to be called a philosopher who reads not the books of philosophy; or to be called a lawyer or an astronomer or a physician, that is ignorant in the books of law, astronomy, and physic. Now can any man then say that he professes Christ and his religion if he will not apply himself (as far as he can or may conveniently) to read and hear and so to know the books of Christ’s gospel and doctrine? Although other sciences are good and to be learned, yet no man can deny that this is the chief and passes all others incomparably. What excuse shall we therefore make (at the last day, before Christ) if we delight to read or hear men’s fantasies and inventions more than his most holy gospel, and will find no time to do that which chiefly (above all things) we should do, and will rather read other things than that for which we ought rather to leave reading of all other things. Let us therefore apply ourselves, as far as we can have time and leisure, to know God’s word, by diligent hearing and reading thereof, as many as profess God and have faith and trust in him."

* Taken from A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1547)


STORYLINE CHALLENGE READING SCHEDULE

Sunday, April 13, Exodus 37
Monday, April 14, Exodus 38
Tuesday, April 15, Exodus 39
Wednesday, April 16, Exodus 40
Thursday, April 17, Numbers 1
Friday, April 18, Numbers 2
Saturday, April 19, Numbers 3

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Everyone needs a good study Bible.

Listening to Dane speak on Sunday served to further my resolve to exhort us all to establish a habit of Bible reading this year. There will be various issues we discuss at Fuel and in our various groups, but always with the goal of developing a biblical perspective and living out biblical principles. If there's one thing I hope to accomplish this year is that everyone in The Journey will have established a regular, second-nature habit of reading the Bible.

If you are reading this right now and you haven't laid this important foundation yet, start reading the Old Testament book of Numbers with us starting, Thursday, April 17.

In his sermon, Dane recommended the NIV Study Bible. I totally agree that a study Bible is the best all-in-one resource for reading and understanding the Bible. But there are other good ones out there as well. Let me introduce you to a few of them...

NIV Study Bible - $19 (softcover)
This one does have it all: study notes, concordance, cross-references, maps, topical reference. It is a good study Bible in a classic modern translation. My only problem with it has been that it usually does not have a satisfying explanation for the truly difficult passages. If you want a good, all-purpose study Bible, look no further.

TNIV Study Bible - $20 (softcover)
I haven't used this one yet, but I do primarily use this translation for my sermons. It has the same features as the NIV Study Bible with an updated look and the updated version of the NIV translation called, Today's New International Version (TNIV). If you want an updated version of a good, all-purpose study Bible, this is the one.

The Quest Study Bible - $27 (hardcover)
I have never used or owned this one, but I have always wanted to. It has all the cool stuff the NIV and TNIV Study Bibles have, but it specializes in answering questions. The study notes are all in Q & A format. So, when questions pop into your head as you're reading, this study Bible has already anticipated your question and has an answer. If you are the inquisitive type, this might be the one for you.

Life Application Study Bible - $15 (paperback)
I have not used this one myself. But I have had trusted friends use this study Bible to great benefit and encouragement. It comes in just about any translation. I would personally choose the New Living Translation (NLT) with this particular Bible. If you are less interested in theology and mostly want some pratical insight about how to live out what you're reading, this is the one for you.

The New Spirit-Filled Life Bible - $53 (genuine leather)
When I was in high school, my campus pastor gave me this Bible as a gift. Regrettably, I lost the original. But the replacement has been a cherished resource for many years. It has all the good stuff of a study Bible (commentary notes, cross-references, maps, concordance), plus amazing articles on worship, healing, prayer, praise, end times, God's will, and the power of the Spirit. It is edited by one of my pastoral hereos, Jack Hayford. The only downside is the reliable, but less readable New King James Version (NKJV). If you are looking for a study Bible that presents a theologically balanced charismatic perspective, this is it.

The Apologetics Study Bible - $27 (hardcover)
I got this one for Christmas. Cristina and I have been using it to read the Storyline Challenge. It features the very readable Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) translation and many notes and articles answering questions about hard to understand passages and objections to the faith, some written by professors of mine at Biola. If you want to confidently defend the faith against rival religious, cultural, scientific, ethical, and philosophical views, this is a good place to start.

TNIV College Devotional Bible - $20 (softcover)
Okay, it's not a study Bible, but it is for college-aged young adults. So if you think you might benefit for a Bible that features stories that connect the scripture with your everyday life, this is the one for you.

I have provided links to the least expensive version of each of the study Bibles at ChristianBook.com. Most of them come in softcover, hardcover, bonded leather, genuine leather or Italian leather, in various colors. They are available at most bookstores, like Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.

For those of you in need of a good study Bible, it may be time to put some of your tax refund/rebate to use! There really is no better tool for helping you understand the Bible as you read.

Friday, April 4, 2008

The Journey Update



Today we begin our new FUEL series on a topic that I know is near and dear to many a young adult heart: MONEY! Do you have any? How can you get some? What are you supposed to do with it? We will be discussing these questions and more. So bring a friend and your kids (if you’re a parent, that is... remember, we have childcare) and be a part of one of the best young adult worship gatherings in the Inland Empire! Worship starts at 7pm in the Student Ministries Building on the corner of La Cadena and F Street in Colton. Or come early for dinner at 6pm.

Also, let me remind you two things…

First, we have plenty of insight and encouragement to fuel your daily journey at TowardTruth.com, including the entire MP3 audio series—“What if there is no god?”—now available to download. You can also read our new blog, called “I.E.”

Second, I want to encourage you to keep going in your commitment to read the Bible, particularly if you have been reading a chapter a day of the STORYLINE CHALLENGE with us. I know it can be difficult sometimes. (Just tonight, Cristina and I had to read 5 chapters to catch up.) But there is no doubt that developing this habit of simply reading God’s Word will be a source of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that will bear fruit in all areas of your life. If you want to start fresh, you can get a head start on the book of Numbers, which we will begin on April 17. But for now, here is the reading schedule for next week:

Sunday, April 6 – Exodus 30
Monday, April 7 – Exodus 31
Tuesday, April 8 – Exodus 32
Wednesday, April 9 – Exodus 33
Thursday, April 10 – Exodus 34
Friday, April 11 – Exodus 35
Saturday, April 12 – Exodus 36

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

What if there is no god... for your Ipod!

The Journey is now Fuelcasting the entire March series: “What if there is no god?”

You can listen to the Fuelcast at TowardTruth.com, or simply click on the links below…

Part 1: There is No Meaning
Part 2: There Is No Freedom
Part 3: There Is No Hope
Part 4: What Happened After God’s Funeral?

Join us in April as we ask the question: “Where is your heart?”