CollegeLife

Hey Folks

Here are some awesome pics from our Halloween edition of CollegeLife, taken by our very own Loc (who came dressed as a tourist photographer-fitting).

 we had indians

doctors, princesses /Audrey Hepburn,

nuns, cowboys, static cling

sumo/marshmellow man

gameboy and ipod

and Jack Skellington- as we talked about the Christian response to death!  I PROMISE we did not plan to talk about death on the Sunday we had a Halloween party! Ask Greg Bock, he wouldn’t lie. 

This is just a small sampling of the outfits, stayed tuned for more later.

See you this weekend as we wrap up our 3 part series on the Sanctity of Life.

Happy Halloween.

So you won’t want to miss the Halloween addition of CollegeLife.  Same time and same place- 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Clubhouse, but this week you have to dress up in your Halloween Costume!  Be creative! A box of cereal, a flashlight, thumbtack…  Hope to see you there. 

Also we will be continuing in our 3 part series led by Greg Bock on the Sanctity of Life.  If you missed the first week you missed some great discussion on abortion, the beginning of life and our Christian response to them all.  I really hope you can make it this week.

The grim reaper might not be a bad costume as we talk about the end of life this week!

Go Vols beat S. Carolina.

A little calendar update for ya:

There will not be at UT vs. Alabama tailgate this weekend Sorry, just a bit much going on this weekend.  So grab your friends and head to Gatti’s buffet and watch it.  I mean honestly, who doesn’t love Gattis!?

And this weekend CollegeLife is back.  After a week off for Fall break we are back in the saddle.  So grab a friend and head out to CollegeLife at 7pm on Sunday night at Greenbrier Ridge.

Money. it is necessary. it is powerful. it is tricky. it is deceiving. there is not enough.

it seems that we always say, “if i had “X” amount of money i’d be fine”. the problem is we know people with “that” amount of money and they don’t seem fine. so what are we to do?

In collegelife this week we talked about how Jesus tells a story about a shrewd (practical, sharp) manager, who takes his limited amount of time and leverages it for maximum impact/influence.  So as college students, who have limited resources and limited time, will we leverage what little we have for maximum impact?

Jesus says people of this world are shrewd in dealing with their time and money, and people of the light (Christians) should do the same. (Luke 16) Money is a tool and one day it WILL be gone (Luke 16:9), so how will you use it now? For yourself, new stuff, or will you choose to use your limited resources and leverage it for others?

Are we saying everything should go to Africa or inner city? No, but we are saying, how much more of an impact could $10 a month do for a child in a 3rd world country or the local church, than your venti, no fat, sugarfree vanilla, double pump caramel machiatto latte. 

$$- it’s clearly a big issue, Jesus talks about it a lot. Do you?

Everything is God’s and He’s given you some to manage, what kind of manager are you being?

Go buy a coffee and think about it.

So we wrapped up our “The Way I see it” series last night. We continued to see that Joseph is the ultimate example of living like he was confident that God was with him.  Even in the midst of having all the power, he did not take it out on his brothers!? Instead of paying them back, he forgives them- it’s sort of crazy!

But the question remains for me and you- how will we live this week?  Will we leave in our circumstances, or will we let our faith guide us through our circumstances?  No matter how good or bad, will we live like we are certain God is with us?

The way I see it…I’m confident God is with me!

 See you round.

This week we talked about if there has ever been anyone who had the right to say, “God has left me!” it was Joseph.  He was favored by his dad (not his fault), had dreams that were given by God (not his fault), and told his brothers about those dreams (maybe he should have kept his mouth shut, but still).  So because of this his brothers strip him, sell him into slavery, his boss gets wealthy because of HIS faithfulness, he’s thrown into prison for being faithful to God and not sleeping with Potiphar’s wife, he interprets some other dreams for the cupbearer and the baker and to wrap it up- he’s forgotten by the cupbearer!

If we were writing a “Way I see it” for Joseph we would have to say something like “The Way I see it…”

- God has forgotten me

- God has abandoned me

- God doesn’t care about me

But all we know about Joseph was God was with him!?  Just read the story- Genesis 37-40. God is constantly with Joseph? It doesn’t sound like a story we would write, but it says that God was WITH Him.

Joseph is the ultimate example that really the way we see things doesn’t really matter, because God might be up to something behind the scenes that we can’t even imagine.  A story much bigger than us, a story much grander than us, a story that in the midst of it we don’t understand but in the end we see it’s a God size story.  So what would our lives look like if we really believed that God was with us?  How would it change our circumstances to believe that in the midst of it all, God was there? How would this change, “the way I see it?”

This week at CollegeLife week talked about how whether we like it or not our circumstances have a huge impact on us.  One person doesn’t show up at a movie, he/she doesn’t call back, you get a raise…all these little changes in circumstance can have a huge impact on us.

The problem comes when we take this idea of the power of circumstance and apply it to God! We start thinking things like, “Dad got cancer, God must be mad” “I got a raise God must really love me” “I passed without studying, Thanks God!”

The truth is our circumstances cannot have an impact on our view of God, rather our view of God should have a complete impact on our circumstances.  Just look over Psalm 13 and look at how in the midst of a crazy life David says he can “trust” in the Lord. Wow.

 So we’re putting it to the test THIS Saturday.  UT vs. FL!  We’ll be watching the UT Game on the huge screen in the high school room at church.  So bring a friend, wear some orange and be ready to have a great time.  The game starts at 3:30pm so feel free to get there a little early for pregame and we’ll have snacks and drinks. Here’s your ticket, you’re invited to a great day of football.

 See you Saturday and Sunday!

So Labor Day is over, the fireworks have exploded and it’s back to the grind.  Don’t forget that CollegeLife is back this Sunday @ 7pm at Greenbrier.

We are starting a new series entitled, The Way I See It (based off of the Starbucks cups). We are going to talk about how our circumstances often affect our faith and skew our view. See you there.

This is it! The first Sunday Night CollegeLife!

 I hope you can make it out Sunday Night @ 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments Clubhouse- imagine a Starbucks, but with more space!

 This Sunday the lesson is titled, “Imagine…”  What would our lives look like if we thought about others the way Christ does?  What would our churches look like if we treated the “sinners” the same way Jesus did? can you imagine?

See you Sunday @7pm.

And don’t forget on Monday at 6:30pm before Crossroad we will have a free pizza dinner to find out more about CollegeLife this semester.  There is a facebook event you can go join to tell us you will be there.

Thanks

Thanks to all who came out to the Pool.Movie.Cookout party at the Neely’s house last night.  There was swimming, food, and the movie Hitch for everyone to enjoy.  Again, be sure to check us out next week at our new location and time.  We will meet on Sunday Nights at 7pm at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments Clubhouse (directions are in Direction section of the webpage).  We hope to see you all there!