Pictures: AlexFest 2010

"AlexFest 2010" was a local event at Jim Warren Park in June that occurs annually in remembrance of a 13-year-old skater named Alex LeVasseur who died tragically on Sunday, January 28, 2007. For more information, pictures, and how to get involved next year, please visit the site: http://www.rememberalex.com/. A couple of us went to the event for an hour to check out the live music and a few church members volunteered to help with parking overflow. I hope we can get more involved next year as a congregation.

Pictures: Scallywag the WFBC Student Mascot

Emily and James were working @ the church and saw a curious beaver wandering around outside. He hid under Jen's car until we chased him back to his underground lair. He is the fastest beaver I've ever seen, and he is our adopted mascot. "Ladies and Gentlemen...boys and girls of all ages...without further ado...we give you...the great...the magnificent...the scruffy?...SCALLYWAG!!!"

Pictures: Cosmic Bowling 2010

We had a cook out at Pastor Emeritus Jim and Val Harvey's house, played games, sung songs, and had a devotion on their back porch, and went cosmic bowling until 1:30am. We had a blast!! Enjoy the pics.

Pictures: Sudanese Outreach 2010

Over the course of the Spring semester and part of summer 2010, we served Millcreek Baptist Church in working with their Sudanese immigrant youth. Many of the youth are from Sudan, Congo, Zambia, and Kenya. We enjoyed singing worship songs, studying the Bible, and playing games with these kids and young adults.

Your Heart = What Kind of Soil?

Wednesday, we studied Mark 4:1-20. You will find in that passage a famous parable taught by Jesus Christ concerning our openness to God.

Scripture describes four kinds of hearts. #1: Hearts totally closed to God. #2: Hearts momentarily open to God. #3: Hearts lukewarm to God. #4: Hearts hungry for God.

The heart that is closed to God belongs to the kind of person who is familiar with Bible teaching and finds it boring and unhelpful. This person never changes. The heart that is momentarily open to God belongs to a person who gets emotional and super-spiritual during a Sunday service and then goes out to live an ungodly lifestyle. The heart that is lukewarm towards God belongs to a person who lives a defeated Christian life: they know the Truth, but they do not let the power of God's Spirit transform their thoughts, spoken words, and actions. The heart that is hungry for God belongs to very few people who receive God's Word, believe it, and reach out to others with the goal of helping them become hungry for God as well. The last group of people are the ones about whom other people ask, "What is so different about them?"

Here's the challenge: In the movie Facing Giants, the main football coach is living a defeated lifestyle, and his football team loses all the time: a reflection of his attitude and his low expectations of himself. Some parents get together and try to get the assistant football coach to pull a "Caesar must die," and get him fired. The football coach finds out, and he confronts his assistant with a challenge. He tells him to stop "sitting on the fence," choose a side, and stick with his decision. That is the challenge God has set before our student ministry at West Franklin Baptist Church. We cannot be lukewarm in our faith. We cannot live a lukewarm life. Read Revelation 3:16 for yourself and find out what Jesus thinks about lukewarm Christians.

Let us wake up spiritually, and start serving God by working together and reaching out to the friends of our social network. Everyone knows that having "friends" on Facebook does not mean that all of them are REAL friends. That is why we have to "like" everything now instead of joining a group or taking a side. Well, God is not a God of tolerance. He says, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No man comes to the Father except through me." My young friend, decide what kind of soil your heart REALLY is and then ask God to help you be like the soil that produces a harvest for God. He will help us if we first repent, believe, and ask Him to change us. I am praying for you.

-James