Purity Month - Starting Soon

The fall season is underway and its time to study what the Bible says about sexual purity. Starting October 11th the Jr. High and High School students will meet separately to discuss God’s design for sex and teaching the importance of remaining pure until and even after marriage.

The discussions of sexual purity will include conversations about such topics as abstinence, entertainment choices, pornography, dating, marriage, lust, fantasy, creating healthy boundaries, masturbation and the purpose of sex. Not only do students need to have these conversations and understand what the Bible says about our sexual purity, but they need to understand why sexual purity is important.

Here’s an outline of the Jr. High Sexual Purity Series
- October 11th – “Commercialized Sex” (Sex in the Media/Culture)
- October 18th – “Distorted Sex” (Homosexuality)
- October 25th – “Flirting with Sex” (How Far is Too Far?)
- November 1st – “Godly Sex” (Dating and Marriage)
- November 7th and 8th – Purity Ceremony in Main Auditorium

Remember, to conclude Purity Month we honor and celebrate the students’ decision to live in purity by having them participate in a purity ceremony during one of the services on the weekend of November 7th and 8th.

This year we’re trying something new in that each week there will be a corresponding worksheet for each student to complete. These worksheets will have activities to complete, questions to answer, Bible verses to read and memorize, and hot topics to have conversations with friends and family members. These simple worksheets are included to ensure comprehension of why sexual purity is important and understanding why they want to make this commitment.

Expectations for Purity Month Participants
- Attend all 4 weeks
- Complete all 4 corresponding worksheets
- Purchase a purity ring (Available at Christian bookstores or local jeweler)
- Attend Purity Ceremony at one of the three weekend services

Please let me know if you're interested in participating this year.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I’d also like to remind you that you will be able to hear all of the Jr. High Purity Month messages for free on our iTunes Podcast. http://www.tinyurl.com/uturnpodcast

May God bless you and your family during this season.

Sean and April Nault
Jr. High Pastors

seann@eastsidechurch.org

425-488-2500 ext. 336

Popping the Christian Bubble

We recently have been discussing six stereotypes that people outside of the church have about Christians. Our series entitled, Warped Christianity: Bringing Jesus Back into Focus, is based upon the book unChristian. We’ve discussed how nonChristians perceive Christians to be hypocritical, anti-homosexual, judgmental, pushy about conversions, too political and sheltered.

This last Wednesday we chatted about how Christians are seen as sheltered. People view Christ followers as old-fashioned, traditional, and out of touch with reality. The perception is that the church is looking out into the world and running away from all of its “moral filth and evil.” In our fear we encapsulate ourselves in only what seems godly and righteous and we shun anything that doesn’t fit our high moral standards. This sheltered mentality is evident in the church’s attempts at creating “family friendly” or “safe alternatives” to social norms of our culture. Just look at Godspace or Godtube; we are running away from the things our society is creating and trying to make cheap replicas that are Christ oriented.

When I look at Jesus he wasn’t running around teaching people to take the latest social trends and copy them into more godly alternatives. He was teaching people to go and show the unconditional love of God where it needs it the most. If anything he was against people creating little “holy huddles” or “Christian bubbles.”

Examples of Jesus challenging us to break up the holy huddles:
Matthew 5:13-16
Matthew 9:9-14
Matthew 28:19-20
Acts 1:7-8

Obviously there is a balance to be made, we need solid godly friendships that can support us and challenge us in our relationship with God. I believe we all need that sort of godly network or community of fellow Christ followers. What I am against is us getting so comfortable in our exclusive Christian clubs that we neglect to go spend time with people that need Jesus the most. Jesus didn’t just spend time with people that lived righteous and holy lives. In fact he was so UNSHELTERED that the sinners and outcasts of society were drawn to him. They pursued and sought out his company, and yet Jesus didn’t make moral compromises.

So to break this stereotype of Christians being sheltered we must be committed to living lives of purity and holiness, but we also must put ourselves out there and spend time with people outside of the church. We’ve got to stop retreating from or getting defensive about everything we disagree with. Instead we must start be proactive about bringing the unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness of God in tangible ways. Instead of making Faithbook, use your Facebook account to encourage someone or reach out to someone feeling isolated. Rather than complaining about the use of foul language in your schools, start showing respect to your peers and faculty or maybe start randomly texting encouragements to your friends. In place of commenting on the sexual promiscuity of our culture, take a stand and keep your thoughts, words and actions sexually pure or try to raise money and awareness about the sex slave industry running rampant in our culture.

Challenge yourself to get out of your holy huddle this week and show the love of God in a tangible way.

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Don't Miss Out

A Biblical Lesson from Guitar Hero

The other night I was at home playing Guitar Hero: World Tour with my wife, April, and throughout the evening I was getting throttled. It doesn’t matter how often I’ve played a particular song she will beat me. We can both get 98% of the notes right, but she’ll get a longer streak of correct notes and beat me by 10,000 points. After losing 5 or 6 songs in a row I started to notice a trend. As I was playing I noticed myself occasionally looking over onto her side of the screen and watching how she was playing. Whenever I got Star Power or a 50 note streak I would quickly look at her screen to see if she had achieved the same accomplishment. These continual and frantic analyses lead to the suffering of my performance. Whenever I shifted my focus and began comparing my skills to hers I would make mistakes and miss notes. My pride and boasting of my quick accomplishments lead to comparisons which eventually lead to my demise.

Obviously this is just a silly game, and I’m proud to admit my wife is better at playing videogames than I am; but as I was playing I was reminded of a biblical proverb.

Proverbs 16:18
“First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”
(Translation: The Message)

The more I thought about this I not only thought that it clearly depicted my Guitar Hero play, but it can also describe our lives. So often we go through life comparing ourselves to others. We filter through thousands of criteria – hair style, clothing, stores we shop at, music we listen to, TV shows we watch, color of paint on our bedroom walls, tattoos on our bodies, social cliques we’re a part of, sports we play, hobbies we enjoy, the way we laugh, how we walk, and much much more. We are continually judging people and critiquing their appearance, their interests and who they are so that we can see how they’d fit within our status quo.

The tough reality that I’ve come to realize is that every time I compare myself to someone I’m belittling God’s creation. If I compare myself to an individual and think they’re amazing, then I’ll make them the golden standard and the evaluation of my self is going to look inferior. I will start belittling myself and hating who I am because I don’t measure up to that individual. On the other hand if I compare myself to someone and they don’t measure up to my standards then I begin to degrade them. I get prideful and begin to look condescendingly upon that person as if they were inferior to me because of the way they dress, their athletic ability or their intellect.

In all reality, who are we to honestly evaluate and judge others. As Jesus says, in Matthew 7, we have our own issues and flaws and that gives me no right to point a finger at someone or make a quick comparison about their character or identity.

Nothing good is going to happen when we start comparing ourselves to other people. This applies to all facets of life – on our sports teams, in the classroom, within our homes and families, within the church or even as we’re playing Guitar Hero.