Thursday, January 22, 2009

Movie Review: Marley & Me

Marley and Me is a delightful film about a young married couple that gets a young puppy. The dog definitely adds life and energy to their home as well as chaos and destruction. As they deal with life issues such as employment, pregnancy, and buying a home you get to see how they handle these issues and how having a crazy dog like Marley can be a part of life's adventures.

There were some sexual jokes and bits of language that could have been avoided, but this is definitely a great family film with many moments for laughter and even tears. I found myself wondering why I was crying in a movie about a dog, but the story seemed so believable that you find yourself attached to the characters, even if one of them is a dog.
FINAL REVIEW:

I would summarize this movie as Old Yeller for this generation.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

What are you Chasing




For 4 weeks at Uturn on Wednesday Nights we're asking what we chase in life? What is our top priority? What defines us and our identity?

  • Money?
  • Stuff/Materialism?
  • Reputation/Popularity?
  • Wisdom?
  • God's will?
  • Grades/School?
  • A good time?
  • Dating?
We're looking at Solomon's wisdom that he passed down to us through the book of Ecclesiastes. As we do this we're seeing that as we focus on God and wrap our lives around Jesus the other details of life tend to work out.


WANT MORE? Check out the Downloadable Study Guides for further reading on the book of Ecclesiastes.


Click here to check out our Ecclesiastes Series student interviews and recap videos on YouTube

Prayer Requests and Answers to Prayer

Here's a great spot for anyone to post...

How can we be praying for you?

How has God answered your prayer lately?


This is a great way to allow people the chance to partner with you thru prayer and also allow us to celebrate God's victories of your situations.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Seize the Year

Its a new year full of new possibilities and fresh starts. If we were to honestly ask ourselves I think we would all agree that we want 2009 to be memorable and life changing, as oppose to just another year that we float through without any real purpose, goals or reasons.

In a letter to the church of Ephesus Paul was writing an encouragement for the church not to sit back waiting for things to happen or even just to passively expect God to transform lives.

Ephesians 5:15-17
“So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

The Greek word used in the phrase making the most of every opportunity is a commercial word used in the marketplace that represents buying things up quickly or snatching them up. We can see that Paul is saying, don't sit back and expect the goodness of God to be shown around the world. You've got to take action. He's calling for Christ followers who would no longer be spectators with their faith, but now doers and people of action. We carry a responsibility of showing God's love to mankind through practical means. The problem is that we tend to only do this when its convenient and planned. Paul is reminding us to make every moment an opportunity to do good. He's saying we need to seize the day, seize the moment, seize the now. No longer can we sit back waiting for the future to happen, saying to ourselves, "I can't wait until..."

We've got to be a church body that looks at their present moment and says to themselves, "how can I do good right now?" This could be a wide variety of moments that we would ordinarily ignore or forget about, but now we want to make these once "disposable" moments into unforgettable and life changing moments.

So the next time you're stuck in traffic, waiting in line at a store, walking to your next class, doing the dishes or you've got 10 minutes to kill - ask yourself, "How can I make this an opportunity to do good?"