jared parker bell

Update for the 25 Hour Famine

jaredparkerbell — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:52:39 +0000

To my crew: The famine/lock-in is extended to you guys, too. It’s not only for the youth. I’ll be there. I hope you are, too. Check it out on the Events Page. Let me know what you think.

Day 2

jaredparkerbell — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:44:34 +0000

Okay, so you guys got off the hook a little bit because I went out of town and didn’t get on the internet. We’re still going to do a week’s worth. It’s the same drill. Refer to the previous post for instructions.

Read John 15:1-17

Pray for The Living Vine in Savannah, GA. Pray first for the staff. Pray that don’t lose sight of their mission. Pray that God gives them the the wisdom and the heart to be able to meet the needs of the girls there.

Pray for the girls. Pray that they tear down the walls they’ve put up around their hearts and allow God to come in and change their lives. Pray that they learn to see themselves the way God sees them (like this).

Pray for an After-Care House. They really need it.

Pray that people will reach out to help meet the needs of the ministry there.

Pray a prayer of praise for all the wonderful things that God has done through the ministry of the Living Vine. Hell will be less crowded because of them.

The Challenge

jaredparkerbell — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:05:18 +0000

Anyone who wants to participate is welcome. This week, the college/career/young adult class at BFBC will be engaging in a week of prayer. Each day there will be a new topic to pray about. We discussed in class Wednesday night, how to pray. The instructions can be found HERE. Please feel free to leave comments or questions.

(btw: the words in green are links for you to click on)

Day 1: PRAY FOR OUR GROUP

Read Acts 4:23-31

Pray that our group will remain focused on seeking the heart of God and His will in our lives (seekers is a possible new name for our group). Pray that God will open our minds to the way he wants to use us to impact this world for Him. Pray that we will be conscious of the fact that we are always representing Him to a lost and hurting world that needs His love. The thief came to destroy, Jesus came to give life (Read it HERE.) Pray that we will realize that church is essential to our lives (Read THIS). Pray we continually grow in our faith and never fail to pray and read the Word every day.

Go in your room, shut the door, and spend this time focused on talking to God. He’s listening.

Why does the world hate Christians?

jaredparkerbell — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:32:07 +0000

Someone asked me this question, and I ended up using it as our topic in our college group meeting last Wednesday night. I’ve been promising to put it up here, so here it is.

Why does the world hate Christians? and as a follow up: As Christians, should we do anything about it, and if so, what?

1. Jesus said they would hate us because they hated him first.

John 15:17-19 In this passage, Jesus says, “as it is, you do not belong to the world.” That leads to the question, Who do you belong to?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ”You are not your own.” Okay, so we see that you do not belong to yourself.
John 3:30-32 We know we do not belong to the earth, and neither does Jesus.
John 8:34-36 We have been set free from belonging to the earth.
Romans 1:5-6 We now belong to Christ: Romans 7:4-5, Romans 14:7-9
What does it mean to belong? Galatians 5:24-25 We have crucified the sinful nature – it is dead. When Christ died on the cross, sin died with him. The difference is that Christ came back – sin did not. Our sinful nature has been killed. We are free. We now live by the spirit.
1 John 3:18-20 It says we belong to the truth. Jesus is The Truth (John 14:6). Our actions are how we know we are in truth. Not simply our words.

RECAP:

The world hates Christians because Jesus said they would. When Jesus says something, you can expect it to happen. Why did so many people follow him around? They knew that when he spoke, something was going to happen. They expected it. We can expect it, too. So it should come as no surprise to us that the world hates Christians. If we belonged to the world, it would love us as its own, but we do not belong to the world. Jesus has chosen us out of the world and that is why the world hates us.

· Who do we belong to?

· We no longer belong to ourselves. We no longer belong to the earth.

· We were freed from belonging to the earth. In this freedom is the abundant life that Jesus promises (John 10:10). We can enjoy this because we aren’t weighed down by our separation from God – which is sin. The essence of sin is wanting to be God. If we’re trying to be God, we are separated from him. We have been freed from this separation.

· We now belong to Jesus Christ.

· What does it mean to belong?

· We live by the Spirit and we show love with our actions.

Summation: It’s okay that the world hates Christians. It is unavoidable. Our job is to share the good news and to live out our faith. The good news is that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17). Jesus didn’t come to hate them back. He came to save them. We are not to hate the world back because they hate us, we are to share the good news about Jesus with them and to show them love with our actions.

2. They don’t understand what we’re all about. People fear the unknown. They don’t get it, so they become scared of it. Fear leads to hatred. Proverbs 1

3. Some have had a negative experience with a church or Christians. Romans 14:12-13 Don’t ever let your own selfish attitude stand in the way of someone else knowing who Jesus is.

4. Christians aren’t acting like Christians. This is two problems. (1)We don’t look different than non-Christians, and (2) it’s hypocritical. Why would anyone want to know about Jesus if his followers act just as horribly as everyone else in the world? Colossians 3:1-17

The real issue isn’t whether or not people hate Christians. The goal isn’t to be well-liked, or simply not-hated. The goal is for more souls to know the love and freedom in a relationship with God that is found in salvation through Jesus Christ. So if you’re a Christian, some people will hate you, but don’t sweat it – they hated Jesus first. Just make sure that your actions point people toward Jesus instead of pushing them away from him.

FREE MUSIC

jaredparkerbell — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:45:30 +0000

I wanted to share this with everyone. These artists have been kind enough to allow free downloads of their new albums in hopes growing their fan-base and spreading the love. Click on the image to go the site to download the music.

The Phil Wickham album entitled Singalong is a live recording of an acoustic set of praise songs. It will make you wish you were there.

All of these are for everyone, but I think the ladies will especially like JJ Heller.

An awesome solo album by Derek Webb. He’s also the lead singer of Caedmon’s Call.

I promise you’ll enjoy at least one of these. (this promise does not come with a money-back guarantee as this music is free) I love them all.

Sept. 6 Youth Rally

jaredparkerbell — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:03:31 +0000

Me in the Clemson Orange and Aaron in the M.A.D. Youth Blue

The Youth Rally at Big Stevens Creek Church was great. We had about 20 from our church in attendance. David Sons (Middle School Minister at FBC North Augusta) delivered a great message. He talked about our bodies being a temple and how we often overlook the gravity or magnitude of that idea. When Solomon built the temple, no expense was spared. They built it to be the absolute best it could be. The effort placed in the construction was to bring glory to how great God is. The temple was the place where heaven and earth met. We are to be the place where heaven and earth meet. Our actions are to reflect the joy we have because of the love in us that is through Jesus Christ.

T-Shirt Prototype

jaredparkerbell — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:28:56 +0000

One way we’ll be raising funds for the Savannah trip is through the sale of these t-shirts. I haven’t had them made yet, but this is the design. The shirt says Team Elohim across the chest. Elohim is the Hebrew word for God. It is the word used in the creation story at the beginning of Genesis. The interesting thing about this word is that it is a plural word (you may have heard cherubim, which is the plural of cherub. the -im makes it plural in Hebrew). When this word- this plural word for God- is used, it is used in a singular context. So Elohim is one and more than one at the same time. I think the use of this word is a beautiful representation of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Underneath TEAM ELOHIM on the shirt is Matt. 12:30. The idea is simple. It’s a statement of where you stand. The hope is that whenever you wear this shirt, you’ll remember to live in a way that represents Christ.

I haven’t decided yet if we will go with MOSS GREEN(the darker) or STONEWASHED GREEN(the lighter). I realize there is little difference between the two, but I want to choose the right one. Please comment on which one you like better. Also please let me know if you’re going to want one, and what size you will want. I don’t have the price yet, but it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $12-$15. Thoughts? Comments? Sizes? Questions?

It’s a Date

jaredparkerbell — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:37:04 +0000

We’ve confirmed the weekend of October 11th as the date of the trip to The Living Vine in Savannah. I need to know who is going and the earliest time you’ll be able to leave. I’ll have more info as this progresses. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities.

Also…

ATTENTION YOUTH!!! REMEMBER TO GET YOUR PERMISSION SLIPS SIGNED FOR THE YOUTH RALLY THIS SATURDAY.

See if you recognize that fella

jaredparkerbell — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:13:02 +0000

This is a video made by Jennifer @ Lifeway about Collegiate Week 2008 at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Ridgecrest, NC. The tag-line under my name should read Bath First Baptist Church, SC instead of NC, but that’s okay. At least the Carolina part is right.

Also, Mrs. Polly was nice enough to include me in this post in the lifeway newsblog.

The Living Vine

jaredparkerbell — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:44:43 +0000

The college/career group from BFBC will be taking a trip to Savannah, GA for a service project at a place called The Living Vine. The Living Vine is a christian maternity home. The house is in need of some repairs, and we will seek to share Christ’s love by meeting some of those needs. The trip is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 11th. We haven’t confirmed that date yet. If anyone would like to offer some monetary support for this trip, any donations will be greatly appreciated. There is a plan to make some t-shirts available for purchase with the purpose of raising funds for the trip. Please comment or email if you are interested. Please pray for us and all of the girls at The Living Vine.

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