Mary Had a Little Lamb
By Renee Gray

Mary had a little Lamb
Whose fleece was white as snow.
He came to save the souls of man
And prepare the way to go.

For God so loved the world
He gave his only son
To bleed and die upon the Cross
That death’s battle would be won.

Mary had a little Lamb.
His birth was prophesied:
“From the line of David will come
the messiah. Death will be defied.”

In the sky appeared a star.
All peoples saw this sight.
Many of them made a journey.
They were guided by its light.

While the shepherds watched their flocks
The sky was filled with light.
A host of angels then appeared
And their chorus filled the night:

“Glory to God in the highest!
Glory to God on high!
For tonight a Savior is born!
Israel’s salvation is nigh!

"They made a wonderful sound!
Their voices filled the air:
“Go to the City of David.
The holy babe will be there.”

Mary had a little Lamb
And Jesus was his name.
He made the blind to see again
And those to walk that were lame.

Though he had done nothing wrong
Jesus was arrested.
They took him to Pontius Pilate
Where his story was tested.

Why did they do this to him?
They gave this as their reason:
“He said he was the son of God!”
They said, “This is high treason!”

Pilate examined Jesus.
“There’s no fault I can see!”
But the people would not have it.
“No! Let Barabas go free!”

He then let Barabas goIn answer to their cry.
Then asked, “What should be done with Christ?”
And they shouted, “Crucify!”

The soldiers mocked and beat him.
His body torn and bruised.
They hung a sign above his head
“Here hangs the King of the Jews.”

“My Father please forgive them!”
He said with his last breath.
“Because they know not what they do.”
Then he gave himself to death.

Mary had a little Lamb.
Upon the Cross he died.
A crown of thorns upon his head,
A spear thrust in his side.

The sky turned the darkest black
The Son of God had died.
All this was done so that God’s love
Would forever be glorified.

Mary had a little Lamb.
Dead in the tomb he lay.
He did not stay that way for long
And rose again the third day.

Mary’s son the little Lamb
Had conquered death and sin.
For Jesus bridged the Great Divide
And opened the gate to go in.

To his Father in heaven
Jesus then ascended.
He had done what was asked of him.
His time on earth was ended.

Jesus Christ will soon return.
The Son of Man will come.
Not everyone believes in this:
That Christ Jesus is the One.

Mary had a little Lamb.
He bled and suffered too.
Jesus Christ died on the Cross
And Jesus died for you.

comment on erins note

wow erin, that was amazing!!!!! and sooooooooo true!! God never lets us down! i was reading in Psalms today... im not exactly sure where, but it was saying how God is an ever present help in times of trouble, and its reassuring to know that we have the creator of the universe on OUR side!!!!!! so yep thats all i wanted to say.....

peace out,
Noodle

My Favoritists

Ok, I REALLY wanted to write on here, because i thought it would be fun and cool, so here I go:
I was told I couldn't just write about Curtis Stinson, and Miracle, so I'm going to write about them WITH something else. As most of you may know, my favoritist athlete of all time is none other than Curtis Stinson, a former point guard for Iowa State. My favoritist movie of all time is Miracle. Both of those two favorites have made me cry. I cry when I watch Miracle because it is so happy and exciting....and probably because I've seen it too much. When Curtis Stinson left Iowa State a year early, I cried. I cried a lot. I cried for a long time. I still cry. Anyway, do you know who has never ever made me cry (unless it was in super happiness)??? God has never made me cry. There's no reason for him to make me cry. He loves me and I love him and try to do my best to serve him. God is also perfect, and perfect people don't make you cry. Also, God will always be there for me, but sadly, though I never want it to come to this, Curtis Stinson and Miracle will not always be there for me. Curtis Stinson will die, and my movie will get scratched, but God will ALWAYS ALWAYS be there.
WOW!!! I did it. I wrote my first post!! And on things I like too! Anyway, I'll probably always be writing about Curtis Stinson and Miracle, so get used to it!!
See ya,
Erin Reger

pumped...

well i thought it was about time i posted something on here... and i must say that i am really exited about our new name and logo i dont know why, but now i feel like we're important... i mean i know we were before, but haveing a real name is jsut so cool!!!
lately ive been shown how amazing God is, like, when we watched those videos about how he breathed stars and created the universe... it just takes my breath away!!!!! and ive been shown again and again how small i am and how big God is!!!! so yep thats all i have to say

peace out
Noodle

This year so far

So I have been telling every one to come and check out our blog but then there is nothing really recent on here. ...so I thought I should put something up here.

This year has gotten off to a really great start. We have a huge group of girls, a mixture of mostly sophomores and then the few Jr. and Sr. They are all very close and I think we are all very blessed to have such a great group. On the matter of boys our group is a little lacking, but we are grateful for the guys we have and pray for more.

So far we have had a few activities. About a month ago, the leadership committee went on their leadership retreat. This was planned to occur in June, (we were going to go repealing) but flooding had postponed it to September. Again rain changed our plans, Jeff and Jenny Wood made some quick decision. We spent a great Christ filled weekend at a hotel in Amana colonies. The committee spent time swimming, shopping, playing games, and watching random movies. Thanks to Jeff and Jenny for putting the whole trip together and being so great :)

About two weeks ago Answers in Genesis visited Campus Baptist. They reminded us all about how important it is to be able to defend your faith against evolution. It was a great encouragement. I learned a lot and I'm sure that everyone agrees.

Last week Faith Baptist Bible Church presented there annual Faith Fest. It is a great opportunity for witnessing and introducing our fellow unsaved friends to Gods Word and Truth. 6 girls from Gilbert came along and we are ecstatic to say that 4 of them got saved. Praise God!!!! If you check out our CBC Youth Group page on Facebook there is picture movie from that day. I will see if I can get it up on this site.

Praise God for all that has been going on so far. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for the rest of this year.
Sian

Staying Hydrated: Physically and Spiritually

"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13-14)

Have you ever been dehydrated? It feels awful. It might just be a headache, fainting, unconsciousness, or in some extreme cases, it may even cause death. Once you have experienced symptoms of dehydration, we learn that it's something that we might want to prevent. So physically, we need PLENTY of water to stay hydrated to live a healthy life.

How about spiritually? Jesus is the water of life and He is the "spiritual water." Just like we need water to be healthy physically, our spiritual life needs to stay hydrated with the spiritual water, which is through Jesus Christ. It's not just minimal amount that we need; we need PLENTY of it to stay hydrated spiritually.

Being spiritually dehydrated, like physically, isn't all that fun. You seem to lose the joy and you feel like you have just hit the rock bottom of your walk with God, but we need to find ways to get hydrated. How about not having him at all? Through Jesus, we are saved from our sins and without the spiritual water, we wouldn't have an eternal life in heaven. Prayers, devotions, group Bible study, or whatever that can help strengthen your spiritual walk.

We also have to keep on remembering, like the song, that Jesus is the Joy of Man's Desiring. Being in the Word and having our brothers and sisters in Christ encouraging each other, keeping each other in our prayers, and loving each other like Christ loved us will create a positive environment to thank and glorify God as we get hydrated physically and spiritually.

Picky eater

Because we didn't have Church on Sunday Pastor Will sent out a online message for people to listen to. The pastor speaking was one of the many at a National counseling conference that the Hatfields along with my parents and other leaders in our Church attended last week.

In his message he makes a comment about being "ruined for anything but God." The point being, God is so fulfilling that when we do taste his goodness anything the world can give isn't good enough. Kind of like when we were little and our mom's never let us eat anything before mealtimes. She wanted us to be hungry for the better food coming up. The only problem with that is sometimes my mom's food didn't seem like it was "better" than what I wanted to stuff myself with beforehand. ;) Most of the times it was, though, and even if I didn't think so at the time it would always end up being more fufilling.

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that I think states this idea perfectly. The lyrics say say it this way: "I'm playing GameBoy standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon. I'm eating candy sitting at a gourmet feast. I'm wading in a puddle when I could be swimming in the ocean. Tell me what's the deal with me? Wake up and see the Glory."

We have an amazing God who has made His glory avalible to us. But what's more amazing than that concept is that his children decide to "play gameboy" with our eyes glued on the world. All along, though, there is something more astounding than the Grand Canyon right in front of us, God.

If you haven't listened the message I encourage you to let it play as you surf the net.
The Message It is preached by Brad Bigney from Grace Fellowship Church in KY. (yeah he has a little bit of a southren drawl ;)

New Year's Eve Party

So... I guess I never got involved with youth group during the time I had attended CBC (I first came in the fall of 1998). Looking back on it now, it seems like I almost wanted to do things to get out of it. Then after the new year, I came every week and started to get more involved, going to IRBC for the first time and coming to youth group and stuff. One of the reasons is probably because I got to meet and hang out with the people from our youth group at this party, and I'm glad I did. So here are some of the pictures I took that night.

And sorry for the flash pictures in the dark!

"...And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of God upon me."
-Nehemiah 2:8

Here is the story of Nehemiah with a commentary by David Guzik. I just found it and he says pretty much the same stuff I was going to put on here, but his is a lot longer.

Wouldn't it be amazing to experience what Nehemiah had experienced? To get the hand of God upon your life, here are some things to consider:


1. We need PASSION for the work of God

We seem to find ourselves with our passion elsewhere; maybe we're too caught up in school or trying to have fun with our friends instead of God. We need to be praying to God for help and thanking him for all He's given to us, which gets us to my next point.


2. We need to have PASSION for prayer

We don't pray because we don't believe that it will actually do anything, but we need to believe that it works; we need to pray with faith.

7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:7-12



3. We need a PASSION for purity

We will be tempted a lot of times throughout the day and we need to walk away from them. Peter went back to fishing before Jesus came back to them. We need to turn away from sin and want God's purity. Confess our sins and just thank Him is a quick start for this.

And finally..

4. We need a PASSION to be used by God

Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer and because the king trusted Nehemiah as his cupbearer, Nehemiah was able to go back to rebuild Jerusalem. We will be in situations where we will be frustrated and feel that whatever we're doing isn't worth it, but God does things for a reason. This can help us have a passion to be influential in our communities.

And seriously, how cool would it be to have the hand of God upon our life?

Winter Meltdown

Here are some of the pictures from Winter Meltdown 2008 at IRBC. Pictures by Ryan Riley and Daniel Park




Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Psalm 105:1

Something random I noticed

I remember it snowed a lot before our Winter Meltdown on January 18th, and the second Winter Meltdown at IRBC is coming up this weekend. It's almost funny how when all the snow seemed to melt away, another 6-8 inches would come; right before another weekend of Winter Meltdown.

Inside out

I just really liked the words to this song that we sang in youth group last Wednesday.
Sometimes I just sing without thinking of what is coming from my lips or I forget the awesome God to whom these praises are for. So, I thought I would post these words just in case you needed to read them again because I know that I did.

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out

by Hillsong United
album: "From the Inside out" United We Stand (2006)

Peters failures...

So on Sunday (Jan.27th), Pastor Will had an amazing sermon. (nothing new...) but I really enjoyed one of the things he said about Peter. He was talking about Jesus asking Peter three times, "Peter, do you love me?" and Peter saying three times, "Yes, Lord, you know i do..." yet later, he would deny Christ THREE times. Pastor Will said that Peter finally understood all the things that Jesus was teaching him... yet he was still human, so he messed up. then he said, "...but thats why Peter is in the Bible... because he messes up, and then through God's grace, God uses Peter to better glorify His name, and teach us today..."

wow. how many times do i mess up?? waaaay too many to even begin to keep track of. yet Gods grace still overflows into my life. I want to encourage you to not give up. i mean, that statment might seem kinda obvious, but when you think about it, how many times do we live like we've already been defeated? we don't try to wittness to that friend because we think they'll never listen, or we go ahead and do that sin, because we figure we've already messed up so much, why not just keep messing up??

but God's mercies are made new EVERY DAY, and every hour, and every second of our lives. His grace is sufficient for you. and me. and everyone.

and who knows?? maybe God is using you like Peter, to show others His grace by working in your life through your mistakes... how awesome would that be??

o snap!
keep pressing on! i'm praying for y'all!!
--Jess--

Worth

"Even though it's hard and difficult or could blow up in my face, I am still going to follow God because He is worth having"

This is a statement that Pastor Will made during a sermon one Sunday. I have been thinking about this continually and I wonder, how much do I say by my actions is worth sacrificing for Christ? Want to read more on this?