 Make plans to attend this year's Christmas Cruisin' event, brought to you by the entire decade of 1970. Get your fresh threads, trucker sunglasses, and permed-out hair ready because this will be outta' sight. Christmas Cruisin' is our annual RidgeStudents Christmas event and it gets more fun each year. Spend the whole night with us as we play games, eat great food, do a Christmas style scavenger hunt, and much more. Invite friends and make sure you bring those canned goods as well. The student with the most canned goods brought will receive a $25 giftcard to the store of their choosing. Prizes will be awarded for most friends brought, best costume and more! DY-NO-MITE! PLEASE REGISTER ONLINE BY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15th!Where: The Ridge Church. Must register online here. When: Friday Dec. 17th 6PM - Sat. Dec. 18th 7 AM Cost: $20 per student + 2 canned goods What: Invite friends from school, get dressed up, and get ready for the most funky night of your life. |
Monday, December 6, 2010
Christmas Cruisin' 2010, ya' dig?
Forgiveness and Resurrection - The Apostles' Creed Part 5
The essence of the gospel is the work of Jesus Christ. Christ has secured forgiveness through his death and resurrection. Our promise includes sharing in the richness of this state of forgiveness and resurrection. Forgiveness has the power to break the chains of bondage that weigh down the human soul. Only God himself can forgive sins as he is the one who is eternally offended by man’s transgression. Only he can remove the separation between man and himself. Man needs forgiveness. We do not need more knowledge or more enlightenment. Ignorance is not our problem, rather, sin remains the essence of man’s predicament.
Today man continues to deceive himself in thinking that no forgiveness is needed for his present state. Man is not essentially good. On the contrary, he is essentially bad. This does not mean that man is a bad creation nor does it mean that the physicality of mankind is evil, instead it is our thoughts and wills that carry the mark of dissipation. Scripture indeed testifies to the sinful state of mankind. While freely choosing to do many good things, man is incapable of amending his ultimate wound, that is, separation from God. Only God himself can and has done this in the body of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Christians believe in forgiveness for we have been forgiven. Forgiveness is a state of reality for a believer in Christ; we have entered into the realm of being forgiven. We are constantly being made new by the work of the Holy Spirit which will culminate in the bodily resurrection of believers to reign one day alongside our God and Lord for God’s dwelling place is with mankind. The Christian hope lies not in soul-body dismemberment but rather in the full realization of our bodies into a glorified state. Christ’s resurrection inaugurated this event.
The forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body are two realities for the life of the believer. We don’t have forgiveness without the resurrection. Our hope is built on this; that our sins are forgiven and that we will at one point in the future be resurrected unto new life. Imagine a complete, whole, and idealized life where there is no crying and there is no pain. Envision a life with no disease or cancerous intrusions. As believers, our lives do and will mirror that of the Savior. For we have died and been buried through the work of Christ, we too will be share in the resurrection of Christ Jesus. This is the gospel in which we take confidence. Without the forgiveness of sins and resurrection, there is no gospel.
The Church, The Holy Spirit, and the Saints - The Apostles' Creed Part 4
As Christians, we believe in one God. As we believe in God the Father, we also believe in the Son. As we believe in the Father and the Son, we also believe in the Spirit. Neither one is the same yet they are all God. This mystery has been believed by Christians since the beginning. Yes it is a mystery yet this is how God is shown forth in Scripture. We believe God is one, yet we believe he exists as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This line completes the trinitarian view of our God. So what do we believe about God the Holy Ghost?
Scripture says he is our helper, guide, guarantee of salvation and is the sparkplug for our growth into holiness. The Spirit always points the way to Christ, he is not a team player. Without the Spirit in your life it is impossible for you to be a Christian; it is the guarantee of your faith and the way only way in which you can believe in Christ. Apart from the Spirit there is no faith in Jesus Christ for who he really is. It is also natural that this belief statement precedes the belief in the church. Without the Spirit there is no true church. The church, through the work of the Spirit, is how we grow in Christ-likeness.
The church is holy because Christ is holy. The church is holy because those who are in faith are made holy by the Spirit. The church is holy because it is set apart for a special work in this world. We are not holy apart from the work of the Holy Spirit forming us into the image of Christ. We are not holy apart from the reliance upon prayer and God’s word to grow us and conform us to his will. We church is holy because of who are Head is, which is Christ. We are catholic in the sense that we conform to the faith that has been believed by Christians for all of time and we share in fellowship with Christians no matter where they may be in the same fellowship. We celebrate our head through fellowship and communion.
The Lord’s Supper we celebrate the presence of Christ among us in the body. This reality does not exist in any other institution in the world. The Lord’s Supper brings us together to proclaim the Gospel and continually and progressively grow us in the Spirit as we worship him together. We are saints because we now dwell by faith in the body of Christ and will one day dwell with him for eternity for his dwelling place is among men and we will be made new and glorious as he has been glorified. Saints are reborn by faith in Christ, shedding their old self and putting on the new self, which is Christ. We show this vividly through baptism. We become saints through faith in Christ as the Spirit changes our heart to love him and we show this faith through the act of baptism which we hold in high regard as it shows us who in fact is in communion and who is not.
So we believe in the Spirit’s work to make us holy; making us more like Christ. He convicts our heart, helps us, reminds us of scripture and holy acts. We experience this most vividly in the holy catholic church which is the keeper of the faith believed by all Christians throughout time and seeks to make Christ known in a world that is dying. We are a part of the catholic church in the sense that we affirm true Christian beliefs. As we confess we share in the communion of the saints who also affirm the faith and celebrate Christ through his Supper of bread and wine which is his body and blood poured out for us. We baptize those who by faith enter into this faith which shows the power of the Holy Ghost to change the heart of sinners and make them like Christ.
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