Admire our Earth — Worship the Creator!

The question du jour is this: WOSWJU? Or, What Operating System Would Jesus Use? A trite question? Hardly. Anyone interested in the eternal fate of their computer data should concern themselves with finding the truth (Truth?) behind this question. Instead of just giving a pat-answer let’s go through our options, shall we?

Read: What OS Would Jesus Use?

Over the past 5 years this dream has seen some success and www.youthpoint.ca has helped may groups and pastors. However over the past year YouthPoint has started to see a slow decrease in use. Other options like Facebook or www.wordpress.com sites have begun to take their place. There are a number of faithful forum posters but they too are becoming more infrequent.

Through the conception, building and running of YouthPoint I have spent a considerable amount of personal time and money to make the project happen. Many others like Will, Fred and Val have been helping all along the way by writing and managing the forums. It is not easy to admit that after all this effort that a project like this may be dying – but reality is starting to set in. The amount of time and money required to put into YouthPoint to make it more like Facebook or a WordPress blog is just too much. After all – the goal starting out was to have the technologies available to pastors for their group to communicate online – if this is being done through these other sites then the goal is still being met – just not with YouthPoint’s help.

What I would like from you is some prayer and some advice. Let me know what you think – let it die – let it ride as is and let people use it for what it is – quit my day job and live on rice while I rebuild YouthPoint? (I’m not real fond of the rice idea). I am ok with it if YouthPoint dies – I will be sad – but ok. Please let me know what you think.

-Andy Smith
Duke of URL – www.youthpoint.ca

When Geeky guys (gender inclusive) go to church they tend to get involoved in the church technology – web sites – projection – audio/visual/sound – I have been for years.

Jim writes a blog called Church Tech Matters - it is right up my alley! He writes about different types of technology used in a church setting and how to make it better. Recently Jim started a wiki (what?) called the Church Tech Matters Wiki. The content has been started based around church projection – something close to my heart and pretty important technology for the modern church.

So if you have any interest in technology – the church and how the two relate – check out Jim’s blog and the wiki. You have to love it – using technology to talk about technology… Geek is Chic!

This year I had asked the Tyndale worship team (Colin, John and Joshua) if they would consider coming to do the worship. They accepted and joined us this weekend for a great time. As usual they did a great job and represented Tyndale well. I just wanted to say a special thanks to them for their help.

see more photos

“I am the second coming of Christ, that messiah that they’ve been waiting for,�

said Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda.

Read the article here.

When we worship we are really communicating with God -we are expressing our love, thanks, blessings, honour etc. to him.

Let’s look at this example from Pslams 63 – a song from way back

What a great expression of worship by David – now David was a great writer and poet – a lot of his writing was for the choir master. This means that it was written to be put into song for corporate worship. The people of David’s day could sing these words as an expression of worship to God.

I often wish I could write like David or that I could express myself this clearly while worshiping in my own words. The truth is that I am not really a great song writer or poet. I can’t always write the perfect words to express my love to my wife – so I by a card that helps me say what I want to say from my heart. In the same way I choose worship songs that can help me express what I want to say to God from my heart.

Let’s look an an example from a worship song – this is the chorus from You Are my King

These are great words that can help us express ourselves thanking God for His amazing love for us – love so strong that He would die for us and because of that love we will choose to honor Him in the way we live our lives – in the things that we do – and then we proclaim Him as our King.

So next time you are singing a worship song think about it like it is a greeting card – think about what you are expressing to God.

Praying isn’t as difficult as many Christians are lead to believe. However, in my experience many Christians are somewhat uncertain about how to pray. While there’s obviously no absolute “right� or “wrong� way to pray, sometimes a simple outline will help you out.

Read the rest here…

Many old memories came back from my high school days. I lived about 20 minutes from the church I attended at the time and most of my Christian friends didn’t go to my high school – in fact I didn’t know of too many Christians in my high school at all – until I met Cory. I honestly can’t even remember how we met – it was obviously not that dramatic. I do remember however feeling stronger and more confident in my faith knowing there was someone like me – someone who knew God in my school. We went to different churches – different youth groups – even different denominations but we still served the same God!

Many years have passed – we had gone our separate ways – Cory went to Sheridan College and I went to Ontario Bible College (now Tyndale) – Cory worked as a commercial illustrator and later as a painter – I worked in facility management and now in web development. We met our wives and married – had kids – lived busy full lives.

On March 26th I thought I would give Cory a call – after reintroductions and a quick look in the old year book we were reconnected. We filled each other in on the missing years and what we were doing now – looked back at some old fond memories. Before we got off the phone I really wanted to let Cory know something – now guys are not always as open with sharing their feelings so this was a stretch for me – I want Cory to know how much our past friendship meant to me in that time. I wanted to let him know that I was stronger in my faith because he was standing beside me. We didn’t start crying – we are guys! But we chatted a little bit about what that means to teens to have someone else – someone like them in their school – in their circle of friends. It means a lot.

I am not sure where you are at – in high school – a leader in a youth group – a youth pastor? What I do know that is that you need others to stand with you – to pray with you and for you – to challenge you in your faith. That is what the church is for – gathering together to build each other up in faith – in your relationship with God. Don’t try to stand alone.

Cory thanks for being a friend – for standing with me through those years in high school. Hopefully some day we can get together again in person – I can have a closer look at your art work and we can encourage each other in our faith.

If you would like to see some of Cory’s work drop by his web site at www.trepanieroriginals.com

Originally posted on: YouthPoint.ca