Monday, March 9, 2009

Student Newsletter - March 9, 2009

ROCK SOLID STUDENT NEWSLETTER #3
March 9, 2009

Contents
1. Something for Your Heart
2. Surf Report
3. Forgettable Fact
4. Potent Quotables
5. Uh, That's Funny?
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1. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEART

Serious Sin

"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Hebrews 12:4 KJV)
We may not admit it out loud, but I think most of us carry around with us a kind of rating scale for sin. We all know the big ones: rape, murder, adultery, etc. But our list of "little" ones is very different: lying to parents, impure thoughts, envy, gossip, arrogance. Eh, everybody does them. Not a big deal. We can all be forgiven, right?

It's tough to carry that attitude toward sin (even little ones) too far into Hebrews 12. Today's verse should grab us by the shirt and shake us up a little. It's possible the writer is referring to a resistance against "sinful men" or persecution, but it starts a passage about how seriously God takes sin in the lives of Christians.

One thing it tells me is that I should be struggling against my sin. I don't know how often we do that. The point isn't that we should be perfectly sinless already; we're still growing. The point is that we should be in the fight. We should expect it to be a fight. We should expect the "want" to sin to fight back every time we stand up and say, "No, I'm going the other way."

Then this crazy idea: Whether facing persecution or facing down my own sinful desires, the fight is against sin and it can get bloody. Pain and blood always raise the stakes of a fight. Are we just in the fight against our own sin until it gets inconvenient -- or even when it gets deeply painful?

Think: What's the furthest you've ever gone in standing up against your own desire to sin?

Pray: Ask God to help you come up with braver and bolder strategies for saying no to sin.

Do: Pick a sin or two you struggle with and write down a new battle plan for winning your next encounter with that impulse.

**

A Daily Devotional from PlanetWisdom.com, copyright 2009 Youth Specialties/Zondervan. Used by permission.



2. SURF REPORT
- Street Fighter Movie Review
http://www.planetwisdom.com/movies/streetfighter.php

~ Review of Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
http://planetwisdom.com/books/reviews/brisingr.php



3. FORGETTABLE FACT
Harry S. Truman was the last U.S. President with no college degree.



4. POTENT QUOTABLES
"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."
~ Socrates

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
~ Anne Frank



5. UH, THAT'S FUNNY?
Knock Knock!
~ Who's there?
Lass.
~ Lass who?
That's what cowboys use, isn't it?