Prayer

Renew was about Prayer last Thursday: Praying for your friends, praying with your friends, and praying continually. Prayer Meeting was about prayer...so I heard...But really, it was about praying into Renew. And now the Large Group talk even more confirmed how prayer should be our reaction to everything.

Thoughts? How is the renew challenge going? Is God working through your life because of prayer?

Invitation

Howdy, all!

New this semester is Renew, Mines IV's response to God's call to be more like an organism and get out and do. Thrive is for anyone up to a challenge, anyone wanting to listen for God's call, anyone seeking to renew our campus in God-like love. 

The first Renew session had us get out of our comfort zone and meet new people! It was challenging to have deeper conversations with classmates and people we see everyday, but some great stories came out of that. 

This week and the next are all about inviting people with a loving invitation. Just to get into the spirit of inviting them to things we do all the time and enjoy (except for homework, but that can be fun too!).

Burning Embers is a great place to share what we've been doing! The challenges, the successes, and the hopes that God has for our fellowship. 

So tl;dr: Post comments on what God's inviting you to invite people to! The way we keep moving is feed off of the good energy that comes out of this!

Atrophy

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked,“Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her,“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
~ Mark 5:25-34

Some people try to get by with the bare minimum, and that carries them, as Ryan shared with us tonight. But I am very different, and that can be both a blessing and a curse. I compulsively try by hardest to do well, and that carried me up until college. But then Mines comes and slaps (nearly) everyone in the face, saying, “You have to give your whole self up in order to do well in this class, and even if you do, you might end up failing.” Thus, the curse. My life is exercised in an imbalanced way. My slight OCD will force me into wee hours of the night. I try to fix that by adding other stuff to my life. But if you exercise parts of your body completely unevenly, you’re gonna have a bad time. Exercise might be bad.  (This might not be true, but this is why I don’t ever physically exercise.) But God is watching wondering when I’m going to find the time to spend with Him. What does everything else matter? I’m killing myself physically and emotionally without God. When that part lacks, life deteriorates.

Not a Maybe

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Urbana: An Unexpected Journey

One CSM InterVarsity student's experiences at Urbana 12,

 December 27-January 1, St. Louis, MO. 

I don’t really know why I came to Urbana. I remember saying it’d be the chance of a lifetime as Urbana 15 will (hopefully) take place after I’m done with my undergraduate degree. I know it would be an adventure, road tripping across three states, and that intrigued me. But most importantly was the feeling that God said “Go”. And in the journey of my life I felt Urbana was the place I was to go to next. So after watching commercials for it freshman year and not considering it, on the last week of October I decided to go.

Practice in Action

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

~ Mark 16 : 15 - 20

The Time Is Now

Then they gathered around him and asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and it all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1 : 6 - 11

Love Your Neighbor

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1 : 3 - 8