Sold Out Christians in 2009...enough mediocrity!

It is crazy that 2009 is only 3 days away. Can you believe another year is history? Think back to who you were at the beginning of the year. Now, think about who you are now. Are you spiritually more mature? Are you closer to God or farther away? Do you spend more time with him or less? I have kinda had an unfair advantage as far as growing spiritually this year because I got married so I had no choice but to grow up spiritually. But, I still wish I would have grown to my full potential this year. It is all about EFFORT! Will you put forth the effort in 2009 to grow in Christ? In "big church," yesterday, I talked about active obedience to God, embracing Jesus (falling in love with him), and living out the Word of God. To sum it up, James is telling us to put into practice what we know and learn from the Bible. My prayer for you is that in 2009 you will read God's love letter to you (the Bible) daily, let it change you, and do what it says!

With love in Christ,
Philip

I Can't Believe It

Can you believe it snowed for 6 hours in Highlands, TX? Yeah, neither can I, but I loved every minute of it. I am sitting in a Starbuck's in Denton, TX (near Dallas) about to head to a wedding, and I couldn't wait any longer to share our ginormous, awesome, cool, best snowman ever with you. This was an hour and a half well worth it. I never knew you could really roll a snowball...so cool! Well here it is--almost as tall as me and definitely a lot larger. In the pic is Philip (me), Lacey, Kristi, and Alan B. I wish you could have been there with us. We should all have another snowball fight sometime soon. What do you think? (Respond and let me know what you think of our snowman and the snowball fight.)

Go The Extra Mile...with humility!

Gees, I really love hanging out with you guys! It made me happy to have Encounter this week, and I loved every minute of seeing some of you try to drink Root Beer out of baby bottles (I bet you were wondering how babies do it so well...kinda weird huh?) I was also digging that we had two new guys here to attempt the impossible shot...I am ready to give another $20 away! You know, there hasn't been a single Encounter since we started the impossible shot that we haven't had a guest. So keep inviting your friends to the party!
We also looked at Matthew 5:38-42 in a fresh way. If you weren't here you should read it, it is salty (good). In this little paragraph, Jesus really challenges us to go the extra mile and live like a true Jesus-follower. It's not about paying people back for treating us wrong/bad; it's about loving them when everything says we shouldn't. Jesus challenges us to go the extra mile with humility--can you put others before yourself? YES, but WILL YOU?

Happy Turkey Day!

I know...I am one day behind on the whole Thanksgiving thing, but I still wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you had a great time stuffing your faces with your family. It has been really nice for me to relax and enjoy the company of my family. Too often, I take them for granted.

I know this is going to be hard for you all to believe, but yesterday morning Lacey and I woke up to run in the Beaumont Turkey Trot. Sounds like fun, huh? Well it was 5k (3.1 mi) of blood, sweat, and tears...ok, maybe just sweat! Our final time is not important though...all that matters is that we finished, right? Haha. While we struggled with the 5k my brother and his wife busted out a 10k and made us feel really bad about ourselves. I hope it motivates us to get in shape!

I hope your Thanksgiving was as eventful and family-filled as ours.

Wow!

Movie in the Park was a lot of fun, and we had a great turnout for our 1st one ever. I really believe this is because many of you were praying for this event, and we had an incredible team of adults who devoted to praying for Movie in the Park everyday last week. Due to all of the faithful prayer and because of our prayer-answering God, we had 54 teenagers show up and we were able to build connections with 12 unchurched teenagers. If you pitched in to help with Movie in the Park, thank you so much. Your time and effort is so appreciated, and it paid off...God is good!

Now, to change gears a little... (I shared this with a student already, but as I was sending the email I realized I should share it with you all.) I was reading in Acts 14 this morning and it spoke about Paul and Barnabas strengthening and encouraging the disciples in different cities. And as I think, you are disciples of Christ that God has placed in my path so I just want to be an encouragement to you today. Stay strong in your faith. I know it might get boring sometimes and it is really hard to make time for God, but keep holding on. God is using you guys to do awesome things, so keep going, relying on Him for strength, power, and boldness. Many things are going to be hard, but press into Him and keep going. Make time for Your Creator (who is your friend) today! Hope to see you @ Encounter on Wednesday for a crazy, good time!

Moving Forward

It's hard to believe that I have been here for nearly 8 months. You know what they say, "Time flies when you're having fun!" God is definitely doing some cool things among us here at First Highlands Student Ministry. Last week we had 7 guests at Encounter and in the month of October 6 teenagers were saved as they received Jesus into their life. That is so awesome! We are also moving forward with our Servant Leadership Team...yah...so you will soon be plugged into the roles you have expressed interest in. You guys are a blast to be around, and it's incredible to see how we are growing closer to God together. I hope you find this blog to be helpful in getting info and letting all your friends see what is going on in FHSM. Maybe it will even become kind of an internet home for you (meaning you are looking at it weekly). We will constantly be adding dates and posts just for you. I love all of you so much, and I could not think of a better place to be in my life right now than spending so much time with all of you guys.

Don't forget about Movie in the Park this Friday @7pm at Stratford Park. It's going to be a blast!!!!

Congrats to Coby Johnson for making the Impossible Shot last week in Encounter and winning $20. Bring your friends and you could also find $$$ in your pocket.

MOVIE IN THE PARK