it's been a little while

It's been a great month. Check out some pictures from The Core, Impact, Pirate Night Live, & Winter Camp:

core january 15/puffy face

we totally had a blast the other night at the core, didn't we? here are some pictures. check 'em out.

spidey sent you guys a special message from chicago

my good buddy, alex leo (spidey), has sent you guys another message.
i think this is a great message to read. so take a quick minute and check it out.

"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." – 1 Corinthians 13:2

We often try to boil our faith down to a set of basic principles, a list of dos and don'ts. You can see it all around you. If you are a Christian, you will do X. If you follow Jesus you wouldn't do Y. What Would Jesus Do? These judgments may well be true, but we need to understand that our faith is so much richer than that!

Too frequently, we strive to do the right things, but for the wrong reasons. Its like we think that if we can only do enough good things, help enough people, or go to church enough, then other people will see us and think we are "good Christians." Then God will approve of us. But we know that this is not what God teaches us.

God has already poured out his love abundantly on us, so we don't have to earn it (nor can we earn it even if we tried)! He tells us that we are jars into which he fills us up with his love. We are to be so filled with his love that we overflow with it. It's got to spill over the edges, and all that overflowing love must be the motivation behind all that we do. As you go throughout your day, invite God to so pour out his love that you cannot help but spill that love over onto others.

guys day out

was awesome.
check out a couple pictures.
we had a blast and i look forward to doing it again,
matt.

devotion from spidey

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!" – Psalm 31: 24

It's no secret that we all have bad days. I think we forget that sometimes. It's okay to have a bad day. But what happens when we have two bad days in a row? Or three? Or thirty-three? Where is God in our times of distress?

We tend think that God is only there when things are going well in our lives. We might think that God has left us when we go through dark times, or we might even doubt that he was ever there in the first place. I know – I've been there. We all have. Even King David was there, the guy who God chose to lead all the people of Israel.

In Psalm 31, before David writes the last verses (check them out above), he cries out to God, saying, "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress." David was at a dark time in his own life, and was close to losing hope. But one thing I love about David is that he always managed to turn his face back towards God…even when he felt like God wasn't there.

God is with us, and he hears our cries. Always. Even in the hardest times in our lives, we can trust in that. This is what David means when he tells us to "wait" on God. That doesn't mean that things will be easy, but it does mean that God will give us the strength we need to push through. So, as you're reading this, whether you find yourself on a mountain or in a valley, "be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!"

-Spidey (Alex Leo)

some of our leaders...

hey guys, it's been a while

sorry it's been so long without a new post.
we've been having a blast, haven't we?
it's time to post some photos.
the top photo is a picture of worship at the Core.
the bottom photo is a picture of one of our small groups at Impact.