More Than Meets the Eye

This article was written by a high school student Christian just like some of you. You should read this even if you're a boy.

“7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way…” “92% of all young women in the USA want to change some aspect of their physical appearance.” “Girls who watched TV commercials featuring underweight models lost self-confidence and became more unsatisfied with their own bodies.”

Doesn’t that all just break your heart? The young people of today are being mercilessly attacked everyday with the lie that who they are is simply not good enough. Can you believe that companies and businesses are deceiving youth with such lies simply to gain more profit? I hit the roof when I found out that even school portraits now offer a “retouching” feature to touch up any facial blemishes with airbrushing and even color enhancement. The message: your face isn’t even good enough for your school portrait. The price: $6. Or a lifelong feeling of insignificance and discontentment. Depends on how you see it. Apparently, the $6 is more valuable to the portrait studios.

The world is telling the young people of today that their only value comes from how they look. “Character” has simply vanished from the definition of beauty by the world’s standards. Ads only campaign for perfect bodies, flawless skin tones, amazing smooth hair so they can make people feel insignificant until they get their product and achieve “perfection”. And did you know that a study showed the average North American girl sees 80,000 ads before kindergarten? Don’t you think the message would get across pretty clearly by then? And what’s even more sad is that models you see aren’t even real—tough luck trying to be like something that doesn’t even exist!

Young people today—both guys and girls—have been reduced to simply objects to be judged and criticized. Day by day, our bodies get older and older—everyday is another step closer to the day when our bodies will decay and be no more. The youth of today do not know that. They do not know that one day, they will stand bare before the judge—with no make-up, no gel, no curling iron, no skinny jeans or plaids—and what will be seen in plain view will be the one thing which all these years they have not taken care of—their image that truly matters, their image of God. I shudder to think how that is going to look for a large majority of those living around us.

Youth need to know what really makes them valued, what ultimately will last, and what can be really beautiful, is their image of God they have been generously given. We were created to be spiritual beings by a loving God who doesn’t care what color hair you have, the number of zits you have, how skinny you are—he created all of us out of love, and youth need to know this.

How can we make a difference? Girls and guys, we need to step up and let our lights shine. We ourselves need to first stop valuing ourselves based on appearance, by not spending hours in the bathroom every morning (myself included!), by not caring so much about our clothes, shoes, make-up, etc. We need to be prioritizing the condition of our hearts and our inner self. Furthermore, we need to stop judging others by what we simply see, because we are all guilty of this. Jesus chose to look past surfaces to see what ultimately mattered, and we need to reflect the way Jesus lived and loved by seeing the beauty of those around us even when they cannot. Girls and guys should never, ever feel insecure about the way they look, because they are sons and daughters of the King of Kings, and He created each and every one of them with His very own hands in His image, and He loves them just the way they are. This message needs to be shared with every single person!!
So, instead of reflecting at youth the wrong image the world is bombarding them with, let’s reflect the beauty that comes from within—the beauty God has entrusted us with which will outlast them all.

Kristen Lee, Davis Senior High School, Class of 2012

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VUPC Fall Yard Sale/BBQ

I don't have any fancy artwork like Christine, but wanted to get some feedback for the Yard Sale this Saturday (9/26).

The church is relying on the youth group to help out with the sales (haggling skills preferred) due the language barrier. In which case I think it would be great to have a price guideline. The toughest part is coming up with that "reasonable initial" price when the visitor asks. So I started a spreadsheet containing the items I saw collected on Sunday. Feel free to take a look and add to it. The "pig" picture (on the right) should link to the spreadsheet.

Also, there was talk about a raffle for service the youth group could provide the congregation. The raffle tickets will be sold for $1 per category and the winner will chosen at the end of the yard sale. Below is a list of what we came up with on Sunday. Please add any other ideas.

1. Wash car (could have multiple one by offering a winner per month ie. Oct. Nov. Dec.)
2. Vacuum house
3. Cook a meal
4. Create a musical CD by the YG
5. Special art (framed) by YG
6. Mowing the lawn
7. Raking the lawn (not included w/ mowing. :P)

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The Workers Are Few

³⁵Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
³⁷Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Matthew 9:35-38

Before the next 30 hours are over, 26,000 children just under the age of 5 will die - most from preventable causes like hunger, poverty, and disease. 14,000 will die from causes related to hunger alone. That's one kid every 7 seconds.

Low prices of food in the international market are forcing more farmers in developing countries to levels of extreme poverty. Their children are forced to drop out of schools and families are becoming more dependent on emergency aid.

Entire villages are being devastated by AIDS and HIV, even when medicine to prevent these deaths are available for just a couple of dollars a day. However, the bottom billion of the world's population live on less than an US dollar a day. A coffee farmer in Ethiopia said in a documentary called "Black Gold" said that just getting paid about 5 birr ($0.57) for their coffee could change their lives drastically. But these farmers are getting paid less than that for the high quality coffee they produce.

These are just a few facts about the state of our world today.-Read More-

God tells us to love our neighbors. We must not forget that our neighbors are not just those in our schools, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, but also those in Africa, in countries such as Bangladesh and Paraguay.

I encourage all of you to learn more about the dreadful and devastating problem of poverty. Thousands of people, children and adults alike, will die early and premature deaths today because they were born in the wrong country at the wrong time. I can't tell you why they were born there, but I can tell you why we were born here and why we were given so much even though they were given so little. It is so that we can go to them and help them. Luke 12:48b says:

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. And we have been given much and commanded to love our neighbors. Increase your awareness of the world and the people who share this world with us. For I know God's heart goes out to us and to them. God cries with us, laughs with us, and lives with us. And God is over there, crying with them, starving with them. He loves every person on this earth, so we too must love as He loves, care as He cares. Our hearts, too, must go out to the poor, the weak, and the lonely. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says:

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

Don't think you are too young to do anything. Don't think that you have too small a number of people to do anything. Paul says to Timothy (and is the heading for this blog):

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

Margaret Mead said:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Pray to God to send you out, to use you to do His will. As Ghandi says, be the change you want to see in this world. And as God commands, love thy neighbor as thyself.

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What Is A Church?: [2] A Family

I like comparing the church to a family. You can't choose who your family members are. You can wish you had a cooler sister or a less strict dad. But your family is your family, no matter how they are. And even if you don't think they're cool enough or nice enough, you still love them and need them. When they are angry or sad, somehow it makes you feel bad too. And when they're not around a lot or always away, you feel a little lonely (though you might not ever EVER tell them). And you seem to care so much about what they do and what they're doing. You get upset if they do something that you think they shouldn't do.

If you fought and argued with friends, then you might just stop being their friend. Even if you fight or argue with family, however, you're still family. If one of them started crying, you would, in your own little way, try to make them feel better because seeing them cry somehow makes you feel sad too.

Family is a group of people who care and love each other even when the other people aren't perfect. - Read More - Family is a group of people that you have a place in no matter where you go in life. Even though I'm away at college for 9, 10 months out of 12 in a year, I still have a place to come back to. There will never be a time when I come home and my mom says, "Sorry, your family-time-privileges have expired. You can't come back." My mom will always welcome me back.

And so the family of Christ welcomes all people, since we are all children of God. He calls us His sons and daughters; we are brothers and sisters in Christ. So we must accept each other, protect each other, and love each other.

In Acts, the Apostles constantly referred to each other and other believers (and non-believers too!) as "brothers."

^{Acts 1: 15}In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) ¹⁶and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus— ¹⁷he was one of our number and shared in this ministry."

^{Acts 6: 2}So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. ³Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them ⁴and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

^{Acts 9: 17}Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

^{Acts 13: 38}"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ³⁹Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

Jesus said in Luke 8:

¹⁹Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."

²¹He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."

Paul writes in Romans 12:

⁹Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

So, again and again, we see that God wants us to love each other like family. So in 1st Corinthians 8:

⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

We must not do what makes our brothers and sisters fall or do wrong. Family corrects each other and family does not hinder each other. Not only do you accept each other no matter what, but also you help them turn away from bad habits and choices. And if you are doing something that makes someone in your family sin, then you must stop doing that.

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Mother's Day 2008

Bet you didn't know this was online.

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Majesty

This is where I got the body worship moves from for one of our performances!

Do you guys still remember how to do it?

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What Is A Church?: [1] A Body

My friend asked me once, "What is church for? Can you be a Christian and not go to church?" and when I had told her that you should ask your church about helping you solve some of your troubles, she replied in shock, "Wait, you can do that in church?!"

I guess it really reminded me about the misconceptions (the wrong views) people have about what church is about. And I think, in particular, everyone in our youth group has experienced church changes, splits, break-ups, and (just last year) unions. We've all grown up in churches, probably have been going to church for as long as we can remember, and have been told that going to church is the good thing.

But what is church? What do you do at church? What is it for? Can you be a Christian and not go to church? Can you not be a Christian and go to church? - Read More -

I, in my very limited wisdom, will try to answer these questions, and I'll try to make my answer short (but it'll be super long). Thus, this won't cover everything. This is a very large topic so if you want to know more, there are also many many MANY books that try to answer these questions too, such as:

1. Stop Dating the Church!: Fall in Love with the Family of God, by Joshua Harris
2. The Purpose Driven Church, by Rick Warren
3. What is a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever

and more. Thing is that though all these books are Christian, they might not say the same thing. In fact, some might contradict each other. So above all, we should look, not at these books for knowledge, but look in the Bible, which should always remain our ultimate source of truth.

1 Corinthians 12 (as well as other places in the Bible) describes the church as a body.

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

I'm sure all of you have at one point read this passage or heard of it before, and I encourage you to read it again! :D

So a church can be compared to one body, and every person is united and a part of that body. So, what, David teacher is a hand? We're all the little fingers and toes? Maybe I'm the spleen. MSN (Pastor) Choi and Kim are the eyes and the mouth: they see all and say all! and Jesus, of course, is the brains, the mastermind!

But this means that we are all connected and we all depend on each other. Even toenails are important in helping you walk firmly and comfortably. And if you look at verse 26, when one suffers we all do, meaning the Body of Christ is more than just us going to church every Sunday, Bible Study, and playing DS with each other. This means that if one of us is going through a difficult time in his or her life, if someone is being mean and rude, if someone is struggling in school, if someone is sad because their dog passed away, if someone is slowing or fading in their faith, we, as one body, have to take care of each other and help one another out.

When you fall and trip and your knee bleeds, you're hand won't go, "Oh, that's just the knee, not me the hand. Whatever, I don't care. Just let the knee do whatever it wants!" and your head won't say, "Ah, whatever, it's just the knee that hurts. This doesn't affect me. It can take care of itself!" No, your head says, "OWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!That HURT! OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW, HAND GO HELP KNEE!" and the hand goes, "OWWWWW!!! That's so painful I feel like it's hurting me too! Okay Head, I'll go get Neosporin and a bandaid!"

In the same way, when one of us is feeling down or needs help, we can't just ignore it. It affects us too. Also, Jesus so completely and fully knows and understands the pain they're feeling just like the head.

Jesus as the head of the body is something to really take note of. This means that Jesus is the one we go to for direction. When the head says, lift up your hand and high five someone, the hand does so. And so we must follow the commands of the head, of Jesus, who will only command us to do what is good for us, for the body. For what kind of head wants His body to ignore Him and harm itself?

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