Blog of Morningstar's College and Careers group. Wed, 2 May 2012 15:44:25 -0500 Wed, 2 May 2012 15:43:50 -0500 Wed, 2 May 2012 15:42:18 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well, another week is upon us and on into Mark we go on. Last week, we did a little bit of background work, and then looked at Mark 1:1-15 to see Jesus' authority being declared to us by the Old Testament Scriptures, and then by none other than God himself. This week, we go further into this first section of the Gospel of Mark - concerning Jesus' authority as Pastor Jay takes us through some of Jesus' acts recorded in Mark 2. As I mentioned last week, please do take the time to read the whole chapter, since we likely won't have time on Thursday to actually go through it all. Just a reminder that the retreat is likely going to be moved. We've decided to just go ahead and call retreat centres to see what is available to us, before deciding which weekend exactly we will be moving the retreat to. Hopefully by this or next Thursday, I will have more information for you about that. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 1 May 2012 23:56:42 -0500 Hey Everyone! Sorry about the lateness of this weekly update. I was "composing" what I was going to say on my drive home yesterday, but then when I walked in, my mom had made fried chicken for supper and it was all forgotten, and I went straight to bed afterward. Hahaha. But anyway, I hope you'll be able to find time, nonetheless, to do what I'm asking here. As we had already mentioned last Thursday, and also in my last email, we are moving into a new series this Thursday: The Gospel of Mark. I'm really looking forward to this, especially after doing a little bit of historical/background research in to Mark, and seeing how incredibly relevant it is in that way (of course Scripture is always releveant to our lives, but Mark, especially in the purpose and the context behind its writing is especially relevant to our culture). This week, I have three important things to do for you: 1) Talk about the context of Mark, 2) Talk about the literary structure of Mark, and 3) cover the passage we actually have to go through this week, which is Mark 1. Just a note about that as well, what Pastor Jay and I are doing here would really be better described as a "Survey" of the Gospel of Mark. It isn't the typical lesson/sermon you would hear on the New Testament in a Sunday morning, because we will be going through Mark a pericope at a time, as most other preaches would. Doing that would take quite a bit of time - Pastor Bob, for example, has been in Matthew for 3 years already, and he still has probably another year to go. And so what would be really helpful is if you were able to read Mark on your own before hand, to get an idea of where the particular pericope that Pastor Jay or I have decided to focus on fits in its immediate context, and maybe even within the whole book. My suggestion for this of course is to read each chapter that we will draw from each week, and then, maybe every 4th week, also read through the whole Gospel. It shouldn't take very long, as Mark is the shortest of the four canonical Gospels. If you do this, you would have read through Mark a total of 5 times between now and the end of summer, and hopefully you would have gained insight into it beyond what we talk about on Thursday nights. Well, that's all for now. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again on Thursday! Shalom, Chris =-= Chris Evangelista chris@ichthus.ca Make a Joyful Noise! Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:03:31 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well this week is the last week of Handling the Word with Confidence. We've had a great run, and I'm looking forward to finishing it strong and starting on our next series. Let me just encourage you, if you've been skipping because you are behind, please come tonight! It's the perfect lesson to be because Pastor Jay will be recapping all of the lessons we've had so far. In addition to that recap (which should take 20 minutes or so), we will be doing a "Practicum" of one of the important skills we learned in this series - the Author's intention statement. Except this time, we will be doing it in an Old Testament book. If you are able, please have a read through Amos before coming on Thursday. You don't have to do anything but read it, as we will be doing the actual work in on Thursday. Finally, we will be meeting in our groups one final time to share what we have learned in this series (or lesson, if it's your first time coming in), and we will spend time praying for one another. As I mentioned this is the last week for this series. Starting next week, we will be in the Gospel of Mark. And that is exciting indeed! Very soon (even before Thursday, I hope), I will be putting up a list of resources that you might want to get to follow along with our lessons. But really quickly, I want to highlight one now, which I think is an excellent read: "The King's Cross" by Tim Keller. It's a wonderful book that goes through the whole book of Mark without being too commentary- or study bible-ish. Finally, please note that we did set the date for the summer retreat for August 17-19. Unfortunately that's about all the details I can give you for now. But hopefully the committee will be able to take some solid steps into booking a place and making more precise plans very soon. For now, though, I'd like to get an idea of who is interested in coming. And so I will be passing around a "Sign Up" list on which to indicate your interest in coming. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:14:22 -0500 Hey Everyone! We continue our work through "Handling the Word with Confidence" this week with a more practical lesson - building a mini-library of interpretive aids. Pastor Jay will be doing a lesson. But I will also help out in my way by bringing some of the resources that I've collected over the years (beginning with my very first Bible course out in British Columbia). Hopefully, this will be a helpful week for you to make decisions about what resources to get to help you build your own library. Just a reminder that we have a new thing we're doing at the church this Holy Week. It's called "Journey to the Cross", a way for you to reflect on the days surrounding Jesus' death on the resurrection. It is in our gym, and is open Tuesday to Friday, 9:30AM - 4:00PM/7:00PM - 9:00PM. It takes about 45 minutes to complete. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 3 Apr 2012 08:48:02 -0500 Hey Everyone! I'm so sorry, I only remembered now that I hadn't sent a weekly update email yet. Not that there's much to say. You should all really be looking through each week's lessons, which will let you know what you ought to be doing for this week. Anyway, the biggest part of that is to have read through the whole epistle to the Philippians. It might sound daunting. But it really isn't, since Philippians is one of the shorter of Paul's epistles. Also (you know how I like to push this), it will also be helpful if you listened and read at the same time. You can do that on the ESV Online Bible: http://www.esvbible.org/ Just one announcement: I'm finally up to date with our website. Right now, everything (at least the one that we have audio to post/decided to post) are now available. Just a reminder, in case you forgot how to get there, http://bit.ly/UpprRmMCF/ is the link. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:52:54 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:04:15 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:03:03 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:58:32 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:56:19 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:47:20 -0500 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:43:23 -0500 The Upper Room Fellowship presents BILD International, First Principle Series, Handling the Word with Confidence. Session 1: The Bible - One Long Story. Presented at Morningstar Christian Fellowship on 15 March 2012 by Chris Evangelista. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:30:31 -0500 The Upper Room Fellowship presents BILD International, First Principle Series, Handling the Word with Confidence. Session 1: A Commitment to Accurately Handling the Word. Presented at Morningstar Christian Fellowship on 15 March 2012 by Jason Hagen. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:52:16 -0500 Hey Everyone! 2 IMPORANT announcements this week... We are going to convene URF at the James Dar Convention Hall (Midland & Sheppard). We will have drivers at the church waiting to take you there, but please note that the debate starts at 7:30PM, and so they will leave the church at 7PM sharp! So please be there on time, or you might not make it. I mentioned that Pastor Bob is asking for a few people to help with a project he has for Holy Week. I've had a chance to talk with him about it, and I found out that he is keen on getting a team together - "this week", he said to me. I know the details are few, but essentially what the project is, is to help people meditate on Jesus' final days and resurrection. Now here's the thing. I said that it was something for the "artsy" people at church. But after reading through the material, and hearing that Katherine Matthewson will be primarily in charge of the "aesthetics", what I realize is needed are really a few dedicated individuals who can "help set up". Meaning, it doesn't necessarily need "artsy" people (though I'm sure that will help out) as it does need people who are willing to help set up stations. An example of this is a station that has a TV set to static. Obviously a simple station to set up, it obviously needs someone who is able to move a TV and set it up at a particular location in the church lobby (or hallways). The more I read about it - that it 's a modern take on the Stations of the Cross, which I talked about a little on Thursday - the more I'm really liking it. I mentioned that while I disagree with just about everything that the Roman Catholic Church is all about, there are a few things that it does get right... It's concern for maintaining "sacred" spaces, for example, places which are set apart for things like meditation, is one of them. Anyway, if this is something that interests you at all, please let me know right away. Honestly, I would love to do it myself, if I wasn't involved in orchestra. But anyway, this would be an excellent service opportunity for anyone who is interested. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:12:41 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well, it's week two of our First Principles Class, Handling the Word With Confidence. If you have a book, please be sure to do the first two sections in the book - Reading the Scriptures, and Consulting the Scholars - *in preparation* for Thursday. I will be teaching this week, though it won't be as long as Pastor Jay's lesson last week. He had to hit some high points regarding the First Principles Series in general, and about the book in particular. But this week, look forward to more time for discussion... Which requires that you put in that preparation ahead of time. It really shouldn't take long. Probably as much time as it took to read the last few chapters of Judges. Please be reminded that next week, we will be holding the Upper Room at the North American Muslim Foundation/Jamil Dar Convention Hall, for the James White - Shabir Ally debate. This week, I will be gather names of drivers and those who need a ride, and hopefully we can match up as many people as we can. The specific address is 4140 Finch Ave. E, which is just Finch Ave. , and Midland Ave. So it's really not that far from church. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:30:57 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well this week, we begin our study of the book "Handling the Word With Confidence" from the First Principles Series. I'm excited to see how the Lord is going to use this study to help you group in your faith through a study of ... well, how to study scriptures. Unfortunately, I only have 3 books left, and those will pretty much be handed out on a first come-first serve basis this Thursday ($10 fee applies of course). Pastor Jay did order more books, and who knows, maybe they'll even come in before Thursday night. But if not, here is a PDF copy of the Introductory sections of the book, as well as the session we will be covering on Thursday. If you are able to, please read all of the Introduction. But if you're pressed for time, please at least read pages 2-4 (Introduction to the book "Handling the Word With Confidence") and pages 8-10 (Explanation of the various sections in the study). As for the study itself, please read through all of it, paying special attention to the "Study the Scriptures" and "Consult the Scholars" sections. We ask that you complete these sections before we actually meet to study. Just a few reminders... ·Last week, I announced August 17-19 to be the dates for this year's summer retreat. ·This weekend is the Paul Washer seminars that we invited you to. It runs Friday night, Saturday during the day, and Sunday morning as well. If you are interested in attending that, please email me for more details (or see the Facebook event). ·On Thursday, 22 March 2012, CnC will be going to the James White debate at the North American Muslim Foundation (Jamil Dar Convention Hall). It starts at 7:30PM, and is FREE. I will be organizing rides, and this Thursday, you will have the opportunity to sign up as a driver or passenger. ·Finally, Morningstar is offering Arrow Leadership Training on Saturdays, 24 & 31 March 2012. Please visit the Morningstar website for more information (and to sign up) as it is subsidized for members of Morningstar. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 6 Mar 2012 19:32:54 -0500 Hey Everyone, Well Judges is over, and we are preparing to enter into a new series. So a break is in order! This week, we will be watching the documentary, "Divided", which talks about the problem of age segregated ministries in our churches today. If you have not seen the movie, maybe you'd like to check out the trailer at http://dividedthemovie.com/ If you have seen the movie, please come anyway! I hope to have a good discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments presented in the movie (I hope it should go without saying that I, and Pastor Jay don't agree with everything in the movie, despite how hard we push inter-generational ministries) and then how we might see Morningstar become more intergenerational. And I am really hoping that those who have seen it will be able to provide insights to those who have not. We will be meeting in the auditorium, and I ask that you congregate either in there, or in the foyer. The lounge will likely be used by the school of music, and I don't want them to be disturbed. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:50:32 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week, we finish off the book of Judges. Phew. I can't believe it! Please read chapters 19 to 21 to prepare for Pastor Jason's lesson. Please be reminded to complete the survey online at http://svy.mk/UpperRoom1 so that we will know how many books we need for the next series we're doing, Handling the Word with Confidence. This is really important because it will take several weeks for an order to be filled, if we need to make an order. And so we will have to send that order by the end of this week if we want it to arrive before the series begins on March 8. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:47:40 -0500 Hey Everyone! I've got a lot of announcements for this week. But very quickly, we will be covering Judges 17-19, which I know seems like a lot, but they are short chapters. We finally enter into the darkest phase of Israel's "Canaanization", and we will see just how badly it really goes for them. In the same way that Judges had a double introduction (you will remember that Pastor Jason and I covered one each), it also has two "Outros". This will be the first one as we finish off sad chapter in Israel's History. I also mentioned before that we have chosen our next teaching series, "Handling the Word With Confidence" which makes use of the First Principles resources. We will be starting this on March 8, and it does require a purchase of the accompanying book, which costs $10. I would also very much appreciate you providing me with a little bit of information about where you are in relation to Morningstar's "Learning Pathway". On that note, I would appreciate everyone completing the survey that I have created online. You may access that at http://svy.mk/UpperRoom1 Now on to the announcements (in Chronological Order) 1. The Upper Room is going bowling this Saturday, the 18th, at O'Connor Bowl (O'Connor & St. Clair). The cost is approximately $15, but could be lower depending on how many people attend. While it is not absolutely necessary to sign up/pay ahead, it is highly recommended! Otherwise, please arrive promptly at 7PM (or even earlier) so that you can let Vivian, who is planning the event, know that you're there. The Facebook event page can be found here: http://on.fb.me/z9iZGW 2. Pastor Jason and I just learned about a wonderful opportunity for Christian training that will be happening right here in Toronto (in fact, quite close to our church, at St. Timothy's Anglican Church, which is at Sheppard and Midland). Friday, March 9 to Sunday, March 11, Pastor Paul Washer, a powerful preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be teaching several sessions. Here's the kicker, it's talking about generational issues. The topic is: "Our next generation and ourselves". Please contact me for more details. We will likely be going as a group, and so, a sign up sheet will be made available. You can get more information about Paul Washer at http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/. 3. As I mentioned on Thursday, the Gospel Coalition has announced their Ontario Conference, which will be held on May 29-31 at Heritage Seminary in Cambridge. You can get more details about that at their website, http://bit.ly/TGCOntario2012. If you do sign up, please let me know! That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:27:53 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week is the second of three lessons that look at Israel's final cycle of apostasy. Please read Judges 14 and 15 to get acquainted with the particular passages we will be looking at. We are going to be turning to Samson's life now (as opposed to his parents, as Pastor Jay did last week), and we will see how Samson both epitomized what it meant to be a Canaanized Israelite, and how he took things even further (or at least how the narrator sought to use Samson to show the turning point of Israel's relationship with Yahweh). It is a sobering message, but one that needs to be heard in our day. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:12:49 -0500 Hey Everyone! I hope you were all as challenged by Pastor Jay's exhortation to be "saturated" in the Word of God as I was. And as a result of that, I hope that you would make the effort regularly reading the Bible. As Pastor Jay mentioned last night, there are some really great ways that some people have come up with in order to make it easier for you to do so. And so what follows in this message is a list of the different plans that are available online for you to download and print. Included are my own thoughts about each plan, and some recommendations that I have. But before I get into those plans, really quickly, there are, of course, electronic resources available. I'm sure there are even apps that you can use to go through a reading plan. But just two that I want to highlight are... YouVersion: (Multiple reading plans & versions of the Bible) http://www.youversion.com ESV Bible: (Multiple reading plans for the ESV Bible) http://www.esvbible.org One thing I want to say, and no I'm not trying to "convert" anyone to the ESV with this. Just an observation I've made... but it seems to me like Crossway (the publishers of the ESV) is head and shoulders over every other Bible publishing companies in terms of making use of recent technology to make the Bible available and accessible to everyone. Esvbible.org is already, in and of itself, an excellent resource, but in addition to that, I have you to find another app that can match the ESV in aesthetic appeal and ease of use. Introductory Plans These plans are a great way to start making Bible Reading a regular part of your day. They are shorter plans that give you an overview of some parts of the Bible. The first three plans are the shortest plans and are your most basic introductory plans. If you are a brand new Christian, I would suggest starting with the 30 Days for a New Christian, followed by the next two 30 day plans (with Jesus and in the Psalms). If you have been a believer for a while and know some things about the Bible, but haven't had the chance to read through the Bible systematically, then I would suggest starting with the 30 Days with Jesus, followed by 30 Days in the Psalms. Of course, if you feel like you need it, then start with the plan for New Christians as well. After doing the 30 day plans, then move on to the 60 Day, 90 Day, then 180 day overviews of the Bible. These plans will give you a big picture over view of the Scriptures (obviously, going deeper and deeper with each major sweep). Once you've gone through these and have built up the habit of reading Scriptures regularly (hopefully daily), then it would be appropriate to move on to the next "level" of reading the word. 30 Days for a New Christian http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/plan_new30_af_cms.pdf 30 Days with Jesus http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/plan_jesus30_af_cms.pdf 30 Days in the Psalms http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/plan_psalms30_af_cms.pdf 60 Day Overview of the Bible http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/60Day_af_cms.pdf 90 Day Overview of the Bible http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/90Days_af_cms.pdf 1-Year Plans Before I get in to these 1-Year Plans, let me make it clear that you do not necessarily need to start with the shorter plans before doing these larger plans. The shorter plans tend to have less reading each day (say, 2 chapters for the 30-180 Day plans, and 4 chapters a day for these 1-Year Plans). Also, the shorter plans tend move you through the "highlights" of the Bible; the significant/milestone points in scripture that really help you understand the story as a whole. What I should mention about how much more "advanced" these 1-Year Reading Plans are than the shorter "Introductory" plans are that they tend to be more "unforgiving" in the sense that if you miss days, you fall behind, and it can be difficult to catch up. So it would be really important for you to be disciplined about building up the habit of reading scripture every day if you're going to be "successful" in completing these plans. Having said all of that, my favourite 1-Year plans are connected to a devotional book written by D.A. Carson. It's called "For the Love of God" and there are 2 volumes to choose from. These two plans follow a modified version of the "M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan" which walks you through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in the year. An alternative to these two reading plans are the One-Year Bibles that are published by Crossway (for the ESV) and Tyndale Publishing House (for the NIV). These Bibles are actually rearranged so that you follow their reading plan (I think there are 4 readings per day, 1 each from the Old and New Testaments, and 1 each from Psalms and Proverbs.) For the Love of God Volume 1 http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/1998_for_the_love_of_God.pdf For the Love of God Volume 2 http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/1999_for_the_love_of_God.pdf ESV One Year Bible http://www.amazon.ca/ESV-One-Year-Bible-Standard/dp/1581347081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327691597&sr=8-1 NIV One Year Bible http://www.amazon.ca/One-Year-Bible-NIV/dp/0842324518/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327691597&sr=8-2-fkmr0 Horner's Bible Reading System Horner's Bible Reading System is the Reading Plan that Pastor Jay was talking about last night: the one where you read 10 chapters a day. It is a little "hardcore" and would be the next step for those who looking for something beyond the 1-Year Reading plans. Horner's method has you read 1 chapter each from 10 "Lists" of books of the Bible. Going through this system, you actually read through the Bible once every 8 months. BUT, having said that, the 10 lists that you read from are not equal in length. There are some parts that only have 28 chapters (Acts) and some, only 31 chapters (Proverbs). So while you go through the whole Bible in 8 months, what that really means is that you go through the 2 longest of the 10 lists in 8 months (List 8, the Historical books after the Pentateuch, is 249 days long; and list 9, which are the major and minor prophets, is 250 days long), while you go through the shorter lists multiple times over that same period of time (so, you read through List 8 once in 8 months, while you read through Acts almost 9 times). The PDF I am providing in the link below gives you more details on how the system works and the justification for reading the Bible this way. It even has "bookmarks" that you can print out and keep in your Bible to keep track of your readings. http://www.wbfva.org/files/professor_grant_horners_bible_reading_system.pdf 3-Year Plan This final plan is a 3-year guided plan. It goes through the Bible chapter-by-chapter, but it does not simply go through it cover to cover. It does jump around to help break up the monotony of some parts of the Bible (like Leviticus). This plan is also a great introductory plan because it is just 1 chapter of the Bible. Alternatively, I would suggest this plan, along with another resource like a good Study Bible, or Gordon Fee's book "How to Read the Bible Book by Book" (http://www.amazon.ca/How-Read-Bible-Book/dp/0310211182/ref=pd_sim_b_1) for more in-depth Bible study that you can do *in addition* to your daily devotional reading. http://www.zondervan.com/m/readingplans/3yrGddTour_af_cms.pdf Alright, well that's all for now. I really hope that these resources will be able to bring you yet one step closer to that goal of becoming "competent" and "confident" readers of God's Word. Shalom, Chris Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:44:02 -0500 Hey Everyone! I do apologize for this crazy late weekly update. It was a paper week for me, and it was a crazy one. You know how it is with the first major assignment of the year right? Hehe. Anyway, this week... by which I mean, tomorrow, Pastor Jason will begin the study on the life of Samson. We're almost done Judges! Please read through Judges 13 & 14 to prepare for the lesson. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:47:41 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well, we're back! Yeaaahh! This week at the Upper Room, Pastor Jason will be resuming our studies in Judges. He will be starting a new cycle with the judge Jepthah. Now, I realize it's been a while since we've been in Judges, and you might not have even thought about the book of Judges since we stopped in mid-November. Or, you might be coming to the Upper Room for the first time all year and have not heard anything about Judges at all. Well here are some of the things you might want to try to catch up/prepare for this week's lesson. 1.The least time consuming will likely be reading my Inductive Study on Judges. No, I'm not trying to promote my own writing, or my blog or anything like that. But at this point, this is probably the most concise resource that we have for you to get an understanding of the book of Judges as a whole. You can access that here: http://www.excelstillmore.ca/2011/11/141/ 2.Another option is to listen to Pastor Jay's first sermon and to read through my sermon notes for the first two lessons in Judges. In those, we laid out the theme and background of the book. You can access that here: http://bit.ly/UpprRmJudges 3.I would suggest either Number 1 or Number 2... AND THEN, to do this... Read through all of Judges in one sitting. It shouldn't take long - about an hour or so. But if you read carefully, it will help to bring all of the parts together for you. I say it over and over again, I really like reading the Bible and listening to an audio Bible at the same time. I count it as having gone through it twice! Hahaha. But anyway, an excellent resource for that is here: http://esv.to/Judges Well, that's all for now. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again on Thursday! Shalom, Chris Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:12:31 -0500 Hey Everyone! That's right, Upper Room resumes next week, January 12. Thanks, Chris Tue, 3 Jan 2012 09:19:19 -0500 Hey Everyone! I know, I know! It's the week in between Christmas and New Years, which is supposed to be time off for everyone. But I can't help myself! There's so many things I'm preparing for in the new year, and some of them are time-sensitive. Like this initiative, I'd like to start with those of you who are willing to make the commitment. I'm praying for a small group of us - 5 to 10, to commit to reading through the Bible, every single word, in 2012. Here's how it will work... 1.The reading plan we will use is the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan, which walks through the Old Testament once, and the New Testament twice in one year. 2.This represents reading 4 chapters from 4 parts of the Bible each day (From January to March, it's 2 each from the Old Testament and New Testament; then for the rest of the year, it's 3 from the Old and 1 from the New). 3.An optional addition is to read through D.A. Carson's devotional "For the Love of God" (It's available for free as a PDF E-Book). 4.Comment once a week on what God is teaching you through your readings (either on a new Facebook group I will set up, or a blog that I will set up). If you having been wanting to read through the Bible in one year and haven't been able to figure out where to start, this would be a great way for you to get involved! It provides both the systemic program that would help you accomplish the goal, and the accountability of having friends walking through the process with you! If you wish to participate, please email me as soon as possible so I can get you set up so that you will know what to read on January 1. By the end of the first week, I will also have some sort of forum for us to engage with each other set up, so that we can start writing about what God is teaching us in his word. That's all for now! Hope you all had a Blessed Christmas, and I pray you will have a Happy New Year. Shalom, Chris Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:13:34 -0500 Hey Everyone! What's this? An email from Chris in the middle of the week? It must be important! Do you not know what to do with your Thursday since The Upper Room is taking a 2 week break? Well, this might be something you can consider for next week. Pastor Jason and I have been informed of a ministry opportunity that a group of you might want to get involved in. It's a DVD Distribution drive at a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood. Here's the snippet we received from Shawn from the JesusNetwork.ca -- Who: you, your small group, family, church etc What: Helping distribute 50,000 Jesus DVDs in Christmas cards to new immigrants Where: various locations, mainly connected to Don Mills Rd When: December 27th to December 39thstarting at 9AM and going until 9PM Come when you are able to. Let us know what time works best Why?? Because the immigrant rate is growing faster than the birth rate. If we do not attempt to reach these new immigrants now when they first arrive then who will? We have the Christmas season which makes a distribution like this simple. We knock on someone's door, wish them a merry Christmas and give them a Christmas gift. Let's go! -- If any of you would like to organize a group to go, that would be wonderful! You can reach Shawn at prayer@jesusnetwork.ca. You can also find them at http://www.facebook.com/jesusnetwork We have many means of trying to organize people. One of them is through Facebook, where the Upper Room has both a "Page" (for announcements such as this one) and a "Group" (for discussion among members). If you would like more information about either of these two modes of communication, please email me and I'll get you connected. If you do not have Facebook but wish to be involved in this, email me as well, and I'll connect you with anyone who is organizing something or planning to simply head down to help. By the way, this is the perfect example of the kind of thing that would normally run through the "Missions Committee". Emails and other communication that Pastor Jay and I receive from folks like Shawn at the Jesus Network would be forwarded to the committee, and it would be their mandate to drum up support with everyone else and to organize a group to go. Well. As it eventually is. That's it for now. Shalom, Chris Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:03:47 -0500 Hey Everyone! God is good! He's sustained me through my exam period - I handed in my last one today. I do apologize for not having sent out a weekly update the past two weeks. But now that I am not worried about Aorist Active Indicative paradigms and the Theotokos theological controversy between Nestorius and Cyril, I am quite up for writing this last one of the year 2011! This week at the Upper Room, we will be holding a Christmas party. Here are some details about it, as well as answers to some discussions that have come up in Facebook. 1.The party will be pot luck. Please bring a dish of your choice. If possible, let me know what dish you're going to bring (or what kind of dish it is - appetizer, main course or desert) so I can make sure we'll have enough of everything. Please do make sure it's "finger" type food that can easily be eaten. 2.Yes it will be supper-ish. It certainly will be mine because I'll be coming from work (Yes, I convinced someone to trade shifts with me!). It will be "Filipino-Style" though in that we will not be setting up a table to sit down on (in Filipino parties, the dining room table is used for the food, and the people eat sitting wherever they can find space. For those who were at my birthday party in October, you know what I mean). 3.I (or that is, Youth Ministries) will cover drinks, plates and utensils. I'll be bringing my karaoke machine. But please, also bring a board gave if you'd like to play and such. We won't be running anything formal. It will just be a nice little gathering for us to enjoy each other's company (again, those who were at my birthday party will know what I mean by this). That's pretty much all I have for the party. Do just remember that this is the last week we are meeting in 2011 - we will be taking a 2-week break, and will resume on January 12. Ok now, last thing. Just a few of the announcements that I want to reiterate. 1.I'm still looking for people for the two committees that we are setting up: the Social Justice and Missions committees. I won't explain what's involved now, but please message me if you're interested. 2.Pastor Jay had mentioned an opportunity for us to minister to a family in the church that needs a little bit of help with some things: a move on December 26th and some babysitting assistance to give mom and dad a little break. If this is something you're in taking on, please talk to myself or Pastor Jay. Alright. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:25:40 -0500 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:25:11 -0500 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:23:58 -0500 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:22:15 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week at the Upper Room Fellowship, we are taking a look more closely at Ruth 2. I will begin by explaining the concept of "Levirate Marriage", which is an important sub-theme that is runs through Ruth. I won't really do much in terms of applying it to the story, as that will be Pastor Jason's job for Ruth 3 and 4. But for my part, I will be looking at how "Hesed" is present in Ruth, once again, but more importantly, in Boaz. Just a few things of note: 1)Registration is closed for the OCC Warehouse trip. The bus is full, and we're ready to go! 2)We're going to begin planning for the Christmas party on November 22... By which I mean, I will have a sign-up sheet for food. 3)Lastly, I will once again be discussing the two committees that I had talked about last week. Please come prepared with your thoughts on the "Social Justice" or "Missions" committees. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:17:50 -0500 Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:15:23 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week at the Upper Room Fellowship, we will be starting on the Book of Ruth! Instead of writing a whole bunch of stuff about what I'm going to talk about, I thought that as a way to introduce you all to Ruth, I'd give you two classical pieces that I think does a great job of summarizing some of the differences between Ruth and Judges. Follow the links below to listen to the songs, and be sure to come on Thursday to come see what Ruth is all about. Judges: http://youtu.be/L0bcRCCg01I Ruth: http://youtu.be/OC-EPsvdi6E Please remember that we are trying to make a few shoeboxes to donate to the Operation Christmas Child shoebox drive. So if you wouldn't mind taking a trip to the dollar store and picking up some items to donate, it would be great! Here's a link where you can get an idea of things to get... http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/Operation-Christmas-Child/Pack-a-Box.aspx If we were able to make 6 shoeboxes (one for each of the categories of shoeboxes), that would be wonderful. Well, that's all for now. Shalom, Chris Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:06:01 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week at the Upper Room, Pastor Jason finishes off the Gideon cycle with his son Abimelech. Though refused when the people of Israel tried to make him king, wouldn't you say that it is quite suspect that his son would be called "My Father is King"? Come find out what Pastor Jay has to say about this on Thursday. This will be the last lesson we have on Judges for 2011, as we will be moving in to Ruth on November 24. Please do remember to read this week's passage: Judges 9. Just a few events I want to highlight: 1. http://on.fb.me/OpChristmasChild- Please remember, you have to sign up on the Facebook page to be added to the list of those going. Also, please refrain from using the "Maybe Attending" function in Facebook, as it really is no help to us, because we will be ordering a bus to take everyone there. 2. http://on.fb.me/ZooTrip - Especially if you need a ride, please be sure to sign up on the Facebook page for this Saturday's zoo trip. Email me for specific details. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:19:42 -0500 Hey Everyone! Sorry this email is a little late. It was quite a busy Monday for me. But here it is, and for once, I don't have much to write about. This week, instead of me teaching for an hour, we will once again be doing the "Small Group Inductive Study" of our passage. We will be covering Judges 8, which is part 3 (out of 4) of the Gideon cycle. Please read the passage through before you come on Thursday. And do come prepared to discuss your thoughts on the passage as it relates to the others that we have seen already. Very quickly, just a few links to highlight. 1. http://on.fb.me/OpChristmasChild- Is the Facebook event for our trip to the Operation Christmas Child warehouse on December 3. Please sign up there if you'd like to attend. 2. http://on.fb.me/ZooTrip - It's official! This is the Facebook event for our Zoo trip on November 19. Again, please sign up there if you'd like to attend. 3. http://bit.ly/JudgesInductive- I got my inductive study assignment back from my Old Testament professor yesterday, and have posted it on my blog. If you're interested in a "big picture" analysis of the book without having to do too much reading (it's only about 2,000 words), then please feel free to check it out., That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 8 Nov 2011 21:48:09 -0500 Tue, 8 Nov 2011 21:46:18 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week at The Upper Room, Pastor Jason continues the story of the judge, Gideon, who we saw last week responding very reluctantly to God's call for him to lead Israel against the Midianites. What grace did God show this man who even had the audacity to offer the same sacrifice to Yahweh as he would other pagan gods of the world around him (the young goat, 22-litres-of-flour-worth-of bread, and the broth). Unfortunately, what we saw last week, though, is just a taste of Gideon's lack of faith, as Pastor Jay considers the famous story of the fleece, and then of course King Leonidas' ... I mean, Gideon's 300 men who defeated the entire Midianite army. Come see what God has to teach you this week! But please, do come prepared having read the passage already. We will be covering Judges 6:36 to 7:25. Just a few more things... ·As I mentioned already, we're going to try for the Zoo on November 19th. There are strict conditions though - namely, that we need to get enough people to get the discount (20 people for $20). I will be making a Facebook event page for this soon, so be on the look out for it. ·We are also going to officially extend the invitation out to you all to join us at the Operation Christmas Child warehouse on November 26th. More details will follow. But for now, if you are interested in joining us, please respond to this email. ·On that note, Dee had a great idea: let's make our own Christmas shoe boxes too! On November 24th, I invite you to bring items that we can put into our shoe boxes. I'd like to aim for 6 shoe boxes: one for each category of boxes being created (boy & girl; 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years of age). If you are able, please bring one item for each of the categories, and I'm sure between all of us, we can make it happen (for more information on what items to get, please visit http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/Operation-Christmas-Child/Pack-a-Box.aspx) ·Last but not least... man that week in November is going to be busy... you're invited to the movie night being hosted by Oasis at Morningstar on Friday, November 25th. The movie is called "Divided" and it deals with the idea of age segregated ministries. It's quite controversial, and thought provoking. For more information, visit the movie's website (http://dividedthemovie.com/). Hope to see you there! Well, that was quite a lot. But, as it always is, that's all for now. Shalom! Chris Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:34:45 -0500 Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:33:40 -0500 Hey Everyone, Well, we had an amazing time picking apples at Chudleigh's on Saturday. If you weren't able to make it, you really missed out. But no worries! We're already planning our November social. It would be on Saturday, November 19th. But that's about all that I can tell you right now. Stayed tuned for more details. And don't forget to mark the day in your calendars. This week at the Upper Room, we will be looking at Judges 5, which as I already mentioned to you, covers the same story as Judges 4, but in a different "form". That is, the story is told in a different way: where Judges 4 was a narrative, Judges 5 is a song that deals with blessing and cursing (note, "cursing", not "cussing"). Pastor Jay has this to say... "This Week, Honeybee (Deborah) and Lightnig's (Barak) greatest classic hit: Victory!" It is a classic indeed! And I'm looking forward to seeing what God has to teach us through Pastor Jay. If you didn't know already, we do have the lessons posted on our website. There are several different ways you can access it. All have the same information, and we offer them merely for your convenience. Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/UpperRoomMCF Blog (on the MCF Website), http://bit.ly/UpprRmMCF(note: case sensitive) Tumblr, http://UpperRoomMCF.tumblr.com That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:24:34 -0500 Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:01:23 -0500 Hey Everyone! This week at The Upper Room, we will be looking at Judges 4, which covers the Judge, "Deborah", and the military leader, "Barak". This portion of scripture is difficult for many reasons. One major reason concerns the scholarship behind it. I won't even get into that, but it involves the fact that there are two parallel accounts of the same story (involving Deborah and Barak) that are side by side in the Bible (Judges 5, which will be covered by Pastor Jay) but are different literary genres (Judges 5 is a Psalm). How these two parts relate to each other has been the subject of much debate in biblical scholarship. More importantly though, in terms of interpretation, another "difficulty" is that the text concerns a woman who is in a leadership position in Israel. And there are two extremes that interpretation of this text might tend to go. Both would say something like "See! A woman can be in a position of power in the Bible." But one extreme can be patronizing, and the other leaning too much into feminism. I'll comment on why both of these tendencies are problematic by way of explaining why this story is really is remarkable: it's because of something that Deborah and Barak share. Come on Thursday, and find out what that is! That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:37:21 -0500 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:36:02 -0500 Hey Everyone! Well, we're a few days into the "Inductive Study on Genesis" experiment, and I hope everyone is still into it. You would have either just finished reading about the account of the Fall or Cain and Abel. I hope that diving into God's Word in this kind of systematic way has been a blessing to you as it had been for me when I did my own study of Genesis. Anyway, this week at The Upper Room, Pastor Jason will be teaching out of Judges 3:7 to 3:31. Here is what he has to say about it: "In the last couple of weeks we've looked at the introduction of the book of the Judges and considered the disastrous consequences of compromise and sin in the ancient people of God. Yet we've also seen the gracious and sovereign hand of God in working out His purposes for His people in spite of their faithlessness and failure. This week, we begin the main segment of the book (3:7-16:31) dealing with the descriptions of the various oppressions Israel faced due to their apostasy, and the deliverances they were graciously provided by God's great mercy. A pattern emerges of sin, servitude, supplication and salvation in this section and we meet the first three judges, three ordinary men empowered by an incredible God: a romantic warrior, a left handed man, and a potter? What do these have in common? Come find out this Thursday." Looking forward to seeing you all soon! That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Mon, 3 Oct 2011 21:58:43 -0500 Covering Judges 2:6 to 3:6 There is no video/audio for this lesson as it turned out to become a "sample" inductive study. The following are parts of the notes I took for the lesson. Unfortunately, it seems the rest of it was lost... =-= The Hebrew word for "God", "Elohim", is actually a pretty general term that can often be confusing. It can be a pretty general term meaning "gods" ... lower case "g", but it is also after used to refer to God... upper case "G", the creator of the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so on. The thing is, there is another way God is referred to in the Bible, which some of you may have already picked up on... And that is "Lord" with all-capitals. This is where it gets a little confusing, because we know "Lord" to be a title, as in "Master". But what this really refers to, in the Hebrew, is what we call the "Tetragramaton", which are the four Hebrew letters "Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey", which transliterated into English is YHWH... This is the personal name of God, and in Jewish tradition, it was considered to be highly irreverent to even utter the name of God. Nonetheless, YHWH was written all over the Hebrew Bible, and one major component of Hebrew worship was the public reading of the word. And so what devout Jews did instead of reading the name of God out loud was to substitute the word "Adonay" every time they come across it. Unfortunately, what has happened as a result of this, though, is that people forgot how to pronounce the name of God.... What I mean by that is this... The Hebrew language was written only with consonants... There were no vowels in the language... the idea was, that people who read it would know it well enough that they can supply the vowels when needed. We can kind of did/do this in English as well.. Anyone here in to texting before the whole smart phone full-keyboard phase? For someone of you who don't know or don't remember... before the days of iPhone's onscreen keyboard, and BlackBerry's ridiculously tiny keyboard. We had to use the number pad to type... Each number had 3 letters associated to it, some 4... And so if we wanted an A, we pressed the 2 once, a B, we pressed it twice, or a C, we pressed it three times... Anyway, because of this, in order to make texting faster, we stopped using vowels... So if I wanted to text ask my friend "where are we going"? I would type something like "whr r w gng?" ... Back to Hebrew, that's how their entire written system worked... And it was perfectly alright as long as a lot of people knew Hebrew. But over time, as the Jewish people were exiled and a diaspora grew that knew other languages like Aramaic or Greek much better than Hebrew, some scribes - the people who copied the Bible - became concerned that they would forget how to pronounce the whole language altogether. And so what some of them did was add what we call "Vowel pointings", which were mostly dots and written on top, under, or inside Hebrew consonants, to help people reading it pronounce it. Here's the thing... When it came to the Tetragramaton... In order to remind the person reading the scripture not to say "Adonay" instead of God's name... What they did was they added the vowel pointings that they would normally put on the word for Adonay, which happens to be a 4-letter word as well, to the Tetragramaton. Which left us with a word that, was basically pronounced "Yahovah". Which is where we get the word "Jehovah" from... Of course that's a mistake... A misunderstanding by Christians, before they realized what the vowel system was all about. Problem is, we still don't know the original vowels that the Tetragramaton would have taken... Not that it matters because Jews today, even ones who aren't as serious about their faith as some of the more devout ones, still won't pronounce God's name... instead continuing to say "Adonay", or "Hashem" which means, "the Name". Anyway, the best guess of many scholars today is that the word is actually pronounced "Yahweh". Obviously I'm not going to get into how they figured this out. Cause it is a little complicated. But know that there is solid academic scholarship behind the understanding that the Tetragramaton is supposed to be pronounced "Yahweh". So... Having said all of that, I will mostly be referring to God as "God". Because that's the easiest way to go about it, of course. But... if any time I want to make an emphasis about God as the God of Israel, or God as a personal God who is involved in the affairs of his chosen people... I tend to get into the "Yahweh" mode. =-= - Hard to distinguish between the two sections that Pastor Jay taught on last week - Judges 1:1 to 2:5, and this week's 2:6 to 3:6. Even a quick reading of the two parts suggest that they go together. The entire section from 1:1 to 3:6 basically serve as an introduction to these people that we will soon encounter called "Judges". - Nonetheless, there is this clear distinction between the two sections... namely, the fact that Judges 2:6 starts all over again... With the death of Joshua. So we have to say... well, maybe we were meant to read these two in some sort of contrasting way, and not necessarily just straight through. - And so, that's why Pastor Jay and I separated the lessons here... What we have then, is a double introduction to the Book of Judges, each serving their own purpose. - Pastor Jason's part, if you remember read more like a history lesson, really. I mean, obviously, there were some theological elements in it... It starts the conquest of the Promised Land off with the people asking Yahweh who should be the first to go into the land to conquer their territory. And Yahweh giving some direction on how to do it. - But very soon, again as Pastor Jason talked about last week, we see a disintegration... At first Judah easily captures Jerusalem. - But then with each account of other tribes moving to conquer their portion of the land, they accomplish less and less... Until finally in Chapter 1 verse 34, the tribe of Dan couldn't even make it into their allotted land. - What we have, then starting in Judges 2:6, is what you might understand as a commentary on the previous introduction. With its juxtaposition beside this earlier account, we are given an explanation of WHY the Israelites were unable to capture the land.. - Verses 6-9 spells out what the problem was... 6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. =-= Now, Pastor Jay touched on this already, so I don't want to repeat too much of what he said. But just think about some of the amazing things that had happened already in Israel's history up until this point... This is not even close to being an exhaustive list... 1) The Exodus. Huge event still celebrated today. The Passover, when God did mighty things to free the Israelite slaves from the Egyptians... 2) The wilderness wanderings when God supernaturally provided for the Israelites throughout 40 years. 3) The battle of Jericho, when God gave the city over to the Israelites simply because they marched around it and screamed. 4) All the other military victories outlined in the book of Joshua. The Israelites, for sure were outmanned and out-teched by the Caananites, but God gives them victory anyway. And so here, now, we have an explanation of why the Israelites weren't able to complete the conquest into the promised land... Here's my first point then ... Sin begins with forgetting about who God is and what he's done for us. The result of which is that we cannot fathom what he can do for us now. - This is especially problematic in our church today as occasionally, the focus in their thoughts and practices turn away from God. - If you look at the United Church for example. A church of wonderful beginnings, steeped in Evangelicalism, seeking to distinguish itself from mainstream churches which they saw as rigid, or hierarchical, and such. - But, unfortunately, it got caught up deeply in the "individual rights" and "social justice" movements, and other things like that... - Things that are, in and of themselves aren't bad... but when they take over the thoughts and practices of the church, then things begin to go wrong... - Now there are actually some United Churches whose "pastors" if you can call them that... are self-proclaimed atheists. There's an example of one nearby, West Hill United, not 5 minutes away... =-= 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Here's my second point... Sin ultimately has some root in idolatry... Now, I'm not going to talk about this too much tonight, because it's something that we're going to see in Judges over and over, anyway. But one resource I do want to point you guys to is a great little book by Tim Keller called "Counterfeit Gods", which basically looks at how idolatry is perpetuated in our world today. Because we might not bow down to literal idols. Literal carved images. But there are plenty of things in our world today that can become idols. Money. Power. Sex. Beauty... are some of the obvious ones that everyone can probably quickly agree on. But there are others that we may not even realize have become idols... Things that may even seem good. But are, nonetheless, if they take that place of ultimacy in our lives over God, become idols. This is where something like social justice and individual rights come in... When these things take the place of God in our thoughts and practices then we've got a problem... But there are other things still that can be problematic. Things like ministry, family, love... These things can also become idols when elevated over God... Now, what is the consequence of this sin? Well, for the Israelites, God gave them over to a world of hurt... 14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. By the way, this and of itself is pretty gracious to begin with. At this point in History, God is still giving Israel some pretty concrete indications that they are in the wrong! This is what you might call God's active wrath. He is punishing his people for their idolatry, as Moses says to them in Deuteronomy 8:5, "Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you." Point 3: Nonetheless, God is yet merciful and gracious, and so he sends relief in the form of redeemers. 16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. 18 Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But then notice the cycle going on here... 19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, "Because this people has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not." 23 So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. Mon, 3 Oct 2011 21:56:13 -0500 Hey Everyone, This week at the Upper Room, we will be looking at Judges 2:6 to 3:6, which we have chosen to title "The Consequences of Apostasy". In this passage, we will see how Israel's failure to trust and obey God, and to secure the land of Promise, was really a downward spiral of sin that led Israel to even deeper and graver sins. Nonetheless, as God himself declared in Exodus 34, he is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation". And so despite Israel's apostasy, we will see how God continues to show his love and mercy to his chosen people. As always, please prepare yourself for this study by taking some time to read through the passage. The "Judges Series" site is finally active. You can access it through Morningstar's website, or directly through this link, http://bit.ly/UpprRmJudges. It will continuously be updated, so visit often! That's all for now. Shalom, Chris PS: I finally figured out why some of you were not receiving the email. I fixed the problem and hopefully everyone is receiving this email now. I do just want to highlight that this is exactly why we have the other websites (Blog, Tumblr and Facebook), which really just mirror each other in content. By checking (and subscribing to) even just one of these, you should be able to stay reasonably up to date with what's happening in the community. Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:36:30 -0500 Covering Judges 1:1 to 2:5. Questions to Consider (1) What did you learn from Judges 1:1 - 2:5? Was there anything helpful, confusing encouraging, or challenging? (2) The overall theme of the book of Judges has been defined by some theologians to be "the Canaanization of the people of Israel during the settlement of the Promised Land", or simply, the paganization of God's people. What are some evidences of the "Canaanization" of the church today? (Eg. What attitudes, behaviours, and practices has the church incorporated that are not in line with God's Word?). (3) Paul exhorted Timothy to "fight the good fight of the faith" (1 Timothy 6:12). The fight Christians are to be engaged in is one of faith - to trust and obey God daily. What are some areas in your life where you've grown weary of fighting? If you have any questions, comments or concerns about anything you heard in the lesson, and about any of these questions we've provided, or if you simply have a prayer request to make, please feel free to contact us. You can reach Pastor Jason at jason.hagen@morningstarfellowship.ca or Chris Evangelista at chris@ichthus.ca. Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:09:17 -0500 Hey Everyone, This week at The Upper Room, Pastor Jay will begin our study in the book of Judges. Please remember to make an attempt at reading through the whole book in one sitting - it should only take about an hour or so. If not, at the very least, please read through Judges 1:1 to 2:5, which is what Pastor Jay will be covering tonight. These first two chapters of Judges read almost like an appendix to the book of Joshua, during which the people of Israel finally entered the promised land after 40 years of wandering around in the desert. You might even want to consider reading through Joshua, to have an idea of where it fits in Israel's history. On the other hand, this passage is also the introduction to the themes that the book of Judges will be about for the rest of the book; a prelude to Israel's apostasy. I mentioned last Thursday that I would have the "Judges" page on our website (http://bit.ly/UpprRmMCF) ready by today. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to work on it yet. Hopefully by tomorrow night, I will have it finished. Certainly, by Thursday it will be done and I will be able to show you the different things we will have available on that site. We had a great time during our launch last week. And we are looking forward to getting to know everyone and getting everyone involved in our community of faith (both our smaller community, and in the life of Morningstar). Please be reminded that we will have our Barbeque at Vivian Wescott's home this Saturday, September 24th. More details will be provided on Thursday. Also, please be in prayer for Pastor Jay as his ordination council meets tomorrow morning. If you want to attend and lend him your support (and watch him get grilled on theological matters), please do so! It is at 11AM in the auditorium. That's all for now. Shalom, Chris Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:15:25 -0500 Week of September 12, 2011 Hey Everyone, Greetings in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ! This email is a day late in being sent. I do plan to continue Ryan's practice of sending it on Mondays, so that you can have a few days to prepare for our meeting together. Well, the huge thing of course that is going on this week will be the re-launch of the ministry, once again, renamed "The Upper Room". During the launch, there will be two very short lessons. First, Pastor Jay will spend a little time explaining the name change by way of Acts 1. Then, I will introduce our new teaching series, Judges & Ruth, by way of Luke 24. The rest of the time will be spent in fellowship with each other, reacquainting those who are returning from previous years, and welcoming new comers. We will have some snacks (please note, snacks - as in, finger food - and not supper - I do apologize if I made it sound that way), games, and to cap off the night, karaoke! That's all for now. I look forward to seeing all of you on Thursday. Shalom, Chris Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:14:01 -0500 Greetings All! Well a new year is upon us at CnC, and we are looking forward to having you all join us for the re-launch of the ministry, now renamed "The Upper Room" on Thursday, September 15, 2011. We will be having a "Social" night to reacquaint those returning for another year, and to welcome new comers. So come prepared to snack, fellowship, play games, and sing karaoke! Some things to note: 1. We will begin our new set of lessons on September 22. The new lessons will be from Judges and Ruth. Please feel free to read through these books in advance of the lessons (reading through them in one sitting would take only about an hour and a half). A further "reading list" will also be posted for those interested in more in depth study. 2. Be sure to mark September 24 on your calendars as Vivian will be hosting us for a Barbeque at her home. We will be providing more details for this event in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! 3. Please "Like" our Facebook page (Simply search "Morningstar College and Careers Ministry" or follow this link http://on.fb.me/nZTPD2). At 25 "Likes" we can choose our own "User Name"! Please help us reach this milestone. 4. You may also follow Upper Room on Twitter and Tumblr (User Name for both: UpperRoomMCF). Please also be reminded that if you do not wish to continue receiving these email messages from us, simply let me know to remove you by emailing me at chris@ichthus.ca. Shalom, Chris Tue, 6 Sep 2011 11:20:02 -0500