The Light of the World

I took this picture of a lightbulb on my parents porch the other day. It's been good to be away from Wilmington for a short period because it has allowed me to reflect on the youth ministry at SACPC.
This little bulb by itself gives off a little bit of light, but the entire strand together lights up my parents driveway. It has been a blessing for Kim and I to see the "strand" of young peope and youth leaders shine for Christ.

My prayer for you and me this Christmas is that we CELEBRATE the fact that the LIGHT has come into this world........and his name is EMMANUEL (God with us)



He gave us MINDS to Know Him.
He gave us Hearts to Feel.
He gave us Hands to serve
and He gave us Feet to Follow.


Contine to Shine for Christ!
I love each of you......nate

The Death Penalty

1) What are your thoughts on Capital Punishment?
2) Do the scriptures have anything to say about this?

Nate's Nateless BDAY Celebration

On Dec. 20th (my bday) there will be a bday celebration for MS and HS students to come to the HUB and watch sports or a movie on the big screen, play on the video games or computers, eat some grub and hang out with the FOLD FAM. Bring some friends.

Here's the rub......I won't be there....i'll be in Hollywood...but how joyful is it to know that you little chillin's are celebrating my bday (a national holiday) in my absence.

God is Good
nate

GRACIAS

..ok sports fans, we are going to take a small break from the highly controversial weekly bloggings. So here's the deal:
* make a comment with 10 things you are thankful for.
My goal is to get 20 thankful bloggings.

TRASHY

Is pollution that big of a problem?
Will your children be effected by pollution in their lifetime?
What does God's word say about it? (look in Genesis)
What is our role as humans as it pertains to the earth?

(Marie V. gets the credit for this question)

Do Christians in our community play well together?

Why is Sunday morning in Wilmington the most
segregated time of the week?

Should this change? How?

Would JC live behind a gate?

I could catch some heat from this one......
but the purpose of this blog is to
ask the hard questions and think
"theologically" about them. If this
ruffles your feathers...good!!
All the blogs have ruffled my little feathers.
Ruffling is Good!

Here it is:

What do you think God thinks about
living in "gated communities" or belonging
to "Country Clubs"?

Hath God prepared a place for Fido?

ok..this is a classic question I get asked
by my younger friends.......
"Do dogs go to heaven?"

have fun......
nate

Suffering

If God is so good,
why is there so much suffering in our world?

Does God want you to be rich?

This Time mag. came out a few weeks ago and it asks
a great question, does God want you to be rich?
This is similar to the post I made about WWJD or What
would Jesus Drive?
Have we as American Christans gone too far on the spending?
What does scripture have to say about money?

James 1.19-27 by Trent (Sr. at Topsail)

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I just thought that i would share this with you guys b/c I believe that it is so true. For example when it says "do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. do what it says." and it goes on about looking in the mirror. I think that alot of times some of us when we go to church or to youth group and we listen to the teachings and we learn. That alot of times we remember it for that short of time and forget about when really we should be taking that lesson that we learned and using it to bring others to Christ, and also we sometimes do not take that lesson and apply it in our life. It also says "but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does." You learn so much from this that little piece that just makes you think. I thought that I would just share that with you guys and feel free to make a comment. I would love to hear what you would have to say.


"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

Doozie #3 "W.hat W.ould J.esus D.rive?"

Here are some thoughts to get the ball rollin' on a new issue:
What Would Jesus Drive?
If JC came to Wilmington today, where would he live? what job would He have? what would He wear? and what would he drive?


**You can still comment on the 2 topics below; War and Worry.
You all have done great...spread the word and keep the comments coming!

Help me answer this question!!!

There are about 10 "doozies" or hard questions that I frequently get asked. I will post one below and I want you to give HONEST feedback....don't tell me what I want to here. Here we go:

Should Christians fight in war?

ooooooooo this should get interesting!!!


( click on the "comment" thingy below to respond and make sure and put your first name down so we know who made the comment)

if you don't like this topic or Rob Bryan's intimidates you with his big words (:
please comment on the topic below called "worry". Trent made a good comment last week on it.

God is Good,
Nate

Meeting!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everybody, I just wanted to remind you guys and gals about the meeting Wensday for the D-groups and stuff at 6:30. I hope I see you there. Much Love Family!!!!!!

Kara learns to blog!

hey fold! i just learned how to do this and i want to encourage everyone to learn to blog on here and we can all write back! (its kind of like our fold group on facebook, but this is something everyone can use!) anywho, this is just my practice run, ill be writing more later! love you all, God Bless! - Kara

Worry

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." - Matt. 6:34

For 10 verses in 6th chapter of Matthew, Jesus talks to His followers about "worry",
Telling them to stop fussing over clothes, their bodies, food etc. All the things He mentioned about worry and all the things you and I tend to worry about are usually "things"! Even if we are worrying about bigger issues such as Death, Salvation, or BOYFRIENDS....Jesus still calls us not to worry.

Hear me out....

I believe that the word "worry" in this context means to get so worked up about something that you lose the big picture of what God has called us to see. The other thing is that if we are worrying....we aren't Trusting God. While tests, relationships, our future, war and many other things often cause us to panic....as followers of Christ, He asks us to do something different. JC asks us to place whatever it is that causes us to freak out and to put it in His hands. If we actually did this....it would sound something like this;

"God...I am making myself crazy stressing out about college next year. Tonight I ask you God to take this worry from me and give me the strength to seek your guidance as i get ready to college. Help me to calm down and give me a peace about this big decision:

With a prayer like the one above...God has helped you turn WORRY into Trust.

Proverbs 3:5-6
"TRUST in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will make your paths straight."

I'm at the Vreelands house as I write this and I found this picture on Marie's computer from the Guatmala mission trip that our church took this summer.
The picture reminded me of TRUSTing that God is taking care of us in many different ways. The children in this picture are precious in God's sight and He watches over them as He watches over us.....as He even watches over the sparrow.

Let Go and Let God!
Nate

( Here is the drill..when you read these little thoughts I put on this blog, I want you to make a comment on the comment thing below, but don't say "that was cool" or something like that. I want all of you to continue the thought by "adding" to my writing. Post your thoughts or prayer requests and make sure and put your name at the bottom if you want. I hope that students, college kids, and everyone else will feel free to post a comment. I'm actually going to give the password to this blog out to several people so that you can post your own thoughts about faith or pictures on this blog.
This is a new idea for the FOLD...........but i think it will be good!

Random thoughts during Ernesto

Kim and I came down to WB during the storm tonight (thurs) to
stay at our friends the Rippy's so we can watch the storm and
all the madness. It's kinda fun in a sick way. Anywho, I learned tonight
that at 100 miles per hour a piece of pine straw can penetrate a
telephone pole. Cool huh. It's really the toronados that spin off the
hurricane that get the pine straw movin' that fast. Where I grew up
they would find pieces of Hay in the sides of Horses and Cows after
a storm. Dang! Tell me that wouldn't hurt!! EEEEEESH!
Anywho....

The bottom line-
Weather can be powerful, God made weather.

If God can make weather....He can calm a storm.

Figuratively and Literally

God is Good......all the time!
Nate

More FOTOS for the PEEPS

2 quick pics for our "wakey wakey"
event the other morning...more 2 come.
CHILDREN: look at the little thing that says "comment" below. You can click on that and leave comments and your name. At some point this blog will turn into

more of a prayer blog or a blog of faith questions and comments. So make comments and then I'll know if people are actually reading this thing!

love, nate

HUBart

Dumay Gorham, a local sculpture artist
and member of our church
made these metal crosses. The big one
is huge..about 4ft. tall.

www.dumaygorham.com
The portico
The stage in the Great room with
the Jetson space chairs.
All of the pieces on the wall are huge prints
on canvas and "shadow box" frames up to
6 feet in length. Dawn Capron, a local photographic
artist did this for us and we love them.
Dawn was a huge help in making this room into a "sacred space".
www.anderson-capronltd.com

Ricky Blobby was WEAK!

Dang

Shoot

Saw Talladega Nights last night on the opening night.(that's a ton of nights)What a let down. I was so jacked up to watch some Ricky Bobby and it didn't deliver.There were a couple of funny parts...but those were all on the trailers and previews I have been watching for 8 months.

Wait till it comes out on DVD!!!..while i'm not a prude or wound tight...

I do question the PG-13 rating on this flick...some of the humor was definitely "R'ish".

under construction,

young nathan

Fun in the Son 2006

la Grupa
Steve Fee
Bball chicas

The Hub

Rest-Refuel-Send