The Stand for Christ

The Stand

2010-03-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Just a reminder, the Stand (Redmond High School’s extraordinary Bible Study) meets every Wednesday at 12:30 in E112, in Mr. Baroshkoff’s Room. You can come at 12:00 if you want to eat lunch with us as well—we eat in his room. Right now, we are studying service J.

God Bless you all,

Cassie Lawrence

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms (Peter 4:10).

Blog : http://wearethestand.blogspot.com/

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=125479909938&ref=ts

Meeting Four!

2009-11-02T21:35:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone. Meeting 4, 10-28-09. Attendance basically 16 therefore we increased in size. We had more Evergreen people yay... Kristen led another fun worship time. After this, Daniel introduced the message.

This week he went into James 2:14-24. Unfortunately this week there were no chunks. Nevertheless, he did remind us that we should set good examples. Here's the catch: most Christians are known for what they don't do, (ex. not smoking, drinking, swearing, ect...) not for what they DO. I thought that was a very good point. Verse 18: "because of faith, he does what he does" After this, Daniel puts on a video. In this video, the guy explains that many Christians go through life thinking that they're saved so they don't have to worry about what they do. The sad thing is there are people that have died today that went to hell that never thought they'd go there. They might have gone to church all their life, but never took the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Jesus. The guy in the video is reminding us that as Christians, we need to DO good work and show Jesus to others through our actions. He is not, however, telling us that we are saved by works.

After this video, Daniel gave us 15 minutes of silence to try and figure out where we are at in our faith. For me personally, I found out that I was ready to take God's call and take some steps for him!

Great vid Daniel!

Nick the mancretary
Notes credited to Anna!~

Who Am I?

2009-10-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

In order for people to better understand this group, it is necessary for them to understand who I am. I wouldn't even begin to pretend that the functionality of this group is dependant on my leadership skills or ability to teach, because in reality I have little experience with these kind of things. The only existing pretense I have to pioneer The Stand is a core temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit; a burning desire. Needless to say, I don't have it all down. Even when I'm at my best in my relationship with God I struggle to force my passion outside of the four corners of my mouth. Neverless I would have you all know what you see before you is a product of love. Nothing more, nothing less.

At times the center of all Christian thought might seem slightly cliche. It may even seem to be some kind of fraud or veneer used to cover something more sinister. If you think so I can't blame you. How many Christians do we have who only solidify the authenticity of the outside world's view of the Stained Glass Masquerade? To be honest, this is one of my greatest desires: to shatter the glass. We've grown so accustomed to our self-indulged infatuation with religious customs, that we've set up for ourselves some kind of false Christian faith. Why is it that people wear their Christian faith to "church" and take it off when they enter into the real world? It's because we've made "church" into some kind of facade. Some kind of holy place where we cover up who we truly are and try to act as God would have us for two hours a week. Why is it that so many pastor's have become so fake? Have we abandoned our search for God as we try to make people feel confortable? We worry so much about how church is "supposed to be done", that we're afraid to tell others about our problems and even, our triumphs in Christ's name. Who are we?

I guess I'm running free from the topic and should get back to telling you about me. Who am I? Actually, it's not particularly important where I fall on the scale. I am a beautiful mess. I am a degradate, lowly soul who is being raised up by God to dine with Him. And so are you... that is, if you proclaim Jesus Christ as your LORD and Saviour. Unfortunately, I'm still breaking glass in my own life, and never will finish 'til the day I die. I will grow closer to God until the day we meet. Soul exposed? Who is it that I strive to be like? Read the Bible and study Jesus for yourself, then you'll understand my role model.

Until that day when we meet seperate from all these circumstances, know this: I love God. Truly, I hold no other value than that alone. Any other things I have are only a bi-product of that one momentous truth. I have a passion for the lost, and just as much for those lost in their own faith. The believers that hold that Truth inside of them, but don't even realize the awesome glory of the mystery they've so thoughtlessly rationalized. This, at the true heart of all reality is the truth about who I am.
~Daniel Deurbrouck

Meeting 3...

2009-10-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggies, sorry about not adding these meetings sooner, kinda forgot the login and password for the blog. lol. But no matter I'm emailing this in.
Okay so, meeting 3. We had 13 people again... Oh well. We started with a couple worship songs courtesy of Kristen (great job on guitar). By the way, two weeks from now November 4th is obscure instrument day. Anyways, because Daniel has some sort of dizziness in his head he wasn't able to plan this week, Kristen, the VP, was the deliverer of the message.
She started in 1 Kings 19:10-18. In this selection, the Israelites were turned away from God and now calling out for help, as they do so much in this book. One would think that they would learn... but it's human nature. After discussing the meaning of these verses, we watched a moving video on YouTube about God in the silence. So often in our lives we surround ourselves with noise both literal and, as pointed out by Landon, figurative noise. Figurative noise meaning any distraction from God. Why is it so hard for us to be in silence? Why is it so difficult to find a place of silence in all of our free time?
We all decided that we should set aside time for God. Even if it means waking up early, taking time away from the busy schedule, and turning off the music. Jesus saved OUR lives on the cross, why can't we find even 15 minutes for him? So yea, something just to think about.
Great job Kristen!

Nick the Mancretary
Notes credited to the one, the only, Anna! (Israelites->Isralelights)

The Second Stand meeting!

2009-10-22T17:11:00.001-07:00

Hey blog readers, I know you've all been waiting for the second Stand meeting... all two of you. Anyhow, the meeting started out with an icebreaker, which ended up failing along with the whole point of the game. Our attendance was 13, that's a 162.5% increase if you were all wondering. Some guy gave his testimony, but that's not important.

This week, we had Daniel again. We are the Stand are we not? well that's only half of the battle. Daniel reminds us that we need to Stand but don't stand still. The lesson started on Isaiah 6 and he named the "chunks" as he calls it. So, the first chunk was "God's Majesty". Basically what Isaiah was saying was he was in awe of God when the seraphs (angels) came and spoke which shook the posts of the doors. That's pretty amazing, I would be in awe too! Chunk dos was "man's depravity". What does that mean? This means that we are unclean and Isaiah knows it. He feels real bad when God comes and catches him off guard. 3rd Chunk is "Man's salvation". Isaiah realizes that there is hope because of salvation. So often in life we think..."oh I'm saved" but we don't take time to share the gift with others or be thankful. The next chunk is 4, "God's calling". well, Isaiah realizes he needs to change. He lays down his life before God saying, "Here I am, Send me!" responding to God's call. So.. have you gotten to that stage yet? Do you realized how great our God is, if so, what are you doing about it?

Yea so we all figured out that we needed to do something. We are all saved, so let's serve God instead of living our lives for ourselves expecting to go to heaven when we're finished pleasing ourselves.

Great message Dan!

Nick the Mancretary.

Notes credited to Anna~

Christian Hotline

2009-10-15T00:07:00.001-07:00

1-888-NEED-HIM is a toll-free inter-denominational Christian question/guidance hotline. I haven’t tested it out yet, but if you are interested, the website is http://888.needhim.org/.

2009-10-14T18:37:00.001-07:00

That was an amazing video :) we should learn it XD.

This week!

2009-10-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

Welcome all our new members! It is inspiring to see how The Stand grows in numbers, despite the restrictions place on us by the school, and the newness of our group.

For Bible study next week, please memorize Romans 1:16-17 if you have been to a meeting before, and bring you Bibles. If you have an extra, it would be very helpful to bring it as well for people who forget. Anna will be coming around asking about bringing snacks. Don’t forget, you can email prayer requests to katilincasey@hotmail.com, questions to wearethestand@hotmail.com and posts for the blog to lemkin66nikmel.posts@blogger.com.

By the way, this is very catchy...

Roundup and Next Meeting

2009-10-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls for he has no one to help him up."

Hey!

Roundup was fantastic! Thank you to Annie for bringing the candy, and Nick and Anna for the fliers.

Our next meeting is this coming Wednesday, October 14th. Please bring your Bibles as always, and have Isaiah 40:31 memorized if you attended a meeting before. If you would like to, you may bring money to donated to the Stand's unofficial treasury for possible events/snacks. This is COMPLETELY optional, so do not feel that you must do so!

Our First Official Stand Meeting!

2009-10-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Today was our first official Stand meeting. Why? Because we are now an official club at Redmond High. Our meeting was from 12:30 to 2:00 and it was held in E118, Mr. Barashkoff's room. The attendence was 8. We spent the first half of the meeting voting on names, and ended up keeping The Stand. After that, we prayed and dove into the Word.

The speaker was the one and only Daniel D. who took us into the book of 2 Timothy chapters 3-4 verses 3:10 to 4:10. He divided these verses into 5 "chunks". Chunk 1 was "qualities of a christian worker." Basically, Paul writes to Timothy about the things that he's (Paul) experienced and embraced, informing him on what Timothy's getting into. Chunk 2 was "qualities of scripture." Paul tells Timothy that all scripture is "God breathed" and that it has the power to change people. Chunk 3 was the "actions of christian workers." The scriptures have the power to change peoplem therefore, preach it. Chunk 4 was the "results of christian workers." Paul uses the analogy of wine on burnt offerings to himself and Jesus. As wine made a pleasant aroma for a burnt offering, the result of Pauls life made him pleasant to Jesus, who sacrificed himself for the sin of the world. Lastly, chunk 5 was the "result of a failing christian." Paul tells Timothy that if you dont keep up in your faith, you will start to stray away from God. Daniel ends with the question, "Are you a Paul, or are you a Demas?"

In our discussion we discovered that most of us were still in between. No matter how hard we try, we cannot become completely selfless and pure but we can strive to be like Paul, who strived to be like Jesus. In our lives today, we tend to live for ourselves instead of for God, and the big conclusion we came to was that we need to start taking steps toward living for Jesus!

Great message Dan!

Nick R. the secretary man

2009-10-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hey!

One of my friends posted this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts on her facebook wall. I think she meant it to be derogatory, but I was actually quite impressed.

I have overheard these jokes before from certain people, and never really thought much of them (I don't know all that much about Chuck Norris, and have never really cared). However, knowing the issues many celebrities have, especially Christians (think Katy Perry's transformation), its great to see when they stand up for their faith under the pressure of the public eye.

Please post examples of other celebrities standing for Christ!

See You at the Pole

2009-09-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Romans 1:16-17: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith."'

It was cold, it was early, and we got some strange looks, but See You At The Pole was an amazing, exhilarating experience.

We reached out to God together with our prayers, and shared testimonials of our faith. We were encouraged to find how many Christians at Redmond High School were willing to take the step to stand in front of the entire school for Jesus Christ. And we sincerly hope that others who did not join us were moved to be open about their belief.

After school, the Stand for Christ met at Kristen's house for Bible Study. If you have been to at least one meeting, please memorize Acts 26:18.

Update

2009-09-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Matthew 17:20: He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move hence to yonder place,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Great News!

Daniel, Kristen and Anna met with the clubs advisor, who has agreed to let us have a club. We've decided we want to change the format of our group from Bible study to a youth group (so that the word "study" does not intimidate potential members!) For now, the Body of Believers will be meeting on Wednesdays after lunch. Please bring your Bible and be ready to plan and discuss His word. If you were present at the last meeting, please memorize Colossians 2:6-7.

Also, this Wednesday at 7:00 AM is See You at the Pole. We will be meeting at the Redmond High School flag pole in front of the school to pray for our world, our family, friends, school and everything else. This is an oppurtunity to live your faith outside of the walls of your church and come together with other Christians.

Our First Bible Study

2009-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first group Bible study meeting. We still do not have a permanent place to meet, so we gathered Kristen's house and spent around fifty minutes digging through James: looking at the context, and discussing meaning of the specific phrases. In the end, we overviewed the entire section and decided on a realistic life-application. All in all, The Stand's first meeting has been a sucess!

Size: 5 people
Section: James 1:1-4
Memory Verse(s) For Next Week: II Timothy 3:16-17

The Stand: Redmond High School

2009-09-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

Who am I? I am a student at Redmond High School in Redmond Washington. I am working with some other students to create The Stand in our school. We started a Bible Study, with the expectation of changing the school and the surrounding community. Our aim is the make The Stand in our school a force to be reckoned with. As for this blog... we hope to accomplish other things with this blog. We hope to give you resources to use in your Christian faith and also show you how to take a stand in your school, by seeing how we make The Stand in ours.

Right now, we are in the very beginning phase of the group, but we hope to show you our growth through constant updates. This will keep us accountable to working hard and it will give you the oppurtunity to see a real-life example of a group of Christians striving to do God's will in the way they see best. Of course, none of us are specialists. We're just a group of Christians trying to make a difference, but then again, we have the power of Christ in us. I think many Christian teenagers in this generation want to do something more with their faith, but don't know how. I hope you can use this blog as a resource to do just that. We will post our successes, our failures, everything. After all, we're only human and we're capable of many mistakes, but we will fight through all those problems as best we can and hope others can learn from what we did wrong, and what we did right.

What Is The Stand?

2009-08-31T00:07:00.001-07:00

What is The Stand? The Stand is a revolution. It is a change taking place in the hearts and minds of students across the United States. The Stand takes place in schools, in churches, in homes, in businesses, in every institution in the nation. Who is The Stand? The Stand is every Christian who is willing to speak up for their faith, in word and in action. They are willing to put God before themselves in big things and small things. We are the ones who will change the world in whatever way we are called, regardless of how confident we are and how we think others will react to our message.

The Stand is not about staying still, instead it is about moving forward. As Christians, we aren't called to a life of complacency, but rather commitment, submission. There are people moving right now simply for their love of Christ. Some of these people have died for their faith, others have served quietly in their church, but whatever the case may be, they strive to do what they are called to do, what God has called them to do.

1 Timothy 4:12 says, "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity." (NKJV) This verse is saying that as Christian youth, we shouldn't think lowly of our capabilities. In modern society, teenagers are looked on as "fanatics" is they don't drink or smoke, but is that really the life God called us to? Were we simply called to avoid sin, or were we called for something more? We have the power of God in us, but many of us allow ourselves to simply be spectators of the world around us. We were never called to observe the culture, we were called to change the culture. When Jesus Christ came into the scene, He challenged the society of the time, He didn't conform to it.

It has been said many times before that our generation is the future of this world, but I disagree. We are the present. Not one Christian should accept that their impact will come "when they're older". There is so much that can be done now! As you grow older, you will become wiser and in some ways you may have more oppurtunities, but right now, no matter where you are, you can change the world around you. Every human being has some passion. Some people are passionate for the poor, others for the afflicted in spirit. Whatever passion you may have, use it for God's glory, and be willing to move in your faith.

What is The Stand? The Stand is every moment when a Christian is willing to step out in their faith for the glory of God. As teenagers, we hold the future in the palm of our hands, but we also hold the present. We have the power of God on our side, and although Goliath is big, nothing can stop us in light of our Saviour. We should be willing to face our greatest fears and triumph over our greatest weaknesses due to our faith. After all, we are The Stand.

"So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours"

-The Stand by Hillsong United

Not Ready Yet

2009-08-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

Just for anyone out there who looks at this blog, as you can probably tell, it is not ready yet. I have little expertice with computers, so it will take some time to work out the formatting.