Forever Following-Sermon Notes: why you should take them and how

Forever Following

Sermon Notes:why to take them and some tips and tricks on how

I am confident to say you all go to church or hear sermons on a weekly basis. I’m also fairly certain that most teenagers I know do not take sermon notes. Some people say they don’t learn that way, it’s too hard, or just not appealing.
However, in this usual devotional column, I would like to encourage you to make sure you develop a habit of doing this. Why? 1) It will probably help you concentrate on the sermon and not the cute guy in the first pew. 2) You’ll most likely be surprised at the small points you pick up on when writing notes. 3) It’s nice to be able to have a one or two page summary of a sermon to look through in the future.

When I was four, I envied my mom taking sermon notes. (No, really, I’m not a nerd!) To me, it represented maturity and . . . adultness (great word, huh?) I was always eager to take sermon notes and it surprised me to see that not many people actually do take sermon notes. I remember a lady in my church took a look into my “Sermon Notes Notebook” and commented on my good note taking skills saying she wished she did it. That’s when I thought I should ask people to start doing this. If you want to give sermon note taking a try remember this few things:
1) Organization. It’s a key. My older sermon notes are very hard to understand because I randomly wrote down whatever convicted me or I thought was a good point. This isn’t a bad thing to do, but when you have no organization it’s hard for it to be useful in the future
2) Handwriting. Make clear eligible handwriting! You will thank yourself later!
3) Mark things on your notes like the scripture reference for the sermon, the preacher, the date, etc. No matter how clear it is for you at that day, a year from now it will not be so clear.
4) Keep what you write! This may seem like a no-brainer for you, but for me (although I have taken notes for years) it was more difficult, and I always threw them away relatively soon. Why? I wrote them on individual pieces of paper and it was too messy for me to keep track of. If you write that way, have a folder for them or just get a notebook to write notes in.

I have notes from 2006 and I’m very grateful that I’ve kept them; they’ve been useful when I’m confused about a scripture passage. I hope these ideas for taking sermon notes help you in the future!
-AF

A Few of My Favorite Things-The Adventure of a Side Road

A Few of My Favorite Things

The Adventure of a Side Road

One of my favorite things is spontaneous adventures or road trips that aren’t mapped out and take you to places you never would have even imagined going to. I love the old back roads we have around here. When I have nothing to do (and usually no gas) I will drive until I find a familiar road or until I get lost.

Sometimes when you don’t know where you’re headed, it can be scary and intimidating, but also full of excitement and new thrills. Anticipating what’s around the next curve or which direction to go when you hit a fork in the road is all part of the adventure. Maybe you get lost or take a drastically wrong turn, but sooner or later you’ll find your way back to the right road and keep on.

Many of us don’t know what the future holds; where we’ll go to college, what friends we’ll make, where we’ll live, but that’s ok. There’s only one Person who does. We’re going to have to jump out on a limb now and again and go on some crazy adventures to find out where He’s leading us. Sure it might be the kind of scary that could cause you to wet your pants or the kind of excitement that ignites you, but He has it all mapped out. You may not always go the route He has marked, but He will bring you back to it somehow. Besides, what’s life without a little adventure thrown in?
-Josie L.

Taken from the August issue, 2008.

Nothing Unwholesome

Forever Following

Nothing Unwholesome

When you think of the word “wholesome,” something beneficial or otherwise good will probably come to mind. Generally wholesome is used in relation to food. The Oxford English Dictionary defines wholesome as “promoting health in body or mind.” In other words, anything that is unwholesome should be avoided. That’s that. It’s only logical. But most people don’t completely abstain from unwholesome food. And although we should, there is no law against this and it isn’t actually wrong; however it is better not to eat unwholesome things.

he Bible says unwholesome talk should be avoided as well. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful in building others up that it may benefit those who listen.” Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. That’s only logical, right? Just like the food, everything unwholesome should be avoided because it is doesn’t promote anything good. But just like the food, we usually don’t avoid all things unwholesome. But unlike the unwholesome food, we must not say anything unwholesome. Not only should we not, but we must not. We shouldn’t, but we continually say hurtful, unwholesome things to others. Trying to stop would be impossible without the help of Christ.

When you’ve finally gotten down what you should not to say, what should you say? You’ve conquered the persistent unwholesome words…now what? There’s an extremely simple answer: say “only what is helpful in building others up, that it may benefit those who listen.” Wow. That really narrows down the list of topics, for me at least. You’ve probably heard the saying that you have two ears and one mouth because you should talk half as much as you listen (or listen twice as much as you talk). If you did say half of what you usually did, and listened a bit more, it would be easier to keep your speech wholesome.
However, don’t stop talking altogether! We should try to build each other up, and we can with the help of God. Pray that your speech (and mine!) will reflect Christ and be as beneficial as possible, and don’t give up when you fall, because Christ forgives and “all things are possible through Christ who strengthens me.”
-RL

Written in July, 2008

Summer!

Forever Following
SUMMER!

Summer’s here and so is fun!
School’s getting out
And you can bask in the sun,
Go fishing for trout,
Or work a ton!

Enough with the lame rhymes, but it remains that all of us are happy for summer. No matter how much you enjoy school, you need a break and the thought of getting out of school soon always brings a smile to my face.
In the summer, you have more free time. So why don’t you spend part of your day, every day, this summer helping someone out?
Here are some ideas:
1.Invite someone you don’t know well to go swimming with you
2.Help make dinner with your mom
3.Make some lemonade for your siblings
4.Write a note to your dad thanking him for all he does for you
5.Take care of your family’s pet
As Christians we aren’t just called to stop doing bad things, but to do better things than normally. Want proof? Take a look at Ephesians 4: 25 – 32 (I’m too lazy to type it out.)
We’re given some ways to improve
Go from:
Lying to building others up
Stealing to giving
Anger to tender hearted-ness
and to be kind and forgiving like Jesus.

Don’t spend this summer on the coach watching re-runs or even just sitting at the pool being bored. Go out and help someone!
-A.F.

Written in June, 2008

What’s motivating you?

FOREVER FOLLOWING
What’s Motivating You?
Dirt, sweat, and grim covers your exhausted body . . . Hands held high in the air, you walk nervously toward the men with rifles pointed at your heart. Out of the corner of your eye you glimpse the waving white flag . . . What’s going on? You’re surrendering.

SURRENDING
Have you done this?
“Get a life, Alison! I’m not in the military!” you may be thinking. Actually, yes, you are. You’re in God’s army, but before you got there you were on Satan’s side. Have you surrendered yet? Have you let God take over? Do you live for him?

“Sure. Sure.” you say, “I’m a Christian. I go to church, read my Bible, pray, tithe. I even help out in the nursery!” That’s great. It’s wonderful to do all those things, but did you know that no matter how many good works you do, if you don’t do them to God’s glory . . . you’re sinning?

“Whoa! Slow down, Ali!” you think. “Drawing a picture isn’t sinning, now is it?”
It certainly can be! Why? Three reasons:
1.Anything you do has motives behind it
2.Anything you do can have God has it’s motives
3.If something doesn’t have God as it’s motive, that it’s sinning.

Makes sense now doesn’t it? You have to have God as your motive to do anything without sinning.

“Um…Earth to Alison! You can’t always have God as your motives! Not even the most pious Christian can do that!”

That’s so true . . . but it simply proves to show our own weak human nature. Now, having God as motive does mean you have to think “I’m doing this for God” every second. It’s a life style rather than a monotonous thought. You do the things you want to do–but for Him. 1 Corinthians 10: 31 says, Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

“Whatever you do.” Have you decided to be a missionary? Maybe, like me, you feel guilty if you aren’t helping out at church gatherings, tithing, and thinking about God at least once a day. I remember just the other day thinking . . . “I want to be an author. Maybe, I can go to Africa and write there while being a missionary.” Seems great when you think about it doesn’t it?
I get to accomplish a life long goal and I’m serving God while I’m at it.

However, just at that moment I heard Barlow Girl’s song, “Surrender”, talking about surrendering your dreams to God. I’m a dreamer and I have a lot of dreams . . . and it hit . . . Really, I wasn’t trying to serve God with that choice. What I was trying to do, was accomplish my dream and get brownie points with God. The book of Romans spends many chapters talking about God’s will and if we’re perfectly honest, very rarely can we know what God’s will is, and presuming that it’s the same as our’s is . . is, well, presumptuous. But as I was saying, trying to graft in God’s will to my will doesn’t work. Why?
Motives.
Yup. There it is again. Motives are everything.

Now . . . sit back . . . I just threw a lot of info at you . . . Review if you want. Re-read everything.

Have you figured out my main point/theme I want you to think about this month?
Points I made:
1.No one’s perfect and no one can focus on God all the time
2.Therefore everyone sins, even if they’re doing “good” things.
3.We need to surrender completely to God.

This time, I’m going to leave it to you to decide how can we solve this.

-AF

Written in May, 2008