miracles and other extraordinary acts

When my friend Meredith died last month after her fight against cancer, I felt lots of things, but the one emotion that caught me off guard was this: surprise. I had prayed for her healing and for a miracle for so long that I really expected God to miraculously take Meredith's cancer away. So, the morning she died, I was surprised, even though I'd gone to say "goodbye" to her days before.

I started to think about how we should pray. Let me begin by saying this: Prayer is a mysterious thing. I don't know exactly how it works or why God decides to say yes to some of our prayers and no to others. But, I do know that our prayers matter.

The Bible says the prayer of a righteous person is "powerful and effective." And that we must pray believing and not doubting. And there are lots of examples of God responding to prayer. In 2 Chronicles, it says God was "moved" by Manasseh's prayers.

I also was thinking about how Jesus healed people of lots of illnesses when he was on earth and how the Bible says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if Jesus healed then, why not now?

Okay, here's my point: I think we should pray believing that our prayers can be answered in miraculous ways. When someone you know is dying of cancer, I think you can ask for complete healing. God is bigger than any disease we humans face and He is a God who heals, both body and soul. Ultimately, we should pray wanting God's will above all else, but I think part of His will is that we pray believing our prayers matter.

Long time, no Post

Sorry guys, it's been a while since anyone has posted on this blog for those of you who are daily visitors. It's been a busy week for me. Here are just a few things I have been working on this week...

Getting geared up for the start of Thursday Thrills next week, June 5th! We are excited to start this up. Get ready for tons of thrilling games, thrilling worship, and a thrilling message. By the way, the first Thursday Thrills night is called "Mean Streak." Come find out what that's all about.

I am taking a seminary class and it's due this week so I have been writing papers and reading books and such this week...not what I would call fun, but I guess I am learning.

Getting ready for our Leadertreks Trip to Kentucky this summer. We have a team of 25 of us headed down there in July and we have pre-trip meetings to prepare our team for the trip. KFC111 is our mission statement, made up by the students on the team. It stands for Keeping Focused on Christ 111%. Since we are going to Kentucky, the team thought it would be clever to use the intitials for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Lastly, we started to plan our end of the summer trip to Cedar Point to cap off our Thursday Thrills series.

COW

Hey guys, it's Memorial Day and that means that we are supposed to remember those that have given their lives to defend our country. Giving your life for your country is one of the greatest things you can do, and so we take a whole day to remember that. Ben Paisley reminded us of the greatest thing that anyone can do for others in the COMMENT OF THE WEEK this week. Check it out...

Ben Paisley said...
To love your neighbor isn't to agree with him. You should lead to them to the lord. That is the greatest thing you can do for anyone. So if you are at stow or hudson, or even cvca, show Gods love to them.save a friend and show him Jesus Christ

P.S. cvca has 14 days until we are done forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(this year)
Thu May 22, 08:30:00 PM

Love Your Neighbor

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

If you have been around Edge for a while now, you might remember our series that we did last year called "NUMBER 2." If you would like to watch the video from that series, CLICK HERE!

Loving your neighbor is the second greatest commandment and that is the reason for the series called "Number 2." We have to understand first how much Christ loves us. Once we do, we love him back with everything we have and part of loving him back is loving the same people that he loves, our neighbor. On the cross, Christ saw you and I as people who were worth dieing for. People who were worth it. So it's simple...we need to look at our neighbor, our friends, our family members and say, these are people that Christ thinks are worth dieing for so they are definitely worth loving. Start loving your neighbor...who knows what will happen? Start with your literal neighbor. How are you going to show love to your next door neighbor, today? It's obviously pretty important since it is the NUMBER 2 commandment!

Why Isn't It Summer Yet???

I love Summer. I love warm weather, and beaches, and picnics in open fields of wild flowers. I love the feel of the sand between my toes, the smell of burgers on the grill and the sight of pick up games of basketball.

Because of all that, I have a tendency to miss out on the Beauty of God's Creation on a day like today. Today is cold, that's true, but otherwise, it's a lovely day. The Sun is shining, peeking through the clouds like some many spotlights shining down as God shows off different aspects of his creation.

If you have not had a chance to really peek at the subtleties of the world around us, take some time to do that now. Look out of a window; or, better yet, find a ray of sunshine out in your yard and get down on the grass and watch how the sun hits the individual blades, and the shadow that their ragged edges casts on the ground. Watch how every individual blade of grass casts its own individual shadow, letting just the faintest glimmer of Sunshine filter down to the ground.

Then, once you've done that, take a moment to appreciate a God who puts some much detail into Grass, and imagine how much more detail He put into you. And how much He Loves you, and cares for you. And imagine how God gets down on his hands and knees, every day regardless of the weather, and looks at how the sunlight hits your face. And imagine God yelling back at his Angels, 'Hey, come look at how the Sunshine is hitting the eyelashes of my Daughter! Look at the shadows each individual eyelash casts on her beautiful face. Come look with me and be amazed.'

And once you can imagine the God of the Universe on his hands and knees admiring you individually, take some time to thank Him for loving you as much as he does.

AGOW!

You're AGOW! for this week is a World War 1 flight game called Dog Fight: The Great War.

use the up and down arrows to control your fighter. use the space bar to shoot!

Enjoy!

Check out the 08 Year in Review Video Anytime

If you missed the first time, or you'd just like to watch it over and over again, check out this year's "Year in Review Video" by clicking right HERE. You can also find it over on the side bar under "Videos"

Enjoy!

COW

Our comment of the week this week goes to, of course, an eighth grader! OLIVIA GOODYEAR! Congratulations! I am so glad that you had a good time on Friday and I hope you felt appreciated because that was the goal of the night. Also, glad you liked the video. Check it out below if you haven't seen it or want to watch it again. Here is Olivia's comment.

Olivia Goodyear said...

I really liked the video. My mom almost started to cry when I showed it to her.
I am also excited for the Pre-Porch Party on Tuesday.

Sat May 17, 11:35:00 PM

The only thing that counts.

Hey, Friends. On Friday, we celebrated the 8th graders that are moving on to tha porch. This is always a sad thing for me because I hate to say goodbye to the 8th grade girls I've grown close to. Change is hard. When you move into high school, you really start to define who you are and, as Todd said on Friday, the world will pull you a hundred different directions and try to make you something other than what God wants. Be popular. Be thinner. Be a jock. Loosen up. Date more people. Drink with us.

Here's an easy verse that change the way I live: "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galations 5:6) This is what pleases God and this is the best way to live. It is certainly the most rewarding. So, when you feel the pressure to lose a few pounds or lose the nerdy friend that follows you around, remember what really counts: faith expressed in love. Ask God to show you what that looks like in your life and enjoy the benefits of living for Him.

8th grade appreciation night

Tonight, as you know, is our last Friday Edge of the school year. It is also 8th grade appreciation night. I realize that many of you HMS 8th graders will miss tonight because of your Cedar Point trip. I am very sorry, but I have great news! You will have a chance to celebrate. This coming Tuesday, we are having a Pre-Porch Party for 8th graders only! Come at 6 PM and enjoy a cookout party. We are going eat, hang out, have fun, and then go to tha porch together to see what it is all about. We will be done at 8:30 PM. It's gonna be great! Also, if you are in 8th grade and you miss it tonight, we will give you your gift on Tuesday and your own copy of the 2007-2008 Edge year-in-review video. All others, I can't wait to hang out with you tonight!

Pleasing God!

I am a Sports ADDICT! I love Sports, specifically, Cleveland sports. I love the Buckeyes, the Browns, the Indians, and my current favorite (because they're in the play-offs) The Cavs! With the series tied 2-2 vs. the Boston Celtics (evil), I've been getting really excited about game 5 tonight. The way I figure it, if we can win this game, we'll be able to win the series. The most exciting thing about the games thus far is that we have been able to win without Lebron James having a great game. He's been able to just count on his team-mates to help him out, and together, as a team, they have beaten the Celtics. Which. Is. Awesome!!

The thing about Lebron is that he is an extremely gifted athlete. Once that man gets a full head of steam and starts charging towards the rim, there is NO stopping him, as you saw if you watched the fourth quarter of game 4 on Monday night when he posterized Kevin Garnett. Lebron is a natural talent. Being 6'8, and that fast is just amazing. God created him with this remarkable set of skills, that he has nurtured till now he is the best basketball player on the planet (I can't believe Kobe won the MVP. That is trash).

Imagine how God must feel everytime he watches Lebron on the court. He must be proud to know that his son has taken his God-Given skills, and developed them through hard work and practice. He honors God every time he preforms, putting on a show for us and for his Heavenly Father.

If you are a movie fan, you may have heard of an old classic movie called 'Chariots of Fire'. It is about a Christian runner from England. If you havn't seen it, I totally recommend it. In it, he makes a profound statement about the talent that God has gifted him with. "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." Eric Lidell understood that God had given him a talent, running, and when he ran he was running for God.

The awesome thing about this is that all of us have these talents. Some of us can draw just amazing things. I know I cannot, but I am always impressed at those of you who can. Everytime you draw, or paint or even just sketch, God is pleased as he watched you develop your specific talent. Some of you are great athletes and some of you are amazing musicians. Here at Edge we have Artist, Athletes, Musicians, Writers and Singers. And all of you bring Joy to God's heart when you just go out and...play or preform. You bring joy to the people around you by using your talent and you make God Proud of you.

So, your goal for today: Go out and just do something that you are good at. And know that when you do that, you make God Proud like a Father watching his young son in secret, smiling and just wishing someone was around so he could point at you and say, 'Look at what my Child is doing. Isn't he AMAZING! No one is as good as my Son!'. I think I'm going to make God proud through my amazing Wii skills now, so I gotta go!

AGOW!

Hey there everyone...it's Tuesday and Tuesday's are the day we unveil the Addicting Game of the Week!

this week's game is FISHY

use your arrows to avoid bigger fish and eat smaller fish in order to become a bigger fish!

Sound easy? it is! kind of...

take your time, there is no time limit! Grow as big as you can!

COW

Our comment of the week goes to Evan Burnham who may have a heart attack any second because of his McDonald's eating. Nice work, Evan, but you should probably steer clear of McDonald's for a little while to let everything digest properly. Here it is...

Evan B. said...Yeah nice job Haley!! Whoo Whoo!!!! Ok... now that I Congratulated Haley I want to share somethinng. for the past 6 days I have eaten at McDonalds 5 times for dinner which is kinda sick. I always order 2 crispy snack wraps (ranch) and I'm just starting to order the sweet tea a lot. Now tea is amazing, don't get me wrong but the sweet tea at Mickey D's is like pure sugar, the first time i had it I got a headache :( but now i'm starting to like it. Anyway, all the snakwraps come up to 9 or 10 so I'm starting to get kinda sick. I know a lot of peaople have seen that Supersize me video where the dude eats all McDonalds fo a month and I'm starting to see how he feels. I don't know why i just stop going... I guess it's sorta a love hate restraunt... You just can't stop. And the wierd thing is I don't think i've gained any weight but if I start to (I don't think 5 times is enough to) I'm gonna go to Subway and eat like Jared did and see if it works. Nice job Jared for losing 200 some pounds and keeping it off for 10 years!!! Whoo Whoo !!!

True Sacrifice

Hey, Guys and Girls. Here are some verses (Isaiah 58:3, 6-9) that speak to me daily. In these verses, Israel complains to God that He has not acknowledged their day of fasting, or sacrifice. Then God responds and tells them what kind of sacrifice He truly wants. I believe God asks the same things of our lives today. So, read and be inspired.

The "they" is Israel and the "I" is God...

"We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I (the Lord) respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves...Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?

This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.

What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'"

What happens if I don't feel God?

Many people ask this question at many different times in life. They believe in God, but they don't understand why they don't feel God or why they don't hear God or see God like so many people say they do. I have felt this many times in my life. I thought more about it this morning when I dug this old CD out that I really like and was struck by the words to this one song. It's by a band called "Everybodyduck" and the song is called, "Because You Are."

"I can't feel you like others around. I don't feel like kneeling or closing my eyes. Is there something wrong with my heart that I can't see or do you feel love still when nobody cries. So I'll praise you if I never feel you. And I'll love you because I know you're there. And if you should choose I'm sure one day I'll feel it, but feeling good is never the reason I cared"

We don't love and serve God because of a feeling, although it does feel good much of the time. We should praise Him even if we don't feel him, because we trust that he is there and that His promises are true. I hope that is true in your life!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Still Begins with One Step

Well hello there! As some of you may already know, this handsome fellow to my left here is Me, Sherif Mansour. I have the privilege of being the newest Intern here at Hudson Community Chapel. With this in mind, they have asked me to tell you a little about myself and how I ended up here at HCC, so that hopefully when you see the image to the left out and about, you are not frightened. I'm actually quite harmless!

I was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. I was raised by my Mother and Grandmother because my Father had immigrated to the US before I was born. I lived in Egypt till I was almost 9, at which point my Mother and I moved to Akron, Ohio to be with my Dad.

The move was a hard one for me, being in a new country where I knew no one and didn't really speak the language, but God was very gracious to me and I quickly made some great friends. I went to Chapel Hill Christian School (North) through 6th grade, then went to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy for the remainder of my Junior High and High School years. In CVCA I was a proud member of the Football, Tennis and Chess teams. Yeah, I'm pretty much a huge nerd.

After CVCA, I went to Taylor University, a small Christian college in Indiana, where I majored in History. I lived out in Indiana for almost 6 years, before coming back to civilization (Ohio) in January of '07. Since then, I have been working at Aladdin's in downtown Hudson.

Throughout my time in Ohio, I had attended HCC, having gone through the Edge and Porch respectively when I was in school (though I think they were both called 'Edge' back then). I am really excited to be back at Edge as a leader. The students who are here now are WAY cooler than the ones who were there when I was a student. Except for me of course. No one is cooler than me.

I look forward to being able to hang out more with you guys, as well as blog on here to share my coolness and wisdom with everyone :).

AGOW!

Here's your addicting game for this week!

Enjoy Cannon Blaster!

COW

The comment of the week this week goes to...drum roll please....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (you have to roll these "r's" to make the drum roll sound) rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...... HAYLEY GREEN!

Nice work, HAYLEY! Thanks for choosing Edge over the dance. I know we have had a lot of Edge's on dance nights, but it is just the way it has happened unfortunately. I hope that you all make the right decision like Hayley and choose Edge.

Here it is...

hayley said... mann, the last dance and the last edge are on the same day! but i'm coming to edge as far as i know

Sat May 03, 05:20:00 PM

Hollywood and Jesus

What is the last movie you saw? Did you notice any spiritual themes? Today, at Edge, we finished watching the movie Martian Child and we talked about how the movie has a great theme of a father's unconditional love of his adopted child. The theme helps us see a glimpse of the unconditional love of our heavenly Father. My favorite part is when the father has him and his adopted son smashing dishes on the ground to prove the point that there is nothing he can do to lose his love. That is exactly how God is with us. Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins so that by the grace of God, we are saved. There are all kinds of movies out there that have these themes in them and I encourage all of you to look for them. We love movies that have themes of forgiveness, redemption, and sacrifice...that is why Hollywood makes them. If we just look, we will find that even the movies give us a glimpse of our God. What movies have you seen that have those themes? Watch for it...

...the old man is snoring.

Good afternoon! How are you this fine and rainy day? I hope you've enjoyed some time cozied up inside. I have!

Lately I've been thinking about the Bible story of Jesus and Lazarus' death. Do you remember it? Lazarus is really sick and his sisters send word to their friend, Jesus, to come quickly and heal him. But Jesus takes his time getting there and by the time he arrives, Lazarus is dead and buried. The sisters take Jesus to the tomb and everyone is standing there, sobbing and mourning. And then there comes that famous verse: "Jesus wept." Not cried or had some tears, but he was weeping. Then, Jesus goes to the tomb and calls Lazarus out. And Lazarus obeys...he is raised from the dead.

What really strikes me about Jesus weeping in front of the tomb is that he knew that in just minutes Lazarus we would be alive! It was His plan all along...to show His glory by bringing Lazarus back to life. So even though he knew the sadness of all those people was temporary and that they'd be throwing a party later that day, Jesus still wept. He still cared for them. Their pain mattered to Him.

I believe it's the same now. God knows that our pain and hardships on earth are short-lived. He knows that there is a plan that's way better than we could ever imagine! He sees everything and He knows that one day He will make it more than okay! But, even so, God still cares about your pain. I think that if Jesus were back on earth right now, He would still weep with us when our friends die. The Bible says He is close to the brokenhearted. What a wonderful and gracious God we have!

The God of the Universe, who put the stars in place and has power over death, cares about your pain and loves you. Think on that today, friends!

NO EDGE TOMORROW

Sorry everyone, no edge tomorrow. I am going to miss you all, but I hope you have a great time hanging out with your small groups. Tomorrow night is official small group hangout night. I hope you guys have a great time with your groups and those of you who usually come to edge and are not in a small group, I hope that you can join one next fall. The next and final Edge is coming on May 16th. Don't forget 2 things:

1. It's 8th grade appreciation night so if you are in 8th grade, you are not going to want to miss this night.

2. If you have all the KEY CARDS for the whole year, you will receive a prize for your commitment to edge and keeping all the KEY CARDS!

Can't wait to see everyone then!