Youth Group

Challenge 2010 Info - (Deposit Due by Sunday, March 21; balance due Wednesday, June 16)

Youth group video by Mary Roe.

Meet our Youth Pastor

My name is Matt Toms and I am the Youth Pastor here at eFree. I have been working with youth in one way or another for almost 7 years. My passion is to help youth understand that Jesus is Lord and that He loves them very much. I love Jesus, teaching the Bible, hanging out, playing frisbee or video games, watching movies, being outside, and last, but definitely not least, I love my wife, Olivia. I would like to invite you to our Youth Group. The eFree Youth Group is focused on building an atmosphere of love, where youth from 6th to 12th grade can come and feel the love of Christ.

Youth Group

On Wednesday we offer a time for Middle School and Senior High students to come together. We start at 7:00 with casual hang out time and then we move to a time of worship. We end the night by looking into God's Word and seeing how it can apply to our lives.

Sunday School

At 9:00 on Sunday, Middle School and Senior High meet separately to talk about the foundations of our faith.

Youth Q & A!

These are the questions submitted by youth on Wednesday, December 10 at youth group. Some of the questions have been answered by Youth Pastor Matt Toms and he will continue to answer the rest as time allows. Click on the questions below to see the answers. Email Matt if you have any further questions.

Is it wrong to question/test God? Is there a right way to do it?

How can I remember Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, on Christmas?

How long do you think a person should pray every day?
How old was Jesus?

Is it true that the Christmas tree was a pagan symbol?
Why did kings of the past disobey the Lord so much?
I am afraid that some of my close friends and family won’t be in heaven with me. How can it be so perfect without them?
Do you believe that when Jesus comes back all the Christians will go to heaven or will they get killed and go to heaven?
Is there individuality in heaven? The bible talks a lot about how we’ll all be praising in heaven, but will we still be us?
Some people believe that you die and go directly to heaven, others say that once Jesus comes back , the dead will rise into heaven. What do you believe?
If “it was finished” when Jesus died on the Cross, why did He have to rise again?
How do you make it so God is what makes you happy?
In 2 Chronicles, David does a census, but then the whole land gets punished. Why was that wrong?
Do you think that the Message bible is a true translation of the Bible?
Why did God choose who he did to write the books of the Bible?
How old is the earth?
Were there ever cavemen?
What does a relationship with God feel like?
How do we know when it is God speaking to us?
When babies die do they go to heaven?
Where did sin originate from?

Answers

Is it wrong to question/test God? Is there a right way to do it?

No. Yes. Yes.

I believe that it is ok to ask God questions and not only is it ok but it is an important part of our faith. Do you remember when we talked about Jeremiah 29:13? It says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Part of seeking God is asking questions. In Matt. 11:29 Jesus asks us to learn from Him and how do you learn? By asking questions. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.”

There are some times when questioning God is wrong. It is important that when we go to God with questions that we are doing it honestly and humbly. Deuteronomy 6:16 tells us not to test God as the Jews did at Massah. In Massah they had just been miraculously freed from Eygpt but they where thirsty so they said “Is the Lord among us or not?”(Exodus 17:7) - this is after God had parted the Red Sea and sent the Plagues to Egypt!!!!

The right way to ask God questions is humbly (He is God and he does things that we can’t understand) and honestly. The book of Habakkuk is a cool example of someone asking God questions in the right way.

How can I remember Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, on Christmas?

Sorry this is getting out after Christmas. I did talk to the person who asked this before Christmas so don’t worry.

Here are two easy ways to remember Jesus on Christmas: First of all Jesus’ name is in CHRISTmas. Then we can use the gifts that we get on CHRISTmas to remind us of the greatest Gift ever given, Jesus.

How long do you think a person should pray every day?

That is an interesting question. Imagine with me that you had a best friend and you went on vacation together. For a few days you and your friend spent all day with each other. You wouldn’t be talking nonstop I am sure. You would probably talk some and sometimes you would just do stuff together without talking. You wouldn’t ignore your friend when she is talking and if something happened you would probably talk about it. That I think is what our prayer life should be like because God is with you right now; He is reading what you are and He is with you as you do everything you do. A lot of the time we think that prayer is a special thing that we have to do to enter into God’s presence and the rest of the time we are on our own. But if we have accepted Jesus into our hearts, He is there waiting for us to stop pretending like He’s somewhere else and to treat him like we would treat a friend.

How old was Jesus?

In John chapter 1 Jesus is called the word because He is the Word of God made into a man. John also says that Jesus was with God in the beginning. So in that sense Jesus doesn’t have an age because he has been around forever. But we know that Jesus became a man and was born so he had to have birthdays. In Luke 3:23 it says that Jesus was about 30 yrs old when he began his ministry and Scholars think that his ministry lasted about 3 ½ years so Jesus was about 33 ½ years old when he died. The tricky part is that is “about” so Jesus could have been older or younger but most seem to think he was probably a little older.

If “it was finished” when Jesus died on the Cross, why did He have to rise again?

First of all we need to realize that when Christ rose from the dead He did not just come back to life. If He had, He would have gotten old and died again. When Jesus rose from the dead, His body was made perfect, immortal (1Cor. 15:20, 23). By rising from the dead in this way Christ truly defeated death! Jesus was also an example of how we too will be resurrected. The main reason I think that Jesus was raised from the dead was that it showed that Jesus was who He said He was and could do what He said He would do. In John 11 Jesus makes one of his most incredible claims. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” That’s pretty bold! After saying that He was the resurrection if he just died and didn’t come back why would we believe in him? If He can’t raise Himself, how could He raise us? It also shows that His work on the cross was successful. Death is the debt that we owe God for our sin. Jesus took our sin so that when God looked at Him, He only saw our sin. Then Jesus paid off our debt and once the debt was gone why keep paying for it? It would be like paying a mortgage payment after you are done paying off your house. So when we die, God will only see Jesus’ purity instead of our sin and we will be resurrected for eternity!