Christian Clubs Flourish at School
by Barrett Vanlandingham
February 10, 2009

Alpha and Omega, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Kids for Christ, and Teens for Christ. Faith-based organizations are flourishing among students at Fort Gibson schools. At a time when so many people in our nation are trying to squelch Christianity and any public mention of God, it is very encouraging to see pockets of dedicated Jesus followers refusing to take their eyes off the prize. Fort Gibson Schools is one of those places.
I should mention at this point that even though I attend and participate in some of these organizations, I do not speak for them, the school, or the sponsors.
That being said, one of the highlights of my week is attending “Teens for Christ” at the Middle School. Students fill the library every Friday morning for a half-hour before school starts. They sing songs of faith and praise, pray, read the Bible, hear lessons, watch videos, and many times enjoy dramatic presentations or other talents performed by students.
Sponsors Beverly Rowan and Teresa Minor do an awesome job of encouraging students to take their faith into all aspects of their lives. Guest speakers and students share their faith in Jesus. They focus primarily on what we can all do to grow spiritually and to bring Jesus to the lost.
There are about as many different ideas on various doctrinal matters as there are kids and guest speakers in attendance. But somehow, the common belief and message that Jesus is God’s son and our only hope gives students a unified core to begin with. Leaders are encouraged to keep the message non-denominational for the short time we meet. It’s a method that strives for unity and a starting point for kids to do their own study and as the apostle Paul put it best: to “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).” Students often talk with each other about Bible-related things during the school day, partly because of faith-based organizations in the schools. It’s hard to have anything against that considering all the things they could be spending their time talking about.
May we all pray that God continues to work in our school system even as the world increasingly tries to turn the younger generation away from Him. (end)

God’s Well-Spring Flows into New Wineskins
by Barrett Vanlandingham
February 17, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, my church family shared in the joy of seeing two young men from my youth group, Lane and Tony, be baptized and added to the Lord’s number (Acts 2: 41, 47). What a thrill it was to see these two young souls put on Christ in baptism (Romans 6:1-11 and Galatians 3:26-27).
For new Christians and for any of us older ones, the challenge is how to not become jaded by the world, but instead stay fresh and open to God’s will in our lives.
With the memory of being tempted in the desert for 40 days and nights probably still on his mind, Jesus teaches a lesson to a wide audience of disciples, skeptics, and accusers. The setting was at a great banquet held for Jesus by Levi (AKA: Matthew). I believe the lesson was that of consuming God’s will into your life in new and fresh ways everyday through a relationship with Jesus. Luke 5:36-39 is certainly one of the most powerful parables for this in the New Testament.
This passage takes place just after Jesus started his ministry. He began to do miracles so that people would believe his message. He chose his first disciples. And then while at dinner, the very legalistic Pharisees and teachers of the Old Testament law began to compare Jesus’ ministry with that of John the Baptist. They criticized Jesus’ disciples for eating and drinking at times when followers of John and followers of the Pharisees would have fasted and prayed. This gave Jesus the opportunity to further explain his deity by introducing himself as the bridegroom. He said the bridegroom would eventually be taken away from his guests, and at that time they should fast and pray, but not while he was with them.
Then, Jesus said, “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘the old is better (Luke 5:36-39).’”
What a tremendous challenge! The fact is, the Gospel message of Jesus is no less powerful and life-changing today than it was on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22-41). That’s when Peter preached the first Gospel sermon and about three-thousand people were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
God’s word assures that Jesus’ blood continually cleanses Christians from their sins (1 John 1:7). But what is our end of the bargain? This same passage says we must “walk in the light, as he is in the light” so that we can continue to have that fellowship with our Savior. In other words, we become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We become a new wineskin of sorts that is capable of drinking in and storing a new way of life that is made possible through Jesus Christ.
May God bless us with the desire to never become old stagnant wineskins incapable of letting God’s will flow through our lives. But instead, may we all desire to be new wineskins with a continual thirst for more of God’s well-spring of life. (end)