Cup A Joe

Toy Train

Ok. I am awfully excited that my friend Weldon has decided to contribute a post to our blog. I gave a pretty good introduction of Weldon here and he has filled in any gaps below. Thanks Weldon. Terrific post.

It is my pleasure to oblige my good friend, my old friend, Joey Smith, in his request to contribute the following page to his blog. That’s right, old, old friend. For any of you who want to know more about the creator of Cup A Joe, I just want to let you know that I knew him “back when”. Nuff said, eh Joe? Joe asked me to tell you a little about myself and offer some credentials. For starters, I’m the ugly bald-headed guy on the picnic table in the camping pictures on Joe’s site dated June 7. (Joe’s the one with all the gray hair you can’t see because of the low light.) I graduated from the University of South Carolina and have a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary. I have been ordained as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of America, and my family attends Trinity Presbyterian Church in Orangeburg, S.C. There, I serve as the volunteer director of our Evangelism Explosion witness training ministry. I also regularly teach adult Sunday School class and am currently teaching a class on the book of Exodus. My full-time vocation is in the sign business. My beautiful wife of 17 years, who was my high-school sweetheart, is self-employed as the cafeteria service provider to Orangeburg Preparatory Schools here in, you guessed it, Orangeburg. Our son, James, is 13; and our daughter, Jessica, is 10. My hobbies are fishing and dirtbike riding - even though I just celebrated my 40th birthday 3 days ago. Nuff about me. Let’s get started.

If you could buy a toy train which could be started and stopped by only your thoughts, would you? Or perhaps, what if you could buy a television which came with a remote that was controlled by your thoughts? Would you? Seem far-fetched? The train feat was just performed in Hatoyama, Japan by Hitachi Inc. The machine is called a brain-machine interface, and it analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals. A cap worn on the head, weighing approximately 2 pounds, then connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links in turn to the toy train set via a control computer. Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, you can imagine how fast companies like Hitachi and Honda Motor Co. are racing to market this technology for commercial application. Hitachi's scientists are already set to develop a brain TV remote controller which will let users turn their TV on and off, or switch channels by only thinking. Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is desirous to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles. Positive uses for this technology in the medical realm include it one day replacing remote controls and keyboards to help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs. Think this technology is too advanced to ever have to deal with in your lifetime? Since 2005, Hitachi has sold a device based on optical topography that monitors brain activity in paralyzed patients so they can answer simple questions — for example, by doing mental calculations to indicate "yes" or thinking of nothing in particular to indicate "no."

It is indeed an amazing and marvelous time in which we are privileged to live. The technological advances that man has thus far made in history are truly amazing to ponder at times. But, what of this technology? If you are like me, as you consider all of the positive uses for such technology as the brain-machine interface just described above, it is hard not to also imagine the evil that could be instigated by such devices. Think of the web for a moment which makes your reading of Joey's blog possible at this moment. For all of the good that it currently does, and is capable of producing, think of all the evil that surrounds, infiltrates, and yes, fuels the internet. Joe's blog-site is an example of a positive use of the internet. I do not have to tell you of the negative uses of the internet as all of you are quite aware, I'm sure. The question I would like for us to ponder today is where is God in the midst of all this technology? What does He think of brain-machine interface technology? What does He think of stem cell research? By the way, I just very recently read in a U.S. News and World Report that scientists have found a way to reproduce stem cells in rats without having to create embryos. If we can reproduce healthy human cells and bone marrow to treat chronically ill patients without having to create embryos, are we humans still "playing God"? Who is to answer all of the moral and ethical questions surrounding these volatile, but extremely important, issues? Who is to frame the legislation governing the legality, or non-legality, of these procedures? The same people who allowed Roe v. Wade and the legality of DNX abortions. What is a Dilation and Extraction abortion, you ask? It is a legal procedure performed routinely in this country where a doctor pulls a live human fetus far enough out of the birth canal to jab a pair of scissors in his neck and snip his spinal cord resulting in obvious death. Since the fetus is still in the birth canal, or unborn, this is not murder. That’s right, it is legal.

To think of it another way, if Jesus had come to earth as a man to live in our time instead of 2,000 years ago, would He be a blogger? Would He use the internet? Would He have an e-mail address? Perhaps some may think of the thought of Jesus sitting at a computer frivolous, but for me this is what it means when the Scriptures say that we have the “mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16). Do we who name the name of Christ see it as our responsibility to confront the Darwin’s of the world today, or are we content to bury our heads in the sand and let someone else “more qualified” deal with the issues confronting our generation today. Again, I exhort us Christians to remember that may we have the very mind of Christ our Savior if we so choose to let His Spirit infiltrate our lives to the point of saturation.

The answer to the question of where is God in the midst of all our technology and “advancements” of today is simple. It is the same answer to where He was on 9-11. It is also the same answer to where He was when Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent in Eden. He was, is, and always shall be on His Throne governing, ruling, and judging His creation. In order to clearly see what the God of the Universe has revealed about Himself to us humans, we must turn to the Scriptures alone. The pages of the Bible cry out of what the creation has to say about its Creator. In fact, the very creation itself reveals to us in the Scriptures six very important attributes, or characteristics, of God Almighty, our Creator.

1. GOD’S DEITY: Romans 1:20 - For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

2. GOD’S POWER: Isaiah 40:26,28 - Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired, His understanding is inscrutable.

3. GOD’S GLORY: Ps. 19:1 – The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

4. GOD’S GOODNESS: Ps.33:5-6 - He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

5. GOD’S WISDOM: Ps. 104: 24 - O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions.

6. GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY: Rev. 4:11 - "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

It is my hope that the recalling of these timeless biblical truths will so govern our lives that they will encourage us CHRISTians to lift our heads out of the sand and go forth into the world with the very mind of Christ to do battle against the Darwin’s of our day.

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Rev. 5:13

The Gauntlet

First off I’ll tell everyone that I’m Taylor Smith, Joey’s son. Last week I went to Panama City with 405 other Newspring youth group members, the Newspring band, over 50 leaders and Perry Noble (Newspring Pastor). We left at 12:15 AM last Sunday night. The ride was long and I did not get any sleep, but when we got to the hotel it was huge, in fact there were two towers 23 stories high. We went straight to the beach when we got our luggage in the hotel. We found out are teams and started the first game, my team came in 3^rd. When we got our sign up sheet there were 5 options of things we could do. But you could only pick 2 to do. The options were:

• Banana Boat ride along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
• Parasailing 300 feet up for 2 miles
• Emerald Falls
• Recreation Park with vortex go-cart track, formula one track, bumper boats, and miniature golf.
• Snorkeling at Shell Island, hours swimming with tropical fish and dolphins.
• Jubilee deep sea fishing for 5 hours.

I picked the recreation park and deep sea fishing. I went deep sea fishing on Tuesday. It was fun for the first 2 and a half hours, I didn’t catch jack!!! Then it started to rain and dark clouds clouds started to form. Then it started to rain, thunder, and lightning, and about 40 of the 68 people on board crammed into the cabin. The rain hit you like ice pellets. Then it took about an hour and a half to get back.

            Now the recreation park was better, but we only got half of our required time because the bus driver dropped us off at the wrong park. When we got to the right park it was awesome the formula one track was awesome, but not as good as the Vortex Track. The bumper boats were kind of boring, and we didn’t get time to do the miniature golf.

            The gauntlet games were fun, the winner was the Yellow team. I was on the pink team; we came in 5^th place in our league.

            Every night we had a message from Perry and the band played about 4 or 5 worship songs. The messages from Perry were different from his sermons in the church. When he’s in the church he’s mainly talking to adults, but when he was at Panama City you knew that he was talking to kids in the room and only talking about things that kids can relate to, not financial stuff, marriage stuff, raising kids, etc. He went by 4 main questions for the four separate messages. The first question was “Do I know?”  He talked about if you know for a fact that you are a Christian and if you died just then you knew that you were going to heaven. 15 kids got saved that night.The next night the question was “Will I show”. He talked about if you Know, Grow, and Show. Know-that things are right between you and God. Grow-Understand who God is. Show-show that we are connected to God.The next night the question was “How do I say no”. He talked about how to say no to other religions like in Daniel chapter 3.  To say no when your friends want you to do something you know that God would not want you to do.  The next night the question was “Will I go”. Will we go do whatever God calls us to do.

            On Thursday morning 87 students got baptized in the ocean with probably about 60 to 70 strangers cheering us on off the balconies as we baptized. At the camp they also taught us the importance of praying and reading your bible. It was definitely one of the best weeks of my life.

For more pictures you can go here

Do you REALLY NEED a GROUP?

Today I am proud to present our first guest blog. Tom does a good job of introducing himself below but let me just add that Tom is the Pastor that I have dealt with most often at Newspring and that I have found him to be faithful, passionate and always ready to get his hands dirty. Thanks Tom!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        First off, Joey thank you so incredibly much for this opportunity.  Your friendship means so much to me.  Most of you do not know me.  Why?  God has called me to work with folks who meet primarily behind closed doors…of their homes.  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Tom Haren and I am one of the Groups Pastors at NewSpring Church.  Our team consists of Allen Cothran (Discipleship Pastor), Matt Bailey (Groups Pastor), Andrea Martin (Discipleship Assistant) and myself.  I have been in full time ministry since August ’06.  I had been leading a Men’s group (called IronWorks) for several years when my Groups Pastor, Trevor Cox, switched positions at NewSpring.  I put in to fill his position and Allen hired Matt and me on the same day.  I had been called into full time ministry about 2 years earlier and there was zero question in my mind that this was GOD opening the door.  For that, I am forever grateful.  Ok, enough about me.

The burning question…Why are Home Groups important in a large church or any church for that matter?  I would be selling you short if I didn’t kick off with the fact that Jesus Christ was an active member in a Small Group.  His Group consisted of 12 guys who simply were willing.  What did they do together?  Take a journey through any of the Gospels and you will see that these men shared meals together, laughed together, cried together, went through good times and bad times together and served their community together.  Jesus Christ alone is an important reason enough.  But, let me give you another.  Most of us who have heard or seen NewSpring church have heard Perry say a hundred times that our mission is “to help the lost get found and the found get grown up”.  Now, if our mission was simply for lost people to be found, we would train everyone to be an evangelist and I would be unemployed.  Thankfully, God has called us to grow up the found.  This means we teach one another to serve using the gifts God has given us.  This means we hold each other accountable when sin or other areas of our lives are not honoring God.  This means we grow in the Word, our relations and our faith, not for us, but to glorify God.  We have simply been called to be “a means to and end”.  Our Groups mission is to grow in Christ and our relationships with the body SO that we can further Glorify Christ.

Is close community important to Christians?  Look at these verses and you tell me.  Hebrews 3:12-14: “12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (NIV).  Hebrews 10:23-25:  “23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (NIV).  The author of Hebrews thought it was important.  God thinks it is important and so do we!  I want to close by quoting Daniel Fuller, a very close friend of John Piper.  Fuller writes, “If we are really supposed to exhort each other daily, then we MUST have small groups meeting to help each other fight the good fight of faith.”  Fuller continues, “I can’t fight the fight of faith alone even with the help of your very beneficial sermons.  I have to have people exhorting me in a small group.  Otherwise, I am discarding one important ‘means of grace’ commanded in scripture”.  This excerpt was found in the transcript of a Piper sermon from 1984.  To say Piper was ahead of his time when it comes to modern Small Groups would be the understatement of the year.

So, Groups aren’t a place you go once a week to get your needs met and get served.  Being involved in one is a Biblical mandate as well as a great way to have more than a surface level relationship in a church of 8,000!