A Wonderful Night with the Lord

Sitting in my office this morning reflecting on the service last night and I just thought to myself, what a wonderful night last night. Service last night @ Consumed Student Ministries was great! It started out a little slow but its great when the Holy Spirit shows up and you just feel the presence in the room. During the worship part of the service I stayed towards the back of the room to observe our students worshipping. Through some of the worship time there was a lot of chatter going on and not many people singing or praising the Lord. It started to bug me a little bit, kind of took me out of focus on what God was wanting to do. Then our worship team played a song called, "All for Love" and a line in the chorus says, "Everything I need is You" talking about Jesus. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING that I need is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As they played that song, I refocused myself to where I got to thinking, how many of these students really can sing from the bottom of their heart, "Everything I need is You". I knew that some of our students were hurting on the inside or struggling with something and they were looking for somewhere to turn to but didn't know where, and I simply reminded them as we finished that song, that when they are hurting and struggling and in search of someone to come along side of them, remember He is all that you need. He is the creator of your life, and if you can trust in Him and accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior, He is and will be your Best Friend! The rest of the service was great as the students focused in on the message I had prepared on Living in God's will...and I believe and continue to hope that our students grab hold of what God has in store for their lives and as they live their life, they will seek the Lord for where he wants them to go, and continue to make the right decisions. I love our students @ Consumed Student Ministries and as their Pastor I truly and thankful for the opportunity that God has put in front of me to minister and to challenge them. Remember students to pray, read the Word, and watch for Road Signs!

I Can't See

Yesterday I had the opportunity to preach for our Sunday Morning service as Pastor Andy is gone on vacation. The title of this blog was the title of my sermon. You see a lot of us don't believe because "We Can't See". We think it can only be true if I could see it. God can only be real if I could see him. But you see there's something called faith that leads me to believe in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I talked about 3 things Faith could do for us.

1. Faith can see Miracles
2. Faith can make Impossible not a word
3. Faith can provide a hope that never ends

This sermon idea came to me as I was driving down to Indianapolis early early early on a Friday morning, and it was from a song titled "What Faith Can Do" by Kutless. This song touched me as I know some people in service were touched yesterday. You see we sometimes just need a little bit of faith in our lives to believe something that is impossible, or to actually realize the miracle that just happened, or faith that even though I'm going through the rough times in life I always have a hope in my God and Savior that will never end. There is so much that faith can do for us, but too often enough we leave out the faith factor because we limit God's capabilities of what he can do.

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Now, this coming Wednesday night, Consumed Student Ministries will be continuing its series titled "Does God Really Care What I Do?" This weeks message is titled, "Living in God's Will". It is taken from Romans 12:2. Students I hope to see you there as we continue to realize that God really does care for us and has a plan and a special purpose for each of our lives! We will see you Wednesday @ 7pm in the Youth Room, right here at First Assembly!

On a third note...last night we took a group of students over to see the movie "To Save A Life". Wow, what a great movie! You could see some watery eyes after the movie from our students, not because of it being a really sad movie, even though there are some parts in there that are sad, but I believe because they realized some things, and thought of some people in their own schools who were going through the same kinds of things as the people in the movie. I hope and pray that these students will hold on to what they learned last night and we will see God's work being done in our schools in Cass County and the Surrounding counties of Indiana and across America. There is more to life than having everything this world has to offer, we just have to step back and realize it.

Other Events coming up, check on the side of the blog in the Upcoming Events section!! Have a blessed day today and know that God loves you!

To Save A Life

This weekend a new film reaches theaters called "To Save A Life". If anyone from Consumed Student Ministries is interested in going on Sunday Night to see this film we will be leaving from the church @ 5pm and returning around 9pm. From viewing the trailer and watching some other clips this movie looks great for teenagers to see in how they can impact someone to save a life and give them an opportunity to tell them about Christ. This movie tells a story of the journey of a super-popular-talented-have-it-all teenager named Jake, who life is changed when he realizes who Jesus is. This movie shows the impact of the gospel on the life of one teenager in a powerful way. God gets deep into Jakes heart through tragedy and heartbreak. I am excited to view this film with some of the students and afterwards see how they were impacted and how they can go out and impact other students at their schools! I believe this will challenge the students to be a witness for Jesus Christ. It's time for Consumed Student Ministries to truly be Consumed by the Call of God!

It's Monday

Well another week gone by and now the start of a new week! It's Monday morning and I'm sitting in my office at my desk, and thought to myself, I need to blog! I'm really trying to stay up to date with this thing this year! I've facebooked?sp all my students to remind them that Consumed Student Ministries is meeting this week, met with a great leader of mine in Kevin Mast, and have started preparing for my sermon on Wednesday! Its been a very productive morning so far! It's been a while since we have met as a group for service and I am excited for this coming Wednesday. I believe some of our students are excited too. They have been texting me and letting me know on Sunday mornings that they are missing Wednesday night services! So here we go. I'm starting a new Series called " Does God Really Care What I do?" So the preparation starts today and I'm believing that God is going to touch some student's lives on Wednesday night.

This past weekend was a good weekend, well except that the Bengals lost to the Jets. Friday night I traveled with the Logansport Boys Basketball team to Western, where the JV and Varsity both came away with wins. I love traveling with the team and praying with them before there games. Just talking to the guys and hanging out with them in an environment that they love and so do i (sports environment), is just awesome. I love getting to know these men and am praying for a great season, but also for them to learn how to trust God in their lives. Saturday night the Boys played host to Harrison(West Lafayette) and the JV and Varsity came away with 2 more wins. It was a great weekend for Logansport Boys Basketball.

I hope everyone has a great week this week, and just like I'm praying for these boys to learn to trust in God, I hope that all of you as well who read this will continue to put your trust in the Lord and know that He will never leave you nor forsake you!

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!

Snowy Greetings from Indiana!

Well I woke up this morning and it was snowing in Logansport. As I sit at my desk 4 hours later at 10:00am...i hate to say it, but its still snowing and snowing harder and harder!! I'm not a big fan of snow. I lived half of my life in northern Iowa where it snowed all the time in the winter and on top of it I lived in the country which made for a lot of blowing and drifting of that snow! So the reason I really don't like snow, well I'm tired of it! Too many years of too much snow! The only good thing, I guess it gives me a reason to blog!! Nothing to do outside so while I sit in my office and I may as well let people know what's going on in Logansport, IN. Sorry don't have my camera otherwise I'd take a picture and let you see!!

Just to let all the Consumed students know, I will be starting a series next Wednesday night entitled, "Does God Really Care What I Do?" I am excited to start this series and I am praying that our students will see that they are cared about by the God that they serve and that he has a purpose and a plan for every single one of them. There is one path to go down in life and if we choose the path that God has for us we will see that God does really care what we do!

Christmas Vacation

It's already the new year obviously but I thought I would recap a little bit of the Culham Christmas Vacation. We started out to Minnesota at 3:00AM EST Monday morning! Yes very early! But we got on the road early so we could get to Minnesota earlier. On the way we stopped in Mason City, IA, which is where I(Phil) used to live. My parents where there visiting some friends from the church where they use to Pastor at. We met at Cabin Coffee in town for a quick cup of coffee. After that it was the last final stretch to Minnesota. We got to Fulda in good time, getting there around 2:00PM CST. So with the stop in Mason City it took about 12 hrs total to get there.

While in Minnesota we had a wonderful time with Steph's family. It was great to be able to see her mom again! We were also able to spend time with her dad as he was down from Warroad, MN. (If you ever want to go somewhere that's REALLY cold, go to Warroad in the winter!!) On top of spending a lot of time with her family we even found some time to work out! In the process of eating all the cookies we tried to run off some in the morning hours to help us in the afternoon hours!! LOL Fulda has a new little fitness center attached the the chiropractor's office so we got a week membership there which was great! (Steph really liked that) Christmas Day was spent at the Koopman Christmas. Her Dad's side. Had a wonderful time with all of them, and than that night we went back to her mom's and had Christmas there! Lots of Christmas in one day! It was GREAT! The biggest news of the Christmas season in Minnesota though was the SNOW STORM! Fulda got pounded with snow, and while we were there it probably snowed 16+ inches! I remembered why i didn't like Minnesota!! But being in Fulda, a really small town, we were still able to drive around town to see family!

On Saturday we headed down to Des Moines to see my family. We didn't know if we would be able to make it there or not, but we braved the elements and for about 65 miles i wondered why we did but once we got past the slush and snow covered roads it was clear sailing and very glad we attempted! We were able to get to Des Moines for supper and to spend the evening with my family. My parents had booked a room at a hotel and so Steph and I stayed there. They had a pool so the whole family came to the hotel to swim after we ate supper and opened up presents. My nephews Joe and Jake had a blast swimming! They are both getting so big! The next morning we all met for breakfast and than we all headed home.

The drive home was not that bad, but I did not like leaving the snowy tundra of Minnesota to come back and drive on snow covered roads in Indiana!! But we made it home safe, had a wonderful time with our families, and glad we were able to make the trip! Below are a few pictures from our trip!

The Start of A New Year

Well it's the start of a new year! I'm anxious for what this year has in store and would love to know everything that is going to happen, but I guess I will just have to wait and see what the Lord brings this year! This Wednesday we are having a combined service with our students and our adults, and so next week Consumed Student Ministries will start meeting again! Over the holiday season I thought a lot about what I would like to see happen and I am praying that God does a mighty work in our students. I believe this year is going to be a good year for my wife Steph and I, my family, LFA, and Consumed Student Ministries.

Along with all of that, I am hoping my blogging will pick up here at the beginning of the year. It may look a little bit different over the next couple of months but we will have to wait and see how that goes!! LOL

Trust in the Lord with all your heart this year and know that if you can do that, He will bless you!! Let this be a blessed year for you!