Generation NOW

Visit us at

2012-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

www.GNflight.org for directions and information please call or text Sam @ 845-325-0033

GN Redline QR code (Use iPod App to scan)

2010-09-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Visit Our Website

2010-07-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hey our website is now up and running check it out at www.GNredline.com!!

The Kingdom

2010-07-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

Kingdom:a governing influence of the king over his territory impacting it with his will purpose and intention producing a citizenry of people who express his culture and reflect his nature

GN T-shirt design contest

2010-07-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Generation Now is designing new T-shirts and wants your ideas!

Winners will receive a $25 i tunes gift card for ideas or designs used to create one of our shirts

Please Submit all designs to GNyouthministries@gmail.com or post them on our facebook page

Lets get Creative guys!

Legacy pt II-sacrifice

2010-07-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

There is one common thing that all legacies have in common. Sacrifice.

For Leonidas it was the lives of him and his 300 men

For William Wallace in Braveheart it was the lives of him and his countrymen

Maximus Decimus Meridius gave his own life in the Gladiator

In the Revolutionary War it was men like George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson who led the revolution and countless young Americans who gave their lives.

what was the result of that sacrifice?

A new influence, way of life, and culture.

A new Country, government and establishment

So what about the sacrifice of Jesus?

What did his legacy/sacrifice establish?

The Kingdom, not just a kingdom but The Kingdom of God.

And because of our heritage, because of His sacrifice, we have been given access to this kingdom.

We aren’t living for today alone, we are not living to be perfect and to say the right things and do the right things. Because when we do that we are once again taking for granted the Legacy of Jesus Christ. And giving up the heritage that He has given us.

Its time for us to stop living according to the kingdom of this world and start living in The Kingdom of God

Matthe 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you

Legacy pt I

2010-07-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

You have probably seen the theme played out quite a few times in different movies, it is usually pretty popular in war movies, whether its WWII and the commander leads his troops against an evil that threatens the world.

Or a movie like Gladiator, Troy, or 300 where a specific hero fights in an epic battle to ensure his legacy will live on for future generations.

Legacy- Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past

In these movies the central character is always concentrated on the future more so than the present. For any victory that is won at that moment will only go so far as to help his reputation which will only last until the next battle.

but when they set their mind on the future, whether its our founding fathers fighting against the British to bring freedom to future generations, or in 300 where King Leonidas fights against insurmountable odds so that future generations will know that a few man could stand against thousands and make a difference.

these characters who are looked at as hero’s concentrate on something bigger than themselves. They concentrate on ensuring a lasting effect that will influence future generations

on this past weekend, July 4^th, independence day, we were able to celebrate the brave and courageous men and women who fought against religious persecution, and fought against the tyranny of a unjust king.

We were able to honor the legacy left behind those men and women, and appreciate the effect of that legacy.

Heritage- something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth; an inherited lot or portion

because of the legacy handed down by the founders of this country, we have been given a heritage of freedom.

Often times however we are quick to take that heritage for granted.

We have had it so good because of the price that was paid by the men and women who went before us.

Yet because it has never been challenged we have taken it for granted.

We have acted like living a life for God is just a luxury that we can choose to follow if and when we want. Like deciding to go see a movie and picking which show time is most convenient for us.

We as a generation have had it easy.

we have dropped the legacy of what our forefathers did for us and we have in large part lost our heritage as Americans.

But even worse than that, we have treated the Legacy of Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross like something cheap.

The truth is we have a Legacy to remember and a Heritage to fulfill.

This country has come up well short. Human beings from the time that the Israelites wandered the desert forgetting all that God had done for them have come up well short.

Its time for us to do something about that.

Its time for us to drop the legacy of this world and pick up the legacy of Christ.

How do we do that? How do we start to live out the heritage God has for us?

Is it by going to church more?

Cleaning up our speech?

Listening to music and watching movies that are “edifying”?

Trying to be “better Christians”?

Our heritage is so much bigger than those actions. Our heritage is something so much more significant than the words that come out of our mouth. So much more important than the shows we watch and the music we listen to. So much more vital than the amount of time we spend reading the bible.

While those are things we should be doing, simply focusing on those actions alone limit our effectiveness for God.

Our heritage is not something that we earned in the first place.

Did we fight in the revolutionary war? Did we spend our blood sweat and tears and fighting the battle for freedom?

Does that make us any less free?

Of course not, our freedom has been given to us, not because of anything that we did to earn it, but because of the legacy that was left by those who went before us.

We were born into that heritage of freedom.

So I ask you the same question, but with our heritage in God. Did we do anything to earn it?

Did any of us hang on that cross with Jesus?

does that take away at all from our salvation?

No not in the least!

So us trying to live a perfect life to make ourselves better in Gods eyes is so useless.

When we do that we are being so small minded, we are not looking at the big picture of what God did for us.

Its time that we as a generation start living out the bigger picture for our lives...Gods picture for our lives

BattleCry 2010 pics

2010-04-22T06:57:00.001-07:00

Battle Cry 2010 Itinerary

2010-04-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

2010 GN Battle Cry

BattleCry Website

When: Friday April 16th- Saturday April 17th

Where: Izod Center, East Rutherford NJ (Meadowlands)

Hotel: Homestead Stuido Suites- Meadowlands

300 State Hwy., Rte. 3 E.

East Rutherford, NJ 07073

Telephone: 201-939-8866

Contacts: Sam Edwards (845) 325-0033

Donald Stretz (845) 242-2959

Wendy Arroyo (845)392-3618

Itinerary:

4/16 Friday

4:00pm leaving Oak Grove Grange

5:15pm checking into hotel rooms

5:30pm dinner

630pm doors open at Battle Cry

7:30pm session begins

10:30pm Hillsong United Concert

4/17 Saturday

8:00am Breakfast

9:00am Session 2 begins

10:00am worship

11:00am session 3

12:30pm Lunch

2:00pm session 4

5:00pm dinner

6:45pm session 5

9:00pm leaving to return home

10:30pm returning to the grange

Battle Cry 2010 Itinerary

2010-04-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Generation NOW Battle Cry Itinerary and Information

BattleCry 2010 Medical/Parent Consent Forms

2010-04-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys in order to attend BattleCry this year we need these forms filled out and brought with you to youth this Tuesday April 13th

Medical Consent Form

Parental Consent Form

Any Questions Call me 845-325-0033

Thanks

-Sam

check out our boy donny on a missions trip in Haiti!

2010-03-30T12:09:00.001-07:00

Haiti Medical Relief Trip from Connections Church on Vimeo.

2010-03-29T06:35:00.001-07:00

"You will never look into the eyes of someone Jesus didnt love enough to die for..."
-author unknown

GN call with Donny Stretz live from Haiti 3.9.10

2010-03-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

Indescribable- Recognizing who God is

2010-02-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

Those words were spoken to a young man likely between the ages of 13-17.

Before you were born, before you even existed in your mothers womb, before your parents even knew you existed, and honestly before your parents existed I KNEW YOU

stop and think about those words

I- meaning Jehovah, the I AM, the God of the universe, the creator of everything in existence

Knew- to perceive or understand as fact or truth; to apprehend clearly and with certainty

You- that is You individually, that's not You like a general everyone, it means each and every single person on this earth, YOU

before I created YOU I knew YOU

God knew exactly what he was doing when he created Jeremiah, before he ever existed God said I am going to create a young man and I am going to set him apart and give him a specific purpose on this earth.

The truth is that God HAS called you as well.

Before he formed you in the womb God had a plan and a purpose for your lives.

It is so important for us to realize this, but often we stop there.

Sometimes we need to focus on the I rather than the YOU

Its very easy to only focus on the part of that scripture that pertains to us. The part where it says God has a plan for ME, and God wants to bless ME, and God wants to protect ME

Our First Resolution for 2010 is to Recognize who God is

One way that we are able to identify who God is, is by looking at what He has created.

Its not identifying who we are, what we want, and how God is going to do everything for me.

We already know all about ME, about who we are, its time that we start focusing on who God is

if we are ever really going to discover the purpose that God has for each one of our lives, we first have to really understand the one who gave us that purpose in the first place.

In the book of Isaiah chapter 40, God asks

25"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

The truth is there is no one you can compare our God to, there are none who are is equal.

Yet that same God knows each one of us by name, has set each one of us apart, and has a unique purpose for each one of us!

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

The Video below does a great job of expressing that reality of the "hugeness" of our God.

GN Resolution

2010-01-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

a resolution is defined as a firm decision to do or not do something.

the word finds its root from the term resolute which means admirably purposeful, determined and unwavering.

so the question is what are we making a firm decision to do in this coming year?

what is it that we are going to be purposeful, determined and unwavering about?

Here are the 3 Resolutions for GN in the year 2010

1. Recognition- of who God is, and who God is to you, identifying what place He who holds in your life

it is very easy to say I love God, I am a Christian but a lot of the time that is said without a true recognition of who God really is.

And beyond that, beyond knowing who God is, knowing who God is in your life, knowing His son Jesus Christ and the part that he plays in your life.

we're not talking about Jesus being your homeboy, we're talking a true life altering knowledge of who the Son of God truly is

2. Growth- in our personal lives and as a group

Growing together as a group who chooses to turn our backs on the culture of this world, choosing to march forward in the Kingdom of God.

Determined not to walk through life like everyone else but rather to lead a radical lifestyle with Christ at the center.

3. Influence- its not enough to know God and to have growth in our own personal lives if that's where it ends.

this generation is a generation of influence

It isnt enough for us to rebel as a generation, that's been done before, what we are called to do is to inflict change.

our generation leads the way in making change in government in culture and in our society, but often for all the wrong reasons, its time for us to stand up and inflict change

to become that generation spoken about in

Psalm 24:6

"Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek your face, O God of Jacob"

Satisfied?

2009-12-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

For the last few months in Generation NOW we have been dealing with the theme of RECAPTURE. Identifying the things in our lives that we have placed before God and allowing Him to recapture our hearts.

A recent survey suggests that on average, young men and women (ages 12-24) spend 30 or more hours a week on the internet. (if you do the math that's a little over 4 hours a day) Frequenting social networking websites such as facebook and myspace. Following their favorite celebrities on twitter and msn, and downloading over 2.5 million songs a day on iTunes.

Why is it that our generation as a whole have such a desire to connect with one another, to know the latest details of everything going on in the lives of so many different people? From our friends and family down to people we have never met?

Some would argue simply because we can, never before has a generation had such access to the world around them. With the internet and google there are virtually no ends to the information we can access. No matter if it is something/ or someone in our own backyard, or someone literally on the other side of the world.

The same goes for entertainment, you don't even have to leave the house anymore to listen to your favorite music, or to watch your favorite movie or tv show on demand.

You don't even have to pick up the phone to see what your 1,674 friends are doing, what they’re thinking and what they had for lunch. But if you did want to use your phone, don't worry, “there’s an app for that”. So yeah sure, availability has a lot to do it.

The question is however, is our desire to be entertained an effect of having all of this available to us, or is it the reason it exists in the first place?

I think it would be safe to say that the desire to be entertained, the desire to be fulfilled in some way, the desire to find satisfaction in life outdates facebook, itunes, the internet, bill gates, movies and television by a good 6 thousand years or so.

From the time man was created he has searched for fulfillment. When Adam and Eve were in the garden they found that fulfillment in their creator.

They found their purpose on earth, bringing glory to God.

But we know what happened, they tried to find their fulfillment in something other than God. From that point forward, from the point when sin entered the world and a separation was created between them and God, man has desperately tried to recreate the satisfaction that can only be found in one place alone. In God.

The desire we have in our lives is nothing new, it is simply a place in our lives that was created by our creator for our creator.

When we look in this world and see so many people hurting looking for answers, looking for their fulfillment in drugs and alcohol, in relationships with men and women. It is an attempt to fill that void.

But the truth is that when we look to anything else besides Jesus we are doing the same thing, trying to fill a void that with temporary fixes that will never last.

Jeremiah 2:13

“For my people have done two evil things: 

They have abandoned me the fountain of living water.

And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns 

that can hold no water at all!

We are looking for satisfaction

Satisfaction- to fulfill the desires, expectations, needs, or demands of an individual

a satisfaction that can only be found in God.

but how is it that we find our satisfaction in God?

how can we go from a place of finding satisfaction from the things of this world to finding our satisfaction in the one who created the world?

it simply comes down to a choice that only we can make

it is a choice to bring glory to God

we were created in His image, we were created with a purpose, we were created with a desire to know our creator, to fill that void that only He can fill.

But because we’ve made the decision to glorify so many other things we have removed God from that place in our lives and we’ve filled it with worthless distractions that will never ultimately fulfill or satisfy our lives.

yet we don't even realize it.

None of us ever believe that we are bringing glory to anything else but God but when we find our satisfaction in something else that is exactly what we are doing.

Here are the numbers to prove it

Itunes brought in 1.9 billion dollars in revenue last year, 1.9 billion that $1,900,000,000

According to forbes lil wayne and kanye brought in 50 million each last year

(A-Rod only made 25 million to put that in perspective)

In 2008 Starbucks had 10.383 billion dollars in revenue

Facebook alone brought in $500 million

While you will never spend a dime to use facebook, companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertisements to reach youth between the ages of 12-24 everyday.

When we find our satisfaction in these avenues someone is getting glory out of it, and by these numbers it looks like a lot of glory

but what happens when we find our satisfaction in God?

when we find our satisfaction in our salvation? In the fact that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our lives to be spared? For the ability to connect one on one with the creator of the universe? For being blessed restored and redeemed by our father?

WHATEVER WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN IS THE THING THAT WE BEST GLORIFY- john piper

when we find our satisfaction in God our lives become a reflection of who He is

You want to make a difference in your life, you want to see a difference made in this generation?

Then glorify the God and Savior who is the only one that can truly change our lives and the lives of those around us.

We have the answer, but the only way others are going to see that is when they see it in our lives, when they see his reflection.

That only happens when we stop looking to the world for our satisfaction but when we instead look to God.

Encounter 2009

2009-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

3 days and 2 nights of basketball, football, kickball, dodge ball, a dance contest, awesome worship, and a great speaker would be a few ways in which you could describe the youth camp that we attended this past month.

However looking back it is easy to see that those activities were only the tools in which God used to impact our lives. Both as a group and as individuals, often when we were not even expecting it. Like the 2 hour drive to the camp (in the rain) that God used to bring us closer together.

And even as dodge balls went flying by your head you could feel the love, until one happened to hit you and then of course it meant war. Someone may have even hit the guest speaker in the face, although no one was actually able to identify who had thrown it…oops

But even that couldn't stop Pastor Tony Cruz from delivering great messages that really spoke not only to the youth but to the leaders as well. Helping us to identify and to remove the masks we wear on a daily basis often without even realizing it.

Not to mention some of the most entertaining examples that we’ve ever heard…such as “10 things never to say when you get pulled over” and a rendition of “Jesus take the wheel” that wont soon be forgotten…man that baby in the backseat should get an oscar.

One thing that I believe we learned from this camp is that when given the opportunity to impact our lives God will often do it in ways that we never would have imagined.

All we have to do is to continue to make ourselves available to him…

recapture

2009-11-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Has anyone ever told you to “follow your heart”?
Have we ever stopped to think where it is that our hearts would lead us if given the opportunity?
We know that God wants to give each of us the desires of our hearts, but do we know what those desires truly are?

Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

Using that as our indicator what do we give the most value to in our lives? What are those things in which we devote ourselves to on a daily basis? Work, School, Family, Friends, God, Facebook, ESPN…

Beyond these things what do we allow to influence us on a daily basis without even realizing it? The music we listen to (sometimes unknowingly), the TV shows we watch, the movies that we enjoy?

In a world filled with more distractions than we can possibly handle it isn’t always easy to make sure that our hearts are in line with God’s.
Unfortunately, as long as God has to share residency with everything else in our lives He will never be able to effectively and fully use us in the way He desires to.

The word capture means to gain access or possession by force. When we come to realize that our hearts have in fact been captured by anything else but God, it is time for us to allow God to “RECAPTURE” our hearts. When man sinned God didn't leave it up to us to find a way back to Him, He forcefully and purposefully made a way for us to be reunited with Him.

Will we make that decision to forcefully and purposefully give God full possession of our hearts once again?