As we prepare for the retreat, we offer you a devotional prayer to help you as you prepare your heart and ask God to reveal Himself to you during these days.

We ask that you read, meditate, pray over, wrestle with and respond to these thoughts about our Savior.

Prayer is paramount to our retreat. Often times we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise that simply prepares us for God’s work. Prayer is the work. “It is the working of the miracle of redemption in us, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God.” Devote yourself to earnest and expectant prayer, that we would encounter biblical community with one another, missional living in our world, and a deeper, fuller, intimacy with our Redeemer.

“Father, we seek you in these days. Anoint those that will lead us with a powerful outpouring of Your Spirit. Jesus, open our eyes to see you, and release those enslaved to destructive ways, mend shattered lives and breathe on those without hope. Lord, show us how to reach out and make you known to our community, our nation and our world. Send us far and wide with a passion for your name.     Let these days be eternal, bearing fruit for Your name that lasts forever.” 

of those “moosen”.

They took 13 runners and 13 finished the 13.1 mile race in San Diego last weekend. Congrats bounding ones!

The “bounding moosen” seven:ten’s premiere running club took a break from their calorie burning to enjoy a family style food extravaganza at Buca de Beppo. You can join the moosen for their upcoming dining excursions, races, and workouts by emailing Jaclyn or Andy.

Frderick Buechner writes in his book The Magnificent Defeat:

“the love for equals is a human thing–of a friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. the world smiles. the love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. this is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. the love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. the world is always bewildered by its saints. and then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens and inflicts pain. the tortured’s love for the torturer. this is God’s love. it conquers the world.”

we rested. but not really. seven:ten will be taking a break for the month of july to pray for you and this ministry, to recharge our batteries for the next season of our ministry, and to fine tune and evaluate our mission to twenty somethings.

I have been here 11 months now and have seen God do amazing things in and through seven:ten. we are so excited for what God has in store for us. there are some exciting changes on the horizon and i believe God is preparing His people for an intense journey with him in the next season of seven:ten.

You will have the opportunity to track with us through the month of july by way of our podcast and events/activities that we will have. the podcasts will be a series of q&a style interviews with seven:ten leadership and can be accessed through the media section on our website (www.7ten.org). we would love to hear from you as to what questions you might have for us. feel free to post them here or email us at paulartino@evbc.org. the event(s) that we will be hosting are specifically designed to help you get connected to and engage in the community of seven:ten. if you would like info on those you can contact matthew at matthewbraselton@evbc.org. we hope you guys have a great july, we can’t wait to see you again,

paul  

According to Merriam-Webster community is defined as “a unified body of individuals.”  Would you consider 7ten to be a community based on that definition? To really be effective at ministering to our generation we need to show the world the love of Christ, and there is no easier way to show love than in the context of Christian community.  As a part of 7ten, what are you doing to help cultivate a culture of community, unity, and love?

I have noticed in the time i have been attending 7ten that there are a lot of disconnected people there and then there are also quite a few groups of really well connected people. If you are in one of these groups when you notice all the people gathering around to talk before and after 7ten, be intentional about looking around for people who are alone, or disconnected. Invite them over and introduce them to your group. This seems like a very easy way to begin to establish unity and community in 7ten. As people begin to feel like they belong here, they will begin to open up to learn about what we believe.

-Dave the intern.

What does it mean to you to be a “spiritual person”? 

So I’ve been single a while.  Okay, I’ve been single my entire 30 years.  And I’ve had a lot of time to think and pray (God knows in my humble opinion, too much time).  This single thing sure can get confusing.  One of the things I’ve been questioning is why more and more people are putting marriage off until later in life.  Some may be doing so for legitimate reasons, I don’t know.  I do know that I hope to get married and I know an amazing group of women, from young twenties to young thirties that want to be married as well (sooner rather than later).  Sometimes we’ll discuss marriage but the prospects of it seem bleak.  Could it be that the church is falling right in line with the culture in regards to marriage?  It seems as though we’ve put it on the back burner on low simmer.  And in not wanting to over romanticize it, we’ve beat it with accusations of discontentment and allowed “more important matters” to keep it muffled.  If the world can see a picture of Christ and His bride through the union of a man and a woman, shouldn’t the church speak becomingly of this relationship and use some of the force to help move singles toward marriage?… (read the full article here)

This Tuesday we are looking at marriage from Ephesians 5. This passage is probably the most exhaustive and comprehensive treatment on the topic of marriage in the NT. God has a very high view of marriage and when understood it is beautiful and empowering.

We want to have a few resources for you all to dive into after the message. I highly recommend you read these articles and listen to these messages to deepen your understanding of marriage. Our deep desire is that your affections for marriage would be stirred and we would become a community who honors, esteems, and pursues Godly marriages.

Articles
1. Love and Respect in Marriage by Ken Sande
2. A beautiful reflection on a beautiful marriage
3. An excellent packet on marriage by Tim Keller. Go through it whether you are married or single.
4. The Cost of Delaying Marriage
5. This is more on the previous article. Defending the Cost of Delaying Marriage

Check out the seven:ten-ers who participated in Pat’s Run last weekend!
These folks are all part of the running club on Wednesday nights. See the details on the classifieds “events” section for more info.