RON...

I was simply shocked when I heard the whole story of Ron, I was actully left speechless. I understand fully that God is in 100% control, and I know we don't see it now, but this might in the long run some how have a positve affect, we just have to be patient and understand that God is moving us around. But part of me just feels ripped up because Ron had such a huge impact on me, and greeted me everytime I went to church, and made sure I felt welcome, and let me know if there was something I could do to further improve myself as a believer. I guess we can take it for granted sometimes that we had such a great person to lead our group. It leaves me wondering what were going to do about winter retreat, camp, and many other things, I heard that Mexico is already cancled. I am discouraged to hear that all of this was from a " bild" booklet that was used to help our studies, but didn't quite use enough scripture to make our standards or something. I simply hope that God has something gerat in store for Ron, becuase he definantly deserves it. That about it for now, see ya guys later!

Camp ( by Michael Kurtz)

Well as I noticed most people go on telling about camp in their own ways, but I thought it would be nice for the people out there who didn't get to go to camp and let them know how the sessions were, since it seemed that not many people explained the lesson day by day. So here is some sessions as told by my collection of notes.

Session 1- Colossians 1:1-8

• Pauls Greeting to the Colossians 1:1-2
• Pauls Thanksgiving for the Colossians 1:3-8
• The Statement of Thanksgiving v.3
• The Reasons for Thanksgiving.4-8
• The Faith, hope and love of the Colossians
• The Truth of the Gospel
• The Work of Epaphras

Session 2- Colossians 1:9-14

• The Stimulus of Prayer
• The Season of Prayer
• The Subjects of Prayer
• The substance of Prayer
• Thinking Dominated by Christ's desires
• Conduct Corresponding to Christ's character
• Yielding Fruit
• Cultivating Intimacy ( VERY IMPORTANT)
• Being empowered
• Expressing Gratitude

Session 3- Colossians 1:15-23

• The Preeminence of Christ over Creation
• His Divine Character
• His Divine Work
• His Divine Priority
• The Preeminence of Christ over the Church
• His relationship to the Church
• His relationship to the Father
• His relationship to believers
• Their Former Condition
• Their Present Condition
• Their Future Contigency

Session 4- Colossians 1:24-2:5

• The Work of Paul
• His suffering in Ministry
• His Calling to Ministry
• His Philosophy of Ministry
• The Worry of Paul
• His Struggle
• Unity among christians
• Certainty of Conviction
• Intimacy with Christ
• His Warning

Session 5- Colossians 2:6-19

• The Command to Christocentric Living
• The Prohibition against non-Christocentric Living
• First Warning: Avoid Philosophy
• The Means of Captivity
• The Standard of Captivity
• The Problem with Captivity
• Second Warning: Avoid Religiosity
• Don't be jugded by legalism
• Don't be cheated by mysticism

Session 6- Colossians 2:20-3:4

• Abandon This Wordly Regulations
• Our Freedom from Worldly regulations
• Some Examples of Wordly Regulations
• The Description of Worldly Regulations
• The Source of Worldly Regulations
• The Deception of the Worldly Regulations
• Aspire to Otherworldly Prioities
• Pursue things above
• Ponder Things above

Session 7- Colossians 3:5-17

• Mortify or kill Immorality
• Kill sin
• Put off sin
• Stop Lying
• Develop Christlikeness
• Put on a soft heart like Christ
• Be ruled by Security in Christ
• Be faithful in Christ
• Be thankful to Christ
• Be controlled by the Word of Christ
• Do Everything to Glorify Christ

Session 8- Colossians 3:18-4:1

• Family Responsibilities
• Between Wife and husband
• Between Children and Father
• Between Slave and Master
• Evangelisitc Responsibilities
• Pray Relentlessly
• Live Intentionally
• Speak Graciously

Session 9- Colossians 4:7-18

• Commendations for the Letter-Carriers
• Greeting from Co-Workers
• Final Instructions
• Personal Salutation
• It takes Work
• It takes Teamwork
• It takes Prayer
• It requires CHRIST ABOVE ALL

Zornes Wins Poker Tournament, Loses Friends! (j/k)

            The poker was fast and furious at the Kurtz Poker Room on Friday, as Zach Zornes, 15, dominated the competition en route to capturing the Outback Poker Challenge III title, and $100 to his beloved Outback Steakhouse. 

The tournament began with eleven players- some veterans, some beginners.  Among the veterans was Alex Baker, who holds two major titles, including the very first Outback Poker Challenge title.  Also, yours truly, Michael Kurtz, partook of the action.  I won two major titles at back-to-back New Year’s events.  Some of the fish (inexperienced, dead-money players) consisted of Van Law, Arch, Gladysz, and Zornes.  The game started off rather slowly with everyone trying to get a feel for each other’s playing.  My brother Josh took advantage of this by taking down the first pot of the night with a well-time bet.  My mom took down hand #2, and it looked like the Kurtz’s were off to a strong start.  That is, until hand #8.  With the blinds at 3k/6k, Danny Thomas raised to 26k, under the gun.  Josh was the next person to act, and he re-raised it to 50k.  The rest of the players threw their cards away like they were tickets to a Weird Al concert.  The action was back to Danny who called the raise.  The flop came, Q♣ 5♦ 10♠.  Danny bet out 50k.  Josh moved all of his chips into the pot faster than Oprah eating a bucket of chicken.  Danny quickly called.  The hands were turned over.  Josh had pocket kings, and Danny showed pocket aces!  With no king on the turn or the river, Josh became the first person out. 

The action picked up from there, with Alex, Zach, and my friend Jake winning most of the hands.  After 15 hands, Jake was chip leader at 898,000 in chips (out of 3.3M in play).  Zornes would lay claim to his first victim on hand #23.  My brother Matt would meet his untimely end, when he took his Q-J up against Zornes’ A-J.  A jack came on the flop, which gave both players a pair of jacks, but Matt’s tie-breaking card (the kicker) was lower than Zornes’.  He would need a queen to come in order to win, but the only lady he would see would be his girlfriend, after being knocked out in tenth place.  The Kurtz’s were dropping faster than George Bush’s approval rating after the Iraq invasion.  The price of poker would go up as the blinds moved to 6k/12k.  Decisions got a lot harder now.  Even the biggest of men would go down, as Arch would eventually be blinded in for his last 8k.  His final hand… a 7-2 off-suit, considered by many to be the worst hand in poker.  Adam Gladysz’s tournament life was also at stake on the same hand with Arch.  However, Adam would get the card he needed on the river and avoided elimination.  Arch was the ninth-place finisher.  Of his experience at the event, Arch would say, “I thought it was great.  It was great.  I liked it a lot.”  When asked if he would come to another poker tourney, he said, “I’ll definitely do it.”  We need more people like Arch in this world! 

Zach would claim another victim as Adam was busted out on hand #36.  Sadly, even poker champions have their moment of defeat, and I too was eliminated (hand #41) from the tournament.  I was forced to put my last 10k into the pot with a junkie 4-2 off-suit.  My mom had A-J and knocked me out when the board read, A-J-9-Q-K.  Ironically, Zornes folded a 10 and would have won the hand.  But oh well.  Wii Bowling, here I come!  Here is how the rest of the game went, according to various sources:  Zornes, who had about 1.27M, kept chopping away at the remaining players.  The entire table, plus the kids who had already gone out, were hurling everything they could at him- from pocket nines to vicious insults and everything in between.  It seemed like no one in the entire town of Hartville wanted him to win.  Van Law would be the next person out (hand #47), but it would not be at the hand of Zornes.  Danny Thomas had A-9 against Van Law’s Q-9.  With the board reading, A-6-7-10, Van Law could not win the hand, but could only tie it with an 8 on the river.  The river card was a measly 2, and Van Law would finish in sixth; not bad for someone who only had about 15 minutes’ worth of experience coming into the event.  He could not stay for the post-game interviews, but like everyone else, I am certain he had a great time!  After the elimination of Van Law (and Zornes’ mom coming in about an hour), Zornes turned it up to another level, decimating the remaining players.  He took out Danny Thomas in fifth place (hand #54), with pocket jacks against Danny’s pocket sevens.  He took out Jake in fourth place (hand #59) by making a full house on the river.  He eliminated my mom in third place (hand #61) by catching a straight on the river.  Only former champion Alex Baker stood in his way.  Going into the heads-up match, Zornes had about 2.57M to Alex’s 730,000, a 3 ½ to one advantage.  Alex won a couple early pots but then ran into cold cards.  Zornes continued to play big stack poker and would lay claim to the title and the top prize.  Zach said that his sister just turned 13, and that the gift cards would help to provide a nice meal for the family.  I am happy for Zornes and I am sure that he will handle being a poker champion with the utmost humility.  A special thank you to everyone who played in the event.  I can’t wait for the next tourney!  ♠

Perhaps you can help Zach pick out the right photo to be displayed on the Gallery of Champions.  Here are his choices:

Checking up

        Hey Everyone!This Song is Carried Away by Danny Thomas. The original version is done by Sonic Flood I think. Anyway, I thought I should just post an entry to let everyone know how I am doing. Fisrt off, I am doing very well right now, and I hope that everyone else is as well. I have beem very joyful, and I think the reason it the fact of realizing that God has everything planned out for me, and that I will not be living on my own. Its a huge burden off you shoulders to reconize that.

Lately, me and Arch hung out Tuesday. Did a Bible study over Romans 6. After that we played Wii play, and we bowling. Arch and I realized that we should go real bowling soon. The Outback Poker party is coming up soon, (Van law, Arch, Arch, Zornes, and Danny) I am looking forward to that, and I hope you guys are too. Well I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying each day.

Your brother in Christ,

mike kurtz

This and that

             Hey everyone. Well, today is a snowday, and I am pretty excited about that. Its always nice to have a break off school. Anyway, I have been reading out of Romans and Galations lately, and it has been pretty amazing. They are two really great books, and I encourage everyone to read them, even if you already read them once.

I have been playing guitar a ton lately. I don't know what it is, but it seems when I start playing, I can't stop, its just so fun. I have a FBC Worship song book to work on songs. I even played two Sundays ago. I didn't do great, but it felt great to be serving the Lord through music. I am just glad God gave me the ability, time, and determination to play. He has really blessed me.

           How is everyone doing, I mean spiritually? I personally have come across many bumps, but mostly always find my self in the Scripture in times of trouble. If you would like to comment, that would be awesome! 

Your brother in Christ,

mike kurtz