Teaching truths

During the summer, our church asks people to volunteer to teach the kids classes while the "regular" teachers that handled the classes during the school year get a break. I signed up for one class of Jacob's and one class of Jaden's. I may do more...but, started there.
I had Jacob's class yesterday and it is always fun, entertaining and challenging to teach a bunch of 4 year-olds a bible story. We learned about sharing by using the story of Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dream and ultimately collecting grain and sharing it during the 7 years of drought that came about just as the dream had described.
If you repeat things enough, ultimately they started remembering that sharing was the theme of the day and hopefully they will remember more than it seemed that they listened to :)

For me, and one of the great reasons why teaching is so awesome, I always enjoy reading the way the the publishers simplify the stories that are in the Bible so that the kids get A point for each one. We tend to make things so complex sometimes that it is nice to see the simple truths that are there and that we can focus on when we read these stories.

Church and Country Music...

I thought it was too funny that our pastor referenced this song that I had blogged about quite awhile ago this last Sunday. He was talking about leaving a legacy which I have spent quite some time thinking about as I have been getting older (yes I know that I am still young) and especially as I have had children. It simply puts things into perspective and that was the point that our pastor made. You have to have an eternal perspective and recognize that the legacy you leave behind does have an impact on all those people that you had relationships with. His acronym for LEGACY was:
L - Live your faith
E - Express what you believe
G - Goad others to care
A - Arm people for difficulty
C - Commit all to God
Y - Yearn for everyone's salvation

He definitely pointed to some truths that are important to remember and I am regularly amazed at how a good, well written song can really heighten the recognition of certain truths. I think the country western song, in this case, does just that.

CHRIST IAN

I want to title a book CHRIST IAN for Christ In Action Now. I think that is the way we should be living with the emphasis on action.
I have been thinking about and observing many things lately that show me how far we have swung as a Christian base to "belief" and "faith" alone. Now, please do not mis-understand. We don't earn or deserve our salvation through any works on our part. So FAITH is absolutely the first and foremost thing. However, the Bible also says that faith without works is dead...and I think there are large groups of 'believers' that rely on the faith alone premise so much that their faith is dead.
I think a sermon lived is better than a sermon heard. We, as the church, really need to get out into the community and make meaningful change happen. Christ's example was Him being amongst people that were sinners...shining his light into the darkest places. We need to follow that example and get out of the church building.

Jude's Dedication

We had Jude's dedication today as part of the Father's Day service. We were the only family in first service and we dedicated Jude with my Dad, Linda, Jasmine, Elizabeth and the boys up in front of the congregation with us. Several members came up to the front as well and Pastor Mike prayed for us and the boys as well. I am so thankful that the dates worked out so that family could be out during this time.
As far as the dedication, it was short, but each time we have done this with one of the boys it has been meaningful. I know that it is more for us than for him since he is only 6 months old, but it nice to go through the process and remember how important it is for Kristn and I to be intentional with what we say, do and how we are parenting everyday to raise our kids the way we want to, with the values we want instilled in them.
We may not know for 20+ years how we did, but hopefully we will be able to report back with the success of our boys lives as evidence of how it went.

Acts 2 Church

We started a study of the book of Acts yesterday. One of the most impressive things to me was the way that people came together as a community, as a family of believers. They met with each other, ate with each other and sold their possessions and gave to one another as they had need. I wish that we had community like that in today's world. What if everyone in the church today acted like the early church?

JAM on Wednesday Nights

Back in September, I started working with kindergarten aged kids on Wednesday nights at a church sponsored event called JAM (Jesus And Me). Outside of some work and travel conflicts, I have been teaching each week to usually around 5-7 boys and girls. It will run through the end of May, so it was a much bigger commitment than I realized (8 months minus one month off around Christmas) but it has been fun and challenging. As with my own children, they can be hard to handle and entirely too full of energy, but the moments when you do get them to quiet down and focus, or those moments when they get what the story is about are pretty special and seem to make the difficulties worth it. Here is a moment when they were all quiet and praying:





Hopefully, we will have a good night tonight as well and they will find the story of God feeding Elijah by having ravens bring bread and meat each day as amazing as I do.

Life's Big Questions

During my trip to Colorado last month I had a fun and interesting conversation on religion and Christianity with my brother in law. I love going into these because it makes me articulate the reasons why I believe. I may not always have the answers, but it is always a good conversation.
Well, now to add to my fun and hopefully my ability to answer, my church is doing a series on these questions...



Thanks to Sheila Laurence for posting the info below to her blog...http://connectingwithsheila.blogspot.com/

March 30 - Cheryl McGuinness, whose husband was one of the co-pilots in the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center, will address the question: How do I rebuild my life after tragedy?


April 6 - Why is there so much suffering in the world?

April 13 - How can I become a better person?

April 20 - How can I love difficult people, especially when they hurt me?

April 27 - What happens when I die?The above photo was the handout of information given out yesterday, it listed the above dates and questions.


Maybe I will have even more to talk about with my brother in law after ths series!