Breastplate of Righteousness

Jeremiah 9:23-24
But let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. 
For in these I delight."

God can do all things, right?  Kind of. 
Here in Jeremiah, God describes himself as one who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness.  God is good not just because he says so but because his actions are good.  All that he does exercises kindness, justice and righteousness in a world full of hatred, injustice and corruption.  If God acted in hatred, injustice and corruption, he would no longer be the kind of God he says he is... he wouldn't be God.

This is the kind of God he is.  He has all power.  But all the actions he exercises are to establish kindness, justice and righteousness. 

Ezekiel 18:21-23
"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked," Declares the LORD, "and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?"

We can learn two things from this
1.  It doesn't matter how wicked your life has been, God does not hate you.  He would always rather see you turn from your previous life than to consider you hopeless.
2.  He delights in seeing us do righteousness, in seeing us do good for others, in seeing us be selfless.  Because of the good you do, he says he will forget the bad things that were done.

Have you ever been reminded of how wicked and awful and bad you are?  That is Satan talking, he would rather you think yourself hopeless.  Righteousness is our breastplate, because of the good things you do, God says you are not hopeless.  He says "I can do great things with you, you are not all bad and I can make you all good and right and just."

Some Take Home Questions:

1. What does he want for wicked people?
   
2. In what ways are you reminded of how bad you are?
3. Have you missed opportunities to do good for others?
   
4. What does God delight in?
5. How do you exercise justice and righteousness in the world?
   
6. What can you do in the next week?
   

The Belt of Truth

This Week we begin the series "The Armor of God" from Ephesians 6:10-20.

Fascinating! The first item Paul tells us to be equipped with when going into the fight is not a weapon or a piece of protecting armor. The first item he says we need is a belt: A belt of Truth. Without it, you will never make it to the battle to use a sword and shield. Truth is like that.

Satan is the Father of all lies (John 8:44) but Jesus is called "the way the TRUTH and the light."

"You are not good enough." "That isn't really a sin." "No one will notice." "You could never do that like he can." "You can sin a little bit...you're not really hurting anyone." "THIS will make you feel better." "you have more important things to do, you can pray later." "They don't want to hear what you have to say."

It is common to feel like you are alone in the world; it is common to feel like no one understands; it is common to feel like no one cares, it is common to feel like what you do doesn't make a difference.

These are common feelings.

These are powerful lies.

When we believe these things, we never even get to the battle because we never get beyond the things we are struggling with in our own lives. Satan wins. His goal is not to kill you or make you into the next Hitler, he is content with keeping you from what God wants for you.

Scripture teaches that you are not alone (Isaiah 41:10) it teaches that God has a plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11), it teaches that God loves you (John 3:16) and that he has given you real power to fight off the darkness (Luke 10:19).

Jesus Christ is Truth and his word is Truth. Scripture provides the truth against the lies that make us feel weak, that make us feel guilty, that make us feel unclean. Put on a belt of Truth, build Scripture into your life.

Some Questions to Ask (and Answer):

• What were some of the lies you guys talked about that you remember?
• What lies does Satan try to tell you?
• Which verses were your favorites? (I will give them a handout of verses against some of those lies)
• How do you think that verse (those verses) would be helpful?
• What are some ways you can surround yourself with Truth?

It Was Great, Thank You

This past wednesday was my Birthday. It was great, thank you. As a birthday present to myself, I had my sister come in as a guest speaker. She has been wanting to meet the students here at Bartlett Chapel and also to visit me in my new hometown since she hadn't been here yet. She lead a game called "fishbowl" which is kind of a mix between "Catch Phrase," "Charades," and a memory game.

The lesson my sister taught was that God is faithful to do what he says he will do. When we are faithful to follow even when we aren't sure about what God has in store for our lives, he will be faithful in making your path straight and shedding light on your feet. Her own faith journey included a major turn in career from working toward being an elemenary teacher to now working toward a position as a magazine art director. Sharing about the conflict that went on in her heart during that time and the joy and relief of finally understanding where God was leading her, she related her own story to the story of Esther.

Esther spent years preparing herself for a role that only involved looking pretty and staying quiet until it came on her to rescue the Jewish people from large-scale extermination. Being the only one in a position to affect change, she found that the years she spent preparing for one role was really for an incredibly different role that changed the history of the Jewish people.

Being my birthday, we loaded them up with all kinds of sugar and sweets afterward that parents and students had generously brought for me. I want to thank Kelsey (my sister) and all the parents and students who made last night great. God bless you all.

I forgot to take pictures :(

Worship Labyrinth

I had many thoughts about tonight. But first, let me outline what we did:

The objective was to explore how we can worship God in everything we do in our regular day to day. Everyone was given a packet of Scriptures for them to look up, read and reflect on as they went about their activities. Eight stations were set up:

Clay: Read 1 Corinthians 12:4-20 about Spiritual gifts. Make something with the Play-Doh provided representing one of the gifts God has given you and that you can use for God.

Yawp: Read Psalm 47 about making noise for the Lord. From Walt Whitman: "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world." Your barbaric yawp is like your battle cry, how you announce yourself to the world. Stand out on the patio and sound your barbaric yawp, shout your battle cry, shout with a voice of triumph (Shout as loud as you can).

Rest: (Psalm 16:9) Rest is connected to being close to God. (Psalm 38:3) Similarly, a lack of rest: being uptight, stressed, worn out is connected with being distant from God. Read Psalm 23 and take some time to close your eyes, lay down, and rest.

Names: Take some time to walk around and read some of the many names given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures. These names give us insight into the kind of person God is. You may want to look up the scriptures listed with each name.

Create: Read these 6 scriptures about God's love and respond to them as you see fit: write a story, a letter, a poem, draw a picture, or craft things up as you see fit using the items set out (Romans 5:8, Psalm 36:5-7, Lamentations 3:22-23, Romans 8:38-39, 1 John 4:19, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Stars: Don't watch the whole thing, but sit with this video and explore the vastness of creation and the incredible science that is often overlooked...The video was a production of Answers in Genesis and gave a tour of the galaxy and the universe beyond from a Biblical foundation with a Scientific approach.

Compete: Read Deuteronomy 8:17-18 and John 15:5. Then read the testimony of one of these Christian athletes (Albert Pujols, Tony Dungee, Ladanian Tomlinson). Then challenge someone to a brief game of ping-pong or foosball.

Bread: Read Deuteronomy 8:3, 17-18. When they work the ground for food, it is the Lord who provides the strength to have that food. When food is picked off a tree with no effort at all, it is the Lord who has provided the nutrients for that food to grow and be available. When we pray for a meal, perhaps it is not to put a sort of spell on the food to make it good to eat, but to thank God for the blessing that it is. Eat a piece of bread.

Now, to my thoughts...

1. I have found that nothing ever goes entirely as planned. The best thing to do is plan the best you can, anticipate differences, and roll with things as they happen. Tonight was no exception.Tonight was our kickoff. I knew (because I planned it all) that tonight was going to be very laid back. As I was praying for the students and watching them make their way to the various stations, I thought it seemed an odd way to have a kick-off: not with a bang, but with solemn worship. I don't think I have any regrets about doing a kick off that way, it just seemed counter to what might be expected. I think it set a good tone for the coming year: we are about worship, we are about acting boldly, we are about learning about ourselves as we learn about God.
2. I was planning on the night being solemn, silent and reflective. It was reflective. I started hearing a lot of chatter going on in various parts of the room. I saw one thing I didn't like: groups who packed together and never split up while others wandered alone. That only happened for a little bit though. Before too long, the chatter I was hearing was a group of girls discussing the verses they were reading, it was a group of students getting to know and welcoming a couple of new students over a shared activity, it was a couple of guys talking about the information from the creation video. I got something different from what I expected, but I think I got something more than I expected. I think we can do it better, but I am excited about what I saw happen.
   

Mission Accomplished

Last Wednesday, we had big fun and games. That was cool. However, I really want more than that right now. Doing things like that let me be with everyone but it doesn't give me a chance to get to know everyone. My objective for tonight (Wednesday, August 26, 2009) was to be able to interact with the students who came so I can start texting, sending letters and having lunch and not feel like we are all complete strangers.

Mission accomplished!

What did we learn today? We learned that we can sing Doxology very unenthusiastically, I taught them a praise chant I learned in Uganda (make sure you guys remember that, I'll make you do it again). We learned about Samuel: what book of the bible his story is in and how he was given a position of honor because he honored God. That God honors people for honoring him, not because of who they are or who their family is. That allowing great sin to happen is just as wicked as committing the sin.

Updates for those who weren't here:

1. I am having lunch at Avon High School on Tuesday, September 1 and will continue to have lunch there every other week. I am working on getting into other schools as well.
2. Sunday, August 30th is Hang Time. I am looking into mini-golf, bowling, and skating.
3. The three Sundays after that (September 6, 13, and 20) I am going to pray over your schools. I will be at the church at 6:30 and leave at 6:45 if you want to join me. I want you to join me. Hint, hint. I REALLY WANT YOU TO JOIN ME (just in case you didn't catch the hint)
4. Fundraisers: I am looking for ideas for us to raise funds for ski trips, atf, ichthus and other things I want to do with you guys. I will get started on getting hats to sell before Faith in Action day.
5. COME SIT WITH ME ON SUNDAYS. I don't have any friends yet, so come sit with me. I was conned into agreeing to wear a dress if we get 45 students up there with us.
6. NEXT WEEK: We will remodel the Youth Room. Get some ideas of things to hang, places to put furniture, etc. I will look into the best deals on pizza.
7. I want to come to your games, shows, performances and anything else you do. I don't care if you want me to come or not. I want to pray for you, whether you like it or not. Let me know how I can pray for you.
   

I am excited about this year. I am excited that I got to interact with you guys tonight and I am excited about being with you for the rest of this year and beyond!

Dress for the Mess

...Has anyone seen my sandals?

Dress for the Mess has happened. A lot of good things happened: We've all been able to connect with each other a little bit more. Being new, I really feel like the outsider when I am with the students. The most important thing to me is finally having information cards for people. With your names, I can look up everyone on Facebook and with phone and cell phone number, I can start trying to talk to everyone throughout the week so that I don't just see you two days a week!

Seriously, I can't find my sandals anywhere.

We had a night full of scalding Mashed Potatoes, dish soap, watermelons, ketchup, mustard and other condiments firing from squirt guns, and a tasty dish of...something...I know it had rice, beans, split pea soup and some grapefruit juice just to add some moisture. Oh, and lets not forget how beautiful Jordan and Austin looked! There were some really awful smells from all that mixing together, but it's not everyday that "we" can get that dirty (I am not really included in that since I didn't actually get dirty...next time)

I feel like I've looked everywhere, too.

Some lessons I learned:
Trust in God, he really does look out for those he loves and he really cares about even the little day-to-day things that affect us, including the weather.
People, parents especially, want to help. I need to make sure I have a specified plan for what they can do and not try to do everything myself.
Wear shoes, so I don't lose them from taking them off all the time.

Oh well, it was time to get new sandals anyway.

Pictures will be coming soon to a facebook page near you.