Good post by Tim Challies

Mobility, Privacy, Pornography http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/challies/XhEt/~3/Dqf-GtD7wag/mobility-privacy-pornography

media review: Frozen

Critics are calling Frozen Disney's best movie in decades and possibly Disney's best animated musical of all time. I'm not sure anything will match the truly iconic status of classics like Bambi or Beauty and the Beast, but this is certainly Disney's best effort in recent years. It's no wonder that it's receiving nearly universal approval from movie goers. With stunning animation, catchy music, and a non-formulaic storyline, Frozen is a strong addition to the Disney canon and a great choice for family entertainment this winter. The PG rating comes from a few moments of rude humor, none of which I found to be particularly offensive. There are occasions of fright for the characters but not really any for the audience. The threat of a white and sparkly snow monster doesn't come close to that of Ursula or Scar or any other villains who bring a darkened screen and scary music with them. This makes Frozen a wonderful film for families with a mix of teens and younger children.

The story is loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, The Snow Queen. Disney had tried to develop an adaptation for over ten years but found it problematic. The version realized here is quite different from the original tale, but it keeps the frosty scenery, as well as the main themes of strong friendship which never gives up and the power of love to overcome evil. In the original, the main characters are the Snow Queen, who is clearly a villain, and two friends, a boy who is cursed when a fragment of ice from the Snow Queen pierces his heart, changing him and causing him to run away, and a girl who journeys far to find him. In Disney's adaptation, there are two main characters, princess Elsa, who was born with the magic ability to create ice and snow, and princess Anna, her younger sister.

The beginning of the film is charming yet bittersweet, as it introduces us to the Nordic-inspired land of Arendelle and its royal family. We see Elsa and Anna's strong childhood relationship, which then becomes estranged when Elsa accidentally injures Anna during a play snowfight. Elsa begins to hide herself away in the palace, afraid of injuring her sister further, and Anna, while growing into a spunky young lady, also grows more and more lonely without her sister. Things come to a head at Elsa's coronation ball. Anna is excited by the festivities and the prospect of being surrounded by people, and she almost instantly finds what she believes is true love. Meanwhile, Elsa is trepidatious at the thought of trying to conceal her powers from so many people. She becomes overwhelmed during the ball, and lashes out with a fury of snow and ice, revealing her magic—and accidentally encasing her entire kingdom in an enchanted winter.

Elsa flees to the mountains, where she conjures an entire castle of ice, and there she resolves to live out the rest of her days, alone but empowered to finally be who she wants to be. The movie's most powerful showtune, 'Let It Go', is introduced during this scene, and I promise you will be singing it days later. Anna follows, with the assistance of Kristoff, an ice salesman, Sven, his trusty reindeer, and Olaf, an enchanted snowman produced unwittingly by Elsa's powerful imagination. From this point on, the audience is taken on a roundabout adventure through the mountains, up to Elsa's castle, across chasms, and back to the palace, all the while accompanied by beautiful scenery, slapstick comedy, and a bevy of coming-of-age lessons.

To tell much more would be to give away many of the surprising twists the movie holds, but suffice it to say that Disney throws most of the rules out the window with this one. You may have noticed the recent trend of titling princess movies not by name (à la Cinderella), but by adjective. Thus, Rapunzel becomes Tangled, and Merida is styled as Brave. Are the marketing folks trying to avoid alienating boys? Or is someone making a statement about what "today's princess" allows to define her?

With Frozen, we have not just one princess to observe, but two. Elsa's character is more complex than the average animated leading lady; though she is one of the movie's heroines, her role also contains shades of the villainous snow queen from the original tale. She has to learn how to use her magical powers for good, an ability which eludes her for quite some time, and she spends much of the film alienated from the people of Arendelle. Anna is multi-dimensional as well. On the surface she seems childlike and naive, full of romantic dreams and ready to be swept off her feet at a moment's notice. But her happily-ever-after storyline contains many detours, as well as an ending with unexpected depth.

So what do you get when you mix a needs-no-prince sister with a gets-engaged-to-the-first-prince-she-sees sister? A story that turns out to be about sisters rather than princes, which is still surprisingly enchanting and successful at teaching us about the power of true love.

Susannah

lesson loop 11.15.13

Middle School: "Jesus Suffering, Death and Burial"
This was a sobering lesson as we continue in our study of Jesus Christ. This past Tuesday we looked at:

Jesus' Suffering
We listed these aspects to Jesus' physical suffering:

vs. 1) flogged - cat of 9 tails, blood loss
vs. 2) crown of thorns - long thorns that would go deep into the head, causing bleeding
vs. 3) struck by wicked men
vs. 17) bearing his own cross
vs. 18) crucifixion

That is only his physical suffering, not to mention emotional and spiritual. 

The next question was, why did Jesus need to suffer? Couldn't He just die a painless death and pay for our sins? We answered that with no, and here is why:

• He was our substitute (Isaiah 53) - Jesus took our place and so He needed to be punished.
• His suffering was prophesied (Isaiah 50, 52, 53, Psalm 22, etc.)
• Forgiveness can only come through bloodshed (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus Death

Jesus willingly died for us. No man took His life from Him. And yet, Jesus waited until the payment for sin was complete, and He said these important words - "It is finished"

The work is done. God's wrath is satisfied. We don't need to impress God or others.  Praise Him!

Jesus Burial

Jesus' burial is often overlooked, but it emphasizes the finality of His death. He really did die! Not only that, but since our sins were placed on Him on the cross, they went to the grave with Him, and that is where they are to stay. Colossians 3 teaches us that. We need to leave our sins in the grave, and stop trying to wear our old graveclothes! Let's walk in the new life of the resurrection!

Here are the discussion questions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s4BVgRa4lreXuxcDDiAXUrN7vUe8OwOdxu0pHt-sDGI/edit?usp=sharing

High School: "Harvest: The Kingdom Worker"
We finished our video series with a lesson that focused on the harvest that is available for kingdom work. God wants to release all of us, students included to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus helping others and sharing the gospel. Students were challenged to get involved right now, and not wait until they are adults.
It was a great lesson and excellent end to this series.
Here is the video for those who would want to watch it:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNWm9Ld28zMXlQWkU/edit?usp=sharing

And here are the discussion questions:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNVWEyNlM1UDk0ZVk/edit?usp=sharing

media review: Ender's Game

New in theaters this week is Ender's Game, based on the Orson Scott Card book of the same name, winner of both Hugo and Nebula awards when it was first published in 1985. It follows the childhood life of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, born into a world living in fear of the Formics, a race of bug-like aliens who almost wiped out life on Earth 50 years prior. Convinced that only adolescent brains have the acuity and flexibility to develop the strategies needed to fight the next war, society has developed a program to send the best and brightest children to battle school to become the next generation of military commanders. Though it is technically a sci-fi tale, at its heart it is a story about the choices we make when it appears that the only way to defeat our enemies is to become aggressors ourselves.

The book was not originally targeted towards young adults, but it quickly found popularity among children and teens, who are drawn in by Card's compelling portrayal of what it feels like both to be bullied and bullying, outcast and hero. With the current popularity of teenage characters in dystopian settings (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will be released later this month), the story's 30-year incubation period from page to screen will probably turn out to be well-timed. Today's teens seem to relish tales like these, where a character their age is faced with insurmountable odds and a mission that no one else can accomplish. Throughout the story, the adults attempt to keep Ender isolated in hopes of molding him into a visionary leader, but friendships still manage to grow, and teamwork becomes key as the conclusion nears.

In the conversion from page to film, the timeline is compressed down to one year of Ender's life, and the story suffers a little loss of depth because of that. Still, it captures the spirit of the book well, and it raises the same pressing questions at the end. It is also a visual feast, worthy of the cost to see it on the big screen (and even in IMAX) - and its PG-13 rating may allow it to be fun for the whole family, depending on the maturity level of your children. Find more information about specific content and themes at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/enders-game and http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/enders-game. In my opinion, the movie is suitable for a slightly younger audience than the book. The more violent moments of the story feel less intense when you are viewing them as an outsider rather than experiencing the emotions inside Ender's head. The movie also does a good job of showing the friendships and family relationships that keep Ender centered at times when it seems the adult leaders might prefer him to follow a path that is morally ambiguous.

Susannah

lesson loop 11.1.13

Middle School - "Jesus is More Than Just a Nice Guy"
This past Tuesday we continued our study on Jesus Christ. We began by watching a video where people on the street were interviewed about who they thought Jesus Christ was. There were some really interesting (and sad) comments on the video, but I believe it was an honest representation of what people actually believe. If you want to check out the video, you can here: http://youtu.be/johNLhZ5y48

We can only know who Jesus really is by looking at Jesus' claims He made about Himself. So that was our focus on Tuesday. Each of the groups looked at several Scriptures and then we compiled the claims of Christ. Here are some of them:



Matthew 26:50-64 and Luke 22:63-70

• “I can summon angels.”
• “I am the Messiah, the Son of God.”
• “You will see me seated at the right hand of God, and I will come back in the clouds of heaven.”

John 8:42-59

• “I came from God, and He sent me”
• “God is my Father”
• “God seeks my glory, He glorifies me”
• “If anyone keeps my word, he will never die.”
• “I know God and you do not.”
• “I existed before Abraham, I am eternal.”
• (earlier in 8:29) - “I always please God.”

John 10:14-39; 14:6-10

• “I know God and He knows me (He is my Father).”
• “I will lay down my life, and then take it up again. I have this authority.”
• “I can give eternal life, and secure people’s salvation.”
• “I am one with God”
• “God consecrated me and sent me into the world.” 
• “God the Father is in me and I am in Him.”
• “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can get to God unless they come through me.”

We finished the night by considering C.S. Lewis' Trilemma ("Lord, Liar or Lunatic") Here is what C.S. Lewis proposed:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

You can watch a video that sums it up right here if you would like: http://youtu.be/__4m_QvMQAY

Here are the small group questions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YQWJRihimAAZ0S5OyeYJYdWA12i7yB0T35Jhi3FJmc8/edit?usp=sharing

My prayer is that our students see that Jesus claimed to be God, and He is God!!

High School - "What Defines You"

This was another great video lesson that got to the heart of who we are. We are defined by what is inside of us. And who we are inside comes out in the way we live. We learned that we can be defined by the stuff we have, or relationships we are in, or anything that is really important to us. One of the ways to know if anything is "defining us", is to ask the question - "would I be angry if it was taken away from me?".

This was challenging, and in the small group time afterwards students were challenged to evaluate what in their life might be defining them other than Jesus Christ. They were even challenged to find a couple people they trust and ask them for advice what they might need to change in their life. My hope is that some of our students actually took that challenge seriously. Those can be tough conversations to have, but important ones.

Here is the video we watched: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNSHF5anpiSk5BZ3M/edit?usp=sharing

And here are the small group questions:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNOTgyOUNxU3lhX1E/edit?usp=sharing

lesson loop 10.23.13

Middle School - "Jesus Birth"
We are continuing our study of the Trinity and we began a mini-series on Jesus called "Messiah".
Last night we looked at Jesus' birth, and how our "Limitless God" limited Himself by becoming man. This is an incredible idea, and hard to grasp - but we emphasized that Jesus is 100% human and 100% divine. He is not half and half, He is fully God and fully man. We focused more on Jesus' humanity last night, and considered questions such as "Was Jesus average or above average at sports?", did He as a baby go through all the normal stuff like crying and teething and dirty "diapers"? Did he go through the awkward puberty years the same way we do? These are interesting questions to entertain, but in the end we know that Jesus was fully human and so He did indeed experience the things we do that are a natural part of life.
We proceeded to read through Luke 1:26-38 and 2:1-38 and look for indications that prove Jesus was both human and divine. Here are some things we came up with:
Jesus Humanity

• 1:31) conceived in Mary’s womb; she gave birth to him
• 1:32) his ancestor was David
• 2:5) was pregnant
• 2:7) Mary delivered Jesus; they were turned away like any other normal family would have been.
• 2:12) Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes - shows his vulnerability as a normal baby - needing comfort and warmth
• 2:21) Jesus was circumcised
• 2:22-23) Jesus was dedicated like any other Jewish male

Jesus' Divinity

• 1:26) Gabriel sent from God
• 1:32) Named “Son of the Most High”
• 1:33) He will reign forever on the throne of David
• 1:34) virgin birth (Holy Spirit)
• 1:35) called “holy”, Son of God
• 2:9) angel appears to shepherds; “glory of the Lord shone around them”
• 2:11) Given the names of Savior, Christ and Lord
• 2:13) a multitude of the heavenly host
• 2:26) revealed as the Lord’s Christ
• 2:32) called a “light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel
• 2:38) called “the redemption of Jerusalem”

We also considered how our faith would change if Jesus were not divine or human?

If Jesus was not really human (and only appeared to be):

• Wouldn’t “suffer” for our sins
• Would not be our representative (2nd Adam)
• Would not have fulfilled the law - living a life of perfect obedience.
• Could not have died (God cannot die)

If Jesus was not truly God:

• Then he is not unique (there have been many great men)
• He was a liar (claimed to be God)
• He is still dead
• God remains distant and aloof, waiting for us to make a way to Him

Here are the small group questions we looked at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pjtHd1cgnyAe22tAxXvZm9Jm9ZcxxLqogtHBvp-KGr0/edit?usp=sharing

High School - "Choosing Friends - The Calling of Matthew and the Disciples"

We continued our study "Anything But Ordinary - where heaven and earth collide". This week we considered the kind of friends we surround ourselves with, and whether we are helping them or they are dragging us down. The main point was if we are going to reach out to those who need our help than we had better make sure we are anchored well to Christ and we have other strong believers who are upholding us and keeping us accountable.

You can watch the video lesson here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNZUE3ZzNPRFY0LXM/edit?usp=sharing

And here are the small group questions: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNMXE3VmIzZ3JsVk0/edit?usp=sharing

lesson loop 10.10.13

Family Night 10.10.13
We had a great night together this past Tuesday. I really love family nights. Few things are as encouraging to my heart as seeing parents and children going through the Scriptures together, and worshiping together. We looked at Romans 9:30-10:13, and our main emphasis was The Righteousness of God. Specifically, or big idea was:  Let's make sure our understanding of righteousness matches up with God's definition of righteousness, because our salvation depends on it!
We compared the common understanding of righteousness and goodness to the definition in Scripture. What we find is that the Bible sets forth a completely different method of righteousness from way the world thinks of it, and the way the 1st century Jews understood it. Here are the aspects of God's righteousness we considered:

1. God's Righteousness is reached by faith
2. God's Righteousness is found in Jesus
3. God's righteousness is offered to all

We ended the lesson time by breaking into family groups and growth groups, and considering these questions:

• Name a few "good people" that you know? (people who are not Christians but seem to live a decent life - neighbors, extended family, friends, etc...)
• How is it difficult to share the gospel with people who believe they are "good"?
• Take Romans 9:30-10:13, and put it in your own words in a way that you could share with "good" people that you know (explain the difference between man's definition of righteousness and God's definition.)
• Are you 100% sure that you are trusting in Jesus' righteousness and not your own?
• Spend some time praying as a family or growth group. (Pray for the "good" people you mentioned earlier - that God will make them aware of their sin, and ask God to use you to introduce them to Jesus' righteousness.)

Also, at the end of the night, we as parents met while the students enjoyed their ice cream sundaes. We focused on Teens and Media, and just barely scratched the surface. Here is the link to the slides we looked at (Parents and Media), and I have also included the link to the one website I directed parents attention to - http://www.digitalkidsinitiative.com/ . We had parents pair up and talk about ways that they have worked to keep their family safe when it comes to media.

Please feel free to keep the conversation going, and please ask me for suggestions when it comes to technology - filters, accountability software, and things like that.

A newer social networking site to beware of...

Ask.fm. . . Digital Playground For Teen Trouble. . . http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/2013/10/askfm-digital-playground-for-teen.html

parenting seminar at Hackman's

Parents -

I wanted to let you know about a parenting seminar that is coming up at Hackman's. Jessie Seneca and Brian Cooper will be sharing from the Scripture and their own experience. See the information below if you are interested!

Parenting Teens

Date: Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013

Time: 8:30 AM - 2:00 PM

Location: Hackman’s Bookstore, 1341 Mickley Road Whitehall, Pa

Presenters: Jessie Seneca and Pastor Brian Cooper

Call store to register 610.264.8600

Cost: $10.00

Pre-order a lunch for $7 of bring your own lunch

Together we will look at parenting through a Biblical perspective and what it will look like to practically walk it out in today's culture.

·  Session One: The Changing Parent and Child Relationship

·  Session Two: Building Relationships and Solving Problems

·  Session Three: Teen and culture issues: Dating, Dress, Media and finances

lesson loop 9.27.13

High School - "Believable - The Story of the Centurion"
We began a 5 week video series called "Anything But Ordinary". It is our prayer that through this next month and a half we will all be challenged to live a life that is much more than ordinary, allowing God to use us greatly, and where we see "heaven and earth collide"!

This first week we looked at Matthew 8:5-13, and we looked at the faith of the Centurion man. We considered what we would ask Jesus for if we were standing face to face with Him. We also explored what we actually believe about Jesus.
The night ended with a challenge to find a verse from Scripture that provides hope and can build our faith in Jesus Christ and what He can really do through our life if we surrender completely to Him.

If you would like to watch the 2 videos from last Tuesday, here they are:

Intro Video - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNQzJLUjVuNEwzN0U/edit?usp=sharing

Lesson Video - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zJ0haVL2YNSnV6aHV4dHZyWDQ/edit?usp=sharing


Middle School - "God's Mercy"
We began by talking about the "popularity scale" that is present at most every middle school. To be part of the "in" crowd, you have to dress a certain way, act a certain way, and maintain a certain amount of popularity.
We then talked about the "in" group in the Old Testament, who were the Jews. They were privileged to receive many blessings and benefits from God, most importantly the covenants that God established with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc...
As the story of redemption unfolds in Scripture however, God opens up the way through Jesus Christ to people from all walks of life, from every nation. This was always the plan, and God receives much glory through it. The beautiful thing about being "in" God's family is it has nothing to do with our popularity, the way we dress, or anything like that. It is simply because of God's mercy. God chose Abraham because of His mercy, He chose David because of His mercy, and He chooses us because of His mercy.
The students considered Romans 9 and talked in their groups about God's election, fairness, and ultimately God's astounding mercy to us.
We ended the night by gathering in a circle on the floor representing the fact that we have been brought "in", and we prayed thanking God for His mercy, and also asked Him to use us to bring others into this special circle.

lesson loop 9.24.13

Before we have our lessons tonight, I wanted to let you all know what we talked about last week. :-)

Middle School - "The Triune God"
We started a brand new series entitled "Limitless God". Over the next couple months we will be focusing our attention on who God is and what His character is like. We will see that He is limitless. He is perfect in all His attributes.
We began last Tuesday by considering the Trinity - 3 persons, 1 God. While this is a mind-boggling concept for us as humans, we must believe it because the Scriptures are clear that this is truth. We considered the following passages that show that God is One, and each member of the trinity is God:

• Deuteronomy 6:4 & Matthew 26:63-64
• Romans 3:30 & John 8:58; 17:5,24
• 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 & John 16:7-8
• Ephesians 4:5-6 & Acts 5:3-4
• 1 Timothy 2:5 & Philippians 2:5-6

Our main points were simple:

1. THERE IS ONE GOD! (we focused on Ephesians 4:1-6)
   vs. 4) One: body (church), Spirit (H.S.), hope (salvation)
   vs. 5) One: Lord (Jesus), faith (key), baptism (spiritual)
   vs. 6) One: God & Father [over all, through all, in all] vs. 2-3) One body - be humble, gentle, patient, bearing in love, unified, peaceful
2. THIS ONE GOD IS THREE PERSONS! (we focused on 1 Peter 1:1-2)
   Trinity Teamwork:
   Father - chooses us (foreknowledge)
   Spirit - sanctifies us (calls, saves, seals, purifies)
   Son - sacrificed for us (cross)

We used an illustration to explain how our perspective of the Trinity is limited - we looked at zoomed in photos, and tried to guess what they were. From that limited perspective, it was very difficult. The same is true with the Trinity - from our perspective it is very difficult to understand, but that does not mean that it is not true. 

These truths are foundational, and we must hold to them as Christians. We ended with reciting this creed of the church - 

“I believe in God the Father, who created me; I believe in God the Son, who redeemed me; I believe in the Holy Spirit, who makes me holy.”

High School - "The Devastation of Sin"

We started with a video of a tornado - because that is a physical illustration of where the nation of Israel is spiritually as a nation. Things have spiraled down to a point of maximum destruction, and their sin leaves destruction in its wake. The main point was:

When you give yourself over to sin, destruction is sure to follow.

We read Judges 19, and we shuddered at the depravity that God's people committed.

We traced this all back to Israel's idolatry which is sketched out in the entire book, and we mentioned that all sin is idolatry. It is nothing less than worshipping ourselves rather than God. We considered 3 things about sin and self-worship:

1. SELF-WORSHIP HAS DEVASTATING RESULTS There is an unavoidable correlation between Gibeah and Sodom and Gomorrah Sexual sin is especially heinous! “Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.”
2. SIN HAS A SNOWBALL EFFECT Things go from horrible to worse. More and more people are killed, and more and more women are taken advantage of. Unchecked sin will spiral out of control.
3. WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY Christians tend to be so concerned about how vile and wicked the world is (and it is!), but often we forget that we tend to destroy ourselves most times because we allow our sin and lust to go unchecked. We will destroy ourselves if we do not regularly repent from our sin and self-worship.

This seemed a depressing end to our study in the book of Judges, so I ended by saying this - "While the deliverers in the book of Judges failed to bring about reform, there did come a Deliverer who was true, and holy and beautiful. His name of course is Jesus, and He is a great Savior. He offers hope to all who would turn to Him and repent from their sins. He is in the business of radically changing people. He takes us who are sinners (our own worst enemy), and he makes us more and more into the image of Himself."

lesson loop 9.3.13

RED CARPET NIGHT!!!
We had a great red carpet night, in which we welcomed some brand new 6th graders! My prayer is that they felt welcomed, and they quickly become an integral part of our student ministry. We are glad to have them!

MS Lesson - "Eternal Life"
We finished up our series on the End Times by looking at Heaven and Paul's words in Philippians 1:20-24, 3:20-21. Paul's outlook on life and death is a little strange to us, especially to middle school students who have their entire life ahead of them. Paul seems as anxious to go to heaven as he is to keep on living. It is because he really had a passion to be in the presence of God.
We drew a vertical line down the whiteboard, and wrote many of the things we love about life on the left side. Then we took time to write on the right side things we know about heaven. As we stepped back and looked at the list, it became clear why most of us struggle with the thought of heaven. There is so much that is unknown, and we know that we enjoy so many things about life here on earth.
However, we learned a couple things from the passages of Scripture we looked at:

• We don't have to be afraid of dying if we are secure in Christ (even though we will naturally fear death to some extent).
• The best part of being in heaven is knowing God (in a way we have never before).
• We have all at times felt a longing to know or experience God more fully.
• We are citizens of heaven, and we are merely passing through here on earth.

We finished with an excellent quote from C.S. Lewis -

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

HS Lesson - "Idols and Chaos"
We started by considering how every person on the face of the world is "religious", even if they would never admit to it. We all worship something, because we are designed by the Creator to worship. So if that is the one true God or something else (like another religion, no religion or ourselves) we will worship. It is just a matter of who or what.

We looked at this statement:
WE MUST WORSHIP GOD FOR HIS GLORY

1. WE MUST WORSHIP
   Humans have an impulse to worship - football teams, celebrities, etc...
2. WE MUST WORSHIP GOD 
   We saw that Micah was a worshipper, but he did not worship Yahweh. Worship was an attempt at manipulating God for his own gain. His primary purpose for woshipping was his own success and prosperity.
   We considered how the local church is very important, because there must be order and structure to our worship. We need church leadership, accountability, discipline, and proper doctrine. Worship without any perimeters will end up dishonoring God and perhaps we will be worshipping a god of our own imagination like Micah.
3. WE MUST WORSHIP GOD FOR HIS GLORY
   We considered why we might be worshipping God - could it be that we are most concerned with our own satisfaction, or to get rid of guilt that we have? Or are we worshipping God simply because He is worthy of our complete worship? This is a very important question that we must each spend some time asking.

We also noted that worship disorders will always lead to deeper and darker sin, just as it did with the nation of Israel. We are preparing to look at the last lesson in the book of Judges, which will show us just how dark Israel had become as they disobeyed and rebelled against God.

Last thing we saw was that none of the characters in this account act with integrity, and yet all of them (except Micah) succeed with their self-promoting agendas (it is a dangerous place to be when God removes his hand of discipline from us…)

lesson loop 7.24.13

Middle School
We started a brand new series last night which we are calling "The Passing of This World". We will look at the end times, and how we should live considering that the return of Jesus may be sooner rather than later. Last night our specific theme was - Jesus is King From Beginning to End. 
When you consider all the predictions that people have made about the end of the world, it can be a scary thing. In fact, when you open the pages of Scripture and consider Jesus' predictions in Matthew 24, it is scary indeed. However, if we are God's child, we should not remain in fear. Rather, we must realize that Jesus is King. Always has been, always will. While He has not set up His earthly kingdom yet, He is still in control and His promises will always remain true.
We can trust Him, and indeed we must - for the passage tells us that those who endure to the end will be saved. The only thing we must do to survive the end of the world is have faith in Jesus Christ - He will take care of us, no matter what comes or when it happens.
We looked at the following passages:

• Matthew 24:32-35
• Revelation 19:11-16; 22:13

Our desire during this study will be to shift focus from when the end of the world will come and instead talk about what - what it means for those who trust in Jesus Christ.


High School
As we continue in our Judges study, we looked last night at Abimelech, who God raised up despite his incredible sinfulness. Our focus was "Just Deliverance" - how God does things justly, and His character is perfect. Even though one of the constant themes throughout the book of Judges has been God's graciousness to undeserving sinners, we must not think that God is injust. He is fair, and we will reap what we sow. We saw this very clearly as Abimelech and the men of Shechem ended up destroying eachother, and as God said in Judges 9:56-57, their "evil was returned on their heads". Justice was served, and somehow in the midst of all that God showed His grace by delivering Israel from their oppressors. God's ways are not our ways, and His sovereign wisdom is amazing.
Here are some application points we drew from Judges 8:24-9:57 -

• We Reap What We Sow
• God Will Not Be Mocked
• God's Justice and Mercy Work Together (this is possible because of the Cross!!)

We finished by praising God that His character is perfect, and He can both justify us by His grace, and remain just at the same time (Romans 3:24-26)

lesson loop 7.22.13

Middle School
Last Tuesday we ended our series on Sin and Forgiveness, and we finished by talking about "Getting Past Your Past". While middle school students do not have an extensive past to recover from, there is no doubt that life has beat them up a little by this point. They have experienced the pain of sin already, and they are in need of serious forgiveness, because they are a human living in this fallen world.
We considered 3 individuals from the Scriptures who had to deal with painful pasts:

1. A Demon-possessed Boy's Father (Mark 9:14-21)
2. Rahab (Joshua 2:1-13)
3. Joseph (Genesis 37:12-28)

Then, we considered how God gave each person a clean perspective, and how He helped them overcome their pasts:

1. The Father - Mark 9:22-27
2. Rahab - Joshua 2:14-21; Hebrews 11:31
3. Joseph - Genesis 41:38-45; 45:1-8

When we consider how God helped each of these people overcome their past, we summarized it by saying they got past their past by GRACE.

• The Boy's Father - Jesus Strengthened his Faith
• Rahab - God Granted her Faith
• Joseph - God Purified his Faith

I then challenged the students to consider where they needed God's grace to overcome their past and their sin - Does their faith need strengthened? purified? Does God need to grant faith where there has not been any faith?

We concluded by looking at a summary of what we have learned in this series:

The theme of the Bible is Creation, Fall and Redemption

We could never tally enough good works to please God. We need Grace!

We must Remember Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. That must be our constant focus!

If we have truly been forgiven by God, we will forgive others - even when it is really tough. It is cause and effect.

It is God’s Grace that can help us get past our pasts and live a forgiven life.

High School

We continued our Judges study by looking at the next judge - Gideon.

The theme was that God is our Sure Deliverer.

We were reminded that the human judges in the Book of Judges are not the main characters, God actually is, and He is the Sure Deliverer!

We considered 5 Truths About Our Faithful Judge

1. God brings difficulties into our life to discipline us.
   (not because we are unlucky, or because of karma, nor because God is punishing us, is unloving, or out of control)
2. God can be trusted to deliver us (through suffering and from sin)
3. God bears with our weak faith
4. God fights for us!
   (our strength is incosequential when it comes to deliverance from sin)
5. God demands and deserves our worship.

lesson loop 7.10.13

Middle School
Matthew 18:21-35

We continued our series, "Turning From Sin", focusing on Forgiveness.
We looked at "The Unforgiving Servant", and explained that when it comes to forgiveness, there is a Cause and Effect.

The Cause is the God has forgiven us with a Unbelieveable Forgiveness.

• our debt is unimagineable
• repayment is impossible

The Effect is that we should have Undeniable Forgiveness towards others.

• God's forgiveness transforms us
• forgiveness is possible; indeed undeniable!
• the gospel colors our life

High School

Judges 4-5

Continuing our study in the book of Judges, we looked at God's Resourceful Deliverance.

Not only is Jael's act one that is resourceful, God Himself shows that He can use anyone and anything to accomplish His will - and the entire universe is at His disposal.

The main point of the night was: God can use anything. Are we willing to offer ourselves?

We saw these 3 things:

1. God uses men and women for His glory.
2. God uses the weak for His glory.
3. God uses creation for His glory.

You can also find audio of the lessons on the right side of this blog.

lesson loop 7.4.13

Here is what we looked at Tuesday night at youth group:

Middle School

We continued our series on Sin and Forgiveness, and we focused on Remembering.

Our memories can be powerful things, and God often instructed the children of Israel to remember, including:

• their slavery in Egypt
• how God redeemed them from slavery
• The day they left Egypt - Passover.
• How Miriam rebelled against God and was stricken with leprosy
• How the Amalekites attacked them as soon as they left Egypt

All of these things center around Israel's freedom from slavery, which was certainly one of their most defining moments as God's people. When it comes to Christianity, the defining moment is Jesus' death and resurrection. We as God's people are freed from slavery to sin because of Jesus' sacrificial death for us.

Here are some passages and main points we considered about the cross -

Romans 8:1-3
REMEMBER OUR FREEDOM IS IN CHRIST

Colossians 2:13-15
REMEMBER OUR FORGIVENESS IS IN CHRIST

Hebrews 12:2
REMEMBER OUR FAITH IS IN CHRIST

Because the cross is so central to our faith, we need to meditate on it daily. The gospel should be the center of our lives.

I also gave the students a website I look at every day - http://firstimportance.org/

Or you can find it on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/firstimportance

High School

As we continue our study in the book of Judges, we looked at Ehud, and we considered Providential Deliverance. We noticed that God's providence is an amazing, strange and sometimes even humorous thing.
Here are the main points:

1. God is in and over the details of life.

• Ehud's left-handedness - God used this interesting characteristic
• Eglon's fatness - his symbol of pride and prosperity was his undoing
• Graphic nature of the story - God doesn't leave any details out
• Satire - the way this passage of Scripture is written shows the humor of God
• Eglon's name means bull/calf - therefore, he is the fatted calf prepared for sacrifice
• The "tribute" that Ehud gave is the same word for sacrifice. This makes Eglon the 2nd sacrifice or offering
• The "message" that Ehud had was the sword
• The Bathroom confusion - the guards think that Eglon was relieving himself because they smelled what come out when Eglon was stabbed. :-/

Application:

• God knows every detail of our life, and he is over every detail
• God has designed us a particular way for a particular reason

2. God is the Supreme King

     * Because He is supreme, He will judge those who oppress His people, and He will do it in His time.

     * It is clear from this time that Israel needs a righteous king - this will be fulfilled in David, but ultimately in Jesus Christ. 

    * Ultimately, in the end God gets the glory!

Honoring our children too much

And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says theLord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scornmy sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ (1 Samuel 2:27-29, ESV)

Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 
(1 Samuel 2:31, ESV)

This is scary. The idea that any one of us parents could honor our children above God and lose His blessing is downright frightening.

To give some context here, Eli's sons had been cavalier in their approach to the priesthood, doing what they wanted when they wanted with no regard for the holiness of God. In fact, they were actually taking advantage of women who came to offer sacrifices. The Scripture says that Eli's sons didn't know God. They had no relationship with Yahweh, and they were living in dangerous blasphemy.

What is a parent to do in this situation? Eli does rebuke them in 1 Samuel 2, and yet apparently he continues to allow them to hold positions of prominence which they had no business of holding. Because Eli cared more about honoring his sons than honoring God, his family later becomes unravelled. 

So what is the application for you and I? Whom do we honor more - our children or God? I hope you love and cherish your children. I know my girls are 3 of God's greatest gifts to me. But do I ever worry more about what they think than what God does? Perhaps. If we ever abdicate our responsibility to disciple our children because we want to be liked by them, we have made a misstep. If we ever succumb to laziness and fail to perform the hard work of leading our children to Jesus, we could be guilty of Eli's sin. And make no mistake - it is hard work to lead children to Jesus. 

I don't know exactly why Eli failed to discipline and disciple his sons. I can only gather from the text that he cared more about them than God. I know that I don't want to make the same mistake. I am praying for you as well - that you would steer clear of Eli's error.

lesson loop 6.27.13

Here is a recap from the lessons on Tuesday night:

Middle School

We continued our series on Sin and Forgiveness called "Turning from Sin".

We really focused on what Grace is. We began by having each student attempt to tally their "spiritual score" based on all their righteous deeds. After seeing this was impossible, we talked about how this is contrary to the way holiness works. The students then gave their definitions of grace, and I gave some Biblical examples (children of Israel and the healing of the 10 lepers) Then we focused our time on Ephesians 2:1-10, which really gives us an excellent understanding of grace.

From Ephesians 2:1-10, we saw -

1. God's Grace Is Not Deserved
2. God's Grace Is Given To Display His Glory
3. God's Grace Enables Us To Actually Do Good Works 

I am praying that the students have a crystal clear understanding of salvation by grace.

High School

HS continued in the book of Judges and looked at our first judge - Othniel. While not much is mentioned about him, this seems intentional, because he is set up as the ideal judge and the deliverance that God brought through him was the ideal restoration that should have happened with each judge (but didn't).
My main points were:

1. Our Unfaithfulness Stirs God's Anger (yet He doesn't sin in His anger)
2. Our Hope is Stirred by God's Faithfulness (His covenant love is the stabilizer of the universe)
3. Our Direction is Reversed by God's Salvation (God can heal us from whatever sinful course we are on, whether we are an unbeliever or His child)

I really challenged the teens that there is hope to be found in God's deliverance. That is the main point of the book of Judges. God, because of His covenant love, provides deliverance when we don't deserve it.

By the way, for the first time I have recordings of the lessons in the right column if you wanted to catch exacty what our lesson covered.

Here are the links for both growth group questions, so that you can look over what your children discussed with their leaders.

MS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QA24A03AkX8UV5zCFenTYlCAwyAUrQlezKyFgvBSCkE/edit?usp=sharing

HS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZgYXLFunZhWqZpGHYHKNa8-HZE9e0RoWq89TrboMeoo/edit?usp=sharing

Have a great rest of your week!

lesson loop 6.12.13

Last night was Water Night and we had an awesome time! Between the super water slide and the water balloons flying around, there was a lot of water! :-)

Besides all this, we had our normal worship, lesson and growth group time.

MS started a brand new series on Sin and Forgiveness called "Turning from Sin".

We considered the 3 primary themes in Scriptures -  Creation, Fall and Redemption

We considered how God created everything beautiful, sin messed it all up, and God is redeeming things through His Son Jesus Christ. We illustrated this by writing our names on pieces of plastic and dipping them in dye to represent how sin has polluted everything. Then we washed them off in water to represent how God cleanses us from our sin.

HS continued in the book of Judges and looked at "Roots of Disobedience" - magnetic idolatry. My 2 main points were:

1. We Must Know God Personally
2. We Must Worship God Exclusively

We often struggle to break free from idolatry, and often return to the destructive cycle of sin, just like the Israelites. We were challenged to repent from our sin before sin takes its toll on us, with God's covenant love as our motivation.

Here are the links for both growth group questions, so that you can look over what your children discussed with their leaders.

MS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-fPetto8tIE_zJ7O5tmkh0kpT7Idcb3KyymQr-x4uSc/edit?usp=sharing

HS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gL_nECbbHuwYTVRL5BEryHTfJNA5oCoxyHYdkqw0_4/edit?usp=sharing

Have a great rest of your week!