This Week # 2-22

This week in OFF ROAD we switched things up a bit and looked at the Christmas story through the perspective of Mary and Joseph. I was able to do a monologue, acting the part of Joseph, walking the students through the stress and agony of finding out that Mary was pregnant, and claiming it was from God. The struggle to make the decision to divorce her, and then having the angel speak to me, telling me that the baby in Mary’s womb is the son of God! I was also able to give the perspective of feeling unequipped to father the Son of God, and the excitement of who this child is and what He is going to do- save all people. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is my son, no way!... How would I raise this child, this sweet little baby that would eventually take the nails, take the beating, and take the pain that I deserve. My sweet little boy, who would die for me, who took my sins, who paid my price.

Christina then spoke as if she were Mary, excited about being chosen to mother the Son of God, but also terrified of disgrace, humiliation, rejection, and lack of skill. Yet, even though these were all real fears, she decided to follow what God asked, laying down her fears, and submitting to being God’s servant. She told us the difficulty of being unwed and pregnant, but that she found her hope and faith in the promise of God. She spoke to the rejection she received, even from some members of her own family, but the hope that she had. She spoke of the humble beginnings of her little baby boy, and the hope that she has in God’s promise- her son.

After Christina’s monologue I was able to share a bit about how my perspective of Christmas has changed since having Makenna just over a month ago. First, I have a better understanding of the truly human nature of Jesus. Makenna is completely helpless- completely. Without Amy and me she would die. When she is hungry she can cry, but if we don’t feed her she doesn’t find her own food, she is totally dependent on us. To me this is a cool reminder of the vulnerability Jesus had for us, being fully human. We often picture Him as this great man, the powerful Son of God, yet he was fully human too, completely dependent, and totally helpless little baby.

Another perspective that has changed about this Christmas, and my very of God in general is how excited he is to see us, spend time with and watch us grow. Every day I look forward to getting home to hold my little girl. I can’t wait to just be with her. She doesn’t even have to do anything, I just love hanging out with her. God is the same way. He is so excited to hang out with us. He looks forward, in eager anticipation, for the time he can just be with us. He just loves spending time with us.

Lastly, and this has been the coolest realization for me: I love Makenna so much. I do, I love my sweet baby girl. I love her so much that I change poopy diapers, I hold her when she is crying, I love to cuddle her, kiss her, take naps with her, hold her, I love her. SHE HAS NO IDEA. NO CLUE HOW MUCH I LOVE HER. If you were to lay her on the floor and line up a bunch of people and ask her which on loves her she wouldn’t be able to tell you. I love her so much and she has no comprehension of that love. In fact there is nothing she can do, or has done, to earn my love or to take my love away. I wrote a lullaby to express this:

Hush little baby don’t you cry

Daddies gonna sing you a lullaby

Sweet little baby I love you

There is nothing you can do

I love you with all my heart

I’ve loved you from the very start

I will hold you in my arm

Keeping you from every harm

You’ve no idea how much you’re loved

By both me and the one above.

It is a sweet realization for me to start to understand that just like Makenna has no idea how much I love her, we have NO CLUE how much God loves us. Our understanding of his love is like Makenna’s understanding of my love- NO IDEA. God loves us so much that he gave His son (whom he also loves unimaginably) to die for us. We really have no idea how much God loves us, and the truth is He says to us all the time, “Hush little baby I love you, There is nothing you can do. I love you with all my heart. I’ve loved you from the very start.”

Parents, families- reflect on this truth

Have a Wonderful Christmas and God bless

This Week # 2- 21

We ended our OMG! Series this week looking at some myths and truths about who God is. We had the privilege of having Pastor Joel speak to us on this topic, giving insight to some of the most common myths we here about God

Joel started the by telling us about an incident that occurred to him when he was in the 7^th grade. Joel (or Joey as he was known at the time) was very competitive and his team had just lost a flag football game at recess. Because he lost and because he was so competitive he started to cry. His crying lead to a couple of friends asking him why he was crying and if he was okay, which lead him to get more worked up and cry harder. This in-turn lead to more students asking if he was okay which lead him to cry harder and start to hyperventilating. Again, this lead to the entire class crowding around him and the teacher come to his side saying, “Don’t worry Joey, I’ve called the ambulance.” In the end Joel was in the E.R. with his parents by his side and the doctor saying that everything checked out.

Although this story is hilarious the underlying theme of his adventure is fear. Fear of being made fun of, fear of rejection, fear of failure. At each step of his story he had the opportunity to stop what was going on, tell everyone that it was just because he lost, and end it, but he was afraid.

In the same way we often think, hear and believe that we should follow God because of fear, that the driving force behind obedience and our relationship with God is fear. The three major myths that Joel covered were:

God wants us to be afraid- fear of disapproval

God zaps all who disobey to hell- fear of punishment

God is keeping score and you won’t know if you have done enough until the very end- fear of judgment

After addressing each of these fears Joel read Romans 5:1-5, which clearly rock the foundations of each of these myths. He then read a book titled, “You are Special,” by Max Lucado. Check out the video below to see what this story is all about:

In the end these myths were debunked by the fact that God does not want us to be afraid of him, he loves us and wants us to be part of hide family. In fact he wants us to look to Him for approval and love because it is only in Him that we will be fully satisfied. God also doesn’t zap anyone to hell, but instead allows those who don’t want to live with Him to live without Him and lastly, God doesn’t keep score. The price has been paid, and we can find confidence in Him.

Parents:

Read Romans 5:1-5 together a few times this week and see what new things you notice each time you read it, write down what you have found. At the end of the week re-read all the discoveries and truths you have pulled out of these verses. Discuss with each other what God (as described in these verses) wants for us, for others, for friends, for non-believers. Then ask what that means for us.

Check out this video!

This Week # 2-20

This Week # 2-20

Well everyone in some ways it is good to be back and in some ways I wish I could just stay home and hold my sweet baby. After this weekend’s services I realized that I missed the Junior Highers and Leaders the 2 weeks I had off, but I had a great time helping Amy and loving Makenna. Thanks for all your support and love.

This week we continued our OMG! Series- Discovering who God really is. We started the series a few weeks ago talking on God’s power and this week had the privilege of hear Lisa Averill (Westgate’s pastor of Children’s ministry) talk on the topic of the Holy Spirit. Lisa started off by addressing the fact that the idea of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit being three in one is a hard concept to understand, but she demonstrated the idea by showing us an egg. The egg is comprised of the shell, the whites and the yoke, all three different, yet all three make up the egg: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. After setting a foundation of the idea of the Holy Spirit Lisa went on to discuss the role of the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and how we can engage and know the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit plays many roles in our lives but a few of the roles discussed were of a counselor and a comforter. The Holy Spirit wants to guides us, sensitize us, and will convict us. These are roles that we often don’t rely on the Holy Spirit to fill. We try to rely on our own knowledge to guide us, we rely on outside sources to sensitize us to the needs around us and we often ignore the convictions we have because we think we know better. The truth is that the Holy Spirit works on our character, wants to mold us to be more like Christ, and makes us aware of the resources that we can’t find anywhere, but in Christ- hope, love, power, purpose, forgiveness, joy. Yet, because of our lack of understanding of this amazing part of the trinity we often don’t engage and embrace the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to rely on Him more, grow our relationship with Him and let Him work through us.

Hopefully by understanding a bit about who the Holy Spirit is and what His role in our life should be we can be more aware of what He is doing in our lives and be more in tune with Him while He is moving and growing us.

John 16:7- “But in fact it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come”

Questions to discuss this week:

Who is the Holy Spirit?

What does He do?

How do communicate with the Holy Spirit?

How does the Holy Spirit communicate with us?

When have you felt the Holy Spirit?

What can you do to be more in-tune with the Holy Spirit?