New Era

Yesterday is the first day of the Au's coming every week.  That means we can do play and music programs outside of Sunday morning!  Yay, a new era has arrived.

So, yesterday in teen Sunday school, we talked about Jacob wrestling with God the Son.  We showed the last David Murray video on the Angel of the Lord that I will show.  There are four left and I have to find ways to show them next fall.  I started talking about Jacob preparing to meet Esau, but I forgot to finish it.  Then I showed Aubrie my Reformation Day Power Point, new and improved with Cake Wrecks pictures. 

With the kids, I thought the lesson went really well.  It's so true that kids have a faith that fades with the teen years.  I showed different pictures of kids: some playing, some in school, some going to the doctor, poor kids having fun in the rain, a sick girl with a fever.  I asked where was God in all these situations?  They all said "Everywhere" like it's obvious.

Then I split them up into partners, breaking up potential cliques.  Austin and a missionary boy named Caleb (yay, another boy) worked on Joseph interpreting the cupbearer's dream, Alexis and Autumn worked on the baker's dream, and Madison and Emily got Potiphar and his wife, which I decided to print out the text, changing "come to bed with me" to "let's make out."

I finally got all the nesting doll versions of Joseph and the four other folks in the narratives, laminated them, and each group told what they read using the dolls.  In each situation, we had to ask where was God.  They still said "everywhere."  It's like they either have that good of faith now, or are simply not thinking through this.  I'm saying, so God was there letting the baker get beheaded?  God was there when Joseph got imprisoned when he was only framed?  God was there when the cupbearer forgot about Joseph who is still waiting in jail?  Of course he was there, and the kids agreed.  I just hope they keep agreeing when they become 12 or 13 and face peer pressure, ostracism for their beliefs, or in college and their 20s when they face tragedies and growing pains.  I agree, but I needed to learn to wrestle with God like Jacob which I'm not sure I'm teaching them to do, but I want to.

Halloween Hodge-podge

I've always really liked Halloween.  It's not the best thing in the world.  It is kind of scary how commercialized it has become.  But I love Halloween.

I love church, too.  Jesus instituted the church as a means of his grace here on earth while he's in heaven preparing a place for us.

I hate how the church does Halloween.  Maybe it has pagan roots, but like Christmas, the Christians hijacked it and made it more Christian.  But it is good to remember all the people you love who have died and to thank God for the ones who were Christian and influenced you for the faith. 

And yet, when October 31 rolls around, we call Halloween satanic, yet do the same thing at our churches and just rename it.  I never realized how strongly I felt about this when someone mentioned we should do a trunk-or-treat next year.  How could they say such a thing?  Do what every church is doing and ignore that this is an important turning point in church history? 

As for Halloween tomorrow, I have class so I can't dress up and pass out candy at my door.  :-(.  However, I have a t-shirt with Charles Spurgeon's face.  I'm going to wear that and if people at CSU ask me who he is I'll pass out an excerpt from his sermons and some candy.  I hope it works.  It's the only time of the year where I can see myself passing out tracts and getting away with it.  I don't actually believe that practice works the rest of the year.

Moving on to other topics.  Our church is still growing.  I'm very thankful for that.  I'm thankful for Cathy Cutts, who teaches elementary Sunday School, Jamie Frey who along with Cathy is a CE elder, Debbie, the preacher's wife and pretty much my godmother, and my supportive church.  The new 5-year-old is going to a more multicultural church, which dismays me because now we're less so, but we still have enough kids where we might need to divide.

Huge praise, the three original kids are now able to live with their dad and step-mom all year, pending court decisions tomorrow.  We can start doing things on Wednesday nights now like skit practice.

The downside, is now we're wanting to get all the church in on what we are teaching, not buy different curricula, which adds up in costs, and the whole church can be in on one thing.  Which I thoroughly agree with and hope to bring the church to the point some day.  But as for now, I'm conflicted between Faith Alive's material versus Christian Focus.  Both are excellent.  I want to stick with CF as I'm afraid Faith Alive, a product of the CRC denom, is in danger of going liberal with their new environmental book.   

Plus, I'm not that sure that I want to teach both teens and kids the same thing, though providentially, I did this fall and Cathy happened to teach on Abraham as well in the FA material.  I think in the fall, I want to continue in my CF book with the kids as it moves on to Jesus lessons but move on to the Gospel of John with Aubrie.


Thankfully, by writing this all out, I know have formulated what I want to talk about with Debbie on Tuesday afternoon.  I'm just praying that the Spirit moves her to agree with me or moves me to better ideas.  Could use prayer on that.

Thankful Friday Facts

I'm thankful that the vegetarian chili I made tasted very good and similar to the beef version.  Tasted like more beans.

I'm thankful I'm not vegetarian.  But I'm also thankful for my friend who is.

I'm thankful for seeing all my old friends again last weekend and that their sister lives near me.

I'm thankful for the Passover as it point the OT folks to Jesus so they could have a saving faith.

I'm thankful for Jesus fulfilling the Law and writing it on my heart.

I'm thankful for the leftover matzoh from our seder on Sunday as it's very filling.

I'm thankful for Melaleuca multi-vitamins.  They keep me from being more sick than I am.

I'm thankful for www.urclearning.org.

I'm thankful that Mary cleaned and inspired me to clean my bathroom.

Hugs

When you hugged me you cracked my back
And it was the best feeling in the world
It would only be better
If you'd consider me your girl

You paid my tab at IHOP
You talk whole time about history
You're really smart and serve our country
So glad you're home safe and not grizzly.

Paper lemons? Make Laminate

I decided I finally have so many paper nesting dolls that they need to be laminated.  We have all of Jacob's children, and now we must welcome Potiphar, his wife, the baker, and the cupbearer.  Thankfully, pastor Scott has a laminating machine, so I'm going over there later.

I skipped over Potiphar's wife's scene last week in showing the Joseph movie.  The lesson this Sunday has it along with the dreams of Joseph's cell mates.  Hopefully, this will be the last sex scene that I share with the 8-year-olds.

As I said the other day, I'm not sure how the cat plans are going (cat being short for catechism).  I might have to hold off the WSC workbook for later, though I'm still going to purchase it.  It will be downloaded to my computer and printed at will.  The cat for our kitten I think will go well, if Macaria shows up again.  I sent them home with the woman who knows her mother to give to her.  I should have just saved it for last week.

I told some people outside of my church about my plans that they thought it was the pastor's duty to teach the cat.  They both are from different planets because I have no clue why it would ever be wrong for a children's pastor to teach the cat, even in churches where they did have formal confirmation classes.  Scott didn't teach it to our recent confirmands; he used a children's Bible.  Macaria needs basics, and you find those in the Cat for Kittens (Cat for Young Children), the intro to WSC.  The first three questions are about who made you? God, what else did he make? all things, why did he make them? for his own glory.

Thus leading to the first question, the only question we ever need to remember: what is man's chief end?  To glorify God and enjoy him forever.  I was asked: what if children ask if that means God has an ego?  Well, God  is the creator of life who saved us from Egypt, commanded that we worship no other, claims to be our only Savior in Isaiah 41, will share his glory with no other; they can't imagine that he created us for his glory and his alone.  Or that he's so loving that even his hatred is love.  Even hell is an extension of his love because evil must be judged.  Even choosing some for heaven and not choosing others is still good because God defines good, love, fairness, and we are made for nothing else but to worship and glorify God.  Life has no meaning apart from our worship of God.

And one of the best things I read on this is from C. S. Lewis, a man who claimed to not be Calvinist, but when I read his stuff, I beg to differ.  He may say he doesn't believe in total depravity, but in the "Weight of Glory," he talks of nothing else, but in different words.  He also shows that man will never be complete or satisfied until he's surrounded by God's glory and worshiping him for eternity.

Who is God? How do we know him?

This is the second set of questions from Adam Kaloostian's lessons on Reformed Faith.  He follows very closely Jason Lisle's apologetics in Answers in Genesis.  Lisle's usual proof is that people have moral codes.  How would they have moral codes if there was no ultimate standard for those codes?  There has to be a God who gives us commandments and follows those commandments.  No other God does that.  Allah murders and lies.  Zeus sleeps around.  Buddha's God doesn't even exist.  And to the Hindus, we're all going to be God someday, so there's really no basis for a moral code.  There is no reason for morality apart from belief in YHWH as he reveals himself in Scripture.

Moving right along, Adam's first question regards the "psychology of unbelief."  What does the Bible say about it?  Last week we pointed to theodicy as the main reason people avoid Christianity.  Theodicy, hypocrites, crazy people, despicable people, people killing in the name of Jesus, past bad experiences, lack of intellectuals; and some of these reasons I can agree with.
Ultimately, however, the Bible says that people avoid truth for one underlying reason: Romans 1:18-20.  The people suppress truth by wickedness.  They don't really care about theodicy or hypocrisy because, like we said, who cares about telling the truth, goodness and justice if we have no God to give us commandments?  These people don't want a God other than themselves, and they think their ideas are way better.  They want to sin, and that's their reason.  God through creation has made truth plain to them so they have no excuse for unbelief.  Finally, God gave them what every Arminian wants: free will, and they did everything they wanted until their hearts were so darkened that they could no longer do anything good.

Next, Adam notices that he just quoted the Bible to defend the Bible.  I can't remember if he solved that issue or not, but Jason Lisle does.  If there is no higher authority than God, and he gave us the Bible, then we have to resort to circular reasoning, using the Bible to prove the Bible.  If it is what 2 Timothy 3:16 and Romans 10:17 claim to be, then people will hear the words and either believe or not believe depending on if God has chosen them or not.  It's Scripture that awakens people to be able to accept Christ.  Nothing else.

2.   What do the Reformed Christians believe about the Bible?
The Bible is the written WOG.  (Word of God is too long sometimes.)  There, God is revealed objectively.  It's the WOG simply because he spoke it.  The church did not decide that canon, which was in place long before the Council of Nicaea.  It was determined because they could hear God's words spoken in the books. 

It is the only place to find objective truth.

3.  What is the central reason we can't compromise the marks of the church?  You know, the three marks that Calvin said describe a true church?  They are true preaching of the Word, right administering of the sacraments, and church discipline.
These are the three areas where God is obviously active in the lives of his people.  If we compromise on that, then we will miss out on the most interaction with God that we can have on this earth.  God is active in the preaching, the sacraments, and church discipline through Christ.  Christ really is present during communion and baptism, serving his blood to the people.  He is the WOG, just like the Bible, so he comes to you when the preacher preaches it.  And where two or more are gathered in his name, there Christ is in their midst.  That verse is about church discipline.  Not singing.  Not prayer.  Not Bible study.  Church discipline.

Stuck in the Vending Machine

I taught the Kids' Sunday School yesterday.  The topic was the first Passover, so we had a Seder.  It went over very well.  We had a blanket and pillows for a table, and plates with Matzoh, chicken bones (to be lamb bones), celery (the bitter herbs), horseradish, apple sauce (instead of these sweet beans), salt water, grape juice, and chicken nuggets (I still don't know what that stood for but they were tasty).  We read the story of the Exodus and what this symbolizes.  If they remember nothing else, I hope they remember that they are protected from God's wrath because the Lamb's blood is covering them.  We had red paper on the door just in case.

I finally finished my paper nesting doll versions of Jacob's children.  Alexis had six, Emily had six, and I had Joseph, who for some reason had a mustache.  I included Dinah among the paper children, so we had 13 dolls.  We acted out the story of Joseph's brothers throwing him down a well.  Joseph was Jacob's favorite and he'd brag about his dreams to the extent that even Jacob had to rebuke him.  My lesson went so fast that the girls had time to play.

I'm still in the process of trying to teach catechism to my kids.  For Macaria, I chose three questions from the Catechism for Young Children with color pages and puzzles, and she didn't come!  And the two girls were sitting in the car when I remembered that I had found a workbook on the WSC on the internet that I plan on purchasing (I can just download it to the computer) and printed the first lesson for them.  I ran out there and gave it to them.  And for the teens, I e-mailed them a plan with the first WSC questions and the verses footnoted in my booklet.  But it's like my plans are still stuck in the vending machine.  I guess I'll find out real fast if it works or not.