National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Tonight, we saw the second National Treasure movie with Nicolas Cage. It was a very good sequel. It did not disappoint- yea know, like Pirates 2, Ocean's 12, etc., hehe. I recommend watching it for everyone. There was a strong theme throughout the movie of fighting/doing whatever it takes for your country and for your family. That may come up in a bible study later on...

Review- part 1

This past Sunday (12/9/07) we started to review our Foundations series. And why is that? Because we are going to each make a personal statement of who we believe Jesus is and where we are at with our faith.

We went over the first three weeks regarding different aspects of Jesus. That includes the Holy Trinity, His teachings, and His miracles. I encourage you to look back at those blogs to go over what we have been talking about.

A new addition to the latter topic was a film clip from The Karate Kid Part II. At the beginning of the film, Mr. Miyagi ends a fight between Kreese, the instructor for the Cobra Kai dojo, and Johnny, who just lost to Daniel at the end of the first movie. After putting the fear back into Kreese, Mr. Miyagi lets him go for his dishonorable actions after losing.

"You could have killed him, couldn't you have?" Daniel asked.
"Ai," Mr. Miyagi replies.
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because Daniel-san, a person with no forgiveness in heart, live in even worse punishment than death."

Do you agree? I do. In order to free yourself you have to forgive those who sin against you. After all, our Heavenly Father forgives us of all of our sins. Therefore, we need to do the same.

Trusting God (even when it doesn't make sense)

Tonight we had a discussion based on a film clip from Minority Report. Now this movie is PG-13, dealing with murder and some sexual content so check with your folks to see if it is alright to see. We started off with a trust walk. One youth leads another that is blindfolded around the church using only voice commands to aid the blindfolded one. From there we went into our movie discussion which can be found at the Source for Youth Ministry site here.

Minority Report is a movie starring Tom Cruise set in the 2050s. He is the chief of police for an experimental pre-crime division in Washington DC. Three unique siblings called pre-cogs are able to see when people commit murder in the future. The catch comes when Tom Cruise is examining a future crime, and it turns out to be him murdering another man approximately two days in the future. So during that time he is on the run.

The particular scene we looked at has Cruise with one of the pre-cogs in the mall still on the run from his pre-crime division team. The pre-cog, Agatha, keeps telling Cruise's character, Jon Anderton, about certain people pass, to take certain things, go certain places, not go certain places, etc. One time Agatha had them stand completely in the middle of a large opening where they could easily be seen for almost a minute. Anderton is wondering why they are there and wants to run, but Agatha keeps him there just in time for a balloon salesman to come in front of them and block their view from the pre-crime team looking down from a floor above.

Do we empathize with the Jon Anderton character? When you see the clip, do you say, "Come on! Move!"? It is this kind of thinking that led to our discussion about trusting God, even when it doesn't make sense. Think about the last time you wre in a difficult situation. How did you react? Did you wonder if God was taking care of you at all? Why do you think it's difficult to see God taking care of you during difficult times?

There are many stories in the Bible that exemplify this idea. In fact, the Bible is arguably mainly about God seeing if His people will trust Him. The passage we looked at is 2 Kings 6:8-17. The King of Aram sent an army to where Elisha was because he led the king of Israel away from the Aramean army. Surrounded by a vast army, Elisha's servant was frightened until Elisha prayed to the Lord to open his servant's eyes, and then saw horses and chariots of fire.

Are you more like Elisha or his servant? I think most of us have felt more like the servant. It's easy to feel overwhelmed, but seeing God's hand working amidst the strife can better prepare us to deal with it. It's like the time Jesus was in a boat with His disciples when a fierce storm arose. Do you get frightened and panic, or believe that God will take care of the situation in the best way possible?

To close, I would like to quote a popular bible verse. But I encourage everyone to meditate on it and get a deeper meaning of it. It says in Romans 8:28- "And we know that in all things God works for the good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose."

blessings

Fellowship/ Community

What a big topic for me personally! I try to get involved with a variety of communities whenever I can. At this church building, we are blessed to have three church communities. We rent space from Meadows Baptist Church, an English-speaking church. There is also a Spanish-speaking church that rents space. In addition to that, there is Meadows Community Services and Awana. My prayer is for there to be more opportunities for these different communities to spend more time together.

We looked at the way community worked in Acts 4:32-35. Then I brought up more points on community with games and a familiar movie clip. There are two major points I brought up from the passage in Acts. One is that the community was devoted to testifying of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's probably the most important thing of any Christian community. The rest of the passage combines into one big important aspect of community. They shared everything. Possessions and money were distributed to those who needed it. They spent time together each day so they knew each other.

The first game we played, Who's Your Neighbor, illustrates that last point in a playful way. The idea, of course, is knowing each other. I think any serious community needs to get together outside of their normal meeting place to get stronger. The second game we played is Whatever It Takes. Great game to illustrate a negative aspect of a community or group of people. Sometimes we alienate outsiders without even realizing it. In fact, that's just what was written about in a youth ministry ezine I read. Check out the article here.

Finally, we saw a familiar clip from Coach Carter. It is a PG-13 movie with language and other adult situations, but this scene has a good point in it. Timo Cruz attacked Coach Carter during his first meeting with the team. When we wants to get back on the team, Carter assigns 1000 suicides and 2500 pushups to be completed in a week's time. At the end of the week when he can't complete it, the other players step in to finish the assignment before Friday's practice is over. "You said we're a team...right. If one player struggles, we all struggle. If one player triumphs, we all triumph." I think that quote from Lyle (one of the teammates) says it all.

our actions

This past Friday (11/2/07) we had a discussion about the importance of our actions using a clip from the film, Batman Begins. The clip features a conversation between Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) and his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (played by Katie Holmes). Afterwards, we had a short discussion and an activity on thinking of actions that would help those around us. You can find the full study at The Source for Youth Ministry website here.

Bruce is leaving a hotel with a couple of lady friends and being arrogant. They were being disrespectful and Bruce's response to one of the employees was writing a check to buy the hotel. While exiting, he runs into Rachel, clearly embarrassed by how he looks (his suit is wet from jumping into the hotel decoration pool with his friends). The main line at the end of this movie clip is when Rachel says to Bruce, "It's not who you are underneath... it's what you do that defines you."

Some questions based on this scene:
1) Have you ever seen anyone doing something they shouldn't have, and they get busted?
2) Have you gotten busted for doing something you shouldn't have?
3) Why do we try and explain when we get busted?
4) How powerful are our actions?

The main idea with question 3 is that we try and explain that this is not how we are usually like. We are better then that. Everyone agreed that our actions are powerful and can speak louder than words. We then looked at James 2:14-17, which speaks about this topic. Another important point is that as Christians, we are defined by the love of God, not our actions. Our actions are still huge, but they are an outpouring of the identity we receive from God, as it says in the bible passage from James.

We closed by doing an activity in silence. What are ways we can make the people around us better? In timed intervals, each youth sat and wrote down ways that they can use actions to build the community and improve the lives of people at their home, school, church, and neighborhood.

Actions speak louder than words. It is my prayer that we all think and act on ways to improve the community around us and bless others.

an age thing

On Friday 9/14/07 we watched Rocky Balboa. This character resembles a biblical character named Caleb a lot. Here's how...


There's a point in the movie where everybody is questioning why Rocky wants to come back and do a boxing match. Among the reasons, Rocky says there is something more in him, "in his basement," that he needs to get out. "What? You haven't peaked yet?" asks Paulie. At first, it sounds a bit weird and maybe childish. But let's compare him to a biblical character named Caleb:

10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." (Joshua 14:10-12)
Mark Gorman, a speaker I like very much, talked about this passage once. Basically, he opened up saying, "Here's a guy, 85, willing to pick a fight." Despite the differences, I see two men here with very similar hearts- Rocky and Caleb. Rocky, in his late 50s (pushing 60 shortly) wanting to get back into the ring. Caleb, not weary from battles and just plain wandering around in the desert for 40 years, at age 80, ready for battle.

I always tell people that age is a mental state of being. And that I would not tell people I feel old until I'm atleast 80. Well now with Caleb in the picture it looks like I have to wait until I'm atleast 85. When my friends tell me they are getting old I just laugh at them because it's ridiculous! 45 years since he surveyed the land, Caleb claims he is still as strong and ready to fight for it.

So what's in your basement? The day you quit battling for something, you're dead. So what should you fight for? Find what you are passionate about. Find wherever God wants you to serve and whatever God wants you to fight for. Because when you stop fighting, you might as well "lie down and pick out what flowers you want," as Mark Gorman says. Don't settle for mediocrity or status quo. Learn who you are, what you are called to do, and fight for it.

Salt Films

One of my youth pastors in high school lived in the West Bank in Palestine with his wife for about 3 1/2 years. They got to know a lot of the Christians living in this pre-dominantly Muslim area. As a result, a documentary film was made with 10 different 15-20 minute segments. We watched one of these segments for our film discussion on Sunday 9/2/07. I encourage everyone to check out the website when they can for Salt Films. I hope the link works. I'm having trouble going to the website today but it usually works fine. Just let me know if you'd like me to send you the student guide sheet that went along with this segment.

The segment we watched is called "The Way." Here we see a college student named Sylvia and the struggles she goes through to travel back and forth from school to home. She also talks about being the minority Christian student in her classes. It's a great lesson in perseverance after hearing the struggles she goes through to travel to school. It would ordinarily take 20 minutes to drive but because of the blockades the Israeli army has set up, they have to take long, winding trips through mountains. It can take as long as 5-7 hours! And sometimes they cannot get through depending on the soldiers' very inconsistent rules.

Being part of a Christian minority also has its difficulties, but they did not seem as bad as the struggles with the blockades. She has a Muslim roommate and they get along fine. She's one of the few Christians in her college, and definitely the only one in the class the video showed.

Now read Hebrews 12:1-3. If you face struggles and are a minority, you should not feel like you are alone. God is with you and you are surrounded by "a cloud of witnesses." Take comfort that there are thousands of people who have gone before you and have felt what you feel. Continue to run the race!

I encourage everyone to pray for the Christians in the world who are a minority in their community. Especially the ones who are in danger for their beliefs. This is something that is rarely experienced as a Christian in the U.S.

Miracle pt 2

On Sunday, August 19th, I was still gone on vacation. Students watched the remainder of Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team upset over the Russian team. This past Sunday (8/26) we discussed a couple more scenes.


Staying Focused on the Prize/Working Hard/Unity

Miracle- Chapter 7- Time 38:45-46:54
Shortly into training, the USA team travels to Europe to play the Norwegian team, a mediocre team. They end up tying them because they slack off (and check out girls in the stands). This infuriates Coach Herb, who puts the team on the line and skates them again...and again. In between he gives bits and pieces of why they needed to focus. The concept of playing for the team/country is much more important than any of the individual components.

QUESTIONS
1) Is the Herbie scene hard to take? Was Coach Herb too hard on his players?
2) Have you ever been part of a team where you felt the whole group was more important than each individual?
3) Do you agree when he says that "common men go nowhere. You have to be uncommon?"

SCRIPTURE Philippians 3:12-14

BIBLICAL QUESTIONS
1) Has being a Christian ever felt like running a race to you?
2) What is the end prize for Christians?
3) How can you be uncommon as a Christian?


Unity/Family

Miracle- Chapter 9 (mid)- Time 55:40-, 59:11-1:03:05
Coach Herb brings in another player, Timmy Harrer, into an already tight roster. At this point, another player still needs to be cut as it is to get down to the 20 player 1980 Olympic rules. Some of the players gather together to talk with Coach Herb about it after they play the NHL All-Stars to express that it is unfair "with one of us going home as it is." Coach Herb backs up his decision to bringing Harrer in by stating his skills as a hockey player. But that's not the point. Harrer hasn't been playing with the team from the beginning. The teammates have become a family. As a result, Coach Herb tells the players that Timmy will just help them out, and then he'll send him home.

QUESTIONS
1) Have you ever been cut from a team or group? How did that make you feel?
2) How do you think the players felt about this- adding another player when one still had to be cut? How can we view it from the coach's perspective?
3) Have you ever felt close enough to other members of a group or team like this 1980 U.S. Hockey team?

SCRIPTURE I Corinthians 12:12-30

1) How does the body of Christ need to be close like a team that has become a "family"?
2) Which body parts to you seem weaker (v. 22)?
3) Do you see what your role in this body is?

Miracle pt 1

On Sunday (8/12/07) we started to watch the movie, Miracle, for our temporary film discussion class. This is based on the true, inspring story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the seemingly invincible Russian team and won the gold medal. It is such a fantastic movie with many points to bring up. We got to the first scene for discussion which continues our idea of unity and teamwork over rivalries/dissension. We will finish the movie this Sunday (8/19) while I am gone and discuss a couple more scenes the following Sunday (8/26) when I return.


Unity/ Settling Rivalries

Miracle- beg Chapter 4- Time 17:49-23:46
The scene at the bar gives the backstory. OC has some "unfinished business" with Mac from a national championship game three years ago. This obviously caused the division between them from the get go. OC subs in a drill for another guy and hits down Mac hard. Coach Herb lets them brawl it out for awhile and then tells everyone that the divisions end right now. "Skating...passing...flow...creativity... That's what this team is about. Not old rivalries."

Questions: 1. Has there been a time where you have stepped to break up a fight or help mend a relationship or team?

Once again, personal experience is important. A lot of our discussion was based on teams and school projects the youth had worked on. We talked a bit about sports again. The swim team one of the youth were on was not the best topic, but plenty of other sports (like basketball, football, volleyball) require unity within the team.

We looked at Psalm 133 to drive the point home. It's a wonderful thing when a group of people work together for a common goal. It is like "precious oil running down the head" (used for annointing priests). Have you ever thought of unity within the church? There are many things which can divide us, but we must try to work together and "be perfectly united in mind and thought" (I Cor 1:10).

Is there someone at church or work or home that you need to settle something with to make the unity more unified? Prayerfully approach the other person(s) to settle it.

in need of a Savior

Last Friday (8/10/07) we watched Superman Returns. It's a really great movie and deals with the idea of a world needing a savior. That was our topic of discussion in the middle of the movie.

There is a scene where Superman finds Lois and asks to be interviewed. After Superman left, Lois wrote an article titled, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." She even won the Pulitzer for this article. Superman confronts her about this and then takes her up into the sky. "You said the world doesn't need a savior. But I hear people that need my help everyday."

The word "savior" is in the Bible almost 40 times. "Save", or some variation of it is in the Bible over 320 times. This idea of being saved is there a lot. Many of the Old Testament references were in the Psalms (i.e. Psalm 69). David and other authors cried out to God a lot for salvation from their enemies. Let's take a step back again. What is the Old Testament about (in general)? Is it not many stories of God's people forgetting about Him, God allowing the Israelites to be put into danger or some bad situation, God's people crying out to Him, God saving them (often working through a person of great faith), and God being close to His people again?

It doesn't take a genius to see this idea in the New Testament with our Savior Jesus Christ. Look at I Timothy 4:9-10. The living God is the Savior of all men. Jesus Christ, being fully God coming down as a human, put His heavenly glory on hold and lived a perfect, sinless life. He sacrificed His own life and took on the wages of everyone's sins through His death on the cross. Those of us who believe that know our citizenship is in heaven. Earth is only a temporary home. We eagerly await for our Savior to return and transform our earthly bodies into something like His (Phil 3:20-21).

Does God hear people's voices that need Him everyday like Superman? Our talks revealed yes, God does hear people in need everyday, but there are differences. For example, Superman is not everywhere at once, although he is very fast, like God is. If you saw Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey, you may recall a scene while God grants Bruce his divine powers for a short time. Bruce checks all the e-mails to God. He gets frustrated due to the amount of e-mails so he just grants all the requests given to him. Do you think God is like that at all? Probably not. People need God and Superman in different ways. But despite the differences, the similarities are apparent as well.

How about you? Have you helped someone out in a big way? If someone comes to you with a serious problem, don't make fun of them for it. Just listen to them and try to understand. If you think God is asking you to take a couple extra steps to help them, then take courage and step forward.


related songs that come to mind:
"How to Save a Life" The Fray
"In the Light" dc Talk

Being part of a team

This past Sunday (8/5/07) marks the first of five Sundays that we are adding another class in the morning. In place of Chinese class there will be a film discussion time. For the first time doing this, I focused on unity and being part of a team, using clips from Stomp the Yard and Coach Carter. Here is what we did:


Being Part of a Team/ Mending divisions

Stomp the Yard- Chapter 19 (mid)- Time 1:06:15-1:11:11
Theta Nu Thetas have been practicing hard for the national step competition for over two weeks now with little results to show. Here the main character, DJ, leads the new recruits of Theta Nu Theta in some new stepping moves that combines hip hop with traditional step moves. He trying to get the point across that their moves and body types shouldn't have to fit step. Step should fit their natural rhythm. This angers the leader and it turns into a battle between the upper classmen (prophytes) and the new recruits (neophytes). However, DJ deviates from the new steps he planned with the rest of the neophytes and they end up losing. "It's not always about you," one of the guys tells DJ. This leads DJ to approach the whole fraternity and apologize. "I just want to be part of the team." In addition, the leader of the Thetas asks DJ for help with teaching some hip-hop based moves to help the team at nationals. The importance of team over the individual is a concept that runs throughout the whole movie.

Questions: 1. Has there been a time you wanted to show off (big or small crowd)? Was it for the right motives?
2. DJ took courage and apologized to the whole team. Do you find it hard to humble yourself for the betterment of the team?
3. Is there a time that you were a part of or witnessed differences in opinion or method being resolved and it worked out for the better for both sides?

Scripture: I Cor 3:1-9

Questions:
1. As the body of Christ we are all part of a team. Has that ever crossed your mind?
2. Paul calls jealousy and quarreling, which cause the divisions, "worldly." Think of an experience on a team you've had where there were divisions and share. Were the reasons serious enough to cause divisions? Were they helpful or make the team better in any way?
3. What divisions do you know of that are going on in the church at large right now? Are the reasons for the divisions good or help the body of Christ in any way?


Unity/ One Happens to One Happens to All

Coach Carter (PG-13)- beg Ch. 7 32:41-36:08; Ch. 8 (mid) 40:55-43:23
Earlier in the movie, Timo Cruz attacks Coach Carter. After Richmond wins their first game, Cruz wants to be back on the team. However, for his past actions, Coach Carter punishes him with 2500 pushups and 1000 suicides within a week. At the end of the week, despite hours of hard work, Cruz is short and Carter asks him to leave the gym. Then Lyle steps up and says he will help finish because "if one player suffers, the whole team suffers." The rest of the team fills in as well to get Cruz back on.

Questions:
1. What did you think of Coach Carter's punishment? Was it fair?
2. Was it possible for one person to complete all of that in the time given?
3. Do you think it was hard for Lyle to step up and help Cruz?

Scripture: I Cor 12:12-26 (esp. verses 25-26)

Questions:
1. Scripture tells us that we, as Christians, are part of a whole body. Do you believe that?
2. The words in this scene are almost exactly from verse 26. How do you think this applies to the body of Christ?
3. Have you stepped up to help someone like Lyle did for Cruz? What happened? What was the result?

The Simpsons

Last Friday (8/3/07) we went to the Streets of Woodfield to see the much anticipated Simpsons movie. It was good. No actual bible study happened that night, but we'll see what I can pull from the movie for the near future...

growing Christlikeness

The second last Friday we talked about growing the kingdom of God with our gifts and talents. This past Friday, we talked about growing an equally important thing- our Christlikeness.

If we were to categorize our faithlife into three main parts, it could be accepting Christ, growing in Christ while here on earth, and enjoying Him in heaven. Obviously, it is this second stage that we focused on looking at the beginning of Philippians 2.

I think we can all admit to doing something for selfish reasons and one point or another. That's what the first few verses are telling us not to do. But rather but others' interests as equal or more important to your own interests. When verse 2 talks about "being one in spirit and purpose," it means more than just agreeing. It means working together towards the same purpose and common goals despite differences in backgrounds, beliefs, or interests.

Verses 6-11 are very powerful and straightforward. The only tough thing to mention is verse 6. Christ's equality to God was not "something to be grasped." His power and glory was always there (refer to the Gospel of John 1:1-5). He laid it aside by being incarnated, made into human likeness, only to regain it after resurrecting and ascending to be with God the Father again. It is this model of humility that we must strive for as Christians.

Afterwards we did an activity with a ball of yarn. One person mentions how another has displayed Christlikeness and then passes off the ball of yarn while still holding to the beginning of the yarn. This goes on to create a web of yarn. It visually shows how displaying Christlikeness can go a long way and affect many lives. Kind of similar to the concept in the movie, Pay it Forward. One person performs a random act of kindness to three people, and they return the favor by being kind randomly to another three people, and so on.

My prayer is for all of us to become more Christlike, which will naturally affect lives in a positive way towards Christ. blessings

Relying on God

Last Sunday morning, I spoke during the adult service. Ahhhh! Scary, I know. I have no idea why my pastor let me do that, but it turned out alright. After much prayer and meditation on what God wanted me to say, I spoke about how God can use us best when we are most reliant on Him.

3 points stem from this:
1) We need a relationship with the Lord.
2) God can work past our doubts and inadequacies.
3) It usually gets worse before it gets better. Especially when it's a big task or purpose.

Plenty of biblical examples and personal accouts from friends to use. From the bible, I chose to talk about Moses and Mary, the mother of Jesus (Exodus 4:10-17, 7:1-6 and Luke 1:26-38). After seeing Evan Almighty with the youth group, I gladly referred to the movie a few times as well.

I am taken back to a time in Mexico just at the beginning of my time in high school. We served in a border town, or colonia, but stayed in Texas each night. Every morning we would pray for safe travels and our work that day. Well, one day (I can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday) we forgot to pray. Guess which day we had troubles that week...

1) It doesn't matter how long our relationship with the Lord has been going. It doesn't matter what we did in our past. What is important is that our relationship is continually growing and getting more intimate with the Lord. After all, Paul rejected Christ's name and persecuted Christians before his life-changing encounter on the road to Damascus. Moses killed an Egyptian after watching him beat up a Hebrew (Ex 2:11-12).
Evan Baxter had virtually no relationship with the Lord. Just a slogan to "change the world" as a newly elected Congressman. As the movie and the building of the ark progressed, so did Evan's relationship and intimacy with God.
The truth is we are all called by God for a purpose. It is up to us to answer that call and follow- just as the disciples had the ball in their court to drop what they were doing and follow Jesus.

2) Moses expressed 5 times to God his doubts and inadequacies! He complained of being slow of speech and tongue and not an eloquent speaker. I love this part. In Ex 4:14 it says "the Lord's anger burned against Moses" (emphasis mine). Even though Moses didn't have the confidence of speaking in front of Pharoah with God's help, He still worked around that anyway and sent Aaron with him.
Mary just had one doubt- she was a virgin. Quite reasonable to feel as such. But the angel, Gabriel, explained that the Holy Spirit would come upon her. Mary's answer? "I am the Lord's servant." Sometimes women just get it quicker than men.
I have to admit that I mirror Moses' feelings. I am not an eloquent speaker. Some piece of advice from Pastor Lee came in handy. It actually relates quite well to point #1. "Let the Holy Spirit guide you. Prayer is a 2-way dialogue with God." Which means I need to take time to talk to God and take time to listen as well.
My friend, Matt, was asked to go to Chile a few years ago by his then-pastor. 2 weeks before leaving, his pastor told him that he (the pastor) couldn't go and Matt was quite a bit short financially as well. Uncertain but still reliant on God, Matt prayed whether he was supposed to go or not. A week before the trip, a man approaches Matt and tells him that he is supposed to support him on his trip. He proceeded to write a check for $1000 to Matt. Guess how much money he needed to go on his trip...

3) The Israelites faced harsh conditions under the Egyptians. After approaching Pharoah for the first time, Pharoah made them find their own straw instead of supplying it to them (Ex 5:6-21). Straw was mixed with mud to make bricks more durable. The Israelites had to find their own straw and keep up the same production level as before (Ex . They were also in fear after being released, as they found themselves in between the Red Sea and Pharoah's army (Exodus 14).
It's no doubt that both Mary and Evan (from the movie) faced ridicule. I'm not sure exactly how the conversations and insults went, but I'm pretty sure it went something like this. "You're pregnant. You and Joseph aren't even married yet! What's that? The Holy Spirit did it? Riiiiiight. Good one there." And with Evan or Noah... "You're building an ark? It barely rains at all! We don't even need an umbrella here! Yeah, you keep building that ark. We'll just keep doing what we're doing."
It is also important to mention that Mary and Joseph had to escape from King Herod, who ordered the slaying of all boys under 2 in Bethlehem (Mt 2:13-18).

What does this mean today? Small problems require just small solutions. But bigger problems are bigger opportunities to showcase God's power. Do you wish for big miracles to happen in your life? Let's not forget that through faith in Jesus Christ, we have the miracle of eternal life. Although not quite as visually stunning as turning the Nile into blood, it is no less of a miracle than the plagues God inflicted upon the Egyptians.
In closing, I leave with a thought from Evan Almighty. Evan's family has left him because they do no understand what he is doing. God talks to Evan's wife through a busboy at a restaurant. "If someone asks for courage, does God just give them courage, or the opportunity to be courageous? If someone asks for more time with the family (Evan's wife prayed for this at the beginning of the film), does God just give them happy times, or the opportunity to spend more time together?"

My prayer for all of us is to seize those opportunities, and rely on God as much as we possibly can so He can perform greater works through us.

the weekend of Noah

Ha! We devoted a whole weekend towards this story. Friday night (6/29/07) we saw the film Evan Almighty at the theater. It is a modern retelling of Noah's ark with obvious differences from the original besides the whole different time thing. Still, it is quite entertaining, funny, and still holds on to the core themes found in Genesis. God asks a man to do crazy task of building a huge ark. Man listens to God and does it, despite ridicule and a lengthy period of hard work. God causes/allows flood to occur.

On Sunday (7/1/07) we followed up the movie with going over the actual story in Genesis 6-8. We got through chapter 7 during this study session. Along with a few notes on some verses, we also discussed the differences between the modern day movie and Scripture.

6 "The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." It is important to note that although God was grieved, He did not regret making man. This follows what is said in verse 5 that God grieved over the wickedness of man. His people did not follow Him at this time. Noah was the only one who found favor in God's eyes.

Verse 15 gives the dimensions of the ark in cubits. This was enormous! The length of one and a half football fields! Scholars estimated that around 45,000 animals could fit in the ark.

2 "Take with you seven ^[g] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate" Clean animals were those that could be sacrificed. 'Seven' and 'two' refer to pairs of animals.

SPOILER ALERT! DO NO READ IF YOU WANT TO SEE HOW THINGS HAPPEN IN THE MOVIE FIRST!
One of the major differences is how the flood started and how vast it was. The flood in Evan Almighty resulted from a poorly constructed dam that burst forth and swept through a large portion of the Washington DC area for one day. In Genesis, God sent rain for forty days and forty nights (7:4) that covered the whole earth and flooded it for 150 days (7:17-24).

Once again, despite the differences, the major themes are still shared. Both Noah and Evan did what the Lord commanded. Both built incredibly huge arks (although Evan had the help of a book, Buliding Arks for Dummies!) even though they lived in dry climates that barely rained, if at all. No doubt they were both made fun of. Their families did not understand what was going on.

Paul & Silas in prison and Charlotte's Web

Last Friday (6/22/07) was a fun night as we joined Meadows for their outdoor screening of Charlotte's Web! Before that, we had our usual gym/outdoor time and then a quick devotional before the movie started.

Paul and Silas in prison is probably one of my favorite stories in the bible (Acts 16:16-40) We looked at the first half of that. The main topic was doing the right thing. Paul and Silas remove a spirit from a girl that gave her fortune telling abilities, and a profit for her owners! The owners bring Paul and Silas to the authorities and without trial, they are beaten and imprisoned.

Any normal person would be outraged at this point. Angry at the villagers. Angry at the authorities. Angry at God. But verse 25 gives us Paul and Silas' reaction. Worship. Even though they were still bruised and bleeding, sitting in a crummy prison they still chose to worship God. That's joy. That's doing the right thing. I pray we all choose to worship God inspite of whatever circumstances we may be facing.

Unity with different parts

For Youth Group Friday night (6/8/07) we went over the first couple part of Ephesians 4.

First we did a couple games/activities. We played the human knot, which apparently, you need more than 7 people to make it a challenge. I thought it would be a little harder with 7 people, but we figured it out in a couple of minutes. Next we played a game where the group has to work together to create different shapes. We started off easy with a triangle, then went on to more complicated ones, including the shape of the U.S.A.! Hopefully, you see the idea of these games with the themes we studied in Ephesians 4.

Are there people that annoy that are perhaps different than you? We cannot let these things break us apart. A great movie scene that shows this theme is found in Remember the Titans. The Titans have already come back from camp and are about to play their first game. Coach Boone speaks about unity between all the players despite differences, particularly racial divides. He says, "Nothing. Nothing tears us apart." He got them to come together in part by having them spend time together and learn about teammates of another race. That is what we need to do. Pray for our enemies (or those that just annoy us) and make the effort to spend time with them.

The other major theme has to do with our different roles as the body of Christ. A more complete passage on this can be found in I Corinthians 12. There is no way we fulfill the Great Comission (found in Matthew 28:18-20) on our own. Going to all nation, preaching the gospel, making disciples, and discipling believers? No way! We might as well not even try as individuals. But as the body of Christ, we can do so much more and fulfill so many roles to express the fullness of Christ.

Haven't gotten along well with someone lately? See potential in a new friendship or collaboration? Give it up to God. Initiate. The results may surprise you (hopefully for the better!)