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

the Holy Spirit

We're still in our Foundations series, but we are nearing the end. This past Sunday (11/25/07) we looked at the Holy Spirit. First off, remember when we studied that Jesus Christ is a part of a Holy Trinity? The beginning of the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was there since the beginning of time. So was the Holy Spirit. You could describe the relationship of the Holy Spirit like saying, "me, myself, and I". You could also say it is like water with 3 different states- gas, liquid, solid. Neither quite does the trick, but they give you an idea.

Now keep in mind, there are atleast 100 Scripture passages that talk about or reference the Holy Spirit. Obviously we cannot look at all 0f them, but I believe we hit a pertinent few of those.A couple of those passages are in the Gospel of John. The first passage (14:25-27) teaches us an important thing. The Holy Spirit is there to teach us. To remind us of the teachings of Jesus. This was particularly important for His followers that were with Him while walking on this earth. Although they didn't quite understand what would happen, it would all make sense after Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected.

The second passage in John (16:12-15). Once again, it shows that the Holy Spirit will be a teacher, a guide. But it also reveals a bit of its character. It says the Spirit will bring glory to the Son. One of the roles of the Spirit is that of a servant. We bring Jesus Christ glory only through the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Whether it is worshipping Him in song, bringing Him glory through our job or schoolwork, or serving others. It is only the Holy Spirit working in our lives that lets us do so.

Next we looked at Romans 8:9-17. Here we mark the changes that happen in us as a result of the Holy Spirit. We are made alive. Our spirit is made alive. Fear does not control us (v 15). This is how we "have life, and have it to the full".

To finish off, we played a game called 2 Truths and a Lie. This is another type of get-to-know-you game, but it also illustrates a couple characteristics of the Holy Spirit. What you do is write down three statements about yourself. Obviously two of them are true and one of them is a lie. The point is not to make it obvious which one is a lie because the rest of the group guesses which one is the lie. You can do this in teams or just have everyone else guess if you have a small group.

Just as you discern what is truth and what is a lie, so does the Holy Spirit as you come to choices in your life. It also tells us about the knowledge the Holy Spirit can give us. The game has you make statements about yourself because obviously, you know the most about yourself. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, so it knows the most about God. The Holy Spirit is the best resource to learn more about who God is (I Cor 2:6-16).

I hope we all strive to live more according to the Holy Spirit to grow intimacy with God and give Him glory.

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.

Outreach weekend

This past weekend before Thanksgiving, our church had an outreach event. It was a great success! Several people dedicated their lives to the Lord. The teaching was solid. Atleast that's what I heard since I was with the youth and kids the whole time!

On Friday night (11/16/07) we spent a good deal of time in the gym. We finally had our first official game of Scatterball, a crazy game of dodgeball where you can add several twists to it. It's a lot of fun with a lot of people. We had about 10 youth and 10 younger kids there. We used 4 balls.

Afterwards, I sat them down for a short devotional. With Thanksgiving coming up, I focused on that. What are we thankful for? Hopefully our family and friends. Our home and the food we eat. Possessions. It's good to be thankful for these things and people. But as believers, we must switch our focus to who provides these things and people. We must always be thankful to God for our family, friends, and possessions at all times, and especially around Thanksgiving. In 2 Chronicles 31, it talks about how King Hezekiah took away all obstacles to worshipping God. They devoted themselves to the Law of the Lord (v 4) and provided many sacrifices to the Lord.

I encourage everyone around Thanksgiving to do the same and devote themselves to the Lord. Thank Him for the blessings in your life. Spend quality time with family and friends.

prayer

I know many, many studies can be devoted to prayer, but last Sunday (11/11/07) we took a glimpse at it. This was by no means a complete study on prayer, but we looked at the Lord's Prayer and a couple of other things about it.

We first started in 2 Chronicles 33. This chapter refers to King Manasseh, someone who completely ignored God at first and did many evil things. We're talking about making altars to other gods, sacrificing his sons, witchcraft, and more. Manasseh and his people ignored God. But sometimes the Lord gets our attention in dramatic ways. He did so with King Manasseh by having the Assyrians capture him and do some amount of torture to him. Manasseh called upon the Lord and truly repented. It says in verse 13 that the "Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea."

We looked at the four different areas of prayer as well (praise, thanksgiving, confession, petition) and compared that with the Lord's prayer. Often when we pray, we just ask for what we want, or when we are in serious need or trouble, confess our sins. It's a habit to build up each area of prayer and remember to do them. And this is just the time when we talk. It is also very important to listen to God. This takes time to build up as well, and is something I need to work on.

I also used a couple games with the junior high kids to illustrate a couple of other points. We played the game telephone. That's where you pass on a message down the line by whispering and see what you have by the time it reaches the last person. You can only whisper so the person next to you can hear, and you can only say it once. Often times, it produces hilarious results! The connection is this. No longer are priests or any in-between people needed to talk to God. In the Old Testament, the high priest was the only one allowed to enter in the presence of God in the tabernacle. And this was only once a year after long, elaborate cleansing rituals. But now, as it says in Hebrews, we have Jesus as the great high priest who allows us to talk directly with God.

Next we played pictionary. Where you have an object to draw, and your teammates try to guess what it is. This is a little bit of a looser connection, but prayer is one of the ways we can see what God is doing- in our own lives and the world. I'm a very interested in the big picture. Through prayer, reading God's Word, and fellowship with other believers we can grasp a better understanding of what God is doing.

God longs to hear our prayers. He tells us in Luke, that we do not have because we do not ask. And when we do ask, we must be patient for answers. God knows what is best for us and wants to bless us. But sometimes we cannot see the big picture as He can. God only answers in 3 ways- yes, no, not now. It's kind of like the person who prayed, "Lord give me patience and give it to me now!" Doesn't quite work that way. Waiting is where we build our character. Waiting is where God sees if we will be persistent with our prayers and depend on Him.

accountable to our actions

Last Friday (11/9/07) we had a very pleasant surprise. One of the youth brought in their Nintendo Wii and it's just too much fun not to play! That took up quite a bit of our time. In between playing sessions though, we followed up on actions that we discussed the previous Friday and talked a bit about accountability.

You can refer to our earlier blog called "our actions" to read about what we did the previous week, but in short, they obviously mean much. We referred to a short passage in James and also took the time to think of specific actions to serve people in our home, church, school, and neighborhood.

We revisited those actions. I challenged the youth to pick one action in one of those categories that they are willing to do this week. And I encouraged them being accountable to each other. I will be calling them during the week, but my hope is that they will encourage each other when they see each other. And I said they can challenge and encourage me to make sure I follow through.

Accountability is important in the community of believers. We are not meant to go through this journey alone. In fact, we will be talking about community this upcoming Sunday (11/18). It says in Proverbs, amongst other places, how much more a group of believers can do together as opposed to someone alone.

So let's grow together. Let's encourage one another. Let's build this community at church and youth group.

a whole variety of things

On Sunday (11/4/07) we tied up some loose ends from last week. For the high school class, we finished up our discussion of God's Word from last week. What is amazing is how much science has helped to uncover facts from biblical history. I encourage everyone to search (google or another search engine) "bible archaeology". There are a number of websites that pose answers to the validity of the Bible. Some examples are the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the sons of Jacob being tribal leaders.

Another example is the Battle of Jericho. Here is an excerpt from the teaching I received on this topic:
"In Joshua 6, we read about the God causing the walls to fall down in the Battle of Jericho. During the excavations of Jericho (1930-1936) they found something so startling that a statement of what was found was prepared and signed by the team. “The main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city.’ Why so unusual? Because the walls of cities do not fall outwards, they fall inwards. And yet in Joshua 6:20 we read ‘. . . The wall fell flat, so that the people went up into the city every man straight ahead, and they took the city.’ The walls were made to fall outward.”

Pretty neat, huh?

For jr. high, we laid out some ground rules and shared ideas on how to make the class more interactive and engaging. Setting down some rules is definitely something I should have done at first. I certainly learned my lesson. But the point is we are all (youth, parents, and myself) taking steps to make this bible study class a better experience for everyone. I think that's a step in the right direction.

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.