Where is God in the hard times? (devotional)

Do you ever feel like He is not there? We explored this issue a bit last Friday (12/28/07). Peter and the other disciples and followers of Jesus felt that... literally. When Jesus Christ said he would return and restore the kingdom of Israel, everyone else was thinking during their lifetime. Days, months, and years passed. Nothing. Where is He?!?!

We took a look at 2 Peter 3 to discuss this. Peter quotes the doubters in verse 4 when he says "everything goes on as it has." There is quite a bit of sarcasm and disbelief even from those that were there to witness the crucifixion or able to hear first-hand accounts. And if they started to doubt, imagine how that can stockpile 2000 or so years later. Winn Collier wrote in Deeper Walk that each generation has seen its plague, war, disaster, etc. Has everything really been the same since the time of creation?

Hopefully Peter's words can bring us back to hope, as they probably did to whom he was directly speaking to. God's Word created everything, even the earth from the waters. It will be preserved until the time of judgment, when Jesus comes back. And since creation, God has been working. He never stopped. If God did stop, evil would have wiped us out a long time ago.

We have to remember how time works for God. "A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day." Even when life is going terrible for us, there is a grander story going on that is still being written to this day. I know remembering that is what we want to do least when tragedy hits us. But God is always working goodness in every moment.

My prayer is for us to put all of our trust into God, even during the hard times.

So what do you believe & MERRY CHRISTMAS

On Sunday (12/23/07) we brought it all together for the high school group. For weeks we have been studying the identity of Christ and what that means for us today. Once again, I encourage you to take a look back if you are unfamiliar. (You can click on the "foundations" tag under any of the blogs for this study to bring those up exclusively). With the high schoolers, I had them write down what they believe it means to be a Christian, with interesting results.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating with family and friends. I hope the meaning of Christmas was not lost, or looked over, as it was for so many people roughly 2,000 years ago. Strangely enough, a similar situation took place a year ago. Josh Bell, one of the finest violinists in the world, dressed down to give an incognito performance in a DC metro station. Over 1,000 people walked by him that morning and only a handful stopped for a few minutes and/or donated money in his violin case. You can see the reflection on this event here. The reflection also has a link to the original Washington Post article where the reflection came from.

Although you can argue the reasons why Josh Bell went unrecognized and deny that his performance has similarities to God's incarnate arrival here on earth. A manger. Swaddling clothes. Unnoticed by most of the world. Instead on this Christmas and the rest ignored, you can't, let's try and do what the shepherds did when they witnessed the birth of Christ- worship God and tell others.

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 2

We finished reviewing our Foundations series with the high school group last Sunday (12/16/07). We had a lot to go through. All things that apply the Christian faith to us today. This included God's Word, prayer, fellowship/community, the Holy Spirit, and going out into the world and serving. We reviewed right from the previous blogs so I encourage you to take a look at those.

water park

Last Friday (12/14/07) we had a great fellowship event swimming at the Coco Key Water Resort, which is part of the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington Heights. This was a joint fellowship activity with the Meadows youth group, whom we share the same church building with. More events like these need to happen. It can get pretty monotonous with the same people in the same place all the time. I encourage you to read our fellowship/community blog to see why this is an important thing. Much thanks to DB for setting this up.

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.

Lead by Serving

There is a great leadership blog that I regularly read by author Orrin Woodward. Lots of valuable input, often using historical figures as examples. In this particular blog, Orrin references a couple passages from a book called The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader. He goes over a few key points, such as the important of teamwork and how a community will have conflicts. I encourage you to read that blog here.

Have you ever been part of a team or group that was a strong community? We can pull a lot of examples from our culture, especially sports teams- the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, the championship Bulls teams, etc. A long-lasting band such as U2 is also a good example. How about in your own life? What makes any of these groups a strong community? How are you contributing to building up that community?

Our part in building that community has to be done with humility. Jesus describes the greatest love one person can have for another in a particular way in John 15:13. One that is completely selfless, and would risk his/her own life for another. That's the kind of love we need!

blessings