Kids Weekly Bible Study

The Hide and Seek Champion

2010-01-24T23:26:00.001-06:00

Really Read It: Psalm 139: 1-24
A Quick Look: Psalm 139: 23-24
Memorize: Psalm 139:17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

If you were THE best hide and seek super-star in the world, where could you hide in your house? Could you fit in the chimney? Did you know there is a skinny space inside the wall? What about lying down flat on top of the roof? Or could you cut a hole in the basement floor and dig down into the dirt that is under your house and hide there? I think that any of those places would win. You would be the hide and seek champion of the world, but someone could find you. Maybe a person could find you if they looked long enough, but God could find you in no time at all. You know that, but do you really know it? You cannot hide from God and you cannot hide anything from God.
A lot of kids think that is sort of bad. It is nice that parents and teachers don’t know everything. If you can’t hide anything from God, then He knows all the bad things about you. But it is really very good that God knows all of the bad things about you. You don’t need to pretend you don’t have bad stuff inside of you. You don’t have to work to hide that bad thing from God. God already knows it. God sees all of you.
God even knows you better than you know you. That’s a hard one for my brain. I know everything I do and everything I think. I know all the things that happen on my outside and on my inside. God knows all of that too. And God knows all of the whys of me better than I do. God knows you that well too. God can show you stuff about you that you didn’t know. It seems like if it is about you, you would know it. Who would be the best person to answer the question, “What is your favorite food?” It seems like you could answer that about yourself better than anybody else. But God knows that answer better than you do, and He can tell you what your real favorite is. God will tell you stuff about you that is way more important than food, if you ask Him.
I hope that you are in a family where you are well known. It is safe and peaceful to be in a place where you don’t have to explain yourself. A family should know you, get you, be used to you. And it feels so good to be known like that. With God, it is like the perfect family but 321 times better. You are fully known by God and that should give you so much peace and joy and hope. God knows all of you and He wants you to come close to Him. You can be the worst you with God and He will still want you. You can be the best you with God too. He knows, He really knows, He already knows.

I read Psalm 139 and shortened it some. The whole Psalm is still in your Bible. I just put a shorter one right here for you to read. This way you can read all of my favorite verses from Psalm 139 in a row.

O LORD, you know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Take a look at a church where the knowing God comes close to His people: World Revival Church

Find more of Nathan’s writing on Amazon and Helium.

How Much Did You Get?

2010-01-17T21:14:00.002-06:00

Read the Real Story: Luke 12:47 – 48, Matthew 25: 14 – 30

Mr. Leaf did not send home a supply list to his new class. He told all the parents that the kids didn’t need to bring anything to school, because he wanted to give them all the school supplies the students needed. The first day of school for Mr. Leaf’s new class felt a little bit like Christmas. They knew they were going to get a bunch of stuff when they walked into that classroom.
On the first day of school, the children had to stand in the hall until the bell rang. Then Mr. Leaf started bringing them into his classroom one at a time.
Marcus went in first and he was thrilled at what he found in his desk. Never had he owned such great school supplies: 108 crayon colors, 72 paint colors, 3 scissors sizes, 14 notebooks, electric hole punch, mechanical pencils, colored pens, 5 kinds of glue sticks, 7 kinds of glue bottles, dictionary, science books, history books, math books, a laptop computer, construction paper, drawing paper, notebook paper… He was still finding new things when Mr. Leaf brought Logan in.
Logan didn’t need much time at all to sort all of his school supplies. In Logan’s desk he found two old pencils and a small stack of notebook paper. That’s all. Logan was so hurt, so sad, so disappointed. When he saw Marcus with all of his stuff, he felt even worse.
Which kid would you rather be? The one with much or the one with little?
Mr. Leaf kept bringing kids in one at a time. A few others had a ton of stuff like Marcus and a few others had almost nothing like Logan. But most of their gifts were somewhere in the middle.
When the whole class was in the room, Mr. Leaf started to speak. “Welcome to real life school. I don’t need to tell you that you don’t all have the same things in your desks. I should tell you now that you cannot give any of your gifts away. And don’t try to loose them or throw them away either. They are yours for life.”
Twelve kids muttered, “No fair.”
So Mr. Leaf continued with, “Of course it’s not fair. This can never be fair.
“Next I am going to pass out your assignment list for the day. And before you see the list I should tell you, this is not fair. I will give you a list like this every day of the school year. You must finish each assignment or you will be…”
Marcus stopped listening when Mr. Leaf put a paper on his desk. His joy flew away as he read his list. Twelve assignments. And each one of them would take him at least an hour. If he worked like crazy, he would still have five hours of homework.
When Logan read his list he started to feel better. He could finish his five assignments by lunch time if he worked hard. Take it easy and some would be left for the afternoon.
Which kid would you rather be? The one with much or the one with little?
*********************************************************************
Mr. Leaf is not like any teacher I know. Teachers seem focused on keeping things fair. Everyone has to have the same things and do the same things. Most of them talk the same way as the puppets on TV. “You are ALL special and you ALL have special gifts. Marcus might be really good at math, but you have your own special gift too.”
But really some kids are better at everything. You might know a kid like Marcus. He’s the best in his class in math, reading, and spelling. He’s the second fastest runner in the class, but he is still the best at basketball. And don’t try to beat him in art because even if you have a more creative idea, his neatness and detail will still impress the teacher more.
You might know a kid like Logan. He’s not the worst at math every day, because sometimes Liz and Rex don’t bring their homework. But there are plenty of days when Logan doesn’t have his homework, so that puts him back down at the bottom again. Math just isn’t Logan’s thing, but reading and spelling are not his thing either. He’s pretty bad at those too. At recess he would be the worst at basketball except that he doesn’t play that very often. And art is one of his favorites but his pictures never look much like the teacher’s example.
It’s not fair.
It’s not fair in my story, but it is not fair in real life either. God chose not to be fair. He gave some people a lot and some people a little. “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” (Luke 12:48b)
Jesus told a story to explain this. In His story, a big boss guy was about to go on a long trip, so he gave money to three of his servants. He did not give the same amount of money to each one. When the boss came back, he rewarded the servants who used the money to get more money and he punished the one who did nothing with the money.
In Jesus’ story it was all about money. And that is real life. Some people have a lot of money and some people don’t have much. But God wants all of them to use their money the right way.
There are other ways that God gives gifts to people that are not money. God gives some people a lot of knowledge about Him and some not much at all. Some kids already know so much about the Bible and the Kingdom of God. Some kids have only heard the Christmas story one time. It is not fair. God expects the kid who knows a lot about God to do a lot more than the kid who knows little.
The other way you could have a lot or a little is in the things you can do. God makes some people good at a lot of stuff and some not so good at anything. God expects the one who is good at a lot to do a lot for God.
If you know a lot about God and you are really good at a lot of things, you have a super long list of assignments from God. You have a lot to do. Use all that you have. Have a great time and get busy.
If you are just beginning to learn about God and you are not very good at anything, you have a list of assignments from God too. God might have given you just one gift, but He still expects you to use that one gift for Him. But the amazing thing is, if you use the small ability for God, He will make it bigger. And then you can use your bigger gifts for God and He will make them bigger again. And again and again.
Stop trying to make it fair. Some people have a lot and some have a little. But God knows exactly what he gave you. And God is watching carefully to see how you will use it. If you do well with your gifts, you will get more. And when you get more, more is expected.

************************************************************************

You can see a church where some people have a lot and some have little. But they are all pushing hard to use their gifts to make God’s Kingdom bigger. WorldRevivalChurch.com

Find more of Nathan’s writing at Amazon and Helium.

Before He Killed the Giant

2010-01-10T22:24:00.002-06:00

A Quick Look: I Samuel 16: 13 & 18
Really Read It: I Samuel 16

Little David lived an easy, lazy life. All day every day, he sat in the soft, green, grass and watched his Dad’s sheep. He was just a boy, so if something went wrong he went to get his dad or one of his big brothers. One day this boy David had a little bit harder job. His dad gave him a bunch of food and told him to take it to his big brothers. But his big brothers were in the army. When David got to the army camp, a huge giant named Goliath was yelling out for someone to fight him. Even though David had never done anything he decided to fight the giant and he won.

NO WAY, NO WAY, NO WAY

David was not a do-nothing, lazy shepherd before he fought Goliath. I found at least five huge things that David did before his meeting with the nine-foot pagan. Not just five things like he washed the dishes, mowed the grass, went to church, passed a spelling test, and played soccer. The five things I found on David’s list were all big deals. If you did any one of these things, you would be known for it for all of your life. And David did all of these hard things before he ever heard Goliath yell out, “Am I a dog that you come at me with a stick? Come over here and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals.”

1. David was a shepherd. But as a shepherd, he did not rely on his dad if it got hard. His dad was an old man. David made sure that the sheep and goats were safe. If a bear or a lion came to get a sheep while the animals were in David’s care, he chased it down and took his sheep from the killer’s mouth. If the bear or lion turned on him, then he killed it with a club. A normal guy watching the sheep would not chase a lion. If a lion came and took a sheep, he would be glad that the lion didn’t eat him and run home to tell his mommy.
2. David was a harp player. Some would put this on the lazy shepherd list, but I think David worked hard at it and practiced like some of the world’s best players we have today. The reason I think that David worked so hard at the harp is that he was good. He was really good. When the king wanted a harp player, the king’s servants found David. The king could have hired anyone in the country, and he picked David. To me, that says that David was the best harp player in the country, and that would only come with a lot of hard work.
3. David was a song writer and a worshipper. David wrote most of the psalms that we read in the Bible. We don’t know when they were written. Most likely they were written after Goliath. But David must have been writing songs and worshipping God as a boy and a young man. His very first song did not become the number one worship tune in the whole country. But he started young. He worked hard. He kept writing songs. He kept singing. And his worship words lasted for 3,000 years.
4. David was a brave warrior, a man of war, and a man of good judgment. We have to guess about this one a little. If might be that Goliath was the first man David ever fought in real battle, but maybe David fought before that. When the servants of King Saul told him about David (before Goliath) they said that David was a great harp player, a brave warrior, a man of war, and a man of good judgment. The Bible does not say what made these men believed David was a man of war. They were right. The Bible has a ton of war stories about David after Goliath. But before David took the giant-killing stones from the stream, he was called a brave warrior and a man of war.
5. David was King Saul’s armor bearer. King Saul first hired David as his harp player. But Saul liked David so much that he gave him the job of armor bearer too. David was the man who carried Saul’s fighting tools. He was close to the king in battle. The king trusted him.

Those are the five. Each one could be a big life success, but David did so much that these five are easy to forget. Before David cut off Goliath’s head, he was also anointed as king, known as a fine-looking young man, and the Lord is with him. But those are things that happened to David. My list is just stuff that David did. And it is a big deal if you ever want to do a big thing for God. Killing Goliath was a big thing for God. God did it through David. But when God picked David, he picked a guy who was already doing a lot for God. Eight-year-old David didn’t think that harp practice would change the world for God. Ten-year-old David didn’t think that sling, club, sword practice would glorify God. David practiced the harp and he practiced war, and God used those skills in great, amazing, awesome, miracle ways. But David practice some bigger stuff too. He practiced worshipping God. He practiced loving and trusting God. And God looked down at David and picked him to change the world forever.
What does God see when He looks down at you? Does he see a doer or a waiter?

Here is a church where people find the presence or God and lives are changed: World Revival Church

Find more of Nathan’s writing on Amazon and Helium.

A Little More from Jonathan Edwards

2010-01-04T00:07:00.001-06:00

Roller coaster.
Skiing.
Go Carts.
Surfing.
Sky diving.
There’s a thrill. There’s a rush. Kids try or want to try those things because of the thrill, the rush, the feelings of danger and intense excitement. But when it’s over, it’s just over. That thrill does nothing to help you in your life. It is just a thrill.
God does that too. There is a thrill, a rush in the presence of God. Very few people in very few churches have seen anything close to what I am talking about so you think I am just saying God is like skiing because they are both good and they are both fun. That is not it at all. I am really talking about a thrill in church. Most honest kids would say that God is really one of the most boring things in their lives. Sadly those kids want God, but they have never felt anything from God. Never any excitement, never any joy, passion, rush, thrill.
You can have that from God. You can have the presence of God that you can feel like a rush of excitement. But when it’s over, it’s not done. When you find God’s presence, you want it more and you love God more. But God’s presence also makes it easy to change your dirty life.
New Year’s is change time. Last week this page was about resolutions. Change for the better is a great idea but almost no one does it alone. If you get the presence of God, you could really make the change you want to make.
So as 2010 begins, a resolution is a great idea. If you want it to work, pray for the presence of God to hit you and pray for God to help you change. Last week I listed twelve resolutions from a dead guy named Jonathan Edwards. I am going to list a dozen more. But first here are a few facts about a great guy to copy.
· Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703. His birthday cake would have to have 306 candles. But to get more exact, he was born 111,856 days ago. He’s been dead for 91,944 of those days.
· Jonathan Edwards had four older sisters and six younger sisters. He had no brothers.
· Jonathan Edwards was super smart. I am almost sure he was smarter than the smartest kid in your class. At age 10 he wrote a paper about the human soul. At age 11 he wrote a paper about flying spiders.
· Jonathan Edwards started college when he was 12. When he finished college, he had the best grades in his whole class.
· Jonathan Edwards first worked as the pastor of a church when he was 19.
· Jonathan Edwards was a great pastor, preacher, and writer. In 1734 he wrote about the great revival in his church when almost 300 new people came to God.
· Jonathan Edwards most famous sermon is called, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This sermon and others like it helped a huge revival in the 1740’s.

Through all of his years as a pastor, a writer, a dad, a teacher, Jonathan Edwards practiced living for God all of the time. His 70 resolutions helped him. Here are some of my favorites written in my words.
1. Make everything I say, have some kindness in it.
2. Tell God the truth about me. Tell Him my sins, what’s hard, my fears, my hopes, my dreams.
3. Any time I hear something good about a person, try to copy it.
4. My personality, my mood will always be good, sweet, quiet, peaceable, giving, humble, forgiving, and honest.
5. No other way but God’s way will ever rule what I do.
6. Never from today until I die act like my life is my own. It is God’s.
7. Over and over again renew my love for God and my plan to serve God all the days of my life.
8. Ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year how I could have done better.
9. Never think any little bad thought about my mom or dad. Never show a bad thought with my words, my body, or my eyes.
10. Check my soul to see if I care about Jesus Christ or not.
11. Always care about Jesus Christ.
12. Never stop or let up even a little bit in my fight against rottenness, sin, evil, selfishness.

Jonathan Edwards read his 70 resolutions every week and he prayed for God to help him keep them. You should copy a little of that. Pick at least one thing to change about you. Write it down. Read it every week. Pray for God to help you do it. But also pray and pray and pray that you could know the presence of God, because that is how lives are really changed.

Here is a church where people find the presence or God and lives are changed: World Revival Church

Find more of Nathan’s writing on Amazon and Helium.

New Year's Day 2010

2009-12-27T23:11:00.001-06:00

New Year’s Day 2010

New Year’s Day is the biggest day of the year for people to choose to change. Most of them don’t change at all. Ever. But they decide to change every year on New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day could be a party for you or just a night to stay up really late, but it is really not much different than all of the other days of your long life. You just have to start writing a different year, and you have to decide if you are going to call it two thousand ten or twenty ten. It is just a day, but writing a new year, starting a new year, the first day of a new decade is a good time to think about who you are, how you act and what you want to change.
A change on New Year’s Day is called a New Year’s Resolution. A resolution is a sure choice, something that you won’t change your mind about. I think a New Year’s Resolution is a good idea. You might even make a list of two or three or four things that you are for sure going to do this year that will make you better than you were last year.
Jonathan Edwards is a famous revival preacher who was born more than 300 years ago. It’s hard to believe that people way back then knew anything, but they did. Jonathan Edwards is a great man to study and you can start right here on this page. When Jonathan was 19 and 20 years old he made a list of resolutions. His list had 70 things on it. For normal people, that is too many. Also, he didn’t make his list just at New Year’s. He worked on it for a couple of years. But he had a lot of great ones and he had some great ideas about how to make them work. First he read his list every week. That helped him to remember what the list said and remember to do the stuff on the list. Also Jonathan Edwards knew that he could not follow the list all by himself, so he prayed for God’s help and God’s power to help him do the good things that he put on his list.
It would be great for you to do some of the same things that Jonathan Edwards did, but his list is sort of hard to read. I read his list and put some of my favorites into easier words for you to read. Read Jonathan’s list and pick a few for you to do.
1. Never lose time. Never waste time. Use every minute in the best way I can.
2. Live my life with all my strength, while I live.
3. Never do anything that I would be afraid to do if I knew I would die in one hour.
4. Any time I feel pain, think about two huge pains: first people who die for God and second hell.
5. Any time I think of a question about science or math or God, I need to find the answer.
6. If anything makes my pride bigger, makes me think that I am great, throw that thing away.
7. Never do anything for revenge. Never try to get back at someone.
8. Never be angry at something that can’t think like a dog or a toy or a baby or a snowflake.
9. Never say bad words about another person.
10. Be careful to eat right.
11. Find anything in me that doubts the love of God and fight against that doubt.
12. Read and study the Bible more and more so that every day of my life I know more of the Bible than I did the day before.

Just 12 of the 70 great resolutions of Jonathan Edwards. Pick something from this list or pick
something else, but remember to write it down and read it every week. And pray for God to help you do it.

Alien Invasion

2009-12-20T21:39:00.003-06:00

A Quick Look: I Peter 2:9-12
Really Read It: I Peter 2
Memorize: I Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

That little alien had a flawless plan. His one man ship was small enough to slip past the airplanes and the star watchers. He landed at night outside of town where no one would see. It all worked perfectly. He got to earth secretly. The next morning he went to school. That is when his plan failed. He could do nothing secretly. He didn't look normal in math class because he was the only one with green skin. He couldn't blend in during reading because he said, "veem, veer, veez," instead of "A, B, C." P.E. class went wrong when he jumped into the basketball hoop instead of throwing the ball in. After all that lunch was the worst part of his day. He ate the trash can instead of his food. He didn't look the same, he didn't act the same, and he didn't think the same as anyone else at school. He could not fit in. He could not blend in.

Peter told the Jesus followers to be aliens. Peter is famous for being one of the top guys with Jesus. He is known for some of the biggest mess-ups but also for some of the biggest hero moments of the Bible. After Jesus went up to heaven, Peter was the main leader of the church. One of the things he did to lead the church was to write down some important stuff. Some of Peter's words are in the Bible. In I Peter 2:11, Peter calls God's people aliens. I don't think that Peter had any ideas about little, green men from space. He used the word to mean a person from a different country. But the idea is the same. Peter was telling those people that they should be aliens. If you look at a regular person and then look at a God person, there should be big time differences that are easy to see. The way they act, the words they use, the way they think.

When Peter told those people 2,000 years ago to be aliens, it was really God telling them. And God has the same words for you today. If you are a child of God, then you should be an alien. It should be easy to tell that you are different from the normal kids of the world. If you want to learn how to be different, you can read the rest of I Peter 2 and the rest of 1 Peter really. Peter has a lot of ways for you to be an alien.

Ephraim's Tale

2009-12-13T20:51:00.005-06:00

Read It in the Real Bible: Genesis 48:1-22

Grandpa Jacob was the grandpa that I hardly knew at all. He was my dad’s dad. My mom’s side grandpa I always saw a lot from when I was even a baby. Grandpa Jacob I only met when I was six and I only even saw him three times. But that last time I saw him was the best big-time day of my whole life and I know it’s gonna stay that even when I am grown up and then when I am old. That day will always matter more than all of my other days. I went to see him with my dad and my big brother. When Dad talked to us on the way he sounded sad, but also serious. I could tell he thought this was a big deal.
“Boys, I am taking you to see my dad, your grandfather, and… and I think he is dying.” Well that did not make me think it was a good day. I didn’t really want to watch a old guy die and like I said I didn’t really know him. But dad kept going and how he talked made me sort of scared but not only scared. “My dad is going to talk to you, and he is going to say important words. You see, God talks to my dad and God blesses my dad more than anybody else in the world. And God is going to tell him what to say about you. He is going to say God’s words to you.”
Wouldn’t that make you a little scared? Maybe you’re a wimp and it would make you a lot scared. You’d have to be a fool to not be at least a little scared by that. God is going to tell me all about my life. I’m just a kid. I’ve got a lot of life left. I hope.
When we got there Dad and Grandpa started talking to each other like we weren’t even in the room. And I started hoping they would forget about Grandpa telling me God’s words, but then I was scared they would forget about Grandpa telling me God’s words. I wanted him to but I didn’t. But I wanted it more than I didn’t.
And then Grandpa stopped right in the middle a story about when his wife died, looked right at us, and said, “Are these your sons?"
Dad said, "Yes."
"Bring them over here so I can bless them," Grandpa asked from his bed.
My whole body started tingling and I was more excited than ever and more scared than ever. My brain wanted to get God, but my brain was not my loudest talker. Inside of me there was something else that wanted what God was giving so bad.
Dad put me in front of him on one side and my big brother on the other. I found out that the side was a big deal. The little brother got a blessing from God, but the big brother got the best blessing. I had no idea when I stood there and Grandpa put his hands on us, but he blessed Dad first. Then Dad stopped him and said his hands were wrong. That was the whole thing about the oldest son gets the best blessing. And Dad was getting worked up about it.
"This one is the oldest. Put your right hand on him. Give him the best blessing."
Grandpa kept his hands crossed just like they were and spoke powerfully first to Dad and then to us. He talked about nations, and so many people that come from us, and big time money, and blessings. Most of the words made sense to my brain, but the greatest thing about those words was how they went deep down inside of me and I felt like my insides were alive for the first time ever. Sure I'd been breathing before. I did it since I was born. But when those words went inside of me, it felt like I was breathing better than I ever did before. It seemed like I could see better, colors were brighter, I could see more in things. More mattered. And was it because it of the words, or because it was Grandpa Jacob who said them, or was it because he crossed his arms and gave me the right hand, the better hand? I think all that stuff was good. But the real change was God. It wasn't really an old grandpa who crossed his arms. Really God crossed His arms and reached out to me with a better blessing than I was supposed to get. God gave me better than I ever should have had.
******************************************************************************
This is my guess about a great little story from the Bible. Grandpa is Jacob who tricked Esau, tricked his dad, and wrestled with God. Dad is Joseph who got a coat from his dad and was sold by his brothers. The kids are Manasseh, the oldest, and Ephraim, the youngest. But God and Jesus and you are in this story too. Over and over in the Bible, God put in stories to show what He is like and what he is going to do in Jesus. I think this is one of them. In this story God is like Jacob giving the blessing and speaking what will happen in your life. Jesus is the big brother. He is the first born of all the people ever made or ever born. And Jesus is the one who should get all of the greatest best stuff ever. You are the little brother, and you could maybe have the stuff that's left over after the big brother gets what he wants.
But God crossed His arms.
God reached out to you. God reaches out to you. And gives you the best blessing. He gives you the great things that only Jesus should really have. You get to have blessing, healing, power, wholeness, vision, peace, and fill-up-your-body life.

Happy Birthday Jesus, Look at All my Presents

2009-12-06T22:09:00.000-06:00

A Quick Look: Matthew 2:7 – 12

Really Read It: Matthew 1 – 2

Memorize: Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Christmas is weird. Don’t get mad. Weird doesn’t always mean bad, but it is weird. A huge tree inside the house is weird. Hanging tons of toys and lights on a tree is weird. Little lights to show off the shape of your house is weird. Huge socks hanging up is weird. Chubby, bearded strangers holding kids is weird. Animal and baby statues on the lawn is weird. There are reasons for all of those weirds. You could find out if you want, but it might ruin Christmas.

This page does not tell about those weirds. This page is to get rid of one more Christmas weird that is a bad one.

It is weird to have a special day for Jesus and give Him nothing.

The good news of the Bible, the great news of Jesus is that God comes down to people. The Bible tells of so many times when God came down from heaven to help His people. And every time He came down, the smart people gave to Him.

Gideon is famous because he led a small army and wiped out a big army with God’s help. When God first showed up to talk to Gideon, Gideon made great effort to give God a great meal. He couldn’t pull a frozen pizza out. He had to kill a goat and make some bread from scratch. When God showed up, Gideon gave.

Many other smart men of the Bible gave dead animals to God: Abel, Abraham, David, Elijah. But a woman impresses me more than any of those guys. One evening when Jesus was on the earth a woman brought him a big gift, a jar of perfume. Most of you would be sad if your best birthday present was a $100 jar of perfume dumped on your feet. But for Jesus it was the perfect gift. God showed up on earth and that woman gave.

At Christmas the most famous givers are the Magi or the Kings or the Wise Men from the East. There are three of them in every Christmas story but the Bible one. The Bible does not tell how many Magi came to give Jesus stuff. What if there were ninety or them? We don’t know how many Magi came, but we know that when God came down, these guys spent a lot of money and a lot of time to take a trip. And on that trip they gave a lot of money to a baby. God showed up on the earth and the Magi gave, and gave big.

God keeps coming down today. A lot of people say that Christmas is a special day to say thank you to God for coming to earth. If that’s true then you need to give to God. But what does God want? I have heard that God doesn’t want money. He wants your heart. I would have to agree with that. God already has all the money and all of the stuff. God does want your heart, your loyalty, your strength. But God knows that money is connected to your heart. You cannot say, “God, I give you my heart and I keep all of my money for myself.” To give God your heart, you have to give Him stuff. A lot of stuff. If God has your heart then it will be easy to give Him more than you get this month.

Isaiah 9:2 – 7

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

³ You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.

⁴ For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

⁵ Every warrior's boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.

⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

Get Ready for Jesus

2009-11-29T22:30:00.000-06:00

A Quick Look: Esther 4:13-17

Really Read It: Esther 1:1-Esther 10:3

Memorize: Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

Some kids know what a mailbox is and almost as many have heard of the old time use of paper to write a letter. If you don’t know what a letter is, don’t worry. You will learn about it in history class soon. But I want you imagine that you opened the mailbox and found a letter to you that said this.

Dear Kid,

You have been picked for a special job. If you live, you will make $55,000 and see your story on TV. If you die, you will not get the money and you won’t care that you are on TV. If you want this job, in three months we will pick you up in a helicopter. You can bring your backpack packed with whatever you want. The helicopter will take you to the top of a mountain in Canada and leave you there. If you can live for three months, you get the money.

We hope you can come.

Sincerely,

Walt Walters

Executive Producer

Kids On A Mountain TV

I don’t think the laws in America or Canada would allow this to happen, but think about what you would do if it did. What would you do to get ready for this mountain adventure? What would you study? What would you practice? What would you learn to do? What would you take with you? How would you prepare?

The story of Esther from the Book of Esther in the Bible is so amazing. If this story was on TV I would say it was too amazing to be a realistic story. The TV writers should do better to make it so I believe it. This story just has too many things that are just too surprising. This story fits together like a really tough puzzle that looks like nothing until you get the last piece. And then all of a sudden, it’s a great picture. I am not going to retell any of the story here, so you have just got to read it in the Bible.

Two times in the story, Esther had to prepare, to get ready. The first time she had to get ready to meet the king to see if he would pick her to be his wife or not. This one may have been like practicing to be a model. The king must have picked his wife mostly because of her looks. The king’s workers put special stuff on her skin for a whole year and gave her the right clothes and jewelry. She might have prepared in other ways too. Maybe she had to study language, history, cooking, poetry. Those are all guesses, but Esther prepared to meet the king and it worked. He liked her better than any of the other women.

The second time Esther had to prepare was to save all of the Jewish people, her people from death. This preparing was only three days but it was tough. Esther prepared to go and see the king by fasting and praying to God. Fasting means eating no food. For Esther fasting meant no eating and no drinking for three days. Esther prepared to see the king and it worked. The king saved Esther’s life and the lives of her people.

Like I said, you really need to read this story. I put in only a little bit of two little parts of Esther’s story. But when you read it, or even before you read it, or if you skip out and never read it, I want you to copy Esther in the way she prepared. Esther prepared to marry a king. Your job is to get ready for Jesus. The Bible says that the people that love Jesus are His bride. It is pretty hard to think of Jesus marrying so many people, and it is even harder for boys to think about a wedding dress. So skip that and think about what you can do to get ready for Jesus.

If Jesus was going to come to your house in three months, what would you do to prepare? What would you do to your house? What would you make? What would you clean? What would you buy? And Jesus would like all of those things. But He would look at your life, at your heart more than your house. What would you study? What would you practice? What would you learn to do? What would you think? What would you do? What would you say? How would you pray? How would you worship? How would you prepare for Jesus?

Now take those answers. Take all those things that you would do to get ready for Jesus to come to your house and start on them right away. Jesus is coming to your house so you must get ready. But Jesus is not coming in three months. Jesus is coming now and you are not ready. Get ready quick. Keep getting ready and stay ready for Jesus. If you do, Jesus will come, and Jesus will stay so close all the days of your life.

Trees, Clouds, and Waves

2009-11-15T23:30:00.000-06:00

A Quick Look: Jude 17-23

Really Read It: Jude

Memorize: Jude 20-21 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

“And now for the longest race of the day. All 6400 meter runners report to the starting line right away. The race will begin in two minutes.”

Chet started for the starting line as soon as he heard the voice from the loud speaker. That was his race. He had been waiting all day. He looked at the track as he walked toward it. It didn’t look that big. Chet was sure he could run a lap around it quick and easy. He was not so sure about 16 laps.

Two minutes later the starter shot the fake gun and Chet took off with the crowd of runners. Chet stayed right in the middle of the pack for the first lap. He fell back a little on the second lap as the runners began to spread out. And on the third lap, Chet stopped running and hid behind the high jump mat. He sat in his hiding place and stared at his watch for 13 minutes. Then he snuck back to the track and ran right back into the race.

One lap to go for the race leader and Chet was just three steps behind. Chet’s rested legs carried him past the race leader and the crowd cheered as Chet crossed the finish line. Chet looked good with his gold medal, but he didn’t win anything.

I made up Chet, the fake winner. I got the idea when I read the book of Jude. If you want to read a whole book of the Bible in less time than Chet was hiding, you could try Jude. The whole book in only 25 verses long. Jude was not a fake winner, but he wrote about people who look like they love God, when they don’t. You can tell if you really know these people. You would never give Chet 1^st place if you watched him for the whole race. But if you just saw the end, he would be your winner. Jude had at least five ways to describe these church people:.

Shepherds who only feed themselves

His whole job is to take care of the sheep, but instead of finding food for them, he finds food for himself while the sheep starve. Bad shepherd right?

Clouds without rain

You may like these clouds if you are playing baseball. Rain could end the game, but the clouds would be nice shade. So forget baseball and pretend you are a strawberry plant. Then you would be looking up at the sky waiting for the clouds to roll in. The clouds that come but give you no rain are much, much worse than no clouds at all.

Autumn trees without fruit

If you climb an apple tree in September, you should find some apples. A tree without any is wasting water, wasting dirt. It should be used for firewood.

Wild waves of the sea
Wandering stars

Jude explained these people better than just trees, clouds, and waves. He called them godless, but remember these are people in the church. So if you go to church you might see one of these people. Or if you go to church this might be you. Jude wrote about the people that God got out of slavery in Egypt. God saved them. He did so many great things for them, but in the end, they did not follow Him. That’s just like a kid that God saved and helped and healed, but the kid stopped following God.

In verse 11 Jude put in three bad guy names, but all three guys were guys who knew a lot about God. They knew God, but they did not follow. They did things that God hates to help themselves.

1. Bad Guy Number One is Cain. He learned about God from his dad, Adam. He knew how to worship, but his brother did a better job at worshipping God. So Cain killed his brother. Never hate someone who loves God more than you. Never hate someone who worships with more strength than you. Never hate God’s ways and God’s plan.

2. Bad Guy Number Two is Balaam. There’s a good chance that you know that Balaam’s donkey talked to him. That was not his problem. Balaam big mess up was after that. Balaam knew all about God, and he heard God speak better than maybe anyone alive today. He said some great words about God and about Jesus that you can find in the Bible. But Balaam had no heart for God. He wanted a king to like him and he wanted money. I wonder what you would pick if you had the choice that Balaam had. One choice was to be great friends with a king and get rich. The other choice was to be hated by that king, get no money, and find the favor of God. Balaam picked the wrong thing.

3. Bad Guy Number Three is Korah. He was a slave in Egypt until God sent Moses to get him out. But after that, he did not want to follow Moses. He wanted to be the boss. He wanted people to follow him.

Now you have seen more examples of church bad guys. Trees, clouds, waves, Cain, Balaam, Korah. They can all be confusing. They all knew about God and kept right on going their own way. And the ending for every one of them is worse than bad. So make sure that you are not like any of them. Forget your own way. Forget what you want. Find God’s way and find what God wants. It really is better. It’s not just better in the end. It’s better right now. It feels better. It works better. And isn’t that what you told God when you started? Didn’t you tell Jesus that you wanted Him to have His way in you? Didn’t you ask God to take over your life? Then why to you keep fighting for your way like the trees, clouds, waves, Cain, Balaam, and Korah?

The Pinkie Happiness Gauge

2009-11-08T22:10:00.000-06:00

A Quick Look: Acts 26:23-25
Really Read It: Acts 16: 1-40
Memorize: Psalm 135:3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.

Here is a sad page from the journal of a foolish little girl who lived just 500 years into the future. Besides the ear lobe computer and the shoulder rockets, Zola has a happiness gauge on her right pinkie nail.
Zola’s Journal for November 8, 2509
I went to church today but I didn’t do anything. I mean I couldn’t do any worship or good prayers or anything because my pinkie showed just 62% happy. I like that better than the really low numbers for sure. But I never worship God unless He makes me at least 80% happy. Oh wow, it just went down two more points. I bet that’s because I don’t like the shape of that cloud right there. Oh well, I’ll see how the clouds and the pinkie look next week. Gotta go. Bye.

The 2009 happiness gauge is just in your head, and you don’t put it in a number. But a bunch of kids use it the same way that Zola did. How many kids are great worshipers when things are going great but do nothing when things don’t go the way you want? Your job is not to worship God because you are happy. You are not ready to worship because your life is easy. Don’t worship God because nothing bad happened to you. Worship God because of who God is, and that never changes.
Paul and Silas are a great example of this. You should read their whole story in Acts 16, but I want to put some of it right here in my words too. Paul and Silas made a rich guy really mad. It is pretty weird the way they did it. They got a demon out of this guy’s slave. But with the demon this slave made money for the owner. So the slave owner was so mad at Paul and Silas that they took them to court. They were able to get Paul and Silas in trouble. A lot of trouble. Paul and Silas were beaten (flogged really) and chained up in prison. I know a little bit about what happened when men were flogged and really is it too bad to put in here, but it is bad, bad, painful, bad stuff. And Paul and Silas got that for helping a girl. They did nothing wrong. What if Silas had a little pinkie happiness gauge? What would it show?
But he worshipped and Paul worshipped in the prison into the night. They were loud worshipers even though the other prisoners could hear them. Most kids won’t worship loud enough for the person next to them in church to hear. These guys worshipped loud and they did it when things were bad.
The story has a really neat ending. God set them free with an earthquake, but they didn’t leave. Then the prison guard started following Jesus and made great friends with Paul and Silas. And Paul and Silas wouldn’t leave even when the big bosses told them to, because they weren’t treated right. You should read all of that and you can learn a lot of lessons from it. Like the power of God (that’s the earthquake part) or what you should act like after you get saved (you could learn that from the prison guard.)
After you read all of that, remember that Paul and Silas had it really bad and they worshipped God because He is God. They weren’t worshipping to get something. They worshipped because of the greatness, powerfulness, brightness of an awesome, forever God.

Murder in Squirrel Town

2009-11-01T22:17:00.001-06:00

A Quick Look: Acts 7: 57-60
Really Read It: Acts 7: 51-60, Luke 15:11-31, Luke 23:32-49
Memorize: Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Squid the Squirrel and Squire the Squirrel lived at the end of the world. They knew as well as you do that the world is a ball so it doesn’t really have an end. They still called their home the end of the world, because their 70 foot tree was perched on the top of a 700 foot cliff. One day Squid and Squire sat in the highest of high branches of their tree and watched the clouds float by below them as they talked about their winter food.
“We didn’t store quite as much as last year,” Squire began. “But if we just cut back a little we’ll make it to spring just fine. I might even loose a little of my chubby squirrel belly if spring comes late.”
“Sure,” snapped Squid. “We could make it, but it’s really only enough for one squirrel. So I think we should split up.”
“What do you mean?” asked Squire.
“I mean,” said Squid mealy, “That I will stay here and you will go down there!” With that he lunged at Squire, knocked him off balance, and shoved him off of the branch.
Squire did not fall 70 feet to the bottom of the tree. He fell 770 feet to the bottom of the cliff. And while he was falling to his death, Squire considered what Squid had just done and talked to God about it. “God please forgive Squid for the awful thing he had just done. God please…” And he said no more because he hit the ground.
Can a squirrel forgive another squirrel for a sin as bad as murder?
No. Squirrels are not smart enough to sin or forgive.
Can a person forgive another person for a sin as bad as murder?
Yes. Few victims get the chance to forgive because they are dead, but the Bible tells of at least two people who did just what Squire the Squirrel did.
Jesus looked at his murderers and looked up to heaven to ask God to forgive them. Jesus forgave the worst possible crime, the worst possible sin, the worst possible act. But the forgiveness of Jesus was not, is not just for that day. Jesus bought forgiveness for the worst thing and the tiny bit bad thing and every bad thing in between. That is good news for anyone who has ever done anything wrong. (That’s everyone.) God wants his people to be close to him. But God is perfect and you are not. That difference, perfect on one side and messed up on the other side, makes it so that God and people can’t be close. They can’t be close without forgiveness. Jesus already paid for it, and God is ready to forgive right when you call out to him for it.
There are a few ways to stop forgiveness. You can stop forgiveness if you don’t want it. Simple right. But it’s a big deal. You have to want to be close to God, you have to want God, and you have to want forgiveness. If you don’t want it, don’t worry. You are not going to get it. The other way to stop God’s forgiveness coming to you is to stop forgiving other people. Matthew 6:14 says it very clearly, and you will not get forgiveness from God if you will not forgive other people.
Most likely Stephen learned about Jesus the same way you did. Stephen didn’t meet Jesus face to face like Peter and John. Stephen learned about Jesus by hearing people talk about Him and maybe reading about Him. But Stephen called out to Jesus for forgiveness, salvation, to be close to God. And Jesus came to Stephen. He sent Stephen the Holy Spirit. And Stephen did great things for God. But not for very long. Stephen was killed. As he was being killed, Stephen knew what was happening and he had time to forgive his killers as they were killing him. Stephen forgave the worst.
Stephen is a great example for you. The Holy Spirit filled him and gave him to power to forgive the worst. Stephen chose to forgive the worst. Stephen stayed in the forgiveness of God. Stephen stayed close to Jesus.
*******************************************************************
What would it look like if a church was filled with the Holy Spirit? You can watch a video and see what the Holy Spirit does. http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

After the Blessing

2009-10-26T00:12:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Luke 17:11-17
Really Read It: 1 Samuel 1:21- 1 Samuel 2:11, Luke 17:11-17, Luke 12:13-21
Memorize:1 Samuel 2:1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.”

Tronco was the biggest, meanest, toughest fighting bull on the farm. Don was the biggest, meanest, toughest bull fighter on the farm. Day after day these enemies met. They fought, they speared, they ran, they jabbed, they struggled and strained for victory. And at the battle’s end, Don always raised his spear in victory while Tronco stood in silence.
You might think less of Don if you knew that the only reason he was the toughest bull fighter on the farm was that he was the only bull fighter on the farm. You might think even less of him if you knew that while Tronco was the toughest bull on the farm, he was also the only bull. And even worse, he was not a real bull. Don wanted to be a bull fighter so badly that he made Tronco from a few logs, a few boards, and four old wagon wheels.
So day after day, Don fought his fake bull, but he also prayed. Don asked God to make him a great bull fighter. And God did it. The steps are boring, but the day came when Don stood in a huge bull fighting ring with a huge bull and a huge crowd watching. Don fought that bull with great skill and great flare. He won his fight, but he lost his God. Don told his fans how strong he was, how smart he was, and how quick he was. He forgot that he asked God, begged God to make him a great bull fighter. He forgot that God did it. He forgot God as soon as he got the blessing. Don never won another bull fight. He couldn’t even beat Tronco after that, so he worked shoveling bull dung for the rest of his life.
Don is a made up guy who got it wrong. Hannah is a real girl who got it right. I hope you can learn from both of them.
Hannah had some fights in her life too. She didn’t fight with a bull. She probably didn’t fight at all, but another woman fought her, insulted her, and made her life awful. It was all about kids. Hannah really wanted a kid. If you are a kid, you see a kid every time you look in the mirror. You see kids at school, at church, at the park, at the zoo, at the pizza place… There are kids all over, but there are a lot of grownups who really want to have a kid and they just don’t. Hannah was like that. I’m pretty sure that Hannah wanted a son more than Don wanted to fight a bull. I think that she wanted a son more than you have ever wanted anything. Hannah prayed so hard that she looked like she was going crazy. And God answered. Hannah got what she wanted, she got her answer from God.
Don messed up after that and a lot of people act like he did. They get what they want and then they forget God. Hannah didn’t do that. Hannah brought her son to God’s house and gave him to God. And Hannah prayed. In her prayer she told God how great he was, she praised Him, she thanked Him. And she talked about what happens to people who forget God. The guys who get from God and then forget God loose the gift. God gives money, food, kids, health but it fades away when you forget God. Hannah’s life has a happy ending. Her first son, the one she gave to God, was Samuel. And Samuel had a great life in God and lived as a great man, famous and trusted in his country. But Hannah had other children too, and God blessed her.
Jesus healed a lot of people when he was walking around on the earth. The Bible doesn’t always tell what the people did after they got better, but one time it does. In Luke 17 there were ten guys who all had a skin sickness called leprosy. Jesus healed all of them, but only one came back to Jesus. He came, “praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.” Jesus said that his loud praising and his thanking was showing his faith. And his faith made him well.
Hannah and this man had faith and it came out in thanks and praises to God. It made the blessings of God keep going. Jesus told a story about a man who got great blessings from God, but after he got them he showed no faith. This guy was a farmer and he got a crop so big that he became rich. Then he said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
Jesus ended the story this way, “But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
“Rich toward God” might make more sense than the word “faith.” Rich toward God sounds like a money thing. And it could be. If God does for you and it has to do with money, then part of being rich toward God is giving God money. But rich toward God is way better and way bigger than just money. Rich toward God means you remember God like Hannah. She kept her promise to God and she kept praising God and thanking God all of her life. God gives a lot of blessings that are not about money. Without money can you still be rich toward God? How did Hannah do it? How was the healed man rich toward God? What about Don? How would his story end, if he remembered to be rich toward God after he got his blessing? See if you can change that to a story with a happy ending. You could make up a new ending for that rich farmer story too. What would his life be like, if he were rich toward God?
******************************************************************

What would church look like if the people were trying to be rich toward God? You can watch a video of a church like that. http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Get Some Wisdom Part Two

2009-10-18T21:39:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Proverbs 1:2-5
Really Read It: Proverbs 1:1-33
Memorize: Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
James 3:17 “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Paul’s search for wisdom was much like Solomon’s. Paul read and studied and taught the Scriptures, but he had no wisdom until he was struck by the power of God. As a young man Paul believed the Scriptures gave him all the wisdom he would ever need. But then God, gave him the Holy Spirit. God gave Paul the supernatural gift of wisdom. God taught Paul the Scriptures. God revealed the gospel. God reached into Paul’s mind and gave him wisdom. After that Paul looked back at the laws and regulations in which he had once trusted. He said they had the appearance of wisdom, but they lack value. They lack the power to change a life. (1 Corinthians 2:13, Colossians 2:23)

Solomon and Paul are great examples of wisdom, but Jesus is no doubt the best the world has seen. Jesus is seated in heaven with full wisdom, all wisdom. The man Jesus when He walked on our earth did not have full wisdom, but He did speak and act through the Spirit of wisdom. (Isaiah 11:2, Luke 2:40)

It is through Jesus that this wisdom is available to His children. People can get wisdom only through the blood of Jesus. He bought it. His blood paid for the sin of humanity. His blood is redemption for the earth. But it also paid for wisdom. Jesus became the wisdom of God for His people. (1 Corinthians 1:30, Ephesians 1:7-9)
Wisdom is in Jesus. God wants to give wisdom to His people. But that doesn’t mean that every person sitting in church has it. Sadly that is far from the truth. Wisdom is needed. Wisdom will stop destruction in any life. But God doesn’t send wisdom just because it is needed. God does not respond to need. God responds to faith. God responds to hunger, desire, and passion. Wisdom would not be so rare if people who name the name of Jesus would truly desire it, seek it. Solomon said, “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public square.” (Proverbs 1:20) Wisdom is not hard to find. It is available. You don’t have to find to public square to find wisdom. Solomon really means that you can get wisdom. Today, you have it close enough to you for you to reach out and get it. Today you will get one day older. You can ‘t stop that. You are turning into an old person. But are you turning into a wise person. You can stop that or you can find one day’s wisdom today.

Get Some Wisdom Part One

2009-10-11T22:53:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Proverbs 1:2-5

Really Read It: Proverbs 1:1-33

Memorize: Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

James 3:17 “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Old people are the wise ones and kids are foolish. That’s how it works. When you first got to the earth, you didn’t know how to talk or walk. The biggest challenge of your day was to touch your nose, and you couldn’t do it. But you learned so much so quickly until you got to be the smart and able person that you are today. And if you keep learning, you will be really smart when you are really old. But the truth is there are a lot of foolish grownups and foolish old people. You only get to be a wise old person if you get a little wisdom each day and you keep adding and keep growing in wisdom. So a kid doesn’t have to be foolish. It is foolish to wait until you are old to get wisdom. It wouldn’t work. You have to start getting wisdom now. Keep getting it and keep doing it all of your life.

God is ready to give wisdom. He wants to His people to have it. He wants His children to live by it. God doesn’t waste His wisdom; He only gives it to His people. To get the wisdom of God, a person must first fear God. A child of God will worship and reverence God. If that heart is in you, that God fearing, God reverencing, soft heart then God will begin to give wisdom. But that is a big if. It is everything. The fear of the Lord is life changing, life directing. It’s salvation. It’s being born again. It’s your whole heart. It’s all of Christianity. God will give His wisdom to that person. He wants His children to have it, but He also wants His children to want to. God is looking for people who are seeking His wisdom, living out the wisdom that they know, and working to get more. James wrote that anyone who doesn’t have wisdom should ask for it in James 1:5. The problem with wisdom is that the people who don’t have it, don’t have enough wisdom to know that they need wisdom. An easy solution and the honest solution is that everyone should ask for wisdom. No one is walking the earth today who has enough wisdom. No one has gotten all of the wisdom that God wants to give.

God gives wisdom in two ways. He gives wisdom through His word and He gives wisdom through the Holy Spirit. Moses is a great place to start to see the Word as a source of wisdom. God spoke to Moses so that he could write the first five books of the Bible. Of course, at the time they were written, they were not the first five books of the Bible. Those books made up the whole Bible for the brand new nation of Israel moving into their own land. Moses taught them from the Word of God, and in Deuteronomy 4, he spoke about the importance of the Word. At the beginning of this chapter Moses told them to remember and do the Word, to live as the Word directs, to live by its wisdom. Moses even told them that if they did, other nations would be impressed by their lives. A life of wisdom doing the Word was meant to be a tool to advance the Kingdom of God. When other nations saw that wisdom, they would be jealous to have that wisdom for themselves. If Israel lived it, other nations around them would turn to the God of Israel. Sadly the Bible shows only a few instances when this happened. That is because Israel didn’t do the Word very much. The same is true today. When the people of God seek wisdom from the Word and display it in their lives, people who care nothing for God will notice. Sadly this doesn’t happen much.

A look at Biblical wisdom cannot leave out Solomon. We are almost sure that Solomon studied the Word like Moses said to do. His father David would have made sure that his son read the laws of the Tabernacle and the Ark. It seems that Solomon would have read the words of Samuel and David that told about the great works of God in the years just before he was born. Solomon should have gained wisdom that way, but he got more wisdom than any other person on earth when God gave it to him. Solomon is a great example of getting wisdom through the Word and getting supernatural wisdom through the Holy Spirit. But what did he say about wisdom after he had gotten so much? In Proverbs 1, he wrote that the Proverbs, and I would add all of the Word of God, are for getting wisdom. But as he continued in the first Proverb, he brought in the idea of teachers. Parents are the most important teachers for children, and they must impart Godly wisdom to their children. But gaining wisdom doesn’t end when childhood ends. God gives wisdom through His Word, but for God’s people to get wisdom, good Bible teachers are also needed.

James 3:17 is a great test for true wisdom. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” The test of wisdom is not doing a great thing like creating a huge building or flying to the moon. The test of wisdom is the list from James. Does this big thing give out mercy and good fruit? Are those words peace-loving and considerate?

Start getting mercy right now from the Bible, from good teachers, and from the Holy Spirit. And remember to test the thing that you think is great.
Test the thing that you think is wisdom with James 3:17.

Power

2009-10-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Acts 8:15-17

Really Read It: Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10

Memorize: Acts 1:5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

“Hey, Dad, look. I found a cordless fan. This will be great for our camping trip. This thing can run in our tent all night and we’ll be cool as ice.”

“That looks just like the fan I had in the garage, Son. Were did you find it?”

“Wow, how did you know? I found it in the garage.”

“But the fan in the garage isn’t cordless…”

“It is now, Dad. Check it out.”

Dad took the fan from his foolish son and looked it over. It was true there was no cord anywhere, just a useless little stump where the cord used to be. It was not true that it would be great for the camping trip. A piece of tree bark could do just as well as that fan at keeping the campers cool. The fan had no power.

******************************************************************

I drive a 1999 Suzuki Esteem with 160,000 miles on it. If you have seen some neat cars made by Suzuki then you didn’t see my car. I like it, but it is old. And it’s not fast. It wasn’t fast even when it was new, and now with the clunks and sputters in the engine it is even less fast. But I would race any Mustang, any Porsche, any Corvette. I would even take my car to the NASCAR track as long as I get to make one rule. My car gets to use gasoline and the other cars don’t. I will win every time. It doesn’t matter that those cars have high dollar fine tuned engines built for speed. They will go nowhere without gasoline. They have no power.

******************************************************************

Fans and cars are not the only things that need power. How many things do you have that would be totally useless without power? Computer, chainsaw, coffee maker, copy machine, calculator, and that’s just the letter C list I got in 32 seconds. But God also made people to need power. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.” You must have power to be a witness for Jesus. Holy Spirit power is for something. It’s to be a witness. To be a witness is every part of your life. This power is to preach, teach, talk about God. You don’t have to be big and put on a suit to preach. The Holy Spirit will give you power use the right words about God at the lunch table or at the park. This power is to heal sickness. This power is hope right now. This power is to push back fear. This power is to live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And Jesus gives His children this power, but that’s not really the whole story.

To get the whole story, you need to pick something in which you want to be great. A sport, acting, singing, speaking… And pick somebody who is already great at it. Just like Bob Roberts who wanted to be a great singer and he was such a big fan of the great Joe Jones. But then the famous singer Joe Jones heard a song by Bob Roberts and he was blown away. So the big super star singer became a fan of some other singer. And when they met, Bob ran up to Joe and said, “You’re the best!” But Joe looked at Bob and said, “No. You’re the best!” But that just made Bob want to say it even louder, “No. You’re the best!” And those two guys kept saying, “You’re the best!” “No. You’re the best!” to each other for 45 minutes and they both meant it every time.

That is what Jesus and the Holy Spirit do to each other and people get stuck in the middle of their argument. Stuck between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a great place to be. Here’s how it works. Start with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to tell Jesus that He’s the best, and He uses people to do it. So the Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus. That is how people get saved, born again. But then Jesus wants to say it back to the Holy Spirit and He uses people to say it too. Jesus fills His people with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes in to people like a strong fast wind. And as soon as the Holy Spirit is in a person, He starts doing in that person. He starts giving that person power. And the reason for all of the Holy Spirit’s doing is to lift up the name of Jesus, to praise Jesus, advance the name of Jesus, to tell Jesus, “You’re the best.”

Your job as a person is to be the voice of the Holy Spirit to tell Jesus, “You’re the best.” You do that when you give your life to Jesus. But you’re not done. Keep giving your life to Jesus so that those words keep going. And while those words are still flying through the universe, your job is to be the words of the Holy Spirit saying it back. Most church people never get there. Cry out to Jesus that He would fill you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to do it, but He loves the Holy Spirit too much to shove Him into a person that doesn’t want Him. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to every one who wants Him. But it doesn’t work to just say you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and then turn on the TV. Your mouth says you want Him, but Jesus sees into your heart. If you really want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus will be able to tell, but other people will be able to tell too. When you want something it shows.

Praying, asking, crying out is a great way to prove that you really want this. It will also help to read how it worked in the Bible. Here are a few of the Bible passages where people were filled with the Holy Spirit. I put just a few words about each event, but you should really read the whole thing from the Bible.

In Acts 1 Jesus told His followers to wait for the Holy Spirit and then He went up to heaven. In Acts 2, 120 follows of Jesus were together in one room when, “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” After that Peter preached in the street and 3,000 people started following Jesus.
Acts 8 tells the story of Philip preaching in a city called Samaria. The Holy Spirit helped Philip preach and do miracles and heal sick people. The people believed Philip’s message about Jesus and they were baptized. But they weren’t filled with the Holy Spirit until Peter and John came and prayed for them.
In Acts 10, God used angels and dreams to set up a church service for Peter to preach to a bunch of people he had never met. While Peter was talking to them “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

******************************************************************

What would it look like if a church was filled with the Holy Spirit? You can watch a video and see what the Holy Spirit does. http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Remember

2009-09-27T23:13:00.000-05:00

Really Read It: Psalm 105: 1-45

A Quick Look: Psalm 105: 1-6

Memorize: Psalm 105:4-5 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.

The Psalms were songs. They were written to be sung, and songs are easier to remember than speeches. If you are trying to memorize Psalm 105:4-5, it would be much easier if you make the words into a song. If you do that you are really putting those words back where they started. Those words were written thousands of years ago in a different language, and they were written as a song. If you went to worship with your family in those days, you would sing all the words of Psalm 105. And if you liked the tune or if it just got stuck in your head, you would sing it on the way home, and during dinner, while you played in the yard, as you walked to school… And singing that song so much would help you in so many ways.

I know that you have songs bumping around in your brain. You hear so many that you can’t keep them out. There are nothing songs like Old McDonald, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the Woo Woo Dance that get stuck in your head. There are learning songs about letters, colors, and shapes that stick in your head just as much as the nothing songs. Some of you hear way different songs about loving a boy or a girl or the world or a pet dinosaur. All of those songs can take up room inside your head, and they don’t give you very much help. But hopefully you have some songs in your head that teach you about God and some songs that praise God. The psalms were songs like that, and they still are. A lot of the songs you sing at church come from the palms.

Palm 105 has two main parts. The first part is short. Six verses short. And the second part is long. 39 verses long. The first part tells a lot of things to do to have a great life, follow God, and stay close to Him. If you learned this song, it could help you remember how to live just like that other song helps you with your ABC’s. Just the short part of this psalm gives you so much to do that it could take all day. But I want to give you a little shorter time for it so that you can get done in 20 minutes.

Give thanks to the Lord. Tell God thank you for as many things as you can for 1 minute.
Call on His name. Call out to God for help and keep calling for 1 minute.
Praise Him and worship Him with words and singing for 4 minutes.
Seek the Lord. Try to find Him, tell Him that you want Him, you want to know Him, you want to be close to Him, want to see Him, understand Him. Do this for 3 minutes.
Get God’s Strength. Ask God to make you strong in your body and bold for Him for 1 minute.

If you did all that for exactly those minutes, you took 10 minutes. The last one will take 10 minutes, but you can’t do it by yourself. The Psalm says to do some things that need another person. You can talk to your family, but it might be better to call a friend on the phone or maybe even write a letter.

Talk about who God is and how great He is. Tell what He did long ago in the Bible and tell what he did in your life for 10 minutes.

That’s the short part of Psalm 105 except for one thing. And that one thing is the one thing that the long part of Psalm 105 is about. Psalm 105:5 says, “Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.” And verses 7-45 tell a story of the great God and a lot of things to remember. It is important to remember great things that God has done. The easy kind of remembering is pulling something out of your brain. But to remember also means to hear it again or see it again. Remember can even mean learn something you have never heard before. Remember something new can’t be right. And your right, it’s not a new thing you need to remember. Remember means to learn something old, something that happened years ago. But it’s new to you, because you weren’t there. It’s new to you because you have never heard it before.

So here is a list of things to remember. You will do better at remembering if you write down your rememberings. These do not have times on them. They could be long, but I believe they are good enough to spend some time on.

Remember what God has done in your life. He helped you and helped your family, He saved you, He taught you, He met your needs, He gave you friends, family, He healed you, He did great things in your life.
Remember what God did in your family before you were born. Ask your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents to tell you stories of God’s help and God’s activity in your family.
Remember your church. Learn the story of the start of your church and the great things that God has done through the years it has been alive. Some of you have a church that is part of a huge group of churches, and you could learn how the whole group got started.
Remember what God has done on His earth. Keep reading, keep studying the Bible to see what God did in that day. But also learn what God has done since then. Find out about revivals and miracles and missionaries and God activity on the earth. Find out what God is doing on the earth right now.

_________________________________________________________________

I find new challenges and new strength from God to meet them every time I walk into World Revival Church. See a little piece.

http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Plant Peace

2009-09-21T06:05:00.003-05:00

Memorize: Romans 14:17-19 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Sally was so excited about her tiny seed. She got it from her uncle. He was excited about it too.

“Sally, this is a very good squash seed. If you take good care of it, and you plant it in good soil, and water it, and give it good sun light, it will grow into a big squash plant. You will pick huge bright yellow squash from your plant.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Sally. “I have always wanted a seed. Hello, Seed. You are my special, great seed. But I don’t want you to grow a squash plant, and make huge bright yellow squash. I want you to be a watermelon plant and grow huge juicy watermelons.”

So Sally planted her seed and took great care of it. A little plant came up and Sally said, “Hi little watermelon plant. Grow big and strong and make huge juicy watermelons all for me.”

The plant grew and grew. Sally was thrilled when the little buds opened up into yellow flowers. “Great job plant. Your flowers are so pretty. You will make great watermelons. I just know it.”

And then the flowers wilted and formed little yellow fruit. And the fruit grew and grew, and Sally knew that a watermelon was not bright yellow. A watermelon was not a funny club shape with little bumps all over it. Her seed, her plant, her flowers did not make huge juicy watermelons. It made squash.

Sally put on her big brown boots and picked the squash. She carried it to her driveway and laid it carefully on the cement. She took one step back from the squash, jumped as high as she could, and squashed that squash to bits with her squash squashing boots.

Sally’s squash squashing boots got a lot of work that summer, and her driveway got very messy. That one seed gave Sally 14 big squash, and Sally squashed every one of them. She just couldn’t believe that her seed grew squash when she wanted watermelon.

Skeeter had more choices than Sally. Sally’s uncle only gave her one seed. But Skeeter had a whole bag of seeds to pick from. Skeeter’s seeds weren’t plant seeds, but they were still seeds that he could grow into something bigger. They were still seeds that would give him something back. When Skeeter saw Sally squashing her 14^th squash, he picked out a seed and planted it right then. He said, “Stupid Sally squashing squash!” Skeeter planted seeds like that a lot. He planted anger whenever he wanted to. He planted put downs and pushed for his own way. He planted selfishness, pride, and greed. And Skeeter’s seeds grew. He got back exactly what he planted just like Sally. She planted a squash seed. It does not matter one bit that she wanted watermelon. A squash seed can only grow squash. Skeeter planted anger. It does not matter one bit that he wanted peace. An anger seed can only grow anger.

The Bible has a lot of stories about plants and farming. Jesus and the Bible writers put those stories in there because the people they were teaching knew a lot about farming, so it was a good way for them to learn. You may not know so much about farming, but a seed still has an important message for you. A seed can only grow one kind of plant. If you plant squash, you get squash. If you want to get watermelon, you have to throw away the squash seed and get a new one, a watermelon seed.

Paul wrote the Book of Romans. It was a letter to a church to help them with some of their problems. By problems I really mean fights. I don’t think they were punching or kicking each other, but the bad words were flying. They were fighting with each other about food. Some people said, “Never eat lobster!” and some people said, “Lobster is great.”

Paul told them that peace matters more than lobster. I put his words at the top of the page for the memory verses, but I’ll put them right here, so you can read them again if you didn’t memorize them yet. Romans 14:17-19 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Paul said make every effort to do what leads to peace. That is planting peace. Effort is something that you do, something that you work at. Every effort is more than any person has ever done. You have made effort before, maybe even a lot of effort or great effort. But you have always stopped before you got to every effort. What if you wanted to wash the dishes, but your mom said you had to watch TV. Every effort would keep asking, keep begging. Every effort would turn off the TV and dash into the kitchen. Every effort would pull the slimy spoons away from your mom, so that you could smear the soap and scrub them clean.

If you want peace in your life (and you do) you must make every effort to plant peace. Put it into every part of the day that you can. Shove peace into a fight instead of your way. Plant peace instead of anger. Plant peace instead of greed, selfishness. If you plant peace, you’ll get peace and it really does feel good.

Proverbs 12:20 There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace.

Proverbs 17:1 Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

God's Box

2009-09-14T01:24:00.002-05:00

Memorize: I Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

God had a box. He lived in a box. He didn’t live only there. God was still on His throne in heaven, and He was still everywhere. But he put His special presence with people in a box. It was a nice box. Really nice. It was so nice that it’s not called a box. It’s called an ark, or the Ark. A great artist named Bezalel made it. He made it out of a special kind of wood and covered it inside and outside with gold. It was about four feet long, two feet wide, and two feet tall. Bezalel made solid gold angels for the top of the box. It was a nice box. A box like that needed a special home. For 500 years the Ark was kept in a tent, but it was a really great tent called the Tabernacle. After that, God’s box went to stay in the fanciest building you could think of.

But the amazing thing about it was that God came down and filled the box with His presence, and His presence went out from the box. People close to it could feel it and the box did powerful things. God did the powerful things, but He did them from the box. At first God sent a pillar of cloud from the sky into the box. And at night the pillar looked like fire.

God’s box did a lot. It was leading the charge at Jericho when the walls came down. God’s box made a statue god bow down, twice. And the second time the fake god’s head and hands were broken off. The Bible tells about more adventures for the Ark. It made some people sick and killed some people who didn’t treat it right. One guy kept it at his house and everything at his house was blessed. King David wanted to take great care of God’s box, and his son King Solomon built a huge, golden temple for the Ark.

But then. But then it got lost or stolen or broken to bits. No one really knows. For hundreds, even thousands of years, God’s box has been missing, and for hundreds even thousands of years people have been trying to find it. A lot of people who study the Ark say that it was destroyed and they argue about when it was smashed to bits and who did it. But there is a chance that an enemy took it instead of crushing it, and then it might still be somewhere on the earth. Some guess that the good guys buried it to keep it safe, but they died without telling where they buried it. That would mean it is still safely buried to this day. But where? Where is it buried? No one knows, so they just keep digging holes. There are many more guesses. One more is that God’s people from Africa took the Ark home to keep it safe. It could be buried there. Do you want to dig some holes in Africa?

The digging, the studying, the searching can go on for another thousand years, but I don’t need to play that hide-and-seek game. I already know where God’s box is, and not because I am so smart. The answer is in the Bible. There are a few places that tell this story, but my favorite is when Stephen told it.

Stephen was a great servant of Jesus after Jesus flew up to heaven. Stephen was a great preacher and did miracles, but the priests didn’t like it. They put Stephen on trial. They lied about him in court and said that Stephen, “never stops speaking against this holy place.” The holy place was the closest thing they had to God’s Ark. They wanted God to live in that building. They wanted a box that God would stay in. Stephen told a long story about God reaching out to people and people pushing God away. At the end of his speech, Stephen talked about the Ark, and the Tabernacle (a tent for the Ark), and the Temple (a building for the Ark.) Stephen said, “the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?' You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:48-51 NIV)

Why did Stephen talk for so long? Why did he tell the truth when they would kill him for it? He knew that God didn’t need, didn’t want a box to live it. God didn’t want to use a box to show His power.

When Bezalel built the box he was careful with it. He did everything right. He worked hard to prepare the best place he could for God to come into. Stephen did the same thing, but he didn’t build a fancy golden box. Stephen knew that God didn’t want to live in a box (even a gold box with angels on top) and God didn’t want to live in a room (even a gold room.) God wanted to live in a person. How did Stephen build a good house for God? He told his killers how he did it with an opposite clue. They built a house that God would never come to. Stephen called them stiff-necked, stubborn. He said their hearts and ears were pushing back God. He said they were resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are God’s box. And you are not buried far beneath the city of Jerusalem. You are right out in the open where a lot of people can see you. God is looking for a home, a place where He can rest. It has to be a place where He can stay ALL of the time. It doesn’t work for you to call out to God on Sunday and tell Him to come fill you if you don’t want Him to still be there on Monday.

God lived in a box. He did things that were so powerful while he was in that box. But now you are the box. A box is supposed to hold something, keep it safe, never let it go.

Signs, Signs, and More Signs

2009-09-06T23:41:00.000-05:00

Memorize: Acts 1:8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The signs were all over town. There were little signs on every corner to let people know about the new pizza place. Each one said, “Free Pizza from Pop Go Pizza! Call 555-3456 for delivery.” When Chet saw the sign, he noticed that the phone number was really close to his friend’s phone number. He tried one sign with his black marker. He was surprised how easy it was to change the three to an eight. Just like that the sign said, “Free Pizza from Pop Go Pizza! Call 555-8456 for delivery.” Chuck’s number looked so good on the sign that he couldn’t stop at just one. In just 20 minutes, 42 signs had the wrong number. Some of the signs were a little bit sloppy but the calls started rolling in. And Chet’s friend Chuck had to tell 123 people that he was not going to bring them a pizza.

The signs in Grantville were perfect, but Girty’s eye’s weren’t as good as they used to be. She was supposed to pick up her grandson at the base of the Hiking Trail, but Lance Hilton got caught selling foam fish for school lunches. The sign that said, “Hilton Trial” looked just like Hiking Trail to Gerty. So her grandson had to walk home after his 20 mile hike, and Gerty drove the get away car for Lance’s escape.

Signs matter. They have to say the right thing and people have to be able to read them.

Our world is full of signs. We have so many that we stop reading them. But people didn’t invent signs. God did. God put signs on the earth and in the Word of God.

The biggest Bible signs are in the Book of Revelation. That book has a bunch of weird, amazing signs including a red dragon with seven heads and a woman standing on the moon wearing a sun dress. It’s not a sun dress to wear in the sun, but a sun dress made out of the sun. Those signs will be hard to ignore, but they are not the signs you should focus on now. A bunch of other signs in the Bible matter more than a dragon and a huge woman.

God put the rainbow on the earth to show that He wouldn’t flood the whole world ever again. Nice sign. God’s people put blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over their homes. Nice to have that sign. Exodus 13:16 says that killing the lamb was a sign that God “brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” Good sign for the people, bad sign for the lamb. Moses wrote that sickness and lack will be a sign that the people are not serving God and that the Sabbath is a sign from God that says, “I am the Lord who makes you holy.” All of those signs are important, but I went through them too fast because I am looking for the most important sign.

The sign that matters most could be you. I have written before about the example you should be to everyone who sees you. You are a sign to show Christ to the world. You are a sign of the Kingdom of God getting bigger because that Kingdom is ruling in you. That is important, and Jesus said some things like that to His followers, but He also talked about the sign of Jonah.

The guys who were against Jesus asked Him for a sign. That happened a bunch of times even though there were signs all over Jesus. Jesus told those guys that they were wicked even for asking and the only sign they get is the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the fish for three days, but he came out. Just like Jesus was dead for three days, but he came back to life. That makes Jonah a pretty good sign, and Jesus said more about it. After Jonah cleaned off the vomit, he preached in Nineveh, and Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

Those people from Nineveh get to stick it to the people that heard Jesus. They heard good words, they heard a message about God from Jonah and they listen. They heard the words and they did it. They obeyed. Jonah was a prophet, but he was a wimp next to Jesus. Jesus was right in front of those guys, and they did nothing. They did worse than nothing. They fought against Jesus and finally killed Him.

Jesus showed he was greater than Jonah with a myriad of signs and soft hearts could see them. Honest hearts could read His signs. John the Baptist was in prison, but he wanted to know more about Jesus. John heard that Jesus healed the blind, lame, and deaf. He raised the dead and preached the good news. Those were sings to John the Baptist and they should be signs to us.

The people of Nineveh are looking at us too. They are watching us because One greater than Jonah is here with us. They are waiting. They are ready to judge our response, your response. You have Jesus. You have more of Jesus than John the Baptist had. He heard a little bit of what Jesus did, but you can see the whole life of Jesus. You can see the end of His life, you can see Him rise from the dead, and you can see Him go up to heaven. You know all of that. You have all of that. But you also have Jesus now. Jesus in the Holy Spirit is ready to give you His life, His power every day. You have the best sign, the biggest sign, the most powerful, most amazing, most clear, easiest to read. You have Jesus. What will the people of Nineveh say about you? Did you do better than them? Did you do more than them? They heard about God from Jonah and changed everything to live for God. You have Jesus. What did you change? What did you do? What did you give?

_________________________________________________________________

What would it look like if the people at church wanted to be there and wanted God? What if God’s people had nothing better to do? It might look like this. http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Sin is Crouching

2009-08-31T00:43:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Genesis 4:3-8

Really Read It: Genesis 4:1-26, Hebrews 11:1-4

Memorize: Psalm 18:1-3 I love you, Lord;
you are my strength.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies. (NLT)

Kana was home alone. He wasn’t scared even though he had never been by himself before. He didn’t even think about it until he heard a knock at the door. Kana’s mind started to race. Seven thoughts in .7 seconds. Is it locked? Is it someone I know? A package. A bomb. Pizza? A robber. A kidnapper. He decided to look out the window before he opened the door. He could see the front door from the window in his sister’s room. As he snuck through the house, he heard the knock again. He got to the window as the scary music started to play. He slowly pulled back the curtain and peeked out. There was no person at the front door. Maybe there was something, but Kana was sure it was not a person. He heard the knock again, so he looked more closely. It was a dark shape, a gray mess crouching at his door.

That is the scariest story I have ever tried to write. I don’t know if it was scary to you or not, but I got a little nervous writing it. I am not a fan of scary movies or scary books. The fear battle is tough enough without finding fake fear. But I wrote about Kana because he really had something bad crouching at his door. In the real story his name was Cain and he didn’t have a door. But still sin was crouching at his door.

Cain was the first person ever born. He was the oldest son of Adam and Eve. Their second son was Abel. The Bible tells us nothing about what kind of kids they were or their adventures on the brand new earth as they grew up. In the same verse that Abel was born, he got a job as a shepherd. We do get a few clues about their lives in God. We know that Adam, their dad, used to talk to God a lot. God used to come down and talk with Adam each day. Adam should have learned a lot from that, and he should have told his kids about it. We can’t be sure that he did, but somehow Cain and Abel learned how to worship God. Maybe Adam taught them, maybe God still came down, so He taught them. Either way, they both worshiped God by bringing an offering. Cain brought some grain and Abel brought some meat for God. Chances are they burned up their presents to give them to God.

When they were done worshiping, they both got a grade from God. God told them or showed them what he thought of their gifts. God liked Abel’s but he didn’t like Cain’s. The amazing thing to me is that Cain knew. Every week people go to church and they worship God with songs and prayers and money. Some of it God likes and some of it is trash to God. But the people who bring God their trash don’t know it. They walk out of church smiling. Their worthless worship doesn’t bother them at all. Somehow God was in Cain’s life so that he knew that God didn’t like his worship.

After the bad offering, God gave Cain a choice. God preached to Cain. He showed Cain how far away he was. God gave Cain a way to come close. Genesis 4:7 says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Cain opened the door and held out his arms to give sin a welcome hug. The sin crouching as his door came right in and together sin and Cain went to work. Cain planned the murder of his brother and then he did it. From that day until today, Cain is known as the first murderer. His crime is even worse because he knew that Abel was good. He knew Abel was right. Cain’s crime is worse because he knew about God, he knew the way to God and he ran the other way. He knew God, but he didn’t love Him.

I don’t expect that anyone who might read this is planning a murder. You don’t have that sin crouching at your door, but you must still hear God’s words about sin. Genesis 4:7, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." That is the same verse I stuck in just 135 words ago. Those were God’s words to Cain, but those words are powerful today. You must and you can master sin. You must and you can be accepted by God. Cain’s path seems so extreme, so rare. Sadly Cain’s view of God is not so rare.

Cain is famous for killing and Abel is famous for dieing. He is in Hebrews 11 as one of the great examples of faith. It says, “by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” Hebrews 12 talks about Abel again, but it says that the blood of Jesus speaks better than the blood of Abel.

What does this dead guy say? What does the blood of Jesus say?

They say to love God with everything. Love God so much that you would die for Him. You would give up your life, you would give up any part of your life, you would give Him anything in your life. Love Him. Love the King. Love the only true God. The only One who matters. The only way to be accepted. The only acceptance that matters.

Abel gave God a goat. Or maybe it was a sheep. It doesn’t seem like much. But Abel gave God his heart. Abel lived to love God with all of his heart. Abel died loving God with all of his heart.

_____________________________________________________________________

Copycat Copycat

2009-08-23T23:40:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: I Corinthians 11:31-32

Really Read It: I Corinthians 10:31-11:1, I Corinthians 11:20-34

Memorize: I Corinthians 11:1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. (NLT)

All the cats I know ignore everyone. But in 1896, there was a cat who watched others and did what they did. Kids have been cheering for this cat ever since. His name was Copycat.

What happened to Copycat? Did he win or loose? Was he rich or poor? Was he good or bad?

The answer is yes. He won and he lost. He was rich and poor. Good and bad.

It all depends on who he copied. Copycat’s life was sad and short when he copied that guy who walked through the fire, into the swamp, and over the cliff. But Copycat got rich when he copied the guy with all of the money. Copycat was lost, wondering in the forest forever when he copied a fluttering leaf. Copycat found a dish milk and a nice warm bed when he copied the man with the map. To teach a bad copycat a lesson, don’t tell him not to copy, tell him who to copy.

Kids are copycats. Grownups are too, so don’t try to grow out of it. Start now copying the right people. Don’t copy famous people. They are rich and people scream for them because they are really good at one thing. But they are bad at too many important parts of life. Plus 2.3 million people are already trying to copy that famous guy. That puts you really far back in line.

Paul wrote about this in a letter to some people called Corinthians. I think a Corinthian sounds like a pretty tough guy. I wouldn’t want to mess with them, but Paul did. He wasn’t very nice in his letter. These guys were doing a lot of things wrong, and Paul wanted them to know how to turn it around. I Corinthians 11:1 says, “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (NLT) Imitate means copy, do the same things, act the same way, think the same thoughts. Paul left out the part about cats.

We have Paul’s copycat verse at the beginning of Chapter 11, so it looks like Paul is starting a new part of the letter. But Paul didn’t put chapter numbers in his letter, so he had this verse in the middle of a list of mistakes. The things Paul told them in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 seem weird to us. That’s because Paul was helping those people 2,000 years ago to know how to live in a city on the other side of the world. This side of the world in the 21^st century is quite a bit different. It doesn’t really matter but one of the weird things that Paul told them was if someone puts your food in front of a statue and prays to the statue then don’t eat it. But if you don’t know if you food went to visit a statue or not, don’t worry about it. Another one was about haircuts and hats in church. In these simple rules, Paul was telling them what he would do and telling them to copycat him.

Then Paul wrote about communion. Part of his communion speech would go better for us in a list of rules for the church picnic. He told the people who had a lot to share with the people who didn’t have any food. Or if they didn’t want to share, they had to eat at home where nobody saw it. I’m pretty sure my elementary school had that same rule. After the communion picnic rules, Paul talked about the communion part of communion. I have heard the words about the great value of the cup, the Blood of Jesus, and the bread, the Body of Jesus. I hope you have heard that and thought and prayed about that a lot, but Paul put in another thing that I have almost never heard in a communion speech. In verse 28 he said “examine yourself.” Exam is the same as test. Examine is to look at really closely. Give yourself a test. And the test Paul told them to give themselves was about honoring the other people in their church. That part goes with the sharing rules that were right before this. But for you to honor the body, to be nice to your church, it is not enough to share some of your food. You need to share everything you’ve got. Share your food, share your money, all your stuff. Share your brains, your ideas. Share encouragement, good words. Shy is not allowed. It’s not nice and it does not honor the body. Share your muscles, work hard to make your church great, clean, mow, haul, paint. Share your muscles, work hard in worship praising with strength.

Paul wrote his ideas about haircuts and church picnics because he wanted the Corinthians to copycat him. You could copycat Paul too. That why we read his words in the Bible, so we can copy him. But not just Paul. There are a lot of people in the Bible that we can copycat. We can copycat so many other great people from history too. But you must also find people that you know to copy. Find people young and old who love Jesus and who are working to move the Kingdom of God forward. Be a copycat to those people.

If you do, you will look behind you and see other people copying you. Nobody is too young to be the right one to copycat. Younger kids can follow you, but they don’t have to be younger. You can be a great one to copy for kids your own age and even older kids. Pick the right ones to copycat and the copycats will copy you.

Paul was at the end of his food speech when he stuck in the imitate me, copycat verse. But he put a great test right with it. I Corinthians 10:31-33 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.”

Whatever you do. For the glory of God.

Don’t do only what is good for you like a spoiled me, me, me brat. Do what is best for others for the glory of God. So that so many will know this great and awesome Jesus, for the Glory of God.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Last Words of Moses

2009-08-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Really Read It: Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Colossians 3:1-4

Memorize: Deuteronomy 30:16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (NIV)

Moses was the president, the prophet, the priest, the man with the miracle power of God. He took a whole country of slaves on a 40-year camping trip. They had some trouble along the way, so God used him to split the Red Sea, bring water from a rock, and drop bread from the sky. When ultra-famous Moses was about to die, he gave a final speech. It was really long. Hard to blame him for talking so much. It was his last day on earth. But since it was so long, I’ll go straight to my favorite part and bring it up to date a little.

Love God. Do what He says. And it is not so hard. You don’t have to send your aunt on a mission to Mars to find God’s words and bring them down to you. You don’t have to put your brother on a sea voyage across the ocean to learn God’s ways and bring them back. No. The Word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Those ideas are close to what Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:11-14. Then Moses made all of the people contestants on the easiest game show in the history of the world. (Sort of.) There was only one question in the game and Moses made it real easy. Picture Moses standing between two doors. One door was dirty, gray, and broken with a huge KEEP OUT sign. The other door was bright yellow with flashing lights and arrows all around it. Moses kept pointing to that good door while the smiley face in the middle of the door called out, “Pick me, pick me, pick me!” It was not a trick. The good door was really that easy to find.

Moses said things like, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” (Deuteronomy 30:15) This door is life and prosperity, the place where you always have enough stuff, enough food, your body is healthy and your family is happy. The other door is death and destruction, the place with sickness, lack, not enough stuff, not enough food, bad hard times. Moses said it as many ways as he could. He even asked the angels to listen to make sure that he gave all of the people a fair chance. He said, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

And the way to choose was with worship. To get to the bad door, forget about God, do not obey His ways, let your heart get pulled away to other gods and bow to them. To get to the good door, love God, walk in His ways, and do what God says. Stay close, listen to His voice, and hold on tight to God.

In Deuteronomy 30:20 Moses used the words, “For the Lord is you life.” I wonder how he said that. Did he go right through it or did he stop and blast those words one at a time? It might have been a quick phase in a long speech. Maybe only a few of the people standing there caught this key. The Lord is everything. He is health in your body. He is the strength of every friendship. He is hope. He is life itself.

Paul was never as famous as Moses while he was alive, but he wrote more books of the Bible. Paul used that same powerful phrase in a letter. Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Readers then and readers now could really focus on the part about appearing in glory. Do you see yourself cloud surfing with light shooting out of your fingers? That is not how you are going to appear with Christ in glory, but forget about that for now, and go back to that little phrase the Paul stuck in there: Christ, who is your life.

I saw a stupid T-shirt that said, “Basketball is LIFE. The rest is just details.” I like basketball but something is wrong if a little game with a ball and a hoop is the core of who you are. I don’t think you could really do it, but just think about it for a minute. What would your life look like if you wore that shirt and you were telling the truth? You would work all day every day at becoming a better player. Running, shooting, dribbling, weights, sprints, drills. You would have to study all of the books by all of the world’s experts. You would train under the best coaches you could find and gladly do whatever they asked. Food would have to be a part of your life but only to get stronger. Entertainment could be pushed out of your life, but if you let it in a little, it would be something about basketball.

Sadly some people live that life and a lot more wish they could. So many give their lives to other things that do not deserve any devotion. But what if you crossed out the word “basketball” and wrote in Christ. Christ is LIFE. Paul said, “Christ, who is your life.” Moses said, “The Lord is your life.” And I have seen that on a T-shirt, but I have rarely seen that kind of life. Remember everything the Basketball is LIFE guy did with his day. Remember how that guy spent his energy, spent his time. What did he think about? What did he dream about? Could you tell the truth and wear Christ is LIFE? Could you give as much strength to Jesus as he gives to basketball? Listen to the last words of Moses, listen to a letter from Paul. Make Jesus Christ the One and Only. Make the living God your LIFE.

This week I found hope at church. I didn’t even know that I needed any more, but there it was. Hope. Find out more about a different church, a church were something happens: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Philemon

2009-08-09T23:16:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Philemon 4-7

Really Read It: Philemon 1-25

Memorize: Philemon 6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. NIV

Philemon is a small book of the Bible. It is shorter than most chapters and yet it gets to be a whole book. Philemon is so short that it doesn’t even have chapter numbers. To find a verse in Philemon, you don’t need a chapter then a verse. All you need is the verse. But I would like to change that. We are all so used to the chapter number: verse number deal that when a weird book like Philemon leaves it out, it is confusing. Right up there it says to memorize Philemon 6. Unless you are a Philemon expert, that looks like a whole chapter. Memorize Philemon Chapter 6 not just verse 6 of the little book of Philemon. What would it hurt to make the book have a chapter? I know one chapter doesn’t make it a chapter book, but then it could say, “Memorize Philemon 1:6,” and at least that verse could look like all the other verses in the Bible.

Even though it is really short, Philemon is a whole book all by itself because it was a whole letter written all by itself. The letter was from Paul and Timothy to three people. A guy named Philemon was one of the people. He got to turn his name into a book in the Bible, but the letter was also to a woman named Apphia, and another guy named Archippus. If you think those are funny names, it is okay to laugh because Apphia and Archippus have been dead for almost two thousand years. You might want to remember those funny names in case you ever adopt a pair of platypuses. Apphia and Archippus would be great pet platypus names. And if you need a third, you could add the name Onesimus. Onesimus is the man that this letter is about. Paul and Timothy wrote to Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus about Onesimus. (Nice job reading all of those weird names.) And they said that Onesimus is a great man of God. He may have made some mistakes before, but now he is right on track and he will really help their church. That is the main part of the letter, but the main thing that we are studying is in the introduction.

Paul and Timothy write down a prayer that they pray for Philemon and those others. The prayer starts with, “I always thank my God as I remember you.” Paul wrote that in at least three of his letters, but Christian greeting card writers wrote that on at least three million cards. Those words on a pretty greeting card make it seem like someone out there or a lot of someones are praying this for you. Maybe that’s true. I hope it’s true, but today switch it. Don’t hope that someone is thanking God for you. Make this be your prayer for someone or a lot of someones.

The prayer in Philemon is just four verses long, but it can be a great model for how to pray. Pray like this for your friends, your teachers, pastors, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, neighbors, mailmen, barbers… This prayer has three main parts that you can pray.

1. Thank you, God for _______________________. That is a pretty easy part, but it is important.

2. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith. Do this yourself. Be this yourself, but pray it for your friends too. “Be active” means your faith is a part of you that comes out wherever you are, whatever you do. Another version of the Bible says, “be generous.” Always give away a lot of faith. Always give away a lot of hope, joy, and peace. Always give away a lot of love.

3. I pray that you will have a full understanding of every good thing that we have in Christ. We have a lot of good things in Christ. So many that you can dive into Him with your whole life for your whole life and never get to the end of the good things that we have in Christ. But we still pray to know more of them, to have more of Him.

In the great name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Nathan’s church is exciting. It is a place that people WANT to go to way more than once a week and stay for way more than 90 minutes. Find out more about it: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Light

2009-08-02T23:01:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Psalm 119:97-105

Really Read It: Psalm 119:57-120

Note: Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the whole Bible. If you want to make sure that no chapter will ever be too long for you, read the whole chapter Psalm 119:1-176.

Memorize: Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Walter and Waffle stood on the corner of 43^rd and Crest. Walter read a text message from the president.

“c u 4 dinner @ Ricks 5pm”

“Do you know Rick?” asked Waffle.

“No, but I know that his restaurant has the best coconut pizza in the city.”

“Oh yeah. I remember that. Soooo gooood! See you there.”

“Wait, Waffle. You need to use the GPS. You’ll never remember how to get there.”

Waffle took his GPS out of his pocket. “Yeah right. This little box with all of its beeps and flashes and that funny lady talking is going to get me to the coconut pizza place. I don’t think so.” He tossed the box back into the trash and walked away.

Walter took his GPS out of his pocket and typed the name of the restaurant. He listened to the funny lady and arrived at Rick’s ten minutes early. Waffle was still wondering the streets at 5:00 the next morning.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

Walter and Waffle were without GPS as they hiked along the forest path. But they hardly needed it. All they had to do was stay on the path. That was easy enough in the day time, but as night rolled in seeing the path got harder. Walter pulled out his flashlight and strolled right along. Waffle left his flashlight in his pocket as he called out, “Wimpy Walter was scared of the dark! I’ll race you back to camp!”

As Walter walked along the path he heard Waffle crying out as he smashed into trees and dove into thorn bushes.

Walter won the race.

Waffle didn’t get back until the search party found him the next morning.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

After just two short stories you know that Walter is just about as wise and you are and Waffle is just about as wise as a waffle. So you don’t need to read the story of Walter and Waffle in a submarine or Walter and Waffle climbing the snake tree or the story of Walter and Waffle making waffles. They all end the same way. Or almost the same way. In one story Waffle’s submarine gets stuck in a cave and in one Waffle gets stuck the inside of a snake and in one Waffle cooks his hand in the waffle iron. But they pretty much end the same way.

To make sure that you are smarter than Waffle and smarter than a blueberry waffle, you have to look at why Waffle was so foolish. Waffle ignored something that would help him. All he needed was a voice telling him which way to go. All he needed was a light to see the path. Every time he needed something that he already had. He needed to use what he already had. To pass the wiser-than-Waffle test, you are not going on an adventure with a GPS and a flashlight. Your test uses a book. A big book. The Book.

The Bible is an amazing book of history and ideas. It’s full of great writing and exciting stories. But those are all things that people can put into a book. The Bible is so much better, so much bigger because God put His Words into it. God put hope in that book. He put life in it.

Part of super-long Psalm 119 is about the Word of God. I found three things that you should do when you read the Bible. First thank God for His Word and read it. Next ask God to teach you from His Word and read it. Finally be quick to obey the Word of God after you read it. And when you read the Bible, your life will get better again and again.

This Psalm tells some of the great things about the Bible. The Word of God is eternal. Few things you touch today will last forever, but the Word of God will. It will be there in 2011 when you are trying to decide if you should say, “two thousand eleven,” or “twenty eleven.” The Word of God will be there in 2063 when you are trying to decide what year you become an old person. The Word of God will be there in 2299, 9922, and on and on to the year 999,222,999 and always and forever.

The Word of God makes your heart soft. The Bible makes you ready for God’s presence. It makes you closer to God. So many things make your heart hard (anger, ignoring God, entertainment, and more.) The Word can make it soft again. The Word of God is a comfort. Can a song or a pillow make you feel better if you’re sad? The Word of God is even better at it. The Word of God gives hope. The Word of God preserves life, your life. It can save your life. It can make your life better.

To end, I am going to stick in two more verses. These two could be the second and third place verses for the Weekly Memory Verse. I just had to give them a little extra attention.

Psalm 119:72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Little Red Riding Hood

2009-07-26T21:07:00.004-05:00

A Quick Look: Colossians 3:12-15

Really Read It: Galatians 1:1-24, Colossians 3:1-22

Memorize: Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Little Red Riding Hood is older than Christopher Columbus. She is probably more famous too. Before 1697 her story was not written down, she didn’t wear a Red Riding Hood, and she always lost. The wolf won. He got to eat the grandmother and the girl with no fear of a woodcutter attack. During the 1700’s she had her red hood and she got to be in a lot of books, but she still died every time. Little Red Riding Hood finally learned how to win the wolf’s game in the 1800’s. She has been winning and the wolf has been dieing ever since. But now it is the wolf’s turn again. It’s only fair right?

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.

One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother as it had been awhile since they'd seen each other.

"That's a good idea," her mother said. So they packed a nice basket for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her grandmother.

When the basket was ready, the little girl put on her red cloak and kissed her mother goodbye.

"Remember, go straight to Grandma's house," her mother cautioned. "Don't dawdle along the way and please don't talk to strangers! The woods are dangerous."

"Don't worry, Mom," said Little Red Riding Hood, "I'll be careful."

But when Little Red Riding Hood came to the place where the path went two ways, she noticed some lovely flowers in the woods. She picked a few, watched the butterflies flit about for awhile, listened to the frogs croaking and then picked a few more.

Little Red Riding Hood was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her.

Suddenly, the wolf appeared beside her.

"What are you doing out here, little girl?" the wolf asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.

"I'm on my way to see my Grandma who lives through the forest, near the brook," Little Red Riding Hood replied.

“Oh I know just the place,” said the wolf. “That’s quite a long journey for nothing more than a dull visit with an old lady. But this path is shorter and easier, and it is so much more fun. If you come with me we could do all sorts of things that your strict mother and grandmother never let you try.”

“That does sound like fun,” said Little Red Riding Hood. “But I don’t think my mother would like it very much.”

“Of course not. Didn’t I just say that we would do things that your mother hates? But I’ll give you a bit of watermelon chewing gum.”

“Watermelon! How wonderful. To think, the melons in my grandmother’s garden haven’t even begun to ripen. I do think that I would like to see where your path leads.”

“There is nothing good at the end of the path,” the wolf admitted. “But we’ll have lots of fun along the way.”

With that the wolf held out his arm for Little Red Riding Hood and they started down the other path.

A woodcutter found Little Red Riding Hood’s Red Riding Hood and an empty basket in the woods. He sold them at his garage sale, but Little Red Riding Hood’s family never saw Little Red Riding Hood again.

Isn’t that a terrible story?

But it is the story of many Christians who start out on the right path and change in the middle. Paul wrote a letter to people in a city called Galatia. Their story was the same as this sad Little Red Riding Hood story. They started on the right path, living for Jesus, loving God with all of their hearts, worshiping with strength, living by the Holy Spirit, running a good race. But they stopped. They switched paths. In Galatians 5:7 Paul asked them, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?” And Paul wrote a lot in this letter about their bad path instead of life led by the Holy Spirit, but he wrote another letter that tells even more about staying on the right path.

You can’t follow a list of rules to get into heaven, but I am going to write a list of things to do to stay on the right path. This list comes from Colossians 3.

Set your mind on things above. You can set the TV to the cartoon network so that the ONLY thing that shows up is a cartoon. What if you could set your mind the same way? Only think about Jesus and His Kingdom. Can you set your mind on just one thing? Can you set your mind on the right thing?
Put off anger, hate, and bad words. Put off is the same as taking off. If a goose lays an egg while it is flying over you, you will take off your egged jacket. Or you can think of it like taking out the trash. Get the gross, stinking junk out of your house.
Put on a new person. Put on mercy, kindness, humility, and love. Put on is the same as putting on clothes, and unless you have goose egg smeared all over your clothes, you keep your clothes on all the time. Keep these things on.

After you have set, put off, and put on, let the peace of God rule in your heart. The word “let” seems like you don’t have to do anything, but if the peace of God is going to rule, you have to stop ruling.

That will keep you on the right path, running a good race. No big bad wolf will cut in on you.

Who Needs God

2009-07-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Luke 15: 1-7

Really Read It: Luke 15: 1-32, Romans 8: 23-26

Memorize: Romans 8:25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,

At Camp Kids Rule the kids do whatever they want for the whole week. And there are some great things to do. Huge fast water slides. Huge fast monster trucks. Batting cages. Basketball jam fest. Music. Movies. Arcades. And since kids rule at Camp Kids Rule, the kids get to do whatever they want to do all day every day. Nobody tells them when to go to bed or when to wake up. Nobody makes the kids eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Nobody forces these kids to do anything, so the kids so just anything.

The cook at Camp Kids Rule makes great food for the 100 kids in her care. The food is always ready in the Dining Hall, but the kids just don’t come to eat. Day after day she waits but the kids don’t come to get food. Finally she hears a faint voice, “I need to eat. Could I please have some food.” The cook rushes out and finds that one kid who needs food to live. She calls her friends and tells that great story over and over. She is happier about that one kids who needs to eat that the 99 who don’t need any food.

Before Luke wrote down the story of the Lost Sheep, he told us the reason for the story. Jesus told the story to religious people to show why he talked to sinners. The religious guys believed that they did everything that God wanted them to do. They thought they had it all right. And one of the things that they did was keep away from guys who didn’t keep all of the rules that they did. They thought Jesus should stay away from those bad people too, so Jesus said,

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' ⁷I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15: 4 – 7 NIV

Jesus kept going and told about a woman who lost a coin and a man with two sons. The one about the sons is the longest and, I think, the best so you should read it again after you finish reading this.

The guys that heard Jesus tell the story of the Lost Sheep thought that they were not lost. They saw themselves as the good sheep who stayed with the shepherd. And they saw the sinners, the bad people that Jesus was talking to as the one sheep who got lost. They got those parts right but they missed what Jesus was really saying to them. Another time Jesus answered the same question even more clearly.

“Why does he eat with such scum?”

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:16b – 17 NLT

Now pick 100 people. They could be people from your church, from 100 different churches, from the street of your town, from the street of the town where Jesus told the story. It doesn’t matter. Just pick 100 for this tough question. How many of those people have sinned? How many of those people need God?

The answer is 100. Romans 8:23 says that everyone has sinned. Now think about the guys that Jesus told that story to. They heard about those 99 good sheep and they thought that was them. Their weak brains and their hard hearts missed the easy riddle that Jesus told. Jesus called them “righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Repent means to turn to God. It is bigger than saying sorry. Repent is to turn away from sin and turn to God, to run toward God. Everyone needs to run to God every day. Every person needs God every day. The ones who think they have God already, they already do it all right are farther away than the sinners who know they need God.

Remember the 100 kids at Camp Kids Rule. How many of those kids needed to eat? All 100. How many of those kids knew they needed to eat? Just one.

How many kids in the world need God? How many think they already have enough of Him? How many kids need to repent? How many don’t know it? How many are far from God? How many think they are close?

________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

The Wrong Fear

2009-07-12T23:04:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Luke 8: 37 – 39

Really Read It: Luke 8: 22 – 39, Mark 4: 35 – 5: 20

Memorize: Acts 1 :8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. NLT

Rufus had never been in the water. He knew nothing about floating, kicking his feet, moving his hands. He could not swim. But when foolish Rufus saw the pretty, blue water, he could not resist. He ran full speed for the pool and jumped in. The lifeguard pulled him out of the pool.

“You need to learn to swim before you jump in the water. This is not safe for you,” the guard scolded.

“But I like it. I want to go back in there.”

As Rufus struggled with the lifeguard to get back to the water, it started to rain. Gentle drops splashed into the pool and sprinkled the people on the patio.

“AAAHHHHHH! Help me, help me, save me! Get me out of here!” Rufus was screaming and thrashing his body in terror.

“What is wrong with you?” questioned the lifeguard.

“Water is falling from the sky! It is hitting me on the head! Ahhh, a drop just got me on the arm!”

Boris wanted to visit his brother in Boston, so he went to the train station and bought a ticket. But Boris never got on the train. When his train arrived, Boris did not like the looks of it. He walked slowly to the door and leaned in.

“No, no, no,” shrieked Boris. “I am not getting into that metal box. I could get trapped in there forever. I will walk to Boston.”

So Boris walked to the front of the train and onto the tracks. He strolled calmly down the train tracks without a care in the world as the train behind him started to move.

Luke 8:22 begins a story of Jesus and his disciples crossing a lake at night and continues with what happened the next day. The disciples and the people across the lake all make the same mistake. It is the same mistake as Rufus and Boris. They are afraid of the wrong things. Fear is a big problem for kids, and the Bible has a lot to say about fear. The main message from the Bible is: fear God and don’t fear anything else. But if you think about it and really study fear in the Bible, there are some things to fear. If you can’t swim and you see a pool, do you fear the water? I hope you don’t scream and run away, but the right fear keeps you from jumping into the water. You shouldn’t panic when you see train tracks, but you shouldn’t stroll down the tracks when a train is coming either.

The disciples made all kinds of fear mistakes on their nighttime boat ride across the lake. Jesus slept while the disciples guided the boat, but a bad storm came up. It was bad enough to sink the boat, and these guys feared death. If they had no fear they might have done nothing. Does no fear means that they just sat and watched the huge waves fill the boat with water? The right fear of that huge storm would cause them to stand in faith to stop it. That is what Jesus did. And when Jesus stopped the storm with his words of faith, the disciples made an even bigger fear mistake. They should have been thrilled that God was with them with such power, but Mark 4:41 says, “They were terrified.”

When Jesus and the disciples got to the other side of the lake, they met a messed-up guy. This guy lived without clothes in a graveyard, because he wouldn’t stay in a house and no one could keep him in a prison. He cried out night and day and cut himself with rocks. This was a scary guy. There are some safety steps to remember for naked, super-strong, crazy guys, but you don’t have to study them now. Instead look for foolish people with the wrong fear. They showed up after Jesus God met the demon-filled crazy man.

God’s power won, and the people from the nearby town saw the guy with clothes on, sitting quietly, and listening to Jesus. Then “a great wave of fear swept over them” and they forced Jesus to leave. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t afraid of this guy before. But now there is NOTHING to fear. It was easy to see that good came from Jesus. It was easy to see that good came from the power of God. This guy would not wear clothes. It is good that he put some on. This guy was screaming, yelling, and cutting himself with rocks. It is good that he stopped. But these foolish, blind people didn’t see good. They saw a reason to be afraid. They were afraid of Jesus, because he brought the power of God to do good to their town. These people would rather have their crazy graveyard guy than Jesus.

Think about the wrong fear. Rufus and Boris used the wrong fear. The disciples and the people across the lake were afraid of the power of God. And that is the wrong fear that will cause the most harm in your life. Never fear our amazing, loving, powerful God. God does only good. Never be afraid of good happening in front of you. If sick people get better, that is good. If fighting families find peace, that is good. If storms stop, that’s good. If a boy who doesn’t care about anything starts to care about God, that’s good. If a girl who never feels anything feels God, that’s good.

Thrash Monday

2009-07-05T22:59:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Matthew 21: 12 – 16

Really Read It: Matthew 21: 1 – 22, Mark 11: 1 – 24

Memorize: John 4: 23 – 24

This is not the Palm Sunday story. It is not the cross or the Jesus rising from the dead story. Those almost have to be studied in the spring. This story goes right with them, but Sunday-school teachers never get to it because they are so busy with those other stories on Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.

In many houses, April is the time to stick colored eggs and cartoon rabbits to your windows? Do you have little Easter baskets for the mantle? Do you have a picture of a cross or an empty tomb? I might not be a fan of all of those decorations, but I would like to suggest you add some more. How about some decorations for Palm Sunday? You could make a palm branch frame for a picture of a donkey. And then continue from Palm Sunday to Thrash Monday. To remember Jesus on the Monday before he went to the cross, turn your kitchen table on its side and scatter money all over the floor. Flip at least half of the chairs and toss three or four animal cages into the mix. It will make meals a bit of a challenge, but it is worth it to remember the big mess that Jesus made in the temple.

But why? Why did Jesus make such a mess?

He explained it this way. “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

On Palm Sunday, Jesus was in a little parade, and all the fans at the parade did the right thing. They praised and cheered with strength. Most parades are pointless; they go nowhere and nothing happens. In Christ’s parade something happened and he went somewhere. He went to the temple.

The temple then and the church now look quite different and very different things happen in them. I have never seen a guy in a robe kill and burn a goat at church. But the purpose is the same. The temple is the place to meet God, a house of prayer, a room for worship. Jesus entered the temple on Sunday evening and looked around. The next morning, Thrash Monday, he went back into the temple and made a mess. He drove out the people who were selling in the temple. All of these people were selling animals. The people who bought the animals then took them into the Temple and gave them to God, killed them for God. Some pet lovers think that Jesus wanted to stop them from killing all those animals. Sorry, that wasn’t it. Jesus wanted to take the greed out of His house. He had to get the greed out of His worship. He overturned tables. He made a mess, but he wasn’t in a rage of anger. If anger had taken over Jesus, he would have torn the place up Sunday night when he went there the first time. He waited for the right time to make a mess.

His mess was a message. Jesus wanted regular people to have a place to meet God. He wanted His people to have a house of prayer and a room used just for worship. No one could find God in that temple because God wasn’t there. Jesus drove out the people who were stopping God. And as soon as they were gone, Jesus brought that activity of God into the temple. He healed the blind and the lame. A healing God will heal bodies in His house, if He is really there. The children began to worship. True worship will come from children and adults. Worship is our response when God comes down. Worship gets God to come down. God will come where people show that they want him.

Jesus wrecked that temple which was full of worthless worship. Hundreds of people filled the temple and did religious things, but they did nothing to stir the heart of God. God made zero response to their worship. What kind of worship comes out of your mouth? What kind of worship comes from your heart? When you stand in your church, does God see a reason to listen? When it’s kids’ church time and all the kids sing, do you stir the heart of God? When your family gathers in the living room pray, do you say empty words? In your room at night when you talk to God, does he hear worthless worship? On Thrash Monday the message of Jesus was that religious activity is not what He wants in His house. He wants His people to gather and show with strength and passion and heart that they want God to step into that room and be God. It is a special room for God's use only. It is a special time for God's use only.

___________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Nimrod the Nimrod

2009-06-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Genesis 11: 4

Really Read It: Genesis 10: 8 – 12, Genesis 11: 1 – 9, 2 Corinthians 12

Memorize: 2 Corinthians 12: 9 He (God) said to me (Paul), “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

A nimrod is a person who is silly, foolish, or stupid, so if you are not allowed to call your brother stupid, you are not allowed to call him a nimrod either. As far as I know there has never been a person named Stupid, but there was a guy named Nimrod. He was one of Noah’s great-grandsons. Noah lived for so long that Nimrod was 200 before Noah died. They might have known each other. If they did, Nimrod did not learn from the great example of Noah. Nimrod did not learn to trust in God. He learned to trust himself.

Nimrod was “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” (Genesis 10:9) That doesn’t sound bad, but most really smart guys who study the Bible see Nimrod as a bad guy. “Mighty hunter” means that he hunted goats and lions, but it also means that he hunted people, and God did not like that. Nimrod did not care about God. The words, “before the Lord” mean in the face of the Lord. “In Your Face!” is NOT a smart thing to say to God. Nimrod knew about God. He knew the ways of God, and he ignored them. Nimrod worshipped other gods, but he also worshipped himself. He wanted power. He wanted to be great. And he did a lot of big things. So many people followed him that he started at least five cities. The most famous city that he started is called both Babel and Babylon. Since Nimrod started it, most people think he was running things when the people of the city built the Tower of Babel to make a name FOR THEMSELVES.

Our world is changing quickly. The 32gb iPhone 3 GS is the best new thing on the market. In Nimrod’s day the best new thing was bitumen. It didn’t use bits to send movies through the air. It was sticky stuff like tar that sent bricks higher into the air than ever before. The people of Babel built a huge tower, but God didn’t like it. It was not that God was against tar or towers. God was against pride. God was against the man, Nimrod who wanted to make himself great. God was against a city that wanted to make a name for itself, so He stepped down from heaven. He made the people speak a lot of different languages and He scattered them all over the earth.

God knows that when His children are proud they cannot worship Him. Proud kids can’t act the right way to other people or to God. Here are just a few of the things God said about the proud:

Psalm 138:6 Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
Proverbs 16:5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Nimrod was a repulsive man because of his great pride. Paul was a great man because he was repulsed by pride. Bragging and boasting always come with pride. It’s an easy guess that Nimrod was a big time bragger. “Look at all my nice cities. I am so smart. I am so strong. I am so brave. The people love me, love me, love me.”

Paul stamped out pride with a different kind of boasting. Paul did so many great things and God did great things to him and in him. But Paul didn’t brag that God took him up to heaven or that he started so many churches or did so many miracles. Paul said, “I will boast about my weaknesses.” When Paul talked about himself, he talked about his weaknesses, and he even said he was happy about doing it. Paul showed us a great way to push back pride, but he had another reason for his weird kind of bragging. Paul talked about his weakness, became weak, and stayed weak, because God sends His power to weakness. Nimrod never got to see the power of God. The greatest thing Nimrod ever got to see was Nimrod. That would be really boring. Think about the power that came into Nimrod. None. And then think of the great power that came into Paul again and again and again. So you can pick a path of pride like Nimrod or a path to the power of God like Paul. Only a nimrod is stupid enough to pick Nimrod’s way.

___________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Money

2009-06-21T21:39:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Matthew 6: 19 – 21, 33

Really Read It: Matthew 6: 19 - 34

Memorize: Matthew 6: 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. NLT

Not many kids have money trouble. Few children worry about the house payment or taxes. but they do have treasure trouble that pulls them away from God. Matthew 6:19-34 is the part of the Bible to focus on when you are a grownup and you don’t have enough money to pay all of your bills. But this page is for kids who want to follow God and not many kids have jobs at all, and the kids who do have jobs don’t have to use the money to buy tacos or gas for the car. Still the kids that I know need to learn a lot about money and about stuff.

Matthew 6:21 calls it “your treasure.” Where is your treasure? What is your treasure? A treasure is something of great worth or value to you. You could think of a huge treasure chest buried by a greedy pirate and that would be treasure. You could think of the treasure of so many grownups today: a Hummer, a Porsche, a bigger flat screen, or a better house. Kids may like some of those same things, but they have other treasures too.

The following paragraph is 100% fiction. It never happened.

Scientists at MIT developed a treasure test for kids. They implanted sensors the size of cells into the brains of 2,000 children. The scientists were then able to count each thought of each child in the study. For example, they listed the thoughts of test child number 1,432 this way. He had 480 thoughts about food divided into 400 thoughts about sweets, 76 about fried food, and 4 about healthy food. He had 5 thoughts about school, 186 about TV, 247 about movies, 176 about video games, 104 about sports, 208 questioning “does Lisa like me?” and 2 thoughts about God. This brain activity comes from the 52-minute time period when the child sat in church. This kid FAILED the treasure test. He was hungry and Lisa was sitting right in front of him, but he failed. His thoughts showed that God was not his treasure.

If a scientist could really count your thoughts, what would your thought count look like? How would you do in the treasure test? You say that God is your treasure, but does He really get any of your focus?

Jesus spoke a lot about money and treasure. This time when he spoke of money, He called it a master. Money is a master. Stuff is a master. Even if you don’t have it, it can master you. Master means the boss of a slave. If a thing is your master that means that it can make you do stuff. That’s not good.

I remember when a kid named Gabby made a bike into her master, and the funny thing is that she didn’t even have this bike. The bike was her master and her boss, because she wanted it so bad. She thought about that bike and talked about that bike. She prayed about that bike and even dreamed about that bike. The bike was ruling Gabby. It was taking all of her time, her energy, her thoughts. Gabby was seeking a thing. Sadly the end of Gabby’s bike story is not good. She did not learn her lesson. Her parents got her the bike of her dreams, and she tried hard to smile as she rode around her neighborhood, but it didn’t work. The bike didn’t make her happy. She gave so much to that bike. She made the bike her very own master. She gave hours of her life to seeking that bike, and the bike didn’t give her anything except a little exercise.

Gabby messed up, so don’t act like her. Kid number 1,432 in the fake MIT study messed up, so don’t act like him. But what is the right way to act? I could put it into ten words of Jesus from Matthew 6. “Store your treasures in heaven,” and “Seek the Kingdom of God.”

How do you store treasures in heaven? The first answer is to give money to God, give to the church. If it is hard for you to give money to your church, then you have a treasure problem. The way to start fixing it is to give to God. But you have to give it when you could not. If you put in your parents’ money, that won’t help you. If your parents’ make you put in money, that will only help a little. Get a dollar that you are allowed to spend on whatever you want. Hold that dollar and think of the thing you most want to spend it on. How about a Hotwheels Viper? Then choose to give it to God. That is storing treasure in heaven. Money is the easiest way to store treasure in heaven, but it is not the only way. Another way to think of it is seeking.

Jesus said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else.” Seeking is searching, trying to find it. And the Kingdom of God is so amazing that you don’t get to find it just one time. You can seek and look and keep seeking for your whole life. You will keep on finding and you will keep on with the adventure of finding more. When that is your life you are storing treasure in the right place, you will pass the treasure test.

______________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Samson

2009-06-14T21:45:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Judges 15: 9 – 15

Really Read It: Judges 13 – 16

Memorize: Luke 4: 18 – 19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Samson is famous for being tough, for being strong, for being bold. He is also on a lot of lists for Don’t Be Like This Guy. Samson did make some mistakes in his life, but this page is about things from the life of Samson that are right, that are powerful, that we should copy.

The story of Samson is in the Book of Judges. It is not surprising that the Book of Judges has a lot of stories about a lot of different Judges. And all of the other Judge stories went the same way. First Israel walked away from God, worshiped a bad god, and did bad stuff. Next, God went away and enemies ruled Israel. Then, it got bad so Israel cried out to God to save them. Finally God sent a Judge to lead the people, rescue them from the bad guys, and be a big hero. That same story happened over and over for 300 years, and there were some great heroes like Othniel, Ehud, Gideon, and Deborah.

Samson came after those other Judges. The amazing stuff in Samson’s life started before he was even born. An angel told a lady who had no kids that she was going to have a baby, and that the baby would “begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.” The Philistines were ruling over Israel then, and God picked Samson before he was born to be the rescuer.

Samson grew up and found a Philistine girl to marry. (This was not Delilah. She is in the story later on.) His mom and dad didn’t want him to marry a Philistine girl. They thought Samson should be fighting the bad guys, and he wanted to marry one of them. But the Bible says that this marriage was from God. They did get married, but they were only married for about a week. There were some amazing things in the story of the wedding planning and partying. A little while before the wedding, Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. Later he found some bees making honey inside of the dead lion. That gave Samson an idea for a riddle, and he used it to make his wedding more fun. He thought a riddle and a bet would make the seven-day wedding party more of an adventure, but it didn’t really work. The bet was between Samson and thirty of his wife’s friends. Samson lost the bet because the other guys cheated, but the bet also ruined Samson’s marriage and started a fight between Samson and the Philistines. That fight continued for the rest of Samson’s life. But Samson fought by himself. God helped him a lot, but no other people joined the fight. All of the other Judges led an army and rescued Israel, but Israel would not join Samson.

One of Samson’s solo fights came when 3,000 of his own people arrested him. In Judges 15:9, the Philistine army came for Samson. It was a great chance for Israel to join with Samson and fight the enemy. Remember how it worked with all the other Judges. But instead the Israelites cried like little babies to the enemy. They said, “Why are you coming to fight us? We are your nice little slaves.” And instead of fighting with Samson, instead of fighting with God’s rescuer, they gave Samson to the Philistines. Samson fought them by himself and killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, but Israel was not free. Samson kept fighting and even died fighting as God’s rescuer of Israel, but he didn’t get to see Israel become free because Israel did not fight with him.

Samson’s people were never free to worship the one true God. The Philistines with their god Dagon ruled and Israel was happy with that. These people had awful lives of slavery, but they wouldn’t fight to be free. These people had awful lives under a pagan god, but they wouldn’t fight to be free. They told each other everything was okay. They told each other not to bother the Philistines. Don’t cause trouble.

No one in our country worships a god as gross as Dagon, and workers in our country don’t have to give their money to another country. Our country is better than Israel was in Samson’s day, but there are some awful things that a bold rescuer should fight against. The best way to push back the awful is to fight for God. The most important part of my week is fighting for God’s honor, fighting for God to move in power in the lives of His people, and fighting for the Kingdom of God to get bigger in our country. I fight with my family. I fight with the kids at my church. The easiest place to be a bold fighter like Samson is in your church. A lot of kids walk into church every week and act like they don’t care about God. Can you be the kid who shows strength for God? Are you a fighter in your worship? In your words? In your prayers? In your response to the Word of God? Don’t take a donkey’s jawbone to church with you. And don’t fight a lion with your bare hands. But do everything else to copy Samson, the bold fighter for God.

________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

Salvation For a Wee Little Man

2009-06-07T23:10:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Luke 19: 8 - 10

Really Read It: Luke 19: 1 – 26

Memorize: Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. NIV

Zacchaeus was a wee little man. Everybody knows that, but Luke didn’t put his story in the Bible because he was short. Zacchaeus is a great salvation story. His story gets only ten verses in the Bible, but we can learn a lot about this guy in those ten verses. Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus worked as a chief tax collector and he was rich. The tax collectors were hated by the Jews. You probably know about that already, so I’ll go by it quickly. But a tax collector was like a spy in a war. Who could ever be worse than the enemy in a war? The answer is the spy who acts like he is on your side only to take your secrets to the enemy to make money. A tax collector was a betrayer like that.

But when Jesus showed up in Jericho this little tax collector heard about Him and made a great effort to see Him. The Bible tells us that short Zacchaeus could not see because of the crowd, so he climbed a tree. It’s a guess, but there could be another reason for Zacchaeus to climb a tree. It may be that he was so hated that he was in danger in a crowd. Was he hated so much that he needed body guards? The Bible doesn’t tell us that, but it does say that Jesus called Zacchaeus by name and told him to come down. How did Jesus know his name? We have to guess, and I haven’t picked my favorite. Maybe Jesus had heard stories of a short tax collector in Jericho. Maybe God whispered it into the ear of Jesus. Maybe someone else in the crowd spotted Zacchaeus before Jesus did and called out something like, “Look up in that tree. It’s the enemy’s tiny, little thief, Zacchaeus!” Again Zacchaeus could be in danger. Some in the crowd might think that hurting Zacchaeus would please Jesus. Maybe the crowd called out the name Zacchaeus in anger before Jesus called his name for salvation.

How did Zacchaeus find salvation? It was not just because Jesus came to his house. That is a great picture. You can pray that Jesus will come to your house, and that is a great salvation prayer. But Zacchaeus didn’t find salvation just because Jesus came over for dinner. The mind of Zacchaeus, the heart of Zacchaeus, the will, the soul, the spirit of Zacchaeus changed that day. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened inside of his heart, but we know because he did something. Money ruled the tax collector Zacchaeus. There is no other reason to be a betraying tax collector. But on the day that Zacchaeus met Jesus, money lost its grip on him. He gave away over half of his money and Jesus saw a changed life.

Jesus declared, “Today salvation has come to this house.” Then He called him a son of Abraham, a son that was lost. Those three words, “son of Abraham” are a big deal. Too big to tell about in the fourth paragraph. But it means that Zacchaeus had a deal with God, he was supposed to be God’s kid, but he was lost. I would say he was like a church kid. A kid who goes to church every week, a kid who said the prayer, who made a deal with God, a baptized kid, a communion kid, but he’s lost. Jesus is still seeking in churches. He’s seeking the lost. He is calling out your name. He is offering to come to your house. He wants to come so close. He wants you to know His presence, to feel Him close to you, in you, to hear Him speaking, to see Him working. He wants to bring salvation to your house.

Flood

2009-05-31T22:29:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Genesis 6: 7 – 8

Really Read It: Genesis 6: 5 – 9: 17

Memorize: Hebrews 11: 6 –7 Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

The nice, cute, little story of Noah in the ark is one of the most popular events from the Bible. Over 90 % of American churches show that smiley giraffe popping his head out of that little Noah’s ark somewhere in the nursery.* Noah with his boat and his animals have appeared on the top ten list for baby room themes for 94 years in a row.** I do NOT want you to repaint your baby brother’s room, but I do have some problems with those cartoon animals smiling at so many babies.

The animals DID fit inside the boat. God told Noah exactly how to build the ark. We know that it was big. We don’t know exactly how much room Mr. and Mrs. Elephant had and if they were if fact right next door to Mr. and Mrs. Giraffe, but it is clear that they got to ride inside the boat. They did not have to stick their necks through holes in the roof. It is not a cute story. Sure animals are neat; some of them are even cute when they are babies as long as you can see them without smelling them. But, at the time, it would have been hard to focus on that cuddly, little panda bear peaking his head out the window.

A lot of other things would get a lot more of your focus. Water falling from the sky causing all the animals and people on the earth to panic. Water bursting forth from inside the earth causing all the animals and people on the earth to panic. Mud slides destroying crops, flowers, trees, walking trails, bakeries, and houses. Rising flood waters destroying (killing) every plant, animal, and person on the face of the earth.

This story could be better at scaring small children than comforting them. It’s not cute, but it is good. It’s great. Not cute. Maybe not even happy. But good.

God sent the flood to save people. He wasn’t just saving Noah’s family; he was saving people. The human race. Without this event, people would be lost. Gone from the earth. The flood stopped the great growth of sin on the earth. It stopped the selfishness, self worship, greed, and pride that were growing like a cancer. It took away the people with no concern for God. Had God not taken them away, the earth would soon become a place where zero people spoke God’s name with honor.

Through the flood, God got a family, he got a people for himself. He found a family to be His and He took away the wickedness that was trying to stomp out God’s honor.

You need that same kind of Savior. God will have a people. He will a group that gives Him honor, that gives Him glory, that give Him their lives. We know for sure that God will have His group; we don’t know if you will be in the group. We don’t know if you are in that group.

The test is not if you go to church. It’s not if you take communion or if you’ve been baptized. You can’t know your in God’s group if you said that special prayer to Him once or twice or two hundred times.

The test is do you care about God. Do you care about God’s honor and God’s glory? Do you want to do God stuff? Would you rather see you get honor of God get honor? Most people want it for themselves, but God has a group, God has a people that love to fight for the honor of God.

*fake statistic

**another fake statistic

Joseph

2009-05-24T14:45:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Genesis 39: 1 – 2

Really Read It: Genesis 37: 12 – 36 and Genesis 39: 1 – 6

Memorize: Philippians 2: 14 – 15 Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

Joseph’s life was great in the beginning. He was born into a rich family, and he was his dad’s favorite kid. There were some tough years when his mom died, his brothers sold him as a slave, and he spent some time in prison. But Joseph had a great life in the end. He married into a high-class Egyptian family and got a job as the boss of a country. He lived to be a very old man and even met some of his great, great grandchildren before he died.

Joseph had many good years, but the most important years of his life were the tough years. God used Joseph to save at least two countries: Egypt and Israel. God used Joseph because of what he did in the tough years.

I am sure that Joseph had it worse than any of you. How many years of counseling would an American kid get if his mom died and his brothers hated him so much that they sold him? But Joseph didn’t turn into a useless whiner. He worked hard as a slave, and he became great. Just when things were starting to look good for Joseph, he was put in prison for nothing. But he worked hard as a prisoner and he became great. Though it all, he followed God’s ways. Through it all, he followed God’s leading. Though it all, he worshipped the Lord.

Joseph won the prize for whining and complaining. (That prize is awarded for lowest score just like golf.) And Joseph did that on purpose. A lot of kids think that whining just comes out of them when something bad happens. Whining doesn’t just come out. You can choose to whine or you can choose to stop it.

I went to a summer camp where one of the rules was: No Whining or Complaining. All of the other rules were normal things to keep life safe and boring, but that rule was stuck in there as if all of the kids could choose to follow or break that rule. And they could. The kids were great whiners with, “It’s too hot,” “I don’t want to play turtle tag,” and “this camp is for babies” until the camp boss showed up. They could turn off the whining like turning off the lights. And you can too.

Your words are so important. Make a choice to speak good words, encouraging words, faith words, God’s words, Kingdom advancing words. You could carry a little paper and pencil with you today and count. Make a tally mark every time you say something that makes God’s kingdom get bigger. Put a mark any time you say something good about God. Put a mark any time you tell a person something that could bring them closer to God. Any time you stop something that presses down the Kingdom of God count that too. How many Kingdom words can you say in one day? How many words that build up more life of Jesus can you say in one week? We never hear of Joseph counting his Kingdom words, but if he did he would have been a tough guy to beat.

Daniel's Trust

2009-05-17T22:33:00.001-05:00

A Quick Look: Daniel 2: 27 – 28

Really Read It: Daniel 2: 1 – 49

Memorize: Romans 15: 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. NIV

Daniel spent the night with a bunch of hungry lions and God saved him. But that was not the first time that God came down to save Daniel’s life. His sleepover in the lion cage happened when he was a very old man. When he was a very young man, Daniel was taken away from his home in Judah. Soldiers took him to the capital city to work for the king. A lot of young guys would be excited about that and maybe Daniel was, but the bad side of the story is that this king was an enemy king. A king from another country came to fight Daniel’s country. That king won, so he got to be the king of all of the countries that he beat in war. This big king brought all the best young guys from all over his big kingdom to work for him in Babylon. He tested them and gave them jobs. Daniel was so smart (God made him so smart.) that the king made him one of his very own advisors. Daniel’s job was to be smart and help the king with tough choices. Three of Daniel’s friends got the same job. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel and a lot of other guys from every part of the kingdom worked as wise men for the king.

One day the king had a tough job for his wise men. He said, “I had a dream last night, and I know that this dream is a big deal. But I have no idea what the dream means.”

Daniel and his friends were not there. They weren’t on wise man duty that day, but the ones who were there said, “Sure, King, just tell us what you saw in your dream, and then we will tell you all about it.”

The king replied, “If I tell you, you could make up anything and claim you know what it means. I can only be sure that you are not liars and cheaters if you first tell me what I saw in my dream and then tell me what it means. If you can’t, you are all fired. You’re fired and I will turn your houses into rubble heaps. You’re fired, I’ll turn your houses into rubble heaps, and cut you up into little pieces.”

They couldn’t do it. Who could? So the king sent his soldiers to do all of those bad things to them, but not only to them but to ALL of his wise men. That put Daniel on the list to die.

Daniel prayed and his friends prayed and God came down and spoke to Daniel. When Daniel went to the king, the king asked him, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream?”

Daniel knew the dream, but he said, “No one on earth could tell you your dream.” If Daniel stopped there even for four seconds, he might have been killed, but he said, “But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” Then he told the whole dream and what it meant. The king was blown away. He gave Daniel a lot of gifts and a big boss ruling job.

Daniel had to depend on God to keep his body in one piece. Few of you are in that kind of danger, but you must learn to depend on God as if you are. How did Daniel pray when he knew that if God didn’t answer, he was going to die? Have you ever prayed like that? How loud did he pray? How long did he pray? What did his heart look like? What did his mind look like? What did his strength look like?

It is pretty easy to fill in the answers on a Sunday school paper to say that God is your life. It is not too hard to say that you need God. A whispered prayer in church is no challenge. But you NEED God to even live. He gives you breath. He is your only hope, your only way to life. What would it look like if you trusted God like Daniel? How would you sound if you NEEDED God? What would it look like if you really had to depend on God to live?

Follow Me

2009-05-10T19:57:00.003-05:00

A Quick Look: Matthew 19: 21 – 22
Really Read It: Matthew 19: 16 - 30
Memorize: Matthew 10: 38 – 39 Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

In this story, a young guy with a lot of money came to talk to Jesus. He had a lot more going for him that just money though. This guy was used to being the favorite. In school, he was the teacher’s favorite. At church (synagogue), he was the pastor’s (rabbi’s) favorite. At the market, he was every seller’s favorite. He was the good kid. He followed all of the rules, showed up to parties on time, and kept his room clean. Some of those are guesses, but he told Jesus that he followed all of the rules, and Jesus didn’t argue with him. Also as a rich guy everyone in his town thought that God had blessed him, and that meant he was doing everything right.

The good kid came to Jesus to ask what good thing he should do to get eternal life. If you ask that question in church, you will get this answer: “You can’t do anything to get eternal life. It is a free gift of grace.”

That answer has some truth in it, but it has made millions of people into do nothing Christians and it is nowhere close to the answer that Jesus gave.

Jesus started by taking apart the guy’s question. Jesus picked at every word. But Jesus wasn’t being picky with grammar. He was looking into the man’s heart. Jesus said, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”

The rich guy couldn’t see the capital O in One to know that One means God. Jesus was really asking: Do you really think I am good? Do you believe that I am from God? Do you believe that I am God? This man made no answer to these questions. I don’t think he had an answer, but Jesus moved on before he even tried.

Jesus talked to him about following the commandments, following rules, doing stuff. And the man said he was good at it. He was good at following rules, but he knew it wasn’t enough. In verse 20 he said, “What do I still lack?”

He knew that he didn’t have God. He knew he that God was far away from Him. Good for him that he knew that. Bad for him that he didn’t care. He cared about getting eternal life. He didn’t care about getting God. He was willing to follow the rules to get into heaven as long as it wasn’t too hard. He didn’t want God. He was willing to do stuff to get something from God. He didn’t want God.

Jesus didn’t tell him to stop trying to do stuff. Just believe and hang on. Jesus didn’t tell him to do less. He told him to do more. Jesus didn’t tell him to follow less. He told him to follow more, to follow Jesus. When Jesus told him the price of finding God, the man walked away sad. He would not pay that much.

What price is Jesus giving you? How much will you pay to follow Him? to be close to Him? to really know Him? Jesus won’t ask you to sell your house. He probably won’t even ask you to sell your Wii, but He might tell you to play it less. Would you pay that small price to know God?

The price of following is the same every time. Love the world less. Which part of the world do you hold onto the tightest? Hannah Montana? Sponge Bob? Soccer? Basketball? Gossip? to be the best? to be seen?

You know the price, so what will you do? Will you walk away sad, because you are holding on so tight? Will you follow Jesus, because He is worth letting go of everything else?
________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on lulu and helium.

A Burning Bush

2009-05-03T22:15:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Exodus 3: 11 – 12

Really Read It: Exodus 3 – 4

Memorize: Deuteronomy 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. NIV

God had a job for Moses that was more difficult than any job I can imagine today. And, I believe that God trained Moses and prepared his heart from the time Moses was three months old until he saw that burning bush at age 80.

Moses was a Jew, a Hebrew. He knew the language, the culture, the holidays, the food, the ways, the history, the faith of these people as only a Jew could. A super-smart guy who studied for 40 years might do pretty well, but still he wouldn’t have being a Jew down as well as an actual Jew.

Moses was an Egyptian, a royal Egyptian. He knew the language, the culture, the holidays, the food, the ways, the history, the faith of these people as only an Egyptian could. A super-smart guy who studied and went to the best schools like Moses might do pretty well, but still he wouldn’t have being an Egyptian down as well as an actual Egyptian.

God gave Moses as life as both a Jew and an Egyptian. If a movie tried to make up a story about a kid who was all the way in two different cultures at the same time, I wouldn’t believe it. It sounds too impossible to believe, but God wrote that story and Moses lived it.

I think Moses lived knowing who he was from the time he was a baby.
Others have different guesses, and it would be more dramatic for Moses to find out about his “secret” Jewish family as an adult. Sorry that my way makes the story a bit more boring. But I think Moses knew and loved and learned from his Jewish family as he grew up. AND he knew and loved and learned from his Egyptian family as he grew up.

God set Moses up in this perfect, unbelievable training to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. His time as a shepherd was important training too. But when God talked to Moses through the burning bush and gave Moses his big job, Moses didn’t feel prepared. He didn’t know his life had the perfect steps to lead him to his job. And God didn’t tell him that.

When Moses said, “Who am I that I should go?” I would have told him all that stuff about how he knows how to talk to an Egyptian king, because he learned it growing up and he understood the slaves because he was a Jew like them. But God didn’t bring up anything close to that.

God said, “I will be with you.”

That is a lot better. Maybe Moses was trained for his job, but that didn’t matter. The God that made everything promised to be with him. That mattered.

And that is all that matters in your life. But God doesn’t promise to be with you just because you’re cute or because you remember to say please. God promises His presence and His help when you are doing his work. God is not going to come close to you so you can have more fun watching TV.

God will come close when you are joining with Him to make his kingdom bigger on the earth. God will be all the help you need when you are working to give glory to His name, make His name great, make Him famous. Then God will tell you the same thing that He told Moses. "I will be with you." That matters.

Who Is Jesus

2009-04-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

A Quick Look: Matthew 16: 16 – 17, 24 – 26

Really Read It: Matthew 16

Memorize: Matthew 16: 25

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. NLT

Who Is Jesus?

The question “Who is Jesus?” is answered again and again throughout the entire Bible. Every new answer shows more about him, and even if you think you have seen something about Jesus before, you can learn the exact same thing again and it will get bigger and better and mean more in your life. You can never stop finding the answer to “Who is Jesus?” This is not the whole answer, but Matthew 16 has four little stories and each one answers this question.

Jesus is Life From the Dead. Matthew 16: 1 – 4

The Pharisees and Sadducees demanded that Jesus show them a sign. There are some lessons in the bad example of these guys, but today is “Who Is Jesus?” day so I will focus on Christ’s words. He said, “the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” This tells us that Jesus IS life from the dead. Jonah was a dead man in many ways. He was dead because he was running away from God. He was pushing away the only giver of life. He was running from life; that was death. Jonah’s next death was water. The Bible doesn’t tell us how well Jonah did in swimming lessons as a kid, but Jonah’s swimming doesn’t really matter. If he couldn’t swim, he went go under in 1½ seconds. If he could swim, he went under in 1½ hours. But either way, all that water meant death for Jonah. Then came the fish. Bible scholars refuse to guess about the species of this large water creature, but we can be sure it had several death providers available to Jonah: teeth, tongue, throat, suffocation, stomach acid.

Jonah was as good as dead inside that fish for three days. Then God brought life from the dead. For Jonah the most important part of his new chance at life was that he ran toward God instead of away; that’s life. But God also gave him life through vomit. The sickness of that poor fish got Jonah out of the fish and out of the water.

Jesus was telling the stupid religious people that He would be dead for three days and then live again. Jesus was telling them that He was, He is life. They didn’t get it. Do you?

Jesus is the Great Giver. Matthew 16: 5 – 12

The next answer Matthew gave to the question, “Who is Jesus?” came as Jesus stopped a fight. His men were fighting just as foolishly as boys in the back of the minivan or men in the back of the church. Their fight was about food. One guy said, “You were supposed to bring the bread.” And the next guy said, “No I wasn’t. You were.” And ten more men joined in and on and on it went until Jesus stopped them all. He didn’t even tell them how foolish they were to fight like spoiled kids. He answered a more important question as He told of the times He had fed thousands.

Don’t be foolish like the guys with Jesus. Don’t fight when you don’t have what you need. Jesus has it all. Jesus gives it all. You must know how to call out to him.

Jesus is the Son of God. Matthew 16: 13 – 20

Matthew’s next answer for, “Who is Jesus?” comes from the mouth of Peter. Peter is well known for messing up. This time he got it right. Jesus asked the disciples what the people were saying about him, and he got a few answers. But Peter said, “You are the Son of God.”

Jesus is the King, the Maker of everything and everyone, the richest, the smartest, the most powerful of any person that ever walked the earth.

Jesus is our Sacrifice. Matthew 16: 21 – 28

Right after Peter’s best words, Matthew gave us some of his worst. I would have said that Peter wasn’t too smart to tell Jesus He didn’t have to die. Jesus wasn’t so gentle about it. Jesus called Peter the devil for trying to fight against God’s plan. Jesus said that he must die as the sacrifice. The best, the final sacrifice. The guys with Jesus knew about killing animals in the temple to worship God. They knew the many different reasons for it and the power of it.

The final answer to, “Who is Jesus?” was that He was and He is the one who died for us. He died to take away the gap between you and God. Jesus died so that a messed up person can come close to a perfect God.

________________________________________________________________________

Nathan is amazed to see God move in power every week at his church. You can see what is happening: http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com

You can find more of Nathan’s writing on these sites:

http://stores.lulu.com/schwepler

http://www.helium.com/users/449905

The Right Fight

2009-04-19T23:03:00.002-05:00

A Quick Look: Genesis 27: 33 – 35 and Genesis 32: 26

Really Read It: Genesis 27: 1 – 40 and Genesis 32: 22 – 32

Memorize: 1 Timothy 6: 12

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Don’t cheat. Don’t lie. Don’t fight. No tricks. No games. No anger.

I am not the first one to give you this list. You heard it from your mom, your dad, your schoolteacher, your Sunday school teacher, your aunt Virginia from Maryland, and your great-aunt Maryland from Virginia. Not to mention Barney, Big Bird, and a myriad of cartoons including squirrels, bears, vegetables, and cars.

But they were wrong. (Sorry, Aunt Virginia.)

They were partly wrong.

Jacob got to be God’s favorite person while he was a cheating, lying, fighting trickster. Part of that is because God is the boss, but there was something about Jacob that God loved, and we should copy it even if Barney doesn’t agree.

Jacob fought.

Many times Jacob fought the wrong way. But he fought for the right thing, and it always worked for him. When he fought the wrong way with tricks and lies, he had to live with the bad side effects. He tricked other people over and over: the stew for the birthright, the Esau costume for the blessing, the goat trick to his boss. His tricks seemed to get him what he wanted. He got stuff with his tricks, but he lost friends and upset family. He had to move across the country to get away from an angry relative. Twice.

The tricks Jacob played on other people were nothing compared to the tricks that came back at him. You get back what you give out could be a whole lesson by itself, and Jacob is a great example of this. Laban tricked Jacob into marrying the wrong girl. I don’t even want to go on vacation with someone I didn’t pick. Jacob got stuck married to Ms. Not-my-choice. To fix it, he just added extra wives. The wife Jacob did choose was a thief and an idol worshiper, but she didn’t tell Jacob about it. Her tricks caused trouble for the whole family. But the final trick was the worst. Nine of Jacob’s sons sold Joseph as a slave. They tricked their dad into believing that he had been torn to bits by a wild animal. Jacob believed the lie and cried over Joseph for over 20 years.

The bad results of Jacob’s tricks cannot be ignored, but don’t let them distract you from his strength. He fought for the blessing of God. He fought to find God. He grabbed on and he held on with all he had. He convinced God that he really wanted Him.

And that is what you must do.

If you fight for a goal on the soccer field but show no fight for God, you don’t really want Him. If you yell with all of your heart at the big show but show no heart for God, you don’t really want Him. A mumbled prayer and a sleepy song show God that you don’t want Him. And God doesn’t push His way in where he is not wanted.

Why does the wimpiest boy always get the Sunday school award? Is it because he is the kid who does the least amount of talking, lying, and fighting? Jacob never would have won that award but he won the favor of God.

God is looking for kids who fight for the right things. God will come close to the kid who fights for Him. The kid who fights to get close to God will see God come down. That kid will be close to God. That kid will get life from God even if Aunt Maryland puts him in time out.