Weekend Time War

It is the weekend... finally Friday!

Weekends come with the joy of being off work and the curse of time. If you are like us some weekends are so busy that you wonder if you're going to have time to sleep and then other weekends your digging for things to do.

Budgeting time is something that I haven't always been good at, it is a learning curve for me.  I recently read a book that made stop and think about how little time I was actually spending on things that were important and looking at the excuses we all have for not budgeting our time well. We only have 24 hours in a day to spend. Each day will be different because we all have different things on each day of the week. But if you take out a weekly calendar what would it look like? Would your time be spent well? If God took your calendar for a week would it look the same as what you have down? I had to answer no to those questions. It was time for a calendar makeover. Lent is a great time to do this. It gives us 40 days to look at how we are spending our time and to change how we are budgeting.

When I redid my budget the first things I added to my calendar was my time with God. God should always first. This means, my quiet times and prayer time is to be done first and not with the leftover energy of the day.

Then comes family, we each week find times to spend together even if it is just sitting and watching something on Netflix or going to the store. Intentionally finding time to just be with each other and not allowing other things to interfere with that.

Then comes everything else... jobs, hobbies and everything in between.  For me, my time is flexible and that can be a blessing and a curse. It comes down to making sure I am saying yes to what needs to be done, maybe to things that are extra and no to things that are not necessary.

Dave Ramsey has a good article on time management: http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/are-you-budgeting-your-time-effectively

Teaching our children to do this from an early age will help them be able to do this better than us! We can do this by modeling it and also teaching them through visuals of a clock that breaks down your daily routine or explaining why your doing each activity.  PBS has a good article on this: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/school/time/article3.html

Over the next 40 days ask yourself this question.  Is my time budgeting worth modeling to those around me? Is my time honoring God? Write down your answers and after these 40 days revisit the questions.

I was driving through a small town on my way home from a conference and I was struck by this big wall that said "Before I die, I want ......" and then it had chalk writings of all the things people wanted to do before they died.  I was curious about this wall so I did what any other person would do.  I went to google.  Google knows everything right? Well... maybe not everything but it gave me good information about this new trend that is happening all around the world.  People all over the world are stopping and asking themselves, "what is most important."

During the season of Lent we are asked to stop and reflect on our lives and on what Jesus did for us on the cross.  Contemplating death can lead to us accomplishing a lot of good things.

In John 12:24 Jesus said to his disciples "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus was contemplating his own death. Real life and abundant life comes when we are willing to die to self.

Candy Chang said that "contemplating death really clarifies my life and regularly contemplating death has been a powerful tool for me to restore perspective and remember things that make my life meaningful to me."

Lent is a time to restore our perspectives and go back to the things that make life meaningful.  Our lives matter to Christ.  He doesn't really care what we give up, he does care about what that giving up does for our relationship with him. We aren't going to get a front row ticket to heaven if we give up more than the person sitting next to us or attend all the church services. He is looking for a life change.  He is asking that we die to self and let him take over.

On Wednesday we heard the words "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." A little morbid to think of our deaths but it helps us to remember that we are to live for God now because life is fleeting. We won't be on this place we call earth forever so we need to live now.

It is easy for us to get caught up in the day to day routines and forget what really matters.  Over the next 40 days we have a chance to restore our perspective and remember that life is a gift from God. If we do this we will be ready to truly live.

What is your answer to this question?

Before I die, I want to __________________.

Lent Family Devotional

This year for Lent we are inviting families to take a new kind of journey. One that may look a bit overwhelming at first but will be rewarding in the end. If you haven't already stop by the Life Works Chapel and pick up a Lent family devotional kit. Inside the devotional kit you will find tools to help you start having a family devotional time. This is simply a time when your entire family (even the babies) sit down together. During that time you can talk about how your day went, ask each other where you've seen God at work, and most importantly pray with each other. 

These past two Sundays we have been blessed to witness three babies and an adult be baptized. We have said in that covenant that we are going to help them on their Spiritual journey. That we as a church are going to stand alongside these families and disciple their children. 

How can we make sure that we are doing this well? Where do we start in making disciples of our children so they in turn can make disciples of those around them?

It starts in the home. It starts with the parents or guardians saying “YES! Discipling my child is important.”  Then it is us as a church helping you to know what that means to disciple your child and give you resources to do that.

This is where your family devotional box comes into play. This Sunday we handed out boxes that were full of resources for your as a family to use to have a family devotion time. We aren't just going to hand you a box and walk away we are going to continue to give you the tools you need to make this time a successful one.  We have added a tab to this blog, Family Devo Time, click on there to find tips and other tools to use to help your family connect together and to God.

Also, help us out by letting us know what you need or if there are things that have helped you during your family devotion time.  Let's work together as a team to help each other along this journey!

What is Ash Wednesday??

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Ashes are a sign of repentance and the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” are said as the sign of the cross in made with ashes on the foreheads of the attendees of the Ash Wednesday service.

Ash Wednesday can be confusing and hard to explain to younger children.  It is a day when we remember that we all have sinned and all will die one day. I recommend to people that they shouldn't hide death from children. They don't need to be exposed to the ugly or scary parts of death but they don't need to be sheltered from the reality of death. That is the same for sin. Children already understand that there are things we do right and things we do wrong. Carefully helping them to see that when they do things wrong that it makes God sad and that there are consequences to this. During Lent it is a great time to talk with children about both of these things in an age appropriate way.

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent.  Lent is supposed to last for 40 days, but if you count the days from Ash Wednesday through Easter, you’ll come up with a total of 46 days. 

During Lent it is a practice to fast from something in efforts to create a new life pattern. This year during lent don't just fast from something but add something in its place.  

Give up harsh words: use generous one. 

Give up unhappiness: take up gratitude. 

Give up anger: take up gentleness and patience. 

Give up pessimism: take up hope and optimism. 

Give up worrying: take up trust in God. 

Give up complaining: value what you have. 

Give up stress: take up prayer.
Give up greed: take on sharing.
Give up telling lies: take on telling the truth.
Give up teasing: take on saying kind words. 

Give up judging others: discover Jesus within them. 

Give up sorrow and bitterness: fill your heart with joy. 

Give up selfishness: teak up compassion for others. 

Give up being unforgiving: learn reconciliation. 

Give up words: fill yourself with silence, and listen to others. 

Give up the mask of self: Become Living Proof of God’s Love, one person at a time.

What are you going to give up and take up this year?

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday Service

Wednesday, March  1st

6:30 pm

Nursery will be available for children 6weeks to 3 years old.  Service will be engaging enough for preschool and elementary schoolers.  We will have special bulletins for the children that night.  This service is one you are not going to want to miss.  We have lots new and exciting things that we will be doing throughout the service.

Join us as we begin our journey to the cross.

Spring News...

Spring is Here!

With Spring comes flowers and warm gentle breezes.  Spring brings us Easter and spring break.  It also brings a visual lesson for us on growing in Christ.  We need three things to be able to grow.  Soil, water, and sunlight. 

For a plant to grow it has to have good soil, its foundation. Just like a house, if the foundation is bad then the plant won’t grow.  For Christians, our soil ,or foundation, is Christ.  Christ nurtures us and supports us.  John 15:4 says “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”    

The next thing a plant needs is sunlight.  Plants grow towards the light; they long for the warmth and strength only the sun can give.  We as Christians long for that warmth and comfort.  We look to the Scriptures to guide our paths and to lead us in times of doubt. 

The last thing a plant needs to grow is water.  Plants will grow, but they won’t last long if you don’t water them.  Just like a Christian will not grow in their faith without the fellowship of other believers.  God did not intend for us to grow alone but to have fellowship with one another. 

One last word of wisdom, don’t forget to weed!  Weeds easily get into our gardens and choke out our beautiful plants.  Weeds in our spiritual garden can distract us from Christ.

As we go into the season of Lent and Spring brings us gentle rains remember to tend the garden.

 Lent Devotions

Lent devotion kits will be handed out the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.  We will be updating our blog with information and will be posting ideas on our Facebook.

It's Looking Like 2017

Life Works End of the Year Newsletter

    …Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea—especially at the beginning of a new year.

    As we look into 2017 we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

    The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

    Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.

    And you cannot bring back time. Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions. We can waste it. We can worry over it. 

We can spend it on ourselves. Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God.

The new year is full of time. As the seconds  tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, 

or will you make every minute count?

Steven B. Cloud,