Won't You Be My Neighbor!

Yesterday we talked about what it means to be a good neighbor.Many of the kids during kid's worship had great ideas of how we could be better neighbors and many of them like me had stories of how we haven't been good neighbors.
As I type this I am listening to the sounds of college students. Not because I am on a college campus but because at the beginning of the school year a group of college students started renting the house across from the parsonage. I love to hear them laughing and talking but just not at 2 am on a Saturday night. I love that they are using our basketball goal and feel comfortable enough to park in the church parking lot when they have parties. Just wish those parties didn't end with flashing lights coming. But as we were talking Sunday I realized I haven't really reached out to those students. We have complained about them, waved to them and talked to our other neighbors about them. But we haven't invited them into our circle.
Do you have anyone near you that you haven't been neighborly to? I know this week I am challenged to be more of a neighbor to them. I'm thinking cookies, what college student doesn't like cookies :)

First Sunday of Lent

We have made it to the first Sunday of Lent!

This morning our lesson was on the Good Samaritan. 

Here is the Scripture: 

Luke 10:25-42English Standard Version (ESV)The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Lego creation for this week a mountain where the robbers were hidding and a road for the man to walk on. Green platform is where Jesus and the Lawyer will stand as the story is being played out.

After reading the Scripture act out the passage having each family member play different parts.  

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the road this story took place on is like many roads in Kentucky… narrow and windy.  It was a great place for robbers to hide and many people had been robbed along that road. Because of this all three of those men were intentionally looking around at their surroundings. Because of this awareness, I would bet they weren’t going to miss a beaten injured man lying there bleeding to death. The three men that walked by were a Priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan.  During Jesus' time, a Priest was the person who took care of the temple sacrifices. A Levite had the job of taking care of the temple.  Samaritans and Jews didn't like each other at all. This parable was being told to a Jewish lawyer, who wouldn't expect for the Samaritan to have compassion on the man.

For children .. here is the question .... Younger: How can we show others love even when we are mad?  Older: Who is someone at school or day care that you need to be nicer to?

For adults and youth... here is the question... Who would you rather die instead of receive help from? Those are the people you need to pray for and to ask God to help you have a softer heart towards.

This story is one that we use a lot to talk about helping others and also loving everyone.  The question that it asks is who is your neighbor?  Who is it that has an invitation to come on the journey with us? The answer is everyone! But the deep question is do we want to invite everyone? 

As I was researching to prepare for the children's message I was thinking about who it is in our neighborhood that hasn't gotten an invitation.  Then I was thinking of those that have gotten that invitation and just aren't responding to it. Lastly, who are those people that have gotten the invitation and responded to it but still feel like outsiders to the journey? As your doing your prayer time tonight think about those people in your life.  Who haven't you given an invitation to? Who have you given an invitation to that you need to follow up with? Who has responded to your invitation but you haven't been faithful in helping them on the journey?

Death

After Wednesday there have been a few parents ask me about how to talk to your children about death. This is a topic that can be scary to children but is something that they are seeing all the time. Almost every Disney movie has a death in it, it is on the TV shows we watch, the news we have on in the background has it on it. We can try and hide from it but death is a part of life.
From a young age my parents taught me that death isn't something to fear. It wasn't an often discussed subject but it wasn't avoided. My parents modeled for me how to react to the death of someone we knew or a pet. We mourned all in our own ways and that was accepted that we aren't all the same. When it came to my sisters death it was treated in the same manner. She explained death to the children in her life and helped them see that it was just the beginning for her. Not the end. It wasn't something to fear if you had Jesus. Is it fun or something we wish, no. But God is our hope and strength. When I was young my father introduced me to the the Chronicles of Narnia.  In that series the last book has this quote that to me sums it up.
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Here are some resources and advice on how to talk to your child about death...

1. This hospice website has some great age-based information on it: http://www.hospicenet.org/html/talking.html

2. Don't dodge the questions, answer them even if it is we will talk about this later let them know you aren't avoiding the topic.

3. Give them stories of people you have had in your life that have died

4. Don't tell them they are sleeping or that they have gone away.  This will instill a fear of sleeping and will give them the impression that the person is coming back.

5. Avoid saying "God needed them." Again that will instill fear and also gives a wrong impression of God. You can say that they are in Heaven with God and that is comforting to know.

6. If you have just had a loved one die, for younger children keeping your normal routine is important. allow them express their feelings and if needed allow them to get help.

7. The book Tear Soup is an amazing resource for people who have recently lost someone. In the book, it gives tips for those who are grieving at all ages

8. Here is another website that has some good information on it.... http://grievingchildren.org/grief-resources/

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?