Time Flies!

Sorry this is late I tried to post on Tuesday but camp Internet wouldn't cooperate.  Blessings!

Time flies when your having fun is a phrase we use a lot.  I say time flies fun or no fun.   We blink and the day is done.  We tease about asking God for more hours in the day.  I pray for more productive hours in the day.  I need to use the time I have been given more wisely. Use it like it is my last hour.   Sounds a bit over the top but if you stop and think about it isn't that what Jesus did?  He used every moment to glorify God through His words and actions.  He took time for himself and prioritized what was most important to get done.  

As I look at our next 52 weeks together on this journey to make every week count I think of the moments that will be in those 52 weeks.

Are we prepared for them?  

Is your heart, mind and soul in the right place?  

Ask God to prepare you for those moments that you are going to have when you just don't know what to say or do.  Thank God for the wisdom he has given you.  The experiences you have to share with your children and those children in your sphere of influence.  

Time matters.  Blink and your expecting the huddle of joy, a blessing from Heaven.  Blink again and they are a month old.  Blink again and off to kindergarten they go.  Blink again and they are riding bikes, wanting their own phone and eating you out of house and home.  Blink again and they have their driver license.  Blink and they are packing up their rooms and heading to college leaving the nest.  

It goes fast.  It is easy to get distracted and think, I'll talk to them tomorrow about that.  It's easy to think, we can skip church this week it won't hurt much it is just one week.   The temptation to look ahead and long for them to be 18.  We fall into the trap of not enjoying each stage of life with them.  Helping them learn the lessons.  Building that strong foundation of faith in them.  

52 weeks a year.  That's all we have.  936 weeks from the time they are born to the day they turn 18... That isn't much time to help them to learn, grow and leave our legacy on their life.

Time flies.  This week stop and look at your priorities.  

Is God and church a priority in your life?  Are you really showing this to your children.  Do you set time aside for them each day?  Do they know you want to spend time with them or do they see your phone instead of your eyes?   How are you investing your time in your kids this week?

Make Every Week Count!

We are about to head into another school year.  We mark our days to get to the next summer.   I am challenging you to take a challenge with me.  Lets make the next 52 weeks the most meaningful.  Let us give our kids our time, love, words, stories, family and fun.

What we do for kids over time matters.   Love over times allows amazing things to happen.  It gives kids worth.  Fun over time makes friendships deeper.  Family over time helps kids feel like they belong.  Words over time help kids move in a better direction.  Stories over time help a child to shape their imagination and perspective of the world.

So... over the next 52 weeks.  Every Tuesday come back and let's together make every moment count for our children.  Let us capture moments and create a legacy in our children.

Vacation Bible School!!

June 16 to June 20

6pm to 8:30pm

More Info: 270-692-2761

Families will step back in time at Wilderness Escape, exploring some of the adventures faced by Moses and the Israelites. Each night participants will visit the Israelite Camp, sing catchy songs, play games, eat Bible-times snacks, and visit Moses. Wilderness Escape will run from  each day. 

May 2014

May 2014

Life Works News Youth and Children of Lebanon UMC

Greetings!  Spring is here!!  Summer is just around the corner.  We have lots of fun things in store for the summer so mark your calendars for the following dates: ·        VBS!  June 16- 20 6pm – 8:30pm ·        Girls Night (6th -12th)  June 27 5:30pm ·        Youth Water Day   (6th -12th)   June 28  1pm ·        Children’s Water Day  July 6  1pm ·        Girls Night  (6th -12th)  July 11 5:30pm ·        Youth Camp at Loucon (6th -12th)  July 27 – 30 (Sign up online)

Next Wednesday April 30 Mission Night! Children will meet at the church like normal and do missions projects here at the church. Youth we will not meet at the church but here is your assignment for the Wednesday: Our mission as Christians is to not only come to church but to invite people to come to church with us.  So for this Wednesday I want you to go out and be the church to someone else and to invite them to church with you. Is there someone who goes to school with you that does not know Christ? a.     If you answered yes, who is it?                                                                i.      Send that person a message, call them or talk with them at lunch and invite them to church on Sunday b.    If you answered no, ask your friends if they go to church and if they don’t invite them to come to church with you on Sunday

236 North Spalding Ave Lebanon, KY 40033 lebanonumcstudents@gmail.com Bekah’s cell – 859-576-0057

Scrapbook Party

Our finished Nursery

April showers bring May flowers

The children during our Kid’s Worship time will be going through a new series call Faith Builders.   It is a curriculum that will teach our children to build faith one block at a time.  We will be using Legos to tell the stories of our faith.  Children ages PreK – 5^th grade are invited to the Life Works Chapel on the third floor.

During Sunday School we will be learning about all the Gross things in the Bible.  Children 1^st – 12^th grade are invited to the third floor Sunday School room for a time of lesson, prayer and fellowship from 10 – 10:40.

Wednesday Nights in May we will be talking about families and friends relationships.   On May 28^th we will have our last Wonderful Wednesday by celebrating with food, fun and fellowship! 

Youth Group during the month of May will be talking about relationships.

Youth Girls will be meeting May 9^th at 5:30pm we will be talking about relationships and love language.

The movie Heaven is for Real is out and we are going to take a group to go and see it.  We will leave the church at 1pm on Sunday May 4.

Sunday

Easter Sunday

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

1 Corinthians 6:14

Sunday Prayer

Lord, you have been powerfully raised from the dead.  In you, I have life and power over death.  Ignite my life with your power, O Lord, and let me take up my cross and follow you for all eternity. Alleluia!   Amen.

Sunday Meditation

Your love is stronger than death.  Your divine love breaks through the prison of death and destruction and becomes manifest again your risen body.  O Lord, who will ever be able to understand the heart in which your divine love became flesh!  Again I look at you.  You rose from the dead, and now you appear to me.  You say to me, “Peace be with you,” and you show me your wounded hands and your wounded side.  Yes, the wounds of your cross are visible on your risen body.  I look up at you and know that the marks of your totally self-giving love have found forever a place in the glorified body with which you are ascending to your Father and mine.

Henri Nouwen

Saturday

Holy Saturday

The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing.

Isaiah 14:7

Saturday Prayer

A peculiar quietness fills the air today.  You hung your head and gave up your spirit, Christ Jesus.  Still, a peculiar excitement fills the air, too.  My Lord and my God, I wait with bated breath for your resurrection!  Amen.

Saturday Meditation      

It is the water from the Jordon through which the people and the Ark of the Covenant passed to enter into the Promised Land.  It is the water that flowed from the Temple, becoming deeper and deeper.  It is the water with which you yourself were baptized by John.  It is the water that became wine at Cana.  It is the healing water of the pool of Bethesda.  It is the water with which you washed your disciple’s feet.

Yes, Lord, the water flowing from your side is all of this, but much more than this too because it is the water by which you give us your innermost self and make us part of your communion with your Father; it is the water that becomes a spring in us welling up for eternal life.

-          Henri Nouwen

Friday

Good Friday

And in the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” 
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

Friday Prayer

Forsaken by both God and man, my Savior, you went through hell; you conquered it, Christ Jesus, by obliterating the gates of hell on the cross.  My God, let me know the love that you have for me.  Let me know the price that has been paid on my behalf.  The crosses that I carry are nothing compared to your cross.  Yet I take up my crosses knowing that you, O Lord, have taken up the far greater cross for me.  Amen.

Friday Meditation

How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without being aware of it?  But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent?  How can I rejoice fully in your resurrection when I have avoided in participating in your death?

Yes, Lord, I have to die – with you, through you and in you – and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your resurrection.  There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess, O Lord, I am self-centered, concerned about my self, my career, my future, my name and fame.  Often I even feel that I use you for my own advantage.  How preposterous, how sacrilegious, how sad!

-          Henri Nouwen