Do you ever hear a song and it just sets you off and gets you in the mood to get er dun? That feeling of being pumped is a great, energizing feeling. I get that feeling sometimes when I read theology and I just have to jump and move and bask in the wonderfulness of God.
For example, I am reading a chapter in Daniel L. Akin's book A Theology for the Church titled The Doctrines of Christ, in which he discusses The Person of Christ. He is breaking down a "Christology from Above" referencing John 1. Here is a poem that he shares with the reader.
Light looked down and beheld darkness,
thither will I go said Light.
Life looked down and beheld death,
thither will I go said Life.
Love looked down and beheld dispair,
thither will I go said Love.
So came Light and shone truth,
So came Life and conquered death,
So came Love and gave hope.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
- Author Unknown
Please go read it for yourself in John 1:1-18.
In the words of Pastor Larry Wood, "If that doesn't get your fire going, then your wood is wet!"
Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Friday, April 15, 2011
Can you sin in heaven?
I've been teaching the Bible and Art Club for three weeks now! We studied Daniel 1 the first week. You can check out my post about our first meeting here. During the second meeting we talked about who God is, what sin is, who Jesus is, and our response to knowing these things. During the lesson a student asked if you can sin in heaven. I hesitated and said I didn't think so, but that I'd get back to him.
Over the week I thought about my student's question. I know that Satan had pride issues and wanted to be like God, lead a rebellion, and was kicked out of heaven. SO, I know Satan did, but does that mean believers will be able to when they get to heaven? My brain started searching through my heaven archives. I decided to call in for reinforcements by calling up two pastors I know. They pointed me to several passages. The ones I chose were Colossians 1:19-23, Revelations 21: 1-8, and Revelations 22:1-5.
From the Colossians passage, we talked about three words that were new to the students.
Me: What do you think alienated means?
Student: You turn into an alien.
Me: How many of you have younger brothers or sisters? (Nearly all of them raise their hands.) Have you ever had a friend over and you keep your sibling outside of your room and close the door so they can't come in? You are alienating them. You are separating them from you.
Students: Ohhhhhhhh!
Me: That is what sin does. It alienates or separates of from God.
Me: Does anyone know what reconciled means?
Students: No.
Me: Remember how you kicked your brother or sister outside of your room? When your mom comes in and tells you that you have to let your sibling in and play with them or else you'll be grounded for life, that is being reconciled. You are brought back together.
Students: Chuckles of understanding.
Me: What does blameless mean? I know you know how to pull words apart, because I taught many of you how to do it in 4th grade. Look at the word. What do you know for sure. Talk to your neighbor about the word blameless.
My partner: Um.... Less means without. Blame is like when you blame something on someone.
Me to everyone: In this case, blameless is without sin. You are wiped clean.
We then got into a whole discussion on how Jesus forgives us and wipes us clean. We talked about how if I died on a cross I wouldn't be able to wipe their sin away. The same student who asked if you could sin in heaven said, "But if you do enough good things, can't you get into heaven? Like if you do more good things than bad things?" I then told them about the thief on the cross next to Jesus who believed in Jesus just before he died. The thief had done a whole life's worth of bad things, but he believed that Jesus is Lord right before he died and Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
I think the Revelation passages point a little clearer to there being no sin in heaven, but I wanted to share our discussion in Colossians with you all.
Over the week I thought about my student's question. I know that Satan had pride issues and wanted to be like God, lead a rebellion, and was kicked out of heaven. SO, I know Satan did, but does that mean believers will be able to when they get to heaven? My brain started searching through my heaven archives. I decided to call in for reinforcements by calling up two pastors I know. They pointed me to several passages. The ones I chose were Colossians 1:19-23, Revelations 21: 1-8, and Revelations 22:1-5.
From the Colossians passage, we talked about three words that were new to the students.
Me: What do you think alienated means?
Student: You turn into an alien.
Me: How many of you have younger brothers or sisters? (Nearly all of them raise their hands.) Have you ever had a friend over and you keep your sibling outside of your room and close the door so they can't come in? You are alienating them. You are separating them from you.
Students: Ohhhhhhhh!
Me: That is what sin does. It alienates or separates of from God.
Me: Does anyone know what reconciled means?
Students: No.
Me: Remember how you kicked your brother or sister outside of your room? When your mom comes in and tells you that you have to let your sibling in and play with them or else you'll be grounded for life, that is being reconciled. You are brought back together.
Students: Chuckles of understanding.
Me: What does blameless mean? I know you know how to pull words apart, because I taught many of you how to do it in 4th grade. Look at the word. What do you know for sure. Talk to your neighbor about the word blameless.
My partner: Um.... Less means without. Blame is like when you blame something on someone.
Me to everyone: In this case, blameless is without sin. You are wiped clean.
We then got into a whole discussion on how Jesus forgives us and wipes us clean. We talked about how if I died on a cross I wouldn't be able to wipe their sin away. The same student who asked if you could sin in heaven said, "But if you do enough good things, can't you get into heaven? Like if you do more good things than bad things?" I then told them about the thief on the cross next to Jesus who believed in Jesus just before he died. The thief had done a whole life's worth of bad things, but he believed that Jesus is Lord right before he died and Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
I think the Revelation passages point a little clearer to there being no sin in heaven, but I wanted to share our discussion in Colossians with you all.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Names Like Azariah
Yesterday I got to T-E-A-C-H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kyle is a great husband. He is willing to work extra the four days of the week so that he can get off early on Wednesdays to come watch Eliana. Yesterday around 1:45 I got an email from Kyle. A few minutes later I realized that if I was receiving emails that meant he wasn't in the car yet. AH! I called him and nicely asked if he was driving yet. A slightly panicked response said he'd turn off the computer and be out the door in a minute. I wasn't panicked though. I'd purposely given both him and me extra time to travel. He made it home in record time and helped load the car with my cart that was full of art supplies, my Bible, and my journal. I gave him the run down of were Eliana was in her day and off I went!
I couldn't help it, I smiled almost the whole way there out of pure excitement. In fact, I'm still smiling as I write this! I arrived with plenty of time to cut some paper, talk with the office ladies, get another student's permission slip, talk with the After School Program, and chat with a teacher and an aid before the kids started lining up.
I started the lesson by telling them I'd get to share something with them that I didn't get to share as their regular teacher. I shared how I became a Christian when I was a little younger than them. Thanks to the Sharing the Gospel seminary through Bible Study Fellowship, I knew how to share the gospel in a few minutes. I explained that I realized I wasn't perfect. Sometimes I want to do good things, and I do bad things. There are even times I want to do bad things and do them. These bad things are called sin and they separate me from God. I had two girls right up front paying a little more attention to each other than me. So, to make my point, I stood right in the middle of them and said, "Wouldn't it be hard to talk to your friend with something standing right in the way?" As she leaned to see her friend, I blocked her view with dramatic waving arms. I explained that me standing in the way is like sin. With giggles from the kids, I think they got my point. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to mend the broken relationship caused by sin. He lived on earth and was perfect. Even when people were mean and spit on him, said mean things, and beat him, Jesus never did anything wrong. A student interrupted and said, "And then He died."
"Where?" I asked.
She stretched out her arms and said, "He died on the cross!"
"That's right, but he didn't stay dead. He rose again three days later. Because he triumphed over sin, we can have a relationship with him."
Then we jumped into Daniel 1. I LOVE Daniel 1. I was reading Daniel back in August and decided this would be the first lesson for the Bible and Art Club. Initially, the kids didn't want to help read, so I read the first two verses. I then explained what it would be like if their school and town was besieged. The very building we were in would be missing a roof, the windows would be broken, and some of the walls might be gone too. Half of the class would be killed in the process, and the other half would have to walk as slaves wherever they were told to go. They'd walk because cars hadn't even been invented yet. They would have to walk a long way, like from here to Nevada. Just imagine having to walk from here all the way into the city by us. That made a few kids eyes open wide as they were slowly starting to grasp that being besieged wasn't a good thing. The walk would be so hard that even if your best friend was still alive, he or she might die on the walk. Then I gave them a few minutes to talk about what that would feel like. They jumped into intense conversation. We went on to talk about what it would be like to be forced to have a new name. I reminded them of the fourth grade story My Name is Maria Isabel. The fourth graders were ecstatic because they knew the story. The sixth graders were scratching their heads trying to remember. After a brief summary the fifth and sixth graders were back on board. They had a lot to tell each other when I gave them the discussion questions, "What would it be like if you were forced to be given a new name? What if you couldn't even say your new name? What if you forgot what your new name was? What if you got in trouble because you couldn't remember your new name?" I give a lot of credit to the boy who had to read names like Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, Azariah,and Abednego. I reminded them of Marvin of the Great North Woods. Again, the enthusiasm of the fourth graders was catching since they had just read that story! I reminded others of the story and then had the fourth graders tell me about Marvin's decisions about food.
"He ate milk and pancakes one day."
"He ate bacon the other."
"What? No he didn't."
"He has to eat kosher."
"What does it mean to eat kosher?"
"I don't know."
"He is a Jew."
"Back in the book of Leviticus, God told the Jews to eat certain foods and to not eat others. Marvin followed those food laws even when he was away from his family."
Daniel had the same situation. He was told to eat a bunch of food that He knew God didn't want him to eat. He asked for the chief guard to test him and his friends for 10 days by just eating veggies and water. God blessed them. I had them think about what was at stake for Daniel to ask to only eat veggies. I explained that King Nebuchadnezzar killed people when they didn't do what he wanted. So, Daniel's very life and the guard's life were at stake if they didn't please the king. We went on to discuss how God blessed Daniel and his friends because they obeyed.
I loved watching the kids faces as we talked about the Bible. They had already been in class all day, but I had their attention. They were excited with hands raised, standing up, and enthusiastic expressions.
The art lesson went really well too! We are doing an art lesson that Kyle and I did back in high school. You can see two of the examples of my work here. The kids learned how to use a ruler to divide their page in half rather than folding it in half. They wrote their names and used tracing paper to mirror it on the other side of the divided page. I look forward to seeing them work on it some more next week!
Another blessing was that as I went to deliever some rulers to a teacher, I stopped in at the vise principal's office. She wanted to know all about the club meeting. I saw this as open door to share some good news!
To catch the background behind Bible and Art Club, read this.
Kyle is a great husband. He is willing to work extra the four days of the week so that he can get off early on Wednesdays to come watch Eliana. Yesterday around 1:45 I got an email from Kyle. A few minutes later I realized that if I was receiving emails that meant he wasn't in the car yet. AH! I called him and nicely asked if he was driving yet. A slightly panicked response said he'd turn off the computer and be out the door in a minute. I wasn't panicked though. I'd purposely given both him and me extra time to travel. He made it home in record time and helped load the car with my cart that was full of art supplies, my Bible, and my journal. I gave him the run down of were Eliana was in her day and off I went!
I couldn't help it, I smiled almost the whole way there out of pure excitement. In fact, I'm still smiling as I write this! I arrived with plenty of time to cut some paper, talk with the office ladies, get another student's permission slip, talk with the After School Program, and chat with a teacher and an aid before the kids started lining up.
I started the lesson by telling them I'd get to share something with them that I didn't get to share as their regular teacher. I shared how I became a Christian when I was a little younger than them. Thanks to the Sharing the Gospel seminary through Bible Study Fellowship, I knew how to share the gospel in a few minutes. I explained that I realized I wasn't perfect. Sometimes I want to do good things, and I do bad things. There are even times I want to do bad things and do them. These bad things are called sin and they separate me from God. I had two girls right up front paying a little more attention to each other than me. So, to make my point, I stood right in the middle of them and said, "Wouldn't it be hard to talk to your friend with something standing right in the way?" As she leaned to see her friend, I blocked her view with dramatic waving arms. I explained that me standing in the way is like sin. With giggles from the kids, I think they got my point. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to mend the broken relationship caused by sin. He lived on earth and was perfect. Even when people were mean and spit on him, said mean things, and beat him, Jesus never did anything wrong. A student interrupted and said, "And then He died."
"Where?" I asked.
She stretched out her arms and said, "He died on the cross!"
"That's right, but he didn't stay dead. He rose again three days later. Because he triumphed over sin, we can have a relationship with him."
Then we jumped into Daniel 1. I LOVE Daniel 1. I was reading Daniel back in August and decided this would be the first lesson for the Bible and Art Club. Initially, the kids didn't want to help read, so I read the first two verses. I then explained what it would be like if their school and town was besieged. The very building we were in would be missing a roof, the windows would be broken, and some of the walls might be gone too. Half of the class would be killed in the process, and the other half would have to walk as slaves wherever they were told to go. They'd walk because cars hadn't even been invented yet. They would have to walk a long way, like from here to Nevada. Just imagine having to walk from here all the way into the city by us. That made a few kids eyes open wide as they were slowly starting to grasp that being besieged wasn't a good thing. The walk would be so hard that even if your best friend was still alive, he or she might die on the walk. Then I gave them a few minutes to talk about what that would feel like. They jumped into intense conversation. We went on to talk about what it would be like to be forced to have a new name. I reminded them of the fourth grade story My Name is Maria Isabel. The fourth graders were ecstatic because they knew the story. The sixth graders were scratching their heads trying to remember. After a brief summary the fifth and sixth graders were back on board. They had a lot to tell each other when I gave them the discussion questions, "What would it be like if you were forced to be given a new name? What if you couldn't even say your new name? What if you forgot what your new name was? What if you got in trouble because you couldn't remember your new name?" I give a lot of credit to the boy who had to read names like Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, Azariah,and Abednego. I reminded them of Marvin of the Great North Woods. Again, the enthusiasm of the fourth graders was catching since they had just read that story! I reminded others of the story and then had the fourth graders tell me about Marvin's decisions about food.
"He ate milk and pancakes one day."
"He ate bacon the other."
"What? No he didn't."
"He has to eat kosher."
"What does it mean to eat kosher?"
"I don't know."
"He is a Jew."
"Back in the book of Leviticus, God told the Jews to eat certain foods and to not eat others. Marvin followed those food laws even when he was away from his family."
Daniel had the same situation. He was told to eat a bunch of food that He knew God didn't want him to eat. He asked for the chief guard to test him and his friends for 10 days by just eating veggies and water. God blessed them. I had them think about what was at stake for Daniel to ask to only eat veggies. I explained that King Nebuchadnezzar killed people when they didn't do what he wanted. So, Daniel's very life and the guard's life were at stake if they didn't please the king. We went on to discuss how God blessed Daniel and his friends because they obeyed.
I loved watching the kids faces as we talked about the Bible. They had already been in class all day, but I had their attention. They were excited with hands raised, standing up, and enthusiastic expressions.
The art lesson went really well too! We are doing an art lesson that Kyle and I did back in high school. You can see two of the examples of my work here. The kids learned how to use a ruler to divide their page in half rather than folding it in half. They wrote their names and used tracing paper to mirror it on the other side of the divided page. I look forward to seeing them work on it some more next week!
Another blessing was that as I went to deliever some rulers to a teacher, I stopped in at the vise principal's office. She wanted to know all about the club meeting. I saw this as open door to share some good news!
To catch the background behind Bible and Art Club, read this.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Turns, Forks, and Hazards on the Road of Life
Romans 14:10-12
You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Why is it that when my friends made bad decisions, did I follow them in some but not in others? Why did we together get so far off the straight path and only a few of us found our way back?
Some people can learn from other people’s mistakes. Some people must learn from making their own mistakes. And still others make mistakes and seem never to be able to learn that there’s something better.
I have had to cut the cord with a few friends over the years. It was either that or be taken down with them. This was not ever an easy thing to do. I felt like I was betraying them. I felt like I should at least stick it out and try to pull them back in. But had I not cut cords then perhaps I also would have fallen over the ledge.
Matthew 18:15-17
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
Cutting cords is painful. A friend’s mom asked me why I never hung out with her son anymore. I said because he doesn’t want to change and I knew that if I linked back up with him, then I’d go back into that same rut. She was hurt by this. She said that I was in the same place with him and questioned what made me better than he. I tried to explain that it wasn’t that I was better but that I made the choice to get right and he still needed to.
2 Peter 2:22
Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
A guy that was in my youth group was playing with the line – one step in the world and the other with God. When confronted he’d say that he would choose to get right with God later but right now he was choosing the world. He even had the idea that by doing it that way it would make his testimony more miraculous. Oh, how good we are at justifying our sin in one way or another.
Revelations 3:15-16
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
I know that in and of myself there is no clean thing. In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, “I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” I wish I was that original but I like using other people's quotes. However, I do echo his heart.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Glory be to God for His unmerited grace and mercy! Glory be to Christ Jesus who died upon the cross and rose from the dead to defeat sin and justify us before a rightous and holy God!
You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Why is it that when my friends made bad decisions, did I follow them in some but not in others? Why did we together get so far off the straight path and only a few of us found our way back?
Some people can learn from other people’s mistakes. Some people must learn from making their own mistakes. And still others make mistakes and seem never to be able to learn that there’s something better.
I have had to cut the cord with a few friends over the years. It was either that or be taken down with them. This was not ever an easy thing to do. I felt like I was betraying them. I felt like I should at least stick it out and try to pull them back in. But had I not cut cords then perhaps I also would have fallen over the ledge.
Matthew 18:15-17
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
Cutting cords is painful. A friend’s mom asked me why I never hung out with her son anymore. I said because he doesn’t want to change and I knew that if I linked back up with him, then I’d go back into that same rut. She was hurt by this. She said that I was in the same place with him and questioned what made me better than he. I tried to explain that it wasn’t that I was better but that I made the choice to get right and he still needed to.
2 Peter 2:22
Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
A guy that was in my youth group was playing with the line – one step in the world and the other with God. When confronted he’d say that he would choose to get right with God later but right now he was choosing the world. He even had the idea that by doing it that way it would make his testimony more miraculous. Oh, how good we are at justifying our sin in one way or another.
Revelations 3:15-16
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
I know that in and of myself there is no clean thing. In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, “I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” I wish I was that original but I like using other people's quotes. However, I do echo his heart.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Glory be to God for His unmerited grace and mercy! Glory be to Christ Jesus who died upon the cross and rose from the dead to defeat sin and justify us before a rightous and holy God!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Holy Ground?
scripture
Exodus 3:4-5
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
quote
(Paraphrase) Did God ask Moses to remove his shoes because the ground had all the sudden become holy or was it that it was holy the whole time and Moses had not known? Are we walking past burning bushes on our left and on our right everyday?
- Rob Bell, dvd 014 Breath, Nooma Series
thought
Am I moving so fast that I miss chances to experience God? Am I so focused on what I feel, think, believe is important that I miss out on what God feels, thinks, believes is important? What would happen if I slowed down so that I could see things in real time instead of this blur that I tend to think is life?
Exodus 3:4-5
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
quote
(Paraphrase) Did God ask Moses to remove his shoes because the ground had all the sudden become holy or was it that it was holy the whole time and Moses had not known? Are we walking past burning bushes on our left and on our right everyday?
- Rob Bell, dvd 014 Breath, Nooma Series
thought
Am I moving so fast that I miss chances to experience God? Am I so focused on what I feel, think, believe is important that I miss out on what God feels, thinks, believes is important? What would happen if I slowed down so that I could see things in real time instead of this blur that I tend to think is life?
Monday, July 2, 2007
LifeChurch.TV
Our friends Greg, Alyssa, Jason, and Angela were telling us about this amazing set of sermons that are on a topic most churches won't even touch - sex. I remember Kyle and I going to the Tommy Nelson Song of Solomon Conference after being newlyweds. It was amazing. I wanted to know why no one else preached out of Song of Solomon and what God's written plan for sex was.
Well, there is a link that discusses Satan's sex ed. There are so many lies and deep bondage that people, often even before they get out of high school get trapped into. I listened to the first link and found is extremely powerful. I highly recommend EVERYONE whether you are single, married, divorced, young or old to watch these.
God had a plan when he set up marriage. To be completely honest it is not always warm and fuzzy. As a friend said, Satan wants anything God holds precious. God holds marriage very precious to Him. It is hard at times, but it is at all times worth fighting for. And trust me, you will have to fight for it. There will be unexpected conflict and baggage that only God can heal.
I would love to hear if you listen to the link and what you think. Even if you just tell me that you are listening. It is powerful!!!
Well, there is a link that discusses Satan's sex ed. There are so many lies and deep bondage that people, often even before they get out of high school get trapped into. I listened to the first link and found is extremely powerful. I highly recommend EVERYONE whether you are single, married, divorced, young or old to watch these.
God had a plan when he set up marriage. To be completely honest it is not always warm and fuzzy. As a friend said, Satan wants anything God holds precious. God holds marriage very precious to Him. It is hard at times, but it is at all times worth fighting for. And trust me, you will have to fight for it. There will be unexpected conflict and baggage that only God can heal.
I would love to hear if you listen to the link and what you think. Even if you just tell me that you are listening. It is powerful!!!
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