Salvation is Here

I have been working in children’s ministry for a few years now, and I love it. We get to sing, dance and spin during worship without inhibition,( I often look like a fool and sound like a dying parrot, but the kids love it) we get to play games that teach kids life lessons, and we get to teach them to truths of God’s living word. I’m fortunate enough to be able to do this every week. I get up at seven o’clock every Sunday morning, and get over to the church early to make sure everything is set and ready to go, and I while I do this I pray. There is power in prayer! This past Sunday I knew that we were going to talk about salvation, and I even joked around with our Bible story teller that she better not screw this one up ( I was just kidding, she is great at what she does), so all morning I had been talking to God asking Him to lead us and give us direction. Once we got into worship, we did a few songs that were fast and jumped up and down, then we got into our last song, and I’m not kidding, these kids had their hands in the air (most of them didn’t really know why) and they were singing their hearts out to Jesus. Like I said, I have been doing kid’s church for a few years, and I had never seen these kids worship like they did that morning. After worship we had the opportunity to talk to them about salvation, and I led the 1st and 2nd graders through a Salvation prayer. I have done crazy things in my life that were a lot of fun, but I think that moment was one of the most incredible moments in my life. There is nothing like seeing child-like faith in action, accepting Christ into their lives to be Savior. God moved this weekend, We were short staffed, and we needed God to move and he did.. He is our strength in our weakness!

Oh Snap

Ok, so I’m a kids pastor, but I am also human. I’m going to let that preface my next point: I am the King of snap judgments. I can meet you for the first time and if you are awkward, or if you are strange or if you make a bad joke, my brain automatically categorizes you as such. I’m becoming better at not being this way, but for so many years I was, so this is a process in my life that I am going through, and growing through.

God has been tweaking me a lot as a leader in these last few months, and showing me things about myself that I never would have noticed otherwise. In John 8, a group of Pharisees bring an adulterous woman to Jesus, and ask Him for his snap judgment in a sense, they say to Him “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commands us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  What Jesus did next was so life changing for this woman, He knelt down next to her and began to write the dust, as He did that the mob kept badgering Him for an answer. I love what He does, the Bible says, “He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone.” (The Message)

This mob of  “religious” men brought a sinful woman to Jesus- the sinless God-man, and He defended her, He showed her love, He gave her undeserved mercy.

When you have a chance to whip out the ultimate snap judgement, remember that the one who has the right to judge you, defended you…showed you love… and gave you undeserved mercy…

Love 146

Rob Morris the co-founder of Love146 came to speak to us today about the abolition of child sex slavery. He gave us some staggering reports, like: every minute, two children are sold into slavery. That is ridiculously insane. Rob went undercover into a brothel, to see children between the ages of 5 and 10 locked in a room, sitting in front of a television watching cartoons,waiting to be sold to the next “client” there dignity has been stripped from them. They have become objects to a perverse and sex craved people. they have even the dignity of a name taken from them, all that they have is a number. Rob tells of his undercover journey to the brothel, enraged to see such a sight, watching through a window at these helpless children, there lifeless eyes watch the TV, but he noticed one, one who still had life in her eyes..Her number was 146. We as a generation can help this cause. We can live to make a difference, to find out how go to www.love146.org

Sex (gasp!)

Oh boy, the subject that is so taboo to talk about in church…SEX ahhhhh! Oh come on, your high school can talk about it, MTV can talk about it, VH1 talks about it, even Lifetime talks about it, but as soon as it’s brought into the church, it’s all of a sudden unmentionable. Pam Stenzel came from Minnesota to speak to us at the Generation Conference about sex. She rattled off lists of STD’s she had facts galore about the consequences of sexual sin. But it all boiled down to our love for Christ. do you love Christ enough to stay abstinent? Are you willing to do what it takes to save what God made for the context of Marriage? Be the difference in this Generation… Live to Make a Difference.

Danger Danger Will Robinson

So often we are living our lives toward the goal of safety. Yet, we thrive, we long for the next action flick to come out, to be able to sit on the edge of our seats, to feel our heart beat, to feel our palms sweat, to sense the adrenaline to pulse through our veins.. we leave a theatre feeling a sense of heroism, and we are ok with that.. we had our danger fix for the day… week.. month, and we go back to our boring, mundane lives. We leave and go back to the safety of our home.. not making a difference..  Pastor Mark Schilling told us so well at the Generation Conference, we need to get out of our safety mindset, and live  a life that is dangerous.. a life that is impacting others.. where are you? Are you impacting people? or are you thinking all about you? think about that.. Live to make a Difference!