Learning about God at the Fair with the mountain lions.

So this week I went with some of the youth to the fair in Rapid City.  I saw a lot of cool things and had a fun time, but one thing that stuck with me were parents with little kids.  At every ride there was a "You have to be this tall to ride this ride" kind of sign.  These signs had a spot that you could be this tall to ride with a parent.  Well there were multiple occasions when the kids couldn't ride alone and needed a parent.  That is when the mountain lions in each of us came out...  Parents would verbally attack the ride operators and try to get their kid on the rides without them.  SIDE NOTE: A lot of the parents there only bought ride wristbands for their kids and not themselves so they couldn't go with them on the rides.  I even saw a parent sarcastically bow to the ride operator and say, "Thank you my liege!" and walk away with sad kids.  One of the operators said, "I hate being the bad guy!"  What is the point you might say...One of the instances reminded me of a Bible passage.  There was a kid and she stood at the board, which clearly showed she was in the ride with a parent zone.  The mom said, "you are at the line (she was not) to ride by yourself."  The child then says, "No mom I have to ride with a parent"  The mom was not going to hear that and told the operator she was at the line and got her kid on the ride.  

Matthew 18: 2-6

Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.  Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.  So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.  But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

I like this passage for different reasons...it cautions me to make sure I am teaching truth from the Bible when talking to youth.  It also teaches me that I should be more like a child :)  That child at the fair knew the truth and was humble and honest, but the mom was not going to have her child miss the ride.  The mountain lion parents at the fair were teaching the children to manipulate people to get what you want and also to treat those who work for you with disrespect.  I am glad I serve a God that loves me even when I mess up and I can go to Him to seek forgiveness, but the truth is the kids around us look at us to learn and for me that is a crazy thought.  I need to be the example of Christ to those around me and lead by example to what a person of God does.  As well as lead those children towards God and not put stumbling blocks in front of them.  Pray for our kids as they start school and pray for youth group this year that God would move through it.

Learning about God through packing.

So soon I will be moving to a new apartment across town so it is time to pack and clean.  It takes me awhile to pack and clean because I play with things that I have not touched in a long time.  You start putting stuff in a box and all of a sudden it looks so appealing again.  The question is when was the last time you picked up the Bible and spent time with God?  Sometimes our personal life with God is like when I pack.  We plan on spending time with God everyday but then stuff gets in the way, and you know what it is in your life.  Then when we go to church, camp, a mission trip, a retreat or anything where we see how cool God is.  This is when we "play" with the item we had stored for awhile.  We pick the Bible up again and spend time with God, but then we find ourselves putting it back down and don't see it again till we go to that place that motivated us to pick it up.  Why does this happen?

A few observations that I have.  The first is that we are reading the Bible wrong.  Sometimes people have a check list or want to read a chapter a day.  Good in thought, but eventually you make spending time with God a task instead of a hang out time with God.  Then when you miss one or two days you hate yourself and get fed up with reading the Bible.   We are too meditate on what the Bible is saying and really apply it to our lives.  Take time after reading the Bible, however much you read, and ask God, "How do I apply this to my life?"  Let God show you and take time to listen instead of just asking God a list of things you need.

Another observation comes from our selfish attitude, "There is nothing in it for me." or "It is boring!"  Again you are reading the Bible wrong.  When we become a Christian we are made in a new creation and strive to be more like Christ.  We cannot know how to do that without reading the Bible and spending time with God.  Read the Bible with a mindset of how can I apply this to my life? or what is God teaching me through this?  Take time to really reflect on it during the day.  This is how you develop more into Christ and really get everything out of the Bible.  

The last observation is that people read one verse and make it mean whatever they want it to mean.  Again you are reading the Bible wrong...haha do you see a pattern.  The problem with some people is that they read one verse or have a devotional that takes one verse and make it mean anything they want.  They don't take the time to get the context of the whole passage or study it more.  That can be a problem and is reasons why we get a lot of random crazy theologies.  So make sure you take time to really get the context of the whole passage.  You do not have to read a commentary to know it, but that is one of the best places.  I tend to read the chapter before and after the passage I hear in church.  biblestudytools.com is a good site to use if you really want to dig into the context and the history of the passage.

So now that I basically told you that you read the Bible wrong let me give some tools that helped me get the most out of my Bible reading and spending time with God.  There is a reading plan called Time With ABBA.  Read the passage but underline or write out verses.  (I write out all of it to keep the context...the kings of Israel would write a copy of the whole law when they became king).  Then you underline/highlight in different colors characteristics of God, sins that you see, and promises/things God does for us.  Then once that is done you pray by praising God who he is based on what you saw in the Bible, then you ask forgiveness either from you, your town, your church, your nation...etc the sins you saw in the Bible, and then you claim/ask God to bless you with the promises or the things God does for us.  This works well for me because when I go through the day I notice more what I read in the Bible and I learn more about who God is.

Another tool that I have used in the past is REAPing. (Read, Examine, Apply and Prayer).  Read the passage first.  Then you examine, which is looking at the passage and understanding what it is saying.  This can be down by writing in your own words, studying the context using different tools or asking other Christians to help you understand it.  Then you take what you learn and apply it to your life.  Then you write a prayer to ask God to help you with what you learned and trying to apply to your life.

There you go...when you do this then you will see God work in your life and transform you to be more like Christ.  But remember to take time to listen to God instead of doing all the talking.

God working through the sick!

So in July the youth group went on a mission trip called BUMP where we went to Cross Cultural Church in the Twin Cities and helped them with Vacation Bible School and service projects to bless the church.  It was a great week of God working, but it was also a great week of God supporting us with strength and energy.  

One of the hardest lessons but most fulfilling things we need to learn is to fully trust in God and allow Him to work through us.  A lot of the time we plan a long time and structure every second of the day.  This leaves no wiggle room for God to move and we hardly let it go if God has something else for us.  It is hard to give Him full control, but it so much easier when you are sick.  That week on BUMP most of our team was sick and most of the stuff we did and the energy we had to do things is thanks to God.  

No matter how much we planned or practiced it was all in God's hands and He was working in the hearts of the kids and us that week.  One of our goals for the week was to double the kids we had the first day to the end of the week.  We had 30 kids the first day and by the end of the VBS week we had 61 kids come to VBS.  Praise God for the work that He does and allows us to experience!  All I can say that God is awesome and even takes a team that is sick and does something amazing for His Kingdom!  

Fully relying on God might of been what God wanted to teach us that week and that we need Him to do amazing things!  Prayer was our friend that week and we did see a lot of answered prayers through Him.  This reminds me of a mission trip that I went on in college.  We planned and were ready and the week before going our leader prayed, "God please let our plans fail so You can move."  WHAT!!!!  Well of course our God is awesome and listens to us and guess what...a lot of our plans failed that week and we had to rely on God to come!  With wrong rental vehicles, it snowing in Arizona during spring break, to daylight savings confusion, and missing plane causing us to be stranded for 3 days.  But the cool thing is that no matter what we plan God has something better for us.  God knew what we needed and let us have a powerful trip of kids getting to know God for the first time and for us to see God in a new way.  

That is what I love about God...no matter where we are God is moving!  If you are sick God can use you, if you are stuck in New Mexico for three days God is going to use you, if you see the same person at a coffee shop every morning God wants to use you!  God is awesome!  So if your plans fail look to God and see what He wants you to do!