The "LOST" week of the Year

I first heard about the "LOST' week about 10yrs. ago - it's a spoof of "last" week.
The holiday season begins a week or two before Thanksgiving - from that moment
on up until the main event Christmas Day - we are hurried, rushed, overloaded,
with packed schedules.

This December Cathleen and I attended two Christmas parties, 1 of the Church, 1 work
Christmas party.
Our girls attended 2 diffrerent birthday parties, not to mention Cathleen's
b-day is the 21st oF DEC.
Family in from out of town most of DEC.
Added onto all of the regular Christmas preparations of shopping, traveling,
children's plays and the like...
Come the main event - Christmas Day - we get about half way through the day and crash!

The next day, the 26th onto the 31st becomes the last week of the year, a week
that often becomes LOST - we have hit a brick wall and zone out! We think to ourselves,
"I did it! I made it through another holiday season alive with all my limbs attatched!"

The only problem is that when we zone out of the last week, we begin a New Year behind.
Behind physically, mentally, and spiritually.

To avoid that I'd like to share a few things I do to stay FOCUSED


The "LOST" Week of the Year
(December 26 - January 2)


"Act like people with good sense and not like fools.
...so make every minute count." Ephesians 5:15-16


Five suggestions to keep your FOCUS:


1. REFLECT, FAST, & PRAY

Grab a notebook and pen then take some time to reflect on the past year, the
good, the not so good, the fun stuff, the annoying things.
Talk to God about the year, ask what He has to say.
Take some time to fast this week. I fast New Years Eve into New Years day.
Think about what could work for you.

"Examine yourselves..." 2 Corinthians 13:5


"When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. Jeremiah 29:12

"And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look
pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting." Matthew 6:16


2. Read a large book in the Bible

A couple of years ago I was reading the gospels, this year it's Acts. Pick a
good size book, Dueteronomy is a fabulous Old Testament book, Psalms or Proverbs, or maybe
1st or 2nd Corinthians. It will definetly get a head start on reading the Bible in a year
if that's your route.

"Never stop reading The Book of the Law he gave you. Day and night you must
think about what it says. If you obey it completely, you will be successful." Joshua 1:8

3. Undress the House

This is simply using this week to take down and store all of your beautiful
Christmas decor.

You may say why? It's just the thought that come January 2nd you still have
Christmas decor up and it avoids the feeling of "Im already behind, I still have to put
away last year's stuff"

"let us strip off every weight that slows us down,... And let us run with
endurance the race that God has set before us." Hebrews 12:1


4. Set aside time for "Refreshing"

This is differernt from zoning out - this is purposed relaxation and refreshing.
Take some time of solitude and invite the Holy Spirit to come and renew you spiritually.
With palms up just say,

"God, I'm here willing to just sit and soak up whatever you have for me."
Then watch how God loves on you.

"I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my
whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God." Psalm 84:2


5. Summarize... Prioritize... Organize

Go back to the time of reflection, what did you come up with? What did God say? ...Summarize

Make a list of what you want to accomplish in '06 - from small to big - lay it out & ...Prioritize

Now that is done, how are you going to accomplish these things? What's your plan ...Organize

"Lead me in the right path, O LORD,... Tell me clearly what to do, and show me
which way to turn." Psalm 5:8

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

That's just a few suggestions, you may have more. Whatever the case, don't let
the last week become the LOST week.

Finding GOD in Narnia - A World of Wonder

Discover the Meaning in the Message

In ‘The CoN’ readers or viewers - recognize characters like themselves who’ve had to put up w/ bullying, betrayals, bad schools, & the overall cruelty that we and children often show each other. lewis’ stories also show children having to make hard choices, coming to terms w/ their moral responsibility, and undergoing spiritual trials and victories.
Just as we do in real life.

Tell story - Children left London due to the air raids of WW2
end up in a Professors large home - trying to entertain
themselves in any way possible, play hide n seek - Lucy
discovers the Wardrobe
As she enters she discovers it goes deep - she sees some light - she finds herself in Narnia.
Returns home - bros and sis don’t believe her - Edmund is quite vicious in teasing and tormenting his sister - Lucy feels unbelievably miserable - another way we can relate.
A few days later - Edmund discover Narnia w/ Lucy - he doesn't tell - Ed actually bitter that he was wrong and would have to apologize so he denies it.
This is the beginning of a nasty downward spiral for Ed.

The moral degradation of Ed is one of the story’s most
important issues. His rel. w/ the Witch is a symbol of his
sinful condition in this world.
Some sins are twisted and unlawful attempts to gain
something good, something that benefits them - thief/stereo
a drug addict who wrecks his body & life for a moments pleasure. Those sins are bad enough -
But there are others where the perpetrator gets nothing in return - Vandalism, Cruelty, Pride, Anger, Revenge, purposely hurting someone who loves us - again we can relate

The LWW is about sin, and it is about salvation from sin

Lewis makes it quite clear that sin is very ordinary. It does not have to be dramatic, breaking out into some monstrous crime to be deadly and soul-killing. It is in our nature
While sin can break out into action, it’s home is in our thoughts and feelings and attitudes, in the deepest recesses of our heart.

What a segue to discuss the White Witch (vid) - In the LWW, the witch symbolizes Satan. The story explores in symbol what the Bible says about Satan’s reign in a fallen world; how he tempts us; how he enslaves us; and how he is
defeated by Jesus Christ, who frees us from his bondage.

When Lucy was with Tumnus she asked him, “who is the white witch?” He tells her, she is the one who has all Narnia “Under her thumb” b/c of her, it is always winter and never Christmas - those simple words are charged w/ symbolism -
The Bible tells us Satan has the world, “under his thumb”

1 John 5:19 … the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

When Ed meets the the White Witch he is struck by how beautiful she is. This is important to remember about the
appearance of Satan. Satan and the witch in reality are hideously gruesome in their true inner selves, but they
appear attractive, persuasive, even good.
Evil generally presents itself as something good. We don’t just go out and say, “Hey, let’s do something evil today
today” Temptations and evil often come in disguise -
Sex. immorality masquerades as love, Cruelty pretends to be justice, Rebellion insists that it is freedom.
false in appearance

The witch with Ed becomes nice, inviting him onto her sleigh,
wrapping her fur mantle around him - She conjures up something warm to drink, She asks him, “What’s your fav. treat?”
Turkish Delight, he says
Ed starts gobbling up all the TD, as any young child would
then when the TD runs out, Ed wants some more, but the witch doesnt give him any - instead bring bro/sis get more
Ed craves the TD so much he’ll do anything to get more.
You see those who taste it once will want more and more - if they could, they’d eat, eat, eat until it killed them.
Ever heard of anything like that before?
Ed becomes addicted to the witch’s TD, hmm, drug addicts develop such cravings that they will lie, steal, even kill in
order to get another hit, another drag, sniff, snort, anything?
A drug addict will even keep taking drugs until they kill him.
The one addictive behavior leads to more and more, more.
Alcohol can have the same effect - Sexual sins can be just as addictive and destructive.
One characteristic of an addiction is that as the craving grows, the actual pleasure grows less, requiring more and more stimulation to achieve the desired affect.
This leads to overdose, destruction of self, and family.
But less dramatic sins also have the quality of TD. We can gorge ourselves on hatred, as well, or on envy or greed or pride. All of these are egotistical pleasures, which we come to crave more and more and more.
TD symbolizes the sense in which sin is enslaving.

Everything we just discussed ties us down, we are not free -
It may start with an exhilarating sense of freedom, or
rebellion against the norm, but these sins make those who
indulge in them slaves.
Addicts cannot just chose to stop their habits. If they were free they could, but even when the want to stop, they cannot, as their desires drag them deeper and deeper into self-destruction.
All sin is like that.
Contrary to the popular assumption that sin is liberating, the truth is that sin destroys freedom. As Jesus said himself, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” Jn. 8:34
point of TD: now Ed bondage to witch, as sinners are in bon. to Satan.
(vid)
The figure of Aslan is the soul of all the CoN. Aslan is the center of the stories’ meaning and the main source of their insight. When Peter, Lucy, & Susan come to meet Aslan for the 1st time in attempt to help their brother who is controlled by the witch - they are awed and overjoyed by his presence and comforting voice when they are warmly received by Aslan. Just as God’s Word consoles His people, the sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd -
“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:3-4

Aslan is Lewis’ symbol for Jesus Christ

The word Aslan is simply the Persian word for Lion.
The bible itself uses the lion as a symbol for Christ.
The earliest reference in scripture comes in Gen. 49
There are other ref. but the most explicit portrayal of Christ as a Lion is in the book of Rev. 5:5
“See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

In a later volume in the CoN titled the “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” another group of children meet Aslan. One of them asks him if he is in their world too?
“I Am,” said Aslan, “But I have another Name.”

Eventually Ed. is rescued, brought back and is repentant.
You may think, well now all is well, but there is a debt that has to be paid - the witch’s claim
The Witch approaches Aslan and announces there is a
traitor in your midst. According to the law every traitor
belongs to her. As a result, she maintains, Ed belongs to her - his life is forfeit - she is entitled to his blood.
You see, sinners in Narnia belong to the witch, just as
sinners in our world belong to the devil.
“He who does what is sinful is of the devil...” 1 John 3:8

The story here turns particularly powerful b/c now we can all relate to Ed and his predicament. We have recognized his spite, his envy, his lusts for pleasure and revenge, his injured pride, b/c we too, if were honest, have given in to such sins ourselves. Ed is in that bondage of sin that leads to death - he stands condemned - the wages of sin must be collected.

The Passion of Aslan

After a private discussion w/ the witch, Aslan proclaims Ed is free and clear - all is well.
There is great joy in the camp - but later that night Aslan leaves his camp off to the Stone Table - foll. by 2 girls
There the witch and her minions are ready and waiting to place Aslan upon the Stone Table to take his life.
On his way he is bound, mocked, his mane is shaven off, he is kicked, hit, and spit upon in humiliation - the scene
parallels the stripping and mockery of Christ.
On the Stone Table the witch kills Aslan, the girls witness his death and stay by his side after the witch and company leave - paralleling Mary and Martha at Christ’s death and at His tomb. (vid)
The Stone Table symbolizes The Cross of Christ

Not only does Aslan die for Ed, he dies in Edmunds place. He takes the punishment Edmund deserved, just as Jesus did for us.
The girls hear this loud cracking noise, they turn to the table and it is broken in 2 and Aslan’s body is gone!
They begin to cry thinking someone has taken his body but then they hear his voice - they turn to see him alive!
It is a physical resurrection of Aslan - Christianity hinges on the physical death of Jesus followed by his physical coming back to life. (1 Cor. 15:12-28)
The Gospels emphasize that the resurrected Jesus is no mere spirit, nor a ghost. He eats, and has the disciples touch Him.
Aslan explaining to the girls the written law, “If a willing victim innocent of treachery died in a traitor’s place, the Stone table would crack and death itself would start working backwards.”
(Ed sac to witch - Old Test. sac.)

You see, there is no longer a need for sacrifice on our part. Christ has been sacrificed once and for all - He did it for us
“Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! ...
By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.”
Hebrews 10:12-14
In Narnian terms, The Stone table, a place of sacrifice. can be broken, since sacrifices are now finished once for all.
The phrase, “Death works backwards” refers to the message of Easter - Christ’s death brings our life!
We are alive in Christ!
Christmas story - Jesus was born to die so we could live!

The Battle
Justification by faith is not the end of the Christian Life. It is just the beginning - it is the continual energizing force for what comes next. God does not take us out of the world after He has saved us. He sends us back into the world. (Jn.17)
He does not take away all of our problems, trials, and
conflicts.
Instead he turns them into stepping stones - opportunities to grow in our faith - this is known as ‘sanctification’.
This happened to Peter, when Aslan let Peter take on the evil wolf in a one on one combat - we need to notice that in that combat, Aslan was right there - God is always right there. But life is a battle
In this process of Sanct. we live out our life, w/ it’s ups and downs, triumphs and failures - thru it all we grow in holiness.
But it’s a battle (vid)

The battle is symbolic of our everyday journey in life
The battle against the witch and her minions continues even after the death and resurrection of Aslan.
Even after Christ’s death and resurrection, even after He saved us, we too must continue to battle sin, in ourselves and in the world.
The bible uses the imagery of warfare to describe
sanctification.
“For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see
another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” Romans 7:22-23

But God gives us the resources to fight these battles:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Ephesians 6:10-18
This is how we are protected and engage in the battle
(you may want to do some research on this)

We have a God who loves us dearly. Who sent His Son as the perfect sacrifice so we could live! Live with Him for
eternity - WOW! This offer is for everybody - have you grabbed a hold of it?

Finding GOD in Narnia - All is not as it should be

Oxford, England, September 18, 1931. Two brilliant young professors walk in the darkness until 3:00 a.m. Jack and Tollers have become fast friends, drawn together by their love for obscure philosophers and ancient myths and fairy tales. But tonight, Jack is not talking about literature; he is desperately looking for answers to his doubts. He has recently given his life to God, in his own words “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England,” but he struggles to believe the most basic truths of the Gospel. His friend Tollers is a Christian, but instead of quoting Scripture or arguing philosophy, he begins to talk about the stories they both love so much. Tollers says that in every great story, there is something good and deep—something that points to the best and deepest story—The Real Story—God’s story of salvation through Jesus Christ.

the Bible is at its root a story, not “cleverly invented” but true—a story of God and people, of good and evil, of betrayal and forgiveness, of frustration and redemption. It is a story that is not only true to the facts, but true to life—mysterious yet down-to-earth. It is a story that is simple enough for children, yet deep enough to address our deepest needs.

That September walk was a breakthrough for Jack, and two weeks later he told a friend that his doubts were no longer holding him back from his commitment to follow Christ. He told his friend Tollers that the world needed more stories that would point to The Real Story. Tollers, best known as J.R.R. Tolkien, went on to write the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jack, who wrote as C.S. Lewis, wrote literary essays and philosophy and apologetics. He didn’t get around to writing his 'stories' until much later in life, one story we know as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’

Now Disney is betting $180 million that children and grownups will go to see one of those stories of
Narnia in movie form. You should see the movie for yourself. Many of your non-Christian friends and neighbors will see the movie, and you should talk with them about it, and invite them to come to church next Sunday as we talk about Jack’s most
difficult question that night, “I simply don’t understand how the life and death of Someone Else (whoever he was) 2000 years ago can help us here and now.”

But this is not a commercial for a movie. Whether you choose to see the movie or not, I want to talk to you today about some parts of The Real Story that maybe you haven’t thought about lately.

If you were going to write a story, how would it begin?
Most of the world’s greatest stories begin with a painful reality: Things are not as they should be. Cinderella has a wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Sleeping Beauty has been cursed by a disgruntled old fairy.
Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother has been killed by the Big Bad Wolf. Dumbo - Bambi

Why do the greatest stories begin like that? The world is not as it should be.
There are tsunamis and hurricanes, war and starvation, earthquakes and
pollution. Marriages fall apart, children quarrel,
politicians lie, and people we trust betray us.
The world is not as it should be.
The Bible describes it like this: “The creation was subjected to frustration…[in] bondage to decay…”
Romans 8:20-21 We can see it everywhere we look.

In C.S. Lewis’ story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the world is not as it should be. World War II is in full swing, and 4 children have been sent to the country to escape the daily Nazi air raids on London. The world is not as it should be.
Magically, the children enter another world—a wonderful world called Narnia, where animals talk and trees are friendly and magic happens.
But even Narnia is not as it should be.
It is winter in Narnia, cold and desolate. It is always winter in Narnia—and never Christmas! And in the winter of Narnia, the animals are afraid to talk out loud, the trees are stark and barren, and the magic is dark and dangerous.

How did Narnia become so cold? There’s a witch in the story—there has to be a witch—an evil, lying witch, because the real story says, “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one” 1 John 5:19 and, “Satan masquerades as an angel of light.” 2 Cor. 11:14 and, “there is no truth in [the devil]. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
The witch in Narnia is a White Witch, tall, thin, and beautiful like a fashion model, who calls herself the Queen of Narnia. She’s not the queen of course, and her whiteness is not the whiteness of purity, but the paleness of death. She promises a better life, but her castle is decorated by the stone statues of people who believed her lies.

Narnia is not as it should be. But that’s not the worst part of the story. The four children, “sons of Adam and children of Eve,” are not as they should be.

Edmund, the youngest boy to enter Narnia, is the first to meet the Witch. She feeds him candy—
Turkish Delight. She promises to make the little boy who never got any respect the prince of Narnia. And she tells him that he can have all the Turkish Delight he wants and be the prince only if he brings his brother and sisters to her castle. It’s all lies, of course, and if he were thinking clearly he would see how wrong and foolish it would be to betray his brother and sisters for Turkish Delight and a promise of power. So why does he do it?

Why, indeed? Why do people choose evil over good? Is the Turkish Delight so delectable—or the money, the toys, the power, the thrills, the lust so delicious? Have the lies convinced them: that evil is good, and good is evil? Or did it begin long before, in their anger or pain or self-centeredness? The Real Story says that “each person is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15
We see all those things in Edmund: he wants the candy, he believes the lies, he wants to get back at his
brother for calling him a “beast.”
Perhaps we see some of those same things in
ourselves: the evil desire, the confusion, the weakness.

Edmund believes the lies of the White Witch, and betrays his brother and sisters. This creates
problems for him, as he soon discovers that life with the White Witch is not nearly as wonderful as he thought it would be.
It is a problem for all four children, whose lives are now in danger. But it is also a problem for Narnia, for by some deep magic Narnia can only be made right when four “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve” sit on the ancient thrones of
Cair Paravel. The fate of Narnia is tied to the fate of four children—All is not as it should be.

Now that is a strange magic, and nearly impossible to explain. It is a magic I have often wished I could explain—for it is a “magic” that extends to life on the planet we call Earth. What do you say when 85,000 people die in an earthquake? What do you say to the parents who have lost a child to cancer? What do you say when the bad people win, and life is so
unfair? It’s a mystery.
The world is not as it should be—that’s obvious.
But the mystery is that the world can never be right until the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve are as they should be.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way:
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was
subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.“ Romans 8:19-21

And that is the root of the problem: The only hope for the world is that somehow the sons and
daughters of Eve will finally be as they should be! And we don’t seem to be able to make ourselves right! It’s a problem we can’t solve—a problem only God can solve. The Apostle Paul says, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25

How God solved that problem will have to wait until next week.

So I will end today in the middle of the story—in the part of the story where we so often live. I want to end with a question—a practical question for people who are still in the middle of the story. The question is, “How do we live in a world that is not as it should be?” How do we live in a world where millions suffer from natural and man-made disasters? How do we live in an unfair world where bad people seem to get all the candy? How do we live with mean and misguided people who bring out the worst in us? How do we live with ourselves, when we seem to be fighting a losing battle, against the world, ourselves, our struggles, sin?

There are some hints in Narnia. The faithful faun, Mr. Tumnus, repents of his betrayal and does the right thing, though it costs him everything. The loving couple, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, build a happy and secure home in a chaotic and evil world
(we can as well). The brave children forget their fears and fight for the right against almost impossible odds. We can do the same thing in our world. Each of us have a purpose, a role to play - and the bible tells us, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

But maybe the best hint is a surprise, especially at this time of year. As Aslan the lion comes into
Narnia, the snow begins to melt; and who should appear but Father Christmas, who for us has become a much more commercialized Santa Claus. He comes with joy and presents and good food and drink, and he gives wonderful gifts, not because the boys and girls have been “good,” but because Aslan is good. There’s a hint for us there—a hint that may even help us deal with the commercialization of Christmas. As The Real Story says,
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,”
James 1:17 and, “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Tim. 4:4-5

How do we live in a world that is not as it should be?

There are hints in Narnia, we can find God in Narnia:

We live in the faith that someday the world will be as it should be—and we will be as we should be. And we try to make our world and our own lives like they should be, in anticipation of the glorious future that awaits the sons and daughters of God!
The Real Story says it much better than I can:
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. “ 1 John 3:2-3


There is hope in the world today for those who call on the name of Jesus christ, and there is so much more to come.

Finding GOD in Narnia - A Land Far, Far Away

Welcome to Narnia....I’m your tour guide for your trip. Are you ready to go? Make sure you stay seated & keep your arms & legs inside the train. Caution...You are about to enter a land where it is always WINTER, but NEVER CHRISTMAS.

SLIDE ONE: Pictures of Narnia

Narnia...

Narnia is a land that came from the imagination of C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis had what many would call a biblical imagination. Lewis loved fantasy. In fact it was through reading fantasy that Lewis’ faith journey began. So it is no surprise that his Christian beliefs, actually Christian truths pushed their way into his stories. His theology was part of him so it became part of what he created. For him there is always a story within the story. So he created Narnia.

These stories began with images. The first one was of a faun carrying an umbrella with parcels under his arm. This image was first seen in his mind when he was just sixteen years old. It was decades later when he began the work of imagining the rest of Narnia.

SLIDE TWO: MAP of Narnia

Narnia, a country where Aslan is king of all
creatures, where there are talking beasts, fauns,
giants, and waking trees.

Narnia is a valley country extending from the Lantern Waste in the west to the capital of Cair Paravel which lies on the shores of the Great Eastern Ocean. We start our tour from the Lantern Waste area and will travel through out this land going all the way to the Stone Table and back to the west to end our tour.

SLIDE THREE: The Lamp Post

The first stop in Narnia for all visitors from earth is the Lamp Post. No one knows how long it’s been here. But it has always served as the starting point for visitors such as yourself.

The Lamp Post is a landmark to remember.
A Reference point between our world and Narnia.
The light between our world and Narnia.

God’s word is just like the Lamp Post. A reference point between heaven and earth.

For Lucy. Went further and further into the wardrobe because she was drawn by a light. The Lamp Post drew her from our world into Narnia.

God’s word draws us from our world to Him. God’s word serves as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. When we are lost, we go back to God’s word for our reference point.

Because Narnia is big, one can get lost in it. Therefore it is very important to familiarize yourself with this setting. In case you get lost always come back to the Lamp Post.

SLIDE FOUR: The Beavers Home
Second Stop: Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s House.

This is a holy stop. It is a place that is hidden, a refuge.

You can always find a friend at the Beaver’s house. Mrs. Beaver has the gift of hospitality. She keeps a cozy place, warm, food cooking on the stove.
Comfort for all who enter.

It is in this house that the four children first learn of Aslan and the prophecy surrounding him and them. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver reveal the prophetic reason why the four are here in the first place. God always
releases information, the prophetic voice before
He does something big.

There is always a Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s house in your journey. A place of prophetic awareness that there is something bigger than you that is going on.

As they sit around their table the children learn from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver that their arrival in Narnia is seen as the fulfillment of prophecy – a sign that
Narnia’s long – awaited deliverance is near. They learn about Aslan and what their roles play in this deliverance. (each of us have a purpose)

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.



SLIDE FIVE: The Witch’s Castle
The Third Stop: The Witch’s Castle

Beware. This may be the most beautiful place in Narnia from a distance.

Take a good look. Large and imposing. Can you see all the statues? But beauty is only skin deep.

There is evil with in these walls. Lots of evil. Deception.

If you happen to meet a beautiful lady dressed in white and riding in a huge sleigh offering you
delectable treats called Turkish Delight. Don’t be fooled. Edmund fell for it and it nearly cost him his life.
And the courtyard full of statues? They say that they aren’t statues at all. But are Narnians that the White Witch has turned into stone. Shudder.

It is the Witch’s curse that has made Narnia always winter but never Christmas. Shudder.



SLIDE SIX: The Stone Table
Fourth Stop: The Stone Table

This is the most important stop on our tour.
Please step out of the train and gather round the stone table.

It is here that Aslan will take on the sin of Edmund’s betrayal in order to save Edmund’s life. It is here at the Stone Table that Aslan will be bound and
murdered by the evil White Witch.

It is here, this very place that Susan and Lucy will stay by Aslan’s body
It is here that upon hearing a “great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate” that Susan and Lucy will see that Aslan’s body is no longer on the table and the table has been split in two.

It is here that Aslan appears to them alive,
resurrected.

It is here that he explains to them the Deeper Magic.
“When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backward.”

Isn’t it interesting that the Stone Table in Narnia is similar to the Cross in our world?
and the cracked table similar to the torn curtain.


SLIDE SEVEN: Cair Paravel
Fifth Stop: Cair Paravel

As we are standing at the Stone Table look toward the Great Eastern Ocean. It is there on the shores of the ocean that you’ll see a castle.

Cair Paravel the place where 2 sons of Adam and 2 daughters of Eve will one day rule as kings and queens of Narnia.

A victory ceremony will be held here. As Aslan crowns them kings and queens, he says of their
destinies…

“Once a king and queen in Narnia always a king and queen in Narnia!” (if we belong to Christ we too are heirs of the kingdom of God)

And as Lewis wrote, “And now as you see, this story is nearly (but not quite) at an end.” We will leave it at that for now.

Let’s head back to the place where this tour started. More for another day. Back to the Lamp Post.

SLIDE EIGHT: Return to the Lamp Post
Final Stop: Back to the Lamp Post.

Great tour. Thank you for touring Narnia.
You were a fun group. However, I was a bit surprised that this tour consisted of adults. For to enter
Narnia, you must enter as children.

Responding to a letter written by a young girl named Ruth, Lewis says: “If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope that you may always do so. I’m so thankful that you realized the ‘hidden story’ in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown-ups hardly ever.”
Children can naturally have what theologians call a numinous experience – a supernatural experience of the divine Presence. Usually by the time we have matured, we adults lose that sense of awe, that
direct experience of the supernatural, that numinous experience.

Mt. 18:3 - Jesus said that to enter the Kingdom of God we must enter as little children.

For the very reason that they have not lost that sense of awe. They still have that ability to keep on probing, seeking, asking questions, searching for the real thing, the something more.

If that has stopped, then we have lost that child like awe to desire more of God, to know Him more.

My prayer for you today is that this tour will help
begin to restore awe and wonder to your faith. To become like a child.



Dec. 11th -Always Winter, Never Christmas
All is not as it should be

Dec. 18th - A World of Wonder
Discover the Meaning in the Message

The Names of God - by Eric Cummins: Worship Leader

Main Entry: 2worship
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -shiped or -shipped; -ship·ing or -ship·ping
transitive senses
1 : to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
2 : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion


In regard to the first def. we need to know something of this supernatural power or being in order to honor or reverence.

In regard to the second we generally save that kind of respect or honor for those that have
contributed something great to our lives.

To me that makes sense. First you have to know someone, then you can honor them.
So for the rest of our time here today we will get to know the lord a little bit more.

Then we can learn about how to honor Him.

The names of God
(I am not claiming that this is all of the names just a few.)

ABBA.............................Romans 8:15
15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.[a] And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

Abba literally translated into today’s slang would be “daddy”.
How cool is it that we have a heavenly daddy. Not some father that we better make happy or else.
(by the way. This is why many people raise their hands during worship. It is a sign that we need our dad.)

ADVOCATE.........................I John 2:1 (kjv)
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Jesus is our advocate. It is only through Him that we are saved. We are saved because of His advocacy. He gave Himself so we can be free from sin. And He knows temptation.

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU......Jer. 33:16
meaning "The Lord our righteousness"
In his days Judah will be saved
       and Israel will live in safety.
       This is the name by which he will be called:
       The LORD Our Righteousness.

We are saved from evil and from evil people. Not by anything that we have done but by His righteousness.
The Lord fights for us.

JEHOVAH-NISSI.........Exodus 17:15
meaning "The Lord our banner"
15Moses built an altar and named it "GOD My Banner."

In this chapter we find Moses being tested. In those days it was custom to build an alter out of rocks to mark where you have been. This is also called an ebeneezer. Moses built this alter and named it God my banner so all that pass there will be able to see it and know that the battle was won.

EL-ROI................Genesis 16:13
meaning "The strong one who sees"
7An angel of GOD found her beside a spring in the desert; it was the spring on the road to Shur. 8He said, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, what are you doing here?"
    She said, "I'm running away from Sarai my mistress."
    9The angel of GOD said, "Go back to your mistress. Put up with her abuse." 10He continued, "I'm going to give you a big family, children past counting.     11From this pregnancy, you'll get a son: Name him Ishmael;   for GOD heard you, GOD answered you.   12He'll be a bucking bronco of a man,     a real fighter, fighting and being fought,     Always stirring up trouble,   always at odds with his family."
      13She answered GOD by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, "You're the God who sees me!"   "Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!"

God sees us. Even when no one else does and when we don’t want Him to. But He is faithful even when we are not.
He keeps his promises.

COMFORTER(the friend)..........................John 14:26(kjv)
26The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you.

When Jesus ascended into heaven He promised us that his spirit will remain. Te pourpose or this spirit is to teach us, remind us and comfort us when things go the way we do’nt want them to.

DELIVERER..............................Romans 11:26
26And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.

When the evil in the world gets to be to much we are promised a deliverer. He will deliver us from evil.
All of these things God promises to be. And He is. In fact another name of His is I am..
What does that mean you might ask. Well ……….
God I need strength .I am. ect.

So He is being everything we need to live according to His will.
He is and has given us all that is good right and pure and it is a shame that we (myself included) are not living by that.
So how do we honor God? How do we worship God?
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

Remember that all the names of God are promises to us. We have access to these promises so we can fulfill Romans !2:1
   








 

A Voice of HOPE

A Community of Faith, Love, and Hope PART 3

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and
Father, your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

To be a Voice of HOPE

Every believer in Christ knows the meaning of Hope. Every Christ follower knows what life was like before their
encounter w/ Jesus. We can look at our lives of the past and look at our lives now in Christ and see Amazing Grace, Amazing Love - and our lives now are filled w/ hope, b/c of the gospel, the message and life of Jesus Christ.

When this gospel is born in our hearts, it gives us a picture of who we can become in Christ and what God can accomplish thru our lives. The gospel has the power to take the orphan and make her a friend of the fatherless; to take the brokenhearted, the outcast, and the lonely and make them
instruments of peace, forgiveness, and healing.

We understand that a Christless world is a hopeless world. At the same time we seem to forget that a Christ-filled world is a hope-filled world.
Somehow we’ve lost the mandate given to us by God to stand in a desperate world and offer hope.

What is the Gospel? Good News

We know that, we teach it, but we often do not communicate it as good news. When we speak the gospel of Jesus Christ, we seem to somehow get logjammed around the message of sin, damnation, and hell - no wonder so many people feel that the church has nothing but bad news to tell.
(video - "real christian of genius")

The gospel, as given to us by Jesus, is supposed to be good news. Jesus himself said, I have not come to condemn the world, but to give the world life.” John 3:17; 10:10
(world beats us up)

What would happen if people heard the message of Christ as a message of hope and not a message of judgement?
How many times have you heard Christians described as hypocritical and self-righteous? How could a message of hope cause us to be perceived in this way?
Could it be that people do not hear us acknowledging our own sinfulness, but only identifying theirs, so they call us
hypocrites.
Could it be that those receiving our message feel that we are standing as judges over them rather than servants under them?

The message of Christ and the need for repentance are inseparable, but even in that, the Bible is clear in how we are to relate to people.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that it is the loving kindness of God that brings us to repentance - we are to speak the truth in LOVE - it is a message HOPE! The best indication that we are communicating the gospel effectively is that broken,
sinful, and despairing people receive it as a word of good news.

I think it’s important to remember that the people Jesus continually offended were the religious.
Sinners seem to warm up to Him quite easily.(why)

The gospel, in it’s essence, is a message of hope to a world full of despair.

A great story in the life of Jesus is in John 8, where the
religious leaders confronted Him, wanting to condemn an adulterous woman. Look at how Jesus when others tried to force Him into meanness, would not allow it. If there was ever a perfect opportunity to bring down the wrath of God on a sinful woman, it was right then. And yet from that encounter w/ this woman caught in adultery, thrown down before Him, we have some of jesus’ famous words - watch this
“Where are they?” “Who condemns you?” She stood there almost dumbfounded, astonished, maybe almost paralyzed over what just happened, it begins to settle in on her,
“no one”
Jesus revealed the heart of God when He told her He didn’t condemn her. He simply said, “Go and sin no more”

This is an important guide for each of us.

We are God’s voice of HOPE

stats - 200 mill. m,w,c lost in Amer. today
closer to home - 7 out of 10 you know lost

Those who have known nothing but condemnation and shame will find a new beginning in Jesus Christ.

God's Message:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future. Jer. 29:11

The natural outcome of being connected to God is being optimistic about the future. When this permeates a biblical community, optimism and enthusiasm prevail in the church. The church of Jesus Christ is always looking forward. It
always believes in the promise of tomorrow and is never overwhelmed by the difficulty or even failure of the present.

This should be one of the markers of a New Testament community - We are to be a voice of hope b/c we are a
people of hope.
A follower of Jesus Christ has no excuse for pessimism.

God has called us to be a Voice of HOPE

Who do you know that needs to hear that?
who needs a shot of hope injected into their lives?

Faith, Love, and Hope are not just foundations or pillars; they are wellsprings - It is our identity our DNA
The deeper the church digs these wells, the more rich and resilient they become.




“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
 "No one, sir," she said. 
      "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:1-11

To Be Known by LOVE

A Community of Faith, Love, & Hope PART 2

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippans 3:7-11

This is one of those passages where Paul is describing his own journey, who he was, where he’s been, how he’s
gotten here. Kinda begins w/ a strange moment of arrogance it appears - “look if anyone had it altogether w/out God it was me, if anyone earned the right to hang out with you, be loved by you, be in your presence, Paul was saying it was me.
Paul was a guy who gained political power, religious power,cultural power, this guy had really pulled together what some would say from a worldly perspective, a good life to live.
Here was this guy that had just about everything there was, then he speaks of this encounter he had w/ Jesus Christ and it changed everything he considered valuable.
The he goes off into this LOVE talk - about extra. love
This guy who was so self-righteous, a condemner of men,
begins talking about extra. love.

Love is one of those topics that is tough for us to get a
handle I think b/c it’s a word that we overuse or certainly misuse.
and it then loses it’s power

(family using words properly - HATE - dont say hate someone, you can profoundly dislike them, but dont hate people
and I can teach a whole slew of other descriptive words to use - I hate broc. and to hate evil as the bible says - well the word can lose it meaning. So we kinda reserve extreme language for extreme cases.
How about the word starving?)

We do that w/ everything and we do it w/ love - we love
everything - the brits love their tea, the french love their wine, the italians love their expresso, the swiss love their cheese, the Belgium's love their choc. the hillbillies love their nascar...

So the problem becomes we love our wives, but we love
fantasy football. could be a reason why there’s so much
divorce. we love things equally and improperly.

To be people who are known by love then we really need to know and understand exactly what that is and looks like.
Which drives us to the scriptures - if you have never read the bible, if you don’t really have a sense of what’s at the core of this story - it’s a story of love, of unconditional love, of
undeserving love, of unending, unlimited love.

What paul was saying was, “I was pursuing God in all the wrong ways, as far as legalistically i was there, i tried
everything humanly possible to connect to God and basically saying it didn’t work.

It can be a maddening thing - to try to do all the supposedly right things and left w/ this vacuum-us hole.
By the way, we can’t function well w/out love, so we look to and grasp onto any counterfeit we can find.
Back to what Paul told the Philippians,
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord...

He says, this is it - just to know, just to be able to wrap my brain around the truth that Jesus walked into human history, and lived a perfect, sinless life and had flesh and blood just like us and allowed himself to be brutally crucified on this death-instrument we call a cross, to die as a perfect sacrifice for my sin and He arose so I could live - and that - to know that is enough to give up everything for.

Paul had found real love - it came in Christ - it came in the form of sacrifice and servanthood.

To be known by LOVE

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me. Philippians 2:19-30

As you read thru this section of the letter, it’s like Paul is coming to a close then he picks it up again.

Have you recognized in life that you have convo. that are not always right in line with the subject you started with?
Sometimes when you’re having a convo. w/ someone a word clicks your mind and you star talking about something else
or you’re talking about one person and then they remind you of someone else, and then that person reminds you of someone else - and usually the person listening what your saying doesn't really have a connection to what you started talking about but somehow they knew how it all pieced together.

I think this is one of those moments here while paul was writing this.
b/c in the vs. before what we just read he is speaking specific instruction and then all of sudden he starts talking about Timothy, and from Tim. he starts talking about Epaph. and beginning in ch. 3 he’s moved past both of them.

What’s happening here is Paul is writing this letter about
Jesus and he’s encouraging us to live in a manner of Christ and to desire a life modeled after Jesus.
In this discourse of writing about Christ and all He is and has done for us in great sacrifice and service - I think right then Paul’s mind began dominoing. Jesus the servant and then Oh yeah Timothy the servant and Oh yeah Epaph. the
servant - although we may not instantly see the connection, but what is sooo cool is that when Paul began to think of the great servant Jesus other people came to mind.

Now when it comes to God - He stands alone, and we cant even come close to that right. I think we’re all happy letting God be God - we realize He is far more talented and qualified than we’ll ever be so just let it be.

But if there’s something about God that he is willing to share, to give to me, to pass on then man I want that - and here it is
when Paul saw the servant heart of Jesus, the servant nature of Jesus -
I don’t think he could help it - his mind went fluidly to Tim. and Epaph. -
2 close friends thru whom he experienced the servanthood of God to his life and the life of others.

non religious - say help others out - serve

Even though it may fall under the umbrella of "the religious" it is not at all natural for us to move towards serving.
Serving w/in religion, w/in the church would seem to be a natural, but it’s not, and so when we see it we know
something special is happening.
When we experience the genuine servanthood of another human being, when someone places us above them, when someone sacrifices of their time and energy to do something on our behalf - it does something inside of us - it makes us wonder if we couldn’t be different as human beings.

We begin to see that maybe what it means to be connected to Jesus is something more than just being religious.
Wouldn’t it wonderful if that when someone thought of Jesus they couldn’t help but think of you.
B/c they can’t really see Jesus serving, but they can see you and me serving, they begin to see Jesus in and thru us.

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.” Phil. 2:19-22

- others above ourselves (sacrifice)
- prove ourselves (not a one and done)
- he has served

“But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.” vs. 25-30

- others above himself (sacrifice)
- you don’t get better then serve, you serve to get better
It doesnt matter where you are you can serve today - “Im intersted in serving, I’m interested in helping, I’m interested in making a difference, but right now I’ve gotta focus on me, I gotta get me better 1st” - ever heard that, ever said that, ever thought that to God?
- Christlike service


To be known by love has nothing to do w/ how spiritual you are - how religious you are - how much doctrine and
theology you have stored up in your mind -
It is all about sacrifice and service
The mark of maturity and to be known by love is how willing we are to give our lives away for the sake of Christ and the sake of others - it’s being focused on eternity

So here’s Paul describing this encounter with real love - the sacrifice and servanthood of Christ - I thought of Jesus and Timothy came to mind, and Epaph. came to mind

How am I serving others?
How am I making others more important myself?
How am I giving my life away?

To Live By Faith

A Community of Faith, Love, & Hope PART 1

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep
conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of
severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9or they themselves
report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”
1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

“We always thank God for all of you,
mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember
before our God and Father, your work produced by faith,
your labor prompted by love, and your endurance
inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

To live by FAITH, be known by LOVE, & be a voice of HOPE

1.TO LIVE BY FAITH

story: ‘contingency plan’

1 Sam. 14 (tell story)

Often we look to the Bible for comfort, assurance, and kind of a ‘how to’ guide, but not courage - we’re willing to engage in the battle if we believe that God has promised ultimate
victory. We have somehow convinced ourselves that God has signed a contract w/ us, promising that we will never fail. Implied that we will never suffer, or go thru disappointment, or even be inconvenienced in the journey. ( I am inconven. not living here, but committed) What Jonathan knew w/out any doubt was that nothing could stop God from saving, whether by many or few. But he was honest w/ his armor-bearer and said, “perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf”.
What he was saying is, “I know what God is doing - He is delivering the Phil. to the hands of Israel. It’s clear what’s on God’s heart. He has called us to engage in battle - I have no doubt that God is powerful enough to give us victory. So let’s act in line with the heart of God, and see what He is going to do in and through us, if anything at all right now.

With our church, I have no doubt that God is calling us to impact this city - it is absolutely clear that Jesus came so He could save the lost. And absolutely God is calling our church to join Him in declaring the gospel to the nations. I know that God is pleased w/ our action - now let’s see what He is going to do in and thru us.
How about in your life?
(never fail, suffer, be disapp, be inconv, not just w/ the church, but in whatever area of life - dare to dream BIG -
you must live by faith)

What does it really mean to live by faith?
________OBEDIANCE________________
A church begins to live by faith when
it's people move the things God has
clearly said into the non-optional category.

What are some of the non-optional things
God has called us to do?
______PRAY, READ, SERVE, WORSIP,
FELLOWSHIP, EVANGELIZE, ETC..._____


It is never enough to live on __YESTERDAYS FAITH_______
We are always required to move into ___FRESH FAITH____

RESOURCE: 'Fresh Faith' by Jim Cymbala

Recall Moses and Joshua how each
of them had to cross a body of water.
(Exodus 14:21-22 and Joshua 3:12-17)

What took faith yesterday is sight today.

When we live by faith, we allow God to take us into
new experiences of __WHO HE IS ____
and ___HOW HE WORKS____.

We cannot live on the faith of the past,
we are called to be the living expression of faith!
When a church lives by faith
it's people prove that God can be trusted.

I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body,
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

The Village - by Cathleen Parks

Message based off clips from the motion picture, "The Village"

Clip one (DVD counter: 7:20-7:40)
It has been just 2000 short years, give or take a few, since the birth-life-and death of Jesus Christ. Our faith in Christ, which is simply believing that He is who He said He is - the Son of God, has not necessarily changed. Being a Christian now is a simple as it was two thousand years ago. Foundationally, Christianity is the same. It’s about belief.

 John 1:12 ‘But whoever did want him (CHRIST), who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made (them) to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
John 3:16 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Something though has changed over the past 2000 years. Much like the clip we just watched, borders have been established. A line has been drawn in the sand. The line is held firmly in place by both sides. Here are some examples from each side. 1962 - Prayer and Bibles were removed from the American school system in - America, the worlds leading Christian nation and we can’t have a Bible in the classroom. Late 80’s early 90’s - many in the Christian community decided to support, and still uphold, a ban of all things Disney. If it is made by, for, or about Disney - it is off-limits. This one is interesting - it started as a line that was held firmly by those on one side and it has evolved to be held now by the other. The separation of Church and state. It’s original purpose was to protect the Church from being influenced by the state or government and now it is used as a tool to keep the government from being influencing the Church. One that is most notable because tomorrow is Halloween is the great debate over this holiday. There are many Christian leaders who advocate complete separation from this day. Tomorrow night, many people will literally lock their doors, turn off their lights, and pretend not to be home when the neighborhood kids come knocking on their door for candy. They aren’t doing this out of spite or cruelty. They are attempting to act out what they in their heart believe is the right thing to do with Halloween and that is to not acknowledge it and therefore not glorify or celebrate what they see as an evil holiday.

The purpose of the boundary line is clear, if not slightly different depending on which side you are standing on. Keep Christians and Christian principles on their side of the line and keep all things un-Christian-like on the other side of the line.
I am not attempting to criticize anyone for their beliefs - regardless of which border you tend to side with. However, I will say that as a Christian, I believe we have wandered into some dangerous territory here. Watch this clip one more time and take special note of the last line.

Clip two (DVD counter: same)
Christianity is fairly simple. We have two main jobs. The rest is by-product. The two main jobs are outlined in
Luke 10:27
'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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
The most important thing we can do in our time on this earth is to love those we are on it with. My question to each of us sitting here today is this, are we doing this? Are you loving people with all you have or have you placed a border between you and them? If we are to be the tool that God uses to reach the people on the other side of the border we better evaluate our perspective of them.

Clip three (DVD counter: 9:46 - 10:00)
(Tell past story of family who wanted the church to be a safe place for their family from the world)
You know what he was essentially saying? He didn’t want the church to be like a lighthouse that draws people to safety. We wanted it to be like a safe tower that is set up high above the horizon, it is impenetrable and when ‘undesirables’ come close you can sound the alarm and run away.

Clip four (DVD counter: 30:18 - people scattering)
The movie calls the beings on the other side of the border ‘Those we don’t speak of’. The people in the village are terrified of them. Terrified that if they go into their territory, which is the woods that surround their village, they’ll be harmed. They’re terrified that if ‘those they don’t speak of’ come into the village, they’ll bring destruction. Because of their fears they live according to these borders. God’s will for us has never been to shape our lives according to our fears. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of isolation. God wants us to tear down the borders in our lives that separate us from the very people we are meant to impact.
John 17 tells us that just before Jesus was arrested, He prayed. His prayer was threefold. First He prayed for Himself. Second He prayed for His disciples, the believers. He was speaking to God about Himself and believers when He said this,
8b ‘They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them.
14b for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
There it is! We aren’t suppose to separate ourselves from the world around us - we are suppose to seek God’s protection while we are in it. But look carefully at that scripture. He says that we are not of the world anymore that He is. That is a very strong statement. Does the world see a difference in you? Because look what God says in verse 18
‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’
He has sent us into the world - in other words - crashing through those borders - to fulfill the third part of his prayer,
which says
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,’.

How exciting to me to think that God is not just willing but purposes to use me to help bring others into relationship with Him. Honestly, I will tell you that sometimes that is scary. Because there are times when I know I am not necessarily communicating who I am in Christ to the world around me. Is it just me or have you ever felt like a walking contradiction? Like somebody watching how you live your life to get an insight into Godly living is like someone taking advice from a personal trainer while the trainer lights up a cigarette. Talk about scary. But I know this. God is truly the one in control. It is my job to do my best to stay close by his side daily. The closer I get, the harder it is to get out of step with Him. But with all the rest, their is no need to fear. If I were to focus on my fears I’d never have another conversation. I’d be too afraid of rejection, or failure, or just saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But I don’t have to fear.

Clip five (DVD counter: 46:40 - 46:56)
Our faith should be like a lighthouse. It draws others because it permeates every part of our lives with hope. Examine your daily life. Do those around you know about your faith? Not necessarily because you are constantly talking about it but because you are living it? One of the greatest quotes I’ve ever heard is ‘Preach the gospel all the time... and if you have to, use words.’ What story is your life telling? Romans 12:1 says this:

‘So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering.Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’

My prayer is that our ordinary lives speak volumes about who God is! That we reach out in love, acceptance, and forgiveness to those around us in our everyday lives in such a way that others are drawn to the life they see in us. The life of Christ. That is God’s ultimate will - that we would come to know Him personally and that we would share Him honestly. And He’s patient. He wants everyone to know Him.
2 Peter 3:8 says
‘but do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
He will use you to impact the lives of those around you and when he does move in love.

Clip six (DVD counter: 1:16:18 - 1:18:00)
Wow. God’s Love. Your here today because of it. Whether you’ve known God all of your life or you are just journeying toward Him. God’s love brought you here. He makes no mistakes your here on purpose. That last scripture

Storms of Life - Rebuilding after Loss

Rebuilding is hard work. In fact it’s much harder than building. Building from scratch is not nearly as difficult as rebuilding
because in rebuilding you have to clear away the debris. You’ve got to deal with the damage. You’ve got to pick up all the rubble. It takes a whole lot more time because you just can’t start with a clean slate. Rebuilding always takes longer than building.

That’s not only true of a city. It’s true of a life. It harder and takes more work to rebuild your life after a major loss than it does to build your life in the first place.

The fact is, as a human being, you cannot live without loss.
Everything in this world is temporary. You’re not made to live here forever. You’re made to live forever in eternity. You’re only going to get 60, 80, 100 years on this planet. That means everything is temporary – everything. So you’re going to have major losses in your life. Financial loses, health losses, losses of loved ones. Some of you have lost a marriage. And many, many other kinds of losses in life. How do you recover and how do you rebuild after a major loss? Because you’re going to go through the seasons of loss. It’s inevitable. You’re going to have storms of stress. You’re going to have torrents of tragedy. Gales and gusts of grief. You’re going to have floods of failure in your life.

When those kinds of things come into your life, the typical question we always ask is why. Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on? And folks, that is the unanswerable question. We’re not going to know on this side of eternity.
Looking back later from heaven you’ll be able to see why things happen they way they did. What we need in that time after loss is encouragement. Not an explanation. Explanations don’t encourage us. What we need is encouragement.
That’s what we’re going to look at today.

It’s actually far more helpful instead of asking why to ask the What? question. What do I do now?
What’s next? What are my first steps?

We haven’t been through these major Hurr. like a million people or more have. But we have been through other things and were going to go through things so today we’re going to look at this issue of what do I do after a major loss? What to do. You may not need this message now but this is a very, very important message for you. If you haven’t had a major loss in your life you will. I don’t want to be morbid but you will. Your time is coming.
Because nothing lasts on this planet. It’s just a matter of time.

So today we’re going to talk specifically about seven steps from God’s word on how to rebuild your life.

The story of Job. Job was the wealthiest man in the entire world. There’s a book about him in the Bible. On a single day he lost everything. He lost all of his wealth, all of his farm, all of his crops, all of his flocks and herds, all of his children, and he got an incurable, terminal disease – all on a single day. In that moment Job said, I’m going to bless the name of the Lord, no matter what happens. When good things come or when good things are taken away, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to bless God’s name. That is the mark of maturity.

What do you do when you’ve lost it all? Some of you have lost a loved one. Or you’ve lost your job. Or you’ve lost your financial security. Or you’ve lost a dream – you’ve had a heartbreak. What do you do? How do you rebuild your life? The Bible tells us to do seven things.

1. Release your grief

Loss always creates very strong emotions in us. We grieve. We have worry. We have fear. We may have depression. We may have anger. All kinds of emotions welled up in me as I watched these homes being destroyed and people dying from Hurr. We don’t know what to do with all of these emotions when we’ve gone through a major loss, particularly men. What does God want us to do with those emotions?

You don’t resist them. And you don’t rehearse them. And you don’t reduce them. And you don’t repress them. You release them. What do I mean by that?

You don’t resist them, first of all. Resisting means I’m not going to let myself feel this. A lot of people do that when they go through a major loss. “I’m just not going to let myself feel anything. I don’t want to let it get too close to me.” That is a major mistake, friends. To not feel your feelings. Feelings are meant to be felt. So you don’t resist your feelings.

On the other hand you don’t do the opposite and you don’t rehearse your feelings. Where you go over and over and over in misery and moan and you start to second guess yourself – if I’d have done this differently maybe I’d still have my job. If I’d done this differently maybe I’d still have my marriage.
Or if I’d done this differently maybe the person would still be alive. And rehearsing over and over and over is just as ineffective as resisting it.
You don’t reduce your feelings. “It’s no big deal.” It was a big deal. It hurt and it still does. And you don’t minimize your feelings and say, “It doesn’t matter.” It did matter. It was a big deal. You don’t reduce your feelings. You don’t minimize them.
And certainly you don’t repress them. A lot of people are stuffers. They push their feelings down. That’s like taking a pepsi bottle and shaking it up. One day it’s going to explode. (grabbag - Oprah)
We need to understand, you will deal with your feelings. Either now or later. You will deal with them eventually. If you don’t deal with them now, you’re just putting off the inevitable. God says, “No, I want you to release them.” Release them to God in prayer. The Bible calls it crying out to God.

Psalm 18 David says “The floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me. Death itself stared me in the face. [Have you ever felt that way?] But in my distress I cried out to the Lord and I prayed to my God for help.” This isn’t some little pitty-patty prayer where we go, Dear God I’m not feeling too good. They go, “God! Life stinks! I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’m lonely. I’m grieving. My heart is broken.” That’s what it means to cry out to God. You tell Him passionately exactly how you feel. You can handle it and He can too.

Where do you think your emotions came from? God gave them to you. Why? Because you are created in the image of God. That’s what makes you different from animals. Animals don’t have all those emotions. But humans do. Why? Because you were made in God’s image. You can tell Him anything. You don’t have to say here’s what I think I ought to say. You just say, “God, I don’t like this! I’m depressed. I’m mad.” You cry out to God. God would rather have you be honest and release your feelings to Him than for you to fake it and pretend like everything’s all right because it’s not. You don’t resist it or rehearse it or reduce it or repress it. You release it to God.

Life isn’t always happy. And God doesn’t expect you to always be happy. In fact, Jesus said it’s ok to mourn. He said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”That’s a good thing
It’s a part of life. And you tell God exactly how you feel. He can handle it.

“Pour out your heart to Him. For God is our refuge.” In a storm you need a refuge. (last week) You need some covering. And God says I want to cover you. I want to comfort you. So when you go through any kind of loss in life you don’t turn from God, you turn to Him. That’s the first step. Release your grief.

2. Resist bitterness

Bitterness will do you more harm than the circumstance you went through. Bitterness is far worse than any problem you’ll ever experience. “You don’t know what I’ve gone through!” You may have been raped. But bitterness is worse. Why? Because it’s holding on to the hurt. That’s what resentment does. Your past is past. It can’t hurt you any more. The only way it can hurt you is if you choose to hold on to it through bitterness. That’s dumb. You need to let it go. You need to let go of your grudges just as you let go of your grief. And you say, “I’m going to let it go!” Because bitterness only hurts you. It never solves the problem. It doesn’t change the past. It can’t control the future. All it does is mess up your life right now.

You need to make the decision do I want to be bitter or do I want to get better? That’s the options. Do I want to be bitter or get better? Or do I want to be bitter or do I want to be happy? It’s your choice. You can choose. But you can’t have both.

Happiness is a choice. It’s a choice! It’s not based on circumstances as much as you think it is. There is no correlation between happiness and circumstances. You chose! just remember the eleventh commandment: thou shalt not belly ache!”

If you’re going to recover your life, if you’re going to rebuild your life after a major loss, a breakup or anything else, you’ve got to release your grief to God and you’ve got to resist bitterness
because bitterness will poison your life.

The Bible says this in Hebrews 12 “Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you. It causes deep trouble hurting many in their spiritual lives.” It just prolongs the hurt. So how do you do that? How do you resist bitterness? Three ways.

1. Accept what cannot be changed.

That’s the starting point. You accept what cannot be changed. And the truth is, friends, much of life is totally beyond your control. Sometimes the only way to overcome some problems is to accept them. They’re just going to be there in your life. They’re going to be there. They’re not going to change and you just accept them. Acceptance is the way to peace on some issues. It’s just like your past. Your past is past. No matter how much you resent it you can’t change it. You’re just going to have to accept it.

Faith is facing reality and not being discouraged. Faith is looking at your past and looking at your present problems and looking at your future. You’re facing reality but you’re just not discouraged by it. It’s not Pollyanna where you just pretend like everything’s great and you live in a world of unreality. No. Faith is facing reality but you just don’t get discouraged by it. Because you know God is in control. God loves you, God cares, God sees and God will help you. So you accept what cannot be changed.

2. Focus on what’s left not on what’s lost.

After a loss you need to find something to be grateful for. There’s always something to be grateful for. Like air. A lot of stuff we just take for granted. When was the last time you thanked God for air? You wouldn’t live the next minute if you didn’t have it. We take so much for granted in our lives and we need to just stop and say God I’m grateful!
Most of the world would love to have your problems. It’s like the old cliché, “I complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no legs.”
You just need to find something to be grateful for. You focus on what’s left, not what’s lost.

3. The third thing is play it down and pray it up.
After a major loss you play it down and you pray it up. Let me say particularly, if you’re a parent and you go through a crisis you need to do this with your children.
The ones I worry about most on the Gulf Coast are the children because children are traumatized faster than anyone else. Adults will get over this. The parents don’t need to say to their kids, “This is terrible! We’ve lost everything!” They need to reassure their kids and say, “We’re going to make it. We’re here. God’s here. You’re here. We’re going to make it.” You play it down and you pray it up and you talk to God about it.

Release your grief, resist bitterness.

3. The third step in the rebuilding after a total loss is to
re-evaluate.

You reevaluate your life. It is after a major loss that you need to refocus and re-evaluate and redefine and say, What direction does God want me to take now? Disasters have a way of changing our direction, challenging our conception, and redefining our values. It is in a disaster we realize what matters most and what doesn’t matter most. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. Disaster clarifies what matters most.

You don’t confuse your possessions with your purpose in life. But most people do.
And in a crisis if you lose it all it redefines your life.
This happens in every area of life... what do I base my value on?
My net worth? What do i base my home on? house, nieghborhhood, & picket fence?
Or is all about relationships, home is where your heart is.
The same thing is true with church. If you think church is a place that you go to – which it is not – and you think church is a place or it’s a building and it’s stone and steeple and pew and stained glass and then all of a sudden in an instant that’s turned into rubble you’ve got to redefine what church is. Church is not a place. Church is people.

Jesus said “Where two or more are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.” That means wherever you’ve got a little small group of believers that’s a church. You can have church in a home. We’ve done that and we still do. In the small groups which meet on a regular basis.

God has a meaning and a purpose for everyone. That’s what gives significance. Not sex. Not success. Not salary. Not status. But in serving God and others.

You release your grief, you resist bitterness, you re-evaluate your life. The fourth thing you do after a major loss…

4. You receive help from others.

God never intended for you to go through life on your own power as a lone ranger without anybody else helping you. You were made inadequate so you would need other people. And I was created inadequate so I would need other people. God wired the us that we’re created for community. We’re formed for afamily. We’re made for fellowship. You need me. And I need you. We need each other. And you need other people in your life.

You don’t need a whole bunch of friends. You don’t need a hundred friends. You just need four or five really good ones who are going to stick with you when you lose everything. How do you know who those people are? You’ve got to get close to them. We must cultivate friendships - they take time and effort.

If you’re going to rebuild your life after a loss you must have other people in your life. You can’t do it by yourself. You can’t. That’s why you’re going to have to swallow your pride and let people get close to you. And you’re going to have to let go of some of your fears in order to let people get close to you.

A lot of people have never experienced true intimacy. Why?
Because we keep people at a distance. We don’t let them get too close. If they get too close, they’ll see my fears. They’ll see what I’m afraid of. They’ll see my weaknesses.
If they get close and they see the real me and then they won’t like me I’m up a creek without a paddle. Because I’m all I’ve got. You must risk vulnerability if you’re ever going to have intimacy. You must let people get close to you. Let your husband get close to you. Let your wife get close to you. Let your friends get close to you.

Again, you don’t need everybody close to you. You only just need a few – three, four, five people in your life who are going to be there when the tough times come and the winds blow.
So you receive help from others. Here’s the fifth step in rebuilding your life…

5. Rely on the Lord.

You receive help from others but you rely on the Lord. Let me be real clear about this. You cannot rebuild your life after a major loss without God. Not the way you’re intended to build it.
There are five qualities you need to rebuild your life. You need first, peace. You need peace of mind.
Second, you’ve got to have hope in order to rebuild your life. Then you’ve got to have wisdom. You’ve got to have courage. And you’ve got to have strength.

Where are you going to get those five things – peace and hope and wisdom and courage and strength? There’s only one place you get those things to rebuild a life. You get them from trusting in Jesus Christ. In fact, look at the next five verses. Circle those five words in these five verses.
First you need peace. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 “You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on You.” Circle “peace.” You get peace from depending on God. You can either panic or pray, worry or worship. He says “Trust in Me and I’ll give you peace.”
Second, you need hope. Psalm 62 “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.” If you don’t have any hope you’re not living. You’re just existing. You need hope to cope. You’ve got to have hope. Where do you get it? “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.”

Then the next verse, Psalm 3:3 “You’re my shield, my wonderful God, who gives me courage.” You’ve got to have courage to rebuild your life. You get it from God. That verse really means, He lifts up my head. He says, “I’ll boost you up. Don’t be so down.”
And the next verse, “I will bless the Lord who counsels me. He gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do.” If you’re going to rebuild your life you’re going to need some
guidance. And it’s got to be good guidance. Nobody knows what the future holds but God does. And He can give you wisdom.
And the last verse, Isaiah 12 says “God is my Savior. I will trust Him and not be afraid.” The Lord gives me power and strength. He says I’ll give you strength to rebuild your life.
Notice all of these are gifts. He gives me, He gives me, He gives me… you don’t earn them. You don’t deserve them. You don’t work for them. They’re simply gifts of God when we give
ourselves to Him.
The acid test of your faith is how you handle the losses of life. The acid test is not how you handle the weddings or the baby
dedications. But how do you handle the funerals of life. How you handle the losses of life shows what kind of faith you have. Where do you get that kind of faith?

You need to be attached to God. You lean on Jesus for peace and you look to Jesus for hope and you lean on Jesus for courage. And you listen to Jesus for wisdom. And you live in Jesus for strength. That’s where it comes from.

Let me ask you. Where do you need strength in your life right now? What are you going through? What problem are you facing that you’ve been trying to face on your own? Some of you still haven’t recovered from a loss that happened a week or a month or a year ago. And you’re still holding on to that hurt. You need to let it go. You need to start rebuilding.

6. Refuse to be discouraged.

You know that God’s purpose is greater than the problems you’re going through. And you’re not on your own any more so you keep moving. What do you do when you can’t move? You still don’t get discouraged. What do you do when you can’t move?

Notice what Jesus said in Luke 21 “By standing firm you will gain life.” Circle “standing firm.” Sometimes you can’t even move but you just stand and you stand firm. (anchors) That means you refuse to be discouraged. The word “refused” means it’s a choice and it is. Discouragement is like happiness. It’s your choice. You don’t have to be discouraged.
If you’re discouraged right now it’s because you’re choosing to be discouraged. You don’t have to think discouraging thoughts. It all depends on what you’re looking at. So you just stand firm when you can’t move.

What do you do when you’ve done all you can and it seems like it’s never enough? What do you say when your friends turn away and you’re all alone? Tell me what do you give when you’ve given your all and it seems like you can’t make it through? You just stand. When there’s nothing left to do you just stand. Watch the Lord see you through. And after you’ve done all you can, you just stand. God will do it!

The seventh step and it’s as important as all the others…

7. You must reach out to others.

God has wired the universe that when we help other people He helps us. When you start helping others He heals you. When you do it. Not then. It’s not I’m going to get my act together, then I’ll start helping other people. No. It’s when not then. It’s when you start to help other people, before your life’s all figured out. When you do that, God says, I see somebody interested in being like Me – helping others and being unselfish. Then God starts healing you. When and then. If you say, “I’ll wait until I get my act all together before I help anybody else,” then you’re never going to help anybody because you’re never going to have it all together. No. You start helping other people and that’s part of the healing process of recovering from a loss. We’re blessed to be a blessing and what we sow we reap. The way God’s figured it out is the more we help other people the more He blesses us.

Storms of Life - What's the Family for?

We’ve been in series, ‘Storms of Life’ - review
Amidst the crisis - whatever storm we’re facing, What’s the Family for? What’s the role of the family, what’s the purpose of the family? We are all a part of a family, immediate, extended, we are all a part of family. Today let’s look at the families role in the storms of life.
This morning I thought we'd look at the purposes God intends for your family.

1. THE FAMILY IS A SHELTER FROM STORMS

A lot of people think the family is just a bed and breakfast place.
A tax deduction. But the Bible says far more than that. First it's a shelter from storm. We all have tough days. We all get rained on. We all get dumped on. We all go through bad weather. There are days when things don't work out right. And we all need a place of protection, a place of peace, a refuge where we can just let down from the storms of life and find protection.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:26 "Reverence for the Lord gives a man deep strength. His children have a place of refuge and
security." Circle those two things. The family is meant to be a place of refuge and security.

There are many kinds of storms. Emotional, physical, relational, financial. Three storms that rock your life that you need a family to help make it through:

1) Change.
We live in an era of rapid change. new restaurants, stores, 4 or 5 new workout gyms up or being built in Katy in just the past couple of months - New subdividions, homes, construction of all kinds. It's amazing the change!

Any change for good or for bad, positive or negative, causes stress. They even have a home stress scale that says the more change you have in your life, the more stressed out you get. We need a place of stability, a base, some place that's predictable, that you can count on. Alvin Toffler calls them "Islands of security in an age of Future Shock". So we need places of stability when storms of change come.

2) Failure.
Nobody wins all the time. We all make mistakes. We all stumble. Sometime you fail the test. Sometimes you get fired. Sometimes you get passed over for the promotion. Sometimes you go bankrupt. Nobody wins all the time in life. Failure is a whole lot easier to handle when you come home to hugs and there's somebody there to put their arms around you and say, "We're going to make it!" (Ecc. 4:9-10) "Two are better than one... if one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him.

3) Rejection.
Probably the most difficult of all is rejection. The storm of rejection. That's the toughest one to
handle. It hurts to be criticized. It hurts to be attacked. Some of the most damaging attacks you had occurred when you were a child and you can even still remember them today. Just the thought of that childhood, brings back the fears, the guilt, the shame, the hurt, the sense of feeling rejected
Would you agree that kids can be ruthless with other kids? If you don't believe in the sin nature, become a grade school teacher. Kids say the worst things to each other. Little kids don't have the sense to know what to accept and what to reject. If they don't have any positive reinforcement at home, they're going to tend to believe what all those kids say about them. It isn't true, but they're going to accept and they're going to go through life with emotional wounds. When you become a teenager you go through that difficult stage of acceptance and rejection. Remember the heartbreak of breaking up? Before I re-committed my life to Christ @ 20 - I wasn't always real sensitive. The way I
related to girls before that re-commitment was, rush 'em, mush 'em, crush 'em, then flush 'em.

However, intentionally or unintentionally we get our hearts broken in life. The fact is life is tough and rejection's hard.

Ecclesiastes 4:12, "One standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer" We need shelters from storms and two can handle what one cannot handle. The goal of most games is to get home (hide-n-seek; baseball) When you're home you're safe.
That's what the home is supposed to be, a shelter from storms.

How do you turn a home into a shelter? Four words: Hear, Hug, Hope, and Help.

First you HEAR. You need a listening ear if you're going to build a shelter from storms. You've got to listen when your
family hurts and not turn a deaf ear. Listen through the ears. Hear.

Then you've got to HUG. You need to give physical
affection in your family. Lots of it. Pats on the back. Hugs,
embraces, kisses. Physically show your affection for your family.

HELP. You need to give people what they need. When you can help them, you help them out in a practical way. That's what families are for. We help each other.

Then you need to give HOPE. You build each other up rather than tear each other down. You give more strokes than you give pokes. You lift people up, you don't tear them down and
criticize them all the time.

In each of these four purposes of the family I'd like for you
evaluate your own family. Rate yourself 1 to 10. If you'd say "We are always affirming. We are always supportive. We are always encouraging." Give yourself a 10. (And I'm moving in with you!) On the other hand if you'd say we always put down more than we build up give yourself a 1.
The family is to be a shelter from storms.


2. THE FAMILY IS TO BE A LEARNING CENTER
FOR LIFE.

You learn things in your family you'd never learn anywhere else. It's a learning center.


In the family, you learn the most basic skills of life. You learn how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to use a TV remote -- basic skills that you have to have in life. You learn those things with your family. God wants your family to be a learning center.

Psalm 144:12 "May our sons in their youth be like plants that grow up strong." The Bible calls the family a garden. It's a garden for growing people. You grow and the rest of the family grows

too. Ephesians 6:4 "Fathers, do not exasperate your children;
instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Circle "training" and "instruction".

A lot of training is simply knowing which end of the child to pat. The head or the rear. But you want to move your kids through three stages. You want to move them from parent control to self control to God's control. That's your goal. You move them from parent control where you have to tell them what to do, to self
control -- they know what to do, to God control where they're
asking "Father, what do You want me to do with my life?" That's what training is all about.

Luke 2:52 "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man." This is an important verse not only for
parenting but also for personal growth. In this passage it says that you grow, you develop as a person four ways:
Jesus grew in wisdom, that means He grew intellectually. He grew in stature, physical development. He grew in favor with God, that's spiritual development. And He grew in favor with man -- that's social development. As a parent you want to help your child develop balanced growth in all four of these areas. As a person, you want to individually develop growth in all four of these areas. You need to grow physically, spiritually, intellectually and socially. And develop in all four of these areas. If you do, you have
balance.

There are three areas in your life that you don't leave home
without. As parents we need to be especially concerned about teaching these three areas.

What you learn from your family:
1. We learn relationships from our family.
Right or wrong, good or bad, you learned how to relate to people from your family. Many of you had to relearn certain things later on in life because you learned how to relate in a dysfunctional way. (I have been retrained in a # of areas thanx to my wife) If you don't learn the right way of relating, you're going to learn the wrong way of relating in families. Your happiness in life to a large degree is determined by how you get along with people. If you can't get along with people, you're going to be miserable in life.

One of the things as parents we must be interested in doing is teaching our kids how to relate. We need to model for them good relationships -- that it takes honesty to make a relationship work, that it takes vulnerability to make a relationship work, that relationships don't just happen, it takes energy and effort and that you've got to have a lot of forgiveness if you're going to make a relationship work. Are you teaching those things to your kids? Are you teaching them how to respond to other people? Are you teaching them how to get along with people that are different from them? Are you modeling for them how to resolve conflict? (Alli) Or do you just hide it and deny it and pretend it just doesn't exist? We learn relationships in the family.

2. We learn character in the family.
Character is more caught than it is taught. you can't help but be influenced by your parents, whether you want to or not. I've heard people say, "I'm not going to be like my mom if it's the last thing I do!" And you know what happens! We pick up their character.
My kids are going to pick up good character from me or they're going to pick up bad character. I make a difference, the choices I make, the attitude I have, my reactions impact my children.
And the same for you.

3. We learn values.
We learn what's really important in life. Growing up in your family for right or wrong, good or bad, you learned about the value of money, sex, relationships, failure, success. You learned either how to tackle problems head on or how to run from them in denial. You learned how to either face life or flee from life. We pick up values from those around us. It's important that we teach the right values. You're teaching values either intentionally or unintentionally in your family.

Isaiah 38 "One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next." Your family is a relay of values from one generation to the next. You are just a link in a long, long chain. You, the person that you are, was influenced by the way your parents were raised, by their parents, by their parents...

It goes the other way too. And that helps me remember that when I'm training my kids, I'm not just raising my own kids, I'm
influencing future generations. The way I train my kids is going to influence the way they train their's and that will impact the way they train their's...

Your training in your own family isn't affecting just your own
family. It's going to affect generations as you have been affected by generations.

This is my legacy that I have to build on.

I'm not interested so much in the legacy that you've had or that I've had. But what kind of legacy are you leaving for your kids? I would say to you that you should determine in your life, regardless of my past -- it may be a bad past, a past of alcoholism and divorce and abuse -- and you say, "I'm going to break the chain! I'm starting a new legacy."
Some of you became believers in the last year and you say, "From now on our family is going to be an
influence for good and I'm going to leave my kids not with wealth, not with a big bank account but with spiritual riches and a spiritual heritage that they can pull on that when they go through storms they know that other generations before them went through the same storms and they can handle it because God is with them.

You choose your legacy you're going to leave for your kids and their kids and their kids. If you aren't thinking about it you're
leaving it up to chance. I have heard many people say this phrase. It always irritates me. "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my kids. I'm going to just let them make their own decision." Have you ever heard that line? What they're saying -- the translation is, "I'm abdicating my role as a parent to the television." Because your kids are going to pick up values either good ones from you or bad ones from the world and it's your choice. When a person says "I'm not going to force my kids to come to church," or "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my children," what they're basically saying is that God is an option. And He is not! He's not an option. The Bible says that one day as parents we will be judged for how well we did at transmitting values.

"These commandments, impress them That means take action, take the initiative! upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Teaching values is a part of our job description as parents.

If you evaluated yourself -- one to ten -- a learning center. What's being taught in your home? What are you unintentionally teaching about money? What are you unintentionally teaching about sex? What are you unintentionally teaching about what's important in life and the priorities of life? What values do you want to catch? Make a list and then start teaching them.