Exodus 29:1-30:10 ~ Matthew 26:14-46 ~ Psalm 31:19-24 ~ Proverbs 8:14-26   So each time we get to the stories of Christ’s betrayal, of his giving up his life in such truly horrific fashion, becoming the living sacrifice, laying down his perfect life for us and dying the way that he did to purchase our salvation, it is difficult because it is the most joyous thing in our very existence and yet it is difficult to watch this happen, you know?  So we see Jesus in the garden and he is seriously human at this point, right?  I mean, he is crying out to God in anguish, and these are human emotions.  This wasn’t a situation where Jesus had transcended his humanity and just kind of went through it all, just aloof to the whole thing.  He suffered as a man in this moment.  “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak,” he said.  He says something very poignant in his prayers, the final one just before his betrayer came and kissed him.  It is something that should help us as we face hardship [Read More]

    Exodus 19:16-21:21 ~ Matthew 23:13-39 ~ Psalm 28:1-9 ~ Proverbs 7:1-5   Alright, let’s take just a second on the Old Testament today because I know it is going to throw some people off.  Here we are in the desert.  We have just come out of slavery with the children of Israel and seen God show up in the exodus.  Now they are at Mount Sinai and God is establishing some fundamental rules.  These rules are a foundation for a culture that has known nothing but 430 years of slavery.  In other words, they know nothing but Egyptian culture and rule.  They know nothing but being a slave.  They know, of course, their ancient stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all this, but they have no real frame of reference.    Now they are in the desert and God has descended on the mountain and he gives the 10 commandments and then he begins to fill in some basic concepts and rules, things that are moving them from slavery and from the Egyptian culture to what will be exclusively their culture [Read More]

Exodus 8:1-9:35 ~ Matthew 19:13-30 ~ Psalm 24:1-10 ~ Proverbs 6:1-5

So we’re watching God pummel and dismantle Egypt and Pharaoh just stands there and takes blow after blow. Some of the blows kind of hurt and he is, like, “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll let you go. Ask God to take this away,” and then he recants. You wonder why he is not getting the picture, but you have to understand that God is humbling him. When the Bible says God hardened his heart, it is that Pharaoh’s identity is coming into question, not only in his own mind, but before his people, for Pharaoh thinks he himself is a god descended from deity and now another God is questioning his godly authority. So as the story continues, we see that Pharaoh is not only being humbled, he is being humbled in front of his people and the entire country is being humbled before the God of the Hebrews. It is causing a painful reorientation of their entire identity, which is exactly what happens in the book of Matthew today [Read More]

Judges 11:1-12:15 ~ John 1:1-28 ~ Psalm 101:1-8 ~ Proverbs 14:13-14

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we come to you today and we once again thank you for the illumination of your word. Dear Lord, today we end something, we begin something. We end our fourth month together in the year 2009. We've spent every single day together as a community before you, Lord, feasting on your word, becoming strong, and we've been challenged many time, many times to be people of word and deed. So as we close the month of April down, we begin the month of May with resolve to be further along that path by the end of the month of May than we are now and so on and so forth as we grow and mature during this year to be honorable disciples. We also begin today the book of John who speaks so intimately of you and gives us a perspective that we've yet to see this year, gives us a picture of you intimately. So, Lord, I ask as we go through the book of John, as we continue in our adventure through the Bible, as [Read More]

Judges 1:1-2:9 ~ Luke 21:29-22:13 ~ Psalm 90:1-91:16 ~ Proverbs 13:24-25

Prayer: Lord, Father in Heaven, we come to you and we thank you that you love us and therefore you correct us. So with profound trust and gratitude, we thank you for your loving ways, your correction in our lives, although at times it can be deeply uncomfortable, even painful. We trust you, Lord. We believe that your heart is good toward us. We believe that it is our best that you have in mind, it is our regeneration that you have in mind, it is our restoration that you are after, restoring our hearts so that we can love you with all of our heart. So come, Lord Jesus, and love us. We welcome you into every facet that is our lives just like the Psalm says. You make the command and we die. Our lives are in your hands. We may rebel against you and as we go into the chapters of the book of Judges we will see what that looks like and the repercussions of it, but, of course, Lord, you know that we a [Read More]

Joshua 24:1-33 ~ Luke 21:1-28 ~ Psalm 89:38-52 ~ Proverbs 13:20-23

And so we come to the end of the book of Joshua, but we come to the end of the life of Joshua as well. And just like his mentor, Moses, he comes together with all the leaders of Israel and admonishes them to never leave the Lord. In fact, he puts the choice before them. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The response of the Israelite leadership is 'of course we will serve the Lord. The Lord saved us from Egypt, rescued us, and conquered this land. Went before us and gave us The Promised Land. Of course we will serve the Lord.' And Joshua tells them 'but you still have some miles. You still have some things in your lives, in this country that are not of God, and you're going to have to decide once and for all, I mean, once and for all that you really do want to obey the Lord.' And the people said 'the Lord is our God and we will worship only him. We will obey only him.' Joshua sets up [Read More]

Alphabet Pockets
Divide into teams of 4 or 5. Everyone on the team searches through their own pockets, wallets, purses, etc. The group tries to come up with one possession which begins with each letter of the alphabet. The winning team is the one to have objects representing the most letters.

The Point: Teamwork, cooperation, and creativity.

FELLOWSHIP

GREEK: KOINOS

Common… Things that concern everyone… Things that are shared

DICTIONARY:

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary it means: (a) companionship, company, associate (vb.); (b) the community of interest, activity, feeling or experience, i.e., a unified body of people of equal rank sharing in common interests, goals, and characteristics, etc.; (c) partnership, membership (an obsolete usage but an important one. It shows what has happened to our idea [Read More]