Response Work (Bring with you on April 15):
Spend time reading through this blog (re-read over John 1:1-16, watch the videos, etc) and then visit one of the two websites listed about persecution. Then journal your response to the last two questions at the bottom of this entry.
*Remember to bring this with you!*


God's Love Story: John 1:1-16
Jesus, "The Word" comes to earth to reveal God...He is the image of the invisible, the fullness of God, the Creator, first above all else, full of unfailing love and faithfulness. He came to show us who God is, how to have a relationship with Him, and how life was created to be...



Jesus and His followers claimed a lot of things...
The Bread of Life, gives eternal life, forgives sin, will judge the world someday, created everything we know, performed miracles, signs, wonders & healings, He is the Son of God, the glory of God, God Himself, He died and came back to life, somehow His sacrifice gives us freedom from sin and death...

Plenty of people thought He and His followers were crazy, and so does most of the world today. But Jesus and His closest followers suffered great torture, persecution and death because they refused to deny their claims. It makes you wonder...
  
   Are all those people that crazy?
  Have they been brainwashed?
                      Or...Could it be true?

Today 100 million Chrisitans around the world face persecution for their beliefs: prejudiced, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. Their faith should challenge our own because we often have a hard time remembering to pray in a given week, let alone being prepared to die for Jesus.

Visit one of the two following websites and just spend a couple minutes reading about the stories facing our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Bring a story or fact that you learned with you to Disciple next week.

Voice of the Martyrs  
Open Doors USA

Journal:

1. Write down a story from one of the websites and reflect on it: How does that make you feel? What does it challenge you about your own faith?
2. We've read alot about what the Bible claims about Jesus, but it's still up to you what you believe: Who is Jesus to you? What do you believe about Him? Why do you believer that? Are there things you're still not sure you believe about Him? What are they?
3. Don't forget, you're not getting these things graded! Be honest and real.

Response Work:

This past week we spent time looking at the 10 commandments and looking at the deeper intention for the rules He gave. (Scroll down to see them) Needless to say, what God intended for good became corrupted by becoming a system of religious rules rather than moving people towards a relationship with Him. When Jesus comes, He explains the intention of God's law.

For April 8th: Read Matthew 5:38-48. What are the two "rules" that Jesus explains? (Hint: You've heard it said...) and what does He say the real meaning of God's law is? WRITE DOWN YOUR EXPLANATION and come prepared to share what Jesus is saying and why people should follow it. (Similar to what we did with the 10 commandments last Thursday)

And join us this Thursday night as we look at the sacrifice of Christ at our Maundy Thursday service. It will be held in the sanctuary and will start by 7pm, running no later than 8pm.

God's Story: Exodus 11-13, 20

What we learn about God/life:
God's delivers His people by the blood of the lamb (Grace) is the motivation for living covenant lives.


God delivers His people by the blood of the lamb:
THE PASSOVER
Exodus 11-13:
"The instructions I will give you for tonight should be followed each year in a festival of celebration. Each family must choose a one year old male sheep or goat, one that is flawless and clean.

Take special care of this chosen animal until the time you are to kill it at twilight. You are to take some of the blood from the lamb and smear it along the sides and top of the doorframes of your house.


On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.


Continue to observe this festival every year as a time of remembrance. And when your children ask what it means, tell them: 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. And though He struck the Egyptians, he spared our families.With the power of his mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place of our slavery."


Why should we follow what God says?

o Identity: (Leviticus 20:26, John 2:3-6)

God set Israel apart to be different from the rest of the world. They follow a different Kingdom.

o Protection: (Jeremiah 29:11)

They’re not rules for the sake of rules but are the best way to live and for our good.

o To avoid sin: (Romans 3:20)

Sin disrupts the intimate relationship God desires with humanity and causes damage to ourselves and others.

o Act of Worship: (Romans 12:1-2)

In response to God’s grace and faithfulness, we offer our lives in gratitude. God’s sacrifice for us bought us back from sin because of love.

10 Commandments
When we read them now, they can seem like cold and harsh rules. We must remember that the Israelites are coming out of slavery and need their entire worldview re-shaped. In many ways they have the mindset of children and God needs to direct them for their best. They would have been used to a clear cut way of being lead. We re-wrote the commandments in a more positive tone in order to get a deeper sense of God's intention for these rules. Here's some examples:

1. You should have no other gods before Me.
There is only one God, and He is good and faithful. There is no reason to look to anything else becaues there's no one else out there.
2. Do not make any idol or image of worship.
God is beyond our wildest dreams and we could never fully express or represent Him with mere physical images. Don't put Him in a box, He's too great for that!
3. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.
He is so good and so worthy of our praise that we should only speak of Him with humility, excitement, and honor because He's awesome!
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
God desires us to not be so busy that we forget to rest: physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally...It is for our best interest to take time to be refreshed, especially in His presence.
5. Honor your father and mother.
Your parents love you and want what is best for you. We show our gratitude for them by obeying and respecting them with our words and actions.
6. You should not committ murder.
Cherish life! It is a gift that should be protected and honored, for both yourself and others.
7. Do not committ adultery.
Be faithful to the commitments you have made, and to the people you have made them. The marriage relationship is an expression of our relationship with God, built on a covenant, and we should place a high value on it.
8. Do not steal.
Respect others by respecting their stuff. Be happy with what you have.
9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Live with honesty in the things that you do and say.
10. Do not covet your neighbor's house.
Be content with the gifts you have been given. God has blessed you with so much and we should be more grateful for what we have.

Response Work:
Here's another simple assignment that you need to bring with you in two weeks to Disciple: Whether typed up or hand written, I want you to explain in your own words 3 major points you've learned during our first four weeks of Disciple. 

What things have stood out to you the most so far? What thoughts have stayed with you? The explanation doesn't have to be more than a page, and you can include verses, illustrations, etc to help you explain. 

Have your parents read it and sign the bottom of it and bring it along on March 25.

The Candlesticks of Grace

We began our night looking at a scene from Les Miserables. It was an illustration of what grace is: It is a free and undeserved gift from God. The following scene looks at this more closely:

"Don't ever forget. You've promised to be a new man...You no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I bought your soul. I ransomed you from fear and hatred."

These words are echoed throughout the Gospel as we have been bought by the blood of Christ and ransomed our souls from a life separated from Him. This is one of the most important pieces of God's Love Story and a truth that we must never forsake.

What about the Covenant?!

Last week we looked at promises made to Abraham about 1) having a great nation and name from his descendants 2) all who bless his family would be blessed, all who cursed his family would be cursed 3) his descendants would have land of their own and 4) that all the world would be blessed through his family. 

300 or so years later, the Israelite people are brutally oppressed as slaves working for one of the world's great super powers: The Pharaoh of Egypt:
"So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. ¹² But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. ¹³ So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands." (Exodus 1:11-14, NLT)


The people of Israel have been suffering as slaves for hundreds of years. Their identity and dignity as human beings has been all but erased. From later passages, it appears that no one knew who God was any more...Their covenant relationship with Him had long been lost under the weight of suffering. Where was God? When would He deliver them?




God Demonstrates His Power and Deliverance

We looked at God's plan of deliverance as done through Moses. In Exodus 7:1, God tells "“Pay close attention to this. I will make you seem like God to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, will be your prophet. " From that point on, God demonstrates His power to both the Egyptian people and the Israelites through a series of explosive displays of His power, which we call the 10 Plagues.


Although it's too much to explain on this blog, we looked at how each plague could be linked to a specific aspect of Egyptian religious practice or deity. God shows that He is the One True and Only God by insulting the entire system of Egyptian belief, leading to the chief god Amon-Ra (the sun god) and Pharaoh himself (who was considered the reincarnation of Ra). It's a fascinating study to see how the plagues tie into specific gods. I would caution that the view we looked at isn't the only one as there are other theories and other gods that may have fit into plagues 1-8.

There's still more...

We didn't completely wrap up our story of the delivery from Egypt. We looked at God's demonstration of  who He is to Egypt and Israel, but we left with the Jewish people probably fearfully unsure of what to do with this God who came to save them. Is this a god to fear? If He can destroy the Egyptians, what could He do to a bunch of worthless slaves?


Next Thursday we take a break from the Love Story to look at the early church history. In two weeks, we'll continue our look at the Passover and life after Egypt.

Response Work:
Ok, this is real simple...I want you to do this week is bring your parents to this site and explain to them what we went over during our night (including the new videos we weren't able to get to). So this should be real easy since there's so much material right here online and you know so much anyway! You're essentially TEACHING your parents :) Then, I want you to ask them for a time in their lives when God has shown up or provided in a way that was unexpected...both in what He did and when He did it.


Lastly, re-read the verses underneath each point (Covenant, Grace, Timing, Provision) and re-read it at least 15 times throughout the week before we meet again. What does that verse mean to you? Journal your thoughts. Come prepared to share both of these things next week!


God’s Love Story: Genesis 12:1-3, 22

Truth about God, ourselves and life:


God’s Covenant:

Our relationship with God is based on HIS faithfulness rather than OUR efforts/actions/good works. In the story of Abraham, we looked at Genesis 12 and how God promises 4 things to Abraham...What were they??


This video gives a modern day telling of the story of God's Covenant with Abraham:





(God promised Abraham would be a 1) great nation 2) have his own land 3) have a great name and 4) the whole world would be blessed through his descendants.)

God saved you by His GRACE, when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this because it is the free gift from God. Relationship with Him is not a reward for the good things we have done! (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Covenant vs. Contract
A contract is an agreed upon set of expectations between two parties. It is an IF, THEN relationship. Our example was: IF Mac cleans up the Youth Room, THEN I will pay him some cash. If either side doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, the contract is broken.



Your parents are a good way to remember the difference that a covenant is: They provide food, clothes, shelter and protection to you not based upon how well you do your chores, get good grades, or even obey them. They provide those things based on their love for you. If they set up a contract relationship, you'd probably all be living on the streets by the time you were 8.


Your parents still have expectations, rules, and responsibilities for you to follow. Thankfully, however, their relationship with you is based not on how well you live up to some of those rules.

What is grace?
A free and undeserved gift.


The relationship we have with God is based on grace, which is a gift from Him, nothing that we can earn. Remember the differences between JUSTICE, MERCY, and GRACE? What were they?


Those who have remained faithful because of God’s grace—which is His undeserved kindness in choosing them. And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved. (Romans 11:5-6)




God's Timing

We often want God to work on our schedule, but sometimes God’s plan is a longer road that helps us develop into the people He wants. Do you remember how long Abraham and Sarah waited for God's promise of a son? Can you imagine waiting and waiting and waiting for something like that!? But it was all apart of God's plan and His timing was perfect.

This is also true for all of humanity and His plan to win us back:

At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for those who had been separated from Him. (Romans 5:6)





God's Provision

God doesn’t promise life will be easy, but He promises He will provide His presence during the hard times. We read this really strange request that God makes of Abraham in Genesis 22. He asks that Abraham sacrifice his one and only son...The son he waited and hoped for 25 years...And now God wants him killed?! Why does God ask him that?


But God always provides and in Isaac's place, He provides a SUBSTITUTE SACRIFICE.



For Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that covers our sins, not just ours, but the sins of all the world. (1 John 2:2)

(If you want, read through the summary below of what we learned but make sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the RESPONSE WORK due for March 4th)

We ended chapter one looking at the incredible details of creation and we started chapter two with the FREAKING HUGENESS of Creation. Here's that clip...

The second chapter of God's Love Metanarrative (big word for story!), is from Genesis 3 and this is what we saw...

We read from Romans 5:12-14 and talked about some questions in couch groups. There's a lot of things that can come up when we think about this part of God's story. Did God set Adam and Eve up? Did the punishment fit the crime? Would we have made the same wrong decision? The sad part of this love story is that the perfect world and relationship God intended for us now was corrupted by sin and death.

But the story doesn't end there and as we continue to read in Romans, we learn that God had already started a plan in motion to restore that relationship through Jesus Christ. "Now Adam symbolizes Christ who was yet to come..." 
Read that hope from Romans 5:15-17 

We wrapped up our night looking at a powerful clip of God's love for each one of us...from creation, the introduction of sin, and the hope found in a restored relationship with Him:

The propositions (truth statements about God, ourselves and life) that we learn from this part of the Love Story:

• God desires a LOVE RELATIONSHIP with humanity. But love requires the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. God did not create us as robots forced to love and follow Him. This is a great risk for God because we can choose to not love Him...But He does this because He wants genuine relationship.

• SIN is choosing to not TRUST GOD but to instead DISOBEY His way, even though His way is ultimately the best way for us to live and produces what is good for us. As love stories go, this is where God's heart is broken.

• Sin BREAKS RELATIONSHIP with God and causes the PAIN AND SUFFERING that now fills our world. Remember, everything was made GOOD originally and it is sin, not God that is responsible for the messed up things of our world.

• But God continues to PURSUE US with His ENDLESS LOVE and from the very point of separation from Him, He sets in motion a plan to win us back and restore us through Christ Jesus.
•  
•  

RESPONSE WORK
(Complete and bring along your thoughts on March 4th)

• DIG

The word "righteousness" means "being right with God"...It is a word that comes up a lot in the Bible to describe the restored relationship we strive for with God. God gives His people the LAW in the Old Testament to guide them towards righteousness. We'll look at this more in depth in later weeks, but for now, read Romans 3:9-28 (You can click that link and read it online if you want!) and write down 2-3 main points that those verses make.

• TALK

Ask your parents to take a look at this week's blog page, and explain to them what you learned...Show them the fun videos and then ask them to answer this question: "How do we become right with God?" and "What's the point of doing the right things?" Get their thoughts and be sure to journal them.

• EXPERIENCE

Who do you love? How do you show them that love? Come up with at least one thing you can do to show that person you love them and then DO IT! Come prepared to talk about what it is that you did for that person and why.

• LIVE

How you live demonstrates what and who you love. Evaluate the things you do and say by asking yourself at the end of each day...What did the things I did today show about who I love and who I live for? Journal those thoughts if you can.

Week 1: Creation

We begin our journey through God's story at, well, the beginning! If I were to ask you to create an expression of yourself that represents something unique about your personality, what would you do? Would you use paint, pastels, write a song? What would that art say about who you are? God has done that with Creation.

God's Story: Genesis chapter 1 and Romans 1:19-20

What we learn about God:

1. God wants to be known by His Creation
2. Creation reveals God's character and qualities
3. God is good, as was His intention for everything He made

SOME of the interesting things we noted about the Genesis account:

• God created both male and female in His image
• God is a communal being: Three persons in one, the Trinity: "Let US create man in OUR image"
• Creation is REALLY REALLY HUGE and yet He cares for the small details of our lives
• God created with unique creativity and detail
• The Genesis account isn't intended to be a scientific blueprint of HOW but of WHO is the source of all creation
• Was it 6 literal days or a longer period of time?
• God placed humanity at the top of creation in order to take care of it...Are we doing a good job of that? 
• Our faith doesn't have to be without science and reason
• Creation and evolution at their core both come down to a faith or belief in something, not simple facts: Where did the Big Bang come from? There's still a need to believe in something even if you don't believe in God...The Christian claim is that God is the source of all things created.

Mankind knows the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 
(Romans 1:19, 20)

What qualities of God can we gather from the Genesis account? From observing nature? From looking at our own lives?

The Dials of Life:

We watched a clip from "Everything is Spiritual" which looked at the precise details of life on planet Earth.What reaction do you have to that crazy information? God is precise and very much involved in His Creation. 

What's the probability that all of that is random chance?

RESPONSE WORK

DIG

Go back over the story of creation in Genesis 1 and re-read Romans 1:19-23.

Make a list of your thoughts and questions about who God is and then post at least one comment on this blog page.

TALK

Talk with your family about how you see God working in creation, your life, and the world around you. Ask them where they God at work in their lives and the world. What questions do they have about who God is?

Secondly, take your list of questions about who God is and spend time asking them directly to God.

EXPERIENCE

Take a short walk outside this week and observe nature. Be specific and intentional about this time. What qualities of God can you see represented in the things you see. Spend at least 15 minutes on this walk and make a list of things you see in Creation and what it might reveal about who God is.

LIVE

So what might all of this mean for your everyday living? What have you learned about God this week and why does it matter to your life? What could, should, and would change in your life if the things God's Story claim about God are really true? Journal these thoughts.

THE BIBLE

At the beginning we spent time looking briefly at the Book we're studying to understand who God is...

Here's some thoughts to keep in mind:

1. The Bible is a collection of propositional truth: Truth statements about God and life that we can believe and trust because it comes from the source of all truth, GOD. These truths are what we intellectually engage and process in order to conform to God's truth.
2. The Bible is a communication of a love metanarrative: A story of God's love for us that started with creation and continues to today. We are apart of that story! This means we're part of an active relationship of experience and transformation by God's love.
3. The Bible points us to God, it is not God. 
4. The Bible is divinely inspired with human involvement: We must consider the Bible's personalities, genres, culture, and emotion, realizing that it always universally relevant.
5. Some verses about the Bible, in the Bible: Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:15-17