Catch-Up!!

We played catch-up on some things this week, as we did not anticipate the DVD's and our discussions to take up the majority of our class time (and snack and game time for that matter). So tonight we completed our accountability notebooks for the month of April, we made some much needed brown bags up, and we recited our memory verses for April. Now we're ready to head into May when we will be promoting some new kids into ZG and sadly be letting go of a few veterans as well. :(

How Can God Be Full of Love and Wrath at the Same Time? How Can God Send Good People to Hell?

We discussed our final DVD session tonight from The Reason for God study. And the best way we knew how to teach the kids about God's love and wrath was by the Way of The Master technique (http://www.wayofthemaster.com/).

Tonight we put Cailin on trial for a murder she committed 25 years ago (Yes, we know she's ten!). Benjamin was our judge. We laid out the evidence for the remaining "jurors" who unanimously found Cailin guilty. Kirsten added to the drama in our courtroom as the mother of the murdered girl. Cailin's attorney Bridghid was then allowed to say something to the judge before her final sentencing. Bridghid told the judge how Cailin had changed over the last 25 years. She had been a model citizen, a school teacher even. She helped feed the homeless with her church every other week, had a family of her own, and donated money annually to Missionary Ventures.

Ben's ruling? Cailin would be set free and not have to pay for her crime since she turned out to be such a good person after all. Then we turned to the jury and asked them if they thought this ruling was fair, considering Cailin did indeed commit the crime. Most agreed it was not and that Ben would not make a very good judge if he didn't punish criminals for their crimes.

We compared Ben to God on Judgment Day and asked the kids if they thought God should forgive unbelievers of their sins just because their good outweighed the bad. Or should they be judged by the conditions of their hearts, whether or not they had a personal relationship with Jesus? This case exampled to the kids God's wrath.

Then we held another trial. In this one, Brandon sped through a school zone during school hours and went 50 MPH over the speed limit. He was brought before the judge (Rachel in this case) who told him that the fine for his crime was either $1,000,000 or life in prison. Brandon said he didn't have the money to pay the fine and the guards (Hanna and Tessa) were about to take him off to prison when a man (Ben - for a lack of more ZG boys) Brandon had never seen before entered the courtroom. Ben asked the guards to wait and then handed the judge a check to $1,000,000 to cover Brandon's fine.

We asked the kids what they thought of this complete stranger paying Brandon's fine to keep him from a life in prison. Then we reminded them that that's exactly what Jesus did for us when He took our sins upon Himself and died on the cross so that we could be forgiven and have the gift of an eternity in heaven. This case exampled to the kids God's love.

So the kids learned about the very real existence of both God's wrath and Go'd love tonight, as well as the very real existence of heaven and hell.

Why Is the Church Responsible for So Much Injustice? - Why Are Christians Such Hypocrites?

We discussed the meaning of hypocrisy tonight. We talked about how it describes a person who says they believe one thing, but their actions tell a completely different story. For example, someone says they only believe in honesty, but then they get caught time and again telling lies. Or a teenager says they take seriously the command to honor and obey their parents, but then at home constantly disrespect and disobey them by talking back and not doing what is asked of them.

We talked about how EVERYONE is a hypocrite at one time or another, whether or not they call themselves Christians. Christians especially though are held in higher accountability and, when being hypocrites, it speaks loudly about the Christian faith to those who are watching them. Often, people will say, "I don't want to go to church. That place is full of hypocrites...people who say one thing and do another."

So how do we respond to these people? We simply tell them they are right, because they are! The church is full of hypocrites. The whole world is in fact. But when trying to be a good example of the Christian faith and witness to others about Jesus, we don't want people looking at us or our actions...because we are sinful hypocrites! We want them looking at Jesus and His actions while He was here on earth because He is the ONLY person who could never be accused of being a hypocrite. He lived what He believed.

To further illustrate hypocrisy, we brought cupcakes for the kids to eat for snack tonight...but not just any cupcakes! 12 of the cupcakes we made, we put enough cotton balls in the center of the cupcake papers to fill the middles before we poured the batter over them and baked them. We decorated them with both icing and sprinkles to make them look very appetizing on the outside. They were also bigger. The other 12 cupcakes had no cotton balls in them, but we also only put icing on them and did not dress them up with sprinkles or any other extras to make them more attractive on the outside. They were a bit smaller too.

Boy did we have some disgusted kids when they took a bite only to find what appeared to be rottenness inside! Sweet Kirsten chewed her cotton ball for at least 45 seconds trying not to be rude or insult my baking! Hanna looked and said, "I think one of my dogs rolled in my cupcake!" Mandi asked if we baked our cat Louie into them. And of course, all of the kids picked the sprinkle cupcakes because they were the most appealing to them, the best looking on the outside.

We talked about how we can dress ourselves up on the outside, put our best foot forward, wear a smile, and exude a good attitude when we go places...to church, school, friends' houses, etc... But God sees the inside! He sees our hearts. He knows the rottenness inside and that makes us hypocrites...one thing on the outside while another on the inside. Some people may be beautiful on the outside, but inside they hide a very mean, selfish, and hateful heart. Others may seem a little plain or less attractive in appearance, but inside they are loving, gentle, and kind. Not to say that you can't be beautiful both inside and out either.

Matthew 23:25 - ²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

If they had any doubts what hypocrisy was before this object lesson, they sure didn't afterwards! And of course we ended the evening making sure everyone got one of the yummy, cotton ball free cupcakes.

Our closing Scripture was Matthew 23:27-28 - ²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

We often show a different personality on the outside than the person we are in reality. Jesus called the pharisees "rotting graves with whitewashed tombstones". Cemeteries are actually quite tranquil and beautiful on the surface. There are flowers, statues, and beautiful memorials to loved ones that have died...but beneath the surface there are rotting bodies.

Our final question to the kids? "Does your icing match your cupcakes?"

A Good God in A World of Evil

West Nickel Mines Amish School

Bethany Hamilton

So why does God allow suffering and why is there so much evil in the world? That's the question we tackled this week after our DVD session with Timothy Keller.

First, we explored the two kinds of evil in this world.

• Moral Evil - things that people do that we call sinful
• Natural Evil - tsunamis, earthquakes...things human beings have no control over

Pastor Billy taught us about 3 beliefs common in our society that try to explain why God allows suffering from acts of evil.

• Punishment - Evil happens to punish or judge man's sin. The problem is found when we look at Job in the Bible. He did nothing to deserve the evil God allowed in his life. God allowed it to test Job's faithfulness to Him alone.
• Free Will - Evil is in this world because we have free will...the ability to choose for ourselves what we want to do. We are sinners and so sometimes we choose evil. The problem is that this doesn't explain natural evil, only moral evil.
• God Has A Purpose - This, we told the kids, was the best explanation of why God allows suffering of evil in this world. We read Romans 8:28 and discussed what the word "all" implied. It doesn't just mean that some things happen for God's purpose and our good...only the good things that happen to us. ALL things...even the bad, sad, devastating, ugly, heartbreaking, and evil are for our good and God's purpose.

But why does God allow us to suffer? There are 3 reasons:

• God wants us to learn to trust Him more.
• God wants us to become more mature.
• Our suffering builds our character and makes us more like Christ.

In the end, God is both loving AND sovereign. Everything He does is for a good purpose and brings Him glory in the end. And He is in control of everything that happens to us and in this world...that's sovereignty!

We wanted to give the kids two very real examples of evil...one moral and one natural, and how God used them for His glory and the good of those involved.

Moral Evil: The West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster Pennsylvania

Charlie Roberts was the milkman for the Amish community in Lancaster. On October 2, 2006, he backed his pickup truck to the doors of the one-room schoolhouse. He ordered the boys inside to help him carry his supplies in and then proceeded to block the doors to the school so no one could come in. He let a pregnant woman, three parents with babies, and all of the boys leave the schoolroom. The teacher, her mother, and another little girl also escaped and ran for help to a nearby farm.

Charlie then lined the girls up along the chalkboard and began shooting them one by one in the backs of their heads. Two sisters begged Charlie to shoot them first in hopes that he would spare their friends' lives. Charlie did and one of those sisters died. In the end, five little girls died and five little girls were injured.

The last person to be shot that day was Charlie himself when he took his own life. Years earlier, Charlie lost a baby girl born to him and his wife only 20 minutes after she was born. He said he was going to take away from others what God took away from him. He had a wife and three other children he left behind.

On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, "We must not think evil of this man." Another Amish father said, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."

Jack Meyer, a member of the community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts."

Just hours after the shootings, several Amish community members, including a father of one of the girls killed, visited Charlie's wife, told her they forgave Charlie, and offered her any help she may need, especially with her three children who now had no father. The Amish community even attended the funeral of Charlie Roberts to show their forgiveness and love towards their neighbor.

We asked the kids if this would have been their response if a man they thought they knew and trusted gunned down people in their family. Then we asked them what the Amish people from that story taught the rest of the world watching by their example. God was truly glorified in the end by their actions and so, His purpose was accomplished. And God did indeed teach the Amish and others watching them to trust Him more, mature in their faith, and become more like Christ in their suffering and the way they dealt with it.

We showed the kids the movie trailer to Amish Grace, the movie based on the actual events of the shooting and aftermath (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4695111/amish_grace_movie_trailer/).

Natural Evil: Bethany Hamilton

Bethany was a surfer who, on October 31, 2003, was attacked by a 14-foot shark, which bit off her left arm and caused her to lose more than 60% of the blood in her body. After several surgeries, Bethany began her recovery with an unbelievably positive attitude. Miraculously, just one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water.

Two months later, Bethany placed fifth in the Open Women's division surf competition and just over a year after the attack she won her first National Title. In 2007, Bethany realized her dream and turned pro. Bethany says of her ordeal, "It has been an incredible journey for me and now, I'm just so excited to share it!" Being able to turn to Jesus after the shark attack kept me alive. When people ask me what my faith in God means to me, I usually answer in just one word: "everything!"

We asked the kids if man's sin had anything to do with the shark attacking Bethany. It was a natural evil that only God could have caused to happen to her. And look at the outcome! She has inspired millions with her story and had the ability to share her faith with all of them through her attitude, determination, and testimony. She even shares with people on her website the steps to becoming a believer in Jesus Christ and why it is so important.

In the end, God used Bethany for a purpose He only could have used her for through this tragic natural evil. AND GOD WAS GLORIFIED THROUGH IT ALL!!! And Bethany learned to trust in Christ more, matured in her faith, and certainly became more like Christ through her ordeal. Bethany truly captures the meaning of Zero Gravity's Scripture motto, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13.

We also showed the kids the movie trailer to this new release called Soul Surfer (http://www.soulsurferthemovie.com/). We also encouraged the kids to check out bethanyhamilton.com for Bethany's blog and testimony of her faith.

Last, but certainly not least, we discussed with the kids the greatest moral evil ever done to anyone in all of history...Christ's crucifixion. We talked about why it had to happen...to save us from an eternity in hell from our sins since Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the cross. We talked about how, because Jesus did this for us and it was God's purpose for His life here on earth, God ultimately receives all of the glory as our Savior.

AWESOME LESSON!!