The Healing Power of Jesus

1 Peter 2:24 - He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.  By His wounds you are healed.

There are people who take this Scripture to mean that, when Jesus died on the cross, He not only took our sins upon Himself, but He also took all of our diseases and illnesses too.  In other words, if we have enough faith and are not walking in sin we have not repented of, we should never get sick!  And when we do, simply praying, repenting of our sins and having more faith should be enough to heal us.

This is FALSE teaching!  Tonight we got back to some basics and talked about what Jesus' death on the cross really healed us from......an eternity in hell.  His death and resurrection three days later gave us spiritual healing, not physical healing.

To show the kids what Jesus did for us on the cross, we did a little experiment called Cold Fire....involving rubbing alcohol, water, fire, salt, and a lighter.  By dipping a paper towel in the alcohol, water and salt mixture, we could set the paper towel on fire without it actually burning up!

Jesus took all of our sins upon Himself when He went to the cross.  They were poured out on Him, as was demonstrated by us soaking our "Jesus cloth" in the rubbing alcohol, water, and salt.  Then he was hung on the cross.  God's wrath was poured out on Him and Christ suffered the most horrific death possible (our lighter).  Jesus' Father couldn't even look at Him in the end for all of the sins that were heaped on top of Him as He died....our sins.  And though Jesus died there on that cross for our sins, He was raised three days later and ALIVE, ALIVE, ALIVE (our "Jesus cloth" did not burn up)!

During Jesus' lifetime, He did heal many of diseases and sicknesses.  He agonized over those who were suffering physically and He sympathized with them....felt bad for them.  And God can choose to do miracles of healing even today!  There are people who are diagnosed with incurable, terminal cancer who are miraculously healed, with doctors scratching their heads as to how it happened.  Impossible?  God is the God who can accomplish the impossible.

To prove this, we showed the kids a long-neck bottle and asked them if they thought that the bottle could be cut clean in half without the use of a knife.  Then we did it!  We used a string soaked in acetone, a lighter, and a bowl of ice water.

Now this is an act of science of course, but it clearly demonstrates something thought to be impossible being accomplished.  The bottom half of the bottle could represent us and the top the sin that we are born with....the sin that is a part of us no matter how good we try to be on our own.  When we repent of our sins, ask God to forgive us of them, and tie the words found in Scripture around our hearts, God can forgive us of our sins and separate them from us as far as the east is from the west (1 John 1:9 and Psalm 103:12).  His holy fire refines us and removes the ugly!

In review, God did not send Jesus to die on the cross so that we would never be sick or suffer from diseases like cancer.  He sent Jesus to save us spiritually and literally save us from our sins.

And even when we do suffer from sicknesses or diseases or broken bones or allergies or stuffy noses...and we feel like the floor is being pulled right out from under our feet and we are falling with no one to save us or make us feel better, God is always there and, no matter what, He will be glorified in the end...whether we are healed physically or not!  This was a fun experiment!  The kids each took turns trying it and it worked for them!  They pulled the bottom out from under the toilet paper tube holding the egg and the egg was caught safely by the water below it.  We are the egg.  Our circumstances may make us feel like the floor is being pulled out from under us, but God is always there to catch us and He is ultimately always glorified in the end....no matter what!

5th Annual ZG Pool Party!!!!!!!!!!

It's that time of the year again and the weather was perfect for our ZG pool party!  There were noodles and water balls flying everywhere.  Squirt guns galore too!  And let's not forget the slide that led into the pool.  We had a blast, as well as some great food and fellowship.  Thanks to Jennifer Lancaster for letting us use her pool while she was in Italy and to Jason and Amber Carpenter for helping us host and chaperone the party.  Here are some pictures that highlight the day and the fun!

Our Security in Christ

We got back to some basics tonight and spoke to the kids about salvation.....what it is and what it means.  To do this, we did a few "egg"cellent experiments.

First, we showed the kids an egg and talked about how God created Adam and Eve as good, perfect, and in His very own image.  He created them to love and do what is right and true and kind.  Then....sin came along.  To demonstrate the fall, we dropped our egg from about 2 feet into a glass bowl.  When Adam and Eve fell into sin by disobeying God, it was like the egg falling into the bowl.  After the fall, everyone born was born into sin....broken...."scrambled up".  The perfect image of God in us was shattered like the egg in the bowl.

Still, look in the bowl.  You can still tell that it's an egg, even though it's all messed up.  In the same way, people are still God's children, even after they fall into sin.

God still loves us.  He sent His Son Jesus to save us.  When we receive His salvation, He gives us new hearts so we can love Him.  It would take a miracle to put our broken egg back together.  It takes a miracle to change our broken lives and make them whole again...the miracle of Jesus' love for us.

AND GOD CHOOSES US.  THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO EARN OUR SALVATION.  There are no amount of good works or attitudes, no amount of money we can give to charities, no number of mission trips we can go on....that can earn us our salvation and make us right with God.

So what does our salvation look like?  We used a glass bowl again and this time filled it with water.  We let the kids each take turns naming different sins as they sprinkled some pepper into the water to "dirty it up".  Every one of us has some "pepper" in our lives!  ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  But when we come to Jesus, ask His forgiveness for those sins, and then choose to turn away from them (repent), God is faithful and just and He will forgive us of those sins (1 John 1:9).  With that, we put one drop of Dawn dish soap into the middle of our peppered bowl of water and watched as our sins were "removed from us as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12).

It doesn't mean we'll never have "pepper" in our lives again  because we will....over and over and over again.  But EVERY single time we ask Jesus for that forgiveness and turn from our sins, He WILL forgive us and remove them from us.

So can you lose your salvation once you have it?

NO!  No one can snatch us out of the Father's hand!  NO ONE!

To demonstrate this, we turned back to our eggs.  Do you know that, if you wrap your fist evenly around a raw egg, and squeeze as hard as you can, you will not be able to break the egg?!  It's because the force and pressure of your squeeze is being spread out over the whole surface of the eggshell.  The egg is designed so it won't easily break in the outdoors and the wild. The egg's shape and its shell are made so it will protect the baby growing inside until it is ready to hatch and come out into the world.  That's how a mother bird can sit on her eggs and not break them!  Isn't God the best architect ever?!!  

So, once saved, we are the contents of that egg.  God is the protective shell around us.  The hand represents the world, squeezing us and forcing us into difficult circumstances and situations, evil coming at us from all directions.  But God is good!  He is all around us, protecting us, shielding us under His mighty wings.

Psalm 91:1-7 - Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.  You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.  

It was an "eggs"troidinary object lesson we hope the youth will not soon forget!

What is Your Ministry?

Colossians 4:7-18

As Paul closes his letter to the Colossians, he mentions some people God has used in his life to encourage him, help meet his needs, minister side-by-side with him, and comfort him in all his circumstances.

• Tychicus left his family for a very long time and walked and sailed hundreds of miles to assist Paul in his ministry.
• Onsesimus was a slave who ran away from his master, became a believer, and comforted Paul.He was an example of a life transformed!
• Aristarchus gave up his freedom to minister to Paul's needs while he was in prison.
• Mark, though he originally abandoned Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey together, eventually became a great help to Paul.
• Justus took a stand with Paul for Jesus, no matter what the cost.
• Epaphras was a prayer warrior who served alongside Paul.
• Luke, a gentile believer, served with Paul and wrote the books of Luke and Acts.

We discussed with the kids tonight what their ideas of ministry are and how they think they fit into it.  Many youth think they have to "grow up" before they can be used by God and serve in a ministry, but that is simply a myth.  We talked about ways the kids can be used by God now, right where they are.

• Praying for others
• Fundraisers to meet a need
• Yard work
• House cleaning
• Volunteering at local food banks
• "Random Acts of Kindness" (We discussed the 25 RAK the Ellis family embarked on a few weeks back and watched some of their videos on FB from that experience.)
• Visiting Ms. Florene
• Making cards for elderly/sick/soldiers
• All the past Mission 659 mission opportunities

So what stops us from allowing God to use little old us in GREAT BIG ways?

Some of us feel like this poor kid!  "It's impossible!  I can't possibly make a difference.  I can't change anything.  I'm not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, tall enough, old enough, etc..."

Some of us, because of things we've done in our past feel like...

But guess what?!

And here's the proof!

• Moses stuttered.
• David's armor didn't fit.
• Mark was a coward when the going got tough.
• Gomer was a prostitute.
• Jacob was a liar.  So was Abraham.
• David had an affair and was a murderer.
• Abraham was too old.
• David was too young.
• Peter was afraid of death and denied Christ.
• Lazarus was dead.
• Naomi was a widow.
• Paul was a murderer.
• Moses was a murderer.
• Jonah ran from God.
• Miriam was a gossip.
• Gideon and Thomas both doubted.
• Jeremiah was depressed.
• Elijah was burnt out.
• Martha was a worrywart.
• Noah got drunk.
• The disciples fell asleep while they were supposed to be praying.
• Zaccheus was too small.
• The Samaritan woman was divorced.
• Timothy had an ulcer.
• Leah was ugly.
• Joseph was abused.
• Rahab was a prostitute.

And yet ALL of these people were used by God for His glory!

Lastly, some people are just too afraid to be used by God.  Let's face it....it takes faith to allow God to use us the way He wants to.

But in Joshua 1:9, God tells us, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

We asked the kids then to practice the kind of faith and courage it took Peter to have when he stepped out of the boat and walked on top of the sea towards Jesus.

Matthew 14:25-29 - Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.  When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.  But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”  “Come,” he said.  Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

We filled a long under-the-bed storage container with 24 boxes of corn starch and 36 cups of water.  We added some blue food coloring to make it look more like water.  We asked the kids then to get a running start and run through the mixture having the faith that, if they did not stop or hesitate, they would not sink.  As long as they did just as they were told, their feet never sank into the gooey substance!

In the end, we pray that, through the many Biblical examples God gave us in His Word...and through the faith and the courage that only come from living daily by that Word, these out-of-this-world youth know that, believe, and are open to God using them in both small and huge ways!

We ended with the inspiring video of runner Heather Dorniden.

The A.C.T.S. Prayer

 

Colossians 4:2 - Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Tonight we talked to the kids about prayer.  Some people pray to God like He is an ATM machine and they can just ask for whatever they want.

But...

That's not how it works.  Paul says we are to "devote" ourselves to prayer.  To devote means to be steadfast, to endure, to courageously persist.  That doesn't sound like a "quickie" prayer said to withdrawal a few answers to me.

We talked about how some people view prayer using a pizza as well.  

• How is prayer like ordering pizza?

• How is prayer different from ordering a pizza?

• Do you think of God as a delivery person?  Why or why not?

• Is prayer like the pizza guarantee, “Delivery in 30 minutes or your pizza is free”?  Why or why not?

• What’s wrong with calling on God the way we call for pizza?

• How do you think God wants us to view prayer?

We talked about how we sometimes feel when we pray.  I threw a ball to one of the kids who threw it back to me.  Sometimes, we feel like, when we pray, God hears our prayers and answers us right away.  Then I threw the ball to another one of the kids, but not hard enough.  Sometimes, we feel like our prayers never reach God.  Next, I threw the ball to one of the kids who threw it back, but not directly to me.  Sometimes, we feel like God didn't answer our prayers the way we thought He should.

God wants us to pray sincerely, steadfastly, with thanksgiving....not just asking for "stuff" from Him.  We watched a clip from Bruce Almighty.  It's where Morgan Freeman, who plays God, is trying to teach Bruce how to pray with sincerity...and not just like a robot spouting off unemotional mechanical prayers.

Why is prayer so important?  

To illustrate this, we showed the kids a video of a pigeon.  Have you ever wondered why a pigeon walks so funny?  According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, a pigeon walks the way it does so it can see where it's going.  Because it can't adjust its focus as it moves, the pigeon actually has to bring its head to a complete stop between steps in order to refocus. This is the way it walks: head forward, stop; head back, stop.  In our Christian walk, we face the same problem as the pigeon.  We are so busy and easily distracted by the world and things around us that we have a hard time seeing while we're moving.  We also need to stop between steps--to refocus on where we are in relation to the Word and the will of God....in other words, to take the time to pray.  Our walk with the Lord needs to have a built in pattern of "stops" which enable us to see more clearly before we continue on. 

So how should we pray then?  

Next, we talked about the model of the A.C.T.S. prayer.  The "A" stands for adoration.  We should always start out our prayers praising God for His awesome attributes.  He is powerful, sovereign, awesome, mighty, loving, just, etc...  The "C" stands for confession.  Next, we should confess any sin we have in our lives that could impede our communication with God.  The "T" stands for thanksgiving.  Now it's time to thank God for all He is, does for us, gives us, etc...  The "S" stands for supplication.  Lastly, we use this time to pray for others' needs, followed by our own.  We went around the room for each of the letters and gave the kids each a chance to give an example so we were sure they understood the A.C.T.S. prayer fully.

We talked to the kids about how it takes three weeks to make or break a habit.  I jumped rope for them... not very gracefully I might add.  We talked about how, once you get into the groove of doing something, it just skips right along.  But once you stop, it takes a while to get the momentum and rhythm going again.  

We gave them each a notebook then and asked them to commit to three full weeks of praying through the A.C.T.S. prayers and recording some of their prayer time in the notebooks.  They can simply record just one word or person's name for each of the letters in the acronym A.C.T.S. on each day's journal entry.  It's their way of maintaining accountability.  On the bottom of each page, we encouraged the kids to keep track of answers to their prayers that they saw as well.  We also reminded them that God has three answers to our prayers....no, yes, and not right now.

Along with their notebooks, the kids made visuals with beads to help them remember the order of the A.C.T.S. prayer and help them not to forget any part of it while they are praying.  

We'll be checking back with the kids in a few weeks to see how their three weeks of praying went.  We offered them each a small incentive if they bring their notebooks back filled in.

Walk the Talk

Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Colossians 3:1

There are people who profess to be Christians, and may even know Scripture, but by their actions, they are denying that they truly know Christ.

Titus 1:16 - They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

What you believe has to be in direct relationship with how you live and behave.  If we share Christ's life and have been raised with Him, then we have to share His example.

Romans 8:11 - And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

We identify with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection if we are Christians.  The new life we now live is strong and powerful, but so can our remaining sin be strong and powerful as well.  However, we need nothing more than Christ alone to live that Christ-centered life.

Tonight we talked about walking our talk.  We can speak "Chriatianeze" all we want, but unless the way we live our lives reflects Christ in us, then we are just moving our lips.  Someone can go to church every Sunday and even quote Scriptures from memory, but if they are Getting drunk every Friday night and cursing and using the Lord's name in vain in every other sentence, then they are denying that they truly know and have a relationship with Christ.  And others are watching their example!

So what do we have to do to walk our talk?

Colossians 3:2 tells us we need to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.

We put two pennies beside each other on the floor.  On top of one of the pennies, we placed a clear glass full of water.  We asked the kids to take turns looking down at the two pennies to see which one looked bigger, closer.  

As light enters the water in the glass, the speed at which it is traveling slows down.  The rounded shape of the glass (and hence, of the water) causes the light to bend outwards.  As it bends, it extends the image it surrounds outward slightly as well, making the object appear larger.  It works as a magnifier.  This experiment shows us again that things are not always as they appear.  Things were made to look bigger than they actually were.

In this life, we make a big deal out of things like electronics and "toys" and clothes and possessions.  They take up a big space in our minds—sometimes too often!  But Colossians 3:1-2 tells us, “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” When we get to heaven, the glass will be taken away.  We’ll see then how small and unimportant those things really were.

What we need to do is, once we have been made new creations in Christ, is preserve our fizz!  The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” It’s sort of like a bottle of water and a bottle of soda.

We had one of the youth open a bottle of water and pour some in a glass.  Then, with everyone as quiet as possible, we had another youth open a bottle of soda to pour some of it into another glass.  As that bottle's seal was broken, we stopped to listen.  The soda's fizz created a sort of hissing noise when the seal was broken.  The bottle of soda sounded more "alive" than the bottle of water.  In addition, once in the glass next to the water, the soda continued to "sizzle" and "sparkle".

Before we give our lives to Jesus, we’re a little like this plain water.  We look okay, but we’re kind of bland. We’re kind of boring.  After we give our lives to Jesus, we’re more like this soda pop. We sparkle.  We come alive.  If we don’t touch either for a minute or so, they look sort of the same.  They’re both clear.  The only difference is that one makes a sparkle every once in a while.

Often times in life, Christians look very much the same as other people.  But when it comes time to show the love of Jesus in our lives, we tend to sparkle.  How do we do that?  How do we get the power to look more "sparkly" than others?  God fills us with his love and power, which makes us different.  It makes us "fizz"!

If we practice setting our minds on things above and not on earthly things, we will sparkle.  So, once God fills us, one of two things can happen.  We can keep our sparkle and fizz or…what happens when we leave the cap off a bottle of soda overnight?  It loses its sparkle and fizz!  It becomes like the water again...no sparkle, no fizz.  Who wants to drink flat soda?  As Christians, we want to keep our fizz.

If we’re going to act like new creations, we have to take care to preserve our fizz and sparkle.  We have to ask for God’s protection.  The bottle cap is like God’s protection.  We have to put it on and we have to ask God to preserve our fizz for us through giving us a desire to spend more time with Him and grow in our relationship with Him.  Then, when we come into contact with people, they will not only HEAR our fizz, but they will SEE it as well!

Rules vs. Relationship

Colossians 2:16-23 - 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

We focused on these Scriptures in Colossians tonight and talked to the kids about the dangers behind legalism....following rules in hopes of gaining God's favor.  Dictionary.com defines legalism as "strict adherence to the law, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.

We watched a few movie clips to give the kids the right idea.  The first was from Meet the Parents and is where Greg is confronted by a rule-abiding, stringent airline hostess who refuses to let him board his plane until all other rows have been seated....even though he is the only passenger on the plane!  The second clip was from Despicable Me and features Gru running down the list of rules he has for his newly adopted daughters.

We talked about how ridiculous both clips were.  We discussed how some of the religious leaders in Paul's day were trying to enforce Old Testament rules on the Gentile believers that were unnecessary to their salvation.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sins, and be raised again the third day so that, if we are truly His, we have freedom in Him.  We are no longer under the rules of the Old Testament to ensure that we are "right" with God.  That's not to say that rules are not necessary and that all rules are to be ignored or broken.  Think about the Ten Commandments for instance.  But we cannot obsessively abide by rules imposed in the law of the Old Testament and think that, in doing so, our obedience somehow replaces a true and vibrant relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

To get the point across, we had a bookbag and some rocks....not just any rocks.  These were river rocks collected from a stream in Pennsylvania last summer.  They are big, smooth, and HEAVY!  We put the bookbag on one of our smaller youth and, with each rock placed inside, named an Old Testament law that carrying that rock meant they had to abide by.  Some of our laws included:

• Don't wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19).
• Don't cut your hair nor shave (leviticus 19:27).
• Any person who curses his mother or father, must be killed (Leviticus 20:9).
• People who have flat noses, or are blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18).
• Kill anyone with a different religion (Deuteronomy 17:2-7).
• Death for working on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14).
• Don't eat lobster or shrimp (Leviticus 11:10).

Then we let our now "burdened" youth carry that bookbag around the building three times.  When they returned, we asked them how they felt....tired, hurt shoulders, weighted down.  That's exactly how it feels when we trade in the freedom we have in Christ for the bondage of following rules that Christ's sacrifice freed us from ever having to follow again.  

The Old Testament rules and regulations had their purpose and time.  They were put in place for the Israelites protection, to test their obedience, to maintain some semblance of justice.  But they were merely a shadow of what living a life with Christ as our Savior would be like in New Testament times....living under the shelter of His wings, walking in obedience to Him, serving Him through loving our neighbors as ourselves.  

Imagine if, after several years in the Promised Land, the Israelites had decided they'd rather return to Egypt and their former lives as slaves.  A man on death row gets pardoned and is released after 20 years in prison...only to beg to be put back behind those bars weeks later.  Ridiculous?  That's what it looks like though when we allow others to tell us that we have to obey Old Testament laws in order to be right with God.  We are putting back on the chains Jesus came to free us from.

It's not about the rules....it's about the relationship.