The Importance Of Prayer

Today's question reads, "Why should I talk to God if He doesn't talk back?" Now this is a good question. but really what the student is asking is, "Why should I pray? How does God talk back?"

In the Christian faith, prayer is very important. It is how we communicate with God. Although God knows everything, it's better to actually tell Him. Speaking secrets, confessing sin, and asking for help can feel like a weight is lifted. In fact 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you." It can be very freeing to speak. God does know everything, but He wants to hear it from us anyway. Something my high school pastor said that I always found interesting and true was this, "If God knows everything, then I can tell Him anything." We can tell God anything: praise, problems, sin & temptation and even doubt. See, communication is one of the big things that goes into any relationship. If God wants a relationship with us, which He very much does, then we need to communicate.

Now some of you may be asking, does prayer "work"? Does God really answer back? Time & time again, we see God answer the prayers of the Israelites. In fact, there were some times when God was already answering prayer even just after they had spoken it. Prayer does "work". By work I mean that God answers them, meaning that God hears our prayers and responds. 1 John 5:14-15 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of Him." The apostle Paul himself writes about a time when he asked God to get rid of an affliction, and God said no. There will be times when God will say no. Sometimes He will answer it the way you want, but other times, He may not. He may give you a 'yes'. But He may also give you a 'no' or a 'maybe'. But He will always answer it the way He wants, which will always be for His good and His glory.

Now that has to do with God answering prayer, but does He ever just talk to you? Well, I think He does. But you need to be quiet before Him, you need to listen for His voice. Without getting mystical, I want to tell you about a time, I believe God spoke to me during my prayer times. Back in college I would journal out prayers. I would write out my prayers to God. What I discovered is that He would actually talk back. Not with a physical or loud voice. But it would be a quiet whisper in my heart, a response in the back of my mind. I began writing down what I feel God was saying, and it was actually a response to what I was talking to Him about. He would encourage me, and get me to think. The whisper never contradicted the Bible, nor did He contradict what I knew about Him. The God of the Universe was speaking into my heart, to me. God does respond to our prayers.

He converses with us in our minds and in our hearts. He loves us and talks to us personally. He will answer our prayers. So don't give up prayer. Don't stop praying. We are told to "pray continually." Be confident that God hears us and will respond.

So Long & Thanks For All The Fish

Tonight is the last Wednesday night that the current 8th grade students will officially be attending. Why you may ask. Well, our 8th grade students are graduating junior high. As of Sunday, they will officially be 9th grade students, which means they will be high school students. Yes, our young students are growing into young men & women. It is such a blessing to see this year after year. It's fun to go back and look at old pictures from when they were in 6th grade and then see their 8th grade pictures. The transformations they go through are amazing. Some of them don't even look like their 6th grade pictures at all.

Like life, everything changes, everything grows up. All you can do is teach them what is right and wrong and let them make their own choices. Although they are still minors and still under their parents guidance, they are beginning to make choices which will effect their lives. They are beginning to be more independent of their parents. They are beginning to be young adults who make choices for themselves; choices like what they want to do when they grow up, who they want to be, what they want to try. Although they are moving up to high school, they still need guidance, prayer and encouragement. They still need to know that God loves them and wants the best for them. They still need their parents there helping them along.

But that is in the near future. Tonight, while we will look to the future, we will also relish & celebrate the present, and remember the past. Tonight, Crash will be more laid back. We will hang out and have fun. All parents are welcome to join us in the Loft at 7:40 PM to come celebrate with us as we say goodbye to all 12 of our 8th grade students, and remember all the fun times we had in the past year. I hope to see all of you there.

He Who Dies With The Most Toys Wins...(Or Not)

What is success? What does it mean to be a success? How do you measure that? Could someone who doesn't have a lot of money still be considered successful? First, let's define success. Success as defined by dictionary.com is, "The attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like as well as a favorable performance or achievement."

Some people measure success based on the amount of things they have. For them, their motto is, "He who dies with the most toys wins." So they work as hard as they can to get as much as they can. They collect real estate, cars, boats, planes, the latest & greatest technology. To an extent, this is success. As we defined, it is the attainment of wealth. But, as Christians, its not what success is supposed to be about. James 1:9-11 says, "The man in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For, the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant. It's blossom falls and it's beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business (NIV)."

After "Google-ing" success I found that other people (mostly a lot of the self-help, motivational speaker, business men) measure success not based on how much they have, but base it on their strength of character and the legacy they leave behind. This also fits in with our first definition, it's the attainment of position as well as a favorable performance. While this is closer to the truth, I still don't think this is it. This still suggests that success is about us and what we have.

So if we're not supposed to measure success based on what we have, then what do we base it on? Well, that's the big question. Join us tomorrow night as we finish up 2 Samuel and look at how successful King David was. He went from being a shepherd boy to being God's anointed king of Israel, rich, powerful & famous. But is that what made him successful? We'll see how he measured success and figure out how we should measure success. I hope to see you all there.

To All The People I Stepped On...

There's a set of books that is popular among junior high students called Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. The series follows a junior high student, Greg Heffley, through his junior high years. In the first book, Greg struggles with what I believe a lot of junior high students struggle with, wanting to be popular. Greg believes that his best friend, Rowley, is unpopular, so he begins to make Rowley look bad so that he can look good. He even lets Rowley take the blame for a mistake he made. I think it's safe to say that Greg stepped on his friend so that he could "get ahead" socially.

Have you ever stepped on anyone to try to get ahead in life? Maybe you made fun of someone who was unpopular so that you would look more popular. Or maybe you ditched a friend of yours because you thought they were bringing you down socially. I'm sorry to say, there were times when I acted like Greg, when I was mean to people because I thought it would help me be more popular. Eventually I learned, just as Greg did, that stepping on people really gets you nowhere. Sure it may look like your more successful, like your more popular, for a while. But eventually it catches up to you. It doesn't ever help to step on people, because it always seems to catch up to you eventually. Just remember, although we're still forgiven by God, we still have to answer to Him for the things that we've done.

At the end of the first book Greg, learns his lesson. After it all catches up to him, he, finally, ends up swallowing his pride, and admitting his mistake. If he had just been nice, loyal & patient, he would have seen that it would work out, that he would have been taken care of. All junior high students are welcome to join us tomorrow night at Crash as we look at someone who stepped on a few people to get ahead and what the ultimate result was. Please read 2 Samuel 20 before tomorrow night. Hope to see you all there.

Get Out Of My Face

Nobody ever really likes hearing bad things about themselves. No one wants to be criticized. Even if the critic means well, criticism always seems to feel like you're being attacked. But criticism, in itself, isn't bad. In fact it's good, it helps us be better people. But, it's all about how you respond to criticism. Everyone responds to criticism in one of three ways. Either they 1) get defensive, or 2) get depressed or 3) take negative criticism and turn it into positive wisdom by actually changing. People who most frequently respond the 3rd way are called teachable people

I'd like to think I'm teachable. When someone, especially someone I look up to & respect, criticizes me in a loving way, I take it to heart. I try to change for the better. However, growing up, there was one person who, for some reason, I couldn't stand to hear criticism from... my mom. Which is funny because of everyone I know, she's the one who loves me the most & wants the best for me (except for maybe God). I don't know why, but all of her criticisms seemed to push all my buttons and I would get defensive & fight with her. I would not respond with careful consideration and teach-ability like I should have.

Mom, I want to say I'm sorry. I know you care about me & love me & want the best for me. There were times when I didn't give you the respect you deserve. Please forgive me for getting defensive when you were trying to help me.

She wouldn't ever get in my face, but I would always get defensive. Criticism is bad enough, but when you add someone cursing you & getting in your face, it makes it nearly impossible to respond in a teachable way. It's so hard to ignore them and respond with careful consideration. But you must. You must not get defensive, but respond to criticism with careful consideration. You must walk away & ignore someone who gets in your face. This is how you can be teachable. This is how you can respond in love. This is how God wants you to respond to criticism. All junior high students are welcome to join us at Crash tonight as we read 2 Samuel 16, and look at a time when someone got in King David's face to not just criticize but curse him. I hope to see you all there.

Will This Be On The Test?

Is it hard to get all "A"s in school? This is the question I'm going to answer today, but before I answer it, let's answer a different question, what do grades mean anyway? Grades are meant to reflect the knowledge you've gained and the ability to demonstrate that knowledge in a particular class.

Now, to answer the question, is it hard to get all A's in school? In my opinion, yes. It's hard to get all A's in school because it takes hard work, focus, determination, and discipline. Teacher's don't just give out A's they must be earned. The more you learn and the better you are able to demonstrate what you have learned then the better grade you will get. For most teachers A=100%-90%, B=89%-80%, C=79%-70%, D=69%-60%, F=59%-0%.

Again, grades reflect the knowledge you have learned in the class and the ability to demonstrate what you have learned. For instance, think about a multiple choice test. Let's say there are 100 questions and each question is worth 1 point. The questions reflect the knowledge you have learned (or were supposed to have learned) up to that point. If you are able to answer 80 questions correctly, but you get 20 wrong, then you have been able to show that you know 80% of what you were supposed to know and you'll get a B. But let's say you study before the test and Projects and papers are similar. If you are able to have the project or paper demonstrate that you know 80% of what you were supposed to learn then you're going to get a "B". Now, it stands to reason that, the more effort you put into learning what the teacher is teaching, the more you will know and the better you'll be able to demonstrate that knowledge. For example, if you make an effort to study before a test, you might better understand & recall what you do know, as well as learn more. Now are able to get 90 questions right on that test. Now you were able to show that you knew 90% of what you were supposed to know and now you have an A. So, if grades are all about what you know and how well you're able to demonstrate that knowledge, then the more effort you put in, the more you try to learn, and the more effort you put into demonstrating that knowledge, then the better grades you will get.

I want to end by answering I question some of you may be thinking, did I get good grades? Well, I never got straight A's. I did try, but for some reason I wasn't able to learn fully what I needed, or demonstrate fully what I learned. I typically got B's. When I was able to focus and put effort into it, I would get an A. But for some reason I was never able to do that for all my classes at the same time. But I still tried. I want to encourage all of you reading this blog, try to focus, try to pay attention, try your best. All teachers can ask of you is that you try your best to learn and put the most effort into demonstrating your knowledge. If you do this, I mean really, truly do this, then I guarantee you will see your grades improve, because you will be learning more and be better able to demonstrate what you learned.

I Am My Father's Son

I love my father. He is awesome! He taught me how to play sports, how to mow the lawn, how to hug & how to love. I am proud to have his name as one of my middle names. When you look at it, it's not hard to see how much I am like my father, not just in looks, but in interests, mannerisms, and thoughts.

It's funny to actually look at how many things I have in common with my dad. Things that I didn't even realize before. For instance, in high school I was on the wrestling team all 4 years. I got into wrestling because a friend of mine suggested it. I really enjoyed wrestling & I wasn't half bad either. Well low and behold long after I had been wrestling, I learned that my dad had wrestled in high school too.

Think about you and your parents. How similar are you? We hear stories of people who never wanted to turn into their parents, but eventually they start quoting their parents. We are more like our parents than we'd probably like to admit; in the good ways, and, unfortunately if we're not careful, the bad as well. Those things that tempted our parents will probably tempt us as well. We study history so that we can learn from the mistakes of our past. We need to talk to our parents so we can learn from their mistakes. I'd like to invite all junior high students to come to Crash tonight. Tonight we'll be reading 2 Samuel chapters 13-14, and looking at David's sons and how they made the same mistakes their father did.