Courage

"The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me even then will I be confident." Psalm 27:1-3  This month our virtue with the children has been Courage- being brave enough to do what we should even when we're afraid. this was really a challenge for me. I had to think of all the things that bring me fear, and do I believe that God will see me through these things. Am I willing to face these fears knowing that God is going before me in each of these instances. Fear, I believe, plays a big part in why we don't try new things, why we give up on things, and why we don't experience success a lot in our lives. We allow fear to control us, and make our decisions out of fear. Well according to David in these verses, if God is our light and our salvation, then whom shall I fear? What he is saying is that I shouldn't be afraid of anything or anyone if God is with me. I realize that my fear comes from my lack of faith in the One who is in control. If I believe that God is for me, than who can stand against me? I need in my own life to truly believe that God is with me and wants the best for me, and to allow that to control my decisions, not fear. This doesn't mean that bad things can't happen to the people of God, Stephen preached an awesome message and then was stoned to death. But the comfort in even that, is that he saw heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father. Jesus stood to welcome him home. How awesome is that! So I no longer want to make my decisions out of fear, but out of faith in the one who saved my soul, Jesus! So have COURAGE!

Derby Race!

Tomorrow night is the night to bring in all the derby cars so that we can add the weights to them. April 6th will be the night of the race, so plan on coming and supporting the kids! It should be a blast!

MOTIVES

Yesterday in staff meeting we looked up and discussed different scriptures that have to do with Motives. The things that became clear to me as we studied this, was that I wasn't to worry about others motives or judge them but I was to concern myself with my own motives. That the Lord is the one that will judge our motives. See, Jesus cares about our heart. We can be doing all kinds of "good" things, but if our motives aren't true, God knows that. That leads to the next thing that really stuck out, to be God pleasers and not men pleasers. To be concerned with what God thinks of what we are doing and who we are, and not to worry about what our neighbor is thinking. I think in our community we are so concerned with what others might think of me. When in reality, it only matters what God thinks of me. This goes to the verse in Matthew 23:25b&26 where Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and says these words, "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean."  What is your driving force? Is it what God thinks of me? I have to check myself each day.

What wonderful drawings!

Hey I know that most of you have seen some of the drawings that the children did and then were hung on the wall. Now I know that some of the things that were drawn have nothing to do with church, but with what their interests are in. But that is what is wonderful, each of them have their own idea of what would make church an awesome place to be. They don't limit their ideas and expressions to what can be done within a budget. They just dream BIG! In Luke 18:16&17  Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Sometimes childlike faith is what we need when it comes to giants that are to big to overcome. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Amen!