The Smart Stick?!?! GoP 8.30

Proverbs 29:11

What does it say?

"The rod of correction imparts wisdom,
but a child left to himself disgraces his mother."

What does it mean?
The rod of correction imparts wisdom - so does that mean I can beat you with a stick to make you smarter? Well, not exactly. There's an important difference between correction and abuse. Correction tells you what you did wrong and how to fix it.
Is a rod always a stick? Well, probably not, but sometimes a strong word may feel like we just got hit by a stick.
And how does a stick make you wiser? For some people getting hit with a stick will just leave a welt, a red mark. How is that supposed to help you make better decisions? More than a red mark on your skin, the purpose is to make a mark on your memory so you do the right thing the next time.

but a child left to himself disgraces his mother. A child left to himself means somebody who doesn't have parents or authority to make rules. Do you know any of your friends that don't have rules in their house? What happens? Do you think you would really like to live that way? What would happen?
Why do you think the verse talks about disgracing your mother not, say, your father, sister, or cousin? Your mother is always the one that says, "Oh no, I taught you better than that." They're the people who tell us how to behave and who correct us.

How does it apply to me?
Some food for thought...
How do I react when somebody tries to correct me?
How does it make me feel? And is that ok?
Is it possible that my parents are right even when I believe I'm right?
What happens when someone treats me badly and it's not correction, just anger? How can I deal with that and communicate my frustrations?

Throwin' off your cape! 8.29

What holds you back? What puts you down? What makes you turn back from doing bigger and better things?

In Mark 10, it tells the story of blind Bartimaeus. Obviously, Bartimaeus had a few things that would hold him back. Being blind would make life difficult alone. Second, disabled people were separated from society. He was poor and could not earn enough money to take care of himself. He had to beg. His cloak or cape was an identifier, it showed he was a poor, blind beggar.

Bartimaeus was sitting begging on the side of the road when he heard that Jesus was walking by. He couldn't see to know for sure, but Bartimaeus got so excited he started shouting

"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

People around him told him to quiet down, but that made him shout louder,

"Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Now we know that David the shepherd King lived loooooonnngg before Jesus and Bartimaeus wasn't saying that Jesus was really David's son, but rather his descendent. This is important because scripture had prophecied the savior would be a descendent of David. So when Bartimaeus called him "Son of David", he was proclaiming him Savior.

49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

Bartimaeus didn't take off his cape and fold it neatly so he could come back to it later - NO! he THREW it off and jumped up. He couldn't see where he was going, but he knew he wanted to go to Jesus.

51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."

Rabbi means teacher, but Bartimaeus didn't ask to learn anything, he asked to get his sight back - to be healed. So far Bartimaeus has been shouting and proclaiming Jesus as Savior, teacher/prophet, and healer. He believed big stuff about who Jesus was and what he could do.

52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Bartimaeus didn't run off to throw a party, no, he knew that what he wanted was to follow Jesus.

Bartimaeus had his cape, something that held him back, marked his life. He decided he didn't want to continue and he knew Jesus was the answer.

What is it that holds you back?

Is it something people have told you? People told Bartimaeus to be quiet, not to disturb the master. He ignored them. He even shouted louder over them. He knew what he needed and he made sure he got it. Maybe someone has told you that you can't do something or that you are worthless. Don't listen.

Maybe it's your circumstances. Bartimaeus was stuck at the bottom of society. He had no way to make his life better - no way to change anything. He was powerless. Maybe you are in a situation where you're powerless - you can't fix your problems. Will you shout out to Jesus as your answer?

the books in The book: part II

So tonight we looked at the rest of the books in the Bible. After the wisdom literature comes :

Major Prophets
Isaiah - lots and lots of prophecy - foretold the birth of Jesus
Jeremiah - a young prophet while the Israelites were in exile
Lamentations - funeral poems - lament = to tell how bad something you did makes you feel
Ezequiel - saw the bones grow flesh
Daniel - the lion guy, handwriting interpreter guy, and friend to the fire guys

Minor Prophets:

For more information on each of the prophets, you can read it at http://bible.org/seriespage/minor-prophets

Hosea - God told him to marry an unfaithful women
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah - the fish good guy
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zacharia
Malachi


Then comes the New Testament:

The Gospels (gospel means good news)
Mathew
Mark
Luke
John

Church History
Acts

Epistles (Letters written by apostles to churches and servants of the body)
Romans
I & II Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I & II Thessalonians
I & II Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
I & II Peter
I, II, & III John
Jude

Apocalyptic literature (Writings about the end times)
Revelations

books in THE book

Tonight was really fun! Chocolate cake makes me smile!

So for our girls who missed it, we did cell in reverse - we started w/ our prayer requests then the Word.

We've been talking about how the Bible is important, but we're going to take two weeks looking at the books inside the book. Tonight we looked at part of the Old Testament and how it's organized.

The first five books are books of law. They're called the "pentateuch". (penta = 5 like pentagon)

1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

Genesis means beginning - like the beginning of the world

Exodus, like exit - when Moses led the people out of Egypt.

Leviticus - Out of the twelve big families (tribes) that made up the Israelites, Levi's family, the "Levites" were in charge of taking care of the tabernacle/temple. The book talks about the rules and regulations for them

Numbers - yeah, like the number of people in each tribe. AKA, the census. Lots of names...

Deuteronomy - "second law", these laws were the second set, coming after the 10 commandments.

Next comes the books of History.

1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Ruth
4. I & II Samuel
5. I & II Kings
6. I & II Choronicles
7. Ezra
8. Nehemiah
9. Esther

Joshua - He was the leader of the Israelites and this book is the history of when they entered into the promised land after they left Egypt.

Judges - When the people entered the land, they didn't have a national system - no presidents, no mayors. The famous people from this time were Deborah, Gideon, Samson, etc.

Ruth - She was a woman who wasn't part of God's chosen people, but God included her in Jesus's heritage. It's a really cool story of redemption.

I & II Samuel - two scrolls of the same book, this history is about Israel during the time of the prophet Samuel, son of Hannah.

I & II Kings - The people of Israel saw all the other nations had kings and they asked God to give them one... so He did.

I & II Chronicles - a chronicle is a history. These are the history records during the time of the kings.

Ezra & Nehemiah were leaders in returning the people back to Israel after the exile.

Esther - Have you ever seen the movie "One night with the king"? That's a movie version of her story

Then there are five books known as the Wisdom books.

1. Job
2. Psalms
3. Proverbs
4. Ecclesiastes
5. Song of Songs

Job was tested but his faith held on.

Psalms - these were songs, most of them praising God.

Proverbs - these are not professional verbs, they're wise sayings.

Ecclesiastes - meaning "collection", as in a collection of

Song of Songs - love songs and poetry

Next week we'll do the prophets of the Old Testament and the New Testament. If we get them memorized, we're havin' a pool party!!! (And remember it's 45 points toward the goal!!!)

Holy Dinner! No, wait. Santa Cena? - Communion

Santa Cena - Pastor Eli

In Spanish it's called "Santa Cena" which translates as Holy Dinner.

In English, it's called Communion - which means "participating together".

But what is it and why do we do it?

In Exodus 12 Moses was sent by God to the Egyptian Pharoh to get the freedom for the Israelites after they had spent 400 years as slaves. The Pharoh wasn't interested in letting them go so God sent plagues like flies and frogs and disease to convince him. The last of the plagues was when the angel of death was sent to each house to kill the firstborn or oldest of the family. To protect their families the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and put the blood on the door post so the angel would pass over their houses.



Once the people were free, they set a holiday to remember how God freed them from slavery. The name of that holiday? Passover. They celebrate with a meal of bitter herbs, flat bread, and wine.

When Jesus was coming to the end of his life, he had a special Passover dinner with his disciples. (Luke 22:15) He had been with them for three years and so they had celebrated other Passovers, but this one was special. Jesus took two items from the dinner to explain to the Disciples what was going to happen. I don't think they could have really understood everything at the time, but Jesus knew they, and now we, would get what he was talking about later.

Jesus said that the bread was his body. He broke the bread and they shared it.
He said the wine was his blood and the new covenant (promise, agreement) "poured out for you".
He also told them to "do this in remembrance of me".

So Jesus is broken? What? Wait a minute! If my pen is broken, I throw it away. Why do I want a broken Jesus???

When Jesus body was broken and his blood poured out, he died. But because he died and rose again, we can participate in the kingdom of God. One of the ways to show that we are part of the kingdom is to "take part in" or "participate" in communion. We remember that Passover (the holy dinner) and we come together to celebrate what Jesus did for us.

So try not to focus too much on the "broken" Jesus. Yes, he had to be broken, but as we take up a piece of the bread and we take Jesus's character and his spirit and we participate in his work and kingdom, we are each a piece of his body. His body is then reconstructed when we come together.

So that's basically how a holy dinner brings us together to participate in what Jesus is doing.

Cell 8.2.2010 Lying Lips

(Brought to you by Angela - double memory points!!!)

What does it say?

Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.


What does it mean?

We talked about how we can't make God happy if we are lying. He celebrates people who walk in the truth.


How does this apply to our lives?

It's always better to tell the truth. Our parents tell us this, but we must doubt it because we have all lied at one time or another.

Where does your faith start?

In Luke 16 and 17, Jesus has been teaching and the disciples say "Increase our faith!" Jesus gives his famous "faith like a mustard seed" speech. He said "IF" you had faith like a mustard seed you could...

He didn't say, you have this faith. He had been talking to people and telling them some of the bad things they had been doing. This wasn't the nicest message, but incredibly honest. He made it clear that faith starts in your home. It is shown by how you act with the people closest to you. It is shown by how you deal with money. It is shown by your daily life. It starts at home.

The disciples wanted this faith but Jesus gave them a warning. He gave a parable about servants and how a servant is still a servant even after he has finished his work. Jesus taught the disciples that if they are going to have faith, God will use them for big things;HOWEVER, they must remember that they are still just the servants.

Sometimes people get too caught up in the idea of "Wow! look what God used ME to do". Now we can be happy that God uses us, we have to remember that HE is the one working through us. Our value is that we are his servant because without Him we couldn't do anything.