Thursday, December 20, 2012
Christmas Party
The Bellevue Bright Lights Christmas party was last Sunday - complete with popcorn, hot chocolate and spiced cider, snowflake cutting, singing carols, and a Secret Santa gift exchange. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's girls - see you in 2013!
Friday, December 7, 2012
Accepting God's Design and First Group Ministry Opp!
Last week's meeting was on Accepting God's Design For You, and in preparing for the meeting, the Lord had me take a different approach than I was anticipating.
I was originally thinking we'd end up spending most of our time talking about outward appearances and how we should be contented with how God made us (which we did spend time on ultimately), but instead, we took a detour back to the beginning of Scripture, in Genesis, where we briefly compared the two different beliefs of Intelligent Design and Evolution - and the fruit that each leads to.
The girls quickly saw in the Biblical account of Creation we are told who created everything (Genesis 1:1), how it was created (Genesis 1:2 through Genesis 2:25), and what our first purposes (or...the why Genesis 1:26) were in life. This is strikingly different from the big question marks one encounters early on in the Evolutionary account. They also saw that from the beginning, human beings were the crowning pinnacle (Genesis 1:27) of God's creation by virtue of being made in His image...versus evolving from lower life forms. (Evolution fosters 'might makes right' thinking and easily leads to the justification of the devaluation of life and such acts as euthanasia, abortion, and ill treatment of the poor.)
Belief in God, His sole authorship of life, and the high value placed on our lives because we are made in His image is what led the Founding Fathers to pen the following words we all know so well...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Righs, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
We also took a deeper look into the Scriptures to find verses talking about some purposes of our lives:
Glorify God in your body
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 -20
Spread the Good News of Salvation!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... Matthew 28:19
Fear (respect and give honor to) God and obey His commands
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Again...Glorify God!
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made. Isaiah 43:7
Love Him and teach the next generation about Him
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We closed with the thought that since God is the One who designed us, we are actually blaming Him if we do not accept ourselves the way He made us.
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Romans 9:20
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
‘He has no hands’?
Woe to him who says to his father,
‘What have you begotten?’
or to his mother,
‘What have you brought to birth?’ Isaiah 45: 9 - 10
Finally - as our first group ministry project, we gathered together a bunch of hams (and a turkey!) to donate to the LightHouse StoreHouse Food Center in Fife, which will be used to go into food baskets for families in need this Christmas season. THANK YOU so much for the amazing generosity in your contributions - Pastor Ken Banks and his staff was overjoyed at the offering we took down to them today!!
I was originally thinking we'd end up spending most of our time talking about outward appearances and how we should be contented with how God made us (which we did spend time on ultimately), but instead, we took a detour back to the beginning of Scripture, in Genesis, where we briefly compared the two different beliefs of Intelligent Design and Evolution - and the fruit that each leads to.
The girls quickly saw in the Biblical account of Creation we are told who created everything (Genesis 1:1), how it was created (Genesis 1:2 through Genesis 2:25), and what our first purposes (or...the why Genesis 1:26) were in life. This is strikingly different from the big question marks one encounters early on in the Evolutionary account. They also saw that from the beginning, human beings were the crowning pinnacle (Genesis 1:27) of God's creation by virtue of being made in His image...versus evolving from lower life forms. (Evolution fosters 'might makes right' thinking and easily leads to the justification of the devaluation of life and such acts as euthanasia, abortion, and ill treatment of the poor.)
Belief in God, His sole authorship of life, and the high value placed on our lives because we are made in His image is what led the Founding Fathers to pen the following words we all know so well...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Righs, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
We also took a deeper look into the Scriptures to find verses talking about some purposes of our lives:
Glorify God in your body
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 -20
Spread the Good News of Salvation!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... Matthew 28:19
Fear (respect and give honor to) God and obey His commands
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Again...Glorify God!
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made. Isaiah 43:7
Love Him and teach the next generation about Him
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We closed with the thought that since God is the One who designed us, we are actually blaming Him if we do not accept ourselves the way He made us.
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Romans 9:20
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the
ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
‘He has no hands’?
Woe to him who says to his father,
‘What have you begotten?’
or to his mother,
‘What have you brought to birth?’ Isaiah 45: 9 - 10
Finally - as our first group ministry project, we gathered together a bunch of hams (and a turkey!) to donate to the LightHouse StoreHouse Food Center in Fife, which will be used to go into food baskets for families in need this Christmas season. THANK YOU so much for the amazing generosity in your contributions - Pastor Ken Banks and his staff was overjoyed at the offering we took down to them today!!
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