West Main

Many times I’ve heard others say, “Oh, you teach a class of little kids? Oh, you poor thing; you’re a glutton for punishment.” My mind reacts, “You poor thing. If you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what a wealth of blessing you’re missing.”

Poor thing, indeed! There are few moments as precious as seeing the dancing eyes of a little child as he sees the big fish (made of a bleach bottle) swallow Jonah (a puppet) and then to see relief come and the whole body relax and settle against his chair when he sees that, “God took care of Jonah and He will take care of me if I obey Him.”

Then there is the excited voice of a little one tugging on mother and daddy to “come and see the ten lepers Jesus made well.” It may look like a pitiful sight; the wall picture with ten figures (?) possibly with no necks, or all legs and no bodies, but you will never convince those youngsters that it isn’t a work of art!

ME, a poor thing? When I hear from three seats back the loud whisper, “Mommy, that’s my teacher,” then I receive the most moving, most enjoyable, most blessing-filled hour of the week. NO, I wouldn’t trade all that for a comfortable chair in a quiet adult class and who knows, the Bible class YOU teach to children, may lead someone to heaven who otherwise might not have seen the WAY of the Lord. Sorry, that POOR THING is not me at all!

“Father, open our eyes to the joy and thrill of helping students discover the great truths of Your Word and to see the excitement and love in their eyes as they come to understand Your love a little more clearly.” In Jesus’ name.

(From the Files)

ONE SHORT SERMON

This coming Sunday we will explore more fully truths touched upon in our previous sermons in Ephesians. These truths center on choice, love, and time. Paul declares in the opening of the letter:

Even as [God the Father] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Paul manages to pack within two verses some of the most profound, if not complicated, truths of our Christian faith. Why and how are we to be impacted by what the Father accomplishes in Jesus “before the foundation of the world”? What does it mean for us to be predestined by God’s choice for love? Does God’s predestined choice to love us before the foundation of the world cancel out my own free-will? If God has already made His choice to love us before the foundation of the world, and therefore before our own existence in the world, then what role do our own choices have in life? Does God just know what we are going to do and therefore “predestines” what He will do in response to our choices? Or does God determine our choices? What about the role of prayer? Do we pray to change God’s mind or are we really just praying for God to reveal what He has already determined?

But more important than these aspects of time is the thought of God making a choice. We often speak of our own free-will and often neglect to consider God’s free-will. We perhaps think God is somehow bound to save us or have a relationship with us. Yet, we will see from Ephesians that God is under no universal obligation to do anything! God makes a choice to love us knowing full well our own choice not to love Him through our choices to sin. Sin is not merely a moral violation of an arbitrarily constructed legal code of rules. More fully, sin is a choice to break fellowship with God.

What we will explore this Sunday are the effects of God making His own choice to love us despite our choice not to love Him. What impact does God’s predestined choice of love have on us psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually? But now turn the previous question around and ask, “Does God’s choice to love us when we do not love Him have any potential impact on how God feels?” In other words, does God making a choice open Him up to being vulnerable to being rejected by us? Or does God’s choice not really have any impact on God since He determines how we will respond? If God determines our response, then is God really risking anything in His choice to love us? Must there be the risk of rejection rooted in free-will for love to be genuine? Some of us may not have even gotten past the previous question of God even feeling! Does God feel or is feeling just a human characteristic? Come this Sunday as we explore these questions in one short sermon….smile.

– Terry