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Our computer encountered an unfriendly thing, a virus. It pretty much shut our computer down. We could do nothing with it. Thankfully, through a few friends we were able to get it fixed. My amazement is that people who have a great amount of God given abilities to create things; use this creativity to destroy the things of others. In this case a computer. I am simply amazed at the strange enjoyment that these people must get over knowing that they are destroying the properties of others. I am really not amazed though. I know that man is sinful. The sinfulness of man is where these ideas come from. Thankfully God has provided a free gift, salvation through faith in Jesus Christ death, burial, and resurrection, that we can receive by faith. This free gift makes man no longer slaves to sin but servants of God! Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The love of God, wow! I know that without accepting this free gift that God offers I would be no different than those people who create viruses. Praise God for the free gift of salvation! Do you know for sure if you are going to heaven?Press ON!
I have been asked to elaborate on my last post. I wrote about what God has done in the ministry of Sunday School at the church I attend in the past year and my life. God has taught me that there is a lot more to being a S.S. superintendent than just passing about around attendence sheets and getting teachers lined up as well as substitutes. God has taught me how to handle prickly people through my failures of not handling a couple of situations the best. God has challenged me with the idea of be the biggest encouragement, "cheerleader" , for the teachers. Let them know I am on their side and help in any way I can. God has taught me that I need to look at success in S.S. as He does and not let it depend on how I can make things happen. When I rely on myself to make S.S. a success it will then be a failure and I will always let myself down. Instead, if I simply do the things that I know God wants and serve Him and am faithful to Him, then I can leave the results to Him and trust that He will make it a success.I was asked how I was going to be an encouragement to the teachers this coming year and how am I going to make this year better than the last. Well I am going to answer these two with the same answer. I am going to be taking a specific teacher, one each week and spend that week praying for that teacher. I am going to seek out prayer requests of all my teachers so I can know how to pray for them. Along with this I am going to send that teacher that I will be praying for that week a note of encouragement. Letting them know that I appreciate their willingness to serve, their servants heart, thank them for their investment in the lives of their students, and anything I can think of that I know will be an encouragement to them. Another way I am going to strive to be an encouragement is to find out what some of their favorite snacks, goodies, or anything that they enjoy but do not get all the time. I will periodically send them these things in the mail. Also I am going to have all the teachers over to our house for dinner so that I can get to know them more personally. I would also like to know why they are teaching, why they got started, and what motivates them to teach. I am going to once a month or so talk about what a certain class is doing in S.S. and at the same time pray for that particular class; doing all this from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. I want the church to hear about how our teachers are serving the Lord and know what they are teaching their learners. I am also putting a list together that has a people's names on it who are willing to serve as substitute teachers. I will give this to all my teachers so that if they need as sub they can simply call a person and take care of it easier. I really want to model what I want my teachers to be doing in the lives of their students. Love, care, and discipleship.These are some of the things I am going to be striving for this year. I am praying that God helps 2010 be as great as 2009. I know that God is going to do some amazing things and I praise the Lord that I get to be apart of the S.S. ministry to watch! Praise God!Press ON!
Over the past 12 days I have spent some time reflecting on what has happened in the past year. More specifically in the ministry of Sunday School, as I am the S.S. Superintendent at the church that I attend. I was asked to write a report about the past year. I really did not know what to write so I spent some time just reflecting on how God has worked in our Sunday School ministry. Wow! As I stopped and thought, there were a lot of ways the God has used this ministry and the servants who teach to change lives! As I would meet with the teachers for meetings they all, at different times, would share praises of how there learners are grow toward Christ-likeness! Praise the Lord! That is what Sunday School is all about! Intense, intimate study of God's Word is what S.S. is all about! Basically S.S. is small group discipleship. A teacher or leader of a class is the one who helps focus the group on a specific area of God's Word.I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in this way! God has shown me in many ways that I am to be a huge encouragement to the teachers. I am excited to see what God has for our church in the year to come! Press ON!
On New Years Day I went sking with my brothers-in-laws! It was a ton of fun but supper cold! We did not decide to leave for sking till about 4pm on New Years day. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. As we pulled into the parking lot the temp gage in the vehicle said +10 degrees. Ok, not so bad. There really was not a lot of wind. We were all ready for some fun sking as well! We skied for an hour or so and then went and ate supper, then skied some more. We noticed that on our way up the ski lift that we were all shaking because of the cold. The wind had deffinitely picked up. It was so cold that when I would ski down my eyes would water really bad, my face felt almost numb, and no matter how I tried I could not keep my hands warm. We thought that we would go down about 4 more times and leave. When we got in the vehicle, it was close to ten o'clock at night and the temp gage read -8 degrees. We think that the wind chill had to put it in the -20s' because the wind had picked up as well. By the time we got back to the cabin we were staying in it was -10 degrees out! Wow! Cold! But we had such a great time! I was super glad I went! Note to self though...sking in cold weather is COLD!Press ON!
