Workmanship

I gave this lesson in the church service for all the children who were in the service.

~~~

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Maybe some of you know that I went back to school recently to learn how to make graphics on the computer. Remember how Mr. Butcher brought some of his tools two weeks ago? [Bob Butcher, a man in our church, gave the kids' lesson two weeks prior.] Does anyone remember what he brought? He brought a hard hat and a ladder that he uses when he works. I have different tools. To do what I learned to do, sometimes I use a paintbrush, and sometimes I use a computer and a mouse. Here’s a painting I made in one of my classes.

Le mont Rainier

Acrylic on canvas

© 2012 Steven Sauke

 Here is a cartoon I made after I learned how to do it on the computer.

"I'm Tired"

Illustration

© 2013 Steven Sauke

I even made some people on the computer. Maybe you recognize this guy?

Aaron Olson

Illustration

© 2012 Steven Sauke

Or you might know this person. He’s pretty cool.

Charlie Ostlie

Illustration

© 2012 Steven Sauke

Or maybe you know this guy?

Self Portrait

Illustration

© 2013 Steven Sauke

In the Bible, Paul said that we are God’s workmanship. Do you know what workmanship is? I just showed you some of mine. It’s something you make. God’s workmanship is you and you and you and you and you [pointing to each kid in turn] and me and everyone else! [indicating the congregation] My workmanship is my artwork. Mr. Butcher’s workmanship is houses and other things that he can build. [I picked up Le mont Rainier painting] What if I told this painting, “Go build a house!” Can it do it? Of course not! But Mr. Butcher can, and he is God’s workmanship. God’s workmanship is so much cooler than anything we can make. Houses can’t paint or make graphics, but I can, and I am God’s workmanship. Artwork isn’t made to build houses, and houses aren’t made to draw. Only God’s workmanship can do that. You and I are God’s workmanship! The Bible says that God has good works that He wants us to do, and that’s one of the reasons He made us. The next person we’re gonna see is a graphic I made of someone else that God made. I bet you haven’t met him. I know that because he died even before I was born!

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Illustration

© 2013 Steven Sauke

This guy was a preacher a long time ago. 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King gave a famous speech that helped people to understand something very important. He taught that we need to be nice to people, no matter what color their skin is. When he did his work, his tools were a pen and a microphone. He wrote and gave speeches and helped people to understand how much God loves everyone.

Near the end of his life, the apostle Paul told his friend Timothy, “I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful. So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. He judges fairly, and on the day of judgment He will give a crown to me and to everyone else who wants Him to appear with power.”

The day before he died, Dr. King gave another speech. He didn’t know he would die the next day. He said, “I just want to do God’s will, and He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land! And so I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

Both Paul and Dr. King knew that they had done the work that God wanted them to do. Paul tells us that God prepared that work for them to do. God has something special He wants you to do too. He is giving you things that you enjoy. He gave me an interest in art. He gave Mr. Butcher a love of building. He gave Paul and Dr. King a love of writing and speaking. What do you like to do? Can you use that to serve God? Think about it!

The Unknown God

The ancient Greeks had lots of gods. When the Romans conquered them, they liked them so much that they decided to keep them, but rename them. The Greeks prayed to Zeus, the king of gods, when there were storms, since he was in charge of the sky. He could send lightning and all kinds of stormy stuff. The Romans called him Jupiter. The Greek god Poseidon (or Neptune, as the Romans called him) was in charge of the sea, and if you got him mad, he could cause some major storms at sea. He was also the god of horses. (You may have heard of his son Triton?) Hades (or Pluto) was in charge of the ground and the underworld. The three of them were brothers and sons of the titan Kronos (or Saturn). To put it lightly, they didn’t have a good relationship with their dad. Kronos was the son of Ouranos (Uranus/Caelus), who was the god of the sky before Zeus. Ouranos’ wife was Gaia (Terra, which is Latin for “Earth”), the goddess of the earth before Hades. Hera (or Juno) was the goddess of women and marriage. Athena (or Minerva) was the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. Hermes (Mercury) was the messenger of the gods. Ares (Mars) was the god of war. Aphrodite (Venus) likely had something to do with it if people fell in love. Dionysus (Bacchus) was the god of wine and parties, and Hephaestus (Vulcan) was in charge of forging metals. Artemis (Diana) was the goddess of the hunt, while her brother Apollo drove a chariot across the sky every day pulling the sun. Demeter (Ceres) made sure crops continued to grow. Those are just a few of the gods and goddesses the Greeks and Romans worshiped. As you can tell, they had gods for everything! They had to keep track of so many gods, that sometimes it got a little hard. Then they had another problem. What if the gods didn’t tell the humans of the existence of a god here or there? What if there was some situation where somebody had a problem, and they didn’t know about a god who could take care of that? They came up with a solution in the city of Athens, which was named for their goddess Athena.

Athens was known as a city of very smart people. They had the best university in the area, and people often met to discuss philosophy and other subjects. The Jews had the Pharisees and Sadducees, who didn’t always agree about everything, and were constantly arguing with each other. The Greeks also had two groups of philosophers. The Stoics believed that they needed to study and learn, and the more you knew, the less you would be affected by emotions and pain. The Epicureans taught that everyone needed to be happy! The groups liked to argue their different views with each other. These people were very smart, but they were missing something very important. Why bother keeping up with hundreds of false gods when there is only one true God, and He can do everything?!

Paul had come a long way since Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. He traveled all over the place in what is now Israel, Turkey and Greece, spreading Jesus’ message and founding churches along the way. (He would later make it to what is now Italy, and possibly Spain.) He wrote many letters to the churches, and as he traveled, he encountered many different cultures. He was careful to learn about the different cultures and explain Jesus’ message in ways they would understand. When he arrived in Athens, he looked around first. He was very sad to see the statues of Zeus, Poseidon and the rest. They had so many false gods who, in reality, couldn’t do squat for them! He also saw an altar that gave him an idea.

As Paul began to preach on a hill called the Areopagus (which means Mars Hill), the Athenians thought this was interesting and weird. What is this guy doing, telling us to worship foreign gods? Since they loved nothing more than a good debate, they took on this challenge. They asked him about what he was teaching. Why was he telling them to worship a new God they had never heard of?

Have you ever tried sharing Jesus with some of your friends by telling them that the way they worship (or don’t) is bad? If so, they probably didn’t respond too well. People were no different back then. Paul knew this, and he showed them respect. He didn’t criticize their gods. Instead, he tried another strategy. He got up and said, “I’ve been looking around your city, and I can see that you guys are very religious. You have gods for everything. I even noticed you have an altar that says “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” on it! That tells me you don’t know what you’re worshipping, so guess what! I’m gonna tell you about this unknown God! This God made the skies and the earth, and He doesn’t live in temples that humans have built. He gives life, breath, and everything else. He made humans, all descended from one man. He made the earth, and He allowed humans to spread all over it. He’s in charge of history and the boundaries of lands. That way, we will look for Him. It’s like the Greek philosopher Epimenides said, ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ Or like the Stoic poet Aratus wrote, ‘We are his offspring.’

“Since we are God’s offspring, that means we can’t assume that God is anything like gold, silver or stone, or anything that humans have made. In the past, God gave ignorance like that a pass, but now He wants everyone to repent. One day He will come and judge the world, with justice by the one He assigned to do that. He proved that by raising this man from the dead!”

At that, some people decided he was crazy. Who could raise a human from the dead? But others said, “Tell us more!” Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris, were among the many people who believed that day.

So it was that Jesus’ message spread to Athens, the capital of Greece. He brought a new agape, to rival the “love” they knew from their god Eros, who the Romans called Cupid.

~~~

Following is the PowerPoint presentation that I did. I went through the slides of the gods fairly quickly.

The Death of a Deacon and the Birth of an Apostle

The Sanhedrin was in an uproar. A man had been brought before them on charges of blasphemy, the same crime they had killed Jesus for so recently. Had Jesus blasphemed? No. Now Jesus’ follower Stephen was in trouble for the same thing, and he was just as innocent.

A Pharisee named Saul watched the liars called onto the witness stand who pretended Stephen had been speaking against Moses’ Law. They claimed he had said that Jesus would destroy the Sanhedrin and change the Jewish customs. Saul got angrier and angrier at Stephen as he heard the charges. Then Stephen got up to speak. His face was glowing as the high priest asked him if the charges were true.

Stephen reminded them that God had led Abraham to the Promised Land. Abraham lived there, as did his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and his great-grandson Joseph. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, but God used that to save Egypt, Canaan and the surrounding countries from a terrible famine. His whole family came to Egypt, where they could get food to eat, and they and their descendants lived there for 400 years. A new Pharaoh came to power, and he was cruel to the Israelites and made them slaves. Moses was born, and he was raised in the Egyptian palace. Thanks to an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, Moses fled to Midian, where he got married and had two sons. After meeting God in a burning bush, Moses returned to Egypt and led the Israelites out. On Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses the Law, but the Israelites refused to obey. Instead, they built a golden calf and worshiped it! Because of their disobedience, God made them do laps around the desert for 40 years. Joshua eventually led them into the Promised Land. During their time in the desert, they had the tabernacle, and they had it until many years later when Solomon built the temple.

At this point in his speech, Stephen got to the point. “You are so stubborn! You’re just like your ancestors! You insist on resisting the Holy Spirit, and just as your ancestors murdered the prophets, you murdered the one they prophesied would come! You received the Law, and you’ve refused to obey it!” Basically, Stephen turned the charges around and proved that the Sanhedrin was guilty of the very thing they were accusing him of doing.

That got the Pharisees furious. They were trying hard to control their emotions, but it was getting harder and harder. Their teeth were bared. How dare he accuse them of disobeying the Law they thought they were enforcing?!

Then Stephen looked up. Light from above shone on his face as he said in awe, “I see heaven! The Son of Man is standing on the right side of God!”

That was the last straw. The Sanhedrin could no longer control their rage. Yelling at the top of their lungs, they grabbed him and furiously dragged him out of town. The witnesses handed their coats to Saul, and Saul watched in anger as his fellow Pharisees hurled heavy stones at Stephen. He heard Stephen pray for God to receive his spirit, and that God would forgive the Pharisees for this terrible sin of murder – almost the same thing Jesus had said on the cross! If Saul hadn’t been guarding the coats, he probably would have joined in on throwing the stones.

Stephen’s death really rattled the new Church, and they started to scatter. Stephen’s fellow deacon Philip went to Samaria, and then south where he met an Ethiopian official, and Jesus’ message spread to Africa. Peter and John followed him to Samaria when they heard how successful his ministry was there.

Meanwhile, Saul went on a mad rampage. He went searching for followers of the Way (which was what they were calling this new religion Jesus had founded), and he arrested them and made sure many of them were executed. Pretty soon he broadened his search to other countries! He was on his way to the city of Damascus when the brightest light he had ever seen stopped him in his tracks. It was even brighter than the sun! As he fell to the ground in shock, he heard a loud voice saying, “SAUL, SAUL, WHY ARE YOU PERSECUTING ME?”

“Who are you, Lord?” he asked.

The voice replied, “I AM JESUS, AND I’M THE ONE YOU’RE PERSECUTING!”

“What should I do?” he asked.

The voice replied, “GET UP! I’VE GOT A JOB FOR YOU. YOU WILL BE MY WITNESS TO THE GENTILES, AND YOU WILL SHOW THEM THE WAY TO BE SAVED! GO TO DAMASCUS, AND YOU’LL FIND OUT WHAT TO DO!”

Saul got up, and when he opened his eyes, he discovered the light had blinded him. His companions had to lead him by hand the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the followers of Christ in Damascus had heard about the ruthless man who was on his way to arrest them and have them executed. So it really scared a disciple named Ananias when God appeared to him in a vision and told him to go to the house of a guy named Judas and ask for Saul of Tarsus, who was praying, so he could restore his sight. Saul had seen in a vision that a man named Ananias would come.

“Um, Lord,” said Ananias, “are You out of Your mind?? I’ve heard about this guy, and he’s come here to have us killed!”

But God said, “Go! I’ve chosen him to proclaim the good news to the Gentiles!”

So reluctantly, Ananias went. When he got to the house, he said, “Brother Saul, God has sent me here so you can see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Scales fell off Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He was baptized, and he didn’t waste any time. He immediately started preaching. People were shocked to hear this man preaching the opposite message from what he had just been forcing down people’s throats. In fact, the Jews in Damascus got so mad at Saul for turning that Jesus’ followers had to let him down the city wall in a basket so that he didn’t have to go through the gate, where he might be ambushed.

That is how the evil Pharisee Saul became Paul, one of the most powerful messengers for God who lived. He would go on to spread Jesus’ message throughout the Middle East, and even into what is now Europe! We know he got to Greece and Italy, and it’s possible he even got as far west as Spain!

Jesus' Message Spreads to Africa

Sunday school lesson from this morning...


Jesus' message was really starting to go viral. People all over the place were turning away from their sins and following God. It was an amazing time, and God blessed them. But in all this, the apostles were crazy busy, and some important things got neglected. The widows weren't getting enough care, and Jesus had been very clear that we need to take care of widows and orphans. So they decided to do something about this problem. They met together and chose seven deacons to take care of this important responsibility: Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. The deacons did their job well, and the Pharisees started to notice. The Sanhedrin had killed Jesus, and then they had arrested Peter and John for healing a lame man. Now they were so mad at Stephen for spreading Jesus' message that they stoned him to death. This set off a chain reaction that scattered the Christians. An evil Pharisee named Saul led the charge against the Christians, and he was merciless. We’ll learn more about him next week. Philip the deacon went to Samaria, where he continued to preach, and many Samaritans turned to Christ.

One day, an angel appeared to Philip and told him, "God has got a job for you. Go south on the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza." So Philip went. He didn’t even know where he was going! As he was walking along, he saw a chariot, and the Holy Spirit told him, “Go hang out by the chariot!” It was clear by the fact that the chariot was a foreign style, and the fact that the rider had black skin, that he wasn’t from around those parts. As it turned out, the guy was an important official of the Candace of Ethiopia.

Flashback. Thousands of years ago, there was a region in Northeast Africa called Cush. It came to be called Nubia, and they had neighbors to the north that you might have heard of. The Nile River flows from the Mediterranean Sea, south through Egypt, and ends up in what was once called Nubia. By Jesus’ time, the part of Nubia where the Nile ends had become known as Ethiopia, and it’s still called that today. Nubia also included what is now Sudan and part of Egypt. The Egyptian King was called the Pharaoh, and the Ethiopian Queen was called the Candace. The royal treasurer of Ethiopia, in charge of the Candace’s money, had heard about the country called Israel, and he had gone to Jerusalem to worship. Now he was on his way home, and Philip could hear him reading Scripture! He recognized the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

So Philip asked him, “Does that make sense to you?”

“No,” he replied. “Can you explain it to me?” He invited Philip to get up on the chariot and have a seat. Then he said, “I’m confused. Is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”

So Philip started with that passage and explained all about how Jesus came to earth to save our sins. Just like Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was led to the cross and killed like a lamb being sacrificed. He didn’t answer the people charging him falsely, and he was humiliated, spat on, cursed, beaten, and he did not get justice. Philip went on to explain how Jesus rose from the dead and defeated sin and death so everyone could be saved.

They had gone quite a ways while they were talking, and they came to a body of water. “Hey look!” said the official. “Water! What say you baptize me?”

Philip replied, “If you believe with all your heart, let’s do it!”

He said, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

That was enough for Philip. “Stop the chariot!” the official said to the chariot driver. With a crack of the whip, the horses came to a stop, and Philip and the official got out and went into the water. Philip baptized his new friend, and when they came out of the water, Philip disappeared! His job was done, and the Holy Spirit had taken him away. Philip found himself in the town of Azotus, and he continued to travel and preach the good news.

Meanwhile, the royal treasurer of Ethiopia returned home with the best news he had ever heard! According to Irenaeus, an early Christian, the official went on to preach this great news throughout Ethiopia. He told his countrymen that there was one God, and the prophets had foretold that He would come to earth as a man. The prophecies had come true, and Jesus had been the man. He had been led like a sheep to the slaughter just like Isaiah had foretold. That is how Jesus’ message spread to Africa, and the Church in Ethiopia was born. It’s still around today!

Just think…God used Philip to help found the Church in Africa, and he didn’t even have to go to Africa to do it! Sometimes God sends missionaries to other countries, but there are people from all over the world right here in the US. You never know how powerful it can be when you share your faith, or just do something nice, for another person.

Peter and John Heal a Lame Man and Jesus’ Message Starts to Go Viral

Jesus had taught His disciples for 3 years. They went through a lot together. They watched Jesus do miracles, tell stories called parables, and do all kinds of cool stuff that changed their lives. He taught them to live lives that pleased God. After three years, they were with Him as He was praying in the garden. They were shocked when Judas, one of their own, led the authorities to where He was and let them arrest Him. They ran away. Peter denied he even knew Jesus. Judas was so sad when he realized the terrible thing he had done that he killed himself. Some of Jesus’ disciples watched Jesus die in one of the worst, most painful ways possible. John took Jesus’ mom in and took care of her from then on. Imagine watching your best friend, or your son, die on a cross! Then three days later, Jesus’ disciples got the surprise of their lives when some women discovered that His tomb was empty, and Jesus showed up, alive! Most of the disciples didn’t believe the reports of Him being alive at first, but they believed when they saw Him. Jesus continued to teach and do miracles (including appearing out of thin air to prove to Thomas that He was alive) for 40 days. Then He had them gather on a hillside and told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” He also said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Then He began to rise into the sky. They watched in amazement as He went higher and higher and disappeared behind a cloud. As they were standing there gaping into the sky, two angels showed up and asked them, “What are you doing looking at the sky? Jesus will be coming back someday in the same way you saw Him go!”

After Jesus went into the sky, the disciples’ first order of business was to find a replacement for Judas. There were only eleven disciples left, and they needed twelve because of a prophecy that said one follower would leave and he would need to be replaced. They had some very specific requirements. They needed a man who had been with them the whole time, from John’s baptism to Jesus’ ascension into heaven. They came up with two men: Joseph (also called Barsabbas or Justus) and Matthias. After they prayed about it, Matthias joined their group.

Ten days later, the Jewish celebration of Pentecost arrived, which celebrated the time Moses gave the Law on Mt. Sinai. Just as Jesus had promised His disciples before He left, the Holy Spirit came on them in the form of tongues of fire. Pentecost was a big deal, and there were people from all over the known world in Jerusalem. They didn’t all speak Aramaic like the local Jews, so they were quite surprised to see Jesus’ disciples with flames over their heads and hear them speaking their own languages! God’s power helped them to speak in languages they didn’t even know! God gave Peter the words to speak, and many people listened to his witness of Jesus and believed that day. So the new Church was born. They loved each other and shared everything with each other. They lived in love and awe of God’s goodness, and with God’s help, the Church continued to grow, more every day.

One day, Peter and John went to the temple to pray. It was about 3 in the afternoon. As they got to the Beautiful Gate (that was its name), which led into the temple courts, a beggar sitting on the ground saw them and asked for money. He had been born unable to walk, and his friends had been carrying him there every day for many years so he could beg for money to stay alive. (Remember how they didn’t have wheelchairs at the time?) He was a pitiful sight, and he was most likely used to people ignoring his pleas for money. So it was a bit of a surprise to him when Peter and John stopped and looked straight at him, and Peter said to him, “Look at us!”

Ah, finally someone who will give me some money! Cool!

Then Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold to give you, but I’ve got something even better. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up! Walk!” Keep in mind this guy had never walked before. Ever.

He stood up!

Then he began to jump! He walked around. The people in the area recognized him as he walked and jumped around the temple courts, and they were shocked! Hadn’t they just seen him sitting there, as he had been for years? What in the world had happened?? He was praising God for healing him!

So Peter spoke up. He said, “Fellow Israelites, why are you so shocked? You look like you think we did this! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has raised Jesus up. You betrayed Him to Pilate, and you murdered Him on the cross. You killed the one who created life, but God raised Him from the dead! We saw that with our own eyes. It is faith in Him that has healed this man.

“Now I know that you and your leaders didn’t know what you were doing when you treated Jesus like a common criminal. The prophets told us ahead of time that Jesus would suffer and die. Great news! You can repent of your sins, and they will be wiped clean! God used Samuel and all the prophets to tell us about these days. He even promised Abraham that He would use his descendants to bless the world. You just need to turn away from your sinful ways and follow Christ!

Needless to say, the Pharisees weren’t too happy about this. They arrested Peter and John and threw them in jail overnight! But that didn’t stop Jesus’ message from continuing to go viral. More and more people were continuing to believe.

The next day, the same Pharisees who had so recently put Jesus to death dragged Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, their court, and asked them, “By what power or name did you do this?”

Just as Jesus had promised, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. He said, “So let me get this straight. We’re in trouble for an act of kindness to a man in need. Right? OK, so here’s the rub. It was done in the name and power of Jesus. You executed Him, and God raised Him from the dead. You can see with your own eyes that Jesus’ power has healed this man! He’s standing! Jesus is the only one who can save us. God hasn’t given any other name in heaven or earth to save the world.”

The Pharisees were surprised that Peter and John talked that way when they hadn’t gone to school and learned public speaking, and they had clearly been with Jesus. They were upset, but they could see that the guy had been healed, and everyone was happy about it. It wouldn’t make them look very good if they punished the guys for an act of kindness! They were confused and weren’t quite sure what to do.

So after talking amongst themselves, they came up with a plan. They told Peter and John, “OK, we’ll let you go this time. But you better stop talking about Jesus.”

To which Peter said, “So what do you think? Should we listen to God or to you? You tell us. We’ve got to keep spreading what we’ve seen and heard. You want us to stop? Not gonna happen.”

The Sanhedrin threatened them some more, but they couldn’t punish them without looking bad, and the man had clearly been healed. People all over the place were praising God for what had happened! This man, who was over 40, had just started walking for the first time in his life!

So they let Peter and John go.

High Noon on the Israelite Front

This morning's Sunday school lesson...


There were evil queens, and then there was Jezebel. She was a special kind of evil. She was born the daughter of the King of the neighboring kingdom of Sidon, and Israel’s King Ahab thought she was so beautiful she was irresistible. He married this Sidonian princess, and she became Queen of Israel. To honor his new bride, Ahab built a temple and statue of her god Baal. Remember him? In addition, Ahab built a pole for Jezebel’s goddess Asherah.

Jezebel

Painted by John Byam Liston Shaw

Oil on canvas, 1896

The one true God was furious.

God sent His prophet Elijah to Ahab and Jezebel to tell them that God was so angry that He would send a severe famine to Israel, and it would last for several years. So Elijah obeyed God and gave that message to the King and Queen. Sure enough, the famine came, and it was a doozy. 

Jezebel was so angry at God that she decided to take her own revenge. Maybe she couldn’t kill God, but she could kill His prophets. There were a lot of prophets at the time, and she hunted them down and murdered them. In fact, if it weren’t for the undercover prophet Obadiah hiding a bunch of them in caves and giving them stuff to eat and drink, many more prophets would have died.

So God sent Elijah with a challenge for Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah stood before the King and Queen and said, “Tell you what. You send 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. We’ll meet on Mt. Carmel and see whose god is greater.” So Ahab sent word for the prophets of the false gods to come to the showdown.

Mt. Carmel

(I pointed out that there were no roads or poles in Elijah's time)

The day of the showdown came. Elijah said to the people of Israel and all the prophets of Baal and Asherah, “Come on, guys! Either God is God, or Baal is god! You can’t keep changing your minds! Either serve God or Baal!”

Then he laid down the rules. “We’re gonna have a contest. I get one bull, and the 450 prophets of Baal get another one. Team Baal gets to build an altar, and I’ll build an altar, and we’ll each put our bull on it. But don’t set fire to the wood. Whichever god is real will send fire down from heaven and burn up the offering.”

Team Baal was getting pretty smug. These were great odds! 450 prophets against one man. Elijah didn’t stand a chance!

And so it began. Elijah let Team Baal go first. They built their altar and put their bull on it and cried out, “Baal, listen to us! Send fire to burn up the bull!” They had been dancing, chanting, pleading and doing other stuff for a few hours when Elijah decided to start cheering them on. So around noon he called out some suggestions. “Come on! If Baal is god, he can’t hear you! You gotta yell louder! He could be thinking really hard! Maybe he didn’t get the memo about the contest today and had a conflict! Oh, I know! Maybe he had to go to the bathroom! He could be traveling! Look at that idol of him! Don’t you think he looks tired? Maybe he’s asleep! You should yell louder and wake him up!” So their dances and shouts and other stuff got louder and more intense.

The same picture as above,

but darkened in Photoshop

to indicate that it was getting dark

It was getting on to evening, and still no response from Baal. Finally, Elijah had had enough of that. He said, “OK, my turn.” By this time, all the hubbub had done some serious damage to Elijah’s altar that he had built. So he put it back together using twelve stones, one for each tribe of Israel. Then he dug a trench around it, and put the wood and his bull on top. He said, “OK, now I need someone to get four big jars of water and pour it over the altar!” When they had done that, he said, “Do it again!” So they did it again. “Do it a third time!” So they did it a third time. By this time, the water had drenched the wood, the bull, and even filled the trench. There was no way this was gonna set on fire, no matter how hard anyone tried setting it.

Then Elijah prayed. He asked God to show His power so that nobody would have any doubt who was God.

And it happened.

Fire fell from heaven and burned up the soaked wood, the bull, and even the stones and the mud around it, and it completely evaporated the water!

PowerPoint slide - I animated the fireball when it came in.

The people of Israel fell down and worshiped God. Now they could see that the Lord was God and Baal wasn’t. At God’s command, Elijah told them to capture the prophets of Baal, and those prophets didn’t live to tell the tale.

And for the first time in three years, it rained. The drought was finally over. In fact, there was a big storm. God gave Elijah strength to run all the way to Jezreel, which was a long way away.

The next day, Jezebel got the news. The jig was up, and her evil minions were dead. She could hardly contain her rage, and she swore to her gods, “I don’t care how badly my gods punish me, but let them do their worst if Elijah isn’t dead by this time tomorrow!”

Elijah had obeyed God, and now he was on Jezebel’s Most Wanted List! When he got the news, he was terrified and ran for his life, way far into the wild. Finally he couldn’t run any more and he collapsed under a bush. He was so desperate and scared and exhausted that he prayed, “God, I can’t take it any more! Just kill me!” And he fell asleep.

Der Prophet Elias

Painted by Daniele da Volterra

Oil on canvas, c. 1550-1560

Pretty soon, an angel touched him and said, “Get up! Eat!” He opened his eyes and saw some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water, and he ate and fell asleep again. Later, the angel woke him up again and said, “Get up and eat. You have a long journey ahead of you.” So he ate and drank again.  God gave him enough food this time that it was enough to keep him going for forty days of walking. After about a month and a half, he finally reached Mt. Horeb (Sinai). 500 years earlier, God had spoken to Moses on this mountain, and now it was Elijah’s turn. He went into a cave and went to sleep.

When telling about the earthquake, 

I made this shake in the PowerPoint.

When he woke up, God said to him, “What are you doing here?”

So Elijah answered, “I’ve lived my life for You, obeyed You, and all I’ve seen is the people of Israel turning away from You to Baal, tearing down Your altars and killing Your prophets. Now they’re trying to kill me!”

God said, “Go out onto the mountain. I’m gonna pass by.” Suddenly, the wind picked up. Elijah could hardly stand, it was so strong! However, he didn’t hear God passing in the wind. No sooner had it died down, then the earth beneath him started to shake violently! They didn’t have a Richter Scale back then, but it would have been pretty strong, as earthquakes go. It broke rocks and tore mountains apart! But once again, Elijah couldn’t sense God. The earthquake died down, and a wildfire sprang up! Still no sense of God.

Then the fire died down and he heard it in the calm after the wild weather. A whisper.

Man standing in front of a cave entrance

Stock photo

So Elijah came out of the cave and listened to God whisper, “What are you doing here?”

He repeated his lament: “I’ve lived my life for You, obeyed You, and all I’ve seen is the people of Israel turning away from You to Baal, tearing down Your altars and killing Your prophets. Now they’re trying to kill me!”

Then God laid out His instructions. “Go back to Israel. On the way, I want you to anoint Hazael King of the neighboring kingdom of Aram, and find a guy named Jehu, the son of Nimshi. Jehu is my choice for you to anoint king of Israel to replace Ahab. Not only that, but I’m giving you a helper. Go to the farm of Shaphat and get his son Elisha. He will be your apprentice and your heir. Hazael, Jehu and Elisha will do some amazing things. Oh, and you think you’re alone? There are 7000 people in Israel that I’ve been saving for this day. They haven’t worshiped Baal. Don’t worry. You are not alone.”

Jesus Clears the Temple

Sunday school lesson for July 7, 2013, from Matthew 21. This was the final lesson in a series on love. This one was illustrating how we need to love God's family. Jesus showed love for the Gentiles by clearing the area where they were allowed to worship, and then He showed love for everyone by healing their diseases and defending the children who were praising Him.



Passover was always a very busy and exciting time in Jerusalem. You might remember that every year the Jews celebrated the day that God sent Moses to save them from bondage in Egypt. God had sent ten plagues on Egypt, and the last one involved the angel of death passing over the Israelites and not killing their firstborn, while every Egyptian family lost at least their firstborn child and the firstborn of their animals. Then Pharaoh let them go, and ever since then, they have celebrated how God saved them.

Many years passed. Israel had kings, and then when the kings and the people got too evil, God sent the people of Israel and Judah into captivity. Eventually He allowed the people of Judah to return to their homeland. However, it wasn’t the same, and before they knew it, another kingdom took over their area. Rome conquered many countries and expanded their kingdom, and they oppressed the Israelites with taxes and in other ways. The Jews didn’t like the Romans or their tax collectors. The prophets had said that a deliverer, descended from King David, would come one day to save them, and a guy named Jesus was fulfilling these prophecies left and right. They thought that it was only a matter of time before He would deliver them from the Romans in the same way that God had delivered them from the Egyptians.

So that day when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, they could hardly contain themselves! Here was their deliverer! “HELP! SAVE US, Son of David!” they cried as they threw down palm branches for the donkey to walk on. “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Save us!”

("Save us" in Hebrew and Greek are as follows. They are pronounced in variants of "Hosanna!")

הושיעה נא

ὡσαννά

After Jesus got through the crowd, He reached the temple, where He found a horrible sight.

The Pharisees knew that people came from all over Israel to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, and part of the Passover was sacrificing animals. It could be so annoying to have to bring all your animals with you to Jerusalem, so the Pharisees had an idea. Why not sell animals right next to the temple so that people could buy them there and not have to carry them a long way? Great idea, right? In addition, they charged a temple tax so that they could keep the temple in good condition, but they only took a certain kind of coin. So they had to have people nearby who could exchange the people’s money so they could pay their tax. Another great idea, right? There were some problems with this, though, and they really got Jesus steamed. First of all, the money changers charged a bunch of extra money to exchange money. They were just as bad as the tax collectors! Secondly, the animals for sale could get super expensive. But worst of all, they were doing it in the Court of the Gentiles! This was a part of the temple where people who weren’t Jews but wanted to worship God were allowed to come and worship. Some of the people in the crowd couldn’t go into the main part of the temple because they weren’t Jews. So if the only place they were allowed to worship was full of the Jerusalem version of a shopping mall, where could they worship? They had nowhere!

The Bible only tells of two occasions where Jesus turned violent, and both were for the same reason. The Pharisees were using a place that was supposed to be used for worship to sell their wares, and greed had no place in the temple! So Jesus rushed into the Court of the Gentiles and began to throw the tables and benches where the sellers and money changers were doing their thing. He shouted, “My house is supposed to be used for prayer! How dare you steal from the people here?!” Not only were they stealing the people’s money, but they were stealing the only place where the Gentiles were allowed to worship!

When He was done chasing the greedy people out, He turned to the people nearby who couldn’t see or walk, and He healed them. A lot of kids had followed Him, and they were still shouting, “Save us, Son of David!”

The priests and teachers in the temple heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on. When they heard what the children were yelling, they were upset. Remember how they didn’t think Jesus could be God? They realized that the kids were saying that Jesus was the promised deliverer, a messenger (Messiah) from God, and He could save them…and the kids were very happy about it!

The Pharisees were upset with what the kids said, and they said, “Um, Jesus, don’t you hear what they’re yelling?”

Jesus replied, “Um, Pharisees, have you read Psalm 8 lately? It says that God wants children and infants to praise Him!”

Love Your Enemies

We had a guest speaker in Sunday school on Sunday, June 30, 2013. I sent e-mails to the parents of the students in the week before, building up suspense of who the mystery guest might be. In those e-mails, I included pictures of him, but mentioned that he's changed a bit since then.

When the students arrived, they found out it was my grandpa. He is now 97, and he is one of my heroes. He had a lesson prepared about his experiences in life (mainly in the Army during World War 2), and how that related to Jesus' teaching about how we need to love our enemies. The Bible lesson was from Matthew 5, from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

As a point of reference, the students were M.E. (girl), E.D. (girl), A.L. (girl) and A.M. (boy). As you may be able to tell from the transcript, A.M. is the youngest and is still learning to read, but that doesn't stop him from being impressively bright and enthusiastic. M.E.'s mom Donna and E.D.'s mom Lori were also there. (Lori normally helps out when I teach Sunday school, and I told parents in the e-mail that they were welcome to come too if they liked, so Donna came.)

~~~

Grandpa:

You know, it’s been a long time since I’ve been a special speaker on any occasion, and when Steven asked me if I would come and be a special speaker, and told me what his assignment was, I was delighted! I was happy that he asked me to be a special speaker. Shall I tell about Steven when he was little? You knew that Steven grew up in the Philippines? My wife and I went to the Philippines to visit the Saukes when they lived there, and Steven—that was in 1981—so I figured Steven was four years old. At first I thought it was five, but it was four years old! I liked to go for a walk. I’ve been a walker, oh, many years, and that’s why I have gotten old. Anyway, I wanted to go for a walk in the Philippines. The Saukes lived one mile from the school where Ron was teaching, and they were down here; the school was up on a hill, and I thought that’s a good walk, to walk up to that school. So I was gonna walk up to that school, and who wanted to walk with me, but this four-year-old! And you know, he made it easier up that hill than I did! He was my friend way back then. As he said, I’ve had a long—I’m 97 years now—old. Another 2½ years and I’m gonna be 100. I’ve had a long life. I’ve had a very interesting life. God has been so good to me, to give me such an interesting life! 

It started out, I was born and raised on a farm in North Dakota, and I had a Christian mother that taught her boys the Bible. Before we went to bed at night, she’d gather us around her, and she’d tell us a Bible story. I was the oldest one, so she’d ask the boys, “What should I tell you about?” Well, the little kids, they wanted the story repeated, but they knew the best! [A student arrived at this point, so there was a little bit of introduction]

Grandpa:

OK! Anyway, we had a Bible camp that developed right close by our place, and at that Bible camp, I made two very important decisions. The first one was that I decided to receive the Lord Jesus into my heart and to receive eternal life like He promised in His Word. When I was ten years old—Anybody here ten? When I was ten years old, I made that most important decision, to accept the Lord as my Savior. I think about five years later, I’m not sure just how long that was, then I made another very important decision. It was very difficult for me to make that decision, because I was very shy. I didn’t like to be around strangers. I only wanted to be around people that I knew real well. But I promised the Lord that second time, that if He wanted me to be something or go someplace, I would say yes. If He wanted me to be a missionary, I would be a missionary, or whatever. Because of those two promises, God has given me a long and a very interesting life. Do you know I’ve had about four or five different careers during that time? I taught school for a while. I’m gonna tell you about the army. I was in the army, American Army during World War 2. I’m gonna get back to that. After the war, I went door to door asking for a job, and a newspaper hired me. For five years, I worked for a newspaper. And after those five years, I had had some experience that led me into – I became a pastor. I went to Canada and served some churches in Canada. Then I came to Montana and served some churches in Montana, and I had the most wonderful time during those years when I was a pastor. Lots of people found the Lord as their Savior in those churches while I was there, and there’s nothing that’s so heartening, makes you feel so good as to help somebody find Jesus as their Savior. After I had been the pastor for these five churches, the church got a nursing home in Port Townsend. (You know where Port Townsend is?) They needed someone to operate that. They were in a crux, and I was challenged to go up there and try to save that situation, and I had ten years as the administrator of that nursing home. I worked with older people, mostly older people, who were in a nursing home, and I had another wonderful time. Then I worked for missions after that. Anyways, I’ve had a very interesting life.

I’ll get back to the army. Steven says our lesson is about loving your enemies. I understand that your lessons this month have been about love this month. Is that correct? We are to love everybody. It’s easy to love somebody that is your friend. How about your enemy? Easy to love your enemy? When I was a soldier in World War 2, who were my enemies?

E.D.:

The Japanese?

Grandpa:

Who?

Me:

The Japanese, she said.

E.D.:

The Japanese.

Grandpa:

Japanese. Japanese, and…the Germans.

A.M.:

I know that. Yeah.

Grandpa:

And you knew that.

A.M.:

I know that stuff.

Grandpa:

Did I love my enemies?

A.M.:

Hmm… No.

Grandpa:

Well, let’s first see what Jesus said about loving your enemies. And I have some verses or parts of verses on little pieces of paper, and they’ve got a number on them, and I’m gonna have you read as I call on you. Read your part, and you pass those around.

Me:

Sure

Grandpa:

You know, I can’t see very well. My eyes have worn out. My hearing is bad, so you have to speak out loud because I’m old.

Me (having finished passing out the slips of paper):

Just the right number!

Grandpa:

Just the right number. OK, who’s got number one?

Me:

Be sure to speak up, everybody!

M.E.:

OK. “I say love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.”

Grandpa:

OK, a word in there: Persecute. What’s it mean to persecute? “Pray for those who persecute you.” Any ideas?

E.D.:

Are not kind

Grandpa:

Unkind?

E.D.:

Uh huh. Are unkind.

Grandpa:

Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t…

Donna:

Are unkind to you. You were right.

Grandpa (to me):

You be my ears for me, will you?

Me:

OK

Grandpa:

What did she say?

Me:

People are unkind to you.

Grandpa:

Unkind, yeah, that’s making it kinda mild. When they persecute you, they do more than being unkind to you.

A.L.:

Bully

Me (repeating so Grandpa could hear it):

Bully

Grandpa:

Yes! And what did they say about… Pray for those…

Me:

And [A.L.] also said they can execute you. [she said it too quietly for the recording to pick it up]

Grandpa:

Can execute, yes, that’s right!

Donna:

Extreme persecution!

Grandpa:

Extreme! OK. Now Jesus said, He had His disciples there. He was giving some teaching, and He says, “I say to you, Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.” Number two.

Donna:

“In that way, you will be acting as true children of our Father in heaven.”

Grandpa:

Thank you for speaking out loud! I heard it. That way, you will be like… Heavenly Father. You know, He loves everybody. John 3:16, the most famous, I think, Bible verse. Who can quote it?

E.D.:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Grandpa:

Good! Good for you! “God so loved the world.” The bad people as well as the good people. How much did He love them?

E.D.:

“That He gave His one and only Son”

Grandpa:

He gave His one and only Son. Right. So if you love your enemies and you pray for those who persecute you, like your Heavenly Father. Number three.

Me:

“For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good.”

Grandpa:

OK. He gives sunlight to the evil and to the good. And number four? What else does He do?

Lori:

“And He sends rain on the just and on the unjust too.”

Grandpa:

OK. When He sends rain, He doesn’t send it just to the good people. He sends rain to the bad people too, and that’s the example that He has given for us. Um, number five.

E.D.:

“If you only love those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that.”

Grandpa:

Yes. If you love only those who are your friends, that’s common. Anybody can love those. Even tax collectors—oh, we’ve gotta talk about tax collectors. What does He mean by these tax collectors?

A.L.:

 Often in biblical times, many people couldn’t afford taxes, and they would come and take most of what they had. I remember there was a story in the Bible of this tax collector, um…

E.D.:

Zacchaeus?

A.L.:

Yeah, Zacchaeus.

Grandpa:

OK. Tax collectors were thought of as very bad people because they would collect money from the people, which they were to pass on to the government, and they’d keep part of it, and maybe they kept more than they should. And so, what was it He said, what did this verse say about the tax collectors?

A.L.:

It said of how many people can love those who can love them back, even the tax collectors who, um, you know, are kinda mean.

Grandpa:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Let’s go on to the next one. Number six.

A.M.:

Me. “If you are kind only to your friends, how you are…”

Me:

“…how are you…”

A.M.:

“…how are you different from anyone else? Even the pag-ans?”

Me:

“…pagans…”

A.M.:

“…pagans do that.”

Grandpa:

OK. I couldn’t hear what you said, so I wonder if you’d repeat it.

A.M.:

Yes, I’ll do it again.

Me:

Say it louder.

A.M.:

OK, a little louder. “If you are kind only to your friends, you are different from anyone else? Even…”

Me:

“…pagans…”

A.M.:

“…pagans do that.”

Me (to Grandpa):

Did you hear that time?

Grandpa:

Even…

Donna:

He said, “pagans do that.”

Grandpa:

Pagans! What are pagans?

A.M.:

Mmm… I have no idea.

Grandpa:

You have no idea.

A.M.:

I’ve heard the word before, but I forget what it means.

Grandpa:

Even the pagans do that. Pagans people who, um, how do you say, Steven? What’s a pagan? (laugh)

Donna:

They worship another god

Grandpa:

Yes

Me:

They don’t believe in Jesus

Grandpa:

OK, “Even the pagans do that,” Jesus said. And then number seven:

A.L.:

“But you are perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Grandpa:

OK, be perfect. There it means if you are Christians and follow through… At this point, now I’m not perfect, but I expect that there’s going to be a day when I’m in heaven, and all my sins are forgiven, all my bad things that I may have thought are going to be forgotten, and I’m going to be perfect. Is there any questions about any of our scripture that we’ve had? [pause, nobody had any] 

Then let me get back to the army. Was I right or wrong when I was drafted into the army to become a soldier?

A.L.:

Um, it kind of goes both ways. You were right to be protecting your country and loving those in it, but it’s also wrong to, well, fight the Japanese and Germans because even though they’re your enemies, you should love them also.

Grandpa:

I didn’t hear all of it, but what I heard, I liked.

A.L.:

Sorry.

Grandpa:

You know, when God called me into the army, I feel it was God who called me to a special mission field. Do you know the American Army is a mission field? I’ll tell you it’s a mission field. It was a tremendous culture shock for me when I went in there. When I had grown up in North Dakota on that farm, I can’t remember that I ever saw a person that was drunk! They didn’t do that over there. I went in the army, wow! It was terrible. And I feel that God wanted me to be in the army as a witness for Him. I can’t say that I was a good witness during those years, but I did make an impression on some people, I’m sure. So that’s how I feel about being called in. Now how does it work? How can you love your enemies? [pause, no answer] You know, during those years, God spared me from, I never had to shoot anybody. I never was actually involved in any warfare. We did a lot of practicing and all that kind of thing in training, but God spared me from participating in any actual combat. So that’s one thing. And I should tell you how I got spared. When I went to the South Pacific, I was in the 164th Infantry. I was one of the infantrymen, which are the ones who carry guns and who go out on patrols and try to find the enemy and put them out of the way. That’s what the infantry does. When we got to the South Pacific, we had been there only a month or so, and, well, maybe I should tell you, actually twice I was spared, because we were assigned to defend the island of New Caledonia, and the American Navy base was on New Caledonia, and we were supposed to protect that island from the Japanese who would come and try to attack our navy base. And we heard one morning that the Japanese Navy was coming down the Coral Sea, and they were coming directly towards that army base, toward that navy base. And we were assigned to get in our foxholes and watch for any enemy, watch for airplanes and whatnot, and we went in our foxholes, and it was dark when we got there, and it got light. We didn’t see anything, and about nine to ten o’clock, we got the word. Admiral Halsey had sneaked out around behind, and they defeated the Japanese Army in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Battle of the Coral Sea was really the first victory that the Americans had over the Japanese in the South Pacific. If they had attacked our island, we wouldn’t have had a chance because we were just a few. I had a foxhole here, and a hundred yards down was the next one. And we were – yes?

E.D.:

What’s a foxhole?

Me:

“What’s a foxhole?”

Grandpa:

A foxhole. Oh! You dig a hole in the ground, and then you get down in there, and that’s where you hide where the enemy can’t see you. They call it a foxhole.

A.M.:

I figured that that was what you were gonna say. That’s what I figured.

Grandpa:

So I was spared when we were in New Caledonia. And then, biggest thing of all, a little while later, they brought in some Air Force officers who were establishing a headquarters there in the area, right next to the navy base, because the Navy and the Air Force had to work together against the Japanese, and they brought these high-ranking officers in there who found a place in which to operate. They had a staff that was gonna come. Oh, whenever they could, they would come by water. Of course, the Air Force officers, they came in by air, but the staff was coming in by water, and it would be a while before they’d get there. So these officers, when they went to work, they started writing these telegrams and letters and things that they needed to do, they needed someone who could type who could do the secretarial work for them. And we had three army regiments on the island – 164th, 182nd, 132nd, and they asked for one person from each one of those units to come and do secretarial work. And of all things, I was chosen from the 164th Infantry. Out of a thousand people, out of a thousand men, I got chosen. That’s a miracle. I think God must have had a hand in that, because as I worked with General Harmon and his staff, I didn’t even carry a gun. I was doing secretarial work for him. I think it was about two or three weeks after I got transferred into this unit with General Harmon that an order came down for the Army to send a unit up into Guadalcanal to relieve the Marines, who had been fighting desperately, and the 164th Infantry was chosen to do so. I would have been a part of that. And then I saw a little bit later a list of those, the people who had been killed and wounded on a certain day. I saw the list, the names of people who had been killed. It was my unit, of which I had been a part. They were the ones who I had lived with, and even back in training in, we trained in Louisiana. I guess you’d call them my friends. They weren’t godly people, but it hurt to see that, and I learned that they had been on a patrol and ran into a trap that the Japanese had set, and that’s why they were killed and wounded in that battle. God spared me. During that time, I never saw a Japanese, one of the enemy Japanese. They weren’t brought up to the headquarters. They had some in, ah, (what do you call it?) not concentration camp, but jail anyway. They were in jail, but they didn’t bring them up. I never saw one, and did I hate them? I hated what they were doing. I didn’t hate them. In due time – Am I taking too much time?

Me:

No, you’re good.

Grandpa:

In due time, I went back to the States, and I was reassigned, and the war was still going on over in Europe, and I was assigned to a unit that was training to go to Europe to fight against the Germans. When they were trained, then I went with them over to Europe. We got right close to what was going on, but I say that Hitler heard that we were coming, so he gave up. That’s not true, but anyway, we had been there a very short time, and then we got the news that they gave up over in Germany, and I was in the Army of Occupation for a little while before we got home. I want to tell you about that time I was in the Army of Occupation. We were waiting to come back home, and while we were in a certain place in Karlsruhe, Germany, we were billeted in a building that had been spared. Germany was in terrible condition at that time. You know, it had been bombed, and you could drive through a town, and you wouldn’t be able to go through at all because it was all rubble. But the Army had brought their bulldozers in and cleared the way to make a road through town. There were a few towns that had been spared, but many of them were really bad. In this town where we were, in Karlsruhe, by far, most of the buildings had been damaged. But this particular one had been, oh, it was pretty good yet, and we had pretty good condition there, and we had some German girls that came in to do the cleaning. They would do our laundry for us. We didn’t have to give them any money. All they wanted was some soap so that they could wash some of their own clothes, with their clothes, because they couldn’t buy soap. So if we sent some soap with them, then they would do it for nothing. Well, one girl took my laundry home, and she brought it back, and she had it ironed, and, oh, she’d done such a beautiful job. I was delighted, and I thought she should be rewarded for it. I looked around my room, and I found a candy bar, and I think it was a package of…it was something else too, which I gave to her. She took that home to her mother. Her mother was so impressed with this kind American who had rewarded her, that she gave a special invitation for me to come and visit them in their home, which I did. I went there, and we had to climb steps, and we finally got way up in an attic where they were living, and we tried to understand each other. She, German, me, English, and so it was a little difficult to understand each other. But you know, with motions and what… I had in my billfold some pictures of my wife, particularly my wife. I had some for others too, and so I was showing them that this was my wife. So they got their albums out, pictures, and they showed me the house where they had lived in, and now it was smashed. There wasn’t any house there at all, and now they had moved up into somebody’s attic, where they were making an existence. They couldn’t buy food. There was nothing in the stores. They just had, it seemed to me that, how in the world can they make it? I was trying to find out about the family. There was no man around there, and I found out that the father in the home was a prisoner of war in England. They had a little baby there. I don’t know how that had happened. One of the girls had evidently become pregnant and had a baby. I felt so sorry for those people. I loved them! They had been our enemy. God gives you the ability to love your enemies. 

Now I’ve kinda relayed something of my background and what had happened to me. I’ve had a wonderful life, and I say it’s because of those two decisions that I made. Now, young people, nobody’s told me anything about any of you. I don’t know if you have made those decisions yet, but I would urge you to do so. Accept the Lord as your Savior if you have not done so, and give your life to Him. Romans 12, if I turn in the Bible. Two verses that have been very special to me is Romans 12:1, to “present your bodies” to the Lord. That means to give your bodies to the Lord. The next verse says, “And let God transform you into what He wants you to be.” I needed that transformation. I was so shy, but God did something for me, and I think I’m done.

[A few minutes later…]

Can I tell you about some of Steven’s, what he sometimes does? I had a dream. He had told me about this class. In my dream, I had prepared a lesson for third graders, and I was all prepared, and we came to the classroom, and the kids started coming, and I thought they looked pretty big for third grade. Turned out they were seventh graders! The lesson that I had prepared in no way fit seventh graders! Steven, I wouldn’t have asked him to do something like, but for Sunday school, ohhh… (laughter)

[and later…]

Heavenly Father, I thank You that I’ve had the privilege here to be in this room with these young people. O Lord, I pray Your blessing upon each one of them. Here are young lives. Life lays before them. I pray, Father, that they will yield to Your will and follow as You would lead them, and make them a blessing during their lives. I just commend them to You. Bless their future lessons as Steve presents them for the class. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

If you want a special speaker again, I’d consider it!

Do Not Condemn

This morning's Sunday school lesson:

The Pharisees, or religious leaders, couldn’t stand Jesus. He kept proving them wrong, and they didn’t like it. But the people loved Him. They saw Him heal a paralyzed man, a woman who had had health problems all her life, blind men, and more. He had even raised a girl and a boy from the dead! He turned water into wine. He told interesting stories to teach lessons, so people would remember what they learned. What was not to love about this guy? Well, when He constantly proves you wrong, it gets annoying. It gets even more annoying when He keeps mentioning how you’re just as sinful as the “sinners” you condemn! The Pharisees wanted to find a way to turn the crowds against Him, because they couldn’t just do away with Him without making the crowds mad at them. So they thought of a clever trap. Nobody could get out of this. Bwahahahahahaha!!!

The Pharisees knew that Jesus was a teacher. If they could trap Him into saying something that was everyone knew was bad, maybe they could get people to stop believing Him. So they found a sinful woman and brought her along. They said to Him, “Hey, teacher! This woman has been caught in the act of breaking the promises she made to her husband when they got married. In the Law, Moses said that we’re supposed to stone people who do that. What do you think?”

They thought they were so smart. What could Jesus say? If He said they should stone her, He would be contradicting everything He had taught on forgiveness and love. If He said they should let her live, He would be breaking the Law.

But Jesus knew why they were asking the question, and He was smarter than them. It’s one of the perks of being God. He decided to let them wait a bit while He bent down and wrote something on the ground. Then He stood up and turned the question around to them. “OK,” He said, “I want a volunteer. Whichever one of you has never sinned in your life, come forward, and you get to throw the first stone! Give it your best shot!” Then He bent down and wrote some more stuff on the ground.

Now the Pharisees were trapped. Everyone has sinned at some point in their life, and if anyone came forward to throw a stone, they would obviously be lying about having never sinned, and the people would turn against the Pharisees instead! One by one, the embarrassed Pharisees started to leave. The older ones left first. Pretty soon, the younger ones were gone too.

Once everyone was gone, Jesus stood up and said to the woman, “So, ma’am, where’d they go? Nobody has condemned you?”

“No, sir,” she said. “Nobody.”

Jesus, the only person in the crowd who had never sinned, said to her, “Then I don’t condemn you either. Go, and don’t sin any more.”

Jesus Heals the Paralytic

Today's Sunday school lesson...

We started out with a modern example of an amazing quadriplegic who is truly one of my heroes. As I was preparing the lesson, I watched this video, and it occurred to me that the man in the Bible story from Mark 2 may have had similar thoughts and struggles to what Joni went through. (She also explains what a quadriplegic is in this video, for those who don't know.) In addition to showing the video, I showed some of my paintings (which I did with my hands), and compared them to Joni's paintings (which she did with her teeth!) I think hers are much better than mine, even if you don't take into account the hands/teeth thing.


You may remember how we learned a couple months ago about how Jesus healed the servant of a Roman general, called a centurion, in the city of Capernaum. The centurion asked Jesus to help his dying servant, and before the guy even got home, he found out his servant was well!

Another time, Jesus came to Capernaum to teach. Word got around that Jesus had come home, and everyone wanted to hear what He was gonna tell them. Houses were small at that time, and they usually only had one room. Pretty soon, the house where He was teaching was standing room only, and then there wasn’t even room for that! People kept gathering outside the house straining to hear what Jesus was saying.

Nearby, there lived a quadriplegic. They didn’t have wheelchairs at the time, and the only way disabled people could get around was if their friends helped them. Most people didn’t have beds, so they slept on mats instead. Mats could easily be rolled up and put away so people had room in their small houses to do other things during the day. This paralyzed man and his friends had heard that Jesus could heal things that the doctors couldn’t. They knew they had to get to Him, but what could they do? The house where Jesus was teaching was bursting with a huge crowd of people! They couldn’t exactly walk up to Him and ask Him to heal their friend. So they came up with a creative plan.

Houses were small and only had one room. They also had flat roofs and outdoor stairways leading up to the roofs. That way they had more space to do stuff on top of the house. Roofs were made of mud brick, thatch and other materials. The paralyzed man’s friends saw that even if they couldn’t walk through the door, they had access to the stairs leading up to the roof. So they carried their friend on his mat up the stairs to the roof.

Pretty soon the people down below started hearing footsteps above. Weird. Who was on the roof? Wait a minute! What’s this? Suddenly a shaft of sunlight came through the roof where there shouldn’t be sunlight! Someone was moving away the mud and other stuff that made up the roof, making a hole in the roof right above Jesus! The hole kept growing! Pretty soon, the sunlight was blocked by something being placed in the hole! They watched as slowly, carefully, a paralyzed man was lowered on his mat to the floor at Jesus’ feet. The house was pretty crowded, but somehow they managed to make room for the guy being lowered from above.

Jesus was impressed with their faith. They trusted Him so much that they went to great lengths to get their friend to Him, because they knew He could heal him. So Jesus said to the guy, “Your sins are forgiven.”

There were some religious leaders in the crowd, and they weren’t too happy to hear Jesus say that. They didn’t say anything, but they were thinking about how only God had the right to forgive sins, and if Jesus was saying this, that meant He was claiming to be God. They didn’t think Jesus could be God, because He was just a man!

But they didn’t know that Jesus could read their minds. They were sure surprised when Jesus turned to them and said, “Why are you thinking that? I could say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up, take your mat and walk.’ Which is easier?”

Imagine how speechless they must have been that Jesus read their minds! Then in case they didn’t get that, He went on, “But you need to know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins.” He turned back to the guy on the mat and said to him, “Dude, get up! Take your mat and go home!”

The paralyzed man stood up! For the first time in a long time (maybe ever), he rolled up his own mat. The amazed crowd cleared a path for him and watched in stunned silence as he carried his mat and walked out of the house! In awe, people in the crowd said, “We’ve never seen anything like this in our lives!” Many people believed in Jesus’ message that day.