We will be handing out flyers May 29th at 11:00. Please help us spread the word so that we can have a great turn out for this event.

We also need volunteers to help staff the week of VBS. We have all kinds of jobs for youth age helpers from counselors to food prep. Please get involved and see what God will do with your service.

Contact Paul if you have any questions.

By nature, the Ichthus Festival is about the senses—sights and sounds. This year’s theme “Listen. Live.” places value on intentional listening and doing. Life can’t be experienced at its highest without listening that produces living. Genuine spirituality is a result of keeping an active posture toward receiving God’s truth—determined to act on His Word.

Step away from In the swelling waves of cultural noise and the blasting horns of commercial fanfare, and join us at the 39th annual Ichthus Festival and listen for “the word”. Though Ichthus isn’t quiet, you will hear it clearly…and when you hear, go DO His word.

If you are interesting in going to Icthus, contact Paul

In order to practice lectio divina, select a time and place that is peaceful and in which you may be alert and prayerfully attentive. Dispose yourself for prayer in whatever way is natural for you. This may be a spoken prayer to God to open you more fully to the Spirit, a gentle relaxation process that focuses on breathing, singing or chanting, or simply a few minutes of silence to empty yourself of thoughts, images, and emotions.

Reading (lectio) - Slowly begin reading a biblical passage as if it were a long awaited love letter addressed to you. Approach it reverentially and expectantly, in a way that savors each word and phrase. Read the passage until you hear a word or phrase that touches you, resonates, attracts or even disturbs you.

Reflecting (meditatio) - Ponder this word or phrase for a few minutes. Let it sink in slowly and deeply until you are resting in it. Listen for what the word or phrase is saying to you at this moment in your life, what it may be offering to you, what it may be demanding of you.

Expressing (oratio) - When you feel ready, openly and honestly express to God the prayers that arise spontaneously within you from your experience of this word or phrase. These may be prayers of thanksgiving, petition, intercession, lament, or praise.

Resting (contemplatio) - Allow yourself to simply rest silently with God for a time in the stillness of your heart remaining open to the quiet fullness of God’s love and peace. This is like the silence of communion between the mother holding her sleeping infant child or between lovers whose communication with each other passes beyond words.

These four movements of lectio divina may not always follow a linear progression. Allow yourself freedom and pray as you can. The aim is to move into the depths of silence and stillness where we can hear the Word spoken to us in love and respond to this Word with our love and our life. This is a gentle invitation into a movement from silence into the Word and back into silence, dwelling there in the presence of God.

Lectio Divina With a Group
Lectio divina refers in Latin to the practice of “divine reading.” This form of spiritual reading originated in the Benedictine tradition and involves a deeply personal and prayerful encounter with the presence of God through sacred scripture. Lectio divina invites us to listen individually and collectively to the word of God with our whole being and our longing to be touched, healed and transformed by the Holy Spirit.

In order to practice lectio divina, take time to dispose the group for prayer in whatever way is natural and customary. This may be a spoken prayer to God to be open more fully to the Spirit, a gentle relaxation process that focuses on breathing, singing or chanting, or simply a few minutes of silence to empty persons of thoughts, images, and emotions.

1. The passage is read aloud twice in a prayerful and unhurried way. Pause for a couple of minutes between readings and read the passage more slowly the second time. (lectio)
* Invite persons in the group to simply take in the passage during the first reading and allow it to “register.” (ruminatio)
* For the second reading, invite persons to listen for a word or a phrase that “shimmers” or reverberates in them. What is the word that attracts, touches, or even disturbs? (meditatio)
* After the second reading, ask each person to share the word or phrase that has touched them. Allow this to be a slow movement with ample time between the speaking. (oratio)

2. The passage is read aloud a third time (perhaps by a second person)
* Invite the persons in the group to attend to the way this word/phrase connects to the context of their life at this moment. Consider how it relates to what they have seen and heard this day? How does it speak to what is happening at home, at work, in their leisure time, in their community, in the world? (meditatio)
* Take an extended time , if desired, to explore this connection in thought, in journaling, in art, or in movement. How is God present to you there? What is God like for you in your life? Is God calling you individually or collectively to any particular response in your present situation? (meditatio)
* Briefly share with the whole group what you have heard or discovered. (oratio)

3. Close with an extended time of silence, simply resting quietly in the presence of God. A spoken prayer or blessing may complete the silence. (contemplatio)

We are all bent to believe that we are central in the universe. How shall we be cured of this joy-destroying disease? Perhaps by hearing afresh how radically God-centered reality is according to the Bible.

Both the Old and New Testament tell us that God’s loving us is a means to our glorifying him. “Christ became a servant … in order that the nations might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:8-9). God has been merciful to us so that we would magnify him. We see it again in the words, “In love [God] destined us to adoption … to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:4-6). In other words, the goal of God’s loving us is that we might praise him. One more illustration from Psalm 86:12-13: “I will glorify your name forever. For your lovingkindness toward me is great.” God’s love is the ground. His glory is the goal.

This is shocking. The love of God is not God’s making much of us, but God’s saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.

Take the cross of Christ, for example. The death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of divine love: “God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Yet the Bible also says that the aim of the death of Christ was “to demonstrate [God’s] righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed” (Romans 3:25). Passing over sins creates a huge problem for the righteousness of God. It makes him look like a judge who lets criminals go free without punishment. In other words, the mercy of God puts the justice of God in jeopardy.

So to vindicate his justice he does the unthinkable – he puts his Son to death as the substitute penalty for our sins. The cross makes it plain to everyone that God does not sweep evil under the rug of the universe. He punishes it in Jesus for those who believe.

How do each of the children respond to Aslan?

Peter - As the eldest brother, he tries his best to protect his other siblings and to act like a responsible young adult. He is crowned by Aslan as His Majesty King Peter, High King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion.

Susan - Susan is the voice of caution and common sense.

Edmund - Although he betrays his siblings to the White Witch while under her influence, as the story goes on he accepts the error of his ways. He is redeemed with the intervention of Aslan and joins the fight against the witch. Fulfilling an ancient prophecy, he became King Edmund the Just, King of Narnia and co-ruler with the other Pevensies.

Lucy Pevensie - She is the youngest of the four Pevensie children, and the first to find the Wardrobe entrance to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Of all the Pevensie children, Lucy is the closest to Aslan. Also, of all the humans who have visited Narnia, Lucy is perhaps the one that believes in Narnia the most. She is crowned as Her Majesty Queen Lucy the Valiant by Aslan

Isaiah 55:2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul! 3 Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the mercies and unfailing love that I promised to David.

Some Christians regard the soul as the immortal essence of a human - the seat or locus of human will, understanding, and personality

They consider the soul (Greek pneuma ?????? - air, wind, breath) to be the life force, which ends in death and is restored in the resurrection. Theologian Frederick Buechner sums up this position in his 1973 book Whistling in the Dark: “…we go to our graves as dead as a doornail and are given our lives back again by God (i.e., resurrected) just as we were given them by God in the first place.”

Augustine, one of the most influential early Christian thinkers, described the soul as “a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body”. The apostle Paul espoused the “doctrine of the Trichotomy,” which characterized humans as consisting of a body (soma) , soul (psyche), and spirit (pneuma).[2] Paul said that the “body wars against” the soul, and that “I buffet my body”, to keep it under control.

Soul
1: the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life
2 a: the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe Christian Science : god 1b
3: a person’s total self
4 a: an active or essential part b: a moving spirit : leader
5 a: the moral and emotional nature of human beings b: the quality that arouses emotion and sentiment c: spiritual or moral force : fervo

New life in the Spirit

John 3:5 - Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7 So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8 Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

Knowing Jesus by the Spirit

John 16:7 - But it is actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Counselor won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.

The Spirit of adoption

Romans 8:16 - For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.

Seeing by the Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:6 - Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

Walking by the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 - So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. 18 But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.

As the story unfolds, we learn the young Caspian’s true identity has been kept a closely guarded secret by an ill-meaning uncle, but Caspian’s teacher, Dr. Cornelius, breaks his vow of silence by revealing Caspian’s true heritage and the wonderful secrets of Narnia’s golden past. A civil war erupts when Prince Caspian challenges the evildoers who stole his crown. Outnumbered by an enemy of far superior strength, the enterprise appears doomed from the start, but Narnia is a land of miracles and possibilities–much like our own world!

As the battle rages, unsavory allies offer their assistance–allies who could help turn the tides of the battle–but Caspian’s true friends warn the young prince against making holy alliances with unholy creatures. The great Aslan would not have his prince being “unequally yoked” with the unrighteous enemies of Narnia!

A tightly woven plot, memorable characters, plenty of action, and a dramatic climax make up the legendary hallmarks of C.S. Lewis’ classic Narnia tales. Prince Caspian is a story of good versus evil, yet it retains all the elements of a real adventure without coming across as preachy or sermonizing. Parents will appreciate the book’s valuable lessons in old-fashioned virtue while young readers will thrill to the nonstop suspense and intrigue. What could be better? Prince Caspian is more than entertaining–here is adventure with a purpose.

Our society has a very arrogant perspective, and it is strongly represented in this generation.

Arrogance is a funny thing. The Webster definition of arrogance is: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. That doesn’t encompass arrogance though. Arrogance is bred from a feeling of inadequacy or lack of value. I think that Christians become arrogant when they don’t realize their value, and non-Christians don’t have any grounds for anything but intrinsic value.

Arrogance is misplaced because it is based on personal intrinsic worth not God’s extrinsic value in us.

The gospel has something to say to a teen who is trying to find his place in this world with little regard for life and the sanctity of living. The messages I see them getting are that life isn’t valuable unless you are successful in at least one area. It might be professionally or it might be in a hobby, but it is important to be the best at something. For teens this plays out in academics, sports, friendships and many other areas. They see their parents working too hard and too much, and they equate that with personal value. They see their friends succeed and wonder if they could ever be as good as them. The gospel meets them there and tells them that they are valuable apart from anything they ever did or will do. They are God’s glory.

This is turning into a long post so I’ll sum up what I’m saying here. Because we are all God’s glory, we have inherent value that has nothing to do with what we do. The work of the youth leader is to help them see their value in the kingdom and give them to tools to use that value for God’s glory. I can tell that I am going to have to give this more teeth as I explain it to people, but it is a start.

I don’t care for raw tomatoes - at all. I don’t really mind them cooked in something like chili or spaghetti, but I just can’t stand a nice ripe raw tomato. So how is that good news? Stick with me.

I have been counseling more often than anything else lately. Not real counseling like Johnny or Grant or Trey, but what the church calls counseling. Mostly just listening and reflecting some things back. Maybe making some connections and, more often than not, trying to give a Biblical perspective on what I am hearing. So I find myself with a guy with some impulse problems who is saying he really wants to change, while continuing to act on his impulses. So I ask him if he likes tomatoes. He confirms my suspicions by replying in the negative. I ask him if he thinks he could learn to like tomatoes. He thinks about that one for a while and then admits that he couldn’t learn to like tomatoes. I then ask him if he could learn to like tomatoes if our friendship depended on it. He thought that was pretty superficial to base a relationship on that, but he still agreed that he probably couldn’t learn to like tomatoes then either.

I then asked him what desires he thought he could change. He is starting to get suspicious at this point. He through out a couple of half hearted attempts, but he knew that he that he was a long way up the creek by then. So I asked him why he thought he could change the things he loved acting out in. Long silence.

He then asks me if I am telling him that he should just continue following his impulses. I of course said no, but I did leave him knowing that only God could change his heart. I also made the connection of abuse in relationships. That is, how sometimes we follow our impulses and it hurts others. Our relationships, sometimes, are a lot like learning to like tomatoes. We can’t really do it, but we can eat them anyway, if the relationship is hard enough.

I asked if he could stop acting out even if he really wanted to if that would save a friendship. That was where it ended.

I told him that was the gospel. That the good news is that our relationship with God isn’t dependent on our desires or behavior. It does injure that relationship, but it doesn’t negate it.

Hope all is well in the land of impulse.