Vaction Bible School Day 3

Storytelling

Crafts

The Bible story for today was the story of John baptizing Jesus.  This story acts as a reminder of what John proclaims and God confirms:  Jesus is the chosen one - God's special gift for all humanity.  The children were encouraged to think about all of the special gifts or recognition they have received  in their life and the gifts God has offered all of us through Jesus. 

The Junior Dive Masters snorkeling at The Pointe

Vacation Bible School: Day 2

Our 14 Fleece Blankets!

On the second day of Vacation Bible School the children received a challenge:  Dare to Care!  The scripture today instructed us to love our neighbors as ourselves and we were encouraged to show this love by daring to care for others.  The Junior Dive Masters, our 3rd - 5th grade group, demonstrated this today by assembling 14 fleece blankets that we will donate to the Ronald McDonald House when we go for a tour on Thursday.  This is the mission project for the Junior Dive Masters this year and how we are daring to care for others in our community.

Aurora

In the aftermath of so much horror in Colorado last week, a post from The Thoughtful Christian sums up the writer's response, which includes the many people impacted by the shooting in Colorado. Including the shooter. Our prayers are lifted for all who are touched by this painful incident. Click the link shown here:
Praying Aurora

Vacation Bible School: Welcome

Music, the sound of chidren's laughter, and the flutter of activity signaled the beginning of Vacation Bible School at St. Mark on Monday Morning.  The theme this year is Operation Overboard.  Throughout the week the children will  play games, make crafts, and will also be challenged to "go deeper" in exploring God's love through Bible stories.

God's Love Language: Quality Time

Speaking God’s Love Language: Quality Time

I Kings 19:1-16

            After seeing in Luke 10 that the one thing that God longs for from us is that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, we have been looking at how to love God using the five love languages described for us in the book “The Five Love Languages” by Dr. Gary Chapman. Last week we looked at Words of Affirmations and how to say to God how much we appreciate what God has done and is doing for us.

            Today we look at Quality Time. Dr. Chapman describes this as time spent focusing on the person. Spending time with them through sitting and listening to them, doing things with them, and simply showing them through your focused attention that they are important to you. It is illustrated well by a story I ran across last week. Daddy can I buy an hour. To this boy, time with his Dad was more important than anything else. Dr. Chapman in his book, tells the story of a woman who declared that she wished that her husband would give up his career, along with all the trappings of his success so that she could have more time with him. Giving a person your time is a precious gift and for those who’s love language is quality time, it is more precious than gold. 

            Since God speaks all of the love languages, then, another way that we can love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind is by giving God quality time. In our passage today, we see two ways that Elijah and God spend some quality time together.

The Drawing Room

 Robert Boyd Munger describes this well in his booklet, My Heart Christ’s Home. In this booklet, he describes our heart as a house that we invite Jesus into. Each room contains a part of our life. As he is showing Jesus around his house they come to the drawing room. He says this: (read "The Drawing Room").

THE DRAWING ROOM - from My Heart Christ’s Home, Robert Boyd Munger - edited

We walked next into the drawing room. This room was rather intimate and comfortable. I liked it. It had a fireplace, overstuffed chairs, a bookcase, sofa and a quiet atmosphere. He also seemed pleased with it. He said, "This is indeed a delightful room. Let us come here often...." Well, naturally, as a young Christian I was thrilled. I could not think of anything I would rather do than have a few minutes apart with Christ.... He promised, "I will be here every morning early. Meet with me here and we will start the day together." So, morning after morning, I would come downstairs to the drawing room and he would take a book of the Bible from the bookcase. He would open it and then we would read together. He would tell me of its riches and unfold to me its truth and reveal his love and grace towards me. They were wonderful hours together.

God's Love Language: Words of Affirmation

For Part II of Pastor Steve Ranney's sermon series on Speaking God's Love Language, click here to listen to "Words of Affirmation", or read below:

Psalm 89:1-18

            Last week we heard from Jesus that the one thing that God wants from us is that we love God, with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. If we love God we will want to show it, but how? It was then that my mind was drawn to these love languages. In Genesis we learn that when God created us, God made us in God’s image. Not a physical image, but since God is a Spirit, it is our spirits that are made in God’s image. Thus, I know that God is creative, because God made us creative. I know that God is passionate because God gave us the ability, nay the desire, to be passionate about things. I know that God has a sense of humor because God gave ME a sense of humor. So how do we show our love for God?

Caregiving Committee

 Several years ago, the Deacons at St. Mark Presbyterian Church decided giving care to our congregation was more than one person could handle.  So, a committee was begun with representatives from Stephens Ministry, the Go-Getters group (older ladies going out to lunch---Click here), Deacons and other concerned individuals.

 The tasks of this committee include coordinating meals, assisting at funerals, sending greeting cards, delivering recorded worship services to homebound, working with St. Mark's Preparedness Team in event of a community disaster and. . . .

Coordinating luncheons, ice cream socials and social events for those who are often home-bound taking care of a loved one.  These social opportunities give people a chance to network and support each other in similar situations as well as provide a respite.

Gardens in July

 Despite a drought and too many 100 degree days, our gardens at St. Mark Presbyterian are still beautiful with Crepe Myrtle (Crape Myrtle).

Speaking God's Love Language

Luke 10:25-29

            What does God want from me? That is a question that each of us has probably asked at some point in our lives. How can I make sure that I am on God’s good side. After all, who wants to be on God’s bad side. That is the gist of the question in our passage today.

            Our passage begins with Jesus teaching a group of people, as he often did and a lawyer stands to ask a question. This was not a lawyer as we think of lawyers. This lawyer was an expert in the Mosaic Law. This was the law that governed how they were to live their daily lives and do it in a way that got them in good with God. This person was more like John Bracke or Deborah Krause. What he probably was doing was checking to see if Jesus was orthodox in His understanding of the Law. He cuts right to the chase, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

            This questions tells us something about the man. First it tells us that he was a Pharisee, or at least leaned that way. Of the two major schools in Judaism at that time, the Pharisees believed in life after death, and the Saducees did not. Since he was a Pharisee, then, he was looking for a list of rules. They wanted to know exactly what was expected of them. I think they would have been happy if they were given a list at the beginning of their lives that they could check off as they went. Let see, I gave alms to the poor 499 time in my life, one more and I am done with that category. I paid my tithe this year, that is done until next year. I have forgiven that neighbor of mine twice, one more and I can start holding a grudge. You get the picture.

            Jesus, realizing what he was dealing with, turns the question back on him. You are an expert, what does the law say? Here the man rattles off a formula that he had learned, kind of like the catechism that many of you learned in confirmation (he is actually loosely quoting from Duet. 6:5 and Leviticus). Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. I imagine that he did not think about it much, it just rolled off of his tongue. To his surprise, Jesus says That’s it. Do that.

            This seemed to come as a shock to the expert. Where was the list? How could he tell if he was earning enough points toward Heaven? So he goes after the one piece of the formula that he could quantify, by asking who is my neighbor? In this follow up question, he proves to us that he has learned the words and missed the point.

            By agreeing with his answer, Jesus was telling the man that what God wants is for him to love God back. You can not do this by following a list. So how do you love God as God loves you.  The word for love is that great word  that many of you have heard of, Agape.  It means unconditional love.  It is the same kind of love that God has for us.  The use of this word lets us know that the love that we are to have for God must be the kind that lasts forever.  That means that no matter what happens we love God.  When times are good, we love God.  When times go bad, we love God.  When God doesn't do what we want, we don't run away, no, we love God.  Our love for God, if it is Agape love will remain constant.  Just as God has done for us when we turned our backs on Him and rejected Him and even when we ran away ourselves, if our love is Agape, we will hang in there and love Him no matter what we see happening around us.  When we love someone like that we will make them our top priority in life.  God made us the top priority in all of creation.