New Pulse and Homework Questions Posted

The new questions are up!  Click here to get `em!  Also, the new pulse is up, click on the pulse tab to find it.

Review From January 23

Hi friends,

Hope you are having a great week!

We continued our talk on making good choices by discussing the topic "How do I know God's voice"

We started by having everyone take a partner, and then, with eyes closed, find that partner in a room full of other people calling to their own partner.  It was chaos.  And the lesson is that we have so many different places to turn to in making decisions, how can we identify God's voice in all the noise!

Then we turned to our Bibles and read the story of Gideon. (Judges 6)  Gideon was a judge in Israel.  He was told by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites.   God told him through an angel that He would be with him.  To test that the directives were actually coming from God.  He put out a fleece - twice - and asked for opposite results - first that it would be wet while the ground around is dry, then that it would be dry and the ground around would be wet.
God answered Gideon's request each time, and so when God asked Gideon to do something crazy (like reduce his army from 32,000 to 300 men to battle) we don't see him questioning God, or testing him again, he simply obeys.  The bible tells us not to put the Lord your God to the test, but it also shows many examples of God-loving people testing God and having those tests answered (Peter walking on water, Thomas needing to touch the scars of Christ to name a couple)  God is gracious to us, and knows our hearts.  He desires our hearts to want the things that He wants.

Next, we read James 1.5-7
This passage gives some good advice, starting by asking for wisdom.  It tells us that if people ask for wisdom from God, he will give it to them. 

Still in James, we read James 3.17. 
This verse shows us the result of asking for Wisdom.  Wisdom from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine and sincere.  Do you want to see these things happening in your own life?  Once God grants us wisdom, we will see these things growing in our lives.  But that also means that if the choices we make don't lead us to be all these things, then that probably means that we are not making good choices.

And finally, we read 1 John 4.1-6
John reminds us in this passage, that assuming that other people are giving God's message to us is a little naive.  People are human and will allow their advice and words to be swayed by other influences.  That means that our part is to test what they say with the Bible and see if it lines up with what He says. 

Our memory verse is James 1.5.

Remember that you can earn points for your team by doing your homework question (posted in the Pulse, and on the blog every week - 2 points per answer) and by memorizing the weekly memory verse. (5 points) also, you can look for bonus points posted here on the blog too. 

For this week's bonus point, I want you to tell me your favorite bands/or songs.  it doesn't have to be Christian music, I just want to know what you are listening to.  I will give 3 bonus points for this answer.

Have a great weekend!  See you Sunday!
CP

Review from January 16

Hey all,

Hope you are staying warm this week - it is kinda crazy cold out there.  How I long for the days of summer!

We started a new unit in Club 56 last Sunday - a unit on choices and equipping ourselves to make the right ones.  Our first week was about seeking advice and who we should seek advice from.

We started off by looking at Psalm 37.30-31.  Here we read about the advice of David.  He tells us that the advice of "godly" people is wise.  So who are the godly people in your life?  Who could you turn to for wise advice that lines up with God's word?


Next, we looked at 1 Kings 12.1-15.  Here, Rehoboam (the new king of Israel) is looking for advice on how to run the country.  He consults the elders who tell him to be a servant to his people.  But he rejects their advice and seeks the advice of young men that he grew up with.  They tell him to rule more sternly than his father did.  He rejects the advice of the older men and follows the advice of the younger and it goes very badly.   So the question is, how valuable is the advice of older people?  I know that not all advice that comes from older people is good and not all advice that comes from people your own age is bad.  But this story is a reminder of two things.  Don't reject the advice of people just because they are older, and don't always choose the option that seems easier.  I am sure that the idea of being a leader who serves his people was not an exciting thought for Rehoboam.  It would be harder to do this than to make others do your will by beating them and threatening them.  But in the end, choosing the easier way was his undoing.


Then on to 2 Samuel 16.23- 17.14
In this passage, David's son Absalom trying to kill his father.  He seeks advice from a reliable source, Ahithophel and a battle plan is laid out.  But Absalom seeks a second opinion, that of Hushai.  Hushai devises a different plan and Absalom wants to carry it out instead.  In this story, God uses Hushai's bad advice as part of his perfect plan.  Absalom following the bad advice given by Hushai allows David to escape this attack, and, at the end of the chapter, Absalom dies without seeing his father killed.  Have you ever given anyone bad advice and seen it work out for good in the end?


Finally, we read our MEMORY VERSE, Proverbs 12.26.
This passage tells us that the advice of godly people is helpful to their friends, but the wicked lead people astray.  Do you have any friends that you wouldn't ask advice from?  if so, why wouldn't you ask them? This verse reminds us to be careful who you are asking for advice.  Who do you know that would offer good advice that lines up with the Bible?  Can you challenge yourself to seek their advice the next time a tough decision comes your way.




OK, so now in the way of announcements. 
GIRLS!!!!!  here is your reward announcement.  The sleepover will happen on Friday, February 18 at the Page house.  Details will come out in the next week, but mark the day on your calendar and get ready to have a great time celebrating your victory over the boys.

BOYS!!!!!  If that announcement bugged you, then get to work.  Do your homework, memorize your memory verse (it is really short this week).  Search for bonus points, and you could be the winner this time around!)

BONUS POINT TIME!!!
I will give a bonus point for each Bible story/passage that you read this week.  Write down the book, chapter and verse, and something that you thought was cool in the passage and for EACH ONE, I will give you a bonus point.

See you Saturday!

P.S.  We are also up for our turn at Kids at 11 this week.  If you want to come and help lead the younger kids during second hour, I can use you.  If you are at the park on Saturday, we can talk about games to play and crafts/activities to do.  Our theme is the parable of the servant who owes a huge debt to the king and has the debt forgiven, and then goes and has another guy thrown in jail for not repaying a tiny debt he owes him.  The story can be found in Matthew 18.
If you are not going to be there on Saturday, but have some ideas, feel free to email them to me.

Have a great end to your week.
CP

New Pulse and Homework Questions are Posted

Hey gang,

The most recent Pulse is uploaded and ready for you to check out.  Please remember that we are meeting at a special time and place for Club 56 this Saturday.  We are meeting at 1pm at Central Park.  If you need to know where it is, you can  Click here for a google map.  We will stay there until 3pm.  I know that it is supposed to be REALLY cold this weekend.  If it looks like it is going to be tooooooo frigidly cold, we will find a plan B: and announce it Saturday morning at the latest - on the blog, on facebook and by email.


The Pulse can be seen here, and this is the place for the homework questions.

See you Saturday

New Homework questions posted

The new questions are up from January 9.  Remember you get 2 points for each question answered and 5 points for the memory verse  (Which this week is the Lord's Prayer).  Click here to get them.

Correction Please

Please note that in this week's Pulse we said that our next Saturday activity would be on January 23.  Well, that is a Sunday.  Please note that the Club 56 sledding day at Central Park will be on Saturday, January 22 from 1-3pm.    Please forgive the error and note the correct day and time.  Also, I would gladly welcome any parents that would like to come join in the fun at Central Park on that Saturday.  There is quite a hill for sledding/snowboarding, etc.  There are a couple of skating rinks and there are some fields around for the snow football player in all of us.  

Review From January 9

Hey y'all

Hope you are having a great week.
Here is the scoop from last Sunday's club 56 lesson.

First, we looked at "how to pray"  which was our final topic in our "prayer" unit.  We read from Matthew 6.5-13.  This passage is commonly known as "the Lord's Prayer".  And in it, Jesus, during the sermon on the mount, lays out a model of prayer that we can follow.  He mentions some other important details also,  - don't make a big show of it, using loud voices and praying in the streets to be noticed by others.  We don't need to change who we are when we pray.  We just need to communicate with God.  To help us wrap our minds around this, we looked at 4 different themes that are in the Lord's Prayer.  We went to different stations to really focus on  each one.  Here are what we learned.
We started by taking a piece of paper and rewriting the Lord's Prayer in our own words.  This way we can try to understand what is being said.

Station 1: Praise
At this station, we praised God in the same way Jesus told his disciples to when he said “Our Father in Heaven, may your name be kept holy”.  We then took a separate sheet of paper and wrote 6 things we love about God -  Six amazing qualities of God.  

Station 2: Thank

At this station, we took time to thank God for all the amazing things He’s done (and is doing) in our life.  We Drew a picture of one thing we are thankful for.  As we drew, we thanked God for giving us this wonderful thing and for providing everything we need.

Station 3: Confess

At this station, we told God about anything we have done wrong and asked Him to forgive us.  Jesus showed us how to pray when He said “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us".  We then had dumbbells.  Each of us picked up one of the weights.  As we held it,  we thought of something we have done wrong this week.  We prayed to ask God for forgiveness, and as we did, we set down the object and thanked God for taking away our sin.

Station 4: Ask

In His prayer, Jesus demonstrated how to ask God for something when He said, “May your kingdom come.  May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  During our time at this station, we made requests of God.  We asked God to help us with something that we are worried about, or asked Him to provide for a need we have.  As we prayed, we were free to bow, lie down, put our hands out or close our eyes - whatever works best for each of us.

This is a great model for prayer.  And right now, the church is participating in the 2011 awakening conference, so what a timely unit we had, discussing prayer, what it can look like and the importance it plays in the life of a Christian.  

I have come across another couple of prayer models, based on the Lord's prayer.  They are put together in acronyms, to help remember the different themes.  Here they are, maybe they will be helpful to you in your prayer life by guiding you through the things Jesus included in the model prayer He gave us.

The first is ACTS

A- Adoration (loving and praising God for who He is)

C- Confession (telling God the things we have done wrong, or the things we haven't done that we are    supposed to do)

T- Thanksgiving (thanking God for everything we have, and are - and for all He is doing in our lives)

S- Supplication  (I had to look up this definition) - praying humbly, making requests of God

So that is one, and it reflects the parts of the Lord's Prayer.  I have also heard of this model PARTS

P - Praise (Telling God how great you think He is)

A - Admit (Telling God the things that you have done wrong, or have not done that you should do)

R - Request (Telling God what is on your heart, your needs, what you need answers about)

T - Thank (Being aware of God at work in your life, and thanking Him for all that is going on)

S - Stop (or be Still - I first heard it as Shut up - so you can remember that one if you want.  But it reminds us that we can have conversations with God.  We can praise, thank, confess and request from Him, but we can (and need to) be still, and let Him speak to us.  In these times, we may feel peace, we may sense direction or we may simply enjoy being shut down from the business of life and enjoying time spent with God.  

If you really like either of these acronyms, copy it down and give it to me with your homework on Sunday for a bonus point.  Or if you feel really creative, make up your own acronym that will help you remember the key themes of the prayer model Jesus gave us.  I will give you a bonus point for that too.

Stay safe, have a wonderful week, spend time with God in prayer and let Him encourage you, challenge you, pour into you and help guide you through life. 

CP

What's Happening at Club 56

The new Club 56 Saturday activity calendar is posted.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to check out what we are going to be doing over the next few months at Club 56.  See you there!

Review from January 2

Hey guys,

Hope you are having a great start to 2011.  We are back at it now on our regular schedule with Club 56.  I know there was a little confusion last Sunday, so I'll let you know we are meeting Sunday mornings as usual.  Last week, we discussed "What if I pray really hard and God says no"  

We've been talking about prayer over the past month and it is really been good to dig into the bible and see what God says about praying and how He reacts to our prayers.  Last Sunday, we were talking about What happens when God says no.  And he does say no from time to time.  What does that mean?  

In the large group lesson, we met Jack - an average guy, who was asking some people in his life if he could do certain things (like skip school to go to a movie, climb to the top of a tree and hang upside down from the top branches, or skateboard while holding on to the bumper of a moving car)  In each instance, his request was met with a "no".  These questions had pretty obvious potential consequences, so the answer of "no" made sense. they were dangerous, potentially harmful situations.  Sometimes, we may pray for things that ultimately will hurt us or hinder our dependence on God.  It may seem like the right thing, but in the big picture (which we can never see) it is not the best plan - and it is important to remember that God wants the absolute best for us.

In discussion time, we read 2 Samuel 12.  This is a story from David's life.  His son is sick and he is fasting and praying that God would heal him.  And it doesn't happen.  The son dies.  David's reaction is to get up from his place on the ground where he had been praying and pleading with God, washed up, changed his clothes, put on some lotion and went to the temple to worship God.  What a demonstration of a heart after God.  He had Gone through an unimaginable grief and pain, and tempting as it would be for a person to think that God didn't care or had abandoned him, he instead accepted God's answer, and trusted in God's greater plan. 

Next, we read 2 Corinthians 12. 7-10 (Our memory verse for the week is verse 9).  here Paul tells about something that he is struggling with.  We don't have a lot of details, but we know that it is troubling Paul.  He says that he has prayed for it to be taken away 3 times, and each time, God says no, that His grace is enough to carry Paul through.  He is reminding Paul (and all of us) that we are unable to accomplish anything for God's purpose in our own strength.  We are very week and need to rely totally on God in everything we do.  That is the lesson that Paul is learning in this passage.  And Paul is a trooper.  He chooses the humility of accepting his weakness because when things happen he knows and can boast that it is God, active in his life, and nothing he is doing on his own.  Can we delight in being weak?  Is that an easy lesson to learn?  No it isn't, but the joy that comes from seeing God work in our weakness is more than we can believe!

And Finally, we read Mark 14.32-36.  In this passage, we see that even Jesus prayed a prayer that God answered with a 'no'.  Jesus was a human.  He knew the pain and suffering, the agony and loneliness that awaited him, and prayed that He not have to go through it.  In this, we see that some prayers need to be answered 'no'.  What would have happened if God had okayed this.  There would be no cross, no defeated death, no punishment for sin payed and no hope for mankind.  God's plan is always the best, even when it doesn't seem like it.  

As a side note (And a bonus point) Read the prayer that Jesus prayed in John chapter 17.  For 2 bonus points, tell me who Jesus prays for in verse 20-21 and what he prays for for them.

It was another great discussion.  I hope you are getting as much out of reading these passages as I am preparing the lessons.  It is so cool to get to know God more through His word.  It is exciting to look at prayer and what the Bible says about it.  Prayer is such a vital part of our relationship with God (it is hard to have a meaningful relationship with someone we don't talk to or spend any time with).  Hopefully this unit is helping you get an idea of how to make your prayer life a foundation for your growing relationship with God and your service as his hands and feet to the world around you.

Welcome To Our New Club 56 Leaders

We are excited to welcome 2 new discussion group leaders to our Sunday Morning Club 56 time.  Mike Conrath and Andrea Nargan have agreed to come in and help us out with this.  I am very thankful for their willingness to help and look forward to working with them!