Thursday, January 6, 2011
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!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Review from December 19th
Greetings 56ers
Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas break and are enjoying the celebrations and wonders that this time of year brings.
I have been slacking off a little, as it has been 10 days since this lesson happened but here we go anyway. Our topic of the day was "Do my prayers bore God?"
In the first week of our unit, we talked about how sometimes it seems like God takes a long time to answer our prayers. So this time, we build on that a little bit. If God takes so long to answer, does he get bored of us praying about the same thing over and over again? Does he want us to pray about the same stuff over and over again?
First, we read Luke 18.1-7
Here we read a story about a woman that is persistent with her requests - so much so that a judge gets annoyed and gives her what she wants, just to keep her quiet. Is that what happens in our prayers to God? Do they annoy him?
Next we read Ephesians 6.18-20
These verses talk about being persistent in our prayers. What does that look like? What is something you know God wants you to be persistent about in your prayer life?
Finally, we read Matthew 7.7-11
This is a familiar passage that also tells us to ask, to seek, to knock on God's door to get answers for our prayers. And as we continue to ask, seek and knock, we will find answers, and see maybe a little God's plan revealed to us (at least in the area we are praying about)
Our prayers don't bore God. He knows what's going on in our lives, but he wants us to talk to him about it. He wants to hear what we are excited about, what we are battling over, what we are scared about. He wants us to tell Him about it and ask for Him to help and lead us through it. As we do, we will see God's faithfulness showing through. We can be encouraged that God's plan, while it may not always make sense to us, will work out in a way that is better than we could imagine. We just need to trust Him and keep on praying.
Bonus point time!
As it is our focus for these weeks, and since we all have great things and/or hard things going on in our lives, I will give a bonus point to anyone that posts or emails us a prayer request that they have. If you remember 2 lessons ago, we had 3 questions that helped us identify things that we could pray about. Here are those questions again, to help you figure out what you can be praying persistently about and what you would like us to join you in praying about.
1- What is something hard that you or someone you know is going through?
2- What is something that is making you happy these days?
3- Do you know anyone that is sick or hurting?
That is a place to start. We want to encourage you to pray. It isn't a hard thing that needs to happen in a special way - it is just talking to God - like you would talk to a friend, telling Him about what's happening in your life. He wants to hear from you. And we are praying for each of you. We would be glad to have anything specific to pray for that you want to tell us about.
Have a great weekend! See you Sunday!
Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas break and are enjoying the celebrations and wonders that this time of year brings.
I have been slacking off a little, as it has been 10 days since this lesson happened but here we go anyway. Our topic of the day was "Do my prayers bore God?"
In the first week of our unit, we talked about how sometimes it seems like God takes a long time to answer our prayers. So this time, we build on that a little bit. If God takes so long to answer, does he get bored of us praying about the same thing over and over again? Does he want us to pray about the same stuff over and over again?
First, we read Luke 18.1-7
Here we read a story about a woman that is persistent with her requests - so much so that a judge gets annoyed and gives her what she wants, just to keep her quiet. Is that what happens in our prayers to God? Do they annoy him?
Next we read Ephesians 6.18-20
These verses talk about being persistent in our prayers. What does that look like? What is something you know God wants you to be persistent about in your prayer life?
Finally, we read Matthew 7.7-11
This is a familiar passage that also tells us to ask, to seek, to knock on God's door to get answers for our prayers. And as we continue to ask, seek and knock, we will find answers, and see maybe a little God's plan revealed to us (at least in the area we are praying about)
Our prayers don't bore God. He knows what's going on in our lives, but he wants us to talk to him about it. He wants to hear what we are excited about, what we are battling over, what we are scared about. He wants us to tell Him about it and ask for Him to help and lead us through it. As we do, we will see God's faithfulness showing through. We can be encouraged that God's plan, while it may not always make sense to us, will work out in a way that is better than we could imagine. We just need to trust Him and keep on praying.
Bonus point time!
As it is our focus for these weeks, and since we all have great things and/or hard things going on in our lives, I will give a bonus point to anyone that posts or emails us a prayer request that they have. If you remember 2 lessons ago, we had 3 questions that helped us identify things that we could pray about. Here are those questions again, to help you figure out what you can be praying persistently about and what you would like us to join you in praying about.
1- What is something hard that you or someone you know is going through?
2- What is something that is making you happy these days?
3- Do you know anyone that is sick or hurting?
That is a place to start. We want to encourage you to pray. It isn't a hard thing that needs to happen in a special way - it is just talking to God - like you would talk to a friend, telling Him about what's happening in your life. He wants to hear from you. And we are praying for each of you. We would be glad to have anything specific to pray for that you want to tell us about.
Have a great weekend! See you Sunday!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Review from Sunday December 12
Hey 56ers
Wow! what a week it has been. Steph's surgery went very well. She has been recovering very well and all signs so far point to the pain being G-O-N-E gone. She has even tried running and dancing, a couple activities that she did either not at all or very gingerly over the past couple of years. We are very excited at the thought of having this ankle pain be in the past. Thank you for praying about this.
And how fitting that Sunday was the start of our unit on prayer. We will dig into what the Bible says about prayer over the next few weeks. We started out last Sunday talking about "What takes God so long?" We have all had things that we pray about over and over, only to not get the answer we want, or when we want it. So if God is powerful and able to do anything, why does he take so long to give us our answer.
We started off by reading Psalm 69.1-13
David is desperate in this passage. He was dealing with hard things in his life, and yet, he was willing to wait on God for an answer. This is the promise God makes for us, too. He will never leave us. We will never go through our hard times alone. We can cry out in desperation to Him and know that He will answer, in His own way and time.
Next, we read Daniel 10.10-13 & Proverbs 1.28-31
In proverbs, we read about how God sometimes lets us suffer the consequences of not following Him wholeheartedly. We "eat the bitter fruit of living our own way" How true is that. Sometimes we get an answer about what we should do, but we think it will be hard, or uncomfortable and are unwilling to pay the cost of going 100% for God and following his own way.
There is also the element of spiritual warfare. We read this in the passage from Daniel. The angel comes to Daniel and tells him that his prayer was heard in heaven but the answer was delayed by an enemy along the way. There is a war going on in the spiritual realm. God has already claimed victory, but Satan is not willing to concede quietly. He is always looking to disrupt things, to create doubt in our minds - that God doesn't hear us or doesn't care. Daniel, like David in the earlier passage, were persistent in prayer, they didn't allow time or lack of results keep them from praying throughout their ordeals. We can be challenged to do the same.
It is as simple as that. Any answers that you have to any of these questions are things you can pray for, and things that you can ask others to pray about with you. Steph and I would love to know what you are praying about these days and to join you in praying about these things. If you have anything you want to share, please feel free to email us or leave a comment on the prayer tab of the blog.
Also, the challenge for the week is to commit to praying persistently about the things that are going on in your life.
Prayer is an important part of our Christian walk. Don't be intimidated by it. God wants to hear from you and is ready to listen and will be faithful to answer (albeit in his own way and time)
God bless you this week! See you Sunday!
CP
Wow! what a week it has been. Steph's surgery went very well. She has been recovering very well and all signs so far point to the pain being G-O-N-E gone. She has even tried running and dancing, a couple activities that she did either not at all or very gingerly over the past couple of years. We are very excited at the thought of having this ankle pain be in the past. Thank you for praying about this.
And how fitting that Sunday was the start of our unit on prayer. We will dig into what the Bible says about prayer over the next few weeks. We started out last Sunday talking about "What takes God so long?" We have all had things that we pray about over and over, only to not get the answer we want, or when we want it. So if God is powerful and able to do anything, why does he take so long to give us our answer.
We started off by reading Psalm 69.1-13
David is desperate in this passage. He was dealing with hard things in his life, and yet, he was willing to wait on God for an answer. This is the promise God makes for us, too. He will never leave us. We will never go through our hard times alone. We can cry out in desperation to Him and know that He will answer, in His own way and time.
Next, we read Daniel 10.10-13 & Proverbs 1.28-31
In proverbs, we read about how God sometimes lets us suffer the consequences of not following Him wholeheartedly. We "eat the bitter fruit of living our own way" How true is that. Sometimes we get an answer about what we should do, but we think it will be hard, or uncomfortable and are unwilling to pay the cost of going 100% for God and following his own way.
There is also the element of spiritual warfare. We read this in the passage from Daniel. The angel comes to Daniel and tells him that his prayer was heard in heaven but the answer was delayed by an enemy along the way. There is a war going on in the spiritual realm. God has already claimed victory, but Satan is not willing to concede quietly. He is always looking to disrupt things, to create doubt in our minds - that God doesn't hear us or doesn't care. Daniel, like David in the earlier passage, were persistent in prayer, they didn't allow time or lack of results keep them from praying throughout their ordeals. We can be challenged to do the same.
We also took some time to talk about things we are praying for. We asked 3 questions:
1- What is something hard that you or someone you know is dealing with
2- What are you most happy about right now?
3- Are you or someone you know dealing with any sickness or injury?
It is as simple as that. Any answers that you have to any of these questions are things you can pray for, and things that you can ask others to pray about with you. Steph and I would love to know what you are praying about these days and to join you in praying about these things. If you have anything you want to share, please feel free to email us or leave a comment on the prayer tab of the blog.
Also, the challenge for the week is to commit to praying persistently about the things that are going on in your life.
Prayer is an important part of our Christian walk. Don't be intimidated by it. God wants to hear from you and is ready to listen and will be faithful to answer (albeit in his own way and time)
God bless you this week! See you Sunday!
CP
Thursday, December 9, 2010
More Bonus Points Up for Grabs!!
Hey guys, I just added another bonus point opportunity for anyone that is interested. Find it in the "for students" tab!
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