VBS 2010
Looking to go on a jungle adventure? Want to learn cool new songs and do awesome crafts? Then come and check out VBS this summer.
This is for all children from 3 years of age to grade 6, during the week of July 19 -23.
Go to crystalridgecc@gmail.com to pre-register.
Beyond Impossibility
My grandmother did not believe that a man could walk on the moon. Even as we sat around the television that momentous day, July 20, 1969, she kept repeating, "That's not real. That's not real." Her worldview did not allow for the occurrence of such apparent impossibilities.
But many people have no trouble believing that men have actually walked on the moon. We believe that future travellers to the moon will find mementos of those visits such as footprints, flags, and abandoned equipment including a used car or two. History, if we choose to believe it, has proven that my grandmother's beliefs were in error. It seems that it really is possible for a man to walk on the moon.
In fact, very many things that would have seemed impossible to my grandmother happen every day. Our lives are full of what once would have been considered miracles. We have technology and the amazing imaginations of countless creative thinkers to thank for our everyday wonders like airplanes, cell phones, and digital photographs. We live the impossible in our daily lives.
Just as my grandmother's generation viewed travel to the moon as impossible, so many contemporary thinkers discount the possibility of the miraculous. And rightly so! We must not lose sight of the fact that miracles are impossible by definition! A miracle is something that cannot take place within the realm of known possibility. It comes from beyond the possible, from the supernatural.
There are many people today who view the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an impossibility. People don't ordinarily come back to life after dying. Or do they? Maybe the resurrection is the event that changed the paradigm. We used to believe that it was impossible for a man to walk on the moon. We now believe it is indeed possible. We used to believe that people couldn't fly. But people fly every day thanks to technology.
What if the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that it is now possible for the dead to rise again? Once a thing happens, doesn't it move from the realm of impossibility to the realm of the possible? If it is now possible for the dead to rise, isn't this something you would want to be in on?
The apostle Paul says, "If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of people" (1 Corinthians 15:19). It is a great encouragement to hope for something better beyond this life. There are days when such hope seems essential to maintain sanity in this crazy world.
When our children are hurt or sick it is natural and instinctive to comfort them by saying that everything will be alright. Hope in the resurrection is the ultimate expression of that comfort. Everything will be alright because God will make it so. The resurrection of Christ was just the beginning.
This devotional was originally published at:
DisturbingTheWorld.org
Reproduced with permission.
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Devotional: Walking in the Dark
"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.... My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'" - Psalm 42:2-3 (NIV)
Have you ever felt like asking, "Where is my God?" Even those of us who have experienced great joy and delight in the presence of God will sometimes go through dark nights when God seems distant, or even absent altogether.
It sometimes feels like God disappears just when we need him the most, when we are at our weakest and most needy. How do we reconcile this with the concept of a loving, caring Father in heaven? Isn't it bad enough that our earthly fathers so often abandon us? Why should we feel abandoned by God as well?
Faith, of course, argues in the face of this feeling. God is always close, always caring, even and especially when we are incapable, because of our fear or grief, of feeling his comfort.
Though there are times when pain seems to override any inkling of his presence, God is still there. When circumstances continue to press us down, God holds us up, however crushed we might feel. When the night is at its blackest, God sends us the ancient light of faraway stars to cheer us and to give us hope.
Indeed, there is a world of breathtaking beauty that can only be experienced in the darkest night. The darker, the better, in fact. We don't often think that those same stars are always out there. They shine and twinkle all through the daytime, too, but we can't see them then. It is only in the night that their beauty becomes apparent. If the sun always shone, we would never know how awe-inspiring the night sky could be.
And just as the awesome glory of the night sky is hidden in the sunshine, so God reserves the most powerful expression of his strength for the times of our greatest weakness. Christ himself says of us, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). For it is when we are at our lowest that he gives us the grace to keep going. Though all we might feel is our own weakness, it is by his strength that we are able to continue.
So if, in the dark night of your soul, you feel like God has retreated, look up! God is light, and in the night sky there is hope. Though our sun might disappear for a time, God sends us the consolation of billions of suns, as out of reach but intensely burning reminders that the earth will turn toward brightness once again.
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God." - Psalm 42:11 (NIV)
This devotional was originally published at:
DisturbingTheWorld.org
Reproduced with permission.
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Prayer Requests
Please take advantage of this space to post your prayer requests. Click "comments" below to post your requests and answers to prayer that you would like to share.
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