Destroying Fear

What are you afraid of? Perhaps you are afraid of spiders or snakes or the dark. Maybe your fears are a little more complicated than these, like being afraid of war or not having enough money or being attacked. Mike demonstrated to us the change we see between the Old and New Testaments regarding fear. The word for fear is used over a hundred times in the Old Testament but it is used only a couple times in the New Testament. This is because of grace. Instead of fearing God’s wrath we can rest comfortable in the assurance that Jesus came and made us right with God. With this comfort we can also look at our fears and say to them: “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). To make sure we really understood this idea, we wrote our fears on the wall and then took a hammer to it and destroyed the wall. Remember this image of the wall being destroyed. The hammer destroying the wall is the perfect love of God, and this perfect love completely destroys fear, leaving no place in your life for fear. Do not be afraid, live with the assurance that the perfect love of Christ has destroyed all reason for fear.

Ceiling, floor, window, door, people…

About a foot of snow, mild winter weather, and a musician and speaker able to keep a room full of junior high students entertained made for a wonderful weekend. A few crazy games, too many snowball to count, and valuable talks filled the time. An explorer to Central America brought his crew across the ocean on five ships with the intention of succeeding in taking control of the land in order to mine the valuable gold and other materials. Every person and group before them had been conquered, had been sent packing, had failed to control the local people in order to take the prize they sought. Upon arriving this man’s first order to his crew was to burn the ships- all five of them! Crazy, right? I mean, what if they had to run like everyone else, what would they do? Well, the group succeeded, and it was because they had only two options, succeed or die. They couldn’t go back. In life we make a lot of excuses, Brian Pruitt challenged us to stop using excuses and start burning our ships. He also challenged us to reach up to God, reach in to ourselves (find out who we are), and reach out to others. Finally, we learned that no matter how great or terrible our father on earth is, our heavenly Father is so far superior we can’t really even compare the two. How has your heavenly Father made a difference in your life? Can you think of something your earthly father has taught you that you will never forget? Ask any of the junior high students to tell you about a young man they nicknamed “Bo”. Bo lives in Lesotho Africa and is 11 years old. Students, don’t forget the commitment you have made to Bo, he needs your support!

A long time coming

It seems in the midst of everything else, I forgot to update the blog. For those who checked, I apologize. October 18 we spent the night talking about our doubts and the danger they can be if ignored. Doubts are not bad, in fact, part of faith is also having doubts. But when we ignore our doubts we let them take over and we lose our faith. I used the example of a car. A car is a good thing, it gets us where we need to go, it keeps us dry when it’s raining, warm when it’s cold, and allows us the freedom to do so much more than we ever could before. However, if we were to ignore cars we would be in trouble. If you walk out into the street without looking you will get hit and cars can kill you, but no matter what being hit by a car will injur you. Doubts are the same way. They can be very good, they allow us to grow stronger in faith, but if we don’t give them the respect they deserve they will destroy faith instead of making it stronger. Last time we did our own mini-plays using stories from 2 Kings. We talked about how stories are used in the Bible a lot because they are easy to remember and help explain rules. We went around the circle several times sharing stories we remember from the Bible, and then tried to do the same with non-story things, such as the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, letters of Paul. We didn’t even make it halfway around the circle. Then two groups presented their own dramatic rendering of stories in the style the ancient Hebrews would have, with no props and not stage, just people acting out a story. Next time we will talk about friends. This Saturday November 10 we are heading to the south side to work with Restoration Ministries. Meet at church at 9:30, we will return about 2:30. Contact Lisa for more information.

Busy Weekend

Thursday night we talked about faith. Everyone took the chance to write his/her own definition of faith. My definition is believing and trusting in something even though you can’t see it, don’t understand it, and can’t fully prove it. What is your definition?

I hope that everyone has caught up on sleep after Friday night’s lock-in. I’m still working on it. After a couple of  rousing games of laser tag we headed back to church for some sardines, dodgeball, pizza, snacks, spoons, catch phrase, and much more. I was not the only one not sleeping, most of the kids managed to stay up for the entire night, where they found the stamina for such a marathon is beyond me. We had fun playing together and getting to know one another a little better.

At Path we talked about the Bible and the importance of the big picture story of the Bible. This story was told in 7 chapters, Creation, Crisis, Calling, Conversation, Christ, Community, and Commencement. We also enjoyed Fruit Basket Upset/Four in a Row and Human Battleship and our own version of the game 500 where each person getting to 100 had a question to answer. All in all, it was  a fun night and I look forward to doing it all again next time, October 4. Don’t forget, October 5-6 Path lock-in. Cost is $10, but find a friend, or two, or ten. You and your friend will be half price! Fun, food, little (or no) sleep, what could be better?

Kick-Off

Last night we had our Path Kick-off. We started the year with a bunch of different balloon games. Everything from balloon stomp and waterballoon toss to a giant “balloon” obstacle course and balloon bowling. We finished the night up with Ice Cream Sundaes and Floats. I am quite certain that everyone in left wet, but it was a fun night and I look forward to many more fun nights and some serious ones too. Check out the pictures page to see pictures from the obstacle course.

Welcome to the Path Webpage!

Thanks for checking out Lombard Path’s website. I hope you find something fun and useful here. Check out the leaders page for information about your youth leaders. Looking for some place to share your thoughts? Visit the topics page and post your own thoughts and comments. Parents, wondering what is going on at Path? Check out the parent’s page for a calendar and other important information.