Ep12: Imagine You're a Shepherd

Discussion Guide 

• God has a big plan for Moses and the Israelites. He also has a plan for each of us. How can we find out what He wants for us - what His plan is?

•  How does God speak to us today?

• Look back at the story of Exodus and all the plagues. How do those events show how creation responds to God? How did the plagues bring glory to God? 

Complete Transcript 

As we continue our study of God and nature, we're going to look at three unusual and unexpected miracles in the Old Testament. In a way, all miracles are unusual and unexpected--that's why we call them miracles! But, we sorta expect Jesus to heal blind people and sick people. Those events were still miraculous, but not unexpected. 

This first story is one you're probably familiar with, but sometimes when we become too familiar with a story we miss the miracle. Have you heard about Moses and the burning bush before? Let's try to peel back the familiar and find the miracle again. I want you to use your imagination today. 

Imagine you are a shepherd. You are out in the wilderness. Really try to picture the wilderness, okay? It's a hot desert wilderness, and you have to keep a flock of sheep safe, well fed, well watered, and alive. Probably not the easiest job in the world. 

You approach a mountain, Horeb, which actually means "desert". And out of the corner of your eye you see something you've never seen before. You do a double-take and look back. Squinting and shading your eyes you can't really believe what you're seeing. 

A bush is on fire but it's not actually burning up. Anything on fire is supposed to burn up. That's how it works. Set it on fire and it reduces to ash. But this bush isn't being destroyed. It's not breaking apart and turning to ash. It's simply burning. 

Your curiosity is overwhelming. And besides, if you tell anyone about this, they're going to ask you: "why wasn't the bush burning up?"  Otherwise, they'll just say, "nice story, Moses, you've been hanging out with the sheep too long." So you go over to the bush to see if you can figure out what's going on. Maybe you are just seeing things and that's dazzling sunlight shimmering off of berries. Or some other logical explanation. 

As you approach the bush, wanting to understand what you have seen, there is a voice. In fact, the bush knows your name. "Moses! Moses!' Okay, this went from unusual to weird in sixty seconds flat. But you're invested now, you gotta know more so you say, "Here I am!" 

At this point,  you have no idea what to expect next. One minute you're looking after some sheep and the next minute you're talking to a bush that's on fire but not burning up. And then....then this goes from weird to miraculous. 

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” 

Instantly, you drop to your knees. Without looking up you remove your shoes. Whatever you do, you don't look at the bush again. God himself is in the fire. Only God could cause the bush to burn and not be consumed. And not only that, but God is speaking to you. God could consume you just like that bush. He's so holy, so powerful, so perfect, so righteous, and you are a sinful human so full of mistakes and failures. And yet, he's not destroying you in your sinfulness. He's speaking to you. 

The God of our ancestors, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is speaking to you. He's explaining that he has seen the Israelites suffering in slavery in Egypt. You remember how you saw that suffering too. You'd been raised in the palace by the princess, but you're an Israelite just like the slaves. And you hated their suffering. In fact, you murdered that Egyptian who was beating the Israelite slave that day forty years ago. That's why you were in the wilderness to begin with. You had done something terrible in your anger and you had to leave Egypt to save your own life. The Egyptians didn't want you, the Israelites didn't want you. The desert wilderness with the sheep is where you belonged. 

Expect God is saying something else entirely. Something you can't quite understand. He's telling you that he wants you to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go so God can bring them into the Promised Land to bless them. This can't be right. Maybe your ears need cleaned out. 

You say, as respectfully as you can, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

And God says “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

This sounds too good to be true. God wants to deliver his people! Of course he does, he's a good God. He is worthy of praise! But he wants you to do it? You? The one who had to flee Egypt? The one your own people aren't sure they can trust? God must have the wrong guy. 

You ask carefully, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

When God says "I am who I am" chills run through your entire body. From the hair on your head to the tip of your tiny toe tingles. It's the holiest, most powerful thing you have ever heard in your entire life. And so you ask a few more questions, trying to iron out your fears and doubts. God continues speaking to you, and instructing you. As he speaks, you feel courage rising. You are not alone. You've never been alone. God has seen you all the time and has had a plan. And now it's time to do what he has called you to do. 

As you return home from this most holy conversation, you know your entire life has changed. You stop dead in your tracks for a moment. The sheep by your side look up at you strangely for a moment as your stop is so sudden. You're wondering what would've happened if you hadn't bothered to investigate the burning bush. What if you had just rubbed your eyes, shrugged your shoulders, and moved on? What if you had decided it wasn't worth going out of your way? What if you just ignored the unexpected and unusual, and had missed God? 

The story of Moses and the burning bush can be found in Exodus 3. When you read it for yourself, you'll see that I took God's and Moses's words exactly from the Bible. But I gave us space to imagine what it might have been like for Moses that day. The fact is, we don't know exactly what was going on with the burning bush. Maybe it was the angel of the Lord within the bush that simply gave it the appearance of being on fire. Maybe it was the sun. Or there's even this plant that grows specifically in that part of the world that gives off gas and occasionally catches fire on its oily leaves, but doesn't burn up. It only burns for a few minutes then extinguishes. But when I read the text, I think about God and his creation. It does what he tells it to do. And if he tells the bush to not burn, it won't burn. 

Does that sound too simple to be true? Maybe it is. But think about some of the other stories we've already discussed on this podcast. The very first episode we talked about Jesus calming the storm. The winds and the waves immediately obeyed him when he said "be still!". God created the water, Jesus was there at creation. The water recognized that Jesus was its master and when he commanded it to settle down, it did. Think about the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan River. God told the water to get out the way and it did. Then he told it to go back where it belonged and it did. 

So it seems to me that if God tells a bush "don't burn" it won't burn. At any rate, we learn two important things from the burning bush. One, God is all-powerful and his holiness can consume like any fire, but when we ask Jesus to be our savior, we all become like the burning bush. We carry the flame of God's spirit inside of us and we are not consumed. And two, God will speak to us in unexpected ways, but we have to have eyes to notice it, we have to make time to seek answers, we have to be curious enough to find out the truth. Moses was confused and curious that day--he certainly wasn't expecting to encounter God in a bush on the mountainside! And we don't know when we'll encounter God either. But it's safe to say that if we are not curious and we are too busy to care, we will miss him. 

Ep11: Created With Purpose

Discussion Questions

• Psalm 148 talks about how things in God's world praise Him. How does a fruit tree praise God? How about a cow? What does an old man do to praise God? Whavehat can a child do?

• Go outside on a sunny day and look up at the clouds moving across the blue sky. Do you see how each one is different? How they move and how some bump into others? Look again in five minutes and you'l see a whole new sky no one has ever seen before or will ever see again. One God created just for that moment. How else does God's creation change?

• You are God's creation. He made you just right. God doesn't make junk, He makes masterpieces. How are you God's masterpiece? Why do you think He took the time to make you special?

Full Transcript 

Psalm 148

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

    praise him in the heights above.

2 Praise him, all his angels;

    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

3 Praise him, sun and moon;

    praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, you highest heavens

    and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,

    for at his command they were created,

6 and he established them for ever and ever—

    he issued a decree that will never pass away.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth,

    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,

    stormy winds that do his bidding,

9 you mountains and all hills,

    fruit trees and all cedars,

10 wild animals and all cattle,

    small creatures and flying birds,

11 kings of the earth and all nations,

    you princes and all rulers on earth,

12 young men and women,

    old men and children.

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,

    for his name alone is exalted;

    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,[b]

    the praise of all his faithful servants,

    of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord

For the entire month of June Bloom Kids Treehouse is looking for God in nature! Warm weather is finally here. The grass is green, trees have leaves again, flowers are blooming everywhere, we can hear the sound of birdsong and crickets and frogs. 

We know that God created the heavens and the earth. The very first verse of the Bible tells us that right up front. You don't get past page one before you find out that God created it all. Everything in the entire universe--everything huge like a galaxy and everything tiny like germ--God created it. But do you ever think about how nature praises God? How animals, plants, water all respond to God? As we dig into the scriptures this month we will learn that everything created by God can recognize his voice, respond to him, and bring him glory. I am praying that we all will have eyes to see God's masterpieces all around us in creation, and to see how creation praises God. From mighty oak trees to silly puppy dogs! 

God delights in his creation. He wants us to delight in it too. God delights in the way a dog uses his keen sniffery nose to find a squirrel to chase, or maybe a bite of food dropped on the floor. God delights in the intricate web of a spider, the mastery of design, the strength of the webbing. God delights in the dandelions that appear each spring without being planted or invited. Now, I'm not saying everyone has to love weeds! I'm just saying that God does.  

And I think that's good news. It's really good news for us that God loves weeds and spider webs and sniffy dogs and snowflakes. These are all things that we complain about sometimes. The dog who begs at the dinner table because his sniffy nose told him you're eating hamburgers tonight. The spiderwebs in the corner of the room, just out of reach and collecting dust. Or the creeeepy spider webs with the creeepy spiders. I get it--I'm not a fan. The snow that dares to fall when we are ready and waiting for spring. The dandelions that make our lawns look less than perfect. These are all things that bother us. That annoy us. That we would do without sometimes....even if we really love our doggos.

God loves all of those things and more. He created them to bring him delight, as well as serve a purpose in the wide world of his creation. This is good news for us because God delights in us too....even when it feels like people would rather do without us sometimes. We all feel that way from time to time. When you've gotten on mom's nerves just one time too many that day. When dad comes home from work grumpy and everything you do is making him worse. When your sister gets so mad at you she says she hates you. When your friends leave you out of their games. When you don't get a good grade at school, or strike out at baseball, or just...mess up. Have you ever experienced any of those things? I have. Even as a grown up I feel that way sometimes. 

But God still delights in me. He created me just the way I am on purpose! He gave me a unique combination of talents, ideas, weaknesses, interests, and personality that no one else on earth has ever had. And he created you to be unique too! It's not just okay that you're not like everyone else--it's spectacular! It's awesome! God delights in you every single day. And you can bring praise to him just by being who he created you to be. 

It would be silly if a spider stopped spinning webs and tried to sniff like a dog. It would be even more ridiculous if a dog stopped sniffering and tried to spin webs! Go ahead, try to picture a dog spinning a spider's web. It's silly, isn't it? God didn't create them to do those things. A snowflake can't be a dandelion that grows in the spring, and a dandelion can't be a snowflake that falls from a cold winter sky. They have to do what they were created to do when they were created to do it. And so do we. 

My challenge to you this week is to walk really slowly around your yard or neighborhood. Look for the little things in nature that you usually miss. You might spy teeny tiny flowers growing in your yard.. You might spy a bird's nest in a tree. You might notice a lady bug or a snail. Maybe you'll look up into the sky at night and notice the stars. Or how the moon changes from one night to the next. And as you observe the wonders of creation all around us, I want you to delight in them. Look at them the way God does, as something he designed on purpose and with a purpose. Thank God for his creation. And then, thank God for creating you. Take time to notice how you are made. Your likes and dislikes, interest and ideas, your beautiful eyes and your happy smile. Thank God for making you just the way you are and ask him to start showing you why he made you that way. The biggest adventure of your life is with God as he reveals why he made you and just how much he loves you. 

The Treehouse Ep10: In Remembrance of Me (BFB May 4)

For the last several weeks we've been talking about how important it is to remember that God is faithful. When we feel discouraged or afraid, we can remember all the amazing things God has done in the past. And when God does something great for us, we can make reminders so we don't forget.

Today, we're going to talk about one more thing that helps us remember. We call it "communion". Communion at church is when we pass around the plates with little pieces of bread (sometimes they're more like crackers), and tiny cups of grape juice. You may have noticed that only some people take the bread and juice, or that you're only allowed to take them after you've asked Jesus to be your Savior. Let's look closely at why that is and what this is all about.

We'll start by reading Luke 22:14-20. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”  And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

So Jesus and his disciples have gathered together to celebrate something called Passover. Do you remember what that story is that was so important in the Old Testament? The story that has kept popping up over the last few weeks? Yup, that's it. The one where God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Our focus has been on the miracle when God parted the Red Sea, but there was another very important thing that happened.

Before Pharaoh agreed to let his slaves go, there were ten different plagues. Everything from frogs and gnats, to the water turning to blood and the sky being totally dark for three days. But the hardest plague of all was when all the firstborn sons in Egypt died in the night. In order for the Israelites to be safe, God told them to kill a perfect little lamb, one without even any markings on its wool. They were to take the blood from the lamb and use it to paint around the doorpost of their houses. As long as their homes were covered in the blood of the lamb, the angel of death would pass over.

Did you hear what I said? Pass over. This is where the name "Passover" came from. And while the angel of death was moving through Egypt, the Israelites were eating a meal God told them to make. He had instructed them to make bread without any yeast. You see, when you bake with yeast it takes a lot of time because you have to wait for the bread to get big and fluffy usually two times before you bake it. It's delicious but it takes all day. God knew the Israelites weren't going to have all day to sit around and bake bread. He knew that Pharaoh's first born son would die and when that happened Pharaoh would tell the Israelites to leave now! And they needed to be ready. So they baked this bread without any yeast and waited to see what God would do.

And sure enough, the Israelites got to leave Egypt. Then, after they crossed the Red Sea and were safe and sound, God commanded them to always remember what he had done to save them with a festival called Passover. Every year the Israelites would eat the bread without any yeast and tell the story to their children and grandchildren of how God saved them from slavery. So when Jesus was living it was well over a thousand years later and the Israelites are still remembering to celebrate Passover every year. There's actually several stories that tell us about Jesus celebrating Passover.

In the passage we're reading today, it is the last time Jesus would celebrate Passover. In fact, that very night Jesus was arrested. The next day, on a Friday, Jesus was crucified. And then on Sunday, Jesus came back to life!

Let's look again at exactly what Jesus said. Verses 19 & 20 say, "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

Jesus was taking the bread and the wine which was for Passover and making a new tradition. We call it communion. He said that the bread was to help us remember his body which was given for us. And he said that the wine reminds us of his blood which was poured out for us. He wanted us to always remember how his blood covered our sins when his body was hurt and broken on the cross. Remember how it was the blood of the lamb that covered the doorways for the Israelites back in Egypt? Can you guess what another one of Jesus's names is? He is the Lamb of God. And this is why. His blood was the payment for our sins. It covers our sins up so we don't have to be punished for them anymore.

This is why communion is only for people who have asked Jesus to be their Savior. Their sins have been covered by his blood! So they can be part of this special tradition where we remember what Jesus did for us. And this is a tradition that we will do until Jesus comes back again! It's already been two thousand years since Jesus went back to heaven, and we're still doing communion to remember him. Jesus told us that someday he will come back and when we're with him again we will have a big feast to celebrate! So communion also reminds us that Jesus is coming back and we can spend forever and ever with him, feasting and celebrating.

If you think you might be ready to ask Jesus to be your savior, you can talk to your parents or another grown-up. Children are so important to God, you mean so much to him! And you don't have to wait to be a grown-up to be saved. But it is a very important thing, so it's important you understand about sin and why we need a savior, and why Jesus is the only one who can save us.

Parents and other grown-ups, in the show notes for this episode, we've included some additional things to talk about as well as prayer. There are no magic prayers or words though! We know that God looks at the heart so don't worry about getting the words just right.

I'm going to close this episode with a prayer. No matter what, we can always pray and thank Jesus for what he's done for us and ask him to keep speaking to our hearts.

Discussion Guide

• If your child has already asked Jesus to become their Savior, take a little bit of time to discuss again what that means. It's good for all of us to hear the gospel again and be refreshed with the joy of salvation. 
• If your child wants to ask Jesus to be their Savior--that's the best news! Take a few minutes to talk about how our sin keeps us from God, but when we are truly sorry for our sins and want Jesus to became the leader of our lives, we can be forgiven! And when we are forgiven and Jesus is our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside our hearts, and he will never leave us. 
• This is an example of a prayer you could use, but remember, it's not the words that matters. What matters is your child's heart and desire to be right with God. 
• Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. I ask you to forgive me and make me clean inside like you. I want you to be my Savior and the leader of my life. I thank you for dying on the cross for me and for loving me so much. I love you too. Amen! 
• If your child (or you!) prays that prayer, please let us know! You can leave a comment on this blog, message us through Facebook, call the church at 614-837-7122, or email us through our website. We want to celebrate with you! Angels are already rejoicing in heaven! 

The Treehouse Ep9: Ebenezer (BFB 3)

What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word "Ebenezer"? How many of you said Scrooge?? That's the first thing my son says! And honestly, it's the first thing that comes to mind for me too. Ebenezer Scrooge is, of course, the main character in A Christmas Carol. Just as a side note: Muppets Christmas Carol is hands-down my favorite version of that story.

But I'm not here today to talk to you about Muppets and Scrooge. Nope. I'm going to tell you what an Ebenezer is. It's not just a grumpy old guy who doesn't want to share his money. That's only in in the Christmas story. In the Bible an Ebenezer is something else entirely.

Let's grab our Bibles and look at 1 Samuel, chapter 7. Think back to last week and what we learned about the Ark of the Covenant. It was a very special, very holy chest where God himself would send his Spirit to be among the people. Not just anyone could touch it, only the priests. And even they had to follow special rules and be very respectful. This wasn't like some cool pirate's chest anyone could take and have the treasure inside.

But sometimes the Israelites would stop obeying God, start making very bad choices, and then get into battles with other people. In this case, it was the Philistines. They battled with the Philistines a lot. It's safe to say if you're reading about Philistines in the Bible, they're bad guys. And sometimes the Philistines would win against the Israelites and they would take the Ark of the Covenant. The funny thing is wherever the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant people would get really sick, and even start dying! They moved it around a few times until they finally decided they didn't want the special golden box of Israel's God, and they gave it back. But the Israelites still weren't safe from the Philistines.

And here in 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites realized that God had allowed them to be punished because they had sinned against him. They had even started worshiping other gods. Gods that weren't real! The Israelites felt very sorry for being unfaithful to God, for forgetting what he had done for them, for not doing what was right.

So Samuel tells the people first to destroy all the places where they were worshiping the fake gods. After they did that, he gathers everyone together outside of a city called Mizpah. Once they were all gathered together, they drew water up from a well and poured it out before God. They went all day without food and they confessed their sins to God.

But when the Philistines heard that all of Israel had gathered together, they decided to get their army ready and head towards them to attack. Let's read what happens next, 1 Samuel 7:7-13 "The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. “Don’t stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel. So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel, and the Lord answered him.

Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way.

Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!”

So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the Lord’s powerful hand was raised against the Philistines."

That was another really cool miracle God did for the Israelites! Because they were coming to God truly sorry for being unfaithful, and completely trusting that the only way they could be saved was with God's help, God again showed his faithfulness. He scared away the Philistines with thunder! I bet that was some really loud thunder. Like the kind of thunder that shakes your whole house and makes your dog start barking.

Did you catch the Ebenezer? It's a stone. The name actually means "stone of help". Of course, the stone itself didn't do anything. It's just a rock. And even in the story, Samuel didn't use it to kill anyone or trip somebody or even hide behind it. But the stone acted as another reminder of God's faithfulness. Samuel is putting up another memorial so everyone can remember that God has been faithful to help his people whenever they cry out to him.

You wanna know what else is cool? Some of the names of Jesus are 'Rock of Ages', 'Stone of Israel', or even simply 'Rock'. Jesus is our "stone of help."

There's a song we sometimes sing called "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". It was written 262 years ago! That means it was written even before the Declaration of Independence. And so some of the words in it are old-fashioned and kinda confusing. We don't really talk the same now as people did then.

Let me give you the words for the second verse.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

Did you hear Ebenezer again? Now, if you're just singing this at church one day and you don't know the story of Samuel and the Philistines, you're going to start wondering what Ebenezer Scrooge has to do with Jesus. The answer is....nothing really. But now you know that an Ebenezer is a stone that helps us remember God's faithfulness. The second verse of "Come Thou Fount" is talking about making our own memorials to remember how God has helped us and kept us going. It also talks about how we have hope to arrive at home in heaven with God. And we have that hope because of Jesus. Jesus came to save us even while were lost in our sin. He rescued us on the cross, his own blood covering our sins. We're going to talk more about that next week!

Isn't that amazing? We are rescued from danger, just like the Israelites were rescued from the Philistines. And we can lift an Ebenezer too. It doesn't have to be a stone. Maybe you can draw a picture, or take a picture to help you remember when God has helped you. Maybe you can save something from your schoolyear to remind you how God stayed with you when you felt worried about a test, or left out from your friends. I think we all should take time to think about how God is helping us now, and raise an Ebenezer so we can always remember how God was with us even when we had to stay at home all the time.

So now you know what an Ebenezer is! And when Christmas rolls around and you watch the Muppets, or Mickey Mouse, or whatever version you like, you can remember that an Ebenezer actually helps remind us of God's faithfulness.

Let's pray.

The Treehouse Ep8: River Crossing (BFB May 2)

Discussion Questions

•  When the priests started into the river they stepped into the water and their feet got wet but when they got to the middle of the river, the ground was dry under their feet and everyone walked across the riverbed without getting their feet wet. How did that happen?  Can you see how complete God is when He does something for us? There is no detail that He doesn’t see.
• Did the priests say that this was a bad idea or that they didn’t want to try it? Why were they obedient? They were obedient because God had been faithful.
• Can you think of other things that remind us that God is always faithful?
• Rainbows - God’s promise
• Sunrises - every day starts with one
• Spring - new life
• The Bible - God’s guidebook for us
• Why is it important to be faithful? Who has been faithful to you? Are you faithful? Why or why not?

Transcript 

Do you remember last week what story I said might be the most important one in the Old Testament? The story told over and over again? It's the story of God delivering the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, and how they crossed the Red Sea safely. Well, today's lesson happened forty years later and has another great God miracle in it.

Let me fill in a bit of the backstory before we jump in. After the Israelites were miraculously saved, they needed to travel back to Canaan. Canaan is known as the Promised Land, and it's where the Israelites lived before they were slaves in Egypt. But along the way, they began to grumble and complain. And there was one teensy little problem with just going back home....in the hundreds of years since they'd left Canaan, other people had taken over the land. Cities with big protective walls had been built. The Israelites couldn't just barge in and announce that this was actually their land. So they sent in twelve spies. The Israelites were made up of twelve tribes, so they selected one man from each tribe to go into the Promised Land as a spy and scout things out. Those spies sneaked into the land and looked all around. They saw incredible fruit growing, the grapes were so large they had to carry one bunch on a pole between two men! They called it "a land flowing with milk and honey".

One of the spies, named Caleb, told the people to listen to what Moses had to say. Caleb said, “Let’s go now and take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it.” But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!” (Numbers 13:30-31)

When the rest of the Israelites heard how afraid the spies were they rebelled against Moses and God. To put it simply--they lost their minds! They started totally freaking out! And they refused to even try to go into battle and take back the Promised Land. Remember how I told you that God is always faithful to his people, but sometimes he has to punish them? Well, when you talk back to your parents, and lose your minds, and don't obey....do you get punished? That's how God felt about his children, the Israelites. And he had to punish them. You might get sent to your room or be grounded or something. The Israelites had to wander in the desert for forty years.

Now, God is faithful so he took care of them in the desert. This is when he started providing manna for them to eat, and he made water come out of a rock so they could drink. The Bible tells us that even the soles of their shoes didn't wear out. Yes, God took very good care of them while they were in the wilderness. He didn't leave them on their own, even if he was punishing their disobedience.

And when the time was right, God made a way from them to enter into the Promised Land so they could begin taking it back. This is the story we're going to talk about today. It's been forty years, and even their leader Moses has passed away in the wilderness outside of the Promised Land. A new leader is chosen by God. His name is Joshua, and it's the book of the Bible named for him where we read what happens next.

In the book of Joshua, in chapters 3 & 4, we find that the Israelites are finally ready to go back home. But in order to get there, they must cross the Jordan River. Now rivers can sometimes shrink down and be small, like when it hasn't rained in awhile. But sometimes rivers can swell and overflow the banks, like during a rainy season. And in Joshua 3:15 we read that the Jordan River was in a flood stage. Imagine what it's like when a road gets flooded over and the high water signs get put up. Have you ever driven on a road like that, maybe before the signs are posted? It's a little scary, isnt it? You're not sure your car will make it through the water or if it's too deep. Imagine what it would be like to have to walk through a river that's flooding over its banks. Can you picture the water flowing fast? Can you hear what it sounds like? What it would feel like?

So here the Israelites are finally ready to enter the Promised Land and it looks like they're stopped by water. Again. Only some of the people facing the Jordan River now would've experienced the parting of the Red Sea when they left Egypt as children. Remember, it's been forty years. So many of the people had been born in the wilderness and grown up out there. And some were still just children, like you. But do you think they remembered the story of what God had done in parting the sea? Do you think maybe they hoped he would do something about the water now?

Let's read on and see what kind of faith the people had. Joshua commanded all the priests to travel ahead of everyone else. They were carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Let's pause for a moment to explain what that is. An ark isn't always a big giant boat carrying animals. That was only for Noah. An ark is a vessel--it can be a ship, or it can be a box. It's something which can hold and carry things. And the Ark of the Covenant was a very special chest which held the slabs of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them in God's own handwriting, as well as jars with manna inside. Most importantly, the Ark of the Covenant was where God in the form of the Holy Spirit would settle.It was a very holy, very special chest, and it could only be carried with long poles by the priests. If anyone else even touched it, they would die. So, the Ark of the Covenant was a big deal. No wonder Joshua wanted to have it go first. He wanted to be sure that the Israelites were following God into the Promised Land and not just going into this new journey on their own.

So four priests are carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Let me read to you directly from the Bible. This is Joshua 3:15-17, "...reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground." (Joshua 3:15-17)

Now, let's keep going with Joshua 4:1-7: When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

When the people finished crossing and the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant crossed over into the Promised Land, the water came rushing back and continued flowing like a flood as it had been before! God stopped the water again for his people.

Did you notice that the priests just stepped into the water? They had faith that God was going to act. They trusted his faithfulness. And what do you think about those stones God told Joshua to command the people to gather?

They couldn't just grab a stone from somewhere on the other side of the river, or even just anywhere on the riverbed. God told them to pick up stones from where the priests were standing. These stones were to help the Israelites always remember what God had done for them. The stones were there so their children and grandchildren would ask and want to know why. God was helping the people to remember his faithfulness to them.

Can you think of something most churches have to help us remember God's faithfulness? How about a cross? The cross was where God's ultimate act of faithfulness took place. He allowed his only son, Jesus, to die as payment for our sins. That's a very important thing to remember!

Today, I want you to think about some ways God has been faithful to you and your family. Maybe you've never seen a flooding river be stopped at your toes, but I bet if you try you can think of some other things. And we can always think about and thank God for Jesus and the cross.

Let's pray together.

Treehouse Ep7: Remember Miracles (BFB May 1)

Discussion Questions: 

• How does a miracle show God’s power?
• Why is it important to remember the things God did for people who lived so long ago?
•  Can you tell me about a time when God did a miracle for his people and why that is special to you? Do you think God cares about us the same way today? 
• Why is it important to be faithful? Who has been faithful to you? Are you faithful?
• Does your family have any traditions? 
• Feel free to talk about traditions that don’t seem to have a God-connection, such as the birthday person gets to pick out where they eat dinner, etc.
•  Talk about what each person likes about your special traditions.

All thismonth we're going to be talking about remembering. Specifically, we're going to dig deep into remembering the faithfulness of God. Now, I always try to define words as I use them so we can all try to learn together. Faithfulness is another one of those kinda big, kinda churchy words. We say it a lot, but sometimes we forget to think about what it means.

If someone is faithful that means you can trust them to be there for you and to do what's right. You might have a dog that always waits to greet you when you get off the school bus--that's a kind of faithfulness. You might have a grandmother who always sends you a birthday card with a few dollars in it--that's a kind of faithfulness. Your parents are faithful to take you to soccer practice, and to pick you up again! We see faithfulness all around us everyday in all the ways we consistently do the right thing.

When we talk about God being faithful,we can look at how his love never runs out. He's always ready to forgive us. He's always ready to help us get through something that's really hard or scary. And a lot of times we see God doing miracles that show that he's faithful to take care of his people.

This month we're going to look at a few of those stories with exciting miracles that showed God's people that he was faithful to them. He wasn't going to forget about them, or get bored and go do something else, or give up on them because they kept messing up. God continued to do what was right for his people, even when they didn't do what was right. Now--I will tell you this--God punishes sin. And sometimes bad things happened to God's people either because of their sin, or because of the sin of other people. We live in a world where bad things still happen because there is so much sin in the world. So, God's faithfulness doesn't mean everything is always sunny and easy. Sometimes, I really wish it did. We all wish that from time to time. But it's in the hardest things that God shows up and his faithfulness means the most

Okay, so today we're going to read one of the Psalms. A psalm is like a poem or song written to God. There's a whole book of them in the Bible. It's the biggest book of the Bible, in fact. And a lot of the worship songs we sing have words taken right from the psalms! Also, I don't know why there's a P at the beginning of the word, but you know how that goes sometimes. Silent letters and all that.

So, this is Psalm 77. The beginning of it is kinda sad. Actually, it's very sad. The writer of this psalm is very frustrated and even scared. Do you ever feel frustrated and scared? I definitely do. And it's good to know that even people who wrote the Bible felt that way. Their words tell us  what to do when we feel that way. I'm going to read the first 12 verses. If you want to follow along, pause the podcast for a minute to grab your Bible. We're reading Psalm 77, starting with verses 1-12.

I cried out to God for help;
    I cried out to God to hear me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
    at night I stretched out untiring hands,
    and I would not be comforted.

3 I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
    I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.[b]
4 You kept my eyes from closing;
    I was too troubled to speak.
5 I thought about the former days,
    the years of long ago;
6 I remembered my songs in the night.
    My heart meditated and my spirit asked:

7 “Will the Lord reject forever?
    Will he never show his favor again?
8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
    Has his promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?
    Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
    the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
    yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will consider all your works
    and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Okay, so like I said, this writer is feeling really scared and uncertain. Remember that word we learned a few weeks ago, "unsettled?" I'd say he's definitely feeling unsettled! He's afraid that God is going to stop being faithful to him and his people. That's a really big fear. So what does he decide to do?

In verses 11 & 12, he says, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your words and meditate on all your mighty deeds." He decides to remember everything that God has done. He's going to remind himself of all the ways God has been faithful in the past. All the times God showed up in a big way to take care of his people.

So let's go back to Psalm 77 and see what the writer is thinking about....Picking up at verse 13.

Your ways, God, are holy.
    What god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
    you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
    the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

16 The waters saw you, God,
    the waters saw you and writhed;
    the very depths were convulsed.
17 The clouds poured down water,
    the heavens resounded with thunder;
    your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
    your lightning lit up the world;
    the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea,
    your way through the mighty waters,
    though your footprints were not seen.

20 You led your people like a flock
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Maybe the most important story, the one told over and over and over and over again throughout the Bible is the story of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. If you attended Vacation Bible School at Bloom Baptist Church last year then you spent an entire week learning all about that story. I know because I was the teacher. But in case you didn't, you can find out all about that in the book of Exodus, chapters 5-14. It's a bit of a long story with ten plagues and all this crazy stuff happening that showed God's power to Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and all the Israelites. But the big finale ending happened as the Israelites were finally leaving Egypt. They started to leave Egypt and suddenly the Egyptian army began chasing them. In order to leave Egypt, they had to get past the Red Sea. Moses raised his arms and God parted the waters! And not just a little bit either. There were walls of water on either side, the ground was dry beneath their feet as they left. Thousands of Israelites were able to pass through, but when the Egyptians arrived and tried to follow, the water came crashing down on them. This was a huge, mighty miracle. God kept them safe through each one of the scary plagues, and then brought them safely through the Red Sea away from harm.

Throughout the rest of Exodus and the next several books of the Bible, the Israelites are told to remember again and again. Remember the Lord your God. Remember how he delivered you from Egypt. Remember how he kept you safe. God even told the people to have certain festivals and celebrations every year to remember. He wanted his people to never forget his power and his faithfulness.

When life is frustrating, scary, or unsettling like it was for the writer of Psalm 77, it's really easy to forget everything God has already done. Sometimes it seems like all we can think about is what's happening now, what we don't like or don't understand, or what makes us afraid. God knows that. He knows that we have trouble remembering.....which is why it's commanded so many times and why he gave people traditions to help them remember. Sometimes he even commanded them to create memorials to help them remember. We're going to look at two of those stories in the next two weeks.

Anyway, we have those traditions. Every year at Christmas we remember when Jesus came as a baby. Every year at Easter we remember when he died for our sins and rose again so that we can all have eternal life. Every time someone is baptized we remember that we are all new creations in Christ.

And when we feel worried or afraid, we can remember the miracles of long ago. Think back through your favorite Bible stories. You'll see over and over again how God was faithful to take care of his people even in some really hard times. God is never going to forget about us or get bored or give up!

Our memory verse for this month is Psalm 77:11, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago." As we each work on memorizing this verse, let's also take time to remember the stories of God's faithfulness, and to thank him for being faithful to us now. Look for all the ways God is showing you his faithfulness.

Let's pray together.

The Treehouse Ep06: Trees

You should know by now that the name of this podcast is Bloom Kids Treehouse, and the logo for Bloom Kids has a big ol' tree on it. And a cute fox. The fox is just for fun. The tree, however, was chosen to be a symbol for our ministry.

A symbol is something, usually a picture, that stands for something else. So like McDonald's has the big golden arches, Batman has the Bat Signal, Disney has the big curisve D. You guys see them everywhere and don't even think about it. Well, we wanted a symbol for Bloom Kids, too.

The name Bloom Kids comes from our church, Bloom Baptist, and the church has that name because it's in Bloom township in Ohio. But I really like the word "bloom". It makes me think of flowers and spring time. Have you noticed flowers blooming? Our neighbors have been nice enough to let my kids come in their yards and pick some very beautiful tulips, hyacinths, and bluebells. Our apple tree is all covered in pretty white blossoms. Our lilac tree is getting ready to burst into delicious smelling purple flowers. I love when spring comes and everything blooms.

The Bible often talks about people like we're plants. Sometimes we're like seeds planted in the earth and waiting to see if we grow or if we're duds. Sometime's we're like branches on a vine and are only growing fruit if we stay connected. I mean, have you ever seen a tree branch cut off from a tree grow fruit? Yeah, me neither. And sometimes people are compared to trees.

In Jeremiah chapter 17, the prophet Jeremiah takes a few verses to talk about wisdom from the Lord. Most of the time, Jeremiah had to tell people that they were not listening to God and bad things were going to happen. And most of the time, people didn't believe him or told him to be quiet and go away. But Jeremiah was right. Bad things did happen to God's people because of their disobedience. So, I think we will be wise if we stop and consider his words.

This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,

who rely on human strength

and turn their hearts away from the LORD.

6They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,

with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness,

in an uninhabited salty land.

7“But blessed are those who trust in the LORD

and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.

8They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit.

9“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

10But I, the LORD, search all hearts

and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards,

according to what their actions deserve.”

So let's go back to the beginning of this section here, verse 5. Jeremiah tells us that people who trust completely on human strength and wisdom are cursed. It's not that God is in heaven blasting out curses and lightning strikes on anyone who doesn't listen to him. It's that there is always a consequence to our choices. Always. And if you choose to not obey God and instead do only what you, or your friends, think is right, the result is usually more trouble for yourself. It might seem to make sense to you to do whatever you want, or what makes you feel happy but if God has said that it's sin, then it will hurt you in the long run.

Jeremiah says those people are like stunted shrubs living in the wilderness. Some plants are meant to grow in the desert, like a cactus. But most plants, if they don't have good fresh water to drink up, then they don't grow very well. They stay small and shriveled up, and they eventually just die for lack of water. What do you think a person who is like a stunted shrub is like? Do you think they have a lot of joy and happiness? Do you think God uses them to do really exciting things? Do you think the fun that they do have leads to goodness, or do you think it leads to trouble? We'll ponder that for a minute as we look at the next set of verses.

In verse 7, we read that people who put their trust and confidence in Jesus are blessed. This doesn't mean that bad things never happen to Christians. Bad things happen to everyone. But if your hope and confidence is in Jesus you can still have peace and joy when bad things happen. You can trust that God isn't going to leave you on your own to figure life out. You can have confidence that God will help you, even when life is hard. Someone who doesn't trust in Jesus but only trusts themselves, doesn't have anwyhere to go when life is hard. If they can't figure out what to do or make themselves feel better, then that is it. That's the end of the story. But if you trust in Jesus, you're never on your own.

Jeremiah says that those people are like trees planted by a riverbank with roots that dig down deep in the water. A tree that has a good constant source of water can grow really healthy and strong. If a few weeks or months go by without rain, it's still okay. The roots go down deep where water can still be found, and the tree can stay alive. What do you think a person who is like a tree planted by the river is like? Do you think they have joy? Do you think they have wisdom and a good sense of what to do even when things are hard? Do they get to do exciting things for God?

Let's look at the last part where Jeremiah lays a solid truth-bomb on us. He writes, "the heart is deceitful of all things". To be deceitful means to lie or to trick. Human hearts left on their own are deceitful. They can trick us into doing things that feel good for a minute, but hurt us later on. Sometimes those things are small--like sneaking a cookie before dinner, but then you feel really guilty about it. And sometimes those things can be really big--like lying to your parents or doing things you know you're not allowed to because other kids are telling you to. And the result of that can be really painful. It's really important that we trust Jesus above anything else--even our own hearts!

But let's look at the next verse, "But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

There's actually several Bible verses that tell us that God examines our hearts. You know what an examination is. It's more than just looking. Think about when a doctor examines a patient. They're looking for signs that a person is healthy, or sick. And if a person is sick, they're looking to find out where and why. God is examining our hearts. He sees all the places where our hearts are sick, and where they're healthy and growing. And if we trust in Jesus, he helps our hearts to become healthier and stronger. Our hearts don't have to stay deceitful, sick hearts. Remember we talked about having beastly hearts last week and being made into new creations? As we trust Jesus more and more, and as our relationship with him grows and becomes more and more important to us, our hearts change. We still shouldn't just run off and follow it down some happy trail; we need to still be sure that our hearts are trusting Jesus. But if we have hearts that trust him, God sees that and he rewards us.

Does that reward happen right now? Well, no. Sorry for that bit of bad news. We're used to getting rewarded right away. You take a test, you get a good grade, there's your reward. With God, sometimes we have to wait a long time for the rewards because they're being stored up for us in heaven. And sometimes we have to wait to have God show us the reward. The reward might be sitting right there in front of your face--but you don't see it as a blessing yet. It helps if we pray and ask God to give us eyes to see his rewards and blessings. He doesn't actually give us new eyeballs, but it's like he gives us eyes inside our hearts to see like he does.

So, this brings me back to the beginning. Why did we pick a tree for the Bloom Kids symbol? Because we are praying all the time that you kids will grow up to be strong, healthy trees planted by the riverbank. We want you to be rooted in Jesus. We hope that you'll trust Jesus and put all your confidence in him, even when life is hard, and even when you're tempted to follow your heart down a different path. We want to have a whole forest of kids that have grown up strong in Jesus! Whenever you see the Bloom Kids tree, I want you to remember that people are praying for you, and that you can grow up to be a strong, mighty tree.