tossed to and fro...

since i have not followed through with blogging all of my thoughts from the children desiring god conference, i will just post links to some of my favorite content. this talk by dr. russell moore was rocked and inspired me. i highly recommend watching it or going to the children desiring god site and scrolling down to find the audio.


Russell Moore: No Longer Tossed To and Fro from Children Desiring God on Vimeo.

children desiring god [part one]...

some of our kidstuff staff team and volunteers are currently at the children desiring god conference in minneapolis - and let me tell you, it is cold here - we left 75 degrees in texas today to come to 30 degrees in minneapolis, but i digress. back to the conference.

the theme of this year's conference is "holding fast to the word of truth." tonight, they kicked off the first session with dr. john piper.  piper reminded all of us the importance of teaching our kids the truth, that there is absolute truth and that god is the only one who determines that truth.. he pointed out that those who do not know and stand on truth will perish. the bible says we are saved by grace through faith and faith by definition is a perception of truth that we are willing to lay down our lives for. if there is no absolute truth, then there is no faith.

in a time when all truth is "relative," one of the best gifts and blessings we can give our children is to teach the truth (the bible) in such a way that portrays god's glory.  so how can we get kids to believe this truth? how do we train them to know that the bible is truth and the bible pertains to all of life and reality? we have to teach the entire bible, cling to what jesus said and teach the children the gospel. and at the same time we have to pray and pray and pray.  we have to pray for the spirit to open their eyes and reveal to them the glory of this truth. otherwise it will always appear foolish to them. so we teach and we pray.

this means we have to trust the lord. i think this is why so much children's curriculum out there is moral based or behavior based.  we fear not being able to control the spiritual outcome of our children's lives and so we desperately try to change their behavior. and sadly it often appears to work for our compliant children, but later in life we see no fruit. that is because their behavior was changed, but not their heart. we need to pray that the holy spirit would change these little ones hearts and we need teach the bible in such a way that every time we teach could be a time the spirit uses to open the eyes of another child. we much teach jesus, the truth, and our need for it in every story we teach.   so portray the bible in simple stories with this prayer, “oh god do this miracle. reveal to them your glory!” and if and when this happens it will have far more significance than compliance to mommy and daddy’s rules.

conclusion for me: i think we do well teaching, but i have got to be praying more for these little ones. my time in prayer for them verses my time spent programming, reveals what my heart believes about who is saving them. ouch.

i am sure dr. piper's message from tonight will soon be posted on desiringgod.org. you should check it out.

violent bible stories...

i have had many people ask me how do we teach around violence in the bible?  how do we handle it with the kiddos? 

personally, i think we need to proactive in teaching our kids some of these things.  sure there are certain details and stories to avoid.  i do not think it is best to explain all of the gory details of battles or sexual sin your 3 or 4 year old. we are not trying to terrify them. but i do think that we need to prayerfully consider how we can prepare our kids rather than shelter them. (prayer being a key part to that, since every child is different)

we live in a violent and dark world and if we work too hard to shelter our kids from this, especially in the bible, then they are not going to know of the almighty, powerful god. they may know a loving god, but they will not know the god who can save them from the darkness and sin in this world. and they need to know both because our savior is both. my goal is that when a child faces a scary or ugly situation either now or later, that they will know that they have a god who has been defeating these kinds of situations from the beginning of time. a god who will never leave them or forsake them. a god who fights for his name and his children and is more powerful than the scariest thing we can imagine.

don't get me wrong, this is hard. trust me. it is much easier to water it down and make it cute and safe. but since when has our god been cute and safe?  it takes much prayer and proactive thinking, but the good news is that that same god lives and dwells in us, his spirit guiding and leading us.

for the sake of those looking to us for direction...

seeds family worship cd's....

a few months back we came across these famiy worship cd's.  they are songs that are straight scripture.  they are fun and you know if i can stand them, they are not too cheesy.  they are catchy and most importantly they help you and your kids learn scripture and know god. so check'em out.  anyone else have any family worship cd's that you like?

35/36 of our 100 people...

last year the lord started an initiative in our church to send 100 people to unreached people groups across the world.  you can check out all the info here: 100peoplenetwork.org. it has truly been amazing to see god call his people up to out of the crowd to go and how he has called many others to support and mobilize!  seriously, this has been awesome!

[in fact if you want to text "people" to 50555 right now, you can give $10 to the 100 people network goers. easy as pie!]

there is lots of information and more videos at 100peoplenetwork.org. i encourage you to check it out and see all that god is doing.  we are called to take the gospel to the nations, perhaps on this site you will find that this is how he is calling you to go therefore...

this is a video of number 35/36 that will be going in the future. and they happen to friends of mine.  check it out. its worth the 20 minutes. it is eye opening for sure.


#35 and #36 of 100 from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.
A couple from The Austin Stone explains how God is calling them to go...

It's finally here...

As you may or may not have noticed, there has been a lack of blogging lately. Well that is because we have been getting ready for the launch of our new site. This is something that has been in the works and in our dreams for almost 3 years!!' Our church is opening a second campus officially in 11 days!! This new site is smaller than our Austin High Campus but it will be ours!

Half of the building is our church. The other half is a non-profit center that will house 4 non-profits that we have specifically chosen to help renew and restore the city, specifically the neighborhood we are located in. Our church wants to help the under resourced by providing what they need to grow. For example, there will be GED and parenting classes held by these non-profits in our building. It is all very exciting!

I am blessed to be a part of the core team at this campus. I will get to oversee all of the Children's ministry on Sunday here. You can see our hallway picture below. It's almost completely finished!

 The next few weeks and months will be really exciting and cool to see all that happens. Our prayer is that God uses this building to change, renew, and redeem His city! May You kingdom come!

fx...week one...how great is our god!!!

so today was our first sunday of fx and it went well... INCREDIBLE! i mean production and program ran smoothly, but something way bigger was happening in that room. you could feel it! i had goosebumps and tears in my eyes many times as i watched kids dance with joy in the aisles and parents jump and do motions to songs with their kids. kids and parents raised their voices to the king together today and his name was lifted high!!

our bottom line today was, "when we think we know better than God, we reject him as king." we talked about how Israel so desired a king because they did not think God was enough and then we talked about how when saul did not wait for samuel (and the lord and his timing) he thought he knew better than god. next week, we will talk about king david, and then on to jesus as king. our hope is to build to the climax about what it looks like to live as a part fo god's kingdom.

thank you for your prayers! please keep praying for families, in our church or yours. one of the coolest moments for me today was when we were singing God of this City together. how cool for parents and leaders to be singing that with and over the kids. as we were singing “greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city,” it hit me. these kids, this next generation will be the ones that these greater things will be done through. these kids are part of the future of a redeemed and renewed austin, and we are getting to sing about it now!!! can’t wait to see what these guys are like in 10 years!

please pray for parents this week, even right now that they will continue to talk about what they learned today. that they will apply it to their family's lives. pray that the Lord surrounds them with his word and truth so much that they cannot help but talk about it! pray against feelings of inadequacy or defeat! the enemy would want nothing more than for parents to feel that they are no good at discipling their kids so that will quit. or to feel so uncomfortable that they give up. pray that God will ignite something in these families these next few weeks!!

and if you are in austin, come join us for fx!! you don't want to miss what God is doing!

the family experience...a catalyst

for those of you not in austin, you may not have heard, but for the next four sundays at church, we are having a family worship service called KidStuff FX. this has been a long time in the making and we are excited!! sure there is a huge castle in our foyer, some characters and lots of bright colorful shirts running around, but our excitement for fx is bigger than that. i am excited for parents to see exactly what we do in kidstuff so they can know what in the world their kids are talking about, but that still is not the driving force. i am more excited about the possibility of creating an environment where the family can encounter christ together. i recently returned from a mission trip to the dominican republic. i led a team of 2 families with elementary school kids. one of my favorite things about the trip was seeing the family serve together, struggle together and spur one another on. the bonds built on that trip between the families run deep! i am actually a little jealous of it, and wish my family had the opportunity to do the same. conversations happened that would not have otherwise. parents got to coach their kids through teachable moments, discuss highs and lows and even REAP through scripture together. it was incredible!

the longer i do children’s ministry, the more i want to foster situations like this. that is what we are most excited about for fx. the whole family can come together to worship. they can sing songs of praise to God together (and even talk more about what they mean afterward). How cool for kids to see their parents worship and vice versa! What an incredible opportunity they have to use that to teach them more about how and why we worship. they will also get to enter into the kids world and see the skits they talk about each week. This might help some things make sense! And then they all get to enter into a Bible story time that everyone understands. And how great to be able to talk about that for the rest of the week. Imagine families later talking more about their favorite part of the skit with thier kids, or the hardest part of the Bible story. Or even being able to hold each other accountable for what they have learned and apply the scripture. oh I get excited just thinking about it!

my prayer is that during these next four weeks of fx, the Lord will change some families lives for eternity! that a culture to discuss and experience spiritual things will be created or enhanced in each family. that fx will be a catalyst for families on mission. a family that worships together becomes a family that lives on mission together. can you imagine the future of the church if your kids start thinking and living missionally in elementary school? greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city…

please join me in praying for fx and in fighting for our families!! we will be doing fx, july 26th, august 2nd, august 9th, and august 16th.

more info can be found on our website as well! here is a video we made for church a few weeks ago about fx:

KidStuff FX from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

dominican republic trip take 2...

as many of you know, i got to go to the domincan republic on january. i not only got to serve, but i was also there for the purpose of scouting out for a trip this summer. july 3-11, I get the great opportunity to lead a trip of 3 families and their elementary school age kids on a mission trip. we are going to to partner with an organization called makarios. though this is not my first international trip to lead, it is my first trip to lead with kids on it.

i am super excited about this trip for many reasons. i am excited to be used by God to love on kids in the dominican republic (I will explain more about what we will be doing later in the blog). i am also excited about providing an opportunity for families to serve together on mission. i love the idea of parents getting to talk to their child about all they have experienced together as they have taken the gospel to the nations. we can all attest to the deep bonds that are formed with people you go on a mission trip with, how cool for those bonds to be within a family. thirdly, I am excited for the kids to be exposed to a completely different culture so that their eyes may be opened. i am also excited for them to be used at such a young age to share the gospel. lastly, I am excited for the kids that are in our ministry but are staying behind. they get to help pray for and support their friends that are going on a mission trip overseas. i am hoping that this opens their eyes to how God can use them at even their young age to tell people about Jesus. hopefully this will fight the tendency to wait until they are older.

we are embarking on this journey, July 3-11 and would LOVE your prayers for our trip. please be praying for lives to be changed. while on this trip, we will be putting on a bible camp for some elementary age kids. One of the many things makarios does is teach a bible class. this summer while we are there,

they will graduate from their class and we will be helping with their graduation celebration with their family. i am really excited to see our kids get in and serve alongside the dominican kids. Please be praying for our time there. For more information on whatelse makarios does, please check out the website www.makariosinternational.org.

personally, i am a bit nervous about taking kids on an international trip. please pray for safe travel with these little ones. secondly please be praying that the lord will give me vision for what family trips may look like in the future, as this is the first trip of this sorts that our church is taking. and lastly, please be praying for my health. my diabetes should not present a problem, but it could. pray that all of my medical supplies will make it and not be lost with luggage and that my pump works as it should while we are there.

if you would also like to help support our team financially, we are still in need of funds. each person on the team has to raise $1500 (including the kids). our team will need to raise $16,500. we are having garage sales and other fundraisers to help curb the cost. but if the Lord has laid this trip on your heart and you have the means, please consider supporting us financially. i am confident that the Lord will provide what i need, but any excess that i receive will support the families going on the trip as well.

Please make checks out to Makarios. To help us comply with IRS regulations, please do not write anything in the memo space on the check.

PLEASE SEND ALL FORMS/CHECKS TO:

Makarios 3267 Bee Caves Rd. Suite 107-71 Austin, TX 78746

Thank you for your prayers! I will send out more updates as the trip approaches and I will post about it here as well.

another cool kidstuff moment...

I got an email from my friend Cara today about some kids that she brings to church each week. Cara is a partner at our church who works for the Texas Baptist Children’s home. She works with some kids, who are not in the home, but who live in government subsidized housing. She does an after school program with them and about 2 years ago started bringing them to church. We have seen a huge difference in so many of the kids. (see other blog posts) None of these kids come from a home that loves Jesus, but his capturing their hearts and they are being transformed. Here is an excerpt from Cara about the kids:

"when I have the kids in the van we listen to KLove and any time “Mighty to Save” or “God of this City” comes on they want me to turn it up really loud and they know all the words! I cannot even begin to express the joy I feel every time I hear these kids sing things like “Savior, He can move the mountains. Our God is Mighty to save…”."

We sing these songs in KidStuff all the time and we spend time explaining them to the kids. it is so cool to see some fruit!

here is another excerpt about one of the kids cara brings, this one was an email to cara from this kid's small group leader at church.

"The last few months I have literally seen a night and day difference in Brandon's behavior in kidstuff (as compared to last fall). He's polite, raises his hand to talk or ask a question, does what we ask of him (usually the first time!), and has actually been participating in group discussions. He seems to feel a lot more comfortable around the other boys in the class.

This month we studied what it means to be steadfast, and how we ought to stand up for what it right. Today, for instance, we talked about Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church. I'm not sure what question provoked this answer, but Brandon raised his hand and said "When I move to my dad's in Houston, there are people there that haven't even heard of God. I could tell them about Him". My jaw practically dropped to the floor, I was amazed to say the least. God is clearly at work in Brandon's heart, and I know I speak for the other kidstuff leaders when I say that we are all so excited for the work God is doing in his life!"

our god is mighty to save! and he is changing this next generation! what if they get it now, rather than later. what if they begin changing their world now, rather than when they are in college. i can't wait to see what the lord does!!

forgiveness...

so this past sunday, i had one of those moments where i remember why i love my job so much and i why i am so blessed to have it. i hope that my words here accurately convey my joy!

so there are two little guys that come to my area each sunday. they have been known for having trouble obeying and pushing all the limits and causing quite a ruckus. we have been working hard to try and help them. we have talked to their dad multiple times and we are now even trying some positive reinforcement for them. but this sunday, the older one, he is in the third grade, was out to push all boundaries no matter what!! (for his sake i will not use his real name, but instead will call him peter) within 20 minutes of being there, peter had disobeyed his leader multiple times and even hit his brother because he thought it was funny. so during our kids worship time, i decided he would be my buddy and i would sit with him to help. i stood right next to him and danced and sang with him. it did not take him long to start trying to push the boundaries again. he wanted to mess with others while they were worshiping. he wanted to lay on the ground and roll around rather than sing. after asking him many times and even helping him stand up, peter still refused and even threw a couple punches at me (luckily he only weighs like 40 pounds). so i told him to come outside with me since he could not obey. he refused and tried to create a scene, so i just picked him up and carried him out into the hall to sit with me and the police officer.

after we got in the hall, he was so mad and just wanted to go back in. i told him we had to sit in time out for a bit and he only got angrier and angrier. he even said a few inappropriate things to me and continued to try and hit me. i was having to hold him at one point to keep him from running off, at which point he started to lick me. (never had a kid do that before, but i was just thankful that he was not biting me) i finally paged his dad out of service and he came and sat with peter and i. he told peter that he needed to apologize, but peter refused. he even said, "i don't feel sorry so i'm not going to say sorry." we had this conversation multiple times, but he refused and would not budge.

so we sat on the bench for awhile and then the lord brought something to mind. i looked at peter and i asked him if he knew about forgiveness. he looked at me, still very angry. i proceeded to tell him that forgiveness has two parts. one where the person who did wrong apologizes or repents and is sorry for what they did. the second part is that the other person forgets and gives them a new start. i told him that no matter what happened that day, when he came to kidstuff next week, i was going to give him a fresh start. i was not going to talk about this week, i was not going to hold it over his head, and in fact i would act as if it never happened.

he looked at me and told me he was getting calmer, but still did not want to apologize. we sat there in silence for a few minutes and then the lord brought this to my mind. so i looked at peter again and said, "peter, you know who else forgives us?" no answer. and i said, "jesus. he forgives us completely and gives us a fresh start. he doesn't hold our mess ups over our head. no matter how much we mess up, he keeps forgiving us. that is how much he loves us."

at this point, the other kids are coming out of worship and going back up to their classroom. peter asks me if we can go outside and talk since it is now so loud and everyone is walking by. so we went outside, he sat next to me and said this, "i'm sorry for disobeying you. i am sorry for hitting you and i am sorry for licking you." then i gave him a hug and a high five and let him rejoin his class. he skipped back to catch up with his leader who welcomed him right back in the group.

as his dad and i were walking back inside, he said to me, "i know you guys probably dread seeing me and my boys come each week. i am so sorry that they cause so many problems." i then cut him off and told him that i don't feel that way and that if i ever did, that would be sin on my part because the whole point of my job is to love on kids and point them to jesus and if i am not doing that because it is inconvenient, then i am failing. if me and my volunteers are not loving on these kids, supporting their families and fighting for them, then why are we here. i told him with tears in my eyes, that it is my privilege to get to talk to kids about jesus, even when it is tough. i told him that i pray for his boys and that my leaders do too. and i that i was sorry that i could not give him practical advice, but that i could assure him that we were fighting for them. at this, he also began to tear up. it was a sweet sweet moment.

the lord used this to also show me that we act like peter all the time. we push the limits, think our sin is no big deal, we fight back, we even may get mad at him and kick, scream, or even "lick." then we are embarrassed when our sin gets exposed or called out and we want to just escape rather than deal with it. but then jesus' love arrests us and attacks us and we still resist because to give in would be humiliating. but he is patient and persistent and his love is so enticing and we know it is so satisfying. so we finally give in and repent and then we feel free!! we are free to skip! we are loved as we are and our debt has been paid! how quick we are to forget what jesus has done for us. what price he paid for us.

one more cool thing. remember how i said that the cop was sitting out there with us. well after it was all said and done, i was walking past him and he stopped me. he wanted to know how i could be so patient and love on a kid like that. i jokingly said that i have to pray for patience. as i walked off and was laughing about how crazy kids are, i then turned back to him to say, "and that is because that is how i am loved. and when i remember that, it makes it a little easier to love others like that." i hope that he got a glimpse of the gospel that day. who knows. all i know, is that night, while i was at worship and we were singing about how good god is, i wept. and wept and wept and wept. so thankful for his faithfulness! so thankful that i get to be a vessel to point kids to christ and make disciples of this next generation. that, my friends, is why i have the best job ever! thanks for reading through this forever long post!

obedience...

we have been studying about obedience with the kids this month. it actually has been pretty convicting for me. i may post some of my other observations on here too if i have time. but this week we are teaching the kids about genesis 3 and the fall. The first act of disobedience. Here is the email i sent my volunteers. it is what the lord taught me as i studied this familiar passage this week.

Bible Story: Adam and Eve disobey; Genesis 3:1-24

Bottom Line: It's right to listen to God because He is GOD.

There is a lot to glean from this familiar passage, but because you all do not want to read a book, I am only going to dwell on one that applies to this week’s lesson. The enemy told Adam and Eve the ultimate lie that we all still buy into, “You don’t have enough.” He made Eve discontent with all the trees that she was permitted to eat from and she was only focusing her desire on this one tree. And many times we can take a felt desire and some how make it into such a big deal, we then believe that we must have it! Oh how we can justify sin! This lie worked for her, because somewhere she quit trusting that God was enough and that He knew enough. There are many times that God tells us to do something and we can clearly see why. There are other times He tells us to do something and we cannot see why and we may never know why, but we are called to obey regardless. That is our bottom line, “Listen to God because he is God.” Each month we study a virtue that teaches us about the nature of God, every one of those virtues could be used to build a case as to why we can trust God. He is good and we can list off a million reasons why, yet our sinful nature still wants to be in charge. We like the control so we think we know best. Or we still think that we do not have enough, so we deserve something else (like more knowledge). Did Adam and Eve gain what was promised by the serpent? They sure did, only they didn’t need it. Their lives were much better before. So much for thinking that control and getting more of what you want leads to a better life. What a convicting lesson!

Take time and pray and confess. What areas of your life are you seeking to be in control or what areas are you seemingly in control of? (hint hint: they usually are the areas of your life that produce the most anxiety and entitlement in your life) Take time to confess that to the Lord. Confess that you are prideful and trust yourself and creation to provide what you need, rather than the Creator. Confess that you are trying to control situations to get your desired outcome your selfish desires. Pray and confess your dependence on the Lord. Cry out to Him that you need him to function, even though you consistently try and do it alone.

Pray for your kids. Pray that they too will see where they try and be in control or where they think they need more and do not have enough, even though the Creator of the universe is faithful and provides all we need! What if they learn at this young age to quit buying into that lie and to trust that the Lord is enough????

children desiring god conference...

last week john and erin and i went to children desiring god in minneapolis, minnesota. here are some quotes from the conference, we learned much more than this, but here are the highlights. we all live blogged on a twitter. you can follow me on twitter twitter.com/beccalarae. i also included a little surprise for you at the end. our rental car was pretty sweet!!

john piper: the cross was simultaneously self-sacrificing and self-exhalting. the cross is god-centered not man-centered. 2 cor 5:15

piper: most people have trouble with a god-centered god because they grew up with a self-esteem based children's ministry.

david paul tripp: what kind of messiah do you want? one that gives you what you want or one that saves and redeems you?

tripp: there will be tough moments in life when you cry out for god's grace & you are already getting it. its the grace of refinement.

tripp: we've got to teach our kids they don't write their life story. their's is part of the great redemption story & they'll never hold the pen.

the amount of time you spend praying is a good indicator of how much you see your need for the lord.

a new idea that came out of the conference: a kidstuff series on the authority of the word. if they don't believe in its authority why study it, know it, or obey it.

don't be jealous of our grand marquis! we rode with class and we could have parked in the handicap spot without anyone thinking twice about it.

he is risen, he is risen indeed!!!

the video below is full of cardboard testimonies from people in our church. real people being redeemed. powerful!!



Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

You can say a lot on a piece of cardboard. People from The Austin Stone share the story of God's redemptive work in their lives. (Music by the Iversons: http://bit.ly/F1kiw)


and if you have a chance you should listen to the sermon. "the christ follower defined".

easter video...

we showed this video to the kids yesterday at church. it is simple, yet pretty powerful. it was made by one of the dad's in our church and his daughter is the voice over. enjoy!

don't miss out...

we have been teaching our kids about about determination this month. this is what we are teaching them this coming sunday. i was so convicted/challenged/encouraged by it, that i wanted to share it with you. this is part of the email i sent out to my volunteers in preparation for sunday.

determination - setting your mind to do what god has asked you to do.

bible story: desert blues (40 years in the wilderness) • numbers 14:1-39
bottom line: keep doing what you should do so you don’t miss something really good.

this is a familiar passage of scripture. in fact i am pretty sure we studied this not too long ago. but it still has lots to teach us. i really want to encourage you to read through this and study it for yourself before you think about what we are teaching the kids. joshua, caleb and the other spies have come back to report about the land that god has promised them. all the spies, with the exception of joshua and caleb report back that the people are too big and that this feat will surely be impossible. all of the israelites wept at this news that night. they lost hope. moses, aaron, joshua, and caleb all called out to the israelites to put their trust in the lord. they plead with them to obey the lord and to not be afraid, but all the israelites did was threaten their lives. then the glory of the lord appears. i’m sorry, did you catch that?!?!? read numbers 14:10. everyone saw his glory there. you’d think that would inspire some confidence, but nope. nothing. the lord is pretty angry and even thinks about striking them all with a plague. but moses intervenes and asks that the lord spare them. (i am pretty sure if people were threatening my life, i would have let the lord just take them. start with a clean slate, you know what i mean. clearly moses is a better leader than me and truly cares for his flock more than he cares for himself. a great leader.)

so the lord does spare them, but he does not just let it slide. he rips into the israelites for their disobedience. he disciplines them for their disobedience. he repeatedly tells them that they will die and suffer as a consequence and that this suffering is not short lived, but will essentially be for the rest of their lives. wow! does this seem a little harsh? perhaps, but he is punishing more than just a mere act of disobedience; he is disciplining them for their lack of trust in Him. they are trusting in themselves. he wants to rid them of this idol, so (like jeff preached about) he breaks them for their good. they are greatly saddened by this discipline and they admit that they have sinned, but then they try to fix things in their own strength (keep reading the rest of chapter 14). They trust in themselves again. they think they have some control. moses warns them, but they do not listen and they are or course defeated.

wow! so what do we have to learn from this? if your trust is in anything other than jesus, you won’t make it. the lord loves you so much that he will discipline you, even severely and for a long period of time, to sever you from all things you trust in. over the next 40 years of wondering, the israelites had the opportunity to trust the lord as they lived only by the bread and water he provided daily. and just to clarify, this godly discipline was not removed by the grace that came when jesus died on the cross. god’s unbearable wrath was removed by grace, but godly corrective discipline like this is still how god works.

so as we teach the kids the bottom line, i want to make sure that we hit on a few things. we will miss out on something good if we do not do what god asks, but more than a reward (such as the promised land), we miss out on living a life that trusts in him and is not enslaved to things here on this earth. god will discipline us and even withhold something good to teach us to love him more. don’t be afraid to tell the kids that there are consequences for disobeying god. but be sure and tell them that when we disobey him, it is usually a sign that we love something or trust something more than him. and he wants to remove all of those things from our lives, so he will discipline us (hebrews 12). if we find ourselves having trouble enduring or obeying, we should really be looking to see what it is that we love/trust more than god. sorry for the mini sermon, but this is a great opportunity to allow the spirit to expose what we and the kids trust in more than him.

greater things are yet to come...

So, remember Devin, we kindly refer to him as Big Devin. He is one of the kids that my friend Cara brings in from a low income housing project in Round Rock. Anyway, before you read this post, you should read the previous post on him that I wrote.

Well this Sunday, before the 9:30 service I was up running the check-in table. Devin came by to see me. He had just got back from our church's youth retreat (Big Dev is in 6th grade now). I asked him how it went and he said it was good and he had fun. I could tell he wanted to tell me something but couldn't get it out. I kept asking about the retreat and finally he blurted out, "I accepted Christ this weekend." I was FREAKING out inside! I hugged him, probably multiple times, I can't remember. I asked him what spurred this on. He said he was tired of messing up and doing bad things and he realized he needed Christ. He then said he had to go to TeenRock, so he left. I was totally tearing up. I am so excited! God is doing great things and only greater things are yet to come!

one of the many reasons i have the greatest job ever...

We have a group of kids that come to our 11:15 service each week that are from a government housing project here in Austin. They are part of an after school program called Hope. One of the leaders in this program (Cara) decided to start bringing any kids that want to come with her to church each Sunday. They are definitely a rougher crowd of kids, but the change in them is becoming more and more evident. The following story is just an example. One of the 5^th grade boys has been coming since some time last fall. His name is Devon. Devon is a leader, all the little boys that come with him, want to be Devon. Devon’s leadership was negative. He was very disrespectful and derogatory towards women. He never wanted to participate unless it was on his terms. We had begun to notice some changes in Devon’s behavior this past January. He was recognized for his positive leadership in his after school program, and that was only the beginning. One Sunday, during our children’s large group worship time, we saw Devon actually worshipping. He had his arm around one of our skit team members and they were worshipping together. This was huge, Devon rarely participates in worship. And because he was worshipping, several of the other boys wanted to worship too!

But it gets even better, one Sunday after church, Devon was helping Cara (the leader for their program that brings them to church) get all the kids lined up and in the van to go home. They were all getting a snack as they got in the van. Just simple things like packets of crackers, goldfish, cracker jacks, etc. A little second grade girl, named Destiny, really wanted a pack of goldfish, but there were not any left. Devon saw that she wanted goldfish and said, “Miss Cara, Destiny can have my goldfish. I already opened them and I ate one, but she can have them if she wants.” Cara complemented Devon on his kindness to Destiny. Devon then replied, “Miss Cara, it is because they are teaching us about kindness at church. They said we should be kind to others, even if they have not done anything to deserve our kindness.” Cara again, praised Devon for putting into action what he had learned. And he said, “Wait miss Cara, they said that we should be kind to others because that is what Jesus did for us. He was kind to us even though we keep messing up and don’t deserve it.” I cried! The Lord is doing a work in him. What if Devon comes to know the Lord? He is such a leader, I can’t help but think of the impact the Lord could use him to have for all the kids that want to be him. And if we have noticed such a drastic change in Devon, you know his parents have. What if they came to know the Lord through this? It is so exciting to see God moving in the next generation!! Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.