Happy Thanksgiving! I’m in Houston at Deana’s parents spending time with her family. We’ll be home Saturday. I hope all of you are having a great weekend with family. Here’s what’s going on in our student ministry for the next few weeks.

This week (Nov. 25-Dec. 1)

RAMP Groups (Nov. 25) - Your teen needs to check with his/her RAMP leader to find out what they are doing Sunday night.

Refuge (Nov. 28) - We are having Refuge this Wednesday, Nov. 28. You’re encouraged to join us for the night. Students eat free. Adults pay $2.

Looking ahead

Revolve (Feb. 22-24) - So far, I have 5 students and 4 adults registered for Revolve. I will reserve seats this week, so please let me know Sunday if you and/or your daughter is planning to attend.

What I want

In the movie Bruce Almighty, there’s a scene where Bruce is talking to God. God has given Bruce the job of being God for a short time. Bruce can’t handle all the prayer requests so he simply says yes to everyone’s request. Chaos and pandemonium is the result. In this scene Bruce tells God that he gave everyone what he wanted. God replies, “since when has anyone ever had a clue about what they really wanted?”

That movie scene keeps coming to mind as I consider the text our teens will look at in RAMP groups Sunday night. James 4:1-12 opens with James examining our motives for what we desire and the consequences. He challenges his readers to quit being so selfish. This text is on the heals of his challenge to seek godly wisdom. If you remember, godly wisdom is based on pure motives. It seeks the good of others first. So, in RAMP groups students will look at this text and ask some questions about what they desire and why they desire it. I encourage you to talk with your teen about submitting our desires to God’s desires for us. A couple of questions you could discuss include:

What does it mean to submit our desires to God?

How are we at putting the needs of others in our family before our own?

We have a mysterious God who works in ways beyond our comprehension. I’ve been studying writings such as Ecclesiastes, Job, and Habbakuk the past several days. While written in different times and under different circumstances they have much in common. All of them express the heart of one who acknowledges that we don’t know everything, nor will we or should we understand it all. We’re asked to trust.

Now, we’re being asked to pray for Lawson Phillips, an 8-year-old child whom many of you know. Apparently, he has a growing inoperable brain tumor. This is one of those times where you wish you could do so much more than you are able. This is in God’s hands. Please pray, maybe even fast, on behalf of his family.

Taylor was baptized last night after RAMP groups at 7 PM. What a great ending to a day! I think my favorite Scripture about the life of a believer is in 2 Corinthians where Paul writes:

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconcilitation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

A few things I love about this Scripture:
1. We are made new when we are baptized. This is the language of redemption. The prophets speak of God making all things new, restoring creation, bringing wholeness. This is true of us when we become part of Christ’s body — we are being made new. But we must never forget that this process of being made new will not be completed until the day of his return.

2. Our redemption isn’t based on our efforts, but on God’s will. It’s his gift to us. We just have to receive it.

3. Redemption must come at a high price because the price assigns the value. When Jesus gave up his life suffering the ultimate injustice, he sealed the deal. He set the price for our redemption. Our redemption was paid. It’s like in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The White Witch said that a price must be paid for Edmond’s betrayal, so Aslan offered himself to free Edmond. That’s the picture of what Jesus has done for us.

4. Reconciliation is about broken relationships being restored. Our sin separates us from God. It creates a brokenness in relationships with God, one another and his creation. We see the effects all around us every day. The fact the we talk about global warming, pollution, crime, divorce, and abuse reveal that sin has broken relationships in every way possible. But God, through Christ, has restored those relationships. This is a work in progress. Scripture points us to a day when all relationships will be completely reconciled. We look forward to that day!

5. He has commissioned us to be people who work to bringing reconciliation. Because he has restored our relationship, he calls us to be agents of reconciliation. Our lives should promote healing, not help lead to further brokenness. This should move us to act in many different ways. We should be people who help others, act responsibly with the creation God has entrusted to us, strive to bring unity to the body of Christ, share the Gospel with others.

These are just some things I thought about last night and this morning. I praise God for Taylor’s decision. I pray also for those who have yet to choose to become part of the body of Christ and join us in this ministry of reconciliation.

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever” - Westminster Catechism #1

I’ve been thinking this week about what it means to glorify God. In Scripture, the word glory seems to refer to the essence of God, his nature. For example, Moses could only catch a small glimpse of God’s glory because if the Lord revealed his glory to Moses completely it would be too much.

God’s glory was represented by fire and smoke as he guided the Israelites out of Egypt. His glory filled the tabernacle. In fact, Moses’ face shone so brightly after entering the tabernacle he had to wear a veil because the people couldn’t handle it. God’s glory was too much.

I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ words as well. Jesus said that he had brought glory to God by doing everything God asked him to do. Rather than a cloud or fire or wind, God chose to reveal his essence through ther person of Christ.

God seems to continue to reveal his essence through Christ-followers. Paul emphasizes this point in 1 Corinthians 10:31 when he writes:

“Whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.”

Or when he writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”

When people ask me to describe my wife, I share the great things about her. My desire is to elevate others’ perceptions of her. I demonstrate my love for her in this way. This, in essence, is what Christ-followers should be doing. Our lives should help elevate others’ perception of God. I bring God glory when I seek to do his will and help others gain a better picture of God.

So, I’m asking myself the following questions this week:
1. In what ways does my life help others better understand God?
2. What do I need to change in my life to help others better understand God?
3. What needs to happen in the community of faith for those who don’t know Christ to gain am understanding of who God is?