SOAP on Mark 2:1-12

By Erin O'Hara

Scripture:

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Observation:

-          “Their” refers to four friends of a paralytic man were not stopped by a full house or blocked doorway.

-          Spurred on by faith, these four men broke open a hole in the ceiling of this house and dropped their friend in need of healing at the feet of Jesus

-          Jesus recognizes a need (the paralytic man) and responds to faith (of the man’s four friends)

-          Jesus extends forgiveness to the man first.

o   We don’t know if the man was paralyzed by fear, unbelief or even if his physical condition was a result of sin in his life. But Jesus first addresses the brokenness of his soul before his broken body.

-          Later in the passage, Jesus gives complete physical healing.

Application:

-          What kind of friend am I?

-          Do I bring my friends, their sins and/or their needs before my Savior?

-          If a door is blocked or life is busy, does my faith spur me to hack through a roof, interrupt a meeting and take my friend to the Source of all answers?

-          I realize that many around me may be living in sin, unbelief or even paralysis – unable to have faith or bring themselves, their needs to the Great Healer.  I can have faith on behalf of those dear to me. I can pray fervently, believe on their behalf, bring them before Jesus and allow Him to respond to MY faith.

Prayer:

Oh Jesus, Healer, Compassionate Savior – Forgive me for the many times I only think of myself. Help me to have big faith for others. May I be challenged to invade a rooftop to bring my loved ones needs to you for complete healing. I believe you are the only One who can heal. Thank you for teaching me, using me and answering me.

Children's Ministry

by Erin O'Hara - Children's Director

From a child’s perspective…

Psalm 119:105 – “Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.”

We celebrated children this past Sunday and the ministries of GCC that bring the light of God’s Word to our children and their families. It is a great blessing and privilege to share God with children and to see God from their perspective. We are called to come to Him as little children. Being around children allows me to remember what it was like to be a child – their view of God is huge, their requests of God are boundless, their love for God is no-strings attached.  It is an amazing sight to see a child “get it” – get a spiritual truth, understand the gospel and take home the faith that we teach.

I want to share the testimony below from the Utley Family. Michael & Tracy Utley have 4 boys – Jack, Charlie, Harry & George.  Enjoy processing the Christian walk from an 8 year olds perspective:

Last night as we drove home from Awana, Harry (age 8) said, "You know it's kind of like Star Wars." I asked, "What do you mean?" He explained, "Well, Pastor R.,  Pastor Mike, Pastor Eric and the other guy, (sorry Pastor Dan) are like Yodas.  We are like Jedis in training. And our Bibles are light sabers." His older brothers quickly reminded, "Well, Harry you are more like a Padawan. And we (the older brothers) are Jedis." 

 Needless to say, it pleases my heart to see and hear how much my boys are enjoying the fellowship of believers at Grace. They are giddy to memorize scripture, are compelled to remember their tithe (or borrow from their older brother) and bring home endearing stories from their Wednesday nights (and Sunday mornings). 

 Thank you for being such a godly influence in the lives of our family! Your service is lovely and well appreciated by the likes of us. 

So take your light saber this week, the Word of God, and use it! And may the Force (the Holy Spirit) be with you!

Children & Worship

Why are there children in the service? Is there a reason the children are in the service during worship and then get dismissed instead of going straight to their classrooms? How come at times children remain in the whole service – isn’t there a place for them?

These are questions I get asked and sometimes ask myself! (Especially in Sunday service when my own son desires to run to the bathroom 3 times in 10 minutes or doesn’t use his “whispering” voice!) In transitioning to my new role as Director Children’s Ministries, I have begun to seek out the answers to these questions for myself – even checking out what other churches do for their children. I can say that I’m thankful and excited that our families get the opportunity to worship TOGETHER! We are blessed to be able to model our worship, to share in praise together, to show our children how to be engaged and at times talk them through the service and talk with them after the service.

This is the first year that Isaac (in Kindergarten) gets the chance to worship with us and sit with us. While it can be challenging, distracting, and at times loud (“Mom, when can I go to Pastor R’s house??”), it is also a beautiful opportunity to disciple Isaac and share the benefits of corporate worship. I have observed children focused on their parents and others as they sing and raise their hands to the Savior. I have seen parents lean down and explain the different aspects of the service or allow their children to put the offering in the plate. I watch moms and dads and grandparents, love on their children by putting an affirming arm around them or enjoying having them close. I have also observed parents doing the hard thing and reinforcing to their children how to be quiet and respectful. For our children to see our passion to worship, our desire to be respectful, reverent and engaged and also to know the importance of being part of a church is a way to biblically disciple your children.

Your excitement or lack thereof translates to your children. If you take each opportunity as the chance to teach, model or just reaffirm your love for them, God will bless your efforts!

Some ideas:

- Make sure your child can “see” what is going on. If you have to, sit closer to the front or allow them to stand in the aisle or on a chair to help them to participate in the singing.

- Encourage your children to worship by giving – remind them to bring their own allowance tithe or give them money to put in the offering.

- Listen for key words or points in the sermon that you can reinforce on your way home or talk with your child about. Ask them to listen for one thing they can tell you about after the service.

For those of you who are not in the specific season of having an active youngster in service, pray for those parents who do and who are investing in their children - it is not the easiest part of the job! Take a fidgety baby to hold or smile at a young child and talk to them after the service. You can be part of raising our children in the Lord and in His church.

Deuteronomy 4:9

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Fall Festival…it’s BACK!

By Erin O'Hara

After a Sabbath rest last year, the Fall Festival at GCC is returning, complete with moon bounce, carnival games, food and fun for the whole family! Sunday, October 30^th, 5-7pm - the Family Life Center will be transformed into a colorful world of people, games, candy and costumes. This ministry event brings joy to my heart!

Joy is a gift we receive from the Lord! In reviewing the context for joy in the Old Testament, it is often surrounded by times of celebration, thanksgiving and offerings to the Lord for the blessing that He imparted to His people. Many times, food and feasts were part of the joyful festivities.

In the fall season, we are reminded of the harvest, the blessing of the Lord’s provision, the richness of His creation and imagery as the leaves turn beautiful colors and the air becomes crisp. As we gather, we have the opportunity to celebrate God’s goodness, His imparted blessing to us. I feel so blessed by my church family and the chance to gather, feast, celebrate and laugh with one another. The relationships that have formed at Grace are a beautiful connection and impartation of God’s blessing to me.

In addition to the celebration of our family, the Fall Festival allows us the chance to multiply God’s joy to us and bless others with it who may not have ever experienced an eternal connection like the family of God. We want to CHALLENGE you to pray for and then invite friends, family, neighbors who would not otherwise step onto a church campus. What an amazing opportunity for them to see and experience the joy of the Lord!

* face painting * scavenger hunt * toss away * moon bounce * portraits * balloon art * cookie decorating * costumes * skits * donut eating * bracelet making * sporting competition * songs *

Staff Devotional - Our Psalms Part Three

Here's another look into our Staff Devotionals led by Erin O'Hara.

Last week at staff devotions, we read and studied Psalm 34. We learned it was an “acrostic psalm” – each line starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Together we worked on our own acrostic psalm:

Above all things, we exalt You, oh God

Behold Your majesty and sovereignty in our lives

Continue to guide and direct us with Your wisdom and love

Deliver me from the deceit of the flesh

End well my heart and life with your wisdom

Find in me a true heart of worship and praise for Your amazing love and grace

God is in charge and all-powerful

He hears our laments and delivers us from our enemies

I will praise Him forever

Just as you are Lord, help me to be the same

Knowing my weaknesses, God gives me opportunity to be strengthened and grow

Leading me and standing beside me, He is my strength when I have none.

My soul is heavy with other’s burdens, may I trust in You, O Lord

Now when I lay down to sleep, may I never doubt you’ll watch these other’s souls

Only when I seek your peace and rest in You will I know that You care for these others.

I will Pray to my God to give us wisdom as we serve the Lord our God together.

Our Quest is to honor you in all we do and say for You alone are our refuge and strength.

We will Rest in your unfailing love and share this with those who come.

Stillness is the result of resting in God’s sovereignty

Tithing is the result of obeying God’s command

Unbelief is what keeps us from taking new ground

Very important; do not try to please the complainers

We cannot get away from You God, we need your Spirit to guide us.

EXamine our motives, our thoughts and actions – may they be pleasing to you

You alone are our Redeemer and Savior, we surrender our lives to You.

Zeal for your Name is on our lips. May the Lord God, Jehovah be praised forever.

Where do you find God?

By Erin O'Hara

Psalm 42:1,2, 7-8

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?...
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.

My family and I have been enjoying a restful vacation at the beach. Over the last week I have so enjoyed watching the ocean – the waves especially soothe my soul and minister so many aspects of my God to me. As we have been dwelling on the beautiful attributes of God I have been so reminded of Him in His magnificent creation.

I see His all-powerful creativeness as I look out over the beach. The sparkles glistening on the water are unlike any manmade creation. The sun reflects on the moving sea and captures millions of diamonds that God put there for me to enjoy. Even at night the moon’s reflection sparkles in the deep and shows me a Father who has given all things for my enjoyment. No jewel can compare to the natural brilliance of His creation.

I feel His omnipotence and omnipresence as I wade out into the ocean - I love to jump the waves! Last week the waves were serene, like a lake – bobbing into shore, relaxing and calm. This week with the swirling hurricane out in the gulf, the waves are potent, threatening and rough. The Spirit has ministered His power to me. I see the ocean as a reflection of Him - multi-faceted, powerful yet in control, beautiful but not safe, at times soothing and calm and at times stripping and all-consuming. I was meditating on the verse above – Psalm 42:7 – “all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” In the threat of the waves breaking, I have had to dive headfirst into many and allow that power to sweep over my body. It is invigorating, cleansing and sometimes very rough. Sea water invades my eyes, ears and mouth and at times I tumble, searching for sure footing. My heart has filled with fear looking at a particular large wave breaking just inches before me, but I am reminded that there is nowhere my God is not. He is beside me, before me and within in. His power is unlike any other – He has shown many times in Scripture and in my life that He controls the literal waves and that He controls the waves in our lives.

My soul thirsts for Him…in His waves is where I have met Him today.

Where do you find God? Seek Him out today and meet Him – He is not hiding!

Time-Out

By Erin O'Hara

“I’m going to eat you, Jonah!”

Those words start a game that Isaac and I have played in the pool this summer. Of course, the theme song to “Jaws” is hummed as well. He shrieks and tries to swim away but with one huge “gulp” the whale (me) says, “Oh Jonah, you taste goooood!”

My little guy calls this “Jonah’s time-out” in the belly of the whale. As his water-wings hold him steady, he lifts his face toward heaven and prays, “Dear God, I’m sorry for disobeying, please let me out! I’ll listen and go to Ninevah!”

After a time, I spit him out with a big, “bllaahhh,” and he responds, “Eww, whale spit-up!” But his determination and obedience come next and he’s off to Ninevah to tell the people about God’s love!

I love to view the Bible through my child’s eyes. Some of the stories in there seem like fairy-tales and can be scary. (Ask me about Isaac’s version of the Tooth Fairy and the Angel of Death!) Reading the Bible stories, acting them out and reassuring our children about the nature of God can be effective and rewarding as they start to understand and apply Biblical truths.

Last month, we were able to take Isaac to the Aquarium. One of the very first things that we saw was the mammoth jaws of the largest fish/whale in the ocean. As you can see from the picture below, a man could very well have been swallowed whole through that mouth! It was neat for Isaac to be able to see that and again be reminded of God’s great power, protection and His grace. It’s the same grace that extends to us all periods of “time-outs” for a second chance.

It’s easy to see the times when our children need a time-out to rethink their attitudes and actions, but what about for me and you? Do we recognize and appreciate “time-outs”? Do we take the opportunity to confess our sins, our selfishness, need for control, temper-tantrums and rebellion? I wonder if Jonah ever “got” it… He had a few time-outs that we read about but after the last one recorded, we don’t know if his heart changed…

Lord, help me not to miss Your ways of discipline and redirection!

Proverbs 3:11-12
My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent His rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.

Pickle Chips

By Erin O'Hara

So my son Isaac loves chips. His Grammy got him hooked on Pringles – Extreme Dill Pickle.  Unfortunately, it’s one of my favorites too. But that’s beside the point. If you’ve ever spent time around Isaac, you will know that chips are one of his favorite snacks…he can sniff them out in your home – beware!   The Easter Bunnies (aka  “Isaac’s grandmas”) both got him a can of pickle-chips for Easter. Each day we ration out some chips for Isaac to have (his mean mommy won’t buy them because she will eat them!) This morning, Isaac asked if he could have a chip at breakfast. I told him “No, we’ll wait and have chips at lunch.”  He wasn’t too happy with my answer, but I reinforced it with, “we can have more with our lunch than just the one right now.”

He went on to play and I cleaned up the kitchen. After some time had passed, Isaac comes bounding into the kitchen trying to divert my attention with overzealous remarks, suggestions about what I should be doing and trying to get me focused on Eva. He then left to go play at his newly built fort in the foyer. When that sequence repeated for the third time…I got suspicious. I followed him (against his will) to see what else was in his fort. Can you guess? The can of Extreme Dill Pickle Pringles…We had a talk about disobedience and the resulting consequence…no pickle-chips for the next two days.

This got me thinking about the sermon this past Sunday. Pastor R was teaching from Colossians 3, specifically pointing out the command in verse 5:  “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”  These are the type of sins that I and others do “in the dark”. We need to sneak around, and we try not to get caught.  Like Isaac, we may try to redirect God’s attention or those around us to somewhere or someone else and away from our sin. And we might get away with it for awhile - like Isaac we may get to stuff in one or two chips. But unlike me, it doesn’t take God long to find out what we’re doing. And there are always consequences to our sin.  

Yet God’s plan always has so much more for us. I love my son. I want to give him good things. I wanted to share pickle-chips with him at lunchtime (more than one or two!). But he didn’t want to wait. How often do I not trust in the love the Father has for me? How often do I run ahead in these types of sins or others because I cannot wait for the full measure of goodness that He has for me?  While we might classify the chip eating much different than the sins listed in Colossians, the bottom line is we are God’s children and our lust, selfishness, impatience and independence is no different than sneaking away with little treat.  Both offenses result in ruining the greater reward God holds for us. 

In the specific area of sexual sins, God wants the very best for us – a fulfilling marriage, a relationship with our spouse that is free from regret, mistrust, guilt, or false expectations. Refuse to believe the “deceptive philosophy” (Colossians 2:8) of our time that is wrapped up in the old Pringles tagline, “Once pop you can’t stop.”    You can stop!   You can die to your sin!   Christ’s death and resurrection gives us the power!  Choose to live in freedom and fullness!

For He (God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Colossians 1:13-14

A life-giving, life-living kind of love…

by Erin O'Hara

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)

Alec Hail shared a testimony within the sermon this past weekend sharing the love relationships between his family and the members of his small group – he mentioned being there the day our children were born. To the side, you’ll see pictures of Alec holding Isaac and Eva. His tie in to the sermon message on The Cross is the verse above - that Christ’s love compels us…to no longer live for ourselves but for Christ who died for us…When we join the family of God, it is that - a family. We are called to lay our lives down for one another just as Christ laid his life down for us. This takes sacrifice, selflessness, time and devotion to others.

David and I have been privileged to be in the Hail “family” for the last 5 years “doing life together.” We’ve eaten together, joked and laughed, gone on trips, served beside one another, taken care of children, made meals, grieved and wept with one another, studied scripture and the nature of God, prayed earnestly for our marriages and shared in community at a deep level with one another – we have laid our lives down for one another. It hasn’t always been easy. There have been times we’ve disagreed with others, were tired, selfish for time alone, unwilling to share our real selves or just busy. But Christ’s love continues to compel us to share in love and live for Him, not ourselves.

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you... And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Colossians 3:12-14 (MSG)

The scripture above was read by Alec at one of our initial small groups and he asked that we adopt it as a goal for our group. In five years time, love has permeated our relationships; we have fallen in love with one another and built lasting relationships. We have incarnated the love of Jesus to one another. It has been a powerful picture of how God shares His grace and love through people and why He calls us to - why His love compels us to be Jesus to one another.