Merry Christmas in July! and we just had Easter yesterday – and Good Friday and summer VBS fun!!!
A blessed week we have been having and celebrating = and all that good stuff!!!
I know that the blessing comes to all, and imagine the blessings to one little sheep – one little child – by the extravagant outpouring of LOVE to them. Imagine it to us!!!
I feel like that sheep too – exhausted but blessed – and one more night tonight.
Last night we enjoyed learning about Jesus and His Sacrifice of our sins – we watched a beautiful portrayal of Jesus going to the cross – and we got light sticks for shining HIS Light… (and the actor portraying Him was beaming ear to ear with a smile that could not be beat)
Jesus loves the little children so much! Jesus got us out of a sticky situation of sin and we made SLIME for the sticky situation in Imagination Station – and watched a demo of a sin snowball styrofoam dissolving in acetone nail polish remover – and we also made our own Northern Lights in water with a touch of hydrogen peroxide and glitter and highlighter markers that oozed out awesome colors.
Well, Merry Christmas in July! July 25th. No the calendar is not messed up – it is a movie reference and celebrated in pockets… And well, honestly we need to remind these kids what happened on Christmas and what happened on Easter. You would be surprised, I always am, that the kids mix up naming those holidays – they really do. We have a LOT to teach – and Jesus has a LOT to share – and VBS is one of the most fun ways to do that…
HOPE – if you need HOPE – TRUST JESUS!!!! Yeah – hope in our future is brightened to know that Jesus is already with these children and the ones to come – and with us too…
If we know in His Victory – we KNOW LIFE – we KNOW HOPE – share that GOOD NEWS!
Please pray for a gentleman named Joe, a friend of a friend. Joe is having eye surgery today (Friday) after an accident. More surgery is ahead as there is a possibility of regaining his sight in the eye. Prayers appreciated! Lord, please heal him!!! Holy Spirit Help!
“When we need help, trust Jesus.” – on day 5 of VBS “True North” brings us to the scriptures where Jesus asks for the advocate to help when He ascends, God sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is fully God, God’s Holy Help for us, always pointing back to Jesus as savior, as model, as teacher, as the Word. All 3 in our heads as one might be the swirling spin of winds and flames coming afresh. That was the disciples too – that first day – they asked “what does this mean?” – they wondered too – they needed Holy Spirit Help – We need Holy Spirit Help. We both work with the Lord and in the Lord. We need the Lord and the Lord, the Holy Spirit, God wants us to build upon the Kingdom by teaching about Jesus’s Good News. If you are in the swirl, keep trusting Jesus!
It’s interesting that we “end the week” for Vacation Bible School talking about the Holy Spirit, because that’s actually how we start: it is the Holy Spirit that gets us moving, whether thinking – whether praying – whether wondering – whether in action. We pray for Holy Spirit Help and Jesus and the Spirit and God reach into our wondering. We talk about the Holy Spirit on day 5 because we know Jesus as a timeline and His coming and fulfilment of scripture as He already was and He already is and He will come again. That is a wonder but TRUST Jesus, we have Him to Help.
When we Wonder, TRUST Jesus.
When we feel alone, TRUST Jesus.
When we feel powerless, TRUST Jesus.
When we need HOPE, TRUST Jesus.
When we need help, TRUST Jesus.
I appreciated this pre-preparing of VBS scriptures for my understanding and our walk – for our day to day living, we NEED Jesus – and He never leaves us alone – we can rely upon the HOLY SPIRIT HELP to bring us back around to the wondering and the TRUSTING. Now we can keep walking IN the wonder – not alone – with His Power – in Hope – and with HOLY SPIRIT HELP.
We have HOLY SPIRIT HELP to LOVE, LIVE, and keep moving!!!
Amen (and Lord – please help those who still need to see You working in their every day lives)
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Matthew 28:16-20 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 2:1-12 The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Debbie Upper 