The Camel and the Eye Hole

I love teaching children!

Ok, so I just love teaching in general, but I REALLY love teaching children.  There is an open-ness of their hearts that is unparalleled in any other age group.  It's what I always imagine Jesus was thinking when he told us that we need to receive the Kingdom of God like a child.

It is also fitting that tonight, when I noticed this difference between adults and children so profoundly, we learned about the Rich Young Ruler, which is the very next story in the book of Luke.

God had tonight's plans already completed, but hadn't shared them with me.  In fact, I started my night with the kids frantically thinking and searching.  But like I said, God had it all taken care of.

We began the evening with our normal routine of reviewing the story video and practicing the Bible Verse and The Point, then went to snack.  I had found a 'game' outline online to try and got it ready, but I was concerned about how it would work out.

The idea behind this game was to have one child 'purchase' various boxes with labels attached, then put them in a backpack and try to get through a tiny space while wearing the backpack, illustrating the Camel and Needle concept.  Well, I didn't have play money AND I wanted to involve all the kids AND I didn't want to wrap all those boxes, so I switched it up a little -

I have 'Tribes' in my class - my group is divided into 4 tribes, each with a tribe leader.  The tribes are small groups.  They always stay the same, and the leaders (older students) are encouraged to get to know more about the kids and really bond with them.  So, each tribe came back from snack to find 5 gold coins in their space. (I use these coins in a variety of ways - they are common items for us)  They were instructed to work as a group to choose 5 items from the room that they would like to purchase or take home with them.  I was concerned about what they would choose and whether it would fill my backpack enough.

I shouldn't have worried.

God took over at this point.

The first item brought to the front of the class was the new 5ft. wooden cross.  The second item was the green butterfly chair.  The third item was our 4ft carnival tiger.  It was going to work out just fine.....  :)

We filled the backpack to the point of barely zipping, then the kids took turns putting it on and attempting to crawl under the chair I was sitting in.  (Actually, my daughter and I were BOTH in the chair to keep it on the floor as they struggled to get through!)

 There were some close calls - two children almost made it through - determined little stinkers!  LOL

But my favorite part was when a girl made the connection to the story before I ever went there through our talk time!  She was so excited about the connection when she got it!

We settled back down and I emptied the backpack and asked if they thought they could put it on and get through this time - of course they could!

"Like the camel and the eye hole!" one young guy blurted.  Yep!  That's exactly it!

There's a camel in the eye-hole, dear Liza, dear Liza
There's a camel in the eye-hole, dear Liza, a camel! - yes, I really sang it!  :)


We talked and we talked.  They stayed close and engaged as they lounged around among all the items they had 'purchased' earlier.  We talked about the things we own.  We talked about toys and video games and tv.

Then we talked about friends and family.

I challenged the kids to identify one item that they use too much and they could put aside so they would have more time to work on their personal relationships.

I even went as far as to talk about how God will let them know what that item is the next time they play with it!  Then we talked about what it 'feels' like when we get a whisper from God - and the kids already knew what it felt like for them, because they had heard from God before!  :)


I am so excited to hear about their weeks this Sunday!  I have some kids who are on fire and I get so psyched hearing about their interactions with God!


But what about you?

What do you have in your life that is getting in the way of building a deeper relationship with those in you family, friends, and neighborhood?  What could YOU put away for a while so that you could detox from it for a while?

I know that God will talk to you about it just like I know He will talk to the kids.

Are you ready to hear what He has to say today?

Tacks as a Defense

Tacks are a part of everyday life.  Well, at least the everyday I remember.  I think I see more magnets than tacks these days...

But I digress - tacks are around.

My daughter uses tacks in her bedroom to hang her pictures and posters.  Her MILLIONS of pictures and posters!  :)

Tonight she came downstairs and announced, "Hey!  I know a great defense mechanism!  I will use my bag of tacks and dump them all around me!  Nobody will want to mess with them to get to me!"

Now, I know what she was talking about - she was thinking about protecting herself in the event of some horrible break-in or attack.  (It is sad that an eighth-grader plans for things like that, but that's not a discussion for this post...)

But she said the magical phrase - the red light phrase - 'Defense Mechanism' and my mind went in a different direction.

We use defense mechanisms every day in a variety of ways.

Think of them as tacks.

When we spread tacks out around us to keep people at bay - to keep them from getting too close.  If someone attempts to venture in, we will place tacks in their path, or we will move some out of the way.

What tacks are you using?
          How do you keep people away?  Do you deny that you need them?  Act out so that they will leave you alone?  Do you stuff your feelings and put on a happy face?  Do you make yourself unavailable by not answering the phone and staying home more than you should?
          There are many ways to put out tacks and keep people away.  What are you using?

How many do you have out?
          That's the big question - how many ways do you have for keeping people from getting too close?

We were designed to be social creatures.  We were designed to be in relationship with one another.  Our relationships with one another help us build a relationship with God.

Think about those tacks and what you can do to remove a few.  Let a few more in to be close.  A nice challenge....

A Small Gesture Brings Huge Reward

God works in awesome ways.

God also works in some very interesting ways.

I have an 'interesting' story...

To give some back story, we have to go back about 10 years or so to when the Easter teaching product 'Resurrection Eggs' entered the market.  I bought them and loved them and used them a lot - I have 2 sets, even, because they are so awesome!

The one project for Easter that I have always wanted to do was to use egg cartons and plastic eggs to recreate a version of the Resurrection Eggs as a craft project.  If kids were to create it themselves, they would buy into it much more and take the lessons to another level!  But...  the small plastic items found inside are impossible or expensive.  I hadn't found another option for replacing these items, so the project has been tabled - for 10 years!

A couple of months ago, one of our local sister churches, Walnut Lawn, donated large boxes of take-out containers to us.  There were clear plastic square containers, large styrofoam drink cups, lids, and straws.  Awesome gift!  Just after we received them, we did a Shrinky Dink activity and in my research, I found out that those clear plastic containers were made of the same material as sheets of Shrinky Dinks!  Yep!  I gave each kid a container and we experimented and had fun with them!  For some kids it was the first time they had ever experienced Shrinky Dinks.  For others, it was a creative challenge.  It was fun.  First craft I have ever had to stop after 2 hours due to time constraints -
we had to EAT!  LOL

Tracing and Coloring

Going back to how God works, when I revisited the Resurrection Eggs, planning for Easter, I again got the desire to use them as a craft/teaching activity so that they could share the story at home.  Then it hit me - Shrinky Dinks!  We could make 'charms' of the items instead of purchasing the plastic figures!  I stopped for a minute because those sheets of Shrinky Dinks that you buy in the store can be expensive and we were talking about 3 sheets per child.  The Holy Spirit whispered in my ear at this point, "clear plastic containers..." and we were off to the races!  We had so many of those things and we hadn't really had a use for them.  Each container would give 2 charms, so 4 per kid would work....  Yep - we made that craft out    of take-home boxes!

But that's not the end of the story.  We did our activity.  We made the Resurrection Eggs and I sent the kids home.  And you know how it is - some of the kids caught the vision and some didn't, but I had one come back with the greatest story.

A young girl about 4 years old and only attending for a couple of months took her eggs home and was ready to change the world.  She used them to tell the story to her mom, to her grandma, and to all her neighborhood friends.  She took the eggs to daycare and shared the story with all her friends there.  She took it to her grandpa's house and shared it with him, too.  This tiny girl took the story of the last week of Jesus's life and share it and its meaning to all those in her sphere of influence.  Every person she comes in contact with knows the story of the eggs.

Here is one of the students sharing the
Resurrection Eggs with first-time visitors!

All because a church with leftovers listened to the Holy Spirit's prodding to give the extras to a small church plant.

All because those with abundance shared what they had.

God used take-home boxes to spread the gospel.
This little girl used a dozen plastic eggs to share Jesus's story.
If you are reading this, you probably already know the story, and know it well.
          What about YOUR sphere of influence?  Do they all know the story?
                         There's a reason Jesus says that we need to be like little children......

The Holy Level?

Today's 'Verse of the Day' really got my brain whizzing today:
     Leviticus 20:7-8
             "So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the LORD your God.  Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the LORD who makes you holy."  NLT
             "Set yourselves apart for a holy life.  LIVE a holy life, because I am God, your God.  Do what I tell you; LIVE the way I tell you.  I am the God who makes you holy."   MSG
             "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.  Keep my decrees and follow them.  I am the LORD, who makes you holy."  NIV
             "Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I AM the Lord your God.  And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them; I AM the Lord who sanctifies you."  NKJV

Holy:  dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred: the Holy Bible | the holy month of Ramadan.• (of a person) devoted to the service of God: saints and holy men.

Here is where my heart is today:  If our walk with Christ is a journey, if we begin at zero and 'arrive' at 100, say, what do we do with people who are still at levels 1-10?  What do we, as a church, do with those who have just begun to be open to the Gospel, who have begun to let down their guard, who want to hear more, who have become Pursuers of God, but have not made that terrifying leap of faith?

Then, what do we do with those who have made that leap of faith, who are terrified beyond description about what they have just done, but at the same time so full of joy and peace that they cannot explain it, but are still learning what this new life is all about?

I grew up in the church.  I know how it works.  I know what is expected of me, what I need to hide from others to be accepted, and what I can share without fear of rejection.

But a person off the street, who could have any number of reasons for not believing, not knowing, or even actively working against the church does not have that experience.  They only know what the world knows.  They only know how the world works.  They have not seen or experienced how differently the life of the church is and can be.

So what do we do with these people?  They are crass.  They dress provocatively (because that is what dressing up in the world looks like).  They cuss.  They drink alcohol.  They smoke. They holler and scream at their kids.  They spend weekends away with boyfriends and girlfriends and are not married.  They are sinners.

Most of us who have grown past all of that, or who were raised not to go there in the first place and got to start our lives with Christ past that level, have worked past those outward, public, everyone can see them types of markers - the markers that keep us separated from the church populations.

Not that we have 'arrived' at some holy level of achievement.  We all are still being molded and shaped like a lump of clay.  God isn't done with you, yet.  He will continue to point out to you things that you do that He is not pleased with.
      John 16:12-15 says, "I still have many things to tell you, but you can't handle them now.  But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.  He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said.  He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you.  Everything the Father has is also mine.  That is why I've said, 'He takes from me and delivers to you.'"
     That is the job of the Holy Spirit.  He lets us hear from God at any time.  He lets us know what step to take next, what to say to whom and when.  He will speak through our voices and he will close our mouths.  But we have to let Him.  We have to learn to hear His voice, to test what we hear against known scripture and learn to weed out our own thought from among His whispers.  We have to learn to step out upon those whispers in faith and ignore our brain that will try to be 'logical' and 'sensible' and will try to fight against what others might think.  We have to acknowledge that salvation, baptism, sanctification, none of them - none of them zoom us from level 0-100.  We all start on some level and we all walk and climb and crawl and claw our way toward 100, but we don't reach it - not until our life on earth ends and we arrive in heaven or Jesus comes again.  Until then, there is always something that God wants us to learn and do in His name.

So once we remember that NONE of us have 'arrived' yet, we have to look around at all the others around us who are all over the place with 'levels' if you can grasp my concept there.  You might think of them as levels of holiness - how much of our lives have we dedicated to service for God.

As a body of Christ, we often expect all of the people in our church to automatically be at a certain 'level' to feel comfortable associating with them.  Let's call that level 25 just so we can all be on the same page.  So we all are at LEAST on level 25.  If we have gotten to 50, those are probably our leadership circle people.  And some of those older people may have acquired 75 - man!  THOSE are the SAINTS!

But we haven't dealt with the people who are below 25.  Maybe they aren't even CLOSE.  What do we do with them?  If they are actually attending church, they are probably already at at least 15, or 10 if it is just occasionally.  We can't have them teaching - that's not healthy or scriptural.  There is a whole list of things we CAN'T let them do - but what CAN they do?  What do we do with them?

Well, to be completely honest with ourselves, we don't let them do anything.  We don't have them over to our homes because they might corrupt our children - or someone might think WE are doing something wrong while they are over.  We don't invite them to Bible Study because our group is too far advanced.  And truly, most of our Bible Studies ARE too advanced.  We often have a 'new believers class' or a 'membership class' for a while, but until someone has grown to level 25 or near to it, we really don't want them around.  They are too dirty with sin.  God needs to clean them up more before we can be with them.  We wouldn't want our holy clothes to be soiled by their unholy life.

That sounds awful, I know, but stop and really hear that.  Think about it.  It's true!  I'm a part of it myself!  I am a church leader and I have done my share to help cultivate this way of life!  But God has been working on me.....  and I'm changing....

My heart hurts and I tear up at these thoughts!  I get angry at what the church looks like today!  God handed me a picture about a week ago and I've been agonizing over it ever since - we have BECOME exactly what Jesus fought against!  We ARE the Sanhedrin!  We ARE the Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus's day.  We are the teachers of the law.  We are the leaders in the church.  AND WE ARE MISSING THE POINT!!!  Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could hide out in our church buildings and lock the door against the evil in the world - that's not what Holy is all about!  He calls us to be Holy - to be different from the world, to live a life that shines so strongly with His love and His grace that people are drawn to us to learn how to shine also - He wants us out there, among the people He loves so deeply.  He wants each of us to allow ourselves to become part of the lives of those around us who do NOT know Him so that we can walk with them as they grow from levels 0-25, then to release them to do the same thing in their circle of influence.  Yes, we are to grow in His knowledge.  Yes, we are to teach our children how to follow Him, but we are to do that AND be out and among the lost.  How can the lost be found if nobody is looking for them?!?!

How many people are in your life who do NOT know the Lord?

If you have to think about that for very long, then I hope you have listened.  Lost people should be in your life and in your prayers.  It may only be one you are working with.  It may be a family.  It may be... well, it could be anything.  God wants to use you where you are.  He has placed you and built up people around you to reach.  Please listen to what He wants you to do.