Saturday, December 19, 2009
Attention!
Anyone following this blog may notice inactivity until January 6th. I will be right back to this on that date. Until then, have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and don't forget who was born on the 25th! Keep the Christ in Christmas!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Following Jesus
Just a quick post I felt I needed to put out there. I was reading in Luke today and I came across a verse that perfectly details how to become a follower of Jesus.
Luke 9:23 says, "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."
I feel that this verse is a very easy reminder that you need to deny yourself in front of everyone and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior (Baptism), read your Bible everyday, keeping God involved in your thoughts as much as possible, and to follow in Jesus's footsteps. This is the ultimate lifestyle, I think for anyone to have.
Luke 9:23 says, "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."
I feel that this verse is a very easy reminder that you need to deny yourself in front of everyone and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior (Baptism), read your Bible everyday, keeping God involved in your thoughts as much as possible, and to follow in Jesus's footsteps. This is the ultimate lifestyle, I think for anyone to have.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Diversity & Uniqueness
We had a guest speaker named Josh, one of Mr. Maples' friends, come in. Really kind gentleman. As he sat down, he grabbed a book out of his backpack that most of us have heard in about the third grade. The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. I had chuckled a little bit at the memories of Elementary School. We watched in curiosity as he was reading steadily through the book. I had a feeling that no one in the room but Josh had known the purpose of him reading through the book.
If you haven't read the book before, the book talks about a fish in the sea with rainbow scales. He had been known as the most beautiful fish in the sea. One day, a little blue fish comes up to him and asks for one of his beautiful scales. He scolded him, "Who do you think you are? Asking for one of my precious scales!? How dare you?!" The little blue fish became scared and swam off. As Josh continued on with the book, The Rainbow Fish began losing friends because of his selfishness and rudeness. He wandered off to the deep depths of the ocean, and to his surprise, he found a starfish. He asked it why he is so alone. The starfish said that he can't answer that. So on The Rainbow Fish went, deeper and deeper into the trench. As he passed a dark cavern, he caught the glare of a squid. A humongous squid! It told him that he needed to be more friendly and learn to share. And The Rainbow Fish became puzzled. So he swam back. The blue fish met up with him again and asked him the same question. The Rainbow Fish hesitated at first, but finally gave him a tiny scale. And he felt good about it, too! So he began sharing with every fish in the ocean obtained 1 scale. So in the end, every fish, including him, was happy and had 1 rainbow scale.
The book was done. Josh then gave each of us scissors and glue sticks, then he began to pass out paper to everyone. He read us a story about snowflakes and how a man tried to capture a picture of a snowflake. And he tested several, but no two were ever alike.
Then, Josh told us to fold our papers as many times as we wanted. Halves, quarters, etc.. He then said to cut on the folded parts as much and however much we wanted, then to unfold it. It then occurred to me. We were making snowflakes! When I unfolded mine, it looked like a mask! No joke!
He told us to open up our bibles to Psalms 139: 13 -14. The verses read, "Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Josh said, "You know something, these verses make me realize how much I really mean... How many of you are persecuted and insecure?" he said rhetorically, "I want to let you know, that each of you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Like a snowflake, no two of you boys and girls are made exactly alike. As a matter of fact, all of you are far different from each other, whether you think so or not."
These words he spoke meant so much to me. You could hear nothing as he paused for us to take it in. Just to think how unique and special I am in God's eyes blew me away!
He told to also see Ephesians 2: 10. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Also, to see Isaiah 64: 8,"O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. "He began to talk about how amazing it was to hear how he was planned to be made, as a potter makes a pot.
He held out his hand and said, "I'm right here, in God's hand. And he put me together every step of the way. Do you know how amazing that is?!" It was nearing closing time, so he asked for someone to close us in prayer, then he selected me. I closed and I left the room, touched with a sense that I, and everyone of you, are in fact, special.
If you haven't read the book before, the book talks about a fish in the sea with rainbow scales. He had been known as the most beautiful fish in the sea. One day, a little blue fish comes up to him and asks for one of his beautiful scales. He scolded him, "Who do you think you are? Asking for one of my precious scales!? How dare you?!" The little blue fish became scared and swam off. As Josh continued on with the book, The Rainbow Fish began losing friends because of his selfishness and rudeness. He wandered off to the deep depths of the ocean, and to his surprise, he found a starfish. He asked it why he is so alone. The starfish said that he can't answer that. So on The Rainbow Fish went, deeper and deeper into the trench. As he passed a dark cavern, he caught the glare of a squid. A humongous squid! It told him that he needed to be more friendly and learn to share. And The Rainbow Fish became puzzled. So he swam back. The blue fish met up with him again and asked him the same question. The Rainbow Fish hesitated at first, but finally gave him a tiny scale. And he felt good about it, too! So he began sharing with every fish in the ocean obtained 1 scale. So in the end, every fish, including him, was happy and had 1 rainbow scale.
The book was done. Josh then gave each of us scissors and glue sticks, then he began to pass out paper to everyone. He read us a story about snowflakes and how a man tried to capture a picture of a snowflake. And he tested several, but no two were ever alike.
Then, Josh told us to fold our papers as many times as we wanted. Halves, quarters, etc.. He then said to cut on the folded parts as much and however much we wanted, then to unfold it. It then occurred to me. We were making snowflakes! When I unfolded mine, it looked like a mask! No joke!
He told us to open up our bibles to Psalms 139: 13 -14. The verses read, "Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Josh said, "You know something, these verses make me realize how much I really mean... How many of you are persecuted and insecure?" he said rhetorically, "I want to let you know, that each of you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Like a snowflake, no two of you boys and girls are made exactly alike. As a matter of fact, all of you are far different from each other, whether you think so or not."
These words he spoke meant so much to me. You could hear nothing as he paused for us to take it in. Just to think how unique and special I am in God's eyes blew me away!
He told to also see Ephesians 2: 10. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Also, to see Isaiah 64: 8,"O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. "He began to talk about how amazing it was to hear how he was planned to be made, as a potter makes a pot.
He held out his hand and said, "I'm right here, in God's hand. And he put me together every step of the way. Do you know how amazing that is?!" It was nearing closing time, so he asked for someone to close us in prayer, then he selected me. I closed and I left the room, touched with a sense that I, and everyone of you, are in fact, special.
Welcome to the Raney Christian Club Blog!
Just a heads up, this is a new blog I, Andrew Jones, chose to create for those of you who want to see what's going on and what the weekly message is about at the Christian Club at Raney Intermediate School. I hope you all choose to check up on the blog every now and then. And, I wont only be posting what the message was about every Tuesday, but everyday, I will make an attempt to post something I learned or was told about the Bible. Thank you.
Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones
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