It's late, time for bed. But before I go, I just wanted to write quick post. Today was a very good day. Everybody was grumpy, but for some great reason I was not :-). Church was absolutely wonderful. We had the best pre-reader class yet. Lots of singing and dancing, ribbon swinging and praise shouting, it was great. Then we watched an animated movie of Jesus' resurrection. We had my favorite helper in class, she's the kind of person so full of the Spirit that He just can't help but leak out all over everyone around her :-). I also had my guitar so we all sang a little tune about praising Jesus every day of the week. How many days does Jesus want? All of them!!! I love our little lessons we teach about Jesus. We talk about who He is and what He did. We talk about all the incredible things He made. We talk about His death and resurrection, but most of all we talk about His return. We talk about why He made us and why we serve Him. It really is a blast and I cannot help but feel uplifted in the Spirit following our weekly class. I find myself during the week wishing I was in class rather than at work or wherever. I wish our adult worship service was more like the kids's. It really does stink when form and order trumps the Spirit. I know that we strive to let Holy Spirit drive our services, but we still end up more-or-less following a script from worship through the carefully outlined sermon. Speaking of that, I am going to be preaching on May 29, which I am excited about. I am praying about what God wants me to speak on. I keep bouncing between Matthew, Romans, Genesis, Galatians, and Revelation. So it should be easy to narrow it down to one 50min sermon, right? We will see :-). On another note relating to church, my pastor's wife told me today that she is feeling that we should start a children's worship service which would run alongside the regular worship service. So rather than the children joining their parents and worshiping as a family, the children would spend the entire service apart from their parents, first in children's worship and then in their respective classes. I answered from my gut when she told me and said, "I'm sorry, but that sounds horrible!" As I continued talking, I realized I was bringing her to tears and I realized my wrong and apologized for my obvious lack of grace. But regardless, that is the polar opposite of what God has been working in my heart over the last couple years. I have been feeling more and more the impotance of keeping the family together in church. Jesus said, "Let the little children come unto me, and do not forbid them! For of such is the kingdom of heaven." He did not say, "Hey James, hey Andrew, why don't you take the children off over there and give them an age-appropriate teaching while I teach the adults. Rather, Jesus taught the parents while having a child actually sitting on His knee! And rather than use a child as an example of immaturity and childishness, He used children as an example for believers of pure faith. Rather than breaking up families and pushing kids off to the far corners of the church, I feel we need to bring them up front... and learn from them! Their purity of worship is astounding and their excitement at the person of Jesus makes me want to shout for joy! And if there is any institution which supports the unity of the family, I think it should be the church. Why not worship with our children in our arms? Why not teach the ones who cannot yet read to shout "Praise Jesus!" throughout the songs? Why not use each song as another opportunity to point them to Jesus and His love for them? Some of the best teaching moments I have with our girlies are during corporate worship. As we sing about Jesus returning I excitedly tell them what is going to happen! Plus they get to see me worshiping and loving on Jesus... what could be better than that? I have been studying Deuteronomy and God emphasized time and again the importance of bringing the children into all parts of worship as a means of teaching them God's truth and pointing them to Him. Sure the kids sometimes start jabbering during prayer and sure they sometimes want to dance in the aisles, but let me ask you this: What is wrong with that? They are children and learning and growing! And besides, I think we as adults should do more dancing in the aisles! Let me ask you this, why do you think the apostles time and again wanted to take the kids away from Jesus? It takes hardly a moment to know that they thought the kids were a distraction. Kids make noise, kids have a hard time focusing, kids laugh and decide to say something even when everybody else is quiet, but that is because they are children. They are still growing! This annoyed the apostles and they saw them as distractions and wanted to push them to the outskirts of the crowd. But once again I point out, Jesus did not see them as such. Jesus brought them to the front and even sat them on His lap. That same Jesus is the one I praise and worship every day. My pastor once said, "The children around Jesus must have been very well behaved and quiet and respectful for Him." But I followed up by asking him, "Then why did the apostles want them sent away?"
So there we go, you can see I am still processing all of this. I am praying that Holy Spirit will continue to work in me and show me and Hannah and our whole church what is right and how we can be more like Jesus. Regardless of where we disagree, I'm glad to know that our goal is the same: to be like Jesus. There we go, that's my post. Time for bed.
