We journey with Jesus during this Lenten time speaking God's justice even to the cross. We teach our young ones what is fair and what is the right thing to do. We hear often from them the phrase, "It's not fair", and so often we parents, aunties, or uncles will discuss the issue of what is fair.
We are grateful that God through Jesus shows us what is like to stand in the midst of his opponents and speak God's truth. We read the book of "Ruby Bridges" during KidStuff! and learned about how Ruby was able to go to school in spite of racism. Ruby's strength came from God, she prayed for the people who screamed at her every day.
Please God, try to forgive these people.
Because even if they say those bad things,
They don't know what they're doing.
So You could forgive them,
Just like You did those folks a long time ago
When they said terrible things about You.
Jesus' journey to the cross was not easy, he was ridiculed, mocked, and humiliated. This season, we are going again with Jesus knowing that it is not easy to go against the status quo or to advocate for God's justice when everyone else is going against you. We have seen and witness that over and over again in our Lenten Biblical passages, as well as our everyday life.
We want to pass on great God values to our children by bringing them to Sunday School where they learn about God's love through creating small gifts for those who are sick. We teach them how to share by contributing a dollar every Sunday for the Heifer project, to help those struggling communities to make a living.
The Youth Group experienced God during our Youth Alive and Spirit Quest at the Idyllwild Pines Camp during the President's Day weekend. We explored the "I am" theme. Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd." When the Babylonian defeated the Israelites the so called shepherds disappeared and left the sheep (people) in disarray. Sheep are vulnerable, they follow the leader even if he or she is leading them to chaos. Jesus uses the same metaphor, that he is the Good Shepherd, because the journey to the cross is difficult, the enemy will attack but Jesus will not leave the followers, he lays down his life for them. Jesus went to the cross to let the followers know that death does not have the last word. Christ rises to give us hope and strength for our christian journey.
May we follow the Good Shepherd in our everyday life together with our children and young people, because the Good Shepherd will not forsaken us.
Shalom
Pastor Lynette Fuka
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Youths' Voice - January's article for our Good Word (Culver Palms UMC Newsletter)
The journey goes on in this 2014 year. It is about that time that we wonder about the program we utilize, whether it is reflecting the mission statement or not. I sat down with the Youth Group to ask the three questions that Bishop Carcano asks all the local churches.
The first question; Who is Jesus Christ to you? Youth Group's answers include, Savior, Lord, God's son. Great answers but we began to dig deeper into what and why Jesus went all the way to the cross to save us. Jesus spoke truth to the powerful Roman Empire and its supporters. He told to those in power not to steal from the poor, not to be selfish, and not to cheat to get wealthy. He told the truth in spite of the consequences, and went all the way to the cross, yet he didn't give up telling them the Godly truth. This is the Savior we worship who went to the cross to save us from these sins!
Wow, that was indeed deep. We went on to question 2, by completing the statement; My walk with Jesus could be immeasurably improved if the church would ... Many of the youths want to find their own voice. With the help of Culver Palms UMC we want to find our voice that Jesus showed us, the prophetic voice. To help stop bullying, to help feed the homeless like our long plan to Glide UMC. To do special services to celebrate saints, youth, and children.
The third questions brought together our hopes for today and for the future generations. They hope for world peace, to keep the faith in God and not to loose faith, make connection with Jesus/God a top priority, put our faith into action to continue God's work in this world, and make the Bible relevant to our environment and our context.
I am grateful for their input and this is a great start for this new year to reexamine our way of communicating our Christian faith. May this conversation with the Youth brings some insights that might help us seek to transform the world.
Shalom
Pastor Lynette Fuka
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Dare to Dream!
We are studying Mike Slaughter's book, "Dare to Dream" and he encourages us to look deeper into our lives to discover the mission statement for one's life. Many of us are chasing money but this book is about fulfilling our mission.
This mission begins with a relationship with God. How well do you know your God? Some of us we know God is here with us, but never had a relationship with God. Think about it. If you are in a relationship like with a boyfriend or husband, you want to know that person so well and always want to communicate with that person. You put all your energy into this relationship. Ask yourself, do I have that relationship with God?
We then try to find our "burning bush"; "There the angel of The Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." Exodus 3:2-3
Slaughter believes that sometimes the moments of crisis are the points at which we are most receptive to a burning bush. Some might have persistent embers through God that may be speaking with a quieter yet still pervasive message.
We hear God's call but we have a lot of excuses! Moses complained when he heard God's call, "Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? What am I suppose to say to them" God is always persistent!
The Lord said to him [Moses], "What's that in your hand?' Moses replied, "A shepherd's rod" The Lord said, "Throw it down on the ground." So Moses threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back from it. Then The Lord said to Moses, "Reach out and grab the snake by the tail." So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it runed back into a rod in his hand. "Do this so that they will believe that The Lord, the God of their ancestors, Abraham's God, Isaac's God and Jacob's God has in fact appeared to you." Exodus 4:2-5
Many of us are like Moses who claimed he didn't have the gifts to go, excuses, excuses! Who would have thought that a simple shepherd's rod will become the tool of discovering God in our lives.
What are your excuses? You have the God given gifts, may be it's time to use them.
This mission begins with a relationship with God. How well do you know your God? Some of us we know God is here with us, but never had a relationship with God. Think about it. If you are in a relationship like with a boyfriend or husband, you want to know that person so well and always want to communicate with that person. You put all your energy into this relationship. Ask yourself, do I have that relationship with God?
We then try to find our "burning bush"; "There the angel of The Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." Exodus 3:2-3
Slaughter believes that sometimes the moments of crisis are the points at which we are most receptive to a burning bush. Some might have persistent embers through God that may be speaking with a quieter yet still pervasive message.
We hear God's call but we have a lot of excuses! Moses complained when he heard God's call, "Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? What am I suppose to say to them" God is always persistent!
The Lord said to him [Moses], "What's that in your hand?' Moses replied, "A shepherd's rod" The Lord said, "Throw it down on the ground." So Moses threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back from it. Then The Lord said to Moses, "Reach out and grab the snake by the tail." So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it runed back into a rod in his hand. "Do this so that they will believe that The Lord, the God of their ancestors, Abraham's God, Isaac's God and Jacob's God has in fact appeared to you." Exodus 4:2-5
Many of us are like Moses who claimed he didn't have the gifts to go, excuses, excuses! Who would have thought that a simple shepherd's rod will become the tool of discovering God in our lives.
What are your excuses? You have the God given gifts, may be it's time to use them.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
I am back to blogging!
It is great to be back and to process my thoughts through this page. From daily life, devotion, to theological reflections. Taking care of a family is a job in itself, let alone trying to figure out its logistics. Waking up the family, breakfast, making sure that everyone has what they need for the day, and out the door on that particular time or else someone will be late.
6am is too early to wake up! We have to make sacrifices in order to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Luckily my kids do not want to be late! It makes the morning trip easier.
We say our prayers in the vehicle on our way to school and work. We allocate a person to remind us of our prayer time and what to be thankful for by using the alphabet. Today we use the letter F, and we are thankful for; food, friends, family, fish, Fine (daughter), folofola (Tongan word for Bible), fasting, and so many. Each child say his or her prayers in their own words. Amazing how I hear the genuine expressions of love and praise through the children's prayers. So straight forward that makes the relationship with God so real.
Everytime I announce the offertory on Sunday during worship. I always say, "This is the time that we offer our gifts, as part of our commitment, to make God's love real in this world" Making things real, is something that I always yearn and work towards.
How real are we today?
6am is too early to wake up! We have to make sacrifices in order to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Luckily my kids do not want to be late! It makes the morning trip easier.
We say our prayers in the vehicle on our way to school and work. We allocate a person to remind us of our prayer time and what to be thankful for by using the alphabet. Today we use the letter F, and we are thankful for; food, friends, family, fish, Fine (daughter), folofola (Tongan word for Bible), fasting, and so many. Each child say his or her prayers in their own words. Amazing how I hear the genuine expressions of love and praise through the children's prayers. So straight forward that makes the relationship with God so real.
Everytime I announce the offertory on Sunday during worship. I always say, "This is the time that we offer our gifts, as part of our commitment, to make God's love real in this world" Making things real, is something that I always yearn and work towards.
How real are we today?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
