Sunday School Lessons

This is what we teach the kids in Sunday School at Westminster.

I am not sure the exact correlation. And I definitely don't know the individual who added the blood to the dinosaur. Or put the "Service=" in front of it. Whoever did that is off his rocker.

Bears Are Eating My Friends

Have you ever wondered to yourself why there are not more artistic interpretations of the lesser known scenes of the Bible? I have. Especially this one:

"From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths."

These two young gents have offered up a rather good song about the situation. Not the funniest, but quite entertaining just because I think they've corned the market on songs about this passage.

Although who knows? Maybe the recent interest may spark a whole new artistic renaissance pertaining to Elisha's form of youth ministry.



Here is the chorus:

"Bears are eating my friends! Female bears are ripping off our limbs. When you mock a prophet of the Lord you'll end up dead. Now I'm regretting those last words I said: Go on up, you baldhead."

And in the comments, someone said

Youth Ministry

I

Youth Ministry

A lot. Seriously, what other job is built upon the principles of being as ridiculous as possible with the intent of sharing God's word and loving with His Love?

Best Mural Ever

Have you ever seen those cheesy Christian murals of Biblical scenes like David and Goliath or Noah's Ark or some other more popular scene? Well I'm sure you always wondered why they never illustrated that passage from 2 King 2 where Elisha calls the she-bears out from the woods to maul the youths.

My dad calls it the first recorded instance of youth ministry. John Acuff has lamented this fact, and because of his lamentation, the good man Wes Molebash took it upon himself to get the job done. And oh did he:

Jesus Wasn't A Rock Star

From the blog of a popular pastor:

"If my generation isn’t careful, we may fall into a Guitar Hero mentality toward ministry:
Everybody wants to be a rock star, but no one wants to learn the chords.

It’s hard work to study God’s Word. To pray for breakthrough. To do spiritual battle on behalf of those we lead. To charge forward in faith for the cause of Christ. To run a church with the highest standard of excellence."

I think this is a great insight into American Christian ministry, at least from my generation's perspective.

It is indeed a huge problem that many aspire to leadership without the dedication and diligence to study and love and learn God's Word. To pray. To love our enemies. To love our brethren when it's inconvenient.

However, I think an almost more important question that needs to be asked is: Why do we look at the position of a pastor as that of a "rock star?"

Jesus did not aspire to greatness. In fact, he "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." He gave up the almighty glory of God to serve US! That's ridiculous! And that's the example we are to follow, even though that degree of humility is unattainable for us!

Yes, the lack of dedication and diligence in my generation is a problem, especially pertaining to the ministry. But more so than that is our aspiration to glory. Because that is depriving God of the glory he deserves.

I am saying this to myself as an aspiring minister and teacher of the Word as much as any other: No one should desire the minstry for the glory and fame it can provide.