Thursday Morning Coffee Break

How about a cup of Sulawesi Pt Toarco coffee from Beansmith Coffee in Omaha, NE?  Transparent and citric with caramel, green grape and floral flavors, this coffee comes from small producers at the higher altitude areas of Indonesia.  Enjoy!

We continued our "Uncensored Dating" series this week by talking about the process of breaking up without falling apart.  As we've discussed before, 99.9% of all dating relationships don't last, but what's at stake here is much bigger than that.  All of us have been hurt by someone in the past; friends, family, a dating relationship.  The people you love the most have the capability of hurting you the deepest.  But how do you respond when you're hurt?  Like a wounded animal, we're often driven by a "fight or flight" instinct.  But if there's no where to flee - this is your home, your school, your job, your family, your church - we tend to fight.  But God has told us not to fight, but to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39).  The answer is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not letting the offender off the hook.  Forgiveness is not letting the offense recur again and again.  Forgiveness does not mean we have to revert to being the victim.  Forgiveness is not the same as reconciling.  Forgiving does not mean denying reality or ignoring repeated offenses.  Forgiveness is not based on others' actions but on our attitude.  Forgiveness does not mean forgetting.

Forgiveness is returning to God the right to take care of justice.  Forgiveness is a process, not an event.  It's a choice, not an emotion.

Left unchecked, the bitterness and resentment will eat you alive inside.  When someone hurts us, our natural tendency is to hold on to the pain and to desire to strike back or get even with the offender.  Unforgiveness is like drinking a poison yourself and expecting other people to die from it.

Parent-Teen Connect 
Take turns answering and discussing the following questions with your teens this week. Create meaningful conversation. Adjust questions as needed. Use one or two of these to begin a conversation. Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, wherever. Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teens.

1. Who do you know that is letting bitterness keep them locked up?  Without giving names, tell their story.
2. Read Matthew 18:21-22 together.  When we are offended, do you think Jesus tells us to forgive 490 times for our sake or theirs?
3. Is there anyone you struggle with unforgiveness for and need to choose to forgive them for the first time or the 491st time?  Can you tell the story?

He is Risen!

Jesus did wonderful miracles.  He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by God and all the people.  But, religious rulers arrested Jesus because they didn't believe he was the son of God.  They handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him.  His followers thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.  They didn't understand that he actually came to rescue all mankind.

Three days later, some women were at his tomb early in the morning, and they came back with an amazing report!  They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive!  Some of his followers ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said!

Jesus died so that we could be friends with God.  Jesus can come into our life like a seed planted in the ground.  When a seed is buried, it can then grow fruit with many seeds.  When Jesus was buried, he did it so that many people could receive forgiveness for their sins.

Connecting Points
Take turns discussing the following questions with your kids this week.  Create meaningful conversation.  Adjust as needed.  Use one or two of these to begin a conversation.  Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, whenever.  Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your kids.

1. What would you do for a friend?  Have you ever given up something for a friend?
2. How can you get a lot of seeds from just one seed?  Read John 12:24 together.  How is planting a seed similar to what Jesus did when he was buried?
3. How can Jesus help us grow?  

April BGMC Challenge - 30 Pieces of SilverJudas, in Matthew 26:14-16, was willing to betray Jesus for 30 coins.  Through the month of April, and in conjunction with Easter, we have challenged our kids to collect 30 pieces of "silver" for BGMC.  Instead of using 30 silver coins to betray Christ, we're taking 30 pieces of silver to help spread the Gospel!  Everyone who brings 30 pieces of silver for a BGMC offering on May 4 will receive a prize!

Thursday Morning Coffee Break

How about a cup of Kunjin Western Highlands coffee from Oddly Correct in Kansas City, MO?  My brother-in-law always says a good steak is done just so that a good vet could bring it back to life, and requires no sauce or added seasonings at the table.  Likewise, Oddly Correct allows no sugar or milk to be added to their coffee.  This coffee, from Papua New Guinea (a country I don't think we've had coffee from before), is buttery with a creamy body, toffee sweetness and ripe cherry fruitiness.  Enjoy!

We continued our "Uncensored Dating" series this week by taking a deeper look at ourselves.  To some extent, we all have this "compulsion for completion" - this internal desire for someone to enter our lives who will give us a meaningful identity and make us feel deeply whole.

But here's the uncensored truth: There are no shortcuts to personal growth and wholeness.  If you try to complete yourself through another person before you do the hard work of cultivating strong self-esteem on your own, every relationship will eventually end with disappointment and pain.  Why?  Because every relationship will be an unconscious attempt to complete yourself.  You see, the emptiness inside all of us is not a case of missing persons in our lives, but a case of incompleteness deep down in our own souls.

Even the best earthly relationships will fail us from time to time.  Every one of us needs to feel a deep sense of personal significance.  No amount of money, relationships, beauty, success, or fame can permanently satisfy that desire.  People in your life are meant to share it, not be it.  Only Jesus Christ can fulfill the "compulsion for completion" we're all hunting for.  Only God's love can make us truly whole from the inside out.

Parent-Teen Connect 
Take turns answering and discussing the following questions with your teens this week. Create meaningful conversation. Adjust questions as needed. Use one or two of these to begin a conversation. Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, wherever. Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teens.

1. Be honest, how strongly do you long for a "Mr. or Miss. Right"?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well are you doing at having a strong sense of self-esteem?  What are some things causing it NOT to be a 9 or 10?
3. What have you tried to fill that sense of "incompleteness" deep inside yourself in the past?
4. The people we love most have the capability of hurting us the deepest.  They have the potential to negatively impact or affect our sense of self-worth or self-esteem.  How do we prevent that from happening?
5. Some of us have already experienced that kind of pain and our self-esteem has been damaged because of it.  Take a moment to share that story with your teen and solicit their stories.  Pain does not just go away.  It takes work to face it.  Talk about it and refuse to bury it.

Communion

We started a new series in Kids Church this week that will lead up to Easter.  This week we talked about Communion.  Jesus had a meal with his disciples right before he died.  Jesus took bread and broke it and told his disciples to remember what he was about to do.  He took his drink and passed it around and told his disciples his blood would but back our freedom so we could be friends with God again.

Jesus wants us to remember why he died.  When we take communion, we remember why Jesus died.  Jesus made a way for you to be friends with God today.

Connecting Points
Take turns discussing the following questions with your kids this week.  Create meaningful conversation.  Adjust as needed.  Use one or two of these to begin a conversation.  Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, whenever.  Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your kids.

1. What helps you remember stuff?
2. Take a moment and read Matthew 26:20-29.  Why does Jesus want us to remember what he did and why he died?  Why do you think Jesus did what he did during the meal?
3. How can someone have a friendship with God?  (Parents: Take a moment to share how you accepted Jesus to be the leader of your life.)

April BGMC Challenge - 30 Pieces of Silver

Judas, in Matthew 26:14-16, was willing to betray Jesus for 30 coins.  Through the month of April, and in conjunction with Easter, we have challenged our kids to collect 30 pieces of "silver" for BGMC.  Instead of using 30 silver coins to betray Christ, we're taking 30 pieces of silver to help spread the Gospel!  Everyone who brings 30 pieces of silver for a BGMC offering on May 4 will receive a prize!

Thursday Morning Coffee Break

How about a cup of Saratoga Blend coffee from Cultiva Coffee in Lincoln, NE?  A secret blend of mostly Latin American beans, roasted a little way into the second crack, this cup of joe provides a big, bold, dark cup of pick-me-up.  Enjoy!

Each April I do some sort of series on sex, dating and relationships. Our youth affectionately refer to it as "The April Talk". This year, the focus of our April talk is Dating.  Why "uncensored"?  Too often, certain subjects, if discussed at all in church, are censored with typical religious talk.  Not here!  Not this series!  While some babble about theology and doctrine, our teenagers feel the "church" is disconnected from the "real world", where they face mounting questions about relationships in their life.  For those who dare to ask tough questions, I will dare to provide straight-up, no-nonsense answers.  No question, no subject matter is off-limits.

Last night, we started our talk by discussing the "need" for dating. We all have "hungry emotional needs" in our lives. Some of us are "hungry" to be appreciated. Some of us are "hungry" to be liked and valued. Some of us are "hungry" to belong to someone and feel special. The list goes on and on. When a certain emotional need is raw and "hungry", we are all capable of doing really stupid things to fill it up. A "hungry" need is a dangerous need. 

Here are a few additional key points: 

• "In the last 20 years, we have not gone through a sexual revolution as much as a revolution in our search for intimacy." - Anson Mount (Playboy Philosophy) 
• Many people today share their bodies because they are afraid to share themselves. 
• If you try to find intimacy with another person before doing the hard work of achieving a sense of identity on your own, all your relationships will become a painful attempt to complete yourself. 
• The three-word secret for happy dating is knowing that IT WON'T LAST. (Why would you give yourself away to someone you are going to break up with? 99.9% of all dating relationships do not last. 51% of teenage marriages end in divorce before the age of 24.) 
• If you think the relationship you're in is meant to last a lifetime, you will do really stupid things to keep it alive. 
• "How much you put into a dating relationship determines how much it will hurt when it ends." - Justin Lookadoo 
• Puppy love often leads to a dog's life! 

Parent-Teen Connect 
Take turns answering and discussing the following questions with your teens this week. Create meaningful conversation. Adjust questions as needed. Use one or two of these to begin a conversation. Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, wherever. Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teens. 

1. Why are teenagers so interested in dating? What are they really looking for? 
2. What's the danger in "looking for love in all the wrong places"? 
3. Read Genesis 25:27-34. What's the principal we learn from poor old Esau? How was his "hungry" need a dangerous need?
4. Proverbs 4:23 says to "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." When have you seen someone brokenhearted from a relationship gone bad? Tell the story. 
5.  Relationships are powerful and leave their mark, both positively and negatively. Relationally, who has positively marked you? What did they do/not do to influence your life in such a significant way?

BGMC: Peru

Got a little behind here as we did our 5th Sunday Family Service on March 30 and I was out to District Council this week.

Peru is on the western coast of South America.  Peru is a bit smaller than our biggest state, Alaska.

The first Assemblies of god missionaries arrived in 1919.  They went into mountain villages to preach and start churches.  At times, they were forced out of towns and pelted with stones.  But they kept on telling about Jesus' love and the power of the Holy Spirit to save people.

Today, 14 U.S. Assemblies of God missionaries work with the Peruvian Assemblies of God.  They teach in the Bible schools and plant churches.  More than 330,000 people meet to worship God in more than 4,000 churches.  6,000 ministers are serving these churches and reaching others, and 72 Bible schools around the country are training nearly 3,000 more students.

BGMC is helping reach the children in Peru by providing Royal Rangers materials, Missionettes (Girls Ministries) materials, and Sunday School materials.  BGMC is helping to disciple kids by providing the Peruvian edition of the King's Castle discipleship materials for kids ages 5-8.  BGMC has also helped with the expenses and supplies for various children's outreaches and children's crusades.

Snack: Canchita (Palomitas) - Popcorn!  Like many other places in the world, popcorn is fancied by children.  In Peru, there are numerious "popcorn" varities.  It's not only made from the usual popping corn, but also from large kernels corns, Kiwicha or quinoa (KEEN-wah) giving the good old popcorn a completely new, but interesting and very tasty touch.

Let's Pray....

• for the kids of Peru, and for the children's workers and missionaries that work to teach them about Jesus.  Pray for the kids in the Latin America Child Care schools and for their families.

• for the young people of Peru, especially those who struggle with drugs and alcohol.  Pray that they would find Jesus and He would set them free.

• for pastors and for those who are starting new churches.  Pray that people will come to these churches to learn about Jesus.

April BGMC Challenge - 30 Pieces of SilverJudas, in Matthew 26:14-16, was willing to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins.  Through the month of April, and in conjunction with Easter, we have challenged our kids to collect 30 pieces of "silver" for BGMC.  Instead of using 30 silver coins to betray Christ, we're taking 30 pieces of silver to help spread the Gospel!  Everyone who brings 30 pieces of silver for a BGMC offering on May 4 will receive a prize!

Thursday Morning Coffee Break

This week in youth, we started with a very informal discussion that quickly led to talking about gangs.  Living in northeast Nebraska, where gang activity is minimal, I was a bit surprised, but this seemed to be the topic of interest this week. We talked about why people join gangs, why they stay and why it's often difficult to leave. About halfway through our night, I put in "The Cross and the Switchblade" (1970, MPAA Rating: PG). In spite of it being way old, the students were fully engaged and drawn in. There's violence, some drug use, some language, some short skirts and a guy in his underwear (nothing kids don't regularly see in today's culture), but the redemptive qualities of this movie are outstanding. The work of the Holy Spirit was definately evident in guiding our discussion and my showing this movie this week.

Parent-Teen Connect
Take turns answering and discussing the following questions with your teens this week.  Create meaningful conversation.  Adjust questions as needed.  Use one or two of these to begin a conversation.  Look for teachable moments - at home, in the car, wherever.  Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teens.

1. If you committed crimes and went to jail (God forbid), what people or activities would you miss the most?
2. Why do teenagers join gangs?
3. What makes you feel "accepted" among your friends?
4. What are some activities teenagers could get involved in instead of gangs?