Leading the Way

Health Care

2010-03-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

With the vote on the new health care bill tonight, we decided that a discussion of the United Methodist Church's stand on health care would be an interesting topic for today.

The UMC Social Principles says that Methodists should try to pursue a healthy lifestyle for themselves and others, oppose all barriers to peoples' health, and recognized the government's involvement (there is a line in the Social Principles that mentions the government's role).

To be perfectly honest, most people in our classroom didn't want to debate or get involved with the health care debate. It was fairly obvious, however, that there were a lot of different opinions about health care reform. Some people are against the bill because they believe it will socialize health care and put too much control in the government's hands. Others believe that it is in the best interests of all to provide health care to everyone. Based on the Social Principles, Methodists should generally agree with the latter so that we may better do God's work by helping as many as possible to live a full and healthy life. Nevertheless, the debate for health care continues.

We ended the health care debate rather quickly and started to discuss how our Sunday School teacher was coming along with his Shelter 2.0 project. Our teacher has been doing well and has cut down the cost for the 10x16 model by over half. He has also started to work on other models of similar design, including larger buildings. We still hope to be able to send some of these models to places like Haiti where there is still a great need for help.

We decided to return to the health care debate. Almost immediately, there was a great deal of debate over public and private hospitals. Trying to turn away from the new bill, we tried to discuss the Social Principle's stand again. Although our teacher tried to disagree, we teens agreed that our generation is very lazy, and providing health care to everyone will cost a fortune. People are going to be working less, and those who do work probably won't make enough to live comfortably. Providing health care to these people will cost way too much on everyone with taxes, and the laziest of them probably don't even deserve health care. However, as good Christians, we must support everyone and try to provide needed services and supplies to everyone, even the laziest of us. The sad truth of life is that we need money, and lots of it.

We turned to Matthew 25:31-46 to talk about how we are called to help those who need it. Everyone on this earth is our brother and sister whether we like it or not, and it is not for us to decide who is or isn't deserving of our help. It is our obligation of Christians to provide health care for everyone.

One of us asked, however, if it was the government's responsibility to provide health care. Some of us, including our teachers, thought that it was the government's responsibility since we work through the government to achieve our goals. Others, of course, disagreed.

We really didn't find a real consensus except for our Christian duty. We also cut our discussion short for youth ministry reasons, so our apologies for the short blog this week.

Robo-sapiens

2010-03-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

This week's contraversial topic is genetic technology and engineering. Our society has been fascinated by the possiblilites of cloning and the use of genetics to promote a healthier population. The United Methodist Church has its own stand on genetic engineering.

We are returning the the United Methodist Social Principles to make our stand on genetics. According to the Social Principles, the Methodist Church is for genetic engineering in health interests, providing that all changes are for a single generation only. The Methodist Chruch is against cloning, long term gene pool changes, and interfering with the genetics of an unborn child.

Most of the people in our classroom realize the dangers of genetic engineering, and we talked about a few movies and stories that provided examples of genetics gone wrong. We all agreed that cloning was against God's will, seeing as God creates us all as he wants us originally. This logic was also used to argue against the genetic engineering of children in the womb.

A couple of real-life examples of genetic engineering problems that we came up with were with agriculture and in some aisan countries. In some developed countries, like India, where genetic engineering has become available for use on unborn children, many people are misusing the engineering to have male children. Obviously, an imbalance of gender in population will cause tons of long-term problems. In agriculture, some plants have been so genetically altered that it is almost impossible to kill them.

Continuing on technology, we skipped forwards in the Social Principles to discuss the Internet. The Methodist Church is fascinated by the great availability of communication due to the Internet, and believes that the Internet will be a great tool that can be used to promote change in the world. The Methodist Church also affirms its stance of caution while using the Internet, especially with children, because of the widespread immature, innappropriate, and illegal materials that have become more readily available because of the Internet. We here at Franktown are following the Social Principles by trying to make the Internet safer and more balanced so that good is not overpowered by evil online; in other words, we want to extend Christian values through all forms of communication. Everyone here was in unanimous agreement with the Social Principles on this point.

We continued to talk about technology for a while, and we discussed tracking chips in humans and animals, then turned our attention to individuality and how everyone is unique. We had a few humorous examples, such as Monty Python, then turned to the seriousness of the problem. The biggest debate we had came in how people should be chosen for positions. On the one side, we had people who thought that people, due to their uniqueness, should be looked at separately and chosen based on their individual qualifications. On the other side, we had people who argued that God treats sinners and saints the same, and that we should allow everyone equal opportunity.

After the debate, we read the story of the prodigal son, which was the basis for the church sermon this Sunday (Luke 15: 11-32). In the story, a son requests his share of the inheritance early, then runs away with the money to a far-off land. While away, the son squanders his wealth and ends up working in a pig pen. Famished and degraded, the son decided to go back and beg for a place in his father's house again. The son went back, but before he could plead for a job as a servant, his father ran up, hugged the son, and called for a party to be held for the return of his son.

The relation between the prodigal son and our debate over equality was to prove God's position on the subject. The son was by all accounts a sinner and probably didn't deserve his father's praise, but the father blessed him anyways. In this way, God doesn't really care what you do [as long as you repent], and in this way we should also provide opportunities without being overly-anyltical of people.

Following on repentance and God's forgiveness, we read about the passage of Jesus' death on the cross (Luke 23: 26-43). In the story, there are two other men on crosses on either side of Jesus. One man criticizes Jesus, but the other believes in Jesus and rebukes the other man. The believer then repented to Jesus, and Jesus forgave him by saying "I tell you the truth; today, you will be with me in paradise." The man was a criminal, and one who was sentenced to death at that, but Jesus still forgave him because he believed. Likewise, we need do nothing but honestly believe and repent of our sins, and we can be granted salvation under Christ; Jesus does not hold back for anyone.

Tradition!

2010-03-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

We started off the week discussing a passage from an article about Jesus Freak (see http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/mediaculture/2283/healed_of_the_sin_of_religion%3A_at_church_with_sara_miles/?page=entire)

In the article, they discussed how a typical church is made more for comfort than change. One question that is pulled up is when the difference between tradition and nastalgia is made in a "church home." The writer of Jesus Freak comments that a church designed for comfort over mission work and change is a church of idolaters, or people who simply cannot or don't want to exit their comfort zone.

Our group, which was small today, moved to discuss how a church should be set up. Should church be set up to benefit its members? Most people want some comfort, but we knew that the article was right in that church needs to be a tool of change. People are not naturally faithful, for the most part, and if we want to get closer to God, then we have to change our ways and do whatever it takes to get closer in our faith.

Next, a small debate brought us into the topic of balance between us and God. As teenagers, we are pressured into doing good things, getting good grades, preparing ourselves for college, etcetera, etcetera. How do we balance our lives between all that we are supposed to do for our lives on Earth and what we are supposed to do for our lives with God? Our group came to say that what we do with our lives and our careers should reflect our faith and lives with God. One of our group members gave an example of how physics can be seen as a study of how God works on Earth; God created everything, so everything we do to study the universe should be a study of God.

Somewhat relating back to our discussion of church and comfort, our group began to discuss how everything can go wrong. Things that were developed with good interests could easily go wrong for secular interests. Fast food, for example, may have originally been made for cheap, good food, but it has now turned into a profit seeking, fatty foods industry. Could church turn bad just as easily? As we say in every post, it is our duty as Christians to keep the church a tool for great change and advancement in the world.

Our final point of discussion relates to hypocrisy. Almost every church preaches for change and says that Christians need to help the world, but most don't follow through. We cannot simply say that what we are doing is wrong but keep doing it. Relating back to last week, we cannot judge without expecting our own judgement. We have to get out of our bubbles and change. In our closing prayer for this week, one of our group made a humorous but true statement. Lord, forgive us for being idiots because we truly are.

How the Past Affects Our Present

2010-02-21T10:11:00.000-05:00

Why did Jesus want to come to Earth and become human? Didn't Jesus know what he was going to have to go through? Why would anyone want to come down to Earth instead of sitting in luxury in Heaven? These are some of the questions that we tried to answer today.

One of our members started us off with a story about a homeless man who regularly attended a church. Once a week, the church held a meal for the homeless people in the community, and not once did anyone see this man eat a "meal" at any other time during the week. One day, a teenage boy showed up for the homeless meal, but he was too late and there was no food left. The homeless man who probably ate a meal only on that day of the week got up and gave his food to the boy, then left, apparently in a joyous mood.

Another of our members told a similar story afterwards. The point that the stories make in relation to our questions about Jesus is that Jesus wanted to experience the misery of humans for himself. It is much easier to show sympathy for a person, or a race, if you have personally felt what they feel. Jesus wanted to show that he was with us, as he still is, and that he is not so high above us that we are unable to reach him. Yes, God is all-powerful, but that does not mean that he is going to push us away because we are unclean and sinful; Jesus' trials on Earth are tributes to God to show that there is still hope for us as humans.

After our stories were told and discussed, we read the passage about the rich young man seeking eternal life. In the passage, the man claims to have followed all the commandments, but Jesus tells him that to truly inherit eternal life, he must sell all he owns and give it to the poor. There are many lessons to be learned from each passage in the Bible, including this one, but we are going to focus on only one today.

You can follow all of the commandments for all of your life, but that won't get you into Heaven. Everything you do has to be to glorify God, as the Bible indicates when it tells us to pray without ceasing. Collecting riches and using time for your interests and relaxation doesn't do anything to help the needy or proclaim the good news and the word of God, which is what God expects and wants us to do.

Here in the US, we live well and have opportunity. With God on our side, we can do anything! In places like Haiti, however, this view is turned more into "with God on our side, we can survive anything." Poverty and poor government structure can cause many people to lose the chance to do what they want and send them into hard times. Jesus came down to Earth to show that he was and is willing to help us, even in our darkest times. In Haiti, for example, many children become domestic servants with less than 2% of all children graduating secondary school. To those people, the only way to accomplish or survive anything is with God on their side.

Reaffirming what we have constantly written throughout our posts, it is our duty as Christians to spread the word and show the world that things can improve if they believe in God and his greatness, which he showed to the world by sending Jesus into the world.

Our discussion went full circle and turned back towards what we do with our money, which we discussed after the parable about the rich young man. In our culture nowadays, we are constantly tempted to buy more than we need; one of our members commented that Americans are the most wasteful people in the world, which is probably true. Our member further told us one of her quotes, which we thought was a good little saying: "Stop being Americans!" In other words, stop wasting what you don't need.

The next nearly fourty days are Lent, so this is a very good time to give up something. This is the time to give up something that distracts you from doing God's work and to remember him and his mercy. Jesus is never too far away to help you!

Life after Death, but Where?

2010-02-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

We apologize for our prolonged absence; the weather and snow has affected our normal pattern of Sunday school and services.

Our main passage for today was a story about a woman who had a horrible childhood, eventually became a single mother with five kids, one of whom drowned to death, and in the end turned towards Christ before dying of a stroke. After the passage was read, we were asked where we believed this woman, Sally, would go after death.

There are many passages in the Bible that relate to how we are all judged by the law, but there are also many more which relate to God's mercy in salvation. The broad range of passages make it difficult for Christians to fully answer the question of where a person will go after death.

The discussion of the question turned to how we, as Christians, are supposed to go out and preach the word to people like Sally so that there is no question; sometimes a person need only hear the word once to repent and be saved. The ultimate question in this regard is the definition of repentance and how far one must go to fully repent and turn to Christ. Once again, this question is difficult to answer, but God's mercy does make it very much possible to repent, regardless of how long or how much you must repent to be saved.

Next, our discussion turned to how we are saved; are we saved by faith or works or all of the above? It was unanimous that we are saved by faith and that good works are simply the fruits of our faith. If we were saved in any way by good works, then some people might do good deeds for the wrong reason; one cannot be thinking of their own salvation when preaching or showing the word to others without becoming a hypocrite.

Moving on, a member of our group told us a dual-meaning parable about how a child always told their parent about an event at the last minute and the parent always complained and told the child to tell them ahead of time, but the child never grasped what their parent was saying for a very, very long time; when the child did listen, however, it made all the difference in the world.

The first meaning of the parable is that we don't always listen or want to listen to God's word, but when we do, it makes all the difference in the world. If we listen to God's word and grasp it, even if it's only once, it could change our lives forever for the better.

The second meaning of the parable is actually more of a question; can we be saved at the last minute? Can we hear the word and repent within a short period of time, as if the child was moving away shortly after finally hearing the word? This is a long debated topic, and it all comes down to repentance. Time is really of no interest to God, and as long as a person truly believes, repents, and is filled with faith, then they can be saved through Jesus and God's mercy. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to come to a final conclusion on this question.

The final answer that comes from the question of where a person, like Sally, is going to go after death is that we have no authority. Jesus himself specifically tells us that we are not supposed to judge others, and it is a very good assumption that this can be applied to judging ourselves as well. In the end, only God can make the final call, and only he should make the final call or any other accusations and judgments.

Even with our final answer determined, we decided to continue the debate. We next debated the fate of atheists, although we really just debated how and why there were atheists and what they believed. One of our group actually admitted that there was a time in his life when he did not believe in God, but he has since made a dramatic turn to God. He brought up a good point about how atheists typically can remember when they turned away from God, thus implying that there was and is a part of them that wants to or does believe in God and Christ. As Christians, we have to bring that part of everyone in the world out; it is our mission and our duty to spread the word.

Nobody can say who can be saved unless they are spreading the word to everyone, and even then it is not their judgement which decides. Non-believers and those with little to no faith are and can only be saved by those with great faith and those who show their faith to the world. Love your neighbor and go spread the word; wake up and do something for the glory of God.

Past, Present, and Future

2010-01-24T10:14:00.000-05:00

Matthew 19:16-22
And behold, one came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which?" And Jesus said, "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have observed; what do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

This is a parable about the rich man in Jesus. Although we may not think of ourselves as rich, when we compare ourselves to the people in Haiti, we are some of the richest people on the planet. Many times in the Bible, Jesus tells his followers and listeners to give to the poor or that the poor are better off spiritually than the rich, as he does here. We are bound by the Bible to help the people in Haiti, even if it means selling away half our possessions.

After we discussed this passage from the Bible, we started talking about spiritual gifts, which was one of the scriptures from our church service. Everyone has a gift, but most people don't realize what their gift is until later on in life. We're teenagers, so none of us really know what we want to do or be in the future. As we talked among ourselves, though, it became somewhat clear that the person who recognized their respective gift(s) the least was the actual person; in other words, everybody else would be telling you your gift before you thought of it.

Eventually, we pulled ourselves back towards our verses about Jesus and how the "many that are first will be last, and the last first (Matthew 19:30)." We ended up jumping around through all sorts of different verses in the Bible, though. Through all of our verse jumps, one of us made a remark regarding the parable of the prodical son. When people were getting pulled out of the rubble in Haiti, most people stalled on the thought of how many others were not saved. Instead, we should be joyful like the father of the prodical son and think along the lines of "woo-hoo; we saved one more!" Every life saved, whether spiritually or physically, is important to God, and we should rejoice whenever a life is saved.

At a local church camp, we hold Emmaus and Chyrsillis walks as spiritual retreats. At these retreats, according to some of our youth who have been on these walks, the leaders invoke the image of a stool to support you with three legs: faith, action, and study. Some people may feel more comfortable with one leg over another or the others, but all of the legs need to be there for a stable support. Most people are most comfortable with faith and study over action; this has led to many criticisms of Christians in that we do not live up to our faith, which is probably true for the most part. We need to live and do more for our community and others across the globe, such as in Haiti.

To be better Christians, we need to be more active, not solely rely on faith and study to get us through. What better an opportunity to help than in Haiti? The disaster in Haiti is horrible, but it opens up hundreds of thousands of opportunities to be active and become better Christians. Every person has to take a different path to God, and sometimes it can take a crisis like Haiti to show the right path.

Have a Heart for Haiti

2010-01-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

Haiti is in trouble; deep trouble. There have been estimates of up to 200,000 deaths due to the earthquake, although it could rise if the situation gets any worse. Today, we're discussing the situation, how it could be better, and what we should do to help the Haitians out during this crisis.

The first thing we started to discuss was the thievery. When disaster like this strikes, most people will be forced to steal for survival. In Haiti, people are invading the homes of the dead to get vital resources. For the most part, we here thought that this was okay; resources are scarce, and it's not as if they're stealing for profit or luxury.

The second topic that came up was immigration. The US is not far away from Haiti, and it is to be expected that many refugees will travel from Haiti to the US. Thankfully, the government is allowing refugees for the time being, and we're thankful that anyone able to get out of Haiti will be allowed to go somewhere. One of us commented that a great many Americans, at this point, would probably open their homes up to the Haitians in their time of great need.

Already, there are many relief efforts and missions traveling to Haiti, including a lot of churches. At this point, the problem is not necessarily a lack of resources, but rather a lack of transportation to get resources to everyone who needs them. Nevertheless, Haiti will need a lot of resources to get back on track, so it's hard to say when enough is going to be enough.

Our church, like many others, is making health kits to send down to Haiti. Our church is hoping for only around a hundred, but if thousands of churches across the globe make a hundred kits apiece, then hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti can get help and relief.

We got into a small debate over whether money would be of more assistance than resources. Referring directly to Haiti, money is relatively useless. We did determine, however, that money sent to relief organizations would help just as much, if not more, than actual resources, as the organizations would then be able to buy the resources that Haiti needs.

One of our teachers is a carpenter/builder and has developed a sort of puzzle structure. We used a similar design from him for Relay for Life, and it's a nice building; we used it without two of the sides up, and it was still an excellent protection against the rain. It's a 10x16ft structure and is ideal for quick and portable relief homes. He hopes to send some of them down to Haiti, which would house some of the now homeless Haitians.

If we can organize it, we hope to send an international mission trip to Haiti with our youth group. We would have to go with a larger group, but there is still a question of safety. One of the reasons that Haiti is in such a bad shape is that it has no real functional government; Haiti has been run basically by the UN for the past few years. Only one other country in the world is in a similar position of no government, but it is without UN assistance. The country? Somali -- home of the infamous pirates that are plaguing the rest of the world, including the US.

Abort! Abort!

2009-11-29T10:57:00.001-05:00

Our second topic for today is abortion, which has very close feelings to the death penalty. Is an abortion truly murder, or is it just a necessary part of life?

Another unanimous answer from the classroom: it is wrong, and it is equivalent to murder. We understand that not having an abortion has worldly consequences, but they are simply the 'just deserts' of your actions. By having an abortion, you suffer spiritual, and possibly mental, consequences. Regardless of what you choose to do, God will forgive you if you repent, but some paths are easier to handle than others.

One of our teachers/'adult chaperones' has actually had an abortion. She told us, in person, that she has felt the consequences of her actions. She has said that she thought about it, and after a while, the full effect of what she had done hit her. As to her character, repentance, salvation, etc., I have met very few people with the same amount of faith and passion for Christ as her. By all means, she should be saved, and it just goes to show that by giving a person time, they will repent and turn further to God, not to say that they were not faithful beforehand.

The bottom line is that abortion is wrong, but it's not going to cost you your salvation, as long as you repent.

Die Hard (Without Repentance)

2009-11-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

Today's first topic is the all-debated death penalty. Is it okay to put a person to death, even if he/she is a mass murderer, or the sort?

The unanimous answer, in our class, was no. We found it to be completely wrong to put a criminal to death for his/her actions. The Bible specifically states in Exodus 20:13 "You shall not kill." Our Social Principles book that we've been using for the past few weeks is also strongly against the Death Penalty.

There was, however, one point of debate over the death penalty that split the classroom: child molesters. There were strong feelings within the classroom as to the right of such people to live, but we eventually concluded that they, too, had the right to live.

Our basic idea that led us to the belief that even criminals, and child molesters, have the right to live is that of repentance. We believe that God wants everyone to repent, and that if given the chance, most criminals probably would repent. If you put such a criminal to the death, then they may never have the chance to repent, and they may not be saved because of it. By using the death penalty, you are not only commiting a crime against humanity, you are committing a crime against God.

The World at War

2009-11-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

If anything has been present through the history of humankind, it is our nature to create wars between one another. Wars have been fought over land, resources, politics, and even people. Even the Bible records various wars that were fought throughout its existence.

One of the leading motivations that leads to war is that of racism. Germans during WWII, for example, listened to Hitler's preaching that Germans were superior to all other races in existence, and hence that they deserved more. This was one of many factors that contributed to the beginning of WWII. The Bible denies this concept in many different passages, claiming that all humans are equal under God. Leviticus 19:15 : You shall do no injustice in judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. In other words, judge people by their faith, not their livelihood or social status.

As to the basic notion of war itself, the church, or at least the United Methodist Church, opposes the notion highly. I'll highlight some various passages from the book on Social Principles of the United Methodist Church from 2005-2008 to prove how greatly the church opposes war.

"We deplore war and urge the peaceful settlement of all disputes among nations." This is a very simple, but very clear statement highlighting the church's stance.

"Some of us believe that war, and other acts of violence, are never acceptable to Christians. We also acknowledge that many Christians believe that, when peaceful alternatives have failed, the force of arms may regretfully be preferable to unchecked aggression, tyranny and genocide." Basically, these sentences say that the church is divided on the issue of a 'just war.' I am 99% certain that our class could debate this subject for weeks on end without a clear resolution on the issue. As it is, we accept both points of view. Let us be clear, though, that a 'just war' is still a war, and as such should be a last resort purely to restore order and prevent a more massive bloodshed.

"We reject national policies of enforced military service as incompatible with the gospel." Simply, the church opposes the draft. We believe that one should never be forced to fight, as their beliefs may contradict their actions in service. However, later in the passage, a statement tells us that the church also supports those who volunteer. "We also support and extend the Church's ministry to those persons who conscientiously choose to serve in the armed forces or to accept alternative service." Despite what we may personally believe, we will never deny the message to a fellow Christian.

Church Gone Digital

2009-11-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

Anyone reading this post would obviously say that the internet has become a major part of culture around the world. The internet is probably the most used source for information, and the data it holds is greater than anything anyone a century ago could have possibly imagined. Due to the turn from newspapers and books to the internet as sources of information, a big question has aroused in the church. Is it a good idea to have church online?

There are a lot of people out there who don't go to church, but they can spend hours online surfing the web. God wants everybody to come to him, and how they come to him is not what matters most. If we want to bring in everyone, then we need to try to reach out to internet surfers and the sorts of people who basically live around their computer. Buisnesses, celebrities, politicians, and even porn have started to use the internet as a propoganda and advertisement base. Why shouldn't church follow suit? Besides, there needs to be some balance given to everything un-biblical that's found on the internet.

I'll admit, there are a lot of points about virtual church that have been critizied. The main criticism of virtual church is that it does not provide the community of people that a real church can. In a sense, this is true because you cannot physically interact with other members of a virtual church. However, as technology improves, we can now use web-cams for speech and visuals of church and church-goers. You can't give a person a handshake, but the basic essence of a good community can still be provided by a virtual church. As with most technology, there's always a man (or woman) behind the curtain!

Nevertheless, there was a great debate in our classroom over the purpose of virtual church. Both of the two major sides agreeded that virtual church should reach out to people online. Past that, however, were some arguements. On the one hand, virtual church should be used to teach people about God on the internet, and to provide those people with the comforts of Christianity in a way that they can reach it. The opposing side to this arguement is that virtual church should be used simply to call people who are not attending a real church into church. This side argued that to get the full effect of Christianity and the Christian community, people had to attend a real, physical church. Both sides have valid points, so I will leave it up to you as to which side you agree with more.

One of the other major points of criticism that we discussed was over the implemention of communion. Obviously, clergy cannot enact communion online. The result is that virtual church-goers must either administer communion themselves or not partake in it at all. This is one point on which the critics are correct, as it will be centuries, if ever, before teleportation technology is developed. However, there is still one small claim that supporters of virtual church can make, although it is a bit radical. This claim is that communion is not necessary, or at least not the form of it that is used in church. The basis for this claim would come from the bible, when Jesus says "do this, as often as you eat/drink it, in rememberance of me." This passage can be used to say that communion is remembering Jesus whenever you eat or drink. In this interpertation, you would simply break the bread and pour the drink to remember Jesus at every meal. Remember, though, that this is just one of many possible interpertations of the scripture and does not reflect the overall belief of this class.

To sum everything up, almost everyone agrees that virtual church is good as a way to reach out to internet surfers. Some people continue to say that virtual church should be used to teach online people about God in a Christian community, but others say that virtual church should only be used to bring internet surfers into a real church and real community. As for our class, all but about one vote for virtual church as a way to reach and teach internet surfers about God and Christianity.

Taken by the World

2009-11-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

Today, we continue our interpretation of 1 John by examining 1 John 4.

The first section of 1 John 4 that I would like to bring up is from 1 John 4: 1,5-6: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

The basic meaning of these verses is that Christians should not listen to everyone, but only those who speak the word of God. I find this to be a much bigger problem in everyday society than most people wish to acknowledge, especially within high school and teenagers. People today are easily hooked into the world and all of its material goods. They do not think about God at all when they do worldly things, but simply listen to what society tries to teach us.

I see this all too often within teenage society. I don't know how many of you have actually been to high school within the past decade, but school spirit and honor have deteriorated into almost nothing. It is unbelievable how many students curse, cuss, and speak with foul mouths! It is come to my conclusion that the only way I can manage to avoid these mouths during lunch is if I seclude myself in a far corner of the cafeteria! Cell phones are just another example of how teenagers have been tainted by the world. During school, students still try to check their texts and messages, even though the punishment of this crime is having their phone taken for the entire school year. After school, and even in places such as our own Sunday school class, there are people who I would be lucky to drag them away from a cell phone for five minutes! It is also my conclusion that cell phones have become the number one addiction in America; more so even than tobacco and nicotine! All of these un-Godly things are of the world and the false teachings of society, as portrayed through television and music.

It is our duty as Christians to avoid the temptations and addictions of our worldly society and listen to the teachings that God gives us in the Bible. I'm not trying to steer anybody towards becoming Amish or anything, but we need to realize who is in charge. God is the one in charge of everything, not cell phones and television.

As if this teaching was not enough for one chapter, John continues to talk more about loving your neighbors. 1 John 4: 11-12: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John may have included this in the same chapter as he talks about false prophets to have us remember that we are supposed to love even the worst of people. Just because people are taken away from God by worldly people and worldly things, that does not mean that we can forsake them. It is our duty, also, as Christians to love everyone equally, regardless of where they are from, what they do, or how they act. If a person is bringing a Christian down in his or her faith, then it may be necessary to turn away, but pure Christians should always try to help those that they can. As John says, our love in God is perfected through our love for each other!

Sinless

2009-10-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

We're back, and once again, we're continuing on living your faith and righteousness. Our scripture base is from 1 John 3, and we'll highlight different passages along the way.

Class today has been like a giant link of topics, all related, but different. Our first link in the chain was from 1 John 3: 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. The basic meaning of this verse is that followers of God are pure, and are not sinners. This interpertation of the verse created discussion in our classroom.

As most people would agree, including Christians, it is impossible for one to live without commiting sin. Hence, this passage from 1 John seems contradictory to what most Christians believe. However, this passage simply defines sin differently than what we take it to be. Throughout 1 John 3, John makes it clear that there are, by his definition, two types of people: righteous and of God, and evil under Satan. At first glance, this is difficult to comprehend, as most Christians today believe that people make bad choices, but they are still good people.

The difference between John's definition and modern belief is how John's definition is interperted. If you look at sin, by John's definition, as wrong-doings that you do not repent of, then both his definition and modern belief can match. John writes to say that one can tell the difference between good and bad people not by how many times they do wrong, or what they do wrong, but why we do wrong, and how we feel afterwards. Repentance comes when one seeks forgiveness purely, and fully regrets commiting evil. That is what makes people children of God, and not true sinners. People who do not repent, or go out and repeat their actions with no second regrets, are the kind of people that John labels as 'children of the devil'. 1 John 3: 10: By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.

Our discussion in class, the rest of the chain I was talking about above, was about the discussion. We began to talk about what Christians still debate about, such as what is truly a sin and means of salvation, as defined by different denominations and people. It is not a simple thing to interpert scripture since it can be interperted in so many different ways. For this reason, Christianity can be difficult to understand. However, as I see it, it is best to hear all of the different thoughts and discussions surrounding scripture, such as 1 John, because it is through both our knowledge of scripture and of the different interpertations of it that we become wiser in our faith.

Showing the Word

2009-10-18T10:40:00.000-04:00

Today, our main topic of discussion is related to our last discussion, in which we talked about how we should be good neighbors and live according to what God has commanded. Our main scripture basis for today is from 1 John 1-2.

In 1 John, specifically chapter 2, John writes about how Christians are hypocrites if they simply say that they 'know God', but neglect to follow out his word through their actions. (1 John 2: 6: he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.)

John's writing and message has not changed over the centuries. Christians are still in much the same situation, where many simply attend church and live by God on Sundays only. If we as the body of Christ are to help the world and preach the word to it, then we must act according to what we preach. 'Practice what you preach' would be a very good phrase to use here. How can we possibly convince the world to change if we cannot even change ourselves?

Somehow, here in our main classroom, we drifted into a conversation about Satanism and cults. I think this is a good conversation to talk about because these are the sorts of people that need to hear the word more than anyone. If practising what you preach is the job of all Christians, then preaching the word to those who need it the most is our top priority. Those who have been sucked into the world of Satanism and the occult, are those that we must try to reach at all costs. Every soul is precious and belongs to God, so everyone must know God's word, even if it takes time to reach through to them on his message.

Listening and spreading the word of the Lord, sincerely and with conviction, is not too much to ask of us in the face of all that has been done FOR us. We were put on this earth to spread the love and teachings of the Father, and to practice them and pass them down to our descendants. Faith in God and his lessons IS living, so go forth and LIVE.

Love Your [Enemy] as Yourself

2009-09-13T10:11:00.000-04:00

Today, we'll be moving away from the issue of hunger and turn more towards the social problems that haunt us. We'll be studying grudges and holding evil against another for the next few weeks.

Our main message comes from Matthew 5: 21-24, directly from Jesus: "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

This passage is harsh, and takes some serious faith to follow. One could easily interpert the passage as saying 'don't go to God until you have let go of your grudges.' To be able to do that seems nearly impossible, but there really is no excuse for creating evil. When you speak wrongly of another, even if it may seem right by modern social standards, you are creating evil and blackening your heart. EVERYONE is a son or daughter of God! God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are always going to be in your heart, and everyone else's.

Now, let's go back to the passage. You may overlook it at first, but the fact is, Jesus was addressing this entire passage to people who called themselves faithful. As a faithful follower of God, you are bound to try beyond humanly means to better this world. You are bound to love everyone, and everything, because everyone is a child of God. If you truly are a faithful follower of God, then you have opened your heart to him and let him flow over you. Once you have found God, it is your duty to teach the word to others and give them the chance to know God. God is ALWAYS in EVERYONE'S heart, but most people do not realize this. It is up to the faithful to bring out this awareness.

The best, and easiest, way to spread the word of God is to love EVERYONE. Showing evil by holding grudges and screaming foul language to another, as given by the passage, is evil in itself, and shows that you are not faithful to God. Jesus gives this passage to make sure that EVERYONE loves EVERYONE. Only by showing love and compassion, even to our enemies, do we truly show God's love.

How We Could Change Life as it is:

2009-08-30T10:45:00.000-04:00

Our church is located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. This does NOT mean that we are a tourist center (we lose more people than we get), but rather, we live in a very agriculturally based center. All sorts of food are grown on the shore, such as tomatoes, potatoes, and corn, to name a few.

A classmate of ours shared a story today that perfectly sets the scene for agricultural life here. She told us that the other day, she was looking out at a recently harvested tomato field and saw a huge cloud of smoke rising from it. She could tell that there were still perfectly ripe tomatoes left on the stakes, but never the less, they had put everything in the field on fire. This is a very common story on the shore. Each year, the harvesters pick the green tomatoes (they gas them red and then ship them easier than a truly ripe tomato) and then burn whatever's left to keep the market in check.

This goes to show that there are plenty of things that could be done very easily to help the hungry. It wouldn't cost anyone any money (well, maybe a little bit for paper) to petition to keep the fields from burning. It would actually save the plantation owner money becuase no money would be spent burning the fields. Some people might respond by saying that if extra tomatoes are left out for free, it will hurt the market. The way I see it, if you're willing to run out into a field and scavenger for a few tomatoes, then you probably deserve them or desperately need them. That, or you're just a crazy person.

All the Hungry Children

2009-08-23T10:21:00.000-04:00

We're back, and we're continuing our discussion about hunger. Today, we'll go more in-depth about the two scriptures we higlighted in our last post.

The first verse is pretty self-explanitory when you first look at it. Leviticus states that we should not harvest everything, but leave some extra food for the people who cannot afford it normally. This would actually be a very smart idea to try for a number of reasons. Firstly, most people today see people asking for money for food on the streets and refuse because they are unsure of what the beggars will actually buy, frankly, with good reason. However, if we leave food for them straight from the source, money is not an issue, and those who need food will get more of it. Also, it is well known that Americans are very, VERY, wasteful. Would it be of dire consequence for us to let go of a few crops for the needy? As for money, if we provide food directly from the source for the needy, then there would be less of a need to spend money on organizations giving out food. In the end, it would just be much simpler and easier to solve the problem of hunger from the place where the food is actually grown.

The verse from Deuteronomy deals with the question of "why." Why should we even care for those people on the streets, begging for OUR money and food? What could they ever do to repay us? In truth, these questions are the reasons people do not take part in activities to help the needy. Humans are selfish, and we care not for others, but only ourselves and our own pleasure. We over-indulge and waste without care, and if they think about caring, they eventually come to those questions of why and turn back to their old ways because they cannot find an answer. To us, the answer to these questions of why cannot be understood unless you know God. Why should we care for the needy? God does, but he cannot work except through us. We cannot show our love of God unless we show love to others. The verse from Deuteronomy states that we should love foreigners and the needy because we were once the same. The verse is not literal in the fact that we once lived in a different country, but rather that we were once foreign to God's love. We once did not know of his love, but he brought us in, and now it is our job to do the same. When we feed the hungry, we show God's love and bring more people to him. The more people that do God's work, the better the world can become. All good comes through God. All those people who just walk by the needy and ignore the hungry will not see their lives prosper. The only way that their lives can become better is if they show good and further the work that God does. Why should we help the needy? We should help them because they help us.

Hellooooooo World!

2009-08-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

We are the Franktown Senior High Youth sunday school class! Our mission is to openly discuss world and social issues from a Biblical and teenage standpoint.

Our first topic of discussion will be hunger. It is a FACT that every 3.6 seconds, a person dies of hunger. It is a FACT that 75% of those people are children.

The Bible has many parables and verses that relate to hunger.

In Leviticus 23:22, it says that "when you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God."

In Deuteronomy 10:18-19, it further states that "he ensures that orphans and widows recieve justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt."