YouVersion

Ive set up an account for the youth ministry on YouVersion.com, a ministry tool that will provide a window into the youth ministry that would otherwise not be involved!

Its easy:

1) Click on this link: http://www.youversion.com/groups/sothumc

2) Click on "Events" to your right.

From here, you can choose to look at the lesson for the up-coming Sunday in the Current tab or browse previous lessons under the Past tab.

This new tool will allow you not only to view the Scriptures we are visiting on Sunday night, but also the notes being taught alongside the Scripture. You will also be able to answer questions associated with the material!

My goal is to have something labelled "Pre-Sunday (Insert Date)" accessible by Wednesday night of each week will serve as a prep tool for the coming lesson. There might be questions, polls, videos, thoughts, Scriptures, etc., for you to access and participate in - youth AND adults, alike.

The actual Sunday night material will not be available for viewing until 6pm the evening of, but even then you can log in and participate! Its all done live and if you answer a question during my talk or the time leading up to it, we, as a group, will be able to view your submission.

I hope you will participate in the teaching of the youth in this interactive environment!

After all, we ARE on the path of life together!

- Adkins

What the Pumpkins Teach Us

Ephesians 4:15-16 (The Message)

No prolonged infancies among us, please.

We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors.

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.

We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.

He keeps us in step with each other.

His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

"God wants us to grow up..."

What a great line of scripture. And it's a lesson that we all have to learn in God's time.

"Pumpkin day" is such a reminder of this for me. A mountain of large pumpkins fills the trailer. As the sun is starting to rise, the volunteers assemble.

My kids are absolutely overflowing with excitement. "Pumpkin day," for whatever reason, is right there with Christmas morning and birthdays for them. It builds anticipation like almost nothing else.

And without fail, they have one question..."can we get in the trailer?"

This year, my oldest, Will got to get "in the trailer" and help the line of men who passed the pumpkins from one to another.

He must have passed a good dozen pumpkins (of about 1500). Then he had enough. He quickly jumped down, back into the patch to play with his friends. He wasn't quite ready to grow up just yet (it's work after all), and I'm not really ready for him to grow up, anyway.

What about the rest of us?

The pumpkins teach us that it's a wonderful thing to be surrounded by a family who's willing to do grown up work.

Without each and every person, the pumpkin task would be near impossible.

We learn to "keep in step with each other" as the pumpkins pass from hand to hand. We learn that when part of the team breaks down, everybody has to stop. We see firsthand the incredible value of team work and a shared goal.

For a couple of hours, we truly have to be one body. And this is the picture of church.

There is a trailer full of potential ministry opportunity that greets our church family, each and every morning.

We give, serve, and push one another...because it is our calling. We work together, because in grace, that work is our very identity.

"His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love."

This is what the pumpkins teach us. May we learn new lessons like this one every single day.

Grace & Peace,

Adam

Meet Your Maker, Vol. VIII

Are you ready to believe this statement?:

"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."

Sounds radical, doesnt it? When we first read that, our first reaction might be (and mine was), "I believe myself to be 'born of God' and I know that I still sin."

Well, the statement in question is actually a bit of Scripture (1 John 3:9) that Wesley addressed in a sermon in 1748.

He breaks it down into two parts - first addressing what it means to be "born of God" and secondly addressing what it means not to sin thereafter.

Born of God

Wesley describes this process as "a vast inward change; a change wrought in the soul by the operation of the Holy Ghost, a change in the whole manner of our existence; for from the moment we are 'born of God' we live in quite another manner than we did before; we are, as it were, in another world."

To flesh this description out some, he compares being born of God to the process of the natural birth we are all familiar with. He explains that before we are born of God, we exist in a similar state to that of an unborn child. We live, to be sure, but our senses are dulled and we know not what exists just beyond the womb. But the process of being born of God is just as drastic a happenstance as that of being born naturally. Senses are heightened and strengthened and it is unfair to make a comparison between that life and the one experienced in the womb; that simply is not an apples to apples comparison.

For Wesley, being born of God means that where we were once unable to see, we now are capable of seeing "Him that is invisible." Where once we were unable to hear, we are now "know the voice of [our] shepherd." Where once our senses were incapable of experiencing or imagining the world on the other side of the womb we now know "more and more of the things which before "could not enter into [our] hearts to conceive."

Put simply: We become distinctly aware of and connected to God.

Cannot go on Sinning

Wesley is careful to address what our hang-up with this phrase most certainly is: that those born of God most certainly do go on committing sins. He explains the discrepancy in this way:

"I answer, what has been long observed is this: so long as 'he that is born of God keepeth himself' (which he is able to do, by the grace of God) 'the wicked one toucheth him not.' But if he keepeth not himself, if he abide not in the faith, he may commit sin even as another man."

He gives a nine step digression from grace to sin (The following quoted directly but with the omission of quotation marks):

1) The divine seed of loving, conquering faith remains in him that is 'born of God.' 'He keepeth himself,' by the grace of God, and 'cannot commit' sin.

2) A temptation arises, whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil, it matters not.

3) The Spirit of God gives him warning that sin is near, and bids him more abundantly watch unto prayer.

4) He gives way in some degree to the temptation, which now begins to grow pleasing to him.

5) The Holy Spirit is grieved; his faith is weakened, and his love of God grows cold.

6) The Spirit reproves him more sharply, and saith, 'This is the way; walk thou in it.'

7) He turns away from the painful voice of God and listens to the pleasing voice of the tempter.

8) Evil desire begins and spreads in his soul, til faith and love vanish away.

9) He is then capable of committing outward sin, the power of the Lord being departed from him.

So it comes down to this:

Once being born of God, we are capable of committing sin. Our free will is not removed from us during the birthing process. And so it is with our will that we sin. Conversely, though, it is with our will that we can avoid falling into temptation. The phrase Wesley uses to describe this utilization of our will is "keeping" ourselves to God. It is when we choose to turn our attention to God and His desires for us that we necessarily turn away from other desires and, therefore, away from potential temptation and sin. And it is in those moments that we are sinless, if only for a moment.