Judgement and Grace

Grace_Building__New_York_by_olymbos01Since I have been preaching to the youth group, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission, and how the Bible keeps pointing back to that, I have been having the thoughts about judgement versus grace. Brian Zahnd has been pointing out that Jesus preached against the “who’s in, and who’s out” thought.  Then I ran into this post that John Meunier reblogged a post he wrote a couple of years ago. It was where my thoughts have been turning. The thing is that Paul talks about this in Romans 14.

John’s post is well worth the read. Who Wesley would send to Hell | John Meunier.

How one man put an end to his extended adolescence | Ministry and Meteorology? MicroBlog

How one man put an end to his extended adolescence | Ministry and Meteorology? MicroBlog.

 

This extended adolescence looks more like society has turned into little kids. Some of which is due to the adults saying that the kids are growing up “too fast” and the kids themselves not taking responsibility for themselves. I think this article addresses the latter.

Memoir: how I put an end to my extended adolescence | torontolife.com: “It wasn’t the suit that needed to change. I’d entered this process boyishly believing in magic. But standing there in the cluttered back room, I realized I had learned something from the time I’d spent with Frank: manliness was something I would have to work at every day. The suit alone couldn’t do it for me.”

Why would God End the world?…5/2/2013

Apocalypse_vasnetsovI’ve been trying to share my youth messages that I have been doing. Both by sharing the text, and recording an mp3. However, since I’m having trouble affording hosting, probably only text for the time being.

I had a week where I asked the students what questions they have. One question was “Why would God End the World?”

So here’s this week’s message:

What This Past Lent Has Taught Me

Don’t fear.

That phrase is in the bible from one person’s count, 365 times. As people have told me one for everyday of the year. As I have journeyed through this Lenten season. There have been several things, I feel, that God has been speaking to me on.

  1. Continue the less meat, higher veggie diet. 
  2. Keep the caffeine consumption low.
  3. Teach the Youth Group about not fearing things
  4. Continue to teach on Love your neighbor and your Enemy

I’ve been teaching on what it means to be the church, in the context of love. Which means I’ve be trying to tell them about loving others more than yourself.

There is one thing, though, that through the 46 days of Lent that has been continuing to resound louder and louder and that is don’t fear. The kids in the youth group are constantly bombarded by fear based things. We wonder why we end up in a culture that tries to medicate kids and teens, when they are just being kids.

So my next quest is to figure out how to communicate how to not fear, and love others to the point that others may hate you.