Life Litter!

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I had the opportunity to teach in youth. I tend to be the lazy youth leader who hangs out with the kids, has fun, and settles them down when they go crazy. However, lately I have wanted to reach out to them more through teaching. So....last night was the first lessons of many yet to come.

 I decided to go all out and do an object lesson from the usual discussion lesson. Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited to study for it Sunday afternoon. I know, I know I'm terrible. However, I did look on the internet a couple days prior for a topic idea. Anyway, I came up with the idea of a life liter. Yes, I said a life liter! I took a 2 liter bottle, some hard pinto beans, and a cardboard cross to illustrate our priorities as Christians.

The liter, as I stated earlier, represented our lives. The beans represented things that we do during our daily routine. For example: the beans could have represented going to work, eating, school, playing the computer, and etc.... Well, needless to say the liter was filled to the brim with pinto beans.  That's when I pulled out the cardboard cross. The cross would not fit inside the life liter. There was no room for it. Jesus was left completely out of the liter.

You see, a lot of times "us Christians" tend to put Jesus last. We make time for everything and anything except spending time with our Heavenly Father. I know I'm guilty of this. A lot of times I would rather watch T.V. instead of read God's word, and so I don't. However, the Bible commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. He should always come first, and that is where my second illustration for the night came in.

I dumped the beans out of the liter and placed the cross in it instead. I then refilled the liter with pinto beans, and finished with a very important point. When we put Jesus first we may lose some of our beans, but because He is in the center of our litter His love will touch the ones that still remain inside. In other words, Christ will shine through our daily activities. All because we decided to put Him first.

Giving Up the Ghost!!!

We had an awesome lesson in church tonight. We talked about ghosts and paranormal activity. Do we really have supernatural beings invading our presence everyday? Well, The answer is clearly found in the Bible. In 1 Samuel chapter 28 we read the story of Saul and the psychic. Saul, the king of Israel, goes to a psychic to bring up Samuel. (Samuel was a prophet of God who had past away in an earlier chapter.) The psychic performs her ceremony, and to her astonishment she sees Samuel. She screeches in terror when Samuel talks to Saul. Totally creepy, right? Also, in the New Testament we find the story of the Transfiguration on the Mountain. Two prophets, who were already dead appear to Jesus and His disciples.
So, what point am I getting at? Is the Bible proving the existence of ghosts? Not exactly! there are three things we need to understand. First, only God can control life and death. One place in the Bible where this is proven is Job. Satan goes to God asking about the fate of Job. God told Satan that he could do what he wanted to Job, except take his life.
Second, when a person dies there soul immediately goes to eternity, whether heaven or hell. to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There is no time for souls to roam the earth. They are automatically thrown into eternity at the point of death.
Third, There are supernatural beings, however they are not human. These beings are called Demons. They roam the earth convincing the world that there is no God. Their job is to bring as many people to Hell with them as possible.
So, what do these point have to do with the stories we tell around the campfire on a summers night? They have a lot to do with it actually. Basically what I am trying to explain is that there are no such things as Ghosts. Instead, the paranormal activity is the figment of our imagination, an extreme hoax provided by the media, or a creature from Hell itself. Yes, a Demon!!!
Well anyway, This all came from my husbands sermon tonight. I thought it was pretty interesting. I guess you could say that I listened...hahahaha! What do you think about the information. Have you had a so called ghost story? Did this post help you give up the ghost? I love comments!!