2 Timothy Songs

Hey fam! so since we’ve been rocking out to 2 Timothy 2 i thought i’d put up these 2 vids! first one is by an artist named Katalyst

 

the second one is by Lecrae

Be a Soldier

This weeks’ Reading Challenge
(1/25/12 – 2/1/12)
2 Timothy 2:3-4

Lesson
Paul tells Timothy to operate like a soldier. Just like a soldier must have equipment and protection in order to survive battle, we must do the same in the Christian life. Just like a soldier is prepared for war, we must be prepared for all of the challenges that this life will bring to us. For the Christian, some of his equipment is the scriptures, prayer, and community. By continuing to have these things in our daily lives, we will better prepared for the things that life will try to challenge us with.

 Discussion Questions

 How is the Christian life like a soldier in a war? What are some examples?

What does the Christian need to equip and surround themselves with? Why? .

What happens when we do not equip ourselves for the Christian life? What are some examples?

Discipleship

This weeks’ Reading Challenge
(1/18/12 – 1/25/12)
2 Timothy 2:2

Lesson
Discipleship is the process by which the body of Christ grows you into a mature believer. In order to grow in Christ, we must surround ourselves around people that will help to teach us more about Him. Community is extremely important in the life of a Christian. As Christians we are to have others that are teaching us, and we should be doing to the same for others as well. Just like Timothy was discipled by Paul, we should always have a Paul that is teaching us and a Timothy who we are teaching in our lives.

Discussion Questions

 

What is the meaning of discipleship? What are some ways that it occurs?

Why is discipleship so important? What is the result of a lack of it in the church?

How can we model the role Paul played in Timothy’s life? How can we model Timothy?

Father & Son

This weeks’ Reading Challenge
(1/11/12 – 1/18/12)
2 Timothy 2:2

Although Timothy was not Paul’s biological son, he was his spiritual son. Many of us may not have grown up with our father. We may not have had anyone in our lives that showed us how to live and deal with life. Because of that, many of us looked to media, the streets, and the culture for this guidance. Whatever they said was important; we bought into their views. Once we become Christians, we are adopted into a new family, one that provides us with the guidance that we need and never have received from our physical family.

Discussion Questions

What role does a spiritual father play in the life of a believer?

How is it different from a physical father?

How have you replaced the role of a father in your life?

What were the results?

How has being adopted into God’s family guided you in life?

In what ways?

Old School Hero Academy Vids

Check out these Old School Hero Academy Vids. http://heroacademy.wordpress.com/category/old-school-ha/

Legacy

This weeks’ Reading Challenge

(1/4/12 – 1/11/12)
2 Timothy 1:1-15

Lesson

Legacy

Everyone wants to leave his or her mark on the earth. We want to be significant, and to have our name go down in history. Be the one that people read about in the book at school or talked about on special TV shows, have movies made about them. By doing this, we limit our whole sense of value based on whether or not we are known on earth.

When we live for the Lord, we are more concerned with His name being known rather than ours. Paul wants us to be more interested in leaving behind an eternal legacy rather than a temporary one. We do this by sharing our faith with others and helping to lead them to the one true God. Only when we make God’s name known on the earth will we be able to leave a legacy that ill have an eternal significance.

Discussion Questions

Why do we all desire to leave a legacy behind in our lives?
What is the difference between a temporary legacy and an eternal one?
How does living for the Lord, help us to leave an eternal legacy behind?

Hero Academy 2012 Promo 1

Hanukkah

This past Wednesday I did a teaching on Hanukkah in The Deep. It was an interesting time because many of my kids had either very little knowledge of this holiday or had never even heard of it.  Our normal set up is welcome, game, worship, lesson, prayer, games. But this time I switched things up!

I started off with teaching our kids the story behind Hanukkah.  I used the kids to act out the story! Essentially the story goes as follows:

In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish Temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. This upset the Jewish people, but many were afraid to fight back for fear of retaliation. Then in 167 B.C.E. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus made the practice of Judaism an offense punishable by death! He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods.

When the Jews refused Greek soldiers came into the villages and forced them to bow down to idols and to break other Jewish laws. This infuriated a group of Jews known as the Maccabees! They raised a small army and fought off the Greeks reclaiming the temple in Jerusalem!

The priest then went into the temple and began to clear out all the idols and tools used to worship the false Gods in order to restore and purify the temple. When they came to lighting the lamp stand in the temple they discovered that there was only enough oil to keep it lit for 1 day!

The problem was that God commands that this particular lamp be lit at all times, its flames should never go out. The Jews only had enough for one day and it took 8 days to make new oil! Believing in God’s miraculous ways they went ahead and lit the lamp stand. Sure enough that lamp stand kept lit for all 8 days!

I explained to the kids that Hanukkah is a time of celebrating two specific things. One is the rededication of the Temple. The second is God’s provision for those 8 days. I then went on to explain to the kids that God loves them so very much and that He gives us the strength to do the right thing. The Jews knew that they needed to light the lamp stand but didn’t have what they needed. So God provided for them!

God will not let us rest in a place where we will be tempted to slack off for long. If you want to honor Him and serve Him in Spirit and in truth He will help you and provide a way for you.  I then pointed the kids to 1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

After this I lit the menorah and one of my leaders came up to lead the kids in worship. I chose 3 specific songs for a specific reason.

1: Every Move I make: I chose this song because when the Jews retook the temple and went to light the lamp; all those things were done with God’s guidance.  In the same way everything we do should be done with God’s guidance.

2: Mighty Warrior (by Rick Pino): I did this song mostly because of the chorus. “I can do all things, through Christ who gives strength” The Jews were only able light the lamp and keep it lit because of God, because He gave them the ability to do this. We must realize that God has given us strength to do all things. If He has called you to do something He will provide.

3: Revelation Song (by Kari Jobe [incidentally she’s the original writer and singer…]) I chose this song because it when the Jews came through this season they had a revelation of how good our God is. When God calls us to do things we must move with His guidance, move with His provision, and when we come through it all we will have a revelation of how great our God is!

And that’s it folks. This was our Hanukkah lesson.

First posts on Eternal Disciples are up!

Well i’m pretty excited! the Very first posts on B’s and I’s group blog is up! They are both on John chapter 1! scoot on over and check it out and leave comments! http://eternaldisciples.wordpress.com/

What is “Eternal Disciples”

I’d like to invite everyone to checkout a new blog called Eternal Disciples. The link to it is on the right side of this page! But before you go to it i’d like to give you some info about it. haha ironically to give you info about it have to first give you some background. About a year into children’s ministry I realized two things.

1. I have a group of 5^th and 6^th graders who have great potential in ministry but no outlet.

2. I need more help in The Deep (our children’s ministry)

Seeing these two things I developed a program called Timothy Crew. This is a group of 5^th and 6^th graders whom are willing to serve in TheDeep.  They help with everything from worship, running media, alter times, to setting up and tearing down before and after services.  In the summer our 6^th graders have an opportunity to serve as leaders in our kids camp, Hero Academy, as a special group known as “The Crew.”

Timothy Crew in of itself has been a great adventure.  It’s great seeing these kids growing in the Lord in so many different ways.  One of the kids who came through the Timothy Crew program has taken a special interest in growing more in the Lord. I like to call him BMac!

One day I was hanging out with him and I asked him one simple question,

“B, how’s your walk with the Lord going?”

He then proceeded to tell me that he was somewhat unsatisfied with his walk. He knew that big part of his growth centered around Bible reading but he just wasn’t doing it. We continued to talk for a while and I asked him questions,

“Do you want me to help you with your Bible reading? How do you want me to help you.”

We came to an arrangement that we’d meet once a week and discuss a chapter from scripture. We started with the book of Hebrews. Throughout the week we’d read a chapter on our own and then when we came together we’d discuss what we read. It was a slow start but soon B Mac started to get the hang of it.

Around chapter 6 I gave him and assignment. Each week before we met he needed to tweet something about the passage he read. Pretty soon he was putting out tweets like these

The idea was to get him to be able to look at a passage and be able to explain it in simple terms in context.

When we finished Hebrews we decided that we would start with the book of John. However, this time we are doing something different.  This time we would each do a blog post. First half of the post would sum up the passage. The second half of the post would be a practical application. The purpose of this experiment is to help him learn to read the scripture, comprehend the one truth, and see a practical application to his and other’s lives.

Every two weeks we will each post on this site. Next week you will see the first of two posts from us on John chapter 1!