lessons from VBS

God made us

and built us for a purpose!

VBS this week was full of energy and excitement! there were plenty of activities to do with games, imagination station, snacks and topics to discuss with bible time. I want to thank the parents who brought their children and the leaders and helpers that worked very hard and made this the success that it was. 5 nights of fun and learning about God. each night we talked about a different aspect of God.

Psalm 139:14–15 ESV

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

night one we discussed how God made you. David wrote in psalm 139 just how amazing God is! He knows how and when we are made. one of my favorite books called more than meets the eye, by Dr Swenson takes a look a just how God made us. i will give you some stats on the human body. if you do not think we are made with incredible complexity and design..... get this. God made us with sub atomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, all completely designed for us to live inside our bodies.

we have 10 to the 28th power of atoms. 90 % of our atoms are replaced annually. 100% every 5 years. in the last hour, one trillion trillion atoms have been replaced. between 10 and 100 trillion cells, and each cell contains about a trillion atoms. each cell contains 100 of motors run on atp. each motor is 200 thousand times smaller than a pin head. that is just skimming the surface of how complex our bodies are. are they designed well? and we can give credit to the great designer.

in VBS we learned about the heart and how it pumps.... how many beats per minute?

over an average life span, it beats 2 1/2 billion times and pumps 60 million gallons of blood.

get this, even at just 14 weeks in the womb, a babies heart is pumping 7 gallons per day......that being compared to two thousand gallons a day for an adult. Wow!

the body has 60k miles of blood vessels, that equates to a distance of almost 2 1/2 times around the earth at the equator!

Just incredible how God made us!

Joshua 1:9 ESV

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:8–9 ESV

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

night 2 God is for you. you know, some people think God only likes good people. well, the question i have to ask to that is "who is good" I mean, who is good enough? is anyone perfect? in Joshua...... We dove into the story about the Israelites making their way to the promise land and just how one woman had faith to help Joshuas men and God blessed her from it. but she wasn't an Israelite.... and she wouldn't be considered a good woman in those days either. but God gave her faith, and God helped the Israelites through her. her name was Rahab. we even find the name Rahab in the book of Matthew being in the lineage of Jesus. Rahab was Davids Great, great grandmother. she is also found in the book of Hebrews talking about her faith!

one great verse for us to think about is...

Romans 8:31 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

so kids, God was with you when you were spies sneaking into Jericho?

Judges 6:11 ESV

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

night 2 God is for you. Joshua 1-2 you know, some people think God only likes good people. well, the question i have to ask to that is "who is good" I mean, who is good enough? is anyone perfect? in Joshua...... We dove into the story about the Israelites making their way to the promise land and just how one woman had faith to help Joshuas men and God blessed her from it. but she wasn't an Israelite.... and she wouldn't be considered a good woman in those days either. but God gave her faith, and God helped the Israelites through her. her name was Rahab. we even find the name Rahab in the book of Matthew being in the lineage of Jesus. Rahab was Davids Great, great grandmother.

night 3 God is always with you the story of Gideon, like many stories in scripture is just incredible. a small army that God designed takes on a huge army and the small army prevailed. God was with them.

God also used Gideon to get rid of idols. a powerful lesson when we stomp on idols.

Psalm 89:2 ESV

For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

night 4

Psalm 89:2 ESV

For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

God will always love you we can know that God loves us because of His Son. looking back at the life of Jesus, and the death He went through, we see God's love. Why? because God knew our greatest issue, which was sin, and He sent Jesus here to take care of that issue. Sin separates, and when we sin we are rebelling from God's ways. but God's love is so great that He made a way when there was no way. See, the way it started, Adam and Eve were perfect and innocent. so they were on the path and in a right relationship to God. but when they sinned, they were off the path. So, instead of people being separated from God forever, He sent His Son to reunite us back to Him. He had the power to forgive us through Jesus and also to make us right before Him because of the Life of Jesus freely given to us. Now people who trust in Christ can stand before God with the righteousness of Christ. He did the work to make us right with Him! He did all this because He Loves you! and that is the gospel message. is there anyone here that believes that message? if it is your first time believing this, I want to welcome you into the family of God!

night 5

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

1 Samuel 25

God made you for a reason

a story about David and his men that were blessed by a woman that God had given a purpose to all despite a rich man named Nabal. God has a purpose for all of His people. He has a purpose for you! in this story the kids learned about how God worked through a situation that could have gotten pretty ugly. See, in those days, it was right for you to feed travelers that came to your house. David had also protected the sheep of Nabals. so you would think that this rich guy would feed them but he wasn't going to....so Abigail did a brave act for David and his men. how was it kids, loading up the donkey? in the book of Jeremiah we hear God say that He knows the plans that He has for them......and God knows the plans that He has for you and I. you were created for a specific reason! some of the greatest things out of this week is that you, the parents were willing to bring your kids here and the kids looked like they had a super time. and the greatest thing this week is Jesus was exalted. thank you everyone. lets pray.