jQ: IS GOD A MAN or a WOMAN?

jA: (Chris): The short answer is neither and both.

Neither. God is not a man, nor is he a woman. God is God — the uncreated Creator of the Universe who holds everything that ever has been and everything that ever will be in His hands. We get our concept of God as a man or woman because we have been taught (correctly) that God made humans in His image. God did make both man and woman in His image (Genesis 1). So if both man and woman are created in His image, that means that both what it means God is both very masculine and very feminine, because both concepts come from who He is. God is referred to as “Father” all over the Scriptures, but God is also referred to in ways we would consider feminine as well. In fact, the original word for Spirit is a feminine word. To limit God is being a man or a woman isn’t accurate.

However, God came to our Earth as a human. In doing that, he took on a body (remember the “chile con carne” talk?). In that sense, God is a man because He came as Jesus. But even when He chose to “clothe himself” in a body, Jesus referred to himself as a “hen that desires to gather her chicks under her wings” (Matt 23).  Don’t confuse God’s choice to come as a man with God’s preference for one gender over another. Christ sees our gender, our bodies, and all of who we are and loves us all the same (see Galatians 3:28).

jA: (Adam): check out this music video from Gungor. Notice that as God loves, He creates. We are created in love; God creates because He loves and loves what He creates.

The question I asked on the first day was “If you started following Jesus in the year after He went back to be with the Father, how would you know that what you were being told about Him was true?”  One thing that kept coming up in the answers the students gave (there was about 20 min of conversation about the question), was that there had been people who had know Jesus around to tell the story. That set up the importance of learning about the men who we now know as the Apostles.

Last week we talked about Simon Peter, who has been historically recognized as a “key” leader of the Apostles.  The interesting thing about Simon Peter is that his names tell his story.  Simon is an anglicized version of the name Simeon, which can literally mean “the one who hears”, or “the one who listens to God”.  Peter means “rock”.

[Follow along in Matt 16:13-19] Simon Peter became a, if not “the”, leader of the Apostles because of his response to a question that Jesus posed to the disciples one day.  Jesus asked, “What about you, who do YOU say that I am?”

Simon Peter replied “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus’ reaction to Simon was nothing less than over-the-top. There was no gold star and a high five “attaboy”, but rather a moment of transformation that changed history as we know it.  At the moment, Jesus gave Simon a new name, told him that he would be the leader of this thing called the Church, that he would hold authority from heaven, and that hell and death would not overcome the movement he would start.

Pause.  All Simon did was say what he had seen and heard.  Really, if anyone had been paying attention they would have understood the same thing that he did.  But that was it, he was listening. He was open to what God was doing right in from of him and he was simply attentive to it. AND those “small” moments the listen, look and watch changed the course of history. They also made an unknown fisherman the leader of God’s family that would span the globe in a matter of centuries.

We concluded our class with a few moments of silent prayer in which we asked God to speak to us.  I challenged our students to spend a few days this week in silence and asking God to speak.  Who knows – maybe those moments will change history!

Nouwen reminds us that Christ had some really unique opportunities to respond to some of the most pressing and hot button issues of His time, but did not.  In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is asked to prove himself to the world and by changing some stones into bread. Wouldn’t it have been a good increase of influence for His ministry if he would do that in front of everyone? Wouldn’t his Twitter following skyrocket? If he would simply choose to be relevant, Jesus would be bigger than Bieber! At the very least, he could finally eat after 40 days of fasting.

But He does not turn the stones to bread.  His response is to rely on God’s faithfulness and truth. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  In His response, we begin to see that Jesus’ relationship to God is more than a following of stagnant, constitution-like list of divine commands, but rather a moment-by-moment relationship with the dynamic all-powerful and all-loving God.  Jesus had plenty of opportunities to make himself famous, to get noticed, or to do great works that He simply passed up because He only did what He saw His Father doing (see John 5).

Please pray that we as the leaders of this youth ministry could repent of our tendencies (however slight or large they may be) to be relevant. Pray instead that we would be able to stop and see where God is already at work and join Him in it.

A line that hits me (Chris) square in the face is:

Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice and guidance (p. 45).

In order to help ourselves to avoid the temptation to be relevant rather than rooted, we are spending at least an hour over the next week in contemplative prayer.  We are asking the Spirit to search our hearts as we ask ourselves the question “Do you love me?”. This is the same question that Jesus asked Peter before releasing Him as an apostle. It confronts the motives of our hearts and nudges us to choose between having our hearts open to Christ’s love or whether to be about only what we want.

Join us this week as we ask ourselves “Do we love Him?”

Grace and peace,

Chris

And here:

How To Make Youth Group Suck

• Don’t Come

Examples: -Man, I just have a TON of homework!

-I’m pretty tired, and I need to wake up early tomorrow.

-       No.

• Don’t Participate in the activities

-It will only be as fun as you make it. Games aren’t fun for anyone if no one is playing.

• Pretend like everything is perfect

Example: -“How’s it going?” “It’s all good man, you?”

We have ups and downs, Christian or not, so don’t pretend like they don’t exist.

• Fart & Blame it on someone else.
• Do illegal things
• Smooch.

PDA makes other people uncomfortable, so unglue for the couple of hours that you are at youth group.

• Spread rumors.

Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death”

• Listen to rumors

Proverbs 17:4 “A wicked person listens to deceitful lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.”

• Think you can handle your problems on your own.
• Make fun of people.
• Dress immodestly

1 Corinthians 10:32 “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God”

• Think “you’re too school for cool”
• Don’t speak during discussion time
•  Come to youth group tired, stubborn, or scared.
•  Ignore people who are different from you.
• Forget about the people from youth group during the week.

Lift up the people in the youth group to God in prayer throughout the week, and HANG OUT! Youth group isn’t a Sunday special.

• Poop on the toilet seat.

Guys, you don’t stand up to poop. Aim shouldn’t be an issue.

How To Make Youth Group Great

• PARTICIPATE!

Let out some steam, have some fun, and maybe get a little bit of exercise!

• Let loose! Be yourself

Speak up and be heard!

• Make youth group a safe environment.

-What happens in small group stays in small group

-Show honor by encouraging each other, and respecting other people’s ideas.

-Welcome newcomers.

• Go On TRIPS!!!!

-The trips are the glue to the youth group. You grow closer than you ever thought possible. Youth group people go from friends to family.

-Money should never limit you. Talk to an adult leader and it can be worked out.

• Embrace Filth and Sweat

-Any stank is good stank

• Know the boundaries

-They are there for your protection. Embrace that protection with honor, because it means someone cares enough to watch over you.

• Get creative within the boundaries.

-MAKE YOUR OWN FUN!

• Give Adam at least 15 high fives every Sunday.

-His hand should be in a constant state of red.

• Understand each other’s differences.

-Think before you think. EMPATHY, EMPATHY, EMPATHY!

• Accountability!

-Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

-Find an accountability partner. (or 7)

Share your life with someone. The good times, bad times,          struggles, questions. Everything.

-Disciple each other. Keep each other accountable

In love, correct and be corrected.

-Invest time in each other!

30% of time in youth group, 70% outside of youth group

• Thank the volunteers for making the food.

(they’ll spit in it if you don’t)

• Find good role models
• Be good role models.

Leading is not being served. Leading is service. A good leader takes less than his/her share of the credit and takes more than his/her share of the blame.

• Dress modestly!

Remember, modest is hottest.

• BE CHRIST-LIKE

HUMBLE: Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; but made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross!”

LOVING: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, Love never fails.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these 3 remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

• Pray and Expect God to Show Up.

He will.

A couple of weeks back, the High School worship band was studying Ephesians and we came across this famous prayer from Paul found in chapter 3 verses 14- 21.  This is what it looks like:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Mmmm, that’s a good one.  As I was thinking about this prayer, I was drawn to the part in verse 18 that says “I pray that you… may have power… to GRASP… how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”.

I’ve always thought it fascinating that Paul doesn’t use “know” or “understand” or even “become acquainted with” when he talks about God’s love.  He uses “grasp”.  What an interesting word.  Webster says that grasp means “to make the motion of seizing, to clutch eagerly, to lay hold of with the mind”.  So what does it mean to grasp the love of Christ?

One of my favorite people these days is a lovely person named Natalie.  Natalie is just over two years old and probably makes me smile more than anybody else.  When she looks up at me and shouts “Aduummm!” my heart just melts.  She is constantly in a state of observance – seeing and learning new things, taking them in with those big brown eyes.  Now stay with me here.  If Natalie had never been to the ocean, and I told her about it, how would I communicate it?  I would use words like “big, loud, wet, blue, etc.”  I would make the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore, and I would use my hands to indicate the massive scale of that body that covers about 70% of our planet’s surface.  Natalie would know about the ocean, right?

Now what if I took Natalie to the ocean?  What if she could smell the smells, taste the saltiness, hear the sounds, and be overwhelmed by how MASSIVE the ocean is?  Keep in mind, Natalie would still not UNDERSTAND a lot about the ocean.  She wouldn’t know about the pH levels of the water, or how millions of organisms co-exist in symbiotic relationships.  She wouldn’t know about the photosynthesis of algae, or of the role of plankton in the food chain.  She wouldn’t even know about high and low tides.  But, having been there, she would GRASP the ocean.  When asked about the ocean, she would remember what it was like.  What it felt like to BE there, rather than the description she had been given.

I think too many times we as Christians settle for trying to understand God’s love.  Really, we have about as much chance to understand God’s love as Natalie does in understanding the chemical make-up of sea-water.  When we realize that His love is illogical, that it doesn’t make sense, and that we can’t understand it, we give up.  We refuse to journey to the beach to see just how HUGE it is.  And even if we make it that far, many of us refuse to enter the waves.  Why?  Because it’s scary.  It’s unknown, we don’t understand it.  And maybe most of all – because we don’t have control.  That’s a huge one for me, control.  I’m at the place in my life where I’ve been to the beach and I’ve seen how big and good God’s love is, but being honest, I think I’ve only dipped a toe in.  I want to go head-first, to dive deeply, and to be lost in His love.  David Crowder wrote these lyrics in one of his recent songs:
“It’s your love that we adore it’s like a sea without a shore

We’re lost in you, we’re lost in you.

Just set your sail and risk the ocean.

It’s only grace”

So my prayer for you, reader – and for the youth of Community Church of Columbus is this: that you may have POWER together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

All the fullness of God – that’s a lot.  Let’s risk the ocean, after all, it’s only grace.

Adam Coleman is the Director of High School Ministries at Community Church of Columbus