I almost cried tonight when the Jews were going out of Egypt and the children started singing the Hebrew bit in the middle of the song "When you believe". I got curious what they were actually singing so I looked it up. Here are the lyrics in Hebrew and English.
"Ashira l'adonai ki ga'oh ga'ah
Ashira l'adonai ki ga'oh ga'ah
Michamocha, ba-elim adonai
Michamocha nedar-bakodesh
Nachitah v'chasd'cha, am zu ga'alta
Nachitah v'chasd'cha, am zu gaalta
Ashira, Ashira, Ashira..."
Translation:
"I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously.
I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously.
Who is like You, O Adondai, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness?
In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed.
In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed.
I will sing, I will sing, I will sing..."
"Adonai" means Lord and is a substitute for God's personal name Yahweh. Whenever you're reading in the Old Testament and it says "LORD" in the English that's where a Jew would say "Adonai" instead of pronouncing God's name. Anyway, the song in the movie is based on the song Moses sings in Exodus 15:1-18, specifically verses 1, 11 and 13. I thought it was awesome seeing the joy of people as they came out of slavery into freedom.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Choosing Not to Be a Prince of Egypt
A couple more thoughts about the movie we're watching. Last night we watched the first part of Prince of Egypt, about the life of Moses and the Exodus. We talked about the different ways the movie changes the story from what's in the Bible. One thing I think it really missed, and I wish I'd thought of this last night, is that Moses chose to leave the palace and join his people before he ever left Egypt or killed an overseer. This isn't in Exodus so I don't really blame the movie guys for leaving it out but the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament says Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than be considered a prince of Egypt. Hebrews 11:24-26 says,
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."
Moses thought it was more important to be approved by God than to live with all the pleasures and treasures of Pharaoh's palaces. Sometime when he was grown up he remembered or learned who he was and chose to leave all the royal life behind him. He didn't blunder into it by accidently killing an Egyptian. He chose the life of a slave and then went into the wilderness where he spent 40 years tending sheep before God called him. I like the movie, but I think that's a big difference. Read more about it in Exodus 2-4 and Hebrews 11:23-28.
The other thing we didn't talk about last night that I think is "awesomemazing" is Jethro's song about how we have to look at our lives through Heaven's eyes. I know that way too often I try to judge how good my life is by comparing it to other people around me. That's stupid. I don't know what they think and I don't know how their story or my story is going to end. I just see snapshots and memories without seeing the whole picture or where it's going. God knows that whole picture because He's been drawing and painting it since before the beginning of time. He knows how my experiences and problems combine to make me who I am and how that affects other people. He knows way better than I do all that I am and all that I can be. I know enough about the end of my story to know that I will live in the house of the Lord forever, but I don't know much about how I'm going to get there. So I've got to judge my life not based on what I know but what God knows and what I know about God. He loves me and He will work all things to my good even if I don't see it now. If you know Him that's true for you too. If you don't know Him, ask Him. He will answer.
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."
Moses thought it was more important to be approved by God than to live with all the pleasures and treasures of Pharaoh's palaces. Sometime when he was grown up he remembered or learned who he was and chose to leave all the royal life behind him. He didn't blunder into it by accidently killing an Egyptian. He chose the life of a slave and then went into the wilderness where he spent 40 years tending sheep before God called him. I like the movie, but I think that's a big difference. Read more about it in Exodus 2-4 and Hebrews 11:23-28.
The other thing we didn't talk about last night that I think is "awesomemazing" is Jethro's song about how we have to look at our lives through Heaven's eyes. I know that way too often I try to judge how good my life is by comparing it to other people around me. That's stupid. I don't know what they think and I don't know how their story or my story is going to end. I just see snapshots and memories without seeing the whole picture or where it's going. God knows that whole picture because He's been drawing and painting it since before the beginning of time. He knows how my experiences and problems combine to make me who I am and how that affects other people. He knows way better than I do all that I am and all that I can be. I know enough about the end of my story to know that I will live in the house of the Lord forever, but I don't know much about how I'm going to get there. So I've got to judge my life not based on what I know but what God knows and what I know about God. He loves me and He will work all things to my good even if I don't see it now. If you know Him that's true for you too. If you don't know Him, ask Him. He will answer.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
!!!DUN DUN DUN!!!
Here they are, videos from winter retreat!!!! Sit, Laugh, and Enjoy!! ^_^
Finger Fencing: Gio vs. Everett
Giant Swing: John and Gio
Party in the U.S.A.
Egyptian Rat!!
Extreme Pens!! [aka pigpens] Gio vs. Everett
Round 2 [pigpens] Gio vs. Everett
Toe Jam...
Eating Candy Necklaces
Pop in a Sock...
Finger Fencing: Gio vs. Everett
Giant Swing: John and Gio
Party in the U.S.A.
Egyptian Rat!!
Extreme Pens!! [aka pigpens] Gio vs. Everett
Round 2 [pigpens] Gio vs. Everett
Toe Jam...
Eating Candy Necklaces
Pop in a Sock...
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
*!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANNE!!*
First off I'd like to wish dianne an offical "happy birthday" from myself and all of our awesome 3D students and leaders. For those of you who didn't know, dianne's birthday is on the 12th of march!! [that would be this month ;] ]
We celebrated after 3D at Bakers Square for some.... FREE PIE!!!! and it was yummay!! So once again, happy birthday and may yer day be awesomely blessed dianne. ^_^
JOB
Now, onto other news. Everett expanded on our study of Job tonight and the main idea was, how job, being in as much pain as he was and cursing the day of his birth, [which you can all read in chapter 3, so do so when you have time. And if you are still captivated, read on in chapter 4 where job's friends begin to give their reasons for why he was going through all that he did]
There's a point in the story where the Lord presents himself in a storm and asks Job questions. Like everett suggested, read through it and ask yerself if you know any of the answers to them. See what you find interesting and if you'd like to share what you've discovered, feel free to share here by adding comments or sharing it with us next week.
Everett reminded us what the reason was for all of the tragic things that were happening to Job and it was because he LOVED GOD. Serving the Lord isn't for the faint of heart. There will be lots of trials and tribulations that come as part of the price for follwing Jesus. However... when you truly put ALL of yer faith in him, whatever yer facing doesn't always seem so terrible because you know that God is bigger than it all and in the end, he will be glorified and bring you through whatever hard times yer having. So it will be worth it. Hang in there.
RUMANDUNG FRANSIKA TAMPUBOLON
This is the name of our new compassion child in indonesia. Some of you may've forgotten what her name was since mike introduced her to us, and if you did, welp.. here it is ^_^ We will be supporting her and our same Tuukuo Merin. Fadia Haya from indonesia has left the compassion program. We don't know the reason why, but just because she has, doesn't mean that we should forget about her. Feel free to shoot up a prayer to God for her whenever she comes to mind.
MISSIONS TRIP TO CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINA
If you haven't decided whether or not you'll be going on this amazing God-filled, serving, missions trip in july, there are a few spots still open but you'll have to talk to mike soon!! I'm not sure how much longer he's leaving this open so if you feel like God is calling you to do some hard missions work and share Jesus, don't hesitate, just sign up!! I know that the Lord is gonna do an awesome thing this summer with it.
VIDEOS
Just a side note. I have some videos that I took from the winter retreat REVOLUTION MISSION POSSIBLE of some of the boys going on the GIANT SWING and others of us playing X-TREME PENS!! [dangerous?? o_O] perhaps gio would have an idea of how that game went down with everett ;] I'll try to get those posted up as soon as I can so that you all can enjoy the rest of our great moments during that weekend.
TODAY I WENT TO HELL
If you click on that link above "today i went to hell" you'll be able to see more about what mike was talking to us about in kenya. For natalie, the woman who wrote this story is Kristen Welch.
_______________
Welp, I think I've covered just about everything. Write any of us if you any questions or just wanna say, "hey!! what's up??" otherwise...
God bless~
Oh yes and one more thing. Gio you are sooo on for egyptian rat next wednesday. I am making it my personal goal to beat you =P
We celebrated after 3D at Bakers Square for some.... FREE PIE!!!! and it was yummay!! So once again, happy birthday and may yer day be awesomely blessed dianne. ^_^
JOB
Now, onto other news. Everett expanded on our study of Job tonight and the main idea was, how job, being in as much pain as he was and cursing the day of his birth, [which you can all read in chapter 3, so do so when you have time. And if you are still captivated, read on in chapter 4 where job's friends begin to give their reasons for why he was going through all that he did]
There's a point in the story where the Lord presents himself in a storm and asks Job questions. Like everett suggested, read through it and ask yerself if you know any of the answers to them. See what you find interesting and if you'd like to share what you've discovered, feel free to share here by adding comments or sharing it with us next week.
Everett reminded us what the reason was for all of the tragic things that were happening to Job and it was because he LOVED GOD. Serving the Lord isn't for the faint of heart. There will be lots of trials and tribulations that come as part of the price for follwing Jesus. However... when you truly put ALL of yer faith in him, whatever yer facing doesn't always seem so terrible because you know that God is bigger than it all and in the end, he will be glorified and bring you through whatever hard times yer having. So it will be worth it. Hang in there.
RUMANDUNG FRANSIKA TAMPUBOLON
This is the name of our new compassion child in indonesia. Some of you may've forgotten what her name was since mike introduced her to us, and if you did, welp.. here it is ^_^ We will be supporting her and our same Tuukuo Merin. Fadia Haya from indonesia has left the compassion program. We don't know the reason why, but just because she has, doesn't mean that we should forget about her. Feel free to shoot up a prayer to God for her whenever she comes to mind.
MISSIONS TRIP TO CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINA
If you haven't decided whether or not you'll be going on this amazing God-filled, serving, missions trip in july, there are a few spots still open but you'll have to talk to mike soon!! I'm not sure how much longer he's leaving this open so if you feel like God is calling you to do some hard missions work and share Jesus, don't hesitate, just sign up!! I know that the Lord is gonna do an awesome thing this summer with it.
VIDEOS
Just a side note. I have some videos that I took from the winter retreat REVOLUTION MISSION POSSIBLE of some of the boys going on the GIANT SWING and others of us playing X-TREME PENS!! [dangerous?? o_O] perhaps gio would have an idea of how that game went down with everett ;] I'll try to get those posted up as soon as I can so that you all can enjoy the rest of our great moments during that weekend.
TODAY I WENT TO HELL
If you click on that link above "today i went to hell" you'll be able to see more about what mike was talking to us about in kenya. For natalie, the woman who wrote this story is Kristen Welch.
_______________
Welp, I think I've covered just about everything. Write any of us if you any questions or just wanna say, "hey!! what's up??" otherwise...
God bless~
Oh yes and one more thing. Gio you are sooo on for egyptian rat next wednesday. I am making it my personal goal to beat you =P
Thursday, March 4, 2010
More on Job
So yesterday we talked more on Job and some other things he had to go through. Not only did he lose alot of things that were important to him, including his children, but satan also caused him to break out with sores ALL OVER!! Can you imagine just how painful that had to be?? They bothered Job so much that he used a broken piece of pottery to scrape at them... YOWZERS!!
While he was dealing with that, a few of his friends came by to sympathize with him, knowing that he had just gone through a very HUGE ordeal. They sat with him for 7 days in silence. That's pretty impressive, I'm sure that maybe most of us couldn't stay quiet for more than a day. But after seeing how much pain Job was in, even his wife, along with his friends, told him that God was the one who had caused these awful things to happen and that he should just curse God and die!! His wife just wanted him to be done with it already, but Job knowing the Lord, would not curse God, but praise him.
His friends were saying tons of things of why these things happened to him and that there had to be a reason, that maybe he was just a bad person. Well when we all read the story of Job we know that he was an honorable man, so it wasn't that at all. All I know is that it must have been absolute torture to have to go through something like that and not even being supported by your closest friends.
Everett will talk to us next week and we'll be able to get more in depth of what's happening in this true story.
God bless~
While he was dealing with that, a few of his friends came by to sympathize with him, knowing that he had just gone through a very HUGE ordeal. They sat with him for 7 days in silence. That's pretty impressive, I'm sure that maybe most of us couldn't stay quiet for more than a day. But after seeing how much pain Job was in, even his wife, along with his friends, told him that God was the one who had caused these awful things to happen and that he should just curse God and die!! His wife just wanted him to be done with it already, but Job knowing the Lord, would not curse God, but praise him.
His friends were saying tons of things of why these things happened to him and that there had to be a reason, that maybe he was just a bad person. Well when we all read the story of Job we know that he was an honorable man, so it wasn't that at all. All I know is that it must have been absolute torture to have to go through something like that and not even being supported by your closest friends.
Everett will talk to us next week and we'll be able to get more in depth of what's happening in this true story.
God bless~
Friday, February 26, 2010
JOB
Wait... what?? you want us to get a job you ask?? Nopers, but we are talking about a pretty cool dude named Job!! Mike opened up the story for us this past wednesday introducing us to this very wealthy man who loved God. In this story Job's sons and daughters would get together and have feasts in each other's houses and when they did, Job would go and offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord and said "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." and so he did this regularly.
Now there was a day when the sons of God [meaning "beings" or "angels"] came to present themselves before the Lord and satan came as well. So God said to satan "From where do you come?" and satan answered "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth in it." God then said to satan if he considered his servant Job and that there was "no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." Satan says to God, well of course he loves you because he has everything he could ever want. So think about it this way, a type of "lets make a deal" begins. Satan says that if something bad were to happen to Job then he would curse God to his very face!! =O God says to feel free to do what he wished with Job but that he is not allowed to touch Job himself.
Well now that satan was given "permission" there was a day when Job's sons and daughters were having another one of their feasts a messenger came to tell him that some bad guys came and attacked and he lost all his oxen and all his servants were killed!! and he was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Another messenger then came and told Job that fire had fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and that he was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Another messenger came and told Job the chaldeans came and stole all his camels and killed all the servants and that he too was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Then... would you believe it?? ANOTHER messenger came to tell him that while Job's sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck down the four corners of the house and it COLLAPSED on them and that they all died!!
How do you think he received this news?? 4 different servants came and brought him this bad news... and what did Job do?? "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped." Wait.. did you just say worshiped?? yup yup, that's exactly what Job did.
How would you react if something you loved was taken away from you?? How would you respond to God??
In the first chapter of this story the last verse says "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." WOWZERS!!
Mike will be continuing another part of the Job story next week so tune in to see what else happens to him!!
God bless~ ^_^
Now there was a day when the sons of God [meaning "beings" or "angels"] came to present themselves before the Lord and satan came as well. So God said to satan "From where do you come?" and satan answered "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth in it." God then said to satan if he considered his servant Job and that there was "no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." Satan says to God, well of course he loves you because he has everything he could ever want. So think about it this way, a type of "lets make a deal" begins. Satan says that if something bad were to happen to Job then he would curse God to his very face!! =O God says to feel free to do what he wished with Job but that he is not allowed to touch Job himself.
Well now that satan was given "permission" there was a day when Job's sons and daughters were having another one of their feasts a messenger came to tell him that some bad guys came and attacked and he lost all his oxen and all his servants were killed!! and he was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Another messenger then came and told Job that fire had fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and that he was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Another messenger came and told Job the chaldeans came and stole all his camels and killed all the servants and that he too was the only one that escaped to tell him.
Then... would you believe it?? ANOTHER messenger came to tell him that while Job's sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck down the four corners of the house and it COLLAPSED on them and that they all died!!
How do you think he received this news?? 4 different servants came and brought him this bad news... and what did Job do?? "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped." Wait.. did you just say worshiped?? yup yup, that's exactly what Job did.
How would you react if something you loved was taken away from you?? How would you respond to God??
In the first chapter of this story the last verse says "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." WOWZERS!!
Mike will be continuing another part of the Job story next week so tune in to see what else happens to him!!
God bless~ ^_^
Monday, February 15, 2010
Revolution Winter Retreat 2010!!
Welp... first off let me just say what an amazing time our 3D students and leaders had on this trip "REVOLUTION MISSION POSSIBLE" in Lake Geneva WI.
There were lots of activities and workshops that they got to choose from, card games, and gross games and everything in between, but most importantly their encounter with GOD!! They all truly served as an inspiration to me and I'm sooo glad that I got to be a part of their growth during the retreat. To see them worshiping the Lord and praying for each other as well as other kids that they didn't even know.
I am very excited to say that we had a few middle schoolers who accepted Christ for the very first time!!!! We also had 3 new girls who came and they really enjoyed themselves as well. It was wonderful to see them open up with each other and with us as leaders.
Enjoy this slideshow as it shows just a portion of all that happened over the weekend!!
There were lots of activities and workshops that they got to choose from, card games, and gross games and everything in between, but most importantly their encounter with GOD!! They all truly served as an inspiration to me and I'm sooo glad that I got to be a part of their growth during the retreat. To see them worshiping the Lord and praying for each other as well as other kids that they didn't even know.
I am very excited to say that we had a few middle schoolers who accepted Christ for the very first time!!!! We also had 3 new girls who came and they really enjoyed themselves as well. It was wonderful to see them open up with each other and with us as leaders.
Enjoy this slideshow as it shows just a portion of all that happened over the weekend!!
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