The First Sunday, of Lent

Today, is the first Sunday of Lent.  Today, was somewhat like a normal Sunday; church then youth group.   The only different between this Sunday and others is that I did not work.  However, I realized that I have been up for twelve hours and have spent about ten hours not at my house and over an hour driving today.  That is normal for a Sunday (as bad as that is)!

So, about this youth group I mentioned.  Yes, I am the Fork Church Senior High Youth Group Leader.  I work with kids from 9th until 12th grade!  It is a great experience, and I am truly blessed to have all these kids in my life and help influence them.  With my youth group, I get to see a new perspective on life since most of my kids go to private school and their whole high school count is the same as my graduating class from high school in 2006.  Realizing that the change between myself being in high school from 2001 until 2006 is so different of what is going on in high school now; but not really.  The same challenges still exist and the same group of people are still there; however, being a college graduate gives me a different perspective on life.

As most Christian knows, that from Ash Wednesday until Easter it is more than 40 days.  However, as you realize Jesus only went through temptation for 40 days.  So, most Christians do take Sundays off to indulge into the items they gave up for Lent.  However, some people do not believe in that idea of having Sundays off.  This theory is a different view between what I grew up believing and what people try to convince me of now.

As I was sitting in Church today, listening to Anne's sermon; I noticed a few ideas that stuck in my head.    I was able to get a copy of Anne's sermon to help me think about this blog and my feelings.  The readings for today where from Genesis 2: 15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5: 12-19 and the Gospel being Matthew 4: 1-11.  All of these readings stuck to me in a different way.
As Anne started out talking about in her sermon, was that Eve was not there when God told Adam not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree; yet Eve is the one who gets the blame.  When it states in Genesis that Eve ate the fruit "then gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate."  So in theory Adam should be to blamed for not stopping Eve.  Paul's letter to the Romans talks about how through one man sin and death entered the world (Adam) and how through one man all sins where forgiven (Jesus).  Anne summarizes it best by saying "balance in today's lessons: Through Adam and Eve, humanity loses its innocence; through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, God restores that innocence and justifies us."
Anne makes two good points thinking about the story of Adam and Eve, that there are two things taught to us: knowledge and limits.  There are different versions of knowledge, such as the ratings on movies  and standardized tests in schools and entrance test for college; but also the knowledge of good and evil.  Also, that as Anne says "some knowledge we think we have, but we are wrong" in relationship to the theory that what we know is correct because that is the way we interpret it. This thought of knowledge comes around during natural disasters, health issues and loss of job.  However, Fred Phelps is one of these who believes in his knowledge being the correct knowledge and the only right knowledge.  Fred Phelps is the man who has been protesting at military funerals, saying that the reason America is at war and that Americans are dying is because Americans tolerate homosexuality.  I obviously disagree with this man, as most people do.
Yet how exactly do we know what is good and evil?  I mean besides the obvious little "bad" things that we are taught with from beginning; such as it is bad to ride in the car without a seat belt, or its bad to go outside in the cold without a coat on.  However, truly as good and evil do exist; the first thought of Adam and Eve, after eating the fruit, felt naked and ashamed.  Would anyone like to believe that that was God's intent?
Limits.  Ever since the beginning of time there has always been limits, yet somehow those limits do not always stay as firm as some people would like them too.  Take Adam and Eve for example, their only limit was not eating from the fruit of the tree in the center of Eden; yet we all know how that worked out.  Even now, we have limits all around us; yet not always do people stay inside those limits.  Sometimes the limits would be the "addiction" that someone has to anything and everything.

The Gospel this week, was all about Jesus being tempted by Satan to disprove Jesus as the son of God.  Satan tempted Jesus with lots of "test" to prove to see if Jesus was really the son of God.  However, every time Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus would discuss reasons for why he would not test God.  This itself, would cause most people go against their own thoughts and beliefs and test God; yet Jesus resisted.




So back to two different thoughts; the thought of high school and Fred Phelps.  I mean the difference between what Phelps says and bullying is that Phelps is "protected" by the First Amendment; yet why is bullying not allowed?  In theory, they are the same thing.  When kids are bullying others, they are just exerting their own thoughts and expressions; just as Phelps is about God hating America because we support homosexuals.  I mean I hate bullying, I had to put up with it as a child.  It is not fun, and bullying is not just located in schools.  Bullying is still around when people are adults, but normally at that point the person being bullied knows how to handle it or who to turn to.  Kids in school, sometimes feel like they have no one to turn to when someone else is picking on them.  That is why I love having a youth group, in case I can hope to reach out to at least one child and make them realize they can ask me for help about anything.

As of right now, this is it for tonight!