Okay, please don’t let me forget to mention this. We will be taking a group photo of the choir on Thursday, Dec. 13.

Dress code for the cantata as well as the pictures are as follows.

Women - black bottoms and red tops.

Men - black bottoms and white tops.

Practice is necessary for the cantata. It will be the only time that we get to run through the cantata in the sanctuary. It will be the only time that we get to set the sound. See you Thursday.

“Your statutes are the theme of my song.” - Psalm 119:54a

“Even pudding needs a theme.” - Winston Churchill

There are several variations on this quote from Churchill, but no matter how it is stated, the message is the same. This leader was not interested in consuming a confusing dish. Puddings of the early 19th century were hardy words of art, filled with raisins, dates, and nuts. They were solid desserts, not a squishy blob of chocolate in a a plastic cup.

If we will agree that even pudding needs a theme, we will see that a worship service which includes songs on forgiveness, a drama sketch on tithing, a solo on missions, and a sermon on the second coming doesn’t qualify the worship service as eclectic; it qualifies it as unfocused.

Many products can help tie our services together: PowerPoint backgrounds, preserves music, song collections, sermon illustrations, and video clips.

If the infamous Churchill were to visit your church worship service this weekend, would he find a pudding without a theme, or would he be able to focus face-to-face with the Lord of all creation?

Show us, Lord, how to tie it all together.

This is part of a Sunday School lesson that I taught the Teenagers this weekend. I hope you enjoy.

People act in a different realm than what we might expect.  Each of us have two different sides. One side is cognitive. This is our logical side where things are black and white. If I put my finger in a electrical socket, it will really hurt.  This seems simple, but the majority of our decision making is not made out of our logical side. Adults will react greater based on what is concrete in their emotions. I’ll explain.

Our decision making comes from our emotional side. Now shouldn’t we take our emotional side captive? Christians only have two emotions, guilt for missing that one worship service two years ago, and happy (because we were told to be)?

Are emotions go much deeper than that. Let’s say that a good Christian girl is picked on at age 12 for being over-weight (very common problem). She “feels” rejected and not wanted. And this is where the enemies step in. They take her emotions and make them concrete. She begins to feel rejected because no one really wants her; no one really loves her; she is not enjoyable to be around; she must look a specific way in order to be wanted. Once she believes these lies she has opened a door for demonic opposition. She will enter into marriage, go through child birth, come out depressed and miserable because her lack of her teenage figure only shows how much she is unwanted. - Following me.

A lot of Christians know that Christ loves them because the Bible tells them so. However, there are a lot of Christians who do not feel that Christ loves them because of the ungodly guilt and the demonic lies. Which one wins. The emotional side will interfere with their actions every time.

Men usually believe the lie that they are only worth something if they are productive at work. When a man looses a job, it is equivalent to a woman losing a child. Women have a hard time understanding this, and men do too.

Women usually believe the lie that they are only worth something if they are a certain size and have a clean house. Women don’t care if they are fired (well, not to the extent that men do). But when they ask whether you like that dress, most are really asking, “Do you still find me attractive?”

Why am I writing this? Because many of us are acting out at these lies. We are not living free from these lies. Jesus said in John 8, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free…If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” Begin to ask God to show you the lies and ask Him to remove them. And live that life and live it more abundantly.

Many of us know the story of the first man and woman. But there are some details to bring the story to life. Before we make Adam out to be the world’s worst enemy, which he is the reason why all of us are born into sin, there might be a deeper side to the story.

One of the lessons in Genesis chapter 3 is brought out further in I Tim. 2. Verse 14 tells us that Adam was not deceived. Eve was lied to. Eve had no reason not to believe the serpent. She has never heard a lie. In fact, the word “lie” hasn’t even been made. But even though she foolishly took the fruit, she was guilty. But Adam was not deceived.

Adam had a choice. And Adam was not confused about his decision. God told Adam and Eve that they will be totally separated from God if they were to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Once Eve had eaten of the fruit, she handed the fruit to Adam. Adam is now left with the choice. On one side, is staying with the Lord God. On the other side is his own flesh and blood. On one side is doing what God said. On the other side is letting someone of your own flesh be unprotected.

Adam chose to be with his wife. He was not deceived. He knew that he too would be separated from God. He went because he knew his wife would be separated from Him. He ate of the fruit to protect his wife (this is where all the women say, “Ah, how sweet.”)

But the story continues. After the humans sinned, they hid. And the Creator of the Universe, the One Who Is Lord Over All, pursued them. It wasn’t Adam and Eve that came and fell at the feet of God. He came to them. And even when they hid, He found them.