Speak Lord, Your servant listens

This week, Sunday School students read about how God called young Samuel to become His prophet in 1 Samuel, Chapter 3.

Samuel's mother Hannah was barren and begged the Lord for a child. When God blessed her with a son, she literally dedicated her son to God, offering him to serve in the temple.

When God verbally called Samuel by name, Samuel thought for sure it was the old priest Eli. After he's woken up Eli twice, the priest realized who was really trying to get the boy's attention, so he told Samuel to reply with "speak Lord, Your servant listens."

What God had to say wasn't easy. He had Samuel deliver his first message as a prophet. Samuel had to inform Eli that his family would be cursed because of the sins of Eli's corrupt sons.

A prophet is not some wizard that predicts the future. A prophet is a spokesman for God. We may be prophets when we share God's Word. But how can we share it, if we don't listen to it?

How can we listen for God's message today?

Three great ways to communicate with God: 
   1) Spend time in fellowship with other Christians, sharing how God has worked in your lives (like in church, Sunday school, Bible Study, youth group, or confirmation).
   2) Prayer and
   3) Reading the Bible.

But don't just go to God with your needs, wants, and questions- be willing to wait, be still,  and listen to Him.

Ask your kids about what they learn in Sunday School, have conversations about the Bible and your faith. Talk about times when God used you or times when you may have thought you didn't need God but found out otherwise. 

Take a look at some of the stories they're learning about in Sunday School & Confirmation in the Bible for yourself and make these last few months of 2012 "The Year of the Word."

The  best way to get God's Word into you, is to start getting into God's Word.

I know that my Redeemer Lives

This week Sunday School kids learned about the book of Ruth.

Even though she was a gentile (a Moabite), instead of returning to her own family after her husband died, Ruth decided to follow her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi (who had also been widowed).

"Your people will be my people and your God my God..." Ruth 1:16

Both women left Moab for Judah to find food.

Through the course of the story, Ruth coincidentally meets one of Naomi's "kinsmen-redeemers," a land owner named Boaz.

Kinsmen-Redeemers were (Leviticus 25:25-25, Numbers 35:19-21, & Deuteronomy 25:5-10) responsible for helping extended family members in need; providing heirs for dead brothers, buying back lost land or even family members sold into slavery.

Boaz hears about how hard Ruth works to take care of her widowed mother-in-law and her loyalty to Naomi and to God. He decides to look out for her, "May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge" (Ruth 2:12).

When Naomi finds out who's fields Ruth has been picking up the leftovers from, she suggests she humbly seek even more refuge, so Ruth asks Boaz to take her in under HIS wing (Ruth 3:9).

Boaz married Ruth and the local elders blessed them, "May the Lord you have standing in Ephratha and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman..." (Ruth 4:12). As it turned out, Ruth would be King David's grandmother and therefore a gentile ancestor of Jesus Himself (Matthew 1:5-6).

Of course, God the Father sent Jesus His Son to be the ultimate "kinsman-redeemer" for all of us, both Jews and gentiles!

Ask your kids about what they learn in Sunday School, have conversations about the Bible and your faith. Talk about times when God used you or times when you may have thought you didn't need God but found out otherwise. 

Take a look at some of the stories they're learning about in Sunday School & Confirmation in the Bible for yourself and make these last few months of 2012 "The Year of the Word."

The  best way to get God's Word into you, is to start getting into God's Word.

Set Apart; God's Strength, Not Our Own

This week, Sunday School kids read about the Nazirite, Sampson in Judges 14-16.

Over and over again, Samson failed to keep his vows to God, he got drunk, he touched dead things, and he fell in love with a Philistine woman, Delilah who worshiped false gods. Eventually his pride and self-assurance caught up with him after he told Delilah the secret of his strength, she handed him over to the Philistines who blinded him, humiliated him and made him a slave.

But God was faithful. Once Samson's hair grew back, his captors put him on display and celebrated how their gods had delivered them this great Hebrew warrior. In the midst of this humiliation, Samson asked God to strengthen him one more time, to defeat thousands of Philistines all at once, even if it meant dying with them.

There are times, (like in last week's lesson about Gideon, Judges 6) when God wants us to depend on His power, rather than our own.

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

We can also rejoice because, just like Samson, God still loves us and will use us for His purposes, even when we stray or make the mistake of relying on ourselves instead of Him. 

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." ~Romans 5:8

Ask your kids about what they learn in Sunday School, have conversations about the Bible and your faith. Talk about times when God used you or times when you may have thought you didn't need God but found out otherwise. 

Take a look at some of the stories they're learning about in Sunday School & Confirmation in the Bible for yourself and make these last few months of 2012 "The Year of the Word."

The  best way to get God's Word into you, is to start getting into God's Word.

Gideon puts God to the Test,God teaches Gideon to Trust

This week Sunday School students read through the Old testament book of Judges chapters 6-8, where God appoints Gideon leader of Israel. God's people, like we so often do, were once again rejecting Him for other gods. And as usual, it got them in trouble. They literally had to hide from bullies (the Midianites) who stole their food. 

God Himself ("the Angel of the Lord") visited Gideon, to ask him to lead a military charge. First Gideon asks God for a sign to prove He's God- God almost instantly consumes soaking wet goat meat with fire from a rock. Apparently that wasn't enough for Gideon, because when God tells him to attack the enemy, he lays out a wool fleece and asks God to cover it in dew but leave the ground around it dry. Still not convinced, he asks God to leave the fleece dry and soak the ground around it with dew.

How often do we not trust God? Do we beg for signs and proof like Gideon?

God wanted to teach Gideon to trust Him, so when they started with an army of 82,000 men, God has Gideon layoff most of his soldiers, so that his force was only 10,000. God must have REALLY wanted to make sure that the Isrealites gave Him the glory for the victory, because he cut the troops back to only 300 men, armed mostly with torches and trumpets- but the Midianites were defeated.

God promises to be with us and to protect us. Read more of His promises in Romans 8:18-37.

There's still time to make 2012 the 'Year of the Word,' ask your children what they learn about in Sunday School and look it up in the Bible yourself. God might just surprise you with the things He'll share. Then, ask your kids about what you BOTH learn!

7th & 8th Graders share their "Wows, Pows, and Thank-Yous" from their prayer-journals with Sunday School Leader, Bethany Mallory in the church basement.

Faith not Fear

This week, Sunday School students learned about how Moses sent 12 scouts into the promised land. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb came back with good news about a land flowing with milk and honey, but the ten other scouts warned about the inhabitants being giants, which led the people to complain and want to return to slavery in Egypt.

God complained to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?" (Numbers 14:11).

Moses prayed for the Israelites, reminding God of His promises, The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion." (Numbers 14:18a).

God rewarded Joshua and Caleb and once again forgave the grumbling Israelites, although their rebellion cost them another 40 years of wandering in the desert. God wants us to trust Him and faithfully follow where He leads us. It disappoints Him when we let our fears eclipse our faith in Him, His promises and His plans for us.

What churches do

"And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near." ~Hebrews 10:23-25

This is something else that 7/8th Grade Sunday School learned today, that Christians through their churches and as fellowships do certain things as a body. Here's what we should strive to do together:

• Hold on to the hope Jesus gives us
• Spur one another on and encourage one another
• Keep on meeting together to share in God's Word and sacraments

As a matter of fact, we thought that it might just make a good theme for Junior High Sunday School this year!

First Day of Sunday School

(NET) Hebrews 10:11-12 "And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again - sacrifices that can never take! away sins.But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God"

7-8th Graders this week compared and contrasted Exodus 35-40, when God directed the Israelites to construct the tabernacle with Hebrews 9-10, where the Author (possibly Peter) makes clear that Jesus is our new high priest AND He Himself is the once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins, so that we no longer need a daily animal sacrifice.

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Bethany & Ted Mallory are the new Junior High Sunday School teachers. Both attended Concordia University, Nebraska where they received Lutheran Teaching Diplomas. Before returning to Iowa, they taught at Los Angeles Lutheran Jr/Sr High school (now Concordia Lutheran MS/HS). Bethany was the Jr Hi Religion teacher there and later Spiritual Life Director. Bethany now Teaches English and is Elementary Guidance Counselor for Maple Valley Schools in Mapleton and Ted teaches Civics, Art and Yearbook at Boyer Valley in Dunlap.

Our hope is to help St.John students to grow in their relationship with God. We want to help take God's Word from their heads to their hearts.Please pray for us and for our students this year.So that God will become real to these kids so that they will want to continue growing in their faith long after Pastor confirms them. Thank You.

Seventh Graders:
Connor Beeck
Alayna Castillo
Riley Elwell
Jordyn Pester

Eighth Graders:
Jesse Hupp
Allison Maack
Grace Mallory
Hallie Neddermeyer
Travis Pautsch
Dalton Smith
Emily Steffen