The Healing Ministry

This week we took a look at Jesus' healing ministry.  We visited Capernaum with Adam Hamilton and saw several sites where several of Jesus' healings took place.  We discussed who cares for us when we are sick and ways we can help others when they are sick.  What effect do you think you can have on another person's healing?  When we look at Luke 5:18-19, we see that Jesus healed this man who was paralyzed because of his friends' faith and dedication to him!  Who are our stretcher-bearers? These are the "people who will carry us and pray for us and have faith for us when our own faith is weak or nonexistent" (Hamilton).  Who will you be a stretcher-bearer for?

We spent some time being stretcher-bearers by carrying one another on a "stretcher" across the room through obstacles!  Check out the pictures below.

Baptism & Temptation

As we begin this season of Lent, we started with talking about Jesus' baptism and temptation.  Often it seems that we have a major exciting spiritual experience like baptism, a retreat, etc. and the first thing we want to do is tell everyone about it and do something to respond.  However, after Jesus' baptism, he goes into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray!  Maybe we can learn something from this.  Even though we are often excited and "on fire" after big spiritual experiences, maybe what God is often calling us to is to take time apart to pray and listen to how God would like us to respond.

While in the wilderness Jesus is tempted...and every time he resists the temptation and quotes Scripture.  What temptations do you struggle with?  Do you know others who are dealing with temptation?  Commit this Lenten season to asking God to help you through temptations and to praying for others who struggle with temptation.

Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday

Did you know that today is Ash Wednesday?  It is the start of Lent, a season of the church in which we prepare ourselves for Easter.  Yesterday you may have eaten pancakes...but why?  Well, Lent is a time of 40 days in observance of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert where he faced temptation.  So, often we spend Lent in practices of fasting and self-denial.  Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras is the Tuesday before Lent where many will feast and celebrate with the things they will deny themselves for the next 40 days.  Pancakes, then, often make for a good option since they contain rich ingredients of butter, flour, eggs, milk and sugar.  Shrove actually means to confess and repent.  So what we should really be doing the Tuesday before Lent begins is laying everything out before God to prepare ourselves for Lent.  But, to uphold cultural traditions, we did spend some time playing games in celebration of Mardi Gras.  Then we spent time thinking about and committing to something we are going to give up this Lent and something we are going to commit to doing this Lent.  What practices will you commit to this Lenten season?  Are there things you will deny yourself this year?  Comment on this post with your responses.

Easy Bake Ovens for All

This week at FUSION Gathering we talked about gender stereotypes.  It is pretty easy to fall into using these stereotypes in our culture.  We began with a little game of pictionary where each team had various occupations to draw.  Often, when we are given occupations like nurse, flight attendant and teacher we automatically think of females.  And when we are given occupations like doctor or pastor we automatically think of males.

We took a look at a youTube video of a girl who's little brother loves to cook and wanted an easy bake oven.  However, the easy bake ovens were only marketed to girls: they were pink and purple and only had pictures of girls on the boxes and in the commercials.  So the little boy's older sister petitioned Hasbro (the toy maker) to come up with new packaging to include boys and girls.  Hasbro responded and now make an easy bake oven that is more gender neutral!  You can check out her video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHESKyxrxJM

We then took at look at John 4:27-30, 39-42 of the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus was challenging all the culture's rules about how men and women should interact with one another.  Jesus was willing to break his culture's gender-based taboos to reach out to all of God's children.  And then, in a culture that did not value a woman's testimony, the Samaritan woman became one of the earliest evangelists!  Jesus broke through gender stereotypes and calls us to do the same!  In Paul's letter to the Galatians (3:26-28) we see that though we are all different and unique, we are all one in Christ!  Our differences should be celebrated not ridiculed because we are all precious to God.

Have you ever been told you can't do something because you are a guy or a girl?  Know that God loves you and will often call you to do things that some people may have a problem with.  Let us be like Jesus and go against the cultural norms to reach out, love and help all those around us!

Saul to Paul

Paul the Apostle (formerly Saul) is definitely an important ancestor of our faith.  13 of the New Testament books are attributed to him!  Paul wrote letters to the various early churches offering them encouragement and critique on how they were to live and function as a church and as followers of Jesus Christ.  On Sunday night, we learned more about Paul's life and work and how he was very important in the issues surrounding Jew verses Gentile when it came to this new faith of following Jesus Christ as God's Son.  What do you know about Paul?  Check out the book of Acts to find out more and read Paul's letters to see what he had to say to the early churches.  I think you will find that his words of encouragement and critique still apply to us today!

Then, just for fun, we tried our hand at building a tent since Paul was a tent-maker by trade.  You can see pictures here: FUSION Fall 2012

Doubting Thomas

This week we took a look at Thomas...better known as doubting Thomas.  Thomas was one of the named 12 disciples of Jesus.  We know from Scripture in John's Gospel that Thomas was willing to follow Jesus, even to the point of death (see John 11:1-16).  We probably know Thomas better by the story of him asking to see Jesus' hands and side as proof that it was actually him after Jesus had been crucified.

We often think of doubt as a bad thing.  In reality, though, if doubt helps lead us to asking questions, it can be a very good thing.  It is difficult to grow in our faith if we never ask questions about things that confuse or concern us.  Asking questions and seeking answers helps us better understand our faith and what it means to be a Christian.  And I would venture to guess that each of you has at least one person you know that you can go to with your questions.  It is so important to have these people in our lives.  Without them, doubt can sometimes start to overcome our faith.

We did a little experiment to visualize this.  Some of us filled a balloon with air and tied it off.  Others of us filled up a balloon with water and tied it shut.  When we have faith without any support like the balloon with nothing in it but air, and expose it to something difficult (in our experiment, a candle flame) it pops!  But when we have support in our faith journey, like the balloon filled with water, and we run into a difficult situation, our faith survives and helps get us through!  Those balloons didn't pop when held over the flame.  Who do you have in your life that supports you in your faith and you can ask questions to when you have concerns or are confused?

Don't have someone like that in your life?  Let's talk!

A Look at Pontius Pilate

This past Sunday we continued our "Ancestors" series with a look at Pontius Pilate, "the troubled politician".  Pilate served as the governor of sorts for the province of Judea.  With that title came much power and authority over the people.  We are not really sure what exactly was going through Pilate's mind when he chose to follow the people's cheers to release Jesus Barabbas and crucify Jesus Christ instead.  Maybe Pilate was trying to keep peace among the people and follow what they wanted.  Maybe he had some agenda of his own which he wanted to make happen.  We are not really sure.  We do know from Matthew 27 that Pilate's wife had a dream and told Pilate to not have anything to do with Jesus Christ, but Pilate followed the voices of the people instead.  So once Barabbas was released and Jesus was sentenced to death, Pilate washed his hands to try to signify that Jesus' death was not his fault.

We all make mistakes.  We have all done something we regret doing.  The amazing thing about the God we worship is that we are forgiven for those things.  Jesus' died that we might all have life and live our lives as forgiven and reconciled people...not matter how many times we screw up.  We spent time writing down some things we struggle with--sins we do or things we should do but don't.  Then we took a permanent marker and wrote "FORGIVEN" over top of that sin.  Together we washed our cloths clean, leaving only the proclamation of God's forgiveness there!  What is it that you struggle with?  Do you know God's forgiveness?  I pray that you do!