I orginally learned this verse from the NAS. "Let us know...let us press on to know the Lord..." I was surprised to see the NIV "Let us acknowledge the Lord...let us press on to acknowledge the Lord..." Guess the NIRV wins with both though a little less poetic:

(Hosea 6:2-3 NIRV) ^"Let's recognize him as the Lord.
Let's keep trying to really know him.
You can be sure the sun will rise.
And you can be just as sure the Lord will appear.
He will come to renew us like the winter rains.
He will be like the spring rains that water the earth."

Jesus, teaching from a boat

Here's an image for you: Jesus teaching from a boat. Waves, wind. . . No mike! He had to talk loud. I guess He always had to talk loud. Did you ever teach from a boat? Did you ever teach outside without a mike?

It's kind of funny. When I think of the parable of the sower and the other stories he told there I don't think of Jesus telling some of those particular stories rocking in a boat on the waves in the sea of Galilee... do you?

crafts for the Gospel of John revisited

This next part is more for you than for kids... I was rethinking John for kids. "In the beginning was the Word..." Thinking about crafts for kids I realized that I usually think visual, maybe tactile. Thinking about games/activities I think movement - kinesthetic. Thinking about worship and music I think auditory (expressing what is true in me at the time and what is true about God despite what is true in me).

But Genesis opens with a spoken word - something auditory. That spoken word sets in motion the creation of the whole physical world as we know it. Jesus stilled the storm (changed the weather & his immediate environment) with a few spoken words. He cast out demons and changed a person's life with a spoken word. I'm not adept w/the Hebrew language or the Hebrew culture but I know they had spoken language and I know they had written language and I know that saying and writing God's name was not allowed or at least that's the way I understand it.

Jesus was/is the Living Word - a multi-sensory human being and God who is Spirit & Truth. He came & lived among us but we didn't control Him. We are, however, supposed to control our words...What does God say about His Word and what does God say about our words?

So how many different forms can "word" take? What does it mean to us as believers? God speaks and He creates. Our words bless, our words curse. They build up. They tear down. They start fires - good & bad.

When is a "word" something concrete? When is it abstract?

What can you do with kids & words? Readers? Non-readers? Speakers? Non-speakers? Hearing? Non-hearing? Seeing? Non-seeing? Think about it.

How do your senses affect what a word means to you? How about emotional memory and association? Play with it. What can you do with kids & words?

Word & light...We hear, touch, smell, taste in the dark but you can't see in the dark until your eyes adjust and even then we don't see the way we do when the lights come on.

Forgiveness

Exercise for kids (and grown-ups):

Multiply 7 x 70....490

Start a list: date, person, offense.
To forgive is a verb. Forgiveness is a noun. It's active, not passive. God does it. God forgives. And he keeps forgiving. Jesus' words, "Your sins are forgiven" brought physical healing to people.

When you forgive someone write it down & cross it out. You could also cut 490 strips of paper, and throw them away but if we keep a cross out list we might see a pattern to the things that offend us and patterns to our own sins that need forgiveness. When you get to 490 start again . . .

But think about something. If God asks us to forgive like that, He must be doing that, too. If He asks us to keep His commandments, He must be keeping them, too. If He asks us to turn the other cheek, He must be doing that too. If He asks us to bless those who curse us and love those who hate us . . . He must be doing that, too, all the time . . . God of generations, God of heaven & earth . . . I'm not saying He doesn't get angry & shake generations, heaven, & earth but imagine all the blessing that's going on. Imagine all of the people God loves . . .

from a slightly different angle

Matt 38-48 (NIRV)

All that Jesus said & did, all that He was, represented God - "I and the Father are One." "That which I see my Father doing, I do." Even when push, came to shove, came to crucifixion, He lived the words He spoke . . .

If you take all that Jesus said and substitute: "God can ask us to be like this because this is the way God is -" from throwing tables, to healing, to turning the other cheek - the hard stuff...

We assume (we've always learned) that all the things Jesus told us, all God's rules... this is how we're supposed to act...Is it more empowering to understand/know/see that He can ask us to do these things because this is how God acts? This is how God behaves? This is who God is. . .the God we believe in...the God we trust...the God who made us...Father, Son, Holy Spirit?