Safety tips for kids and parents! Listen to Pastor Kevin’s conversations with the kids as he shares safety tips as digital citizens!
Handout- Tips for Kids and Parents as Digital Citizens
The National Retail Federation estimated the value of returned holiday gifts at up to $95 billion. Wow! That’s a lot of returns! You’d think that if we knew each other better, we’d give gifts that the recipient would really want!
What a gift worth to the giver may be different than the value of the gift to the recipient. In a classroom in New York, a room full of kids were given candy treats for free, distributed randomly. Then they asked the kids how they felt about their free gift. The results were not promising. But when they were asked to do some clever exchanges, the value increased because each kid got more of what they would really enjoy, what they valued.
God gave a gift and you can return it, sure. But God knows you more than you know yourself, and whats more, God loves you, just the way you are. Right now!
What is the gift of a living, present, Savior, Jesus, worth to you?
Loving us and sending Jesus to live in our midst show us love in action, to take upon himself our sins and our failures but also our hopes and dreams, and then with him, to rise to new life. Sending Jesus was God’s way of loving us and showing us how to love like Jesus. To receive Jesus. To follow Jesus. To be like Jesus. God shows us how to love.
That was God’s way of making the world not just better but redeemed, transformed, different.
That was God’s way of bringing joy to your world. What is yours?
Are you ready for Christmas? Tell me how you have been showing acts of kindness, giving gifts to others! Great. At the manger we add Jesus to the scene as we recall that Jesus was born as a gift to us! You are a gift to us, too! God loves you just the way you are and because we follow Jesus, (who is no longer a baby!) we can share his love with others every day. Merry Christmas!
Are people coming to your home for the holiday? As usual, you need your house to look like, you know, NOT your house as usual? Is your refrigerator stuffed with food items? And how’s the gift wrapping going? Oh, right, do you have last minute shopping to do? While Christmas falls on the same date every year, there always seems to be unexpected disturbances to our Christmas Force testing our best efforts to make the holiday memorable for our family and friends. Whew!
But this is a holy season that is driven by a holy purpose and a divine timeline. It’s “God’s time” — the end of Advent, the moment just before the miracle of Emmanuel’s birth into the world is upon us. Ready or not, here God comes. Into our best and worst of Christmas planning experiences, Sunday’s Gospel reading from Matthew 1:18-25 is all about God moving into our story through the mundane and chaos of our lives. Pastor Kevin continues his camera metaphor as we pick up the telephoto lens in a message titled, “Zooming Towards the Future,” all about Joseph who takes center stage this fourth Sunday of Advent. God’s ways of redemption and reconciliation, relationship and righteousness do not align with our own, no matter how faithful and stalwart and well-intended we may be. God uses whomever God wants to further divine plans and often in ways none of us would readily choose. All this in this story and we have not even made it to the angel’s appearance!
When have you experienced divine guidance? What form did it take? What was it? What kind of guidance do you seek today? This week, we consider Joseph who took a risk and embraced God’s dream for an incredible future. Get ready to zoom into God’s story with you!
The kids share a Christmas poem, JOY- Jesus, Others, and You. Pastor Kevin invites the kids to the manger where new characters are added to the scene as we think of ways to show kindness and love this Christmas.
Hearing, Tasting, Touching, Smelling. Seeing. Where do you experience the signs of Christmas? This week, Pastor Kevin continues his series using a camera lens metaphor in a message titled: The Ultra Wide Lens: Do You See What I See? from Matthew 11:2-11. An imprisoned and isolated John the Baptizer asks his followers what they see. Like Homeland Security’s often repeated alert: If you see something, say something! Jesus helps John’s followers to see, and then say something.
What do you need to see this Christmas? Where do you see Jesus’ restoration, reconciliation, and healing in your life and in the world? How can you share this good news with those who have not yet experienced it? If you haven’t seen signs of Christmas, keep looking! Maybe in the quiet places you may begin to see the work of God. In the most unexpected encounters you may sense God’s presence no matter how desolate the desert, or dismal the view.
The best way we can experience the signs of Christmas is to receive its healing power firsthand. What are you patiently waiting for this Advent? How do we participate in strengthening our hearts and hands and those of others?
Listen to this message of hope! Come to worship on Sunday and experience the full, ultra wide view of Jesus and the whole life wholeness that he offers now.
Do you know how to take a selfie? Sure! Let’s take a few now. Here’s my iPhone, go ahead and take a selfie. Each of you can have a turn. Wow, great shots! Here at the manger scene, imagine its Christmas Eve when we put Jesus as a baby in the manger. If Joseph, Mary and Jesus were born today, do you think a few selfies would be taken?! Absolutely. Can you imagine Joseph holding his phone and taking a selfie with Jesus and Mary in the frame? This week and next, we have a great project for you to work on and you’ll use your photo in a frame like this. And when you take photos of yourself, remember that Jesus is right there in the frame with you, walking with you, always with you, and you can’t see him in the usual way, but he is there just as if it was your friend! This Christmas, and every day, Jesus is in your frame. Now, that’s good news!
In this second week of Advent, we are introduced to the affects of light shining on a crowd of people being influenced by John the Baptist. People from all walks of life are attracted to his message. What message did he proclaim? Well, he started off calling them a bunch of snakes! Then he called them on the carpet for taking advantage of the poor, mistreating neighbors, abusing the rights of citizens, and even cheating their employers out of an hipness day’s work. You might wonder how this calling to accountability and invitation to take responsibility was an attractive message. They knew John the Baptist saw the light of possibilities when he looked at them with a wide lens. We are responsible for the ideas we choose to spread. Be inspired to share your best ideas about God’s love!
Do you usually travel for the holidays? When was the last time you made a snowman? What was the worst Christmas present you ever received?! Great answers! Last week we learned that’s the candy cane was in the shape of a…? Yes, a “J”! And “J” stands for…? Yes, Jesus! Christmas is not a one-time event, it is a conversation based on celebrating the birth of Jesus, God’s Son, who is with us every day of the year! Take a candy cane from this box, and respond to the question. Great! What’s you favorite Christmas ornament on your tree? What is your favorite Christmas play? Super! This weekend, Melissa and I enjoyed time with family playing games and it was super fun! This week, spend time with your family. Maybe you’ll play some games. Instead of TV, try asking your family members to share what makes Christmas time so special to them. Ask, learn, grow, and through your family conversations, remember that God loves you so much! Have a conversation with Jesus every day! Christmas is all about conversations! Thank you for having this conversation with me today!
“Advent” denotes the beginning of the Christian worship year as we bring into view Jesus’ arrival at his birth. Instead of jump-scares into Christmas and attending anxieties, many appreciated Advent’s needed time for reflection, preparation, and openness to new ways that Jesus can arrive in our lives. The four weeks of Advent begin this Sunday, December 1, when we celebrate around the Lord’s Table, enjoy special holiday music and decorations, our Poinsettia Trees, and light the Advent Candle of Hope! Your friends and neighbors will be grateful for your invitation to join you!
Pastor Kevin has also prepared a special Advent Series of messages using photography as a metaphor for our faith titled, The 5 Lenses of Christmas. Deeply focused on our Advent Scripture readings, each week we will create a different field of view using Normal, Wide, Ultra Wide, Telephoto, and Macro lenses in our spiritual camera bag that will bring our experience of Christmas into sharp focus.
This week we will use a Normal lens in a message from Matthew 24:36-44 titled, “From Influenced to Influencer.”Advent is a time to hear Isaiah the prophet urge us to walk in the light of the Lord while the Apostle Paul reminds the neighbors in Rome that God’s deliverance is getting closer every day. As we wait, Jesus’ words to be ready for Jesus are not intended to scare us or provoke fears of being left behind. Instead, Jesus promotes our growth in mindfulness that is a counter narrative to political rancor, consumerism’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and to instead respond in faith to opportunities at hand, like Giving Tuesday exhorts us to do!
Come to worship this week for your wake-up call to resist being negatively influenced to becoming an positive influencer of faith as we focus on Jesus who continues to arrive in our life each day.