Choking On Patience?
I think it was the pickled cactus. Yeah, that was the one. There's no way I could choke down that slimy stuff. What am I talking about? We held a food contest last night with about seven rounds of stuff that I couldn't eat myself. The list: Butterscotch pudding, pickled cactus, garlic stuffed olives, boiled peanuts in a watery can, sauerkraut, pickled okra, and pickled beets. We had six winners who patiently endured all that disgustingness! Later when they were asked how they had the patience to choke down that yucky stuff they said it was because they knew there was a prize waiting for them in the end!
Our Bible study was on patience. Michaelangelo once said that genius is eternal patience. Yet we realized together we are failing at patience over and over again. As part of the "fruit of the Spirit" found in Galatians 5, we studied how God wants to instill this quality into all of our lives. Colossians 1:11 reminds us what happens when we pray and ask for God's Spirit. Paul there says, "being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience." 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that Jesus is coming not slack concerning His promise. There is a great prize coming for us in the end! In the meantime, He is patient toward all of us wanting us all to repent, so that we can live eternally with Him. Praise God for His patience with us and His eternal prize for us!
We started our men's and women's small groups with puredesire.org ministry materials. We are talking about Christian values for sexual health and safeguarding ourselves from a sexually aggressive online world. This will run on Wednesday evenings after youth group from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. If you have questions, please call me at 828-552-0153. Next week, however, we will meet for these small
groups at 7:30 pm (Feb. 5) since we don't have a regular youth group on Wednesday.
Our next regular youth group event is this Sunday at Pastor Michael's house for a Super Bowl Party! Find the address in the "Calendar of Events" on the website. Our next regular meeting will be a Rogue Valley Mall night on Saturday night, February 8! (There are two regular meetings this next week!)
