Kingdom Kids - Leaders: Chris Bernard, guitar; Mary Bernard

Children ages 2-6 will meet each Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. for a time of singing, prayer, and catechism review. We’ll learn Sunday school song favorites, as well as contemporary praise songs. At 9:20, children will meet separately as the Toddler class (ages 2-3) and Preschool-First Grade class (ages 4-6).

Little Lambs - Teachers: Mary Bernard and Sue Biggers

Children ages 2-3 will study God’s family (beginning the line of promise—Adam to Joseph) in the PCA’s Show Me Jesus series. We’ll have a Bible lesson, prayer, and craft time.

God’s Explorers - Teachers: Rich and Laura Riddle, Jamie Kunzmann

Children ages 4-7 will explore the importance of obeying God by traveling back into the Old Testament to learn about the Prophets and Kings of Israel. We will have Bible lessons, prayer, and craft time.

The Joy Patrol - Teachers: Brian Phillips and Aaron and Lesley Duffy

Children ages 8-11 will continue their journey through great themes of the Bible, such as the Lord’s Prayer.

Changing Hearts, Changing Lives - Leaders: Pastoral Interns Chris Rhoades and Jay Joye

Make plans to join this special time of teaching and sharing, as Chris and Jay lead us through this important life-change material from the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation at Westminster Theological Seminary. This is some of the most biblical, gospel-driven, grace-empowered material on Christian living available. Let’s see what the Holy Spirit will do in and through us in the weeks ahead.

Summary of Week One

The series is “How People Change”; the focus is sanctification and interaction with the living Savior. Last week’s chapter was “Here’s Where God’s Taking You,” and this was the emphasis of Chris’ teaching and our discussion: do we ever really try to make sense of our lives in light of our ultimate destination - life in heaven with Christ? No one has a perfect life, so what is it that we think will make things better? New job? New house? Better health? The Bernards’ TV? The problem actually isn’t our circumstances: it’s us. The lesson talked a lot about “God’s purposes.” God isn’t committed to ironing out the wrinkles in that situation at work or that struggle with the kids – He IS committed to changing us through those things and shaping us into His own image.

Lauren Kelly asked a question that got to the heart of the lesson this week (she’s really good at that): While I want a good marriage and moral children and all the rest, what is it that God wants? What really ARE His purposes for me? She pointed to the passage from Rev. 7, where the saints are glorying in God, their tears are gone forever, they have finally been brought to what God had purposed for them from the beginning. Do we think about this very often? God is moving us, His people, towards perfect reflection of His glory. Shouldn’t everything else pale in comparison to that? We have His promise that this is what is happening in the middle of our normal, everyday circumstances. We have this hope that He is bringing us to perfect communion with Jesus and with each other – and that hope is sure and certain, because HE is sure and certain.

I know I don’t think about these things on a daily basis... but they are the reality!

Summary of Week Two

Most of our time in the adult SS was taken up in discussion of the “homework” questions we had been asked to think about during the week:

1. What dreams and expectations get you through the day and give you hope for your future?

2. How do the things you hope and work for shape your responses to people and circumstances? When people threaten your hopes and goals, how do you react?

If we take the second question first, and think about our reactions to difficulties during the day, it can be a window into what our hearts are truly desiring and can help answer the first question. What are we hoping in, other than Christ? Being accepted? Being comfortable? Being in control? (For juicy details on who said what, you’ll have to ask around.)

Chris gave us a little diagram to guide our thinking, a timeline beginning with the garden, to the fall, to the cross, to the “now”, and finally to heaven. He pointed out that we often try to deal with our problems “in the now” by wishing for heaven on earth - but when we see others’ problems, we wish that they’d just never fallen! Instead we need to look to the cross and how Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection can change all of us where we are.

And so the question for next week (in addition to the reading) is:

3. Pick one place of opportunity or pressure, difficulty or blessing, where you need to view yourself as changed and carried by Christ. How will that perspective change your response to that situation?

Summary of Week Three

This week's adult SS class focused on the communion of the saints - in particular, how community is so necessary for our growth as believers in Christ. We read a case study together of one couple's experience and discussed our reactions to it. It pictured ideal small group relationships in which the believers were involved deeply in one another's lives: "As a group, we have confronted anxiety, interpersonal strife, the need to forgive, lust, family troubles, unbelief, the fear of man, hypocrisy, unemployment, sickness, lack of love, idolatry, and marital strife. We have been helped, held accountable, and lifted up by one another. We have also grieved together, celebrated together, laughed together, offended one another, reconciled with one another, put up with one another, and sought to love God and one another."

Thoughts from our discussion included thanksgiving for the many ways Good Shepherd already experiences true community and openness, as well as longing for deeper relationships together. The ability to be vulnerable and open about sin and struggles seems key to being able to speak grace to each other. We talked about why we often don't experience the community we long for - we are afraid of letting others (especially the church!) know how sinful we are; we are afraid of getting other people "down" and dumping our troubles on them; it's hard to invest the TIME required for deep, "consistent" relationships that are the context for openness.

How to begin overcoming these obstacles? Chris challenged us to PRAY for each other as a starting point for getting more involved in each other's lives.

Summary of Week Five

We went over the tree diagram in our workbooks - two trees, one thorny and one full of fruit, indicate the consequences of our reactions to our circumstances. When we feel the "heat" of a situation, how do we react? According to the diagram, it depends upon our roots - where our hearts are grounded. Jay simplified things with four questions:

1. What is Besetting you?
2. What do you Believe?
3. How do you Behave?
4. What does that behavior Beget?

No matter what our situation is, we will respond according to our beliefs. When we are trusting Christ, we know that "what is my situation?" is the same question as "what is God doing?" If we have a heart of unbelief, we tend towards wanting the heat removed instead of wanting to produce fruit in the midst of it.

Dave Page asked a great question about the big picture - does the diagram represent two different kinds of people, or one person (the Christian) who sometimes acts according to faith and at other times according to unbelief? What about Paul's insistence that we are not of the flesh but of the Spirit? (I can't do the question justice here!). Hank pointed to Romans 7, "the things I do not want to do, I do" etc etc, as having often been a comfort to him as a believer struggling with remaining sin. Someone (Kent? Jay?) put it in terms of "the already and the not yet" - as Paul labored to prove, we ARE of the Spirit, we HAVE the good root in Christ; and yet sin remains with us, and we are not what we will be.

Summary of Week Six

This past week we started chapter 5: "The Real God in the Real World," focusing on the reality of suffering and hardship. Chris made the point that people often go to two extremes in reacting to "heat" - we either identify ourselves with our suffering ("this is who I am, poor me"), or we stoically ignore the pain ("heat happens"). But God and the Bible and the Christian perspective allows us to fully acknowledge that life in this world isn't a bed of roses, and facing that reality doesn't mean we "lack the faith" to be upbeat and happy no matter what (as Laura Coughlin pointed out). We spent most of our time in Psalm 88, in which the psalmist expresses despair, hopelessness, abandonment, etc. It is amazing that not only is there no resolution at the end of the psalm, but also that it was written to be sung to God in worship! Chris reiterated what we frequently hear from the pulpit: it's OK to bring your worst to God, not just your best (especially since all our righteousness is as filthy rags anyway). And Page pointed out that there is faith even in our accusations and railings against God, if we bring them to Him as the only One who can help us. No one has experienced the reality of suffering described in Psalm 88 like Christ did on the cross, when He cried out "why have You forsaken me?" Only in His case, God's abandonment was real, and it was so that WE would never be cast away. Good stuff.

Summary of Week 7

In last week's Sunday School class we talked about thorn-bush reactions to difficulty (from chapter 7 in the workbook). We discussed how, though we all sin, we tend to sin in different ways. Chris started us out with an example of the cactus vs. the rose - both have thorns, but one appears to be more "safe" and attractive until we look closer. In the same way, some sins appear more safe and attractive, but are just as destructive as those that are more blatant.

We discussed six ways people typically respond sinfully to difficulty (and gave personal examples of how we've seen them in ourselves):

1. Deny, avoid and escape
2. Magnify, expand, catastrophize
3. Become prickly and hypersensitive
4. Return evil for evil
5. Become bogged down, paralyzed, captured
6. Become self-excusing, self-righteous

We noticed that in all these things, a love of self seems to be the major theme. We are absorbed with our own thoughts, feelings, and "rights," and this makes us see others and the world around us in a skewed, unbiblical and irrational way. The main point: "We do not sin in the abstract but in real situations, against real people, and ultimately against our Heavenly Father and there are real consequences that affect all of those relationships."

Summary of Week 8

Last week we were in chapter 8, getting to the heart of why we do what we do. We looked at six reasons we often claim as the causes of sinful behavior:

1. Others (if they hadn't done this, I wouldn't have done that)
2. Family (I had a dysfunctional family)
3. Suffering (ever since that one thing happened I've never been the same)
4. My situation (it's just a bad day)
5. Physical (i haven't had enough sleep, etc)
6. Unmet "needs" (I act this way because I haven't been loved enough)

The root of all our behavior is the heart. We considered James 1:1-4 where we are told that strife arises from our selfish desires - essentially, we worship ourselves and this drives our sinful actions. We learned the importance of asking "why?" of our behavior, knowing that our tendency is to presume our own innocence. In reality, we are the problem, not others.

Summary of Week 9

Just a quick review of last week's Sunday School class: we were in chapter 9, "New Identity and New Potential." The central point last week was "Because Christ now lives in me, I have everything I need to respond in new ways to what I face daily."

Becky and Dave articulated what we all feel, that is, a struggle to really believe that "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Lauren thought that a conviction of sin is a good sign that Christ is in us (an old way of seeing ourselves vs. a new way of seeing).

We looked at lots of Scripture, including Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." We thought about that verse in relation to the personal growth project we're working on (addressing a particular area of habitual sin in our lives) - Do we wonder if this can be done? Do we feel helpless and hopeless when we look at our sin?

Mark pointed out that we don't seem to doubt our union with Adam in the fall, but we doubt our union with Christ in overcoming sin. We have potential for amazing change and growth because Jesus died for us and lives in us. Let's marinate in this for a while!!

Summary of Week 10

This past Sunday we read over and discussed several passages of Scripture that address our union with Christ, the main one being Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

We talked about why we struggle to believe this and to live as though it were true. Dave made a point that really struck me - one reason could be that we don't read the Word and pray enough, and nurture the relationship we have with Christ. Our faith needs to be fed constantly, we need to be reminded again and again. It's wonderful to look at the Bible and prayer in this way, instead of just something to check off our list of things to do. Carolyn reminded us that Christ wants to be glorified in earthen vessels - when we can't reconcile our sin with Christ living in us, we can remember that his strength is made perfect in weakness. I wondered if maybe we feel tension between "working out our salvation" and Christ doing the work in us.

Chris suggested it would be a great idea to do a concordance search of the phrase "in Him," and really meditate on all that the Bible says about our union with Christ.