Timothy & Titus Leadership Workshop

On Saturday, October 24, Sylvia Phillips and Jael Trinklein invite you to join them for a day of teaching and fellowship.  Called after Paul's two young pastoral pupils, the Timothy and Titus Leadership Workshop is geared to encourage and teach young ladies 12 and up in some of the practical ways that they can lead in their community without stepping outside their Biblical role. 

The workshop is formatted using 1 Timothy 4:12 as a guide, teaching young ladies to lead by example in speech, life, love, faith, and purity.  It covers topics from negative teasing to impure influences to witnessing, all from the perspective of a woman’s role as laid out in Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 2.  We will talk about women from all walks of life and spheres of influence, from Queen Esther to Mary Slessor, and from Corrie Ten Boom to the moms we know.  Whether you are interested in stepping into a leadership role soon, having been leading for awhile, or just want to be challenged and encouraged in your Christian walk, we would love to have you!

Date: October 24, 2015

Time: 10:00-3:00 (lunch provided)

Where: Sylvia Phillips' house at 15 S. 6th St. in Mascoutah

What to bring: Your Bible, a pocket folder or binder, and a notebook or notebook paper

Who: Girls 12+ (please contact us for exemptions) and their moms (if available)

RSVP date: Thursday, October 22

RSVP method: call Sylvia at 708-310-6234 or email us at brightlightsmascoutah@gmail.com

Note: girls in the Mascoutah Bright Lights group are exempt from the age requirement. However, this is not an official Bright Lights event, so it is open to any girl age 12 or older who would like to participate. 

Cooking/Following Directions

To all the Bright Lights parents: Your daughters may have come home with some rather interesting stories to tell this evening. We apologize for the confusion that may have resulted, and also for the craziness of the evening! Here is the full account, as told by both Jael and Sylvia.

To all His Lighthouse boys: A few of you may have noticed something strange about snacks Tuesday evening... well, here is the explanation! We're sorry that you had to bear the consequences of our mistakes, but at least you got to taste my (Sylvia's) mother's fabulous raisin buns. ;)

Jael: This has to have been the most amusing and fun lesson EVER!

Sylvia: Um... sure. ;)

Jael: It all started a few weeks ago, when Sylvia talked with her grandma (the usual baker for His Lighthouse) about the Bright Lights making snacks for His Lighthouse.

Sylvia: Note how it all started with me. I’m such a troublemaker. :(

Jael: Well, she mentioned it to me, and I thought it was a splendid idea! So, we started looking up recipes to use for muffins. However, since we wanted to be nice to any boys who had allergies, we decided to steer clear of every allergy we knew existed within the group, which meant that we couldn't use milk, eggs, soy, or wheat. We were going to try to make 96 muffins, although only 24-48 would be the "special" ones. :-P

Sylvia: We had some debate over whether to do muffins. With gluten-free boys in His Lighthouse, I suggested making something else but then Jael had the brilliant idea of using rice flour. “Genius!” we both thought. (I, being the naturally trusting person that I am--)

Jael: *cough, cough*

Sylvia: Um, I, being the naturally trusting person that I am, assumed that Jael had experience baking with rice flour. (Mistake number one: making assumptions on such an important point)

Jael: I, being the naturally brilliant person that I am, figured that rice flour is basically the same as normal wheat flour. So, why would I need experience with it to cook with it? So, the lesson before the baking class, I calculated everything we'd need, and put the "special" ingredients (like rice milk and rice flour) on a letter to each girl. I highlighted whichever ingredient they were supposed to bring, and sent them home. (Mistake number two: I didn't give each girl an ingredient that she might have in her home already! I just randomly handed them out.) Stupidly, though, I didn't make clear that they were supposed to bring whatever their highlighted item was.

Sylvia: Actually, she did a great job of explaining that, I thought... but maybe a couple girls didn’t hear/understand? Anyway...

Jael: ...so, anyway, today, we were all ready. Everything that we could provide was provided, and all we needed was for each girl to bring her ingredient.

Sylvia: Jael arrived at our house as usual... without the muffin pans that she had planned to bring. (Third mistake...)

Jael: ...Or the aprons or spray oil (Fourth mistake).

Sylvia: That didn’t matter, because we had plenty of both.

Jael: I still forgot them. But anyway...

Sylvia: Then the girls started arriving. The blueberry yogurt and rice milk arrived without difficulty. The girl who had been assigned to bring blueberries forgot them at home, but as we had some, that didn’t matter. However, the next girl to arrive brought blueberries instead of rice flour.

Jael: She thought that each girl was supposed to pick an ingredient that they had on hand off the list to bring, which is very understandable. I think she thought the yellow meant that it was just an important ingredient (which is very true...). So, here we were, with blueberries, rice milk (thankfully, the other girl who was supposed to bring rice milk forgot it, because we had more than enough as it was!), blueberry yogurt, and no rice flour. Now, it occurred to me that we COULD use normal flour, and just not be totally allergic free, but Sylvia had the brilliant (no sarcasm) idea to grind rice in a blender, and use that as rice flour substitute. I, being the naturally trusting soul that I am--

Sylvia: No wait... WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THIS? o_O

Jael: My head, deary. Where else? But as I was saying, I, being the naturally trusting soul that I am, thought it was a brilliant idea.

Sylvia: *shakes head* Wow...

Jael: *looks at Sylvia dubiously*

Sylvia: Actually, just after the prayer and singing, I went upstairs to tell Mom our situation and ask if I could drive to the local grocery store and pick up some rice flour. She, however, had the brilliant idea to put rice in a blender and grind it up to make flour. So we did. And it actually looked okay when I did it... but then we put too much in and it didn’t grind properly, so I told Jael to take some out and grind it in smaller quantities.

Jael: ...which I did...

Sylvia: I don’t know what she did, because then I went to quiz half the girls on their Bible memory verses while Jael helped half the girls make muffins.

Jael: You see, we had split the girls into four teams: an older girl with an younger girl. Sylvia and I would each take charge of two teams. :-) So, my teams were first in the kitchen. I'm not sure why we did the allergen-free muffins first, considering we had "experimental rice flour." (Mistake number 5). But we started away, happy as anything. I was helping a younger girl make banana muffins (since her older partner wasn't able to be there), and the other team was making blueberry...both with rice milk and flour. Well, we had a blast mixing and commenting on how clumsy we all were.

Sylvia: In the meantime, I was sitting in the living room helping girls recite, glancing at the time and thinking, What is taking them so long?

Jael: We were noticing that the rice "flour" was a little grainy, but I figured that it wouldn't make much of a difference. So, finally, at long last, we finished, and put the muffin pans in the oven. (Yes, we did need one more full-sized muffin pan, but we made do with two small muffin pans.) I happily closed the oven doors, assuming that, in 30 minutes, we'd happily be carrying 48 beautiful muffins over. Of course, I knew by that point that the other muffins probably wouldn't get done in time, because they all had to bake for about half an hour.

Sylvia: I was a little worried, knowing this fact, but thought that at least we would have the allergen-free muffins to take over. All the same, I was hoping we would have enough time to finish the chocolate muffins, so two of the girls and I sped through the process of mixing them up. Then we remembered: “Oh, wait... we don’t have any extra muffin tins.” So then I peeked into the oven to see how the other muffins were coming along. Now, I have had my share of cooking failures (as my brothers will be happy to testify), so I did not scream or faint or otherwise outwardly panic. I merely shut the oven door, took a couple deep breaths, and thought, “Um... this is not good.”

Jael: I was happily sitting in the living room, quizzing my girls on their verses when Sylvia came in.

Sylvia: By this time, Mother had realized that something was wrong and had come downstairs. She, too, opened the oven door, looked at the muffins, and closed the door again.

Jael: Of all this, I was oblivious!

Sylvia: For which you should be grateful!

Jael: *grins* So, there I am, quizzing Bible verses, when Sylvia comes in. I looked up, and she beckons me to the kitchen, so I hand the Bible over to another girl to continue quizzing and follow her. She opens the oven door, and shows me some of the saddest looking muffins I have ever seen in my life. It seriously looked like a cake!

Sylvia: Not even that! It looked like a mix between oatmeal and cornbread.

Jael: The banana ones did. The blueberry ones were a tad better: they hadn't overflowed each individual cup, and therefore looked like so many purple Reese's peanut butter cups minus the wrapper.

Sylvia: More like purple tapioca pudding...

Jael: Yeah, the rice was a little prominent in both batches.

Sylvia: Make that VERY prominent.

Jael: And Sylvia even forgot to take pictures of them! (Mistake number 6)

Sylvia: Believe me, we want to forget them, not take pictures to keep for eternity. :P

Jael: Anyway, I looked at them in astonishment. Now, if I had been my normal self, I might have started freaking out right then and there, but THANKFULLY, I had been "rather" slap-happy all evening--

Sylvia: For that we are very grateful! :D

Jael: --and so when I saw all the poor little muffins sitting in their pans, I just started to giggle. I'm sure Sylvia saw nothing funny in the matter--

Sylvia: Oh, I thought it was hilarious! ;D

Jael: Oh, well, good! But anyway, I saw them, and thought, "Well, we tried and we had fun!" Mrs. Peterson, bless her, was microwaving some frozen raisin buns to come to the rescue. I mean, when it's 7:55, and the muffins are due at 8:00, emergency measures must be taken!

Sylvia: My mother is AMAZING.

Jael: I second that!

Sylvia: She made those buns that afternoon, and without them, we probably would not have lived to tell the tale of this most interesting evening. ;)

Jael: So, once the buns were thawed, Sylvia put the pan in my hands, and said, "Okay! YOU go take them over, and speak to no one, and come right back." So, I did. :-) Thankfully, no one but Sylvia's grandma was in the house when we came in, and so we just had to explain that the muffins hadn't turned out. Then, as we were leaving, someone said that more were coming, which was mistake number 7. (I don't think it was me, but it's been such a long day that I really have no clue.)

Sylvia: So they returned... I was, in the meantime, scraping these grainy, mushy banana muffin-things (the girls called them “mushins”) out of the pans. The banana “mushins” were too grainy to really be edible, but the blueberry muffins, despite their slightly interesting texture, were actually quite good! :D

Jael: They were good! Kinda like blueberry crunch toast. :-) Except softer. So, we were happily eating at about 8:20 when the phone rings and it's Sylvia's grandma, asking if we were bringing anything more over. They were making all the poor boys wait! So, Mrs. Peterson (the amazing and awesome) found some cookies and some of the girls (not me!) dashed them over. *looks at Sylvia*

Sylvia: *looks at Jael*

Jael: And that's pretty much the end. We finished scraping out the banana mushins, and put them in a bag for one of the girls to bring to feed her goats. The chocolate muffins finished just as the last girls were getting ready to leave. The blueberry ones were half gone, and I'm sure some people will enjoy eating and laughing over them.

Sylvia: We wished desperately that we had made the chocolate muffins first, but alas; that didn’t happen. ;) But we learned many things... for one,

Jael: Never put rice in the blender to substitute for rice flour.

Sylvia: Never assume that Jael has tried something before.

Jael: Always blame Sylvia.

Both: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS test recipes before promising to feed 25 hungry boys!

Sylvia: And always laugh when crazy stuff like this happens. ‘Cause it’s funny. :D

Jael: Many worse things can happen in life, and why not laugh at something while it's happening instead of waiting 20 years to laugh at it!? And, uh, yes, my lesson was on "not skipping steps".

Sylvia: And have fun blogging about your mistakes! ;D

Jael: And that is how our worst lesson yet in terms of visible success was actually the best one we've had yet, in turns of fun and laughter!

Jesus

Jael's Lesson: 

Jesus loves you. He fills your every desire!

How many of you want to be married some day?

How many of you want your future spouse to be kind? Thoughtful? Godly? Cheerful? Loving? Dependable? Wise?

Jesus is all of those. He healed the sick and the blind and the lame. He provided a home for his mother while on the cross. He withdrew to lonely places to pray. He was filled with joy through the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21). He blessed the little children. He was known to attend the required feasts each year. When he was 12, the elders at the temple asked where he got such wisdom.

And, what's even better is, he never changes!

Someday, if, by God's grace, you are married, your husband may die or get sick, and you are left by yourself. If you are dependent on him for your security, then such a blow could be crushing. But, what if, even before you met your husband, you had placed all your security on Jesus, who never changes, your source of security would remain constant, even through a traumatic situation. (Elliots, and the movie couple)
Jesus is so much better than anyone or anything in this world! He answers prayer like you wouldn't believe. (Story of listening device problems) He is with you when you pray. (Warm feeling)

He is totally amazing! He filled every nook and cranny with his warm, wonderful presence! In him is fullness of joy! (Joy experiences)

So seek him! He loves for you to look for him! Just like hide and seek and scavenger hunts are so much fun, searching for Jesus is a fun, rewarding experience. Jesus wants you took look for him. Read the Bible, expecting to find some little gem that he's hidden there just for you, today! Usually, when I do that, I come away with a notebook pages of notes, pointing out stuff he's put in there for me to find!

He loves you so much more than your dad or your mom, or any other person in the world! And he's always around. You can talk to him whenever you're happy or distressed. He wants to hold you when you're lonely, and living with you during every moment of every day! (Life is dull without him! Trust me!) (story of inviting Jesus out)

Sometimes, when I'm outside, praying out loud, I just hold out my land like I'm holding his, and it helps me concentrate.

So spend time getting to know him! He'll never let you down! He is the ONLY one who can fill ALL of your heart's desires, ALL the time.

Accepting God's Design For You

Tonight was a very informal meeting... Jael and Abi were gone, Sophia and Kira were sick, and I did not have a whole lot of time this week for preparation! 

We had planned a hairstyle night, so several of the girls brought accessories, and Desiree brought a curling iron and straightener. 

Mary doing Rosemary's hair 

Desiree curling Larissa's hair 

Rosemary with her "poofy" ponytail 

Daisy fixing her own hair :)

Larissa looking lovely 

Cecily with her crazy braid giving Mary a ponytail 

Mary :)

Gloria making Daisy look "fancy" 

Cecily

Larissa's finished curls 

The lesson topic this week was accepting God's design for us. Insecurity is a huge issue with teens and preteens in America, and girls feel a lot of pressure from peers, movies, advertising, and family members. However, according to a poll Jael and I took of 42 girls (all Christian, many homeschooled or partially-homeschooled), the pressure is not nearly as great as it is for "the rest of the world". Only 2 out of the 42 girls said they were insecure about their physical appearance. 21 said they were "sometimes insecure" or "a little insecure", and 19 said they were not insecure at all about their appearance.

Still, I would venture to guess that at some time in our lives, all of us feel insecure for some reason or other. What we need to remember is that we are made in the image of God, that He designed each one of us uniquely, and the He makes no mistakes. When we try to change how we look or be someone different than who He made us, we're rejecting His perfect design for us. Romans 9:20 says, "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"'" Dressing up, doing our hair in fun ways :), or otherwise trying to enhance the beauty God has given us is fine... in fact, I believe God has given us girls the desire to dress up, to try to look attractive, to have fun with our appearance. However, if we start obsessing over how we look and spending hours of our time on makeup or hair or making sure our clothes are in style, that's going too far! 1 Peter 3:3-4: "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." We are to focus on our relationship with God more than our outward appearance.

The root problem of insecurity is fearing men more than we fear God. If we're focusing first of all on the Lord, then being outward-focused and looking for ways to meet the needs of others, we'll forget all about our insecurity and our worries about how we look!

However, we still need to be careful about the image we are presenting to the world. We are Christ's ambassadors, and we are to reflect Him. Psalm 100:3 says, "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." We are His, and we need to show that in the way we dress, act, speak, etc. We need to reflect Christ's love and joy in the way we speak and act, and be honoring to Him in the way we dress. The world's styles should not be the standard; instead, we should dress in a way that is first pleasing to the King, then honoring to our parents, then honoring to those around us, and lastly pleasing to ourselves. Things to evaluate are:
1. Am I portraying myself in a Christlike way, or am I trying to draw ungodly attention to myself?
2. Do my parents approve of the way I dress? (We don't have to dress according to their likes and dislikes... my mom and I have TOTALLY different tastes when it comes to dress. However, we do need to respect  their standards for us, such as whether they want us to wear makeup, avoiding styles they disapprove of or think are inappropriate, etc.)
3. Am I dressing modestly so that I don't cause anyone to stumble, and respectfully to show others that I care enough about them to not dress like a slob?
4. Do I like the way I dress? Does my appearance reflect the personality God has given me and highlight the beauty He has bestowed on me, or am I trying to copy the world's styles and trends to look like someone I'm not?

There's nothing wrong with trying to look stylish, but often things that are popular with the world have very negative associations.
There is nothing inherently wrong with carrying a realistic-looking toy gun around all over the place, but you will scare a LOT of people if you do so! If you could somehow travel back in time to the Middle Ages with a toy gun, these associations would not exist, since guns had not been invented yet! The image of the gun would earn you some blank stares ("What is that thing?"), but would not have people running away from you and screaming. :) Today, however, the image of the gun has such associations that it will elicit quite a bit of nervousness from those around you if you choose to carry one around (which I don't recommend).
Likewise, many clothing styles have negative associations that will get you categorized as rebellious, disrespectful, or ungodly just based on your appearance. It's important to use discernment to avoid some of these associations, but of course, we should avoid taking this too far. Every dress style has some negative associations; we just need to be sensitive to how we're presenting ourselves and make sure we're glorifying God with our appearance.

Understanding the Fear of the Lord

This week, we had the girls make scones for our snack. 

Several people wanted to stir... 

Tea and snacks by candlelight, while listening to a chapter of our biography. 

Jael's lesson

[in monotone voice] The topic this week is The Fear of the Lord. This is a very exciting and important topic...one that we all need to take to heart and obey. I have to tell you, though, that I could only think of one story that fit this topic. I hope you do not mind. However, the Fear of the Lord is a topic that appears all throughout Scripture, and so, this week, I did a Bible Study on The Fear of the Lord. You'll be amazed at what I found. Now, the first verse I looked up was...[look surprised to see slight boredom or distraction on their faces] Hmmm. How can I make this a little more interesting? [pretend to think] Aha! [look as if random idea has come into my head, but then look doubtful] Who here wants to be wise? Who wants to be understanding? Insightful? Well, I have just the thing for you! In this house (the three main rooms here), I have hidden some wisdom, some insight, and some understanding. Well, I've hidden pieces of cardboard with Bible verses on them that talk about wisdom, insight and understanding. So, who want to look for them? Okay! Here are the directions to your virtue. [hand out pieces of paper] Now, go find them! [wait while the girls find their pieces of cardboard]  Has everyone found their treasure? Good! Now, come and sit down. [pick a random girl] What does yours say? [She reads a Bible verse about the fear of the Lord] Hmm. You? [ask another girl, and she also read a Bible verse about the fear of the Lord] Does anyone have anything different? No? Well, what do they say? [wait for a few girls to answer] Ah! So all of them talk about how the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and insight and all? Hmmm. I'm seeing a common thread here. :-)

Before I go on, we might want to define "Fear of the Lord." "Fear" in this sense isn't "afraid"...necessarily. ... Oh, what can I compare it to? [think] Well, how many of you are afraid of your parents? Like, if you see them coming, you'll run away? (ALL the time!) Okay. Now, how many of you would flat out call your parent a name, or boss them around? Hmm. Why not? [wait for girls to answer] So, you aren't afraid of them...unless you do something wrong? [wait for agreement] So you love your parents, but they can punish you, and so you're always afraid to do wrong, because then they'll get mad at you, right? It's the same way with God. He loves us like nobody's business, but, if we do something wrong, He will punish us. So, in a way, the Fear of the Lord is the same thing as the Fear of the Parents. :-P Except God is even better than our parents. Understand?

Now, I'm sure you all can think of many times in the Bible when God smashed the bad guys for doing bad things, so I don't think any of you would disagree when I say that we should fear the Lord. But there are some specific Bible verses that tell us to fear the Lord. 1 Chronicles 16:25 says "For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods." (Kinda like, "Duh!" there! He's the only real God, so obviously He should be feared more than any other! But, sometimes we stupid humans need something that simple to ensure comprehension!) And...Psalm 96:4 tells us, "For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods." So we fear Him 'cause He's totally awesome and mighty and everything. And yet, as Christians, He's our Daddy!

One quick Bible story - as I mention early on, I did a word study on "Fear of the Lord," and the one Bible story I found (I think it was the only actual Bible story that actually used the term "the Fear of the Lord" in the midst of the narrative) was in Jonah. You know how Jonah was trying to run away from God, and he got on the boat, and tried to sail to Tarsheesh? Well, when the big storm came up, and the men on the ship were so scared, Jonah 'fessed up, and told the sailors to throw him overboard. They didn't want to do it, but he told them that, if they did, his God would stop the storm. So they pitched him overboard, and the sea grew calm. Then Jonah 1:16 records: "At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him." I just thought that was an interesting demonstration of God's power (His spanking for Jonah, if you will) that brought unbelieving pagans to a healthy fear of the Lord!

You'll hear about other Bible characters later, but first, let's do some fun stuff. Well, if you like words and English, it should be fun. :-P Remember how we were talking earlier about how the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding and everything? [take out small stack of cardboard pieces] Well, I don't know how many of you noticed, but each of your pieces is the beginning half of a word. Here's the other half. See if you can find yours. [wait while they do that] Now, look on the back of the piece you just received. What word is written in purple/magenta back there? [wait for girls to shout out "wisdom", "life", "avoidance of evil", "humility", "pure", and "enduring". One girl will not have spoken] Hmm. Random. Is there anything else written? It'll be in red or black. [They'll all say "yes - it's a Bible verse!”] Okay. Can you look those up? [wait for them to look their verses up, and then have them read them out loud. They will be Job 28:28, Proverbs 14:27, Proverbs 10:27, Proverbs 16:6, Proverbs 22:4, Psalm 19:9, and Psalm 19:9 again] Wow! The Fear of the Lord is a lot of things! But [girl who hasn't read yet], why haven't you said anything? [she'll say that what she has isn't in purple or red.] Then what do you have? Just read it out. [She'll say, "The Key" and she'll read, "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. Isaiah 33:6"]

Hmm. So the Fear of the Lord is the key to treasure. [think] Sylvia, would you happen to have a box containing some of God's treasure? [she does, and she hands it to me.] Awesome! Now! Within this box are some treasures, but [I try to open the box] the box is locked. To access these treasures, I need the Fear of the Lord. Do you have that, too, Sylvia? [she hands me a small key that has a tag that says "The Fear of the Lord"] Ah! Now I have the tool to open the box. [I open it] Ooh! Look at it all! [the box is full of coins] Hmm. Sylvia, aren't there some Bible verses in here taped onto quarters? [she nods] Well then. I need a volunteer to come forward and find a quarter. [a girl comes up, searches through the box, and finds a quarter] Great! Now, go sit down and find that Bible verse. [she goes and sits] I need another person to come. There are eight quarters with eight verses, so we better get moving! [the girls each come up, find a quarter, go sit down and look it up. Once this is done, I ask...] Okay! Now, what's your verse? [point at the first girl. She'll read her verse, and on down the line. The verses will be Psalm 33:18, Psalm 34:7, Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 15:33, Psalm 128:1, Proverbs 14:27, and Proverbs 19:23] Each of these verses talk about one of four things: God's protection, God's Blessing, Wisdom, and Life. Four very good things to have, wouldn't you say?

But how do you get them? Aha! Believe it or not, the Bible has something to say about that, too!
There are TWO ways that I saw that God installs his fear in us...other than having us toss a disobedient passenger overboard, as in the case of Jonah.

Mentoring and through His Spirit.

I would like one of you to look up 2 Chronicles 26:5, another to look up Psalm 34:11, and a third to find Isaiah 11:1-3. I'll wait till you've found them. [short pause]

Okay. In 2 Chronicles, you'll read about a 16-year-old king named Uzziah. (All of you who have been memorizing the various kings are like, "Ooh! Ooh!") Uzziah was the son of Amaziah the son of the boy king Joash (once he grew up!). Now, Uzziah wasn't exactly a bad king, but he wasn't exactly "on fire" for the Lord. Kinda like a lot of Christians today. But, Uzziah was more fortunate than a lot of kings back then, because he had a mentor named Zechariah who loved God. The Bible records that...[I tell the girl with the first verse to read]. I wish I could say that Zechariah's work stuck, but Uzziah had some pride issues later on, and was afflicted with leprosy, which he eventually died from. BUT, the important thing is, he had a mentor.

Now, your verse [referring to the girl with the second verse] is along those same lines. Why don't you read it for us. [she reads it] So David worked on teaching his children the fear of the Lord.

Before we read the last verse, I want to mention something. Both David and Zechariah had problems implanting the fear of the Lord in the people they mentored. Uzziah fell away. David's sons had issues (think of Absalom), and even Solomon stumbled later on in life. This doesn't mean that mentoring is bad, but it's not enough. Thankfully, though, God has given another way. Now you can read your verse. [she reads it] As you all know, this passage is talking about Jesus. But take a closer look at the last part of verse 2: "The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." GOD GIVES US HIS SPIRIT!!! His Spirit will implant a lasting "fear of the Lord" within our hearts, just like He did with Jesus! Isn't that fantastic!?

Now, topic change time. Remember the box over here? I had to use the key "Fear of the Lord" in order to open it. What is the opposite of "Fear of the Lord?" ["Fear of man!"] Exactly. If I were to try to open this box with the "fear of man" [I produce a key with "fear of man" tied on], the box won't open. [I try to open box] I'm sure most of you have notice the alarming lack of stories in this lesson. That is because I've been focusing on what happens when you fear the Lord as you should. Unfortunately, I'm not good at Fearing the Lord, yet. But I do have a story to tell here. A couple months ago, I was sitting in the car at a store, waiting for Mom to come out. I noticed some people sitting in the car next to me with their doors open, obviously doing the same thing I was. I could tell, by looking at them, that they weren't Christians. Now, in the car next to me, was a Gideon's New Testament. All of a sudden, I felt God telling me, "Get out, and give that New Testament to them." I thought, "No way, God! What would they think - and random girl walking up to them and giving them an orange New Testament! Besides! What would I say!? They don't look particularly friendly!" I still felt God urging me, but I did the stupid thing, and stayed in my seat. I was never so glad to see Mom come out!

But that incident annoyed me. I don't know WHY I remembered it, but I have, and I got tired to remembering it. So, a few weeks ago, I ordered some tracts, and I have been faithfully "sowing" them in various spots near us. I've not outright given them to a person yet, but I'm working towards that, and I'm sure that, when the time comes, God will give me grace.

Basically, I'm trying to say, "Don't let the fear of man out-fear your Fear of God."
I'm sure at least one of you has thought, "Why do I need the fear of the Lord? What can I do with it."
Since I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me jabber on and on, so I'll let God's word make my last point for me. I need someone to look up Acts 9:31, someone to look up 2 Chronicles 19:9, and someone to look up Malachai 3:16.

As Christian girls, we have a responsibility to live the way God wants us to live. So, Acts 9:31. [girl reads it] What does that mean? ["The church grew in numbers while they were living in the fear of the Lord."] Can you imagine if the churches today really lived in the fear of the Lord?

2 Chronicles 19:9. [girl reads it] Jehoshaphat, one of the godliest kings after King David, is telling the Levites - the men who served God at his temple! - that, in order to serve properly, they must live their lives in the fear of the Lord.

Finally, Malachai 3:16. [girl reads this] Think about what this verse says! Those who feared God talked among themselves and prayed, and God headed them and recorded it in His records! Can you imagine!?
So, I want to take 5 minutes or so. And I want you to divide up into groups [I name the groups], and I want you to pray together. For each other. For yourselves. For Christians around the world. I want you to pray for God to give us his Spirit, that we may know what it means to properly fear the Lord.

Developing a Disciplined Walk With God

As the title says, the lesson tonight was about developing a disciplined walk with God. 

No one really likes the word "discipline", whether it means punishment or forcing yourself to do something unpleasant. But Scripture tells us in Psalm 2:12 to embrace discipline. The definition of embrace, according to Webster's 1828 dictionary, is "to seize eagerly, to lay hold on, to receive or take with willingness that which is offered". (emphasis mine) 

Developing a disciplined walk with God means embracing discipline eagerly and willingly, and even more, embracing Christ eagerly and willingly. 

Consistent Bible reading and prayer is very important. Just as it's important to eat every day so we don't starve to death, it's also important to feed ourselves spiritually so that we don't starve our relationships with God to death. 

As Jael said last meeting, in the weeks before presenting a lesson, we have to be living it out. Last month Jael and I challenged ourselves to spend an hour with God each day for the rest of the month. I missed a couple days, but other than that, I did it... but then in October, I stopped. I'd finished my "goal time", right? Then I looked at the topic of the lesson I was supposed to be presenting (hmm, does this sound familiar?) and realized that this was a bad time to quit! 

Both last month and this month, it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. God's been helping me in many ways! One night I knew I should be doing devotions, but I started to mess around online instead... the only problem was, for "some strange reason", my Internet browser wasn't working properly. The one site it would load was the one my Bible reading plan was on! Strange, huh? ;) 

Another night, I decided not to do my full hour of devotions because I was too sleepy. 

Guess what happened that night. 

Right... I didn't sleep! I was tossing and turning, coughing, sneezing, anything but sleeping! In the morning I was exhausted... and Psalm 127:2 kept running through my head. It seems that God puts high emphasis on having himself as number one priority! 

When you look at the lives of Christian "heroes" of the past, just about all of them practiced incredible discipline: George Mueller, Jesus (the ultimate example!), and Fanny Crosby are a few examples. 

But Bible reading and prayer are not the only things we need to discipline... our thoughts, words, and actions must be disciplined as well. Our thought life is very difficult to tame, but we are commanded to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"! (2 Corinthians 10:5) 

The activity tonight was making paper snowflakes! It was supposed to go along with the lesson on God's design, but we got a little mixed up in our lesson order, so we did them this week instead. ;)

Jael brought her violin this week, and will be bringing it to every meeting in the future, due to popular request. ;) It added sooo much to our singing time, and was a lot of fun at the end when she started playing fiddle tunes for us!