Grace Notes

The 4th of July is one of the best times I know of for witnessing. People just sit around bored waiting for the fireworks to start. Everyone is in a festive mood, and many are very open to conversation!

A group of 12 of us gathered downtown to share the gospel with people. It turned out to be a terrific evening.

Here Michael Biegler and Jonathon Olson were having a conversation with a couple who were a bit argumentative, yet interested and friendly. They talked for over 30 minutes.

In the picture above, Nickie and Hannah talked with several older ladies. Sometimes older people know a lot of Christian terminology but have never actually understood the simplicity of the gospel!

As I was taking the above picture, I also noticed two girls sitting a ways away, listening to Nickie. Later, Nickie told me she talked to those two girls as well! She said they were seriously interested, and close to the point of putting their faith in Christ! Please pray for them.

My dad and Brad had several great conversations. They came back to our group afterwards with excitement and it was fun hearing their report!

When it got dark we all came together to share stories. Few activities are as satisfying as getting the gospel out to many people.

At Bright Lights last Monday, Sarah, Stephen and I taught a meeting on witnessing. (We combined the girls in Bright Lights and the guys from Stephen’s Light Shop group.) In the picture above, Michael is sharing a story from one of his conversations from the 4th:

One couple he talked with claimed to be believers, so he asked them, “Do you share your faith very much?”

“Well…” the guy hesitated.

Michael replied, “Well, suppose you were a fireman and someone was in danger on the 2nd floor of a burning building, and you had all the equipment to rescue him–”

About this point, Michael noticed that the wife gave a little half-smile, and glanced at her husband.

“He is a fireman,” she said.

Michael laughed and replied, “Oh, then you will really relate to this. Okay, what if you didn’t rescue that person even though you had the ability to do so? You would be in big trouble, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh yeah!” the guy strongly affirmed.

“Well, as a fireman you are only saving them from an earthly death, but when we share the gospel we are showing them the way to be saved from eternal death. Which do you think is more important?”

This leaves us all with a challenge. Let’s view life from an eternal perspective, obey the commands of Jesus, and enjoy the blessings of being in the battle WITH CHRIST.

If you have never Christmas caroled before, you may be surprised at how much some people are touched by it. We took our Bright Lights group caroling the other night, and I was reminded of what an impact it can make. Many stand outside the door, trying to savor the moment, thoroughly enjoying the old carols.

After we sing, we greet them, ask for a favorite, explain who we are, and leave them with some cookies and a book that explains the Biblical meaning of Christmas.

Many of the carols themselves have great gospel words: “Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

While we were caroling, a passage popped into my head. I had been reading it the previous day. “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.” (Psalm 105:1-2)

Amazing. We get to praise the Lord in song, in front of the on looking world, (well, house by house) and thus proclaim both the gospel and our delight in it! What a privilege.

“Are you carolers?!” the elderly couple in this vehicle asked as they rolled down the window.
“Yes, would you like us to sing something for you?”
“Would you??” they asked eagerly.
The lady explained how she used to carol around this very neighborhood as a girl.

Then we came back for hot chocolate and our normal Bright Lights lesson time and activities.

Nickie shared with the younger girls about our response to Christ, emphasizing how we need to be committed disciples.

Simultaneously, Sarah was sharing with the older girls upstairs. We are beginning a six week “winter discipleship” study in which we are going to be keeping each other accountable to be seeking Jesus more diligently.

The joy of fellowship with sisters in Christ…
Pictured above are Amanda, Annie, and Hannah

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27)

At our last Bright Lights meeting, Sarah shared some important thoughts for the new year. One thing she mentioned is that when we see sins or weaknesses in our life, we often have the tendency to either 1) think it’s impossible for us to change and not even try or 2) to try in our own strength.

Those are both incorrect responses. The correct responce is, first of all, to pray and ask God to change us. What is impossible for us, is very possible for Him!

Sarah asked the girls if there were areas in their lives they needed to change, or areas in which they desire to grow. She then emphasized that we need to be fervently *asking* God to change us! It was so sweet to see the girls spontaneously begin raising their hands sharing areas of their life they wanted to ask God to change.
“I want to be nice to my brothers and sisters,”
“I want to seek Him more with all my heart,”
And many other things.

We then took about 20 minutes and played soft music while the girls spread out all over the chruch to have some time alone with the Lord to talk about these things. It was a special time.

We don’t have the power to walk in a way that is worthy of the calling that we have received—but God is able to give us the strength. Are we asking for Him to do it?! Let’s earnestly plead with God to change us in those areas we know we need to grow!

As a side note, Stephen’s boy’s group (the Light Shop) celebrated their 9th anniversary with ice cream sundaes at their meeting on Monday night. Special milemark. We are excited that the Light Shop material will be available in print soon.

After our last Bright Lights meeting here in town, we all went outside for a campfire/sharing time. It was very encouraging to hear girls sharing about how the Lord has been working in their lives.

One girl shared that at the recent Bright Lights conferences, the Lord had convicted her of a number of things she needed to confess to her parents—it was a whole list of things, actually. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was NOT an easy thing for her to do. But God gave her courage, and after confessing everything to her parents, she said she had a much better relationship with the Lord, her parents, AND her siblings. Also, she emphasized how God gave her a new understanding of the cross and the seriousness of her sin, and a new delight in His Word and prayer.

Several other girls also shared about some good, yet difficult, decisions the Lord had convicted them to make as well. Praise the Lord!

Sarah teaching Bright Lights last Monday night on how to answer some “tough” questions:

“Where did Cain Get His Wife?”

“If we all go back to one man and one woman, how’d we get so many different ‘races’?”

“How do you explain finding fossils that some people say date back over 300 million years, if the Bible is correct and the earth is young?”

“Since numerous apelike fossils have been found of what some scientists say are human ancestors, doesn’t this prove that man has evolved?”

All these questions have simple answers! We as Christians don’t simply have “blind faith,” that the Bible is true, we have a reasonable faith that we can explain! In fact, everything we see in science, geology, archeology, chemistry, etc. is consistent with what the Bible has already stated to be true.

In our Bright Lights and Light Shop groups over the summer, Sarah and Stephen are going to take some time at each meeting to teach simple, easy-to-recall answers to a variety of tough questions. It’s going to be a fun challenge!

For all of you who don’t attend Bright Lights or Light Shop, let me encourage you to take the time to learn these answers too! If you are an “audio learner” like me, you may find it helpful to listen to some of Answers in Genesis online videos. One idea is to listen to them while you are organizing your room (makes it a little more fun, at least!), washing dishes, etc.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (1 Peter 3:15)

I was working in my little cubicle the other day when I heard a very loud racket. I walked out and found my dad and Stephen in full combat…
They told me they were “testing” the armor they were going to use for an activity at Light Shop.

(For those who don’t know, “Light Shop” is Stephen’s boys discipleship group that meets every time Bright Lights meets. It stands for Leaders In Godliness, Holiness and Testimony.)

Dad and Stephen prepared 24 helmets, swords, and shields.

There were 12 guys in brown and 12 guys in red. The objective was to knock the newspaper breastplate off your opponent. As you can see, the activity was a big success.

Stephen (along with David Jones who helps him teach) taught the young men about Ephesians 6 and how we are in a spiritual battle and need to know our weapons.

In Bright Lights we try to be a little more feminine. We’ve been going through a series of lessons on being “daughters of the king” covering topics such as femininity, modesty, inner beauty, joyfulness, etiquette, etc. As daughters of the King, we need to remember Who we belong to and Who we respresent! At one of our recent meetings we gave each small group 15 minutes to create a complete outfit with brown paper and tape. Everyone had a good time, and some of the outfits the girls came up with were pretty impressive!

The theme of the lesson last week was on “pouring yourself out” and learning to die daily for Jesus. (I Cor 15:31) Sarah told some amazing stories of great missionaries and martyrs who went through tremendous sacrifice to proclaim the gospel. Then she emphasized how God values not only the big sacrifices, but also the daily little sacrifices we make in serving our families and those around us. He sees and weighs the heart. It’s not necessarily the intensity of the suffering He rewards (we can’t choose our circumstances) but the response of our heart to whatever He allows. May we, like Paul and Silas in prison, sing praises in the midst of difficulty.

An imaginary blizzard whirled in the auditorium at Bright Lights last night, forcing each small group to huddle together inside their little Israeli towns (i.e. their circle of chairs) . Because of the blizzard, the only means of communication was to write letters and mail them via “the Christmas train”. Each town’s goal was to collect clues from the other teams (er-towns) and figure out seven key reasons why Jesus was born.
“Hurry–the train is coming, the train is coming!” the girls would shout to their teams as they finished writing more notes to send to the other towns….it was a lot of fun.

Light Shop (Stephen’s discipleship group) did the same activity, and, from what I hear, the young men weren’t quite as successful at collecting clues, but they were definitely more successful at keeping their train operating properly.

We are grateful to our innovative dad who had the idea (though he claims it was a group effort) and made the trains out of cardboard boxes yesterday afternoon.

For the lesson time, Sarah taught the girls downstairs while the older girls studied the Scriptural accounts of a few of the Christmas characters (plus John the Baptist) upstairs.

Here’s a short synopsis of our discussion:

Elisabeth: Elisabeth’s barrenness must have been a huge trial in her life–especially in that culture and time. But God was obviously using it as a tool to prepare her for the exciting task he was going to give her. The trials in our life that we don’t understand may actually be God’s hand of preparation for a special work He has called us to do.

John the Baptist: John was an amazing combination of great humility and great boldness. We think there is a connection there. He was able to be so bold because he was so humble and didn’t care about his personal reputation or status among men.

Anna: Looking closely at the life of Anna in the temple, we see how she went through some very tough times in her earlier years! Even though she lost her husband after only 7 years of marriage, she didn’t become bitter but instead used the trial as a springboard to grow nearer to God and minister to His people. She didn’t have the security of a husband and children, but she had the security of the blessing of God on her life!

Mary: Though Mary certainly didn’t have an easy path, she set her eyes on the bigger picture–not on her own personal comfort or reputation. It is encouraging to see the Lord’s faithfulness to her at each step of the way! He gently communicated His plan to her through the angel, provided a godly man to walk along side her and care for her, and blessed and strengthened her through numerous people (Elisabeth, the shepherds, Anna and Simeon, the wise men, etc.), and protected her family from Herod’s sword.

A few nights ago our good friend Bekah (in blue sweater) invited us all over to her house for her 21st birthday party. We are all old friends because almost everyone in the picture has been involved in our Bright Lights group here in Cedar Rapids, IA for the past 10 years, and has traveled together to help lead at multiple Bright Lights conference trips. We have lots of adventurous and unique memories! Serving the Lord together ignites some of the best times of fellowship. I’m so grateful for these lasting friendships.

Today was the first day of the Bright Lights Leader’s Training!

We are trying to capture the training on video this time, so Stephen has been spending long hours preparing and setting up. He’s doing a great job.

We’d appreicate prayer about this project. It would so helpful to have this training available on dvd. (At the moment it’s only available in CD form.)

Tonight we also had our normal Bright Lights meeting. The topic was on “Accepting the Way God Created You”, and Sarah emphasized the importance of not worrying what others are thinking of you but fearing God instead.

Pray for Sarah this week because teaching a five day conference gets tiring!

Did you know that in some ways younger girls have an advantage when it comes to sharing the gospel? The reason is this: people are not intimidated by them! Instead, they are impressed by their maturity. If a few sweet, smiley young girls go to the park and take “surveys” (questions about the gospel), people are almost always willing to talk! This is great approach to initiate conversations about Jesus. (And if anyone would like to know what questions we ask in our surveys, feel free to e-mail and ask.)

Last Monday evening a group of young ladies from our Bright Lights group gathered here at the Bright Lights office for a class on evangelism. We discussed various ways to engage people in conversation using tracts, surveys, the “wordless bridge”, etc. Then we divided up and practiced witnessing to each other. I am so excited about their enthusiasm.

We also watched a little witnessing clip from Way of the Master to learn what to say to atheists.

We’d appreciate prayer tomorrow evening (the 25th) because several of us will be going out witnessing together in the town square. Please pray that the Lord would strengthen and empower each one of us to overcome fear and experience the joy of blessing others with the Good News.

“And Jesus…said, Verily I say unto you, ‘Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’” Matt 18:3

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” 1 Tim 4:12