Sunday - Dressing Up In Our Sunday Best

It's wonderful and appropriate that our first full day at the City of Children is Sunday. It's good and much needed that our first full day here is spent reflecting on Him and the sacrifice of His son. It prepares our heart and focuses our mind for the week ahead. We are in worship, knowing that in another country North of us our friends and families are joining us in the presence of the living God. And so, wherever we are now and later in life, we have a connection that surpasses the boundaries of time, space, country, language and place.

We began the morning in our daily devotion and meditation - another cherished Mexico trip tradition. We gather and reflect on God's word and share with one another what the Lord has put on our heart. By chance (which, for a Christian, doesn't exist), the July 12th devotion in the devotional guide was about calling upon the name of the Lord. Again, an appropriate way to begin our week, for in the coming days there will be times, without a doubt, when the weariness of our bodies, the reservoirs of our spirit and the wiles of the Devil will threaten our mission here. And we will need to call upon the name of the Lord. Which is, perhaps, the reason we grow tired, are tempted and make mistakes, so that we finally acknowledge Him and his power and so call upon His name.

Our Sunday time is always special here at the City of Children. We get to see all of the children for the very first time on the Lord's Day. We await them at the door of the gym that is our church building, greeting them with a Holy High-Five. We've decide this is one practice that we'd like to bring to North Boulevard - all of the members lining up at the door for new members, those suffering through a special challenges and our visitors to make their way through a tunnel of cheering Christians celebrating their arrival with shouts and high-fives. What do you think?

Skid led us in the morning's lesson. Our lesson was taken from Colossians 3:12-14: ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

T-Shirts were used as an illustration for the lesson.  Both an NBYG teen and a Mexican teen were clothed in t-shirts with the words compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Then Skid explained how the Devil deceives us into thinking we are actually worthless, losers, guilty, rejected and failures. The teens put on t-shirts with those words - the Devil's lies - covering up the words describing what God really intends for us to be. Then, using the scripture as his guide, Skid had the teens put on over the Devil's words, three successive t-shirts with words from the scripture that describes God's view of us. One shirt had the word "Chosen" on it.  But still you could see the Devil's words underneath it. Then came a t-shirt with the word "Holy" on it.  Then "Dearly Loved." With each successive shirt, the Devil's demeaning descriptions became dimmer and dimmer until they finally disappeared and covered and clothed by God, we can once again be what the Lord intended us to be and know and feel. Of course, the challenge in all of this and for all of us is for these words to be more than simply something we "put on." It's letting it sink in and change our heart that is most important.

Today we shared worship in song, prayer, communion, giving and contemplating the word of God with our Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ and we were all of one country without borders.  

Can the trip be off to any better start?! No matter what the Devil tries to deceive us into thinking - God is good. All the time, whatever clime, what ever country.