a new little brother!!

one of the things i love helping out with is kidstuff (my church's children's ministry). i was grabbing breakfast with some of my friends from kidstuff this morning and we were talking about why we serve in this manner. i was reminded of one of the coolest things ever from a few weeks ago.

it's not every day that you get to engage a half-dozen elementary-age dudes with the Gospel. i think sometimes we think that being a christian means being nice and going to church and doing a lot of things, but that's not it at all. too often, we take the emphasis off of Jesus, and that's a grave mistake. everything we know (and tons of things we don't know) are about Jesus. it's all about Jesus.

so you can only imagine how awesome it was to share this crazy-sweet news that God loves us, and Jesus was willing to give up HIs life for us, so that we could all hang out with Jesus forever, in a place much better off then what we got going on down here. this is how it all went down...

one of the guys in my class, j-money, mentioned that we need to know the good news so we can share it with others. as we started talking to the little guys, God placed the following words in our mouths:

"it's like, imagine we are over in austin, texas, and God is chilling over in europe. He wants us to come over and be with Him, right? but there's this pond in the way, ya know? now, do any of you guys think that you could make it over to europe without a lifeboat, water, food; do you think you could make it all by yourself? (they all answer no)...

...well guys, that's what's going on with us spiritually. all throughout the Bible, especially in Romans, it talks about how we are all sinners. even if we don't mean to, we still have accidents sometimes and hurt God's heart. and the thing is, because we all sin, we separate ourselves from God, like the atlantic ocean. and just like we can't make it to europe on our own -- we'd probably die of hunger, thirst, or get eaten by a shark -- we can't make it to God on our own.

but the sweet news is, God loves us so much that He decided to eliminate the ocean between us, and come get us, since we couldn't get to Him. so He sent Jesus, His Son, to make a way to Him. Jesus did this when He died on the Cross. you guys know that story? (they all say yes) yeah, well Jesus did that because we were going to be in trouble and have to die for our sins, and God wouldn't want that. so Jesus died for us, because that would give us a way to be with Him forever.

and all Jesus says we have to do is want Him to be our best friend, to be our Savior, and He will. He knows we can't swim the ocean on our own, and we can't make it to Him alone. so, have any of you guys asked Jesus to be your best friend? (a few say yes) does anyone want to ask Jesus to be your best friend? (most keep coloring and making paper airplanes....they're like 7, you gotta remember)...

my co-leader and i thought that was that. we were thankful to share God's great news of salvation with these children, and trust Him to use it. little did we know, God would move that very night.

as i understand, j-money and his little bro weezemeister (not their real names, privacy reasons duh) went home and were sharing with their parents what they learned, and what we talked about. daddy dubs asked the little bros what it all meant. weezemeister stated he wanted to be a disciple of Jesus and wanted to know what that meant. daddy dubs shared the Gospel, again, and explained what it meant and how weezey could be a disciple of Jesus.

in HIs mercy and providence, God opened a way for weezey to understand the Gospel and come to a point of accepting Him. just like we all have to accept Jesus for ourselves, so did weezey. and that night, on a beautiful october evening in austin, lil' weezey asked Jesus to be his forever friend.

how awesome is that!! the body of Christ just got a new little brother. and i feel so humbled to even be a small part of it. it's amazing how God works, especially since that day in kidstuff was completely of the Spirit's work. for one, my normal co-leader got sick right before, leaving us short-handed. another guy stepped in, and our plans fell apart, so we had to let God lead. and lead He did. so cool how God moves!

to finish the story, weezenator got baptized a few days ago at our monthly prayer and worship gathering. i love that Jesus is stirring the hearts of the children to be a generation after His own heart. i'll try to keep y'all posted on any more awesome stories from kidstuff.

till then, grace and peace be with you. praise God, walk with Jesus, and rejoice in everything...