Welcome as we resume our online youth group series/lessons. Thanks to Patrick Jordan and Johanna Hoffman last week for helping run youth group with a lesson on confidence.
Kicking off this week with a song we’ve enjoyed quite a bit over the years:
Sally Sheets received the fifth of her six initial treatments for pancreatic cancer today. After the sixth installment, doctors will evaluate the next steps. Please pray for her, Pastor Paul, Sherilyn, Stevan and the extended family.
Pat Mitchell’s biopsy on a concerning spot in his pancreas came back clean … thankfully no cancer. Jason Kratzer finally has his drivers license back. Katie Swartz has been quarantined at home with an illness, and is awaiting COVID test results before the doctors will see her in person. Please remember the other prayers we regularly receive as requests at youth group.
Lastly, we ask for prayer for our upcoming youth yard sale. Set-up will be Friday, Sept. 25, with the sale running all day on Saturday, Sept. 26, starting at 8 a.m. We need help with set up and definitely with cleanup afterward, along with running the food stand and maintaining the sale during the actual event. Those who help get a portion of the proceeds in their accounts. Let’s pray that this sale is successful — and that we define that success by how it impacts the community and helps further God’s kingdom, the financials are secondary.
Tonight, we did our annual fall litter cleanup sweep of Troxelville Road, and it feels good to help maintain the beauty God has provided us by taking away the trash. We have talked in previous sessions about how God is refining us … making diamonds for His kingdom out of each of us.
Today, in light of our trash pickup and a new song that popped up in my feed this week, the lesson is a brief look at how we are each God’s masterpiece — told through the lens of how culture/technology is making it easier than ever to change ourselves. We feel pressure to look a certain way, to change our appearance, to become something the world or society suggests we should be — unfortunately, that usually means moving away from God’s vision and purpose for us.
Check out this song and video from Leanna Crawford, a newer artist we recently discovered via the song “Truth I’m Standing On.” This week, let’s check out her new song and how it ministers to the topic of beauty in God’s eyes vs. what society expects:
What does God say about His creation in us? We have looked closely at the verses shared in Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV) previously:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
But another verse — this from the New Testament — can be found in Ephesians 2:10 (NIV):
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Different translations of the Bible replace the word “handiwork” with “workmanship” and some even use the word “masterpiece.” God created us as His masterpieces for a specific purpose — to do His good works.
The next time we don’t feel pretty enough, good enough or important enough — remember those are in comparison to society’s benchmarks in which no one ever can live up to. However, we are better than all that, because we were created as a true masterpiece by the most important Master of all time.
If you or someone you know is struggling with this topic, we encourage you to reach out to Michelle or myself by emailing here.
