Pilgrim's Progress- VBS 2008

Jude's VBS teacher, "Everyone line up. It's time to go hear Mrs. Bailey read to us!"
Jude, "But I thought my mommy was reading to us."

We just finished part 2 of Pilgrims Progress VBS. It went smooth and wonderful! Pilgrims Progress makes such a great VBS. The lessons taught through the story are life lessons for any believer! I would encourage anyone who hasn't read it to read it. We used Dangerous Journey (the story of Pilgrim's Progress) revised by Eerdmans because the origional 1676 John Bunyon version is very difficult to understand because it was written so long ago. Even Eerdman's version uses words hard for young children to understand, so I revised it even more.

To briefly highlight a little bit of the story, Christian has a burden and lives in the City of Destruction. The book that he's reading tells him that his city will be destroyed and he wants to know what he must do to be saved. No one else sees the danger or has a burden. His family and friends don't want him to leave, but Evangelist tells him to go to the wicket gate and there, he will discover how to be saved. He tells him not to leave the path, the Kings Highway. Through the wicket gate, he walks between the walls of salvation up to a cross where his burden rolls off into a tomb. The Shining ones appear an give him new clothes and a parchment which he must not loose or give away until he reaches the Celestial City.
In the story, he makes wise and unwise decisions. Sometimes he leaves the path, and sometimes he is wise and doesn't.
At one point, he must go through Vanity Fair, a fair that never closes and was put up by Apollyon, the prince of demons, in the town of Vanity. He put it there because he saw that all pilgrims must go through this city on their way to the Celestial City. He put it there to tempt them to love the things of this world more than the King. Christian must fight Appollyon at one point as well.
Another chapter is about Christian veering off the path, when he is weary and despairing, to Doubting Castle where he it tortured by Giant Despair until he remembers his Promise key which he uses to unlock the dungeon door and escape.
In the end, he is received in the Celestial City with trumpets and angels because he has his parchment paper with him which shows that he was invited and came on the right road through the wicket gate.

The story allowed each day to have different themes and characters, which made it exciting for songs and crafts and games and Bible verses. We had a wonderful time.

So even though Jude didn't know who 'Mrs. Bailey' was, hopefully he learned a few lesson about the christian life!

Mission Week in Summary

For Mission Week at our church, we had a guest pastor/missionary from India named Chris Williams. He is a man with a passion for Christ. My husband said, "I never met Paul, but now I've come as close to knowing what he was like as I ever will". Chris spoke 3 or 4 times, but I will try to sum up a few of his points.
He started out by encouraging us to find, seek, and search God's face (Psalms 63, 27:4). We should not love this world, but seek God. Moses asked God to show him His glory (Ex.33:12-13, 18). David was a man after God's own heart and desired to know God's heart and to seek it. THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST IS FUNDAMENTAL TO CHRISTIANITY! Galations 4 tells us that we were once enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, but when we were redeemed, we were no longer slaves of the world, but a son to God! So we should not but our passions and loves into the things of this world.

Don't turn back to the world! We should study, study, study and have an intense longing for a relationship with Him.
The next talk was about where God's heart is and where our hearts should be. The nearer we get to God, the more missionary we become. God's heart beat is evangelism. Let your heart be broken for the world. The question became, "are you spending time or investing your life?"
Are we willing to suffer for Him (Rom 5:1-5)? Are our minds set on the things of the Spirit, which is life and peace, or on the things of the flesh, which is death and hostile to God (Rom 8)? We should have the same heart as God- a desire to reach the lost world with the gospel.
Romans 15:17-21 says, "In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written,
“Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”
Be proud of the work of the Lord! Do you know your work for the Lord? Verse 19, speaks of signs and wonders. The greatest sign and wonder is transformation! The transforming work of God is changing a sinner into a saint. We need to get a world map and start praying for the world. We need to be ambassadors for Christ!
What's the greatest thing we can do for missions? Matthew 9:35-38, PRAY FOR THE WORLD TO BE REACHED! He is sovereign over the harvest.
Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
We need to be informed about what our missionaries are doing and what is going on in the world to be a better prayer, then we will get involved! Arthur Pink said that real prayer is communion with God so we will have a common desire with God. So we will have the mind of Christ. Prayer is an act of dependency upon God. It is more of an attitude than an act.
Colossians 4:2-4 tells us how to pray and what to pray for. We should pray continuously and steadfastly in prayer, be watchful (alert and informed), and with thanksgiving. We should pray for our missionaries and ourselves to declare and preach the mystery of Christ, that we make it clear and simple to understand, and that doors of opportunity will open for people to hear.
As Pat Howell said, America is evangelized! Turn on any radio, go in any book store, go in a good church (hopefully reformed), and you can learn of Christ. 27% of the world is not evangelized- not reached AT ALL. That means no Bibles, no churches, no radio, no literature.
Missionaries and money for missions are going down in America. What money is given, 74% of that money goes to already evangelized places. Of the fifteen thousand, five hundred billion dollars raised for church related ministries in America, 300 billion goes to church related causes. 17 billion goes to foreign missions. 18 billion is swindled.
The local churches are the keys to world missions. They are God's ordained vehicle to evangelize the world. 3 TO 4 BILLION PEOPLE HAVEN'T HEARD THE GOSPEL!
My friends, pray and plead with God for good and faithful shepherds and that God will raise up shepherds. Go or pray and give! The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.