I'm Baaaaaack!

Got back Thursday from my stint out at camp. Good week there by very hot and no AC. Two nights of VBS and still working on this week's message. That plus dealing with other family and extended family issues has me feeling like I'm chasing my tail a little bit. But, there are two things that came up recently that I need to talk about here.

First - last night at VBS we had a big event planned. The theme of the week was a circus motif. For Friday night we had rented a popcorn macine, a snowcone machine, and a moon bounce. It was looking like it was going to be a good time for the kids. But, as 6PM was approaching, so were the storm clouds and the lightning. The kids were meeting inside for a lesson first and Melissa, the VBS leader asked me to pray with the kids that the rain would hold off for us. We prayed and by 8PM when it was time to go home we had had one brief (literally 30 second) shower. The night was a great success and we all got a powerful lesson in the power of prayer.

Second - After that I went to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with my wife and daughter. I mentioned early on in this blog that I would probably talk about connecting movies with the Gospel. Here's one of those times. The film wasn't bad, especially as a cautionary tale for kids. In that respect it was very much like the original film with Gene Wilder. But near the end, Wonka offers the factory to Charlie and Charlie asks if he can bring his whole family to live there with him. Wonka replies, "Of course you can't!" Charlie explains to Wllie Wonka that he wouldn't trade his family for any amount of chocolate. My first thought was, "That'll preach!" I reminded me of the scripture from Ephesians 2:19. As Paul is talking about all people, Jews and Gentiles being one in Christ he says, "So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family." Is there anything more important than family? And since we are all one in Christ, is there anything more important than the family of God? How often we sell each other out for so much less than a chocolate factory. What a shame that we all aren't a bit more like Charlie Bucket.