Monthly Archives: April 2006

Food for Thought

You Find What You Are Looking For

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hummingbird.jpg

It is said that two kinds of birds fly over the California deserts: the hummingbird and the vulture. All the vulture can see is rotting meat, because that is all he looks for. He thrives on that diet. But the hummingbird ignores the carcasses and the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, he looks for the tiny blossoms of the cactus flowers. He buzzes around until he find the colorful blooms almost hidden from view by the rocks. Each bird finds what it is looking for.

What are you looking for? Better still, what are you finding? What you are finding tells what you are really looking for. Your expectations of life will determine your outcome. If you come to church looking for a blessing, you will find one. If you come to church looking for a fault or an excuse for staying home the next time, you will find that also.

When you leave church with the great expectation and desire to worship and serve God during the week, you will find what you are looking for.

Inspiration

Even Eagles Need a Push

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Even the greatest and most powerful have weak moments. At such times, they may need a push before they stretch their wings and fly.

Golden and bald eagles are among the largest and most powerful birds in the world. Eagles are symbols of strength, bravery and courage — and proud independence. But their independence must be learned.

As young eaglets, the nest is comfortable, safe, and secure. But if the eaglets are to survive on their own, they must leave the comfort of the nest and learn to fly! To convince the eaglets that it is time to leave the parents make the nest uncomfortable by tearing up the bedding with their talons, allowing the sticks and sharp ends to be exposed.

The mother eagle then beats her wings at the eaglets, harassing them, and driving them forward. Cowering before such an attack, the little eaglets climb up on the edge of the nest, only to be pushed over the side by the mother eagle. The eaglet falls, its wings struggling to catch the air currents, but flopping out of control due to inexperience.

Just before the eaglet crashes upon the rocks below, the mother eagle swoops down, catches it on her back, and soars upward into the sky. Much relieved, the young eaglet feels safe, until suddenly, without warning, the mother eagle dives downward, depriving the little eaglet of its grip. Once again it finds itself plummeting toward the ground.

Repeatedly the eaglet is dumped then rescued until it learns to catch the rising air currents and ride the winds. Its wings strengthen and soon the eaglet soars high above the earth, taking on the character of a true eagle.

Unfortunately, some eaglets refuse to use their wings and fly. Eventually, the mother eagle soars high one final time with the eaglet on her back, and with a wild screech of disappointment and pain, she dives out from under it and flies away, leaving it to its fate — either “fly or die.”

Have you become too comfortable? Do you have a “fly or die” attitude. It’s time you gave your life a push and stretched your wings! If you never stretch your wings, you will never fly to greater heights.

“”Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles”
– Isaiah 40:31

The Lord uphold all those who fall
and lifts up all those who are bowed down

Copyright 2003 by Ken Sapp


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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Game Ideas

Easter Egg Spoon Relay

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easter_egg1.jpgMaterials
1. A Hard-Boiled Easter Egg for each team. You might also have a few eggs as spares in case some or dropped and mutilated beyond use.
2. 2 Spoons for each team

Game Objective
Place the egg on the spoon and run to the opposite end of the room and back without dropping it.

Game Preparation
1. Divide the group into teams of an even number. If one or more teams is short a player, have a person on those teams go twice to even out the number.
2. Provide the egg and spoon to each team.

Game Play
1. Teams must place the egg on the spoon and run to the opposite side of the room and back.
2. If the egg is dropped, they must return to the starting line and begin again.
3. If the run is completed successfully the egg is passed to the next person who has the second spoon who then also runs the relay. The first person then passes the spoon to the next person in line and goes to the end of the line.
4. The first team to have all members complete the relay is the winner.

Variation
Use plastic spoons and have the participants hold the spoon in their mouths. As the egg is a little bit heavy this makes the game exceedingly more difficult.

Variation
Use a raw egg for messy fun!

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Icebreakers

Easter “Who am I?”

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eastereggs.jpgGame Materials
Hollow Plastic Easter Eggs, paper, pencils.

Game Objective
Match the fun fact with the person

Game Play
1. Pass out an Easter Egg to each person.
2. Each participant writes one fun fact about themselves e.g. “My favorite color is red”, “My favorite movie is.”, etc. on a piece of paper and insert it into the Easter Egg.
3. Put all the Easter eggs in a bowl.
4. A leader pulls one egg out, reads out the answer, then participants try and guess who’s egg you have.
5. The participant that guesses correctly gets the egg. The person with the most eggs wins.

Get Creative Youth Ideas: "Easter Collection" ebook Easter Collection
Games and Activities in celebration of Easter.

Get more than 80 creative ideas for planning a Youth Easter celebration or Easter Party. You can immediately download my best Easter Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Easter activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

=> Tell me more about the Easter Collection

Teaching Illustrations

Empty Chair, The

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chair2.jpgA man’s daughter had asked the local pastor to come and pray with her father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. “I guess you were expecting me,” he said.

“No, who are you?”

“I’m the new associate at your local church,” the pastor replied. “When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up.”

“Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “Would you mind closing the door?”

Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.

“I’ve never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head..”

“I abandoned any attempt at prayer,” the old man continued, “until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ‘I’ll be with you always.’ Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now.”

“So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.”

The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon.

“Did he seem to die in peace?” he asked.

“Yes, when I left the house around two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, In fact, beyond strange–kinda weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed.”

Author: Unknown
Source: Unknown


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…