"You are to love those who are foreigners"

The Bryants (Michael, Kristen, and family) and there team led another VBS for Karen children last week. Kristen writes...

We had a great three days of VBS led by 46 adult and kid volunteers. We once again had three generations serving together.   It is great to be able to serve as families. 

It was more chaotic the last night with 131 kids, but they had fun playing games, shouted out the verse, sang promises of God, and heard about God's love and forgiveness.   Twenty-one kids marked that they made first-time decisions to follow Christ!

It is exciting to be able to spend that time with them.  Hopefully, as the words to the songs that we sang over and over come into their minds, they will be reminded of God's love for them.  

I was choked up when the backpacks worked out perfectly.  I couldn't believe it!  We had so many extra kids show up that last night.  We had the exact amount of bags for the kids that came. God is so good!  

What would you say to your younger self?

Do you ever play the mind game of what you would do if you could go back in time with the knowledge you have now? 

I’ve gotten lost in it. 

The last time I did reminded me of the picture above. You'll have to come this weekend or watch the sermon online to see what I mean.

A frequent interview question I lean into, when I really respect the person being interviewed, is, "What would you tell your younger self?" 

We’re looking this weekend at King Solomon’s collapse. One of the features of his collapse is that it was a long time coming. Collapses are always a long time coming. 

There is some evidence that Solomon comes back to God and to his senses at the end of his life. 

So imagine Solomon in an interview at the end of his life, broken but trying to redeem the last years of his life. Someone asks him what he would tell his younger self.

I think he would tell his younger self two things for sure that would get to the core of the problem that leads to the collapse. And, interestingly, I have a great source for what Solomon would say to his younger self.

That's where we're going in this weekend's sermon on 1 Kings 11 as we continue in the Gospel Project. 

What he says to himself is hugely relevant to us. It’s just what we need to hear. It's the stuff on which you build your life on. And to fail to do so puts your deepest hopes at risk.