In class we looked at the way that the Early Church thought of what a church should be vs. what we think that church should be. In comparing the two we saw a huge gap. The early Church wanted community and fellowship as well as to pursue their mission for Christ here on earth, while we thought we should have food and comfy chairs as well as short sermons for church.
I think that this shows us how our ideas of what church is and what it means to be a follower of Christ have changed. That something that started out so good has drifted to this point, where even the most dedicated are often led astray by pursuing and teaching knowledge instead of love or things instead of people.

Last week in Bible class we took some time and looked at the last 7 words of Jesus, and what he did and said while on the cross that can be an example to us. We looked at the fact that Jesus ministry, through through his death and resurrection it became complete, never actually ended. While Jesus hung on the cross he still showed Mercy to his mother and gave her a new “son”, he offered forgiveness to those who were laughing at him and those who had killed him, he even taught the word of God and brought salvation to the man who was dying next to him. Through all these things we see Jesus’ character coming through even in the hardest times.

After taking some time to evaluate and reflect on what these things show about the character of Jesus, we took the next day and looked at what we can learn out of these things. We each took two areas that we said we found a little bit more difficult and we thought and wrote down what how we can improve in these areas.

Finally, after looking, reflecting, and applying these lessons that Jesus taught us in his final moments, we took some time to pray and ask God to help us in improve in these areas. I personally chose Trust in God and Persevere to the completion of the goals before us. I asked God to help me put all my trust in him, not just parts of my life. I also asked God to help me keep going when life gets hard. Jesus taught us the lesson of Perseverance over and over, whether when he was teaching his disciples, talking to the crowds, or simply in his actions of continuing to accomplish Gods will even when it wasn’t what he wanted to do.

This Sunday in church our youth pastor gave the sermon to the church. He talked about the story of  Zacchaeus and how when he was rejected by the people and his family was turned out and judged because of his job, he filled his life with all the riches and things of the world. But when Jesus came and called to him he realized that Jesus was all that he needed to fill his life with, so he made the commitment to not take what wasn’t his and just enough for his family to survive, earning it justly. Our Youth Pastor John also talked about the way that we judge and look at people. Not just regular people, but the way that we also do things like create and image of Jesus in our heads.