Spaghetti Twister

It was a busy day again, and the clock is ticking on school, isn't it?  We're still taking pictures each morning as a part of our routine - pictures, then prayer.  The pictures are each day, one per day of Madison in front of the house.  We've been doing that since the beginning of the year, so that when 1st grade is over, we can look back at her over the year in some sort of quick slide show.

Tonight we spent a great deal of time preparing for the yard sale tomorrow.  We're excited about this because hopefully there will be a lot of people coming through the neighborhood, and hopefully a lot of people will participate.  The family is coming over early, and everyone will be working together to raise some money for David's upcoming missions trip to Costa Rica.

It's a lot of carrying stuff around.  Mommy's been making food for everyone too.  Meanwhile, Madison has been helping, or doing homework, or working on her piano as well.  She's got two songs to nail for the recital, and has one down pretty well.

She's a smart one.  She's been saying some funny stuff lately too - she has quite a sense of humor.  Next week we're excited because Ms. Halston is coming from church to visit her at school, to do lunch with her.  Believe it or not, Mommy or Daddy haven't even done this yet!  We've just got a few more weeks to take care of that one!

So Daddy did a lot of work today towards Sunday's message, which wraps up our "Storm Chasers" series nicely.  It's entirely based on a weather-related movie, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," which features a pretty unusual tornado:

Yes, it's made of spaghetti.  This is one thing a storm chaser should probably be a little more cautious about approaching - the flying meatballs look to be the size of a standard car!  We love this movie, and in a special service, we'll be showing various clips from it, and using the movie to tell a few different points.

Here's a general outline for the message Sunday so far - not quite the finished product, but pretty close.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

HOST:  “Hey there.  I hope you have your umbrellas ready, because today we have a pretty unusual message.  Before we begin, I want to share with you something amazing:  did you know that in your Bible, there is evidence of flying food?  Who here believes that?

(Let audience respond.)

HOST:  “It’s true!  In the King James Bible, if you open up to the Old Testament to the book of Zechariah, it says this:”

SLIDE: “And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll.” Zechariah 5:2 KJV

HOST:  “And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll.  Of course, back then, the word roll meant something different – it’s a scroll.  But today, we are going to see a flying roll.  Actually, we’re going to see flying hot dogs, flying hamburgers and flying meatballs too.  In fact, if you look up, you could say that it’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

SLIDE:  “CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS POSTER”

HOST:  “Meet Flint Lockwood, the main character of this funny movie.  He has unusual gifts that make him special.  These are gifts that make him… just a bit different.  But we should always remember to NOT look down on others because they are different or unusual.  In fact, God wants us to honor each other’s gifts and talents.  Let’s take a look at someone who doesn’t do that – and someone else who does just the opposite in Flint Lockwood’s life.”

CLIP ONE:  “FLINT GETS HIS JACKET”

HOST:  “It’s a good thing there was someone there to encourage Flint.  In fact, there’s your point number one.  Let’s take a look at it.”

SLIDE:  Point One – Encourage each other’s gifts.

HOST:  “Encourage each other’s gifts.  If you hear a voice that makes fun of you, that voice isn’t from God.  And if you yourself are making fun of others because they are a little different, God isn’t happy with that.  In fact, look in your Bible at what it says He wants us to do:”

SLIDE:  “So cheer each other up with the hope you have. Build each other up. In fact, that's what you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIrV

HOST:  “So cheer each other up with the hope you have. Build each other up. In fact, that's what you are doing.  Each of us has unique gifts and talents given to us by God.  When we make fun of each other, we’re actually making fun of God – and that isn’t cool.  Instead, we are to encourage each other and lift each other up.  Look at those who are sitting around you:  encourage them!  You could be sitting next to the one who invents the next biggest thing!  Let’s take a look to see what our friend Flint is inventing:”

VIDEO CLIP TWO:  “FLINT’S INVENTIONS”

HOST:  “Oh my.  It appears as if Flint is not quite there yet on some of his inventions.  But the important thing you should notice here is that he keeps on trying.  Point number two in our books says this:”

SLIDE:  Point Two – Keep Rolling.

HOST:  “Keep rolling.  Just like a giant meatball, we too have to keep rolling forward.  Sure, things can happen that can set us back.  We might get knocked down along the way.  But God wants us to get back up again and persevere.  Listen to what it says in the book of Hebrews:”

SLIDE: “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:36 NIrV

HOST:  “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  God has a plan for you, a plan for you to succeed and a plan to prosper you.  So don’t give up.  That big win just might be around the corner.  Speaking of which, I think something big is about to happen to Flint himself now.”

CLIP THREE:  “FOOD STORM”

HOST:  “Flint has found wonderful success!  But be careful:  there will be temptation in your life to use your gifts the wrong way.  Let’s see how that turns out.”

CLIP FOUR:  “SPAGHETTI TWISTER”

HOST:  “Flint Lockwood wasn’t listening to what he knew was right.  Simply put, we weren’t given our talents and abilities to use them selfishly, or for the wrong reasons.  Let’s look to our third and final point:”

SLIDE:  USE YOUR TALENTS TO HONOR GOD

HOST:  “It says we are to use our talents to honor God.  Plain and simple.  That’s what God gave us these talents for to begin with.  Let me ask you something:  We’ve been doing this series about big Hollywood productions, but did any of you know that there is actually a theater mentioned in the Bible?  It’s true.  Let me show you:”

SLIDE:  “Some of the officials in Asia Minor were friends of Paul. They sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater.” Acts 19:31 NIrV

HOST:  “Some of the officials in Asia Minor were friends of Paul. They sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater.  There it is:  a theater in the Bible.  In the book of Acts, Paul wanted to go into a theater to use his gift of speech in order to tell others about Jesus.  That’s incredible!  In our life, we too should use our gifts in a way that is pleasing to God.  But as we just saw in the movie, unfortunately, Flint used his gifts in the wrong way.  Filled with shame, he threw himself out in the trash – with the other garbage.  Not good.”

CLIP FIVE:  “THE PEP TALK”

HOST:  “Fortunately, Flint has someone who cares enough to help him out, even though he’s messed up.  That’s the way we ourselves should be with others, because that’s just the way Jesus is. 

HOST:  “No matter how much you’ve messed up, God doesn’t think you’re garbage.  And no matter how many times you think you’ve failed, He’ll help you out of your mess so that you can get up, use the abilities He’s put in you, and save the day.”

HOST:  “Now Flint gets himself into quite a pickle.  Or in this case, a giant meatball.  And things look a little rough.  Will he save the day?  Will he survive the ordeal?  Let’s find out.”

CLIP SIX:  “FLIGHT OF THE RAT BIRDS”

HOST:  “Of course he did – he saved everyone, and survived the ordeal.  And in this movie we see him learn a lesson that we should too:  He used his abilities selflessly, all in order to save everyone else. 

HOST:  “You see, what’s important is that we encourage each other’s gifts, persevere and keep rolling – and use our gifts to honor God.  That’s what the movie is all about.  And in fact:  that’s what life is all about.”

HOST: “ Let us pray.”