Roman Centurions

The rain has been epic this week.  They are estimating something well over a trillion gallons of water on North Georgia this week, and it's obvious from all the standing water alongside the roads that we're getting deluged with heavy rainfall, with storm after storm rolling through.  The skies at night are filled with lightning flashes, and the visibility is very low for all of us.

Nevertheless, Daddy made his way home to do some reading with the family.  We read from a new book tonight, part of the Neverland series, a book about mermaids and a weird circus ship.  There are three of these types of books, all part of this series written by the same authors as before - we're just going to power through all of these.  Along the way, there's also two more of these full-length books. I think there are five books left in all, so it'll be one after the other here, I think.

Also, Daddy was reading from the devotional tonight.  We're continuing our series with Romans tonight at KidPak, but it was a baptism night upstairs, which means that there were something like thirty people getting baptized in the main service upstairs.  Translated, that means a longer service for kids downstairs, which means Madison stayed home tonight to get some rest.  She's been a bit under the weather lately, not terrible, but just enough to warrant getting to bed a little earlier.  Sure enough, she was later surprised when she realized she fell asleep at eight o'cock tonight.

How appropriate that there were baptisms tonight - all they would have to do is go outside and find one of the many ginormous pools of water outside.  Our service tonight featured a visit from the Roman Centurion from the Bible, the one who talked with Jesus.

Clint has been great as a Roman this series.  I think that seal must have been a lost-and-found item.  Anyway, we had a bit of a script there, and we talked about some weird laws in Georgia too.  One of those laws, the famous "you can't eat chicken with a fork in Gainesville" one was funny:  two of our cast members ate chicken with a fork in the sanctuary, in Gainesville city limits.  SO... as part of it, we had Officer Monica come up and actually "arrest" those two as we played the song "Bad Boys."  Daddy didn't break that law though - I ate my chicken without a fork.  There are some laws I will not break, I tell you!

Madison did well at school today, getting a few perfect scores on some tests, including a science test, a health test, and one in language arts too.  She's got an A in all classes except science, and is about .17 away from an A average there too.  She's doing so good!

It's Wednesday, so sometimes these day are tough and we don't get to see the family that often.  Mommy is fixing up this one room upstairs and it is looking great for materials, sewing, and craft projects.  It'll be Mommy's "playroom," and it is coming along really well!

Before we go for today, here's a quick script Daddy wrote pretty much immediately after waking up this morning.  It went well with tonight.  We were talking about Romans 13, about respecting those in authority.  It's funny when you read that first big section of Romans 13, and you think about the current leaders in government.  But then read it again, and think of the leaders in government four years ago.  It's the same words in the Bible, but it's funny how your feelings and interpretations may suddenly shift, based on how you feel those leaders really are!

HOST:  “Today, I wanted to let you meet someone that really impressed Jesus.  In fact, Jesus said in Mathew 8:11:  ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.’  The Bible says that Jesus was amazed!  That’s pretty awesome – Jesus was pretty impressed by this guy!  What did he do?  Let’s find out right now.”

CENTURION enters STAGE RIGHT

CENTURION:  “Friends, Romans and Countrymen…!  How’s it going?  Does anyone here know how many years are in a century?”

Let audience answer.

CENTURION:  “That’s right:  100 years.  I am known as a Roman Centurion, so how many Roman soldiers do you think I am in command of?”

Let audience answer.

CENTURION:  “That’s right.  100 Roman soldiers.   I tell this one, ‘go,’ and he goes.  I say to that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes.  I say to my servant ‘do this,’ and he does it.  God put me in a place of authority here.”

CENTURION pauses a moment, his tone changing.

CENTURION:  “I love those people that work for me.  But one of my servants was very sick at the house.  Very sick!  He was paralyzed, and suffering terribly.  I had to do something.  So who do you think I went to see?”

Let audience respond.

CENTURION:  “That’s right.  I went to see Jesus.  (excited) And I actually got to speak with him.  Jesus asked me, ‘Shall I come and heal him?’  Imagine that!  Jesus was asking meif I wanted him to come to my house!  You know what I told him?”

Let audience respond.

CENTURION:  “I told him no way!  Look, I am not worthy of having Jesus in my house.  See, I said it before:  I’m over a lot of people.  And I serve under a lot of people too.  I recognize authority when I see it.  So I told Jesus, don’t worry about making that trip to my house.  Just say the word …and my servant will be healed.  Want to know a little secret?”

CENTURION:  “Jesus is the ultimate authority.  I may be the one giving orders to my men, but when Jesus tells meto go, I go.  When he tells meto come, I come.  And when he tells meto do this, I do it.  And when he said my servant was healed, guess what? My servant was healed!”

CENTURION:  “Just remember that it’s God that puts people in their places of leadership, because He’s the one in charge.  Do you want to know how to amaze Jesus?  All you have to do is know who is really in charge around here: that’s Jesus.  When you do that, who knows?  I think he can make all of you leaders too.”

CENTURION:  “In fact, I know it.  Good day, citizens!”