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Spiritual Emphasis Week:
"Transformed"

What a blessing it has been for our middle school students to hear from Pastor Trenton Gilman of Ada Bible Church during Spiritual Emphasis Week! Check out their daily summaries below for a glimpse into what they’ve been learning and how God has been working in their hearts this week!

Spiritual Emphasis Week Day #1
Written by 8th graders Clara Kooistra, Keegan Rose and Carter Severn

Today was our first day of Spiritual Emphasis Week. The theme for the week is based on our middle school theme of being Transformed. Today we focused on “why we should be transformed.” Pastor Trenton Gilman from Ada Bible started off chapel telling a story about the great bambino, AKA Babe Ruth.  Trenton talked about when the Red Sox traded  Babe Ruth to the Yankees, their sworn rival, he started doing really well for the Yankees! Pastor Trenton then compared this to our spiritual life.

Trenton said that when Adam and Eve gave away their freedom by eating the fruit, they went from perfect to broken sinners. One thing that stood out about this to me is that Adam and Eve did not know the whole embodiment of what they actually had. They were perfect, but they did not know anything else other than perfection.

As we reflected on Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Trenton shared his own story of how he once conformed to the pattern of this world. He acknowledged that apart from divine intervention, he could never have changed on his own. Yet, here he stands, 15 years later, proclaiming God’s love and serving as a powerful testimony to the transforming power of Christ.

In Trenton’s first point he talked about how if you aren’t being transformed by God then you’re being transformed by something or someone else. We looked at Colossians 1:13.  In Colossians we talked about how Paul describes our rescue as coming out of darkness. We focused on how God created us to be transformed by Him.

The second point we discussed is how we need to be “recreated.” In 2 Corinthians we talked about how God recreates us as his new creation. He talked about how we are curse breakers like the 2004 Red Sox, who broke the curse of the Bambino. We are curse breakers because we broke sins curse from Adam and Eve and have a new life in Christ.

The third point we talked about is how “the world desperately needs the transformed you”. Trenton talked about how Saul was changed on the road to Damascus. Trenton reminded us that Paul was one of the leading people against the Jesus movement, but he changed and became one of the best leaders in the Jesus movement. Even though Paul was persecuted, he was still on fire for God. That is a BIG example of one of the ways the world needs you to be transformed.

Trenton wrapped up our chapel by reviewing our key points and sharing the rest of the story about the Boston Red Sox. After an 87 year championship drought, the Red Sox found themselves down three games to none against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Against all odds, they came back to win four consecutive games and advance to the World Series. This meant they earned their first championship in 86 years. If a historic baseball team from a major city can overcome such a long drought and experience such a dramatic turnaround, imagine how radically one person’s life can change through the transforming power of God!

Spiritual Emphasis Week Day #2
Written by Students: William Fryer, Nora Vanderwall and Isla Beeke

We were so blessed to have Trenton speaking a second time during our SEW chapels! He spoke a spirit filled, powerful message about the new birth we get in Christ, and in his own words being “transformed by the spirit” into the kingdom of heaven. He included examples from his own life along with ones from the Bible.

The first question that Trenton asked was how does God transform us? Trenton shared John 3: 4-6 with us, which is the story of Nicodemus talking in private to Jesus. Jesus tells Nicodemus that you can’t see the kingdom of heaven if you are not born again. Nicodemus is puzzled because he is thinking about physical birth and not spiritual birth. Jesus goes on to explain how our birth is by “water and by spirit” (John 3:5), meaning the new life we receive is in our baptism of water, and in the Holy Spirit! We need to remember that our citizenship is in heaven and that we cannot enter it until we are born of the spirit.

Then, Trenton posed the question, “why doesn’t our rebirth feel different?” Trenton himself was puzzled by this for many years, but then he realized that our rebirth is of water and of Spirit! The renewing is in our spirit, not anything outward, because that is how the world views transformation, not God. Also, just like a new born, it is the beginning of a new life! When we are baptized, in water and in the Holy Spirit, we are entering into a new life, so it’s okay if we feel that we are not experienced enough or deep enough in our faith. The worship song, “Fruit Takes Time”, by SEU Worship said in their song, “fruit takes time to grow”. This means that our new, Christlike life takes time to mature and grow deeper in God. A funny picture Trenton provided was that when you see a newborn, you don’t see them meditating and deep in thought, simply because they are not old enough to understand.

The last point Trenton made was that we are born again because of what Jesus did on the cross for our sins. He demonstrated a diagram showing the cycle that we have been through. It started with the kingdom of heaven with the world being perfect, but then we ran away from God and the perfect peace was broken. This led to a broken world full of sin and evil. We did not deserve anything but God gave us grace and He sent His only beloved son to die on a cross for our sins. This made a way for us to get to the kingdom of heaven so we can live with God in eternity. In this we are made new, being born again in the Spirit and it brings us back to the kingdom of heaven. But God doesn’t stop there because birth is just the beginning!

Trenton finished chapel by reminding us that being closer to the kingdom of heaven means that we must develop a new relationship with God by being transformed. Our theme verse, Romans 12:2, is a great example and reminder to not fall in sync with the ways of the world but to be renewed through Jesus. Spiritual transformation is only possible because of what He did for us. Being renewed by the spirit takes time and a strong faith connection with Christ. To do that, we can’t conform to the patterns of this world but we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds – Romans 12:2a.