TRAIL GUIDE: Imitate God
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
SPOTTER, LESSON 3: God is Faithful to Forgive
“Be imitators of GOD, therefore, as dearly loved children” Ephesians 5:1 (emphasis added) The Bible makes plain that, when we are reborn in Christ, we are called to be “imitators of GOD,” that is, imitators of his communicable character attributes, those attributes GOD “shares” with his adopted children. We can know the character of our GOD because it is clearly revealed in scripture. Among his many qualities we find that God is loving, patient, kind, good, joyful, faithful, righteous, generous, courageous, creative, and, not least of all, forgiving. These are traits we should strive to imitate.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Forgiveness is sweet and grace is a great virtue when we are on the receiving end. It is something to rejoice over. But how things change when we are the “offended” party. Suddenly justice takes center stage and we begin to entertain thoughts about whether the offender “deserves” our forgiveness. We focus on our wounds and wallow in our injuries. We think that the kind of forgiveness Jesus offered his enemies on the cross, “Forgive them for they know not what they do,” is impossible for us to imitate. After all He is God. But this excuse falls apart when we look a few pages further on into the book of Acts and we see Stephen imitating his Lord in the face of a brutal death by stoning. “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Can we hope to attain to this level of forgiveness? I’ll let Jesus answer that one. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” With God’s indwelling Holy Spirit all things are possible.
As we close out this section on forgiveness, we should seek to help the children understand that on this side of heaven, we are striving to imitate Christ, knowing we will stumble and fall, trusting in his forgiveness when we do, and letting Him pick us up and urge us on to continue the climb He has called us to.
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil.3-12-14
“Help me now to do the impossible:
Forgiveness.” -Matthew WestMEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Ephesians 4:32, 5:1
Matthew 6:8-14
Matthew 18: 21-35
Phil.3-12-14
TRAIL GUIDE: Paid In Full
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
SPOTTER, LESSON 3: God is Faithful to Forgive
Propitiation (Greek – hilasmos, meaning an offering to appease an offended party.)
How can a God who hates sin so much just let it go unpunished? When He looks at His creation and sees how scarred and polluted sin has made it, He is greatly offended. How can He not pour out his anger on the guilty? How can God let wrongdoers go free? It doesn’t seem fair. Unless, of course, I am the wrongdoer and then my math changes dramatically, and forgiveness seems a rather wonderful thing. But the questions are still valid. How is it just to leave sin unpunished?
The short answer is, it wouldn’t be just, if that is what God actually did. But sin has been punished. The sins of God’s people going all the way back to Adam accumulated and accumulated. All the while God in his great mercy withheld punishment, looking forward to a day when One would pay for it all and wipe out the debt once and for all for those who believed in his coming. “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” (Romans 3:25)
The best news is that, not only did Jesus receive the just wages of the sins of all who went before Him, He also made available that credit of righteousness to all who would believe and receive Him in faith in the future. He became our Passover Lamb. The Lamb was slain, that work is done. It is a historical fact that happened completely outside of us and was purely an act of God. The only question that matters now is have you, by faith, applied the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts of your life? Have your students?
“Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow”
(Elvina Hall, Jesus Paid It All)
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” -Robery Lowry, Nothing But the Blood
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Romans 3
Psalm 86:5
Ephesians 1:7
Hebrews 10:12, 17
Why Do We Sing?
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:26-30)
What an incredible picture: our Savior singing praises alongside his disciples. That’s a passage I have passed by many times and never really thought about. But it’s absolutely magnificent.
Why did Christ and his disciples sing? Why do we sing? Singing together tends to bind us together. It enables us to spend extended periods of time expressing the same thoughts and the same passions. Singing can help us use words to demonstrate and express our unity – our unity as believers, our unity as a church.
Scripture doesn’t only speak about congregational singing–but it is clear that a dominant theme of Scripture is believers singing together (2 Samuel 6:1-23, Psalm 95:1-2, 100:1-2, Acts 16:25, Romans 15:9, Hebrews 2:12, Hebrews 13:15). We are called to sing together. The question is not, “Do you have a voice?” The question is, “Do you have a song?” If you are redeemed by Christ’s cross then you do have a song.
So why do we sing? One simple reason: God deserves our praise. This is good, this is right, and this is true. But worshiping the Lord is something that we each must decide to do for ourselves. We choose to sing. And yet, by our actions, we often decide that He should not receive something that He declares He wants. But we must not withhold from the Lord the glory that is due to Him.
We sing together to shift the allegiance of our hearts from the kingdom of self to the Kingdom of God. We sing together to realize there’s something more important in life than our own plan and our own pleasure: The glory of God.
That’s why we sing. May we sing loudly. May we sing freely. May we sing together.
TRAIL GUIDE: Something Stinks
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
SPOTTER, LESSON 2: God is Faithful to Forgive
Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” I think the same thing could be said about sin. If we attempt to hide sin, to cover it up, to “regard” it in our hearts, it is only a matter of time before it will begin to stink up the place. Numbers 32:23 tells us that we can be sure that our “sin will be discovered. It will be brought out into the open.” In Hebrews 4:13 we are reminded that “Nothing God created is hidden from Him. His eyes see everything. He will hold us accountable for everything we do.”
So how does sin begin to stink? King David, the subject of our case study, gives us detailed insight into the very real physical effects of un-confessed sin in the life of a believer. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. (Psalm 32:3-4)
Only when David, after being confronted by Nathan, recognizes his sin for what it is and despises it as God does, does he find forgiveness. Then I admitted my sin to you. I didn’t cover up the wrong I had done. I said, “I will admit my lawless acts to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)
Belonging to Christ involves a change of mind, the adoption of a new worldview in which sin is seen through the eyes of God for what it is. Confession begins with seeing and hating our sin. Don’t let sin be a guest in your house.
“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” -Ben Franklin
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 32:3-5, 38:18, 139:23-24
Numbers 32:23
Proverbs 28:13
TRAIL GUIDE: Confession
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
SPOTTER, LESSON 1: God is Faithful to Forgive
Confess (v): “to say the same thing about” (Greek – homologéō) “to make known, declare, tell.” (Hebrew – Yada)
To confess a sin is to uncover it and call it exactly what God calls it. Effective confession must be accompanied by the willingness and desire to turn away from it. Having a “change of mind” about the sin (repentance).
The pattern we see with King David in his sin against God with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah, the attempt at hiding those sins, the physical results of that attempt, and his subsequent confession in Psalm 51, serves as a case study for God’s promise of forgiveness.
Over the next several weeks, we will walk with our students through the hard truth that even David, a “man after God’s own heart,” failed the test and sinned against heaven. Were it not for God’s promise of forgiveness, this reality could cause us to lose all hope of ever being useful in the hands of our Lord. But the truth is that our God is faithful to forgive for the sake of his own Name and because He is, we can say to God, just as David did, “Let me hear you say, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Psalm 51:8)
“He will do it through Jesus Christ our Lord.” -Romans 7:25a
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
1 John 1:5-10
Romans 7:7-25
Psalm 51
TRAIL GUIDE: God’s Word is Our Strength
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 4: Victory Over Sin
“It’s an open-book test.” Those words can indeed be beautiful to hear in the face of a difficult exam. I remember clearly the first time I heard them in a high school chemistry class. At once, my heart jumped because I had not studied well for the test. In fact, I hadn’t studied well for the whole year in that class. I thought, “This is a gift!” Sadly, my joy turned to nervous sweat as I frantically thumbed pages and scoured the index of a book I had barely cracked all semester. I quickly learned that, without a good working knowledge of the book, an open-book test isn’t much easier at all. I needed the answers now and there just wasn’t time to find them because I didn’t know where to look.
The temptations or tests that we face in our spiritual lives are “open-book” tests too. “Your Word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me.” “How can a young person keep his life pure? By living in keeping with your Word.” The psalmist says that the one who meditates on the Word day and night is “blessed.” When Jesus was tempted in the desert after forty days without food, his weapon of choice against the Devil was the Word. “It is written…” Jesus answered three times and Satan retreated. When Satan distorted the words of God, Jesus knew how to answer him. What if Jesus had, like Adam and Eve, simply listened to Satan’s lies and had no response? Rather than being hyper-vigilant and sheltering our children, we must exhort them to be prepared for what WILL come. And when they are tempted they will be able to say, “I have hidden your Word in my heart so that I won’t sin against you.” It’s an open book test. Know the book.
“How can a young person keep his life pure? By living in keeping with your word.”
“I have hidden your word in my heart so that I won’t sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9,11)
“So obey God. Stand up to the devil. He will run away from you.” -James 4:7
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 119:9,11
1 John 5:4-5
Matthew 6:9,13
James 4:7
TRAIL GUIDE: God is Faithful
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 3: Victory Over Sin
If he could do it, it would be a personal best. 305 pounds. He had trained at slightly lighter weights and thought he could chest press that much one time, but now, looking up from the bench at all that weight, his confidence was slipping. He was about to get up from the bench and leave it for another day when a human mountain, an offensive lineman, who he had seen press this weight multiple times, stepped up to the bar and said, “Do you need a spot? Come on – you got this.”
Our faith may fail. But God’s faithfulness never will. What does it mean to say God is faithful? Is it merely the textbook definition of faithfulness in human terms? Let us hope not. Faithfulness for a finite, limited creature is still, in the end, only wishful thinking or a good intention. The fulfillment of man’s promises, even a very good man, is limited by his humanity. Faithfulness for Almighty God is not only a good intention but a FACT, a reality which can be depended upon without reservation or doubt. When God makes a promise, there is no possible situation in which He would not be able to fulfill that promise. There are no extenuating circumstances capable of keeping God from fulfilling his faithfulness. It is His character.
The reality of God’s faithfulness becomes ever so important when we are tried, tested, or tempted. God allows testing and trials in our lives, just as He allowed Job to be tested, just as He allowed Peter to be tested. This testing is often a means to our spiritual growth. Just as a muscle will atrophy if it is not used and grow when it is pushed up to the edge of what it can bear, so it is with our faith. Faith that is never tested will never grow. God knows how much you can bear and has promised to never allow you to be tested beyond that. He will be your strength to stand up under it. He is standing with you saying, “I’m here. Come on – you got this.”
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. -2 Thessalonians 3:3
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
2 Thessalonians 3:3
Hebrews 4:14-16
Isaiah 41:10
Luke 22:31-32
TRAIL GUIDE: Anatomy of Temptation
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 2: Victory Over Sin
Helping our children understand the nature of temptation is an important step toward demystifying it and overcoming it using Biblical principles empowered by God’s Spirit. When preparing to face an opponent, whether in athletic endeavors, war, or any other arena, we should study their tactics. From which direction will they come? A close study of scripture reveals to us the sources of temptation.
Temptation begins with a carnal thought pattern. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” (James 1:13-14)
Then, it is stoked by a world-system that is in opposition to the will of God. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1 John 2:15)
Finally, it is grasped by Satan, the great tempter, to bring it to fruition by questioning God’s truthfulness, making the sin appear attractive and filling the heart with desire. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)
“All the great temptations appear first in the region of the mind and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the inner man in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of truth.” – Amy Carmichael
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” -James 1:13
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
James 1:13-14
1 John 2:15
Genesis 3
1 Peter 5
TRAIL GUIDE: Victory Over Sin
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 1: Victory Over Sin
“The temptations in our high-tech culture are so much worse than our parents had to deal with.” This is in a sense true, but in another very important sense, it is not. While the Internet, a permissive culture, and a lot of other factors certainly facilitate sinful behavior, they have not created “new” temptations. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The temptations or enticements themselves are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The selfish desire for riches, power, physical pleasure, and fame are still the “sticky” places in our flesh that Satan uses to hook us into sin just as he has for millennia. The good news is that, just as the temptations are the same, the Bible’s answer to them continues to be effective.
Before we were saved and found “in” Christ, we were “dead in our sins.” We were essentially slaves to our sinful or fallen nature. We operated within a closed system where sin had dominion. The Bible teaches us that something changed the day the light of Christ shined on us. We were freed from the rule of sin over our lives. “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). If we are freed from sin are we sin free or temptation free? Clearly not, but it does mean that we are no longer trapped in the closed circuit. We are free to choose the right path. Free to resist temptation. Free to pursue holiness in Christ. For the believer this makes life more complicated. Before Christ we sinned because that was our nature through and through. Once we were “rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son” we became a “new creation” called to be holy as God is holy. That can be a scary thought given that we are still living in mortal flesh, but God has given us his word that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear, according to the grace given to us, and that when we are tempted He will always provide an escape route for us to take.
In the coming weeks we will be walking our young people through God’s promise to give us victory over sin in our lives because Christ defeated its power over us. There is great hope to be found in this truth. Christ, our great High Priest, does not command us to do that which He hasn’t already done and equipped us to do. Unencumbered by the sin that entangles us we are free to climb the peaks God has called us to in Christ.
Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet, He did not sin.” -Hebrews 4:15b
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Ecclesiastes 1
Romans 6
Colossians 1
1 Corinthians 10:13
Hebrews 4:13-15
Matthew 4:1-11
Remembering God, Part 6: In Traditions
At the start of this series, I began by laying out four things we risk when we do not remember who God is and all that He has done. These were:
- Falling into idolatry/trusting ourselves or our possessions (Deut. 8:13-14)
- Never growing in trust of/faith in God (Isa. 40:20-21)
- Stumbling into sin and suffering the Father’s discipline (Deut. 8:19)
- Forfeiting a generation to the enemy (Judges 2:10-11)
So how do we, as parents, make sure that our family is all about remembering God? So far we’ve looked at remembering Himin the Word, in song, and in prayer and in fellowship. This post, I’d like us to look at how the people of God remember him in our traditions and memorials.
In the modern Bible church movement there has, in my estimation, been an almost complete purge of tradition, ceremony, and memorial from church life. In our defense, I think that this has largely been a reaction to “traditionalism.” This I will define as the elevation of a tradition, or memorial, to the point where the original meaning and intent are lost. It is often replaced by the wholesale worship of the tradition itself. A rejection of such idolatry is just and right. I am afraid, however, that we have thrown the baby out with the bath water, so to speak.
Wouldn’t a more conservative approach be to recapture the true meaning and purpose of tradition and memorial in our lives? To answer this question we must first understand the answer to two other questions. First, where did we get our traditions, memorials, or ceremonies? The second is why did we get them? Let’s look to scripture as our guide.
“Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
(Joshua 4:4-7)
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)
These are only two of many, many examples you can find in both the Old and New Testaments, but I think they answer our two questions. Tradition and memorial are gifts to us, ordained, and in many cases commanded, by God. God intended their use as a tool for helping us to remember who He is and all that He has done for us throughout history.
Tradition and memorial are gifts to us, ordained – and in many cases, commanded – by God.
Does this mean that the only traditions or memorials that are okay are the ones explicit in Scripture? I would say no. You can also find places in scripture where a memorial or altar is erected, without direct instructions from God, in order to worship Him and remember something specific He had done.
Two RBC families come to mind when I think of creating tradition and memorial. The first family told me a story of their “Memorial Shelf.” This is a prominent shelf where they display items that remind them of something specific God did on their behalf in answer to prayer. To most people it might look like a shelf full of junk. But they always ask, “what is the story with all that stuff?” and then this faithful family can tell them the stories of God’s grace and mercy in their lives.
The second family created their own tradition at Christmas. It involves the dad doing a dramatic reading of the Luke account of the birth of Jesus. As they get to each new character in the account the children must go out and find that figure for the nativity. When they find it is always sitting with a pile of gifts, one for each person in the family, and they open those gifts before moving on in the story. They’ve told me this can take all day but the emphasis on the true gift of God in Jesus is rich in this family tradition and is never lost.
What am I getting at? God gave us tradition as a tool to help us and our children and their children, to remember. We must not forget and we must not allow the next generation to forget either. Don’t let traditionalism rob you of this God ordained tool. Embrace the historic traditions, make up your own, set up memorials, but don’t ever lose the reason behind the tool.
It is my prayer that, as you’ve read through this series of devotions on remembering God, you have discovered new ways for you and your family to make remembrance a vital part of your spiritual lives. In song, in prayer, in the Word, in fellowship, and in tradition – being careful, “so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9)
May your Christmas be one of blessed memories,
Mike Meyers, Director of Children’s Ministry