Bible Treasure Trove

John 1:35-2:25 (21/9)

2008-09-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

The bible passage for this week's lesson would be on John 1:35-2:25. you can break it down to 3 parts, John 1:35-51, John 2:1-12 and John 2:13-25. The things you should be focusing on should be the qualities of Jesus. Try to question and understand why He did what He did like turning water to wine even though it was not His time, driving people out of the temple and also the backgrounds of His disciples and how they came to be under Him.

I have already gotten the books for you. It would be 4bucks per person after subsidy. =]

2 Peter 1:5-9

2008-09-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

Just wanna share my QT for today with you all:

2 Peter 1:5-9 (taken from http://www.biblegateway.com/):

5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Do you feel that you are stagnating in your growth as a Christian? Is the knowledge of the Word going to your head and not your heart? Do you just know or do you truly understand what God wants to say to you through His Word? Are you loving God and His people more as you study the Word? I really challenge you all to make the effort to love more as you study James with your students. =)

The Living Word (14/9)

2008-09-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

Key verses: vs 10-13

Focus of the lesson: To question ourselves on how much we really know Jesus and if He were to appear before us like He did with the Jews, without His splendor or glory of a king, would we recognise Him (vs 10-13). And as Christians, are we conducting ourselves as John the Baptist did? Are we showing people the way to Jesus like how John did before Jesus appeared? (this may be more for yourselves, are you leading the students to Jesus? Do you showing them the way to Him? How do we show them the way?)

Read John 1:1-34.
Break down the passage into vs1-6, 7-9, 10-13, 14-18, 19-28, 29-34.
You may want to summarise the harder passages for them and let them summarise the rest.

1. Who or what is the Word mentioned in the passage?
2. What was John's purpose for coming to this earth (vs7) and who send him (v6)?
3. What happened when Jesus came down to earth? (vs 10-11)?
4. According to vs 12, how does a person become a child of God?
5. What is happening in vs 19-28? What were the Pharisees asking John?
(you may want to spend more time on qn 3, the point of the question is to show them that the Jews were expecting the Messiah (Dan 9:25) and they knew that the time was near, in fact John even quoted Isaiah) So what happened when Jesus came? (When Jesus appeared to the Jews, He did not fit into their image of king, He didnt come with glory and splendor but came as a carpenter's son, and thus the Jews did not recieve or believe that He was the Messiah (vs10-11))

5. Who are we like? John the Baptist ( or the Jews? (this is a question for sharing, so do encourage them to share)

-If we are like the Jews, what is stopping us from believing and recieving Him?
=>link to qn 3 and 5: the Jews knew all about the coming of the Messiah, they know the scriptures so well that they even know that the herald, John, was referred to as Elijah and the Prophet in (Mal 4:5-6 & Deut 18:15-18) so there is a difference between knowing about God and believing in God. We also know all about God from the bible, from sunday school, from other Christians, so what makes us different from the Jews then, so are we just modern day Jews?

-If we are like John the Baptist, are we making a way for the Lord's second coming?
=> link to qn 2: If we are like John, are we fulfilling our purposed and showing people the way to Him? When was the last time you showed God's love to others or shared about Him or Him in your life?

Can we be neither John nor the Jew? Is there a in-between? Can we believe and not believe in the same thing? It's not possible so we are either one or the other, if we think that we can be in between, we are disillusioning ourselves.

End off with a prayer that we may not become modern day Jews and that people around us may see Him in us. If you have the time, do encourage them to share prayer requests and thanksgiving (be prepared to do the sharing as they may just say they dun have any requests and thanksgiving but I hope to kick start sharing of thanksgiving and prayer requests to make it a habit for them)

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A lil something for you all to think about with regards to this lesson (so you may want to do it in your groups or think about it in your own time):

When I was preparing this lesson, this thought stuck in my head and that is the last question. I'm assuming here we all have a personal relationship with God, if you don't then I would like to have dinner with you. LOL. Anyway, something to ask yourselves would be how much am I like John the Baptist? From the way I see things, as leaders, our purpose is very much showing the students the way to God. To do so, we ourselves first have to witness God in our lives (vs 6, vs 32-34) and be assured that God is real and alive in us, so if you are not assured of His presence in your lives, I urge you to pray for a special encounter for you to affirm His existence (if you yourselves are not sure, how are you going to testify that He is real?) And if you have already been assured, I encourage you to ask God to empower you and to reveal to you how you could show others the way to Him. =)

Lesson 15 God's Will - trust obey & honour Him (24/8)

2008-08-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Lesson 15: God's Will

This is more or less a summary of whatever we have done with them in the past half year. You will need the pink book again. Conduct the lesson is your respective groups.

What is God's will? (note that it is not what you think God's Will is but what it is)
-it is whatever's in the bible, what we have gone through with them in the past half year, to love their enemies etc.

If they are unable to answer the previous question then you should ask them how come they don't know what God wants (in other words 'will') when it is all in the bible and we keep hearing about it from Christians?

- we do not know Him and therefore we do not know His will. Like if I'm not aware that you exist, I obviously would not know what you desire or want. However, it is not possible for us to not know Him or His Will because there is evidence that God exists (big bang theory etc) and we have the law written in our hearts (Rom 2:14-15). So the conclusion is we refuse to know or believe in Him, like how the Pharisees refuse to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

If they are able to answer the God's will question then how come we are not doing His Will?
- we all know what God wants and we know what we should be doing but we avoid it consciously or subconciously. Eg. getting into a r/s with non-Christians or being so close that it is dubious. The excuses we give ourselves: we are not going out officially, we are just seeing if we are meant for each other, i'm just getting experience so that i know how to handle r/s next time. or eg. lying. Excuses we give ourselves: it is a habit, i can't change it. It is only a white lie, it's not going to hurt anymore.

At the end of the day, we DO know what God's will is, it is just whether we are willing to OBEY Him and DO His will.

What happens if we do not do God's will?
- Romans 2:12-16 (We face His judgement)
-Zoom in on verse 13, it is not knowing what to do that makes us righteous but ACTing upon what we know that makes us Christians (inferred from being righteous)

How do we do God's will?
- Go through page 40 of the pink book with them (Doing God's will by..., obeying Gods' command..., honouring and worshipping God..., and end of this section by doing the bible quiz.

Split into your small groups (1 leader to 2-3 students) and ask them whether they have changed in this past year or anything that have impacted them with regards to the past lessons, follow up last week's lesson also.

To end off, I want you to share of your experience leading this group so far, your gain and pain. your struggle and failure, and your success story. (if you do not have, I would need you to be honest, and share your struggle that you are still strugging). Finally, I want you to tell them what is your view of them, if you can, tell them individually of what you feel about him or her. Ask them to write in a small piece of paper (you may want to bring that) one thing they want to change that they find difficult to (may it be getting to knoww God personally, loving their enemy, giving etc. Put that in their bible, pray and close.

Be Wise, Fear God (17/8)

2008-08-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

This week's lesson will be done in your own groups like I mentioned on Sun.

They will need their pink book this week.

Link between this lesson and the last lesson: Last lesson we talked about the treasures we should store up and one of which would be wisdom

1st off, Ask them what they think wisdom is, who do they think is wise and why they think these people are wise. Write it down somewhere and ask them to turn to James 3:13-18.

Ask them if they have any questions and ask them to summarise. If there are no questions, spilt them into 2 groups (it would be good if you have 3 people to handle the lesson, 1 person to lead and 2 to facilitate the discussion in the 2 groups. If it helps, you may want to have them sit in 2 groups at the start of the lesson instead of splitting them later.) 1 groups will be answering what Wisdom from above is and the other group will be answering what Wisdom not from above is. Come back to discuss the 2 and end of with the characteristics of the truly wise man are. (answers are found in the leader's guide)

Give them some egs of heavenly wisdom n earthly wisdom:
'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' vs 'if someone strikes you on the right cheeck, turn to him the other also'. (matt 5:39)

'There are no absolutes, only relativity'.

'Freedom is the absence of law'

The Theory of Evolution.

What happens if you follow or believe these earthly wisdom? (you can think of other sayings, cant really find those super obvious ones on the net)

Go through with them what wisdom is from Proverbs 9:10. And to summarise, the fear of God is also to realise the need to live according to God's Word.

Go back to what they first thought was wisdom and who they thought was wise. Do they still think that way now? Why?

Go through how are we to become wise? and who is a wise person? You may want to do verse 27.

End off with the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing of facts and what is true or right while wisdom is knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action. Remind them that they already have heard the words of Jesus through us and in Sunday School. If they believe that the Word is the truth then they should build their lives upon it. However, if they are unsure and continue to live their lives in this manner, then if God is true, it will be too late for them when Judgement comes upon them and thus challenge them to decide and find out for themselves if God is real.

Break into your small groups and follow up with them. If they are unsure whether God is real, pray for them to get a personal touch from God and discernment to see through the lies of the world. If they are convinced that God exists, challenge them to live out one of the bible truths. (remember to do follow-up next week)

The Gospel of John

2008-08-08T06:35:00.000-07:00

Just a little background infomation to aid your understanding of the gospel of John. Information here is taken from What the Bible is all about (KJV edition) by Dr. Henrietta C. Mears.

Jesus in the Four Gospels:
Matthew presents Jesus as King, is written primarily for the Jew and is concerned with the coming of a Promised Savior.
Mark depicts Jesus as Servant, is written to the Romans and is concerned with the life of a Powerful Savior.
Luke presents Jesus as the Perfect Man, is written to the Greeks and is concerned with the grace of a Perfect Savior.
John protrays Jesus as the Son of God, is written to all who will believe, with the purpose of leading people to Christ and is concerned with the possession of a Personal Saviour.

Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke which narrates His miracles, parables and addresses to the multitudes, John tells of Christ's ministry in Judea and presents His deeper and more abstract discourses, His conversations and prayers. The three protray Christ in action while John protrays Him in meditation and communion.

John wrote to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah (for the Jews), and the Son of God (for the Gentiles), and to lead believers into a life of divine friendship with Him. The keyword is "believe.", found 98 times in this book.

That's all for now, just keep this in mind as you read through the gospel and may God reveal His word to you. =)

Lesson 13: Treasures (10/8)

2008-08-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Note: We would be doing lesson together this week in the same classroom (go to the one that Group 2 uses). Group 1 and 3 would be taking the front of the classroom and Group 2 will be at the back. Sit in your groups in circles. I would need you to get some of the students to help move the tables to one side, so whoever is in the 1st bus please help with the logistics. =)

There would be a lot of movement, its something new for the sec 1s, the lesson is REALLY LONG if we spend too much time to settle down and there would also be pair work so I really need a lot of your cooperation for this lesson. I dunno what the situation would be like so I need all the leaders who are not leading the lesson to sit in between some of the students to facilitate the lesson). As we would be breaking up into smaller groups (1 leader to a few students), all of you would need to read through the lesson plan and know what is doing on, it would be good if you could meet up once before the lesson to decide how you would be splitting your groups.
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FYI:
Definition of treasure (from dictionary):
1. Wealth, rich materials, or valuable things.
2. Any thing or person greatly valued or highly prized.

Materials used:
Taking it with you questionnaire (do not do question 2 and I will be photocopying it for you all)
The pink book (message them to bring their books, if not you can photocopy a few for them)

Hook
Birthday List
Pass out the questionnaire and do question 1 and ask the group to write down what they’d like for their birthdays (or Christmas) if it is not in the questionnaire. Allow 5 minutes to complete the list; then have them decide on 5 things that they most like to have in common as a group (leaders may have to help to facilitate).

Next have the group make a list of the blessings (write behind the questionnaire), fruit of the Spirit, or spiritual gifts given them by God. Again, allow 5-10 minutes, and then have them decide on 5 of the most important items from the list.

Choose 1 person to present on the items and 1 person to present on the blessings.

In your groups, read Matt 6:19-21
Lesson tip: Ask them if they have any problems with the passage. If they all keep quiet or say that they have no problems then ask one of them what some of the verses mean. I dunno the effects of doing that to your group but in my previous group the students became more attentive (coz they dunno the answer) so try that out especially on the noisy ones and the distracted ones. This should work more effectively when we do John. =)

(Why should we store up treasures in heaven?)
1. What do you think are the treasures on earth (vs19)?
-Whatever they have on their list (money, 24-carat diamond, gold)

2. What do you think are the treasure in heaven (vs20)?
- Whatever is on their second list: the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), or spiritual gifts given them by God and whatever could be found in the pink book under here are some treasures that will never corrupt.

3. What is the passage asking us to store up on? Why?
- Treasures in heaven are eternal (vs19-21)
- What you treasure is what you become. (vs21)

4. What happens when we store up on the treasures on earth?
- Ask them how people who love money are like. Miserly, greedy (money is never enough), selfish…
- Break them up into pairs and ask each pair to look up 1-2 verses from love of money corrupts our hearts by making us and bible truths in action then share their findings.

5. After going through all the verses, does it mean that we should donate all our money to the poor, tithe more than 10% and fast for the rest of our lives? (This is extreme, I’m just trying to link back what we did for the past few lessons =P)
- The answer is of course not! The word that is used is STORE, meaning to accumulate or take in for future use. That does not mean that we do not save up for times of trouble but we should not be saving GREAT quantities for ourselves. This is what I got from a commentary (it is for your understanding; please do not read out the entire chunk to your students):

Money is not intrinsically evil. The wise person works hard and makes financial provision for lean times (Prov. 6:6-8). Believers have a responsibility to provide for their needy relatives (1 Tim. 5:8). We can enjoy what God has given us (1 Tim. 4:3-4; 6:17). What Jesus forbade here was selfishness. Misers hoard more than they need (James 5:2-3). Materialists always want more. It is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10). "What Jesus precludes here is the accumulation of massive amounts of treasure as a life goal."356 It is foolish to accumulate great quantities of goods because they are perishable.

(How then should we use our treasures, both earthly and heavenly?)
Go to your pink book or your notes and go to the table on example of people using money well and fill up the table.
Group 1 will do Person 1, Group 2 person 2, Group 3 person 3. After you have finish discussion, have 1 person come up to the board to write and 1 person to read the passage and 1 person to present.

Break into smaller groups (1 leader to 2-3 students, divide amongst yourselves equally) If there is no space you may use the other classrooms and remember not to put people who talk to one another a lot together), summarize the 3 examples and go back to the hook.

6. Was it easier to compile the birthday list of the blessings/gifts list?
7. What benefits will you derive from the items on the birthday list?
8. What benefits will you derive from the items on the blessing list?
9. Compare the benefits derived from the 2 lists. Do you think we spend too much time wishing for material benefits? Do we spend enough time seeking God for appropriate blessings?
10. What are some ways to fulfill our responsibility to use our material gifts and God’s blessings wisely? Go through taking it with you question 4 and agree on 1 thing to do with the treasures you have during the week and close with prayer (you need not take something from the questionnaire if you can come up with something on your own and this exercise includes you leaders). (Remember your small groups as we will do follow up in these small groups in the following weeks to come)

The Personal Touch

2008-07-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was reading this entry from Our Daily Journey and thought of you people, this is the entry of Thursday July 31 so if you have the book do go read, otherwise read it here (I do hope I'm not breaking any copy right laws)

Read John 4:5-14

"I prefer the personal touch. And I suspected that's what the woman who was sitting by Jacob's well in Samaria needed. Except, her needs were a lot deeper than fillers for a Day-Timer. She was thirsty for true spiritual healing and for life. Jesus made a personal request of her, accepted her for who she was, and showed her that He knew her heart. He didn't downgrade her race (John 4:9), nor did He ask her to clean up her life first. He simply pointed out her real need and met that need with the 'living water' of eternal life (v. 10). She was transformed into an enthusiastic witness of the grace and power of god (vv. 28-30).

The personal touch is the most effective way to help a person who needs Jesus. Following His example, we can lovingly point people to Christ and to their need for God's love and forgiveness. Then we can hold out to them the living water of salvation through faith in Christ. Who knows? We may witness the kind of transformation that Jesus brings."

-Our Daily Journey, Thursday July 31, Dave Egner-

Are you frustrated with the people you serve? Frustrated with the fact that they seem uninterested? Frustrated with the lack of change even though you have put in your utmost? Or are you currently discouraged, tired or even apathetic towards serving?

One thing I would like you all to question yourselves when planning your lessons and teaching the students, is that does my lesson or my teaching have a personal touch? Is this what they need or am I just reteaching them what the church and their parents are telling them? Re-enforcing what the church or sunday school teaches them is not wrong but there isn't a 'one size fits all' when it comes to God. When you plan your lesson think about what they are facing at their age, think about what YOU were struggling with at that age, think about if I were told that when I was in sec 1 would I be convinced to change? Or would I be thinking 'not this kinda talk again'? Talk to your younger siblings, talk to your students, share with them how you struggled with it and how you tried to overcome it.

Something that Eric said to me when I started serving in small groups was that small groups is one of the few ministries which offer personal touches, a ministry which impacts individual lives directly as compared to ministries like music ministry. And from serving, I realised that it is a ministry in which how we serve and live our lives would affect the lives of our students directly.

So in future lessons, I really do hope to see more of your personal touches. =)

Lesson 12: Fasting (3/8)

2008-07-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Lesson 12: Fasting

You may want to start by telling them what fasting is:
1. The act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food.
2. A period of such abstention or self-denial.

Types of fasting:
Abstaining from something you like/do (something you might like more than God)
Abstaining from food (no solids, no meat, only water, total fast)

Ask the students to do the questionnaire (take about 5 to 10mins) (I will be photocopying for you all)

After they are done, you may want to go through briefly with them and see what they think fasting is, put the questionnaire aside and ask them to turn to their bibles to fill in the blanks at the lower half of the page.

Main points of the passages (Why we fast):

1 Samuel 7:6
Fasting as a reaction to the realization of sins committed and the humility to admit and ask God for forgiveness. Can also be seen as seeking God and re-adjustment of priorities in life.

2 Samuel 1:12
Fasting as a reaction to loss of somebody important and significant to your lives.

2 Chronicles 20:2-4
Fasting as a reaction to difficult or impossible situations. Here, fasting is to seek God and seek His direction with you realize that you are out of control of the situations that you are facing in your lives.

Main passages of the lesson (How we should fast):

Matt 6:16-18 (remember to ask them to summarise what the passage is about)
1. How should we do when we fast? (just take from the passage)
2. Why does Jesus tell us to not show men that we are fasting? (the point to bring across is that fasting is not for men but for God, one problem about fasting is that some people fast to show that they are holy and different from the less pious Christians which is a problem both then and now)

Isaiah 58:1-6 (remember to ask them to summarise what the passage is about)
3. From verses 1-3, what were the Israelites doing at that time? (focus on the fact that they were doing everything right like seeking God, yearning to hear from Him etc.)
4. From verses 4-6, what was God’s 'complaint'?

Self-reflection:
Is there anything that I’m doing that is right but would not make God happy with me? E.g. Going to church because my parents wants me to? Giving/tithing because it shows that I’m giving back to God what He has given me? Being nice/tolerant to people who treat me badly because the bible tells me to love my enemies? Sharing the gospel because that’s what my leaders tell me and it shows that I’m a Christian?

Challenge:
Tell them that if they think that something is hindering from spending time with God (television, computer etc.) challenge them to fast from that for 1 day to 1 week, get them to write down on a piece of paper (take note of what they wrote) and follow up with them next week. =)

Conclusion:
Fasting is not a discipline that Christians must have, God would rather us give thanks for the food that He provides than us fasting for the wrong reasons. He focuses more on our hearts than our actions. There is no point in fasting unless you are clear why you are fasting and it is usually a reaction to the things happening around you, so the next time you are pressured to fast, think about why you fast instead of blinding following what everybody is doing.

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Do not be afraid of silence, wait for them to think about the passage and answer, if you find that there is insufficient time, don't do the matt passage. =)

Lesson 11: Giving

2008-07-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Lesson 11: Giving

Attention: Eric has kindly agreed to teach this lesson, so please gather in any 1 of the three rooms, try to get the girls to sit in front. =)

Anyway... this are my thoughts on the lesson and do take a look at the comments page in case your students have questions regarding tithing and giving.

(expanded from the lesson guide)
Why do you think you should be giving (not limited to tithing)? [Reason behind giving]
- let them come up with their own ans
- But does God require anything? No, cause He was the one to provide us with resources in the 1st place, so why are we giving?
- (vs 7) It is just as important as other things that we do when we follow God - faith, speech, knowledge
- (vs 13-15) God provides some of us with more resources so that we can show His love and share to those who have less

What should be our attitude towards giving? (may it be to people we want to show God’s love to or in tithes) [Attitude behind giving]
- give as much as you are able to, entirely on your own (means if should be out of your own free will) (vs 3)
- give yourselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will (means that the motivation behind giving should be first to glorify God then to give to others because that is God’s will) (vs 5)
- give not because it is a commandment but because we want to be more like Christ and because you sincerely love the people around you (vs 8-9)
Purpose of the lesson – To encourage them to pledge (since this Sunday is pledge Sunday)

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Ask your students to imagine what would happen if the whole world decided to stop giving.
Eg. If God stopped giving sunshine
- Nobody will be able to receive, and in return they would be unable to help others
- If God stopped giving, we would all die à God provides us with what we need to survive

Read 2 Corinthians 8: 1 -15
How do the churches in Macedonia give?
- They gave as much as they were able to, and sometimes even beyond their ability
- They did it on their own free will
- They saw giving as a privilege
- Above all, they gave even though they were going through troubled and hard times

Do we give like them? Why or why not?
- Not giving offering when they don’t have enough money
- Giving because their friends are doing / parents ask them to

What has God given to all of us?
- Gave us life (on earth and in heaven)
- Sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins (Abundant grace)
- Choice (decisions to make in life)
- Spiritual gifts (which we can use to reach out to others)

If God can give us so much, why is it we find it so hard to give him a small amount of our money?

With regards to giving, what does God expect from us?

2 Corinthians 8:12 - Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. (NLT version)

2 Corinthians 9:7 - Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

If you want, you might want to mention about the difference between tithing and offering.

The tithe is the tenth of all the increase that God gives to you. What does "increase" include? "Increase" is everything that increases the value of earthly possessions that God places into your trust, whether it be earned income or unearned gifts. It is giving back to God a portion of what he has given to us.

Offerings are gifts brought to God beyond the tithes, which we give to show our appreciation for what he has given to us.

It is alright not to give offering, even though we encourage them to. However they should tithe as it is a form of returning what God gave to us. (Malachi 3: 8 – 12)

Posted by:
Shawn, Samantha, Wei Chen, Eddy

Love Your Enemies (20/7)

2008-07-16T03:42:00.000-07:00

Lesson 10: Love Your Enemies

1) Opening questions:
a. What are enemies?

Define: ‘enemies’
- this might be easier for the boys as they are likely to have some people that they so not like in school or within the sec one group
- for them, ‘enemies’ would mean someone they do not like or someone who does not like them (and thus they would dislike that person in return)
- for the girls, they might say that they do not have any ‘enemies’ because they do not have someone they ‘hate’ in school, or they get along with everyone normally
- in this case, can ask them to think about their friends’ ‘enemies’ as they’ll most probably dislike people whom their friends do not like as well
- can link to ‘peace in persecution’ lesson also, where non-believers might look as Christians differently because of our beliefs, question or even make fun of us (we will definitely have enemies as Jesus has enemies too)

b. How do people usually deal with their enemies?

c. What are some of the consequences? (we might think that we have gotten our revenge against our enemies but this does not take away the hate that we have) (in the end it will cause hurt to both the person and ourselves) (one of the answers to question 2 as well)

2) Why do we have to love our enemies?

- it is God’s commandment, part of following Christ (Matt 5:43-48)
- the first step in helping us to share the gospel with others (Christ died so that men can not only be reconciled to God but also, men to men- to be united as Christians)
- if we do not practise it, how can we bring others to Christ?

3) What does it mean to ‘love our enemies’?

- it is easy to love those who are loveable (our friends, family members) and natural to hate those who hate us (we find the excuse that it is justifiable) but this is not what God wants us to do
- loving our enemies would mean treating them like the way we treat our friends (being willing to do what is beneficial for them)

4) How can we go about loving our enemies? (Since we do not like them because of certain reasons, it would be difficult to actually care for them)

- assure them that it is difficult but not impossible (gradual process)
- ask them to start by praying for the person or people they do not like or stop saying bad things about the person or people
- then go on treat the person or people better
- continually asking God for help in dealing with their enemies and strength to love their enemies
- actions speak louder than words

Janice, Elizabeth, Victor, Ying Jie, Tim

BGR 2

2008-07-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Main Focus of the lesson: what are the values we shld cultivate b4 we are in a r/s n if we are in a r/s as Christians and where should we shld draw e line in bgr n y

To start off the lesson you could ask them to think where they should draw the line in relationships (make use of the white board or paper) to draw a level of intimacy chart:

Sexual intercourse
Oral Sex
Mutual Masturbation
Heavy Petting
Petting
Prolonged Kissing
Kissing
Cuddling
Embracing
Holding Hands

Detailed explainations of the above are in your leader's guide (start from the bottom up if u think tt they may be embarrassed, stop when you think you should)

Where should our boundaries be as Christians? Where should we draw the line when Christians around us are going beyond the 'line'?

Ask them to refer to this:
1 Timothy 5Advice About Widows, Elders and Slaves 1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

What is absolute purity? Then ask them again where they should draw the line.

We have established our boundaries, so what now? What happens when we fall in love at this age where our parents don't want us to get attached or when the person is not a Christian?

The first thing to note is thatt love is not blind. You don't have to let yourself fall in love with somebody because you have no choice. The fact is love is a choice in itself. You can choose who you want to love and how you want to love that person.

Could we date Non-Christians?
Some people do not view having a non-Christian spouse/partner as a problem. People may say religions don't matter as long as both parties have other common grounds. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:14 "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" God isn't saying you shouldn't mix with Christian friends or that He's trying to stop you from being together with the one you are so madly in love with. (recall the previous lesson on Gen)But think about it; loving a man/woman who is not committed to Christ means that you'd be a lone ranger in your pursuit of Christdom. You will feel guilty, anxious, discouraged, lonely and frustrated when he can't support or see eye to eye with what you are doing. It'll be a matter of time before you get your priorities all wrong and put your boyfriend/ girlfriend above God. Even if you think you are strong enough to resist being changed by your boyfriend/girlfriend, let's not underestimate their influence on our lives. Like it or not, they can change us far more than what our friends or parents can. Secondly, do not also think that you will succeed in converting the person, so it's alright to get into a relationship first. Which way is it easier; converting him/her or making you backslide? (main point to note is that the verse is a warning to us, just like how we are given a choice in our salvation, it applies here too and we would always have to pay the consequence of our decisions)(remember that our role as leaders is not to be like their parents, but to explain to them the rationale behind some stuff and support them when they struggle with problems)

So knowing that, what are the pointers or values we should look out for in a relationship?

1. Begin with the end in mind:
What we normally want to start a relationship doesn't make us what to see the end of it. So if we do not have a good reason for it and believe in it, we would see nothing much of it either. Think about it; why do you want a gf/bf if you are not really intending to be with him/her for a long time. Just so you can get all the pleasures of hugging and kissing, of hearing him/her mutter sweet nothings, of receiving mushy smses and staring at them forever blah blah? Just coz these things aren't exactly particularly harmful, does it make you less sinful when you think about indulging in such pleasures all day and forget everything else. You don't need to have a bf/gf to prove your worth or value.

2. Slowness does mean ineffective.Growth for some of us is slower than others, sometime it make us think that because our friends grow faster, they know more things, experience more things. And most of the time, the bad things that our parent say looks cool on this people such that it no longer is good to be a good person. Everyone is different. Don't need to compare. If you're not ready for a relationship or whatever other reasons, why force yourself.

3. We fall in love with someone because we fall in love with love.But the real love is still missing in our lives. Let's just face it. Who can guarantee an everlasting worldly love. Even the sweetest of relationships can turn sour. Let us recognise even now who we need. Do not think drowning your sorrows after a breakup in emo sad songs and swallowing tens of panadols/ sleeping pills, cutting your wrist make you very cool. It's rubbish!!!

Another important value which i feel is important to even start thinking or planning now is to state the qualities you hope to find in a partner. You must understand it's not wrong to have expectations like for a girl to hope for a guy who doesn't drink or smoke, is refined or cultured. There's nothing wrong about that. But let's just hope there's that one quality that you'd place as the most important: GOD-FEARING. don't you hope that certain someone loves God as much as you do. What sort of relationship is the strongest? That built on the foundations of God!!! and link this back to the drawing of boundaries in r/s, if God were to see you with this person or doing something (eg. kissing) with the person you are going out with, do you think He would be pleased?

Taking stock

2008-07-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

It has been half a year since we have all started serving the sec 1s, so I think it is a good time to take stock of our spiritual well-being. Have you grown to rely on God more in this half year or are you getting more and more tired with the commitments in your life?

I have currently started doing the Love Singapore - 40 Days of Concerted Prayer and Fasting‏ (the black book that they were giving out last Sunday) and I do encourage all of you to read it and take stock of your spiritual welfare. =) If you dun have the book then go to this webbie http://www.lovesingapore.org.sg/, the daily readings are all there. If you haven been doing ur daily bread on a daily basis, I would challenge you guys to commit yourselves to God and read this for these 6 weeks.

A small extract from Day 2: (Isaiah 58)
' Rebellion is a subtle sin... This is a great trap that ensnares many Christians today in busy, image-conscious, performance-driven Singapore! We tend to equate spirituality with Christian ritual or activity. Do not be decieved. God is not mocked. He sees through all the superficiality. Christian rituals and ministry-busyness without heart transformation is profoundly offensive to Him... "why have we put in so much effort, spent so much money on so much stuff and still end up having so little to show for? Why have we prayed long and loud, and still there's no turn around - no revelation, no revival, no results?"'

Are we disheartened from serving without seeing visible results? Are we too busy for God? Take some time to take stock and see where you stand with God today. =)

A Paradoxical Principle

2008-06-28T03:56:00.001-07:00

"Teach us, Good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord."-prayer by Saint Ignatius of Loyola-

Was reading a book (Let me be a Woman by Elizabeth Elliot) and came across this, just wanted to share this with you guys as we are all serving. I know its draining for you guys (I know I was but am recovering) Hope this encourages you to continue serving God and His people and to draw upon His strength for He never fails. =)

Lesson 9: BGR 1

2008-06-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

1. Why do we look for a boyfriend/girlfriend?
- peer pressure: all their friends are dating
- Loneliness: want company from someone
- Marriage: we want our bf/gf to be our future partner (might not apply to the sec 1s at their age)

2. What are the benefits and harms of being in a relationship?

Benefits:
- Have company from someone - they do not feel lonely
- Able to brag to friends

Harms:
- Parents might not approve them being in a relationship, so they would hide the truth from their parents (disobeying their parents)
- Affect their studies (One of God's purposes for them now is to be a student and study hard)
- Drift away from their friends and hence neglect outreach to them
- Possibility of giving in to temptations
- Friendship affected after the breakup

Therefore, based on the benefits and harms, when we get into a relationship, we focus more on ourselves and less on God.

3. When do you think is the right time to get into a relationship?
there is no right or wrong answer for this question, but we should try to convince our students that now is not the right time for a relationship.

4. Is it necessary for you to get into a relationship now?
No.

"Seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

One of God's purposes for them is to focus on their studies, as well as continue to outreach to others. Therefore, we should focus on these as well as continue to seek God. According to his plan, when the time is right, he will lead us into a relationship with the right person.

Cheers (:
Shawn, Wei Chen, Samantha Heng, Eddy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We haven been doing proper bible studying as in reading and studying a passage of the Word so i suggest that you go through Gen 2:18-25. ask them to summarise the passage and go through each verse with them.

e.g. VS 18: "... it is not good that man should be alone..." Does that mean that God created something bad? What does it mean by "not good"? What is the role of a "helper comparable to" Adam?

VS 19-20 has only 1 main point
VS 21-24 also has only 1 main point (we might see e point diff though, so do ur own studying =))

you may not want to do vs 25 as it may be a bit hard for them to grasp at their age. the main purpose of doing this passage is to point out to them that feeling attraction to the opposite sex is a normal thing and it is something that is purposed by God. it is like an opening to the lesson to follow. then the lesson will go on to how we have deviated from what God has purposed us to do and that is to first 'tend the garden' (2:15) and to 'help' (vs 20). but instead we put ourselves first and seek to fill the God-shaped hole within us by seeking partners to fulfill our desires and wants. yupz. if you had gone for the workshop that JD and MingHui conducted at tacklecamp last year, i suggest that you refer to it. alternatively, go here: http://sheepinwolfclothing.blogspot.com/2005/08/ikan-bilis-group-leaders-material-bgr.html

the following lesson would be about the values we should have as we enjoy singlehood. for a rough idea to the group preparing next go here: http://sheepinwolfclothing.blogspot.com/2005/08/ikan-bilis-group-leaders-material-bgr_26.html

we should have a debate in place of lesson one of these days, would be interesting... =)

2008-06-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

Lesson 8: Friendship
1. What are the different levels of Friendship

Acquaintance : a person whom one knows but who is not a particularly close friend
Pen Pal: a friend made and kept through correspondence
Comrade: an intimate friend or associate : companion b: a fellow soldier
Blood brother: one of two men pledged to mutual loyalty by a ceremonial use of each other's blood

2. What is Friendship?
A relationship between people.
Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:
a. the tendency to desire what is best for the other,
b. sympathy and empathy,
c. honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart
d. mutual understanding.

3. What is considered a good friendship?

Christian Friend

All the characteristics of a Good Friend
Prays for you
Loves you no matter what
Puts God as priority

Good Friend

Trustworthy
Reliable
Good Companion
Good Listener
One who understands you
Cares for you
Willing to sacrifice for you
Honest with you
Believes in you
Goes through both good and bad times with you

Bad Friend

Dishonest
Rude
Unreliable
Does not put your interest at heart
Selfish
Bullies you
Bad company

4. What kind of friends should we have?

As Christians, it doesn’t mean that we should only have fellow Christian friends
We should have a good mixture of both Christian and non-Christian friends
Thus, it is our duty to Share the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus

Recall: The Great Commission
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” Matthew 28:19-2

Remind them of why the last few lessons have placed a huge focus on Sharing the Gospel as it is our duty and command to tell others about Jesus.
He also told us to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Love for Enemies
27"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Luke 6:27-28

34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13:34-35

5. What is the difference between non-Christian friends and Christian friends?

Non-Christian friends do not believe in God and may not put God first in their lives
They do not have a close relationship with God

6. Why must we have Christian friends?
All of us are different. We’ve all been given our own particular personality, our own particular talents, and our own particular spiritual gifts.
Since we have different gifting, we should use these to strengthen and build one another up. Thus we can minister and help one another.

1 Corinthians 12:21 (New International Version)
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"
1 Corinthians 12:26 (New International Version)
26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Thus, the church is like a human body where we need one another in order for us to survive.
Are Christian friends always good? No.
We are all human beings and we fail in many ways too.
Therefore, we need to spur one another on in the right direction.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (New International Version)
24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We need to assemble together with Christians that we might provoke one another to love and to do good, that we might exalt, encourage or strengthen one another, which we might go on with the business God has given us as Christians in this world.

7. Our Special Relationship with Jesus
Jesus is like our Best Friend and no one else can take His place
Whenever we call on His name, He will be there for us and hear our prayers. Unlike our friends around us, they fail to be there for us at times when we need them the most.

Deuteronomy 31:7-9 (New International Version)
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. 8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

The Reading of the Law
9 So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

Psalm 30:1-3 (New International Version)
A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David. [a]
1 I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought me up from the grave [b] ; you spared me from going down into the pit.

Thus, we must be really careful in making right friends. Even if we have made bad friends, we are assured that our friendship with God never fails.

Handling Feelings (8/6)

2008-06-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Handling Feelings (8 June)

This week we’ll be talking about FEELINGS! =D (Wonder why Lin Chen’s so excited)

We feel this topic should be personal and specific to the students, so feel free to adapt accordingly. We tried to make this plan as generic as possible.

Focus
Whatever we feel is ok. Don’t judge our emotions. What’s important is how we choose to respond and deal with these feelings.

Hook (optional)
Get a poster and a sharp object (pen, scissors, etc). Get your students to recall a time when they are angry and how they reacted. For everything they said they did when they lost their temper (use foul language and curses, say hurtful words, badmouth about the other person to your friends, scream and yell, hit, slap, scratch, or push somebody, slam doors or throw things, get mad at people who have nothing to do with the situation, destroy property, do nothing and keep it inside, etc), make a hole in the object.

Objective of the Hook
Explain that the multiple holes made in the poster are like scars we leave when we say hurtful words or do things in a fit of anger that we would regret later on. When we stop being angry with a person, the holes still stay. We cannot undo what we did. Therefore, it is important to handle our feelings properly. The effects of our feelings on other people and even on ourselves can be greater than we imagine. And it is not just anger which can be bad and destructive.

Be mindful: We may not have angry sec1 kids who go around bullying classmates and scolding vulgarities at teachers but they may be angry children at home or they just choose not to show it.

Question 1
Since emotions can result in such bad things, are Christians not supposed to be emotional? (Meaning Christians must always be clam, easygoing, never depressed, anxious or worried?)

Of course not!!! Christians are also humans. We are people with deep emotions.

Question 2
What kind of emotions was shown by the characters in the bible? Was Jesus Christ an emotional person himself?

Yes!

- 2 Corinthians 11:28 – Paul was worried about the churches. He was emotionally upset.
- Matthew 21:12-13 – When Jesus cleared the temple of the moneychangers and animal-sellers, He showed great emotion and anger. The root of His anger was a concern for God’s holiness and worship place.
- John 11: 32-36 – In v33, Jesus is disturbed, distressed and in turmoil. In v35, Jesus wept because He was so hurt within.

You might think Jesus is a perfect man, therefore His emotion will always be true and under control. Now we understand all these emotions are only natural and we don’t need to be ashamed of them.

Break into smaller groups and get them to share about the different kinds of feelings they experience. At least one leader is to facilitate discussion for each group. (approx. 10 mins) The key is to get them to recognise and admit these emotions they have.

Besides anger, anxiety, fear, loneliness, we’ve decided to look at some other feelings specific to the types of kids we have.

We have…

Shy/Quiet Kids (at least they appear so during bible study)
For this group, the emotion to talk about would be embarrassment, or in other words, self-consciousness. Why are they so quiet? Perhaps they feel others can speak better than them, or perhaps they feel they don’t have anything to share. Whatever it is, explore this feeling with them. They need to realize that it’s okay to share. Help them be less self-conscious.

Girls
Same as above. But maybe we need to share with them what we expect of them. Are they expected to be demure, or open? Talk about how they feel about the boys.

Loud Jokers
This group needs to talk about compassion and empathy. Generally anything to get them thinking about how others around them feel.

Get the groups to come together again and continue discussion.

Question 3
Suggest ways to deal with these emotions.

- Specifically for anger:
Proverbs 14:17 – When I’m angry, I must be slow to lose my temper.
Proverbs 15:1 – When I speak, I must avoid using harsh and hurtful words.
Proverbs 29:11 – I can control my anger by focusing on the issue instead of the person.
Ephesians 4:26 – If I’m angry I must not sin or hold a grudge against the other person

- Specifically for embarrassment when asked to pray aloud: Just pray what is on your heart. Others do not have the right to judge how well you pray. Fix your eyes on God instead of on yourself.

- Admit and recognise that you feel a particular way. Don’t deny your insecurities by putting on a false front like being loud and attention-seeking. You can’t hide from others forever and certainly not from yourself.

- Always seek assurance from the bible.

Lam 3:21-23 – Why should you be depressed when you can recall to mind God’s loving kindness, compassions and faithfulness and have hope

Rom 8:37 – Why should you feel like a failure when you are a conqueror in all things through Christ.
Hebrews 13:5 – Why should you feel alone when Jesus said He is with you always and He will never leave you nor forsake you.

- Pray and ask God to deliver you from your ill-feelings. In Mark 14:32-36, Jesus prayed to God as the date of crucifixion drew nearer and His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

- Talking about your inner feelings to another person is one of the ways of coping with them. Stop trying to hide your problems and fears. Friends of your own age can be good listeners but older persons such as your leaders whose opinions you value and respect can help you.

If you have the time, go through page 20 of the love, joy, peace book. This is to help them see that the same kind of feelings when applied to different circumstances can be justified.
- Righteous anger like Jesus in Matthew 21:12-13 - Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."

Conclusion
Control your feelings. Don’t let them control you! Most importantly, don’t let the devil manipulate your feelings to do foolish things.

MeiPing, Samantha Leong, Lin Chen, John, Jon Tan

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Mabbe before you talk about the emotions that Jesus felt and that emotions are actually something that God has gifted us with, you could ask them what emotions do they think are unacceptable for Christians and from there link go on to tell them the emotions that they think are inacceptable are actually found in Jesus. So does that mean that Jesus is flawed? He actually sinned? If He didnt sin that how come we are sinning when we are angry?

Sharing the Gospel 2 (25/05/08)

2008-05-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Recap
· Why the need to share the gospel?
· God’s purpose for us.
· Ephesians 1: To bring everything in heaven and the world under one head.
· Christians are the light of the world for other pre believers; don’t just carry the name.

What stops us from sharing?
· Rejection
· Uncertain of their bible knowledge; not grounded
· Shy ; don’t dare, evangelism is for extroverts
· I will live my life. And when people ask me questions, only then will I share my faith
· I’m not gifted in evangelism
· Why me? Got missionary.
· Do not feel a need or burden for other people; lazy
· It is manipulative and hypocritical to form relationships to share the gospel.

Common questions asked by non-Christians
· How do you know Jesus is real?
-Many witnesses, historical records
-Personal testimony

· Why does God allows sufferings in this world
-Man are sinful →suffering
-Sufferings do not come from God. He wants us to grow, learn. E.g. Noah’s Ark

· If human started from the beginning of the bible, where do dinosaurs come in?
-Job (bronze-legged creatures)

· Why do we need God?
· How can Jesus be God?
· How is your God different from other God?
· Faith & Relationship ≠ deeds (action of faith)

Methods of Evangelising
· Bridge to life
· Personal testimony
· 5 Fingers
· Salvation Story

Courtesy of John, Jonathan, Shawn, Mei Ping, Samantha Heng and Janice.
God Bless =)

Sharing the Gospel (11/5/08)

2008-05-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Main pointers for discussion:
1. Why do we need to share the gospel?
2. How do we share the gospel?

Opening Questions
1. Answer the following question with a Yes or No.
Would you risk your life to save:
- a friend?
- a sibling?
- your mum?
- someone whom you hold dearly to?
(this is to establish the point that we are concerned about the lives of people whom we are related to or are important to us)
- a criminal?
At this point you can mention that Jesus died for all of us, all criminals in His own way. And by doing so, we can have eternal life. However, not everyone has the privilege of knowing this wonderful news and we all know that those who do not know of this will eventually die. They are in need of spiritual help. Are we going to help them? Let’s bring in an example. If your friend was drowning, will you ignore or quickly jump in to save him? After asking them this, go on to the next question.

2. Do you think this statement is true or false? Why? Is spiritual help and physical help of the same importance?

Main discussion
Purpose of sharing the bible
3. Go to Matthew 28:19-20
- this is what God has commanded us to do and Christians, that is our purpose!

4. Bridge to life
- refer to the notes on sharing the gospel, the one titled ‘Bridge to Life’
Go through pointers 1-3 only! This to let them know that if their loved ones do not come to know about the gospel then it leads to death and eternal judgment
So..we need to share the gospel to them!

How to share the gospel
4. Suppose you wanted to try and rescue some of your friends from dying spiritually. List in order of effectiveness which would be the best ways to conduct the rescue, with 1 being the most effective.
- Email them a letter about Christ
- Bring them to a church service
- Give them a bible
- Send the pastor to talk to them
- Give them a gospel booklet
- Preach a sermon to them
- Tell them what Christ means to you
- Pray for them
- Loan them a Christian cd
- Bring them to a youth Group
- Wear a Christian T-shirt
This is more like letting them realize how we can set the stage for sharing the gospel and the possibilities are endless!

5. The ‘Bridge to Life’ section is a suggestive outline to how we can share the gospel by telling them that Christ has died and paid for sins so that we can go heaven and they can ask the non-christian to decide whether they want to accept Christ. Go through with them this and tell them we will put it into practice next week!

6. Do you think that sharing the gospel is just sharing about the bridge to life?
- Ultimately, it should be a continual aspect of our life and not just some one off thing
- Your constant testimony is IMPORTANT and it is also a means of sharing the gospel
- Only through our lives can we show how the gospel is a living gospel!

7. Are you a living testimony so that non-christians can also come to know about the gospel? If you know that sharing the gospel is what God commanded us to do, are you doing it? If not, why aren’t you doing it? Refer them to Proverbs 24:11-12

Wishing all your mothers a happy mothers day =)
Courtesy of Shawn, Weichen, Sam Heng and Eddy.

The Bible (4/5)

2008-05-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

Lesson 5: The Bible
Recap of last week’s lesson: We’ve learnt about praying that is a communication tool. Another way of hearing from God is to read His Word, the Bible.
We feel that the notes provided are not that relevant to the sec ones as they do not read that much of the bible. Thus our aim should be to get them to start reading the bible more often.
1. Do the HOOK
· Bring the Map of Singapore for each small group.
· Ask them to locate where the church is.
· Locate where each person lives on the map also.
· Connect the different locations.
Analogy: The Bible gives us direction and perspective. It can be easy for us to make our own decisions, doing our own things and heading in a no certain or deliberate direction. However, the Bible is like the map of life. It directs us to the different paths that God wants us to take.
First, ask them how often do they read the bible (maybe how many times a week)
After that, you can get them to attempt the crossword puzzle in the book (pg 15)
2. Why do we read the Bible?
· Besides hearing God’s voice, another way of listening to God is through reading His Word.
· To know what God wants us to do in our life
· To see the promises that He has for our lives. (Believing and trusting that He will grant us grace, blessings, forgiving of our sins, etc.)
· To find encouragement when we’re down.
· To learn from past experiences (eg. To learn from Godly people like Esther, Job, Abraham, etc.)
· To obey God by keeping His commandment in the Bible.

3. How do we know what is written in the bible is true?
· 2 Tim 3:16 shows that the bible is the word of God
· Evidence that the bible exists – entire volumes of books were found
·

At this point, encourage them to read the bible daily. You could help them to obtain daily devotionals for those who want it.

If there is extra time, you could go through the love joy peace book on the part of “Overview”. For their case, make it simpler for them, like to read one chapter a day.
How should we approach the bible?
- As a story book or textbook?
- Textbook
- Although some of the books are story based, reading it like s storybook would not help you much in your daily lives.

Eddy, Tim, Elizabeth, Janice, Victor, Ying Jie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Additional questions that you may wanna do:

What then should we be learning from the bible?
- Learn new ideas
- - get rid of false ideas (is holy communion compulsory? Can we eat food offered to idols?)
- Give up things which are unwholesome
- Start doing things which are wholesome and good

Things you should be asking yourself when reading the bible (SPACEPETS)
- Sin to confess?
- Promise to claim?
- Attitude to change?
- Command to keep?
- Example to follow?
- Prayer to pray?
- Error to avoid?
- Truth to believe?
- Something to thank God for?

Prayer (27/4)

2008-04-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Lesson Plan for 27/04 – Prayer

Recap
Through the lesson on assurance of salvation, we know that God is with us. Therefore, we want to be with God also and so we do quiet time. But when we take a Christian stand, we face persecution. It is tough to have peace in persecution, so we need prayer to ask God for help. Which leads us to this week’s topic on prayer.

Focus
Why pray when God already knows your prayers?

Opening Question
Do you sometimes forget to pray? Do you sometimes want to spend more time in prayer but can’t seem to be consistent at it? Or do you sometimes not feel like praying at all?
- YES!!!

Why don’t you pray more?
- Prayer takes too much time.
- Life is good; there is nothing to pray about.
- God doesn’t seem to be answering my prayers.
- I’m too tired every day to pray; I fall asleep every time I pray.
- I don’t know how to pray well enough.
- My siblings are too noisy; I need peace and quietness to pray.
- Nobody knows whether I pray anyway.
- God knows all my feelings and thoughts anyway.

We suggest you can photocopy the GOD TALK worksheet (pg 69) for your students to do. Refer to THE DISCUSSION, BY NUMBERS (pg 70) for leader’s guide.
(about 20 mins)

Question 1
How should you pray?
- Pray in private. (Matthew 6:6)
- Do not repeat the same things again and again just to make the prayer sound longer. (Matthew 6:7)
- Pray in faith, believing that you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer (Matthew 21:22)

Question 2
What can you pray about?
- Praise God for His mercy, grace, love, etc.
- Thank God for the good things that happened to you.
- Ask God to help you forgive someone who has made you angry.
- Ask God to help you accept someone you don’t like in school.
- Pray when you feel anxious about a test or examination.
- Pray when you face persecution.
- Pray for your friends’ salvation.
- Pray for a sick family member.

AND THE LIST GOES ON……YOU CAN PRAY ABOUT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, FOR ANYONE AND EVERYONE!!!

Conclusion- Prayer is not a process or technique. You don’t need to pray like a pastor for God
to hear you but the more you pray, the better you are at it.

- Prayer takes time. Don’t rush to say, “God, give me this or that.” Let God speak to you also

- God knows what we need before we even ask in our prayers (1 John 3:20) but He wants to hear our hurts, He wants to hear what we have to say. He wants to talk to us. (Matthew 7:7) Just like with your best friend, you know him/ her very well because you talk to each other very often. Therefore, we want to come to God in prayer to DEVELOP OUR INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. You cannot do that just by reading the bible or just coming to church.

Practice
Break up your students into pairs. Get them to tell each other at least one thing they want to be prayed for. Ask them to pray out loud to each other.

Samantha Leong, Mei Ping, Lin Chen, Jonathan, John
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In case your students give the excuse to stop praying out loud during lessons due to Matthew 6:6:

Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Acts 4:24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Praying in a nut shell:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplement

9"This, then, is how you should pray: "

'Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.[a]'

or CATS. This is with reference to the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) You may wanna do this with them. =)

Peace in Persecution

2008-04-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

Lesson 3: Peace in Persecution

1. Opening question:
Does being a Christian mean that you will have no problems as compared to a non-christian or you will not go through any sufferings?
a. this is to let them understand that being a Christian does not make life any easier. We are placed with another set of problems.
b. We become the enemies of the world by going against the world’s norm as compared to living with God’s set of standards.

2. What is persecution?
a. Biblical example from 1Peter 2:18-25. From there, we get an idea of what persecution is when Christ is persecuted.
b. To be willing to suffer for Christ to be against the world
c. It is the test of one’s faith through trials and temptations

3. As Sec One students, ask them what are the possible scenarios of persecution?
a. Someone is cheating during exam and you told the teacher and your friend hates you
b. You have to sacrifice a social gathering because you have to go church on Sunday, you friends teases you.
c. Being outcast by your friends when you don’t gossip with them

4. Why are Christians persecuted?
a. We are rejecting the world’s ideas and it will cause them to be hostile and defensive

5. Therefore, as Christians, we will definitely face persecution because when we decided to accept Christ, there is definitely a conflict between the World and Us. You might want to recap Question 3 to allow them to recall what are the small little persecutions Christians face. Ask them if they felt persecuted?
a. If No, what makes them a Christian? Since it is one attribute of a Christian. It may be because they are still sinning with the world and hence there don’t experience persecution?
b. If yes, congrats. Encourage them to continue to press on and shine brightly for Christ

6. For those who experienced persecution. How can they cope with it? Below are just three main ways which our group would like to point out:
a. Prayer (top priority) -
b. Word
c. Support from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
At that point when the world is against us, we must be loss. Prayer is the first line of defence we can have so that we can seek comfort from God.
The focus of this lesson is to let them understand what persecution is. The part on coping with persecution is only mentioned at the end of the lesson. Ask them to approach you after lesson if they have more questions on that.

Well, once again, these questions are just suggestions. Tweak the order of the questions so that it is suitable for the flow of your teachings. ((:

Cheers,
Tim, Shawn, Sam, Wei Chen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Link between this lesson and the previous 2 lessons:

Previous 2 lessons, we learn that God is with us and we seek to be with Him, to confirm for ourselves whether He is real or not etc. by doing quiet time.

In knowing that God is with us, we seek to become more Christ-like (a response from being saved) and hence in doing so we set ourselves apart from the world. This then results in persecution i.e. making a stand against the world and hence facing negative reactions from people we know or simply the loss of some worldly enjoyment e.g. going out on a Sunday morning instead of going to church.

Main focus of the lesson (Qn 3):
If you are a Christian then are you facing persecutions? If you are not then are you just a Christian by name? Challenge them to make a stand for God today, pray for them and remember to do follow-up. =)

You may wanna use this link to encourage, show etc. how people their age are making a stand for God.

http://www.persecution.com/link/archives.cfm

Quiet Time (13/4)

2008-04-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

Lesson 2: Quiet Time

We could not think of any hook for this session, so there would not be any hook unless someone can think of something.

Main focus:
Get them to realise the importance of quiet time.

Questions and Answers:

1) Do you do quiet time?
- might want to get them to raise their hands to indicate their answers
- this is to get them thinking about what quiet time is and whether they practise it or not

2) What is quiet time?
- get their understanding of what quiet time is
- tell them what it really means: a time dedicated to read the Bible, pray to God, sing praises, and reflect on your actions (spending quality time with God and thinking about Him)

3) If you do not do quiet time, are you still considered a Christian?
- refer to teacher’s guide Q1 (main idea is that we are saved by God sending His son Jesus to die for our sins rather than gaining salvation from what we do)
- yes, but that does not mean that you do not have to do quiet time

The next question is the main point of the lesson and is linked from the previous question (after saying that although we are Christians not by doing quiet time, we still have to do quiet time)

4) Why do Christians do quiet time?
- additional questions to make them think: is it because we are told to do so by our parents, Sunday school teachers, etc? or are we just following what other people do blindly?
- if you are doing quiet time for the sake of doing it, aren’t you just wasting your time?
- explanation: to achieve a closer walk with God, gain encouragement to deal with peer pressure, stress, etc
- to get them to understand the whole idea more clearly, do share your personal experiences with them (how does doing quiet time help you strengthen your relationship with God and how it affects your life)

During the closing prayer, you might want to lead them to make a commitment to do quiet time. (especially for those who do not do quiet time, which would probably be the majority)

Scripture references:
- Mark 6:46
- Mark 14:32-42
Both show Jesus setting an example for us to follow. (He finds a quiet spot and moment to pray)

We chose not to refer to the book for this lesson because it does not really link back to our main focus of the lesson. You might want to get them to fill in the blanks as homework or go through that section if there is extra time, especially some of the points which could be more difficult to understand and needs to be explained.

If anyone can find more examples of quiet time in the Bible, please add them in as well. Thanks!

~Janice, Elizabeth, Eddy, Ying Jie~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Link between the previous lesson and this lesson:
Assurance of Salvation: God is with us, salvation is free grace
Quiet Time: God is with us therefore we seek to be with Him, to know about Him, to find assurance that He is with us (we don't always feel that God is with us even though we know He does)

Another question to ask:
Must I read the bible when I do QT since QT also involves praying, reflecting our actions?
- need balance
- if dun read how would you know what to pray about (go beyond prayer requests and thanksgiving, but like seeking God's will), what sins are wrong.

Assurance of Salvation (6/4)

2008-04-03T09:14:00.001-07:00

LOVE JOY PEACE LESSON 1

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION
(ARE YOU SURE OF YOUR OWN SALVATION?)

FOCUS
Will you go to heaven or hell if you die today?

HOOK
This demonstration will be conducted by Lin Chen, Jonathan and Samantha Leong

Idea adapted from Indian Poker (Poker cards will be replaced with number cards)
Seat the students in their 3 big groups.
Get 3 volunteers; 1 from each group. 1 person will be the policeman and 2 others will be the thieves. To prevent the thieves from collaborating against the policeman, the 3 volunteers will not know if they are a policeman or thief.
Each group will be assigned to help one person without these 3 people knowing (not necessarily their own group).
Each person will be given a number card. They will hold it up in front of their forehead for all to see but they themselves cannot see the card.
The groups will try to convince the policemen and thieves to change their cards. After the 3 people decided not to change anymore, they will reveal. The one with the smallest number will ‘die’. The game ends when the policeman dies or when both thieves die.

Try to end the Hook by 11am.

LESSON FROM HOOK
There were instances when you do not know who to believe, not sure about whether to change your cards or not. At times, you wished you just stuck to your cards and didn’t change.
In the same way, when we are living in this earthly world, we are constantly subjected to these kinds of lying and cheating. And sometimes we believe the wrong things and make bad decisions.
Are you sure that you will go to heaven when you die? Is it just because Jesus died on the cross for all your sins. Or do you sometimes feel like you have done too many wrong things, that you’re not worthy of being a blameless child of God. Do you deserve to go to heaven? We’ll be talking more about this in your small groups.

WHY IS THIS LESSON IMPORTANT
The Sec 1s are NOT WELL-GROUNDED IN THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH (weak in the application of what they have learnt). So they need to be assured in their position before God and in the world.

ACTIVITY SHEET You can find this after the Leader’s Guide. Pages 1 and 2 are more relevant. (Pg 1 is about commenting on how we felt when we were converted. Pg 2 is about What Jesus Christ has done and how to know Him) Since they need to look up the bible for answers, split the work. The layout for the version we have and that of the international version is different and so please print What Jesus Christ has done for the students. Do not spend so much time on this, if you think it will take up a lot of time give it to them as homework to do during the week. =)

The answers for the blanks are as follow:

Cross: Jesus
Helped: help
Raised: raising him
Intercede: lives
Save: completely
Throne: forever and ever

WHO HE IS
Creator: created
God: God
King: king
Perfect Man: without sin

Place more focus from now on:

QUESTION 1

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

What does it mean to be a SLAVE TO SIN?

A slave is someone who doesn't have a choice in the matter. He must do what his master tells him. If you are a slave to sin, you can't help sinning... you choose, want and like to sin.
All of us were like that... we were hopeless.. but some of us have broken free from the slavery of sin.. into the embrace of the slavery of righteousness.. God's righteousness.. the greatest free gift of grace ever given! We have recieved the gift of Jesus Christ, who DIED for our sins.
Have you been decieving yourself into believing that something your parents or bible tells you is wrong is not sin? Do you feel no sense of remorse when you sin against the almighty God? You are a slave to sin. If you do not repent (change your mind) and believe in Jesus Christ, there is no hope of freedom for you. ~courtesy of Yipeng~

Bridge question from question 1 to 2

By accepting Jesus as our personal saviour have we stopped sinning?
The answer is obviously no.
Does that mean that our salvation is not guaranteed? Or maybe we think that we are Christians but are actually not?
What is the difference then?
We struggle to stop sinning even though we LIKE and WANT to sin.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:18)

QUESTION 2
Is there a difference between a person who is a SLAVE TO SIN and someone who STRUGGLES WITH SIN? Yes!!!!!! When we STRUGGLE WITH SIN, we may WANT to SIN but we KNOW WE CANNOT DO WHAT WE WANT because GOD IS WITH US.

We struggle to stop sinning because it’s a response to Jesus dying for our sins (gratitude and repentance; refer to the verse below), fear because we know that God knows whatever we do (you may want to use how we are afraid to be naughty in front of our parents and link it to God)

So what marks you and I as a Christian?
The mark of a Christian is that we are still struggling with sins; we sometimes win and we sometimes lose. But we know that we have the victory as Christ already paid the penalty for our sins and God is with us. Hence being a Christian also means we realise that we have a God who helps us overcome our sins and therefore we seek Him for help unlike those who do not know and have God in their lives and most importantly because we now have a choice to choose not to sin.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22)

SHARE YOUR OWN TESTIMONIES!!!

MAIN POINTS

God sent Jesus to die for us. Whenever you feel unsure about God’s love for you, remember. He loved you even before you accepted or turned to Him. Long ago, the High Priest in the temple of God would go before God once a year to plead for the forgiveness of the people’s sins.

Now Jesus, our High Priest, is continually before God, to plead for us. No one else can add to what Christ has done to save us; He has removed the guilt of our past, present and future. If you are a Christian, remember Christ has died for your sins once and for all. (Hebrews 10:10,14)

We need to be sure that WE ARE CHRISTIANS and that WE WILL NEVER LOSE OUR SALVATION AS CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.

Conclusion:
WHERE DO WE GET OUR ASSURANCE FROM???
1. From READING THE BIBLE. we can only be assured when we UNDERSTAND JESUS and TRUST HIM.
2. Besides that we know that we are Christians by making a stand against the world, to struggle with sin which is our mark as a Christian. By setting ourselves apart, i.e. being slaves to righteousness.

If you are not reading the bible to learn seek to learn more about Him and not struggling to stop sinning then maybe you should start worrying if you are even Christians in the first place. If you died today, would you be in Heaven or Hell?

If you desire to go to heaven, if you desire to know God, give thanks! It is an assurance that you are saved. A Christian will genuinely desire to read God’s word, to pray and to obey, because God loves us. ~courtesy of Yipeng~

If you have the time then you might want to go through the last part of page 4, for them to write down their conversio experience and list any questions (can do that as homework also)

~Mei Ping, Samantha Leong, Lin Chen~

LAST LESSON.for doc.

2008-03-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Worshiping Together.

Six Practical Reasons for Giving
1.Giving makes me more like God.
2.Giving draws me closer to God.
3.Giving is the antidote to materialism.
4.Giving strengthens my faith.
5.Giving is an investment for eternity.
6.Giving blesses me in return.

Four Attitudes for Giving
1.Give willingly.
2.Give thankfully.
3.Give joyfully.
4.Give expectantly.

So there are the answers to the last final lesson in this DOC series.

so rick says its worshiping together and all he talks bout is giving. for the sec1's i think such topics are also rather deep and too hard for some to digest. so maybe you all should like instead focus on one key point. something like love? cause this is the main theme in the entire series. and being the last lesson, we should focus on something for the kids to bring home and remember, lest not our efforts come to naught.

so love it is. this is currently just my view on this so if u have any other better suggestions please suggest in the next 24 hrs. or if u have already come out with a key point to focus on then go ahead.

u can maybe for the guys talk abit at first on the behavior they put up in service, explain to them what it really means, not just the singing of songs, but...erm ok you should know this. if u dont..go check it up. right next....

ok so focus more on love i guess. stress that love for each other and for God is the most important thing.

I SHALL POST MORE WHEN I THINK OF IT.

40 DOC Session 5 - Serving Together (9/3)

2008-03-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

Four Key Aspects of Serving Together by Rick Warren (Pg 209)
Main points summarized for reference

Groups that serve together:

1. Make themselves available to serve.
- Ready and willing to jump into action when called
- Be prepared, flexible, sensitive and spontaneous because service opportunities do not last that long

2. Work as a team.
- Appreciate each other’s strength and compensate for each other’s weaknesses
- Maximise resources and energy
- Better stewardship
- Group ministry has a greater impact

3. Think more about others than themselves.
- True humility
- Be aware of the needs of those you are serving and serving with
- In serving, cheer each other on and lend a helping hand

4. Do every task with equal dedication.
- No task is too menial for Jesus
- Jesus served lepers, washed feet, fixed breakfast, helped children, etc.
- Jesus did not serve in spite of His greatness but served because of His greatness

Lesson Plan

Focus
Being a Christian is more than going to church, praying and reading the bible. It is also about serving others. (simplify serving others as helping or assisting someone else who may be in need)

Serving together does not make much sense here. The Sec 1s are not serving in church and definitely not together at this point in time. Therefore, it is essential instead to help them see the need to help others. You may choose to adopt other focuses such as Think about others more than ourselves, The kind of attitude that one should have in helping others, etc

Hook
Materials will be provided. You may choose whether or not to use it.

This is an activity to be held in the individual small groups. It should not take more than 10 minutes.
1. Each group will be given 2 styrofoam cups with a few soft candy/ jelly bean inside and 2 forks with extended handles (made of chopsticks and super long).

2. Within each group, select 2 students and make them sit across each other. They are only allowed to hold the end of the fork handle. Whoever finishes the candies in his/her cup first wins. Give them a time limit (about 2 minutes).

Objective Of Hook
The fork is actually so long that it is impossible to feed themselves. The only way to empty their cup is to feed the person across from them. You can then get them to guess what is the lesson behind the hook. The objective of the hook is to show that by helping one another instead of focusing on oneself, a task can be completed faster and more easily. Both you and the other person benefit from it.

Question 1
Have you ever helped someone? What did you do?

Some of the answers they may give:
- Help friend with schoolwork
- Help out in household chores
- Help a sick friend collect homework and copy notes
- Help a classmate who has hurt himself during P.E.
- Help family member run an errand

Question 2 (Adapted from discussion question 2)
Do you enjoy serving/ helping others? Why?

Yes, because you get praised, you are thanked, you feel satisfied or you feel like you have solved a problem.

No, because you find it too troublesome, too dirty, no choice (forced to do it), waste time (rather do my own things), waste energy and effort (the recipient might not be appreciative) or you feel what you can do is too small to make any difference.

For groups which have gone for the Acts of Kindness, get the students to share their experience and feelings.

Question 3 (Adapted from discussion question 4)
What can you do to overcome the barriers (e.g. no time, lack of confidence) when it comes to helping others?

When you feel you have no time (need to study and do homework) or that other people’s business is not your problem, think about how your friend may be struggling with schoolwork. God called us not to be selfish people. When our friends need help and we don’t respond, what sort of friends are we? If we manage our time wisely and prioritise, we can definitely spare that little bit of time to extend our help to others. Sometimes, it does not even require much of our time. It is whether we want to do or not.

On the other hand, do not feel that you are inadequate to help. No matter how small or insignificant the task may seem to be, it is your heart that God looks at and this is all that matters. If you don’t know how you can help, start at home. Offer to sweep or mop the floor, wash the dishes, iron the clothes, cut the vegetables, wash the car, etc and keep doing it.

Bible Verses (to tell them that God said these)
Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Eph 2:10 verse talks about how doing good works in part of God’s purpose for us. The bible says we are to do it.

Hebrews 6:10 – “God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

Heb 6:10 tells us that God is pleased when we help others and will reward us accordingly.

Sharing Time
Leaders can share about the ministries you have served in before or are currently serving in (leading the Sec 1s). Tell them how it is a service to God and others, why you want to serve in that ministry and what fulfillment you get from serving.

If you have time, you may want to tell them about some of the ministries in church and what they do.

Conclusion
Challenge your students to help someone at home, in school or in church in the coming week. For those who are going to do their Acts of Kindness at Faithacts, encourage them to go with a cheerful and giving heart.

Mei Ping and Samantha Leong
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bible passage to focus on

John 13:1-5
What is Jesus' definition of showing someone the full extent of his love?
to wash pple's feet. Washing feet in such a situation was the role of the most menial of servants (cf. 1:27).449 Here Jesus reversed normal roles and assumed the place of a servant rather than that of a rabbi. (Dr. Constable's commentary)

What is so significant about washing His disciple's feet?
servitude, humility

You can link to the 4 qns below from here.

1. What does it mean to serve? (i.e. the difference between helping and serving, or volunteer work and serving => focus on the attitude behind the 2)
2. What should be our moltivation to serve?
3. How can I glorify God and show people that I care when I serve?
4. What should I do when the people whom I serve do not appreciate what I do? (link back to the need to belong and grow together)

puiki =)

40 DOC Session 4 - Growing Together (2/3)

2008-02-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

timmy apologises for the extremely late post which has kept everyone waiting in extreme anticipation C:

1. Growing together requires patience.
2. Growing together requires truthfulness.
- Check your motives.
- Plan your presentation.
- Plan when you'll say it.
- Plan what you'll say.
- Plan how you'll say it.
- Pray
- Say it tactfully.
- Say it lovingly.
- Say it gently.
3. Growing together requires forgiveness.

this lesson's theme is basically Growing Together. which is also alot like the previous lesson. for the discussion questions, for once i am forced to admit finally there are questions that are actually suitable to use. well done pastor rick. question one and two are basically boring and lame questions which i shall not elaborate on further. perhaps for the girls side they may actually bring in results but thats about it. not going to use them. questions three and four are the main question points that i think are pretty good and can be made use of.

point to take note. what does it mean for us to grow together. the final answer to be drilled into their heads is patience, truthfulness and forgiveness. and make sure that when they practice them, do them in love C: if you want you can also go more into one of the many points, 'Check your motives.' what is their intention behind doing or saying something. 'look yourself in the mirror' kind of thing if u get what i'm saying. 'Growing together requires truthfulness.' why is it so hard to tell the truth and yet lie all the time? some sub pointers to think about.

questions three and four. pretty good questions. how do they judge people? appearances? etc. why do we confront people in love? is it just because Jesus told us to love one another? or because of our genuine love for one another, the desire to see each other grow to be a better person. forgiveness is a big point so be sure to go more into this. forgiveness, can you do it? to totally forgive a person not even bearing a grudge secretly in your heart. why is it so hard to forgive?

God is willing to forgive us of our sins, the sins of all men. why is it then, that we who call ourselves Christ's followers, cannot even forgive one person? try to build it up to this question at the end of the day, a question for them to think and ponder about.

and thus i have finished all that i want to say. to use it or not is up to your own discretion since there are no copyright laws. smile. have a nice day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To add on to Timmy's point about forgiveness, you may wanna bring out the point that you cant love others till you forgive the person that hurt you. It's not that you cant love people anymore, but your love would not be pure agape love. What I mean is that for example you were hurt because your parents broke your trust, so as long as you don't forgive your parents, you would realise that you cant trust other people that easily anymore. Hence although you care for them and stuff, you hide a part of yourself from them so that you would not be hurt. It would be good if you can think of an example to share with the kids. =)

puiki

40 DOC Session 3 – Belonging Together (24/2)

2008-02-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

Ask them if they understood all points that Rick Warren has said and go through the ones that they are still unsure of.

Love always protects.
Protects = cover over with silence

Love always trusts.
We believe in each other … we believe for each other

Love always hopes.
Be enthusiastic about other people’s accomplishments.

Love always perseveres.

The discussion questions in the book seem rather irrelevant except for the first one on page 196.

1. Which of the four statements about Love from 1 Corinthians 13:7 spoke to you most powerfully? Why? How can you apply these truths to your personal life this week?

Bridging from the previous session on “Reaching out together”

The last session talks about reaching out to the community and how we can meet the needs of this community. This session points to the community in a smaller scale, that is, our brothers and sisters-in-Christ. As Christians, we need to reach out to each other too because we belong to each other. Just like what the bible says in Romans 12:5b (NLT) that ‘Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.’

1. Ask the Sec Ones to consider the group that they are in now and think why do they need each other? How can they provide for each other when their parents have already met their physical needs?

2. By this time, it should be already established that we need to support each other spiritually, in the form of encouragement, support etc. Ask them to list down how they can support each other spiritually and what they can achieve by doing this?

Here are my suggestions:

a) How they can support each other

Admitting that they need each other and not let pride get in the way (more for the boys)
Committed to loving each other, simply by being there for one another
Respect one another
Being patient with each other
Being honest with each other

Some of the ways are already mentioned in Session 2 on how to reach out to the community.

b) What can be achieved?

§ To live up the implication of Romans 12:5b (NLT) that ‘Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.’

3. Get the Sec Ones to list the different group of friends they have now and describe the kind of relationship they have with these group of friends.

4. Most of us have a few groups of friends (from church, school etc.) so how are these groups from friends different from their friends in church? How would they relate to their friends in secondary schools and church right now? Is there any difference? Do we just come to church and Sunday school every week and then get back to our own lives the minute lesson ends / when we leave the church?

The point that I am trying to drive across is that we can have so many social groups in our lives but as a Christian group, what makes us different from the other ? What is so distinctive about it that points us to be ‘belonged to each other’?

Like what Eric said during our debrief last week.

We want to build a relationship that is not just of social nature where we meet up to have fun or be together because we have to work together. It is the ‘comrade relationship’ that we want to achieve: to laugh, to cry, to suffer together and to know that the common goal that we share is Jesus Christ.

Lastly! To end off with the last question

5. Ask the Sec Ones what kind of relationships do they want to build in this group? Is it just another social group?

Let them know that they will be held accountable to what they have said in response to this question. We can always come up with a list of things we want to do to build up relationships but how can we be so sure that we will stay belonged to each other and be always there for one another? What about the times when ‘we just don’t feel like it?’ or ‘we don’t know how?’

End off with a prayer to ask God to help them to build true and meaningful relationships and to always keep in mind why they are here in the first place.

Lesson end! You can play around with the sequence of the questions to your preference or to suit the flow of the lesson. i think the alignment on the blog page will be quite screwed.. many apologies for that cos i typed it on word doc =X

Wei Chen ((:

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Here is a suggested hook to help with the lesson. :)

Think about 1-2 person whom you are close to, why are the 2 of you close to one another?

Point behind sharing (leave this to the end of the lesson)

If you are not close to anyone then why is that so? (this may require follow-up)
If you have not been sharing with at least 1 person from this groups (sec 1s) or if you have not been sharing the spiritual aspect of your life with someone then what makes you different from a non-Christian?
The point is to make them aware that if they are not sharing with others their spiritual struggles (resisting temptation, overcoming sin, having consistent spiritual disciplines) then maybe they are not Christians. Or perhaps they think they are but maybe not? Because how can you share if you do not have struggles?
Then perhaps they do have struggles but are not sharing, then take the time to encourage and pray with them to share with one another or with you.

A question you may want to use to bring in Eric's point:

What do you think are the differences between friendships with Christians and friendships with Non-Christians?

Christians (fellowship, comrades): sharing the same burden and using our difference abilities to achieve a goal (love God, love man). To share our lives, our struggles, our joys & sorrows. (refer to what weichen mentioned above)

Non-Christians (friendship, peers, colleages):

Peers (friends): Same common interests, hobbies. On occasions, a certain degree of sharing problems but no common goals)

Colleagues (classmates): Common goal (studies, projects) but may not have common interests.

You may want to link this back to the end of the lesson: If they do not see any difference in their friendships between Christians & non-Christians then what makes them a Christian?

The above mentioned are very similar to what weichen has mentioned, its just expanded on to help you focus on the main point of the lesson (the difference btw christian & NC friendships) so it goes hand in hand with weichen's lesson above. :)

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Do remember that you only have about 30-45mins to do the lesson, so if you dun think you have the time or can explain the question properly or if you think they would not be interested, just SCRAPE THE QUESTION! X) our aim is to challenge them to question if they are Christians so focus on questions that are related to that.

Do try to break up into smaller groups at the end of this lesson to pray for the students, to encourage them to build closer friendships (fellowship) with the people in their groups.

puiki

40 DOC Session 2 - Reaching out together (17/2)

2008-02-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Meeting the needs of others:
1) Recognize the needs
2) Take inventory
 You are always going to come up short of what you require, and by faith will you see how great God's miracles are in reaching the goal.
 Ask them again “who are the hungry and the needy in your community?” “What do you have in your hands?”
3) Get organized
4) Measure the need
5) Prepare your heart
6) Be available

The kids might not understand point number 2, so it is good to go through that point again, explaining what inventory means. Doubt they understand. It means to take stock. Explain that it is only through taking inventory that we recognize our limitations and witness God at work.

Do not take too long on this. Pastor Rick has already done quite a fair bit of teaching already about these. So just go straight to the discussion questions.

1) James 1:22 tells us it's not enough just to know truth. We have to put it into practice. And 2 Corinthians 9:13 says our deeds should be “as good as our doctrine.” What does this mean on a practical level? How do these truths relate to sharing your faith?

Doctrine means a principle, position, or policy taught or advocated, as of a religion or government or to put it simply teaching; instructions.

In NIV, 2 Cor 9:13 says what we do should be accompanied by your confession of the gospel of Christ. So, ask them this. What comprises confessing the gospel of Christ? Most of them will say its evangelism. Yes evangelism is one of the key things in this lesson and in our doctrine, but get them to think and recall session 1. Session 1, as we recall, talks about love and I want to point out a point in the 5 radical statements about love. Nothing I believe will matter. Because if we do not love, nothing I believe will matter! This leads to our deeds not being accompanied by our confession of the gospel of Christ, and we all know deeds without love is dead. I think we can just skip the “How do these truths relate to sharing your faith” question.

2) Pastor Rick said, “God wants to use your small group to reach the world for Jesus Christ. If you want to know God’s plan for solving the world's problems look around the room. You're it. You are God's plan... God works through his people – through physical, tangible demonstrations of compassion, mercy and care.” What do you think about this statement? Does it excite you, scare you, or overwhelm you? Why?

Well for a start, you may want to ask them what God's plan actually is. It can be found in Ephesians 1:10 – to bring all things in heaven and on earth under 1 head, which also means evangelism.

For the 2nd part of the question, they will give different answers. So just ask them back accordingly.

Does it excite you? – If it excites you, what have you been doing with this excitement? Keeping it to yourself? Why? If you've shared with friends or families, have you gone a step further to bring them to church? Why? Why not?

Does it scare you? – Why does it scare you? Afraid of rejection? Afraid your friends laugh at you, mock you? Or is it you're just too selfish to see that there are needs in the world? Is the task too much to be asked from you?

Does it overwhelm you? – Is the task too great for you? Is it because it is GOD asking you to do it that you have to take some time to digest that? Is it not possible to do it?

The main idea here is to throw back every excuse they give, and make them realize the importance of this task given to us. It just goes to show our disobedience to the word of God and the lack of unconditional love to our neighbours, and you can relate it back to the point in the 1st question. This is the time where you can challenge them and ask them this, “are you ready to do God's work and to follow his plan for you? Are you even interested in doing God's work? If not there's really no point in being a Christian. But if you want to please God, you have to start loving people like how God loved us, and also praying with fellow believers in their time of meeting the needs of other people. And this will lead to us exercising God's plan.”

At this point, it will be good to break them up to either pairs or in 3s to pray for each other. It'll be good if they pray for each other aloud. Pray specifically for them to be able to exercise God's plan and to please Him, to realize the importance of their role in God's plan, and for a start to pray for a person that they have difficulty loving. And you can check with them about that person the next week.

Shawn
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Another focus of this lesson:

Other religions also give and volunteer their time like Christians, some even sacrifice more than an average Christian, so what is the difference between Christians doing acts of kindness and other religions doing acts of kindness?

1. Difference in focus
Jesus came to reconcile our relationship with God, meaning to say that He is more concerned with the spiritual welfare of the people (John 4:10, John 7:38, Rev 7:17) than the physical aspect. However, Jesus recognises that people need the physical and emotional help too and hence He also provides for the physical needs of the people (eg. healing the sick, feeding the 5000 etc.) You can try using this example, there is this friend that you really care for who has academic difficulties and hence you help him/her in this aspect, but does it make sense that you totally ignore him/her when he/she tries to seeks help and shares with you his/her family problems?

Other religions, however, do it as to redeem themselves, to improve their karma etc. and hence they 'do good' by helping others with their physical needs and hence the focus is usually more on how it benefits ME than how it benefits others.

2. Knowing what is right VS doing what is right
Everybody knows what is right and what is the right thing to do, but the difference is in doing it. For non-Christians, there is no obligation to do what is right; when I feel like it, I do what is right so that my karma would be good, there are no consequences for not doing what is right especially at the right time.

Christians however know what is right and struggle to do what is right as we strive to become Christ-like and love the people around us because Jesus went out of His confort zone to save us and called us to do likewise and we also have the knowledge of what lies ahead for those who are not saved. However, this is against our selfish nature and hence we struggle to do what does not benefit us.

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When we go about doing acts of kindness we have to question ourselves what is the reason we are doing that. Are we doing them for the sake of doing them? Or are we doing them like we are doing favours to others; I do this and this for you, or I gave you this and this, so you should consider Christianity.

Alternatively, you can end with if we struggle so much as Christians while the other religions don't, then why do we become Christians?

puiki

40 DOC Session 1 – What Matters Most (3/2)

2008-01-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

Transcript of Session 1

*All the red words are key points

3 Communities
· Church
· Small group
· World

5 statements that emphasize the word love
1. Nothing I say will matter
· Words without love are empty
· Words without love is noise
· A good communicator may not impress God at all but God only wants us to love the people we speak to
· Is your life a life of love?
· Living a life without love means nothing I say will matter

2. Nothing I know will matter
· You may have all the knowledge and information of the Bible, but if you don’t have love in your life
· Brilliance without love equals zero
· All the knowledge in the world can’t compensate for a lack of love

3. Nothing I believe will matter
· There’s a myth that being a Christian is just a matter of believing certain truths (not true)
· Following Christ is far more than believing intellectual facts or understanding and adhering to certain doctrinal truths
· Being a Christian, a Christ follower is living a life of love in community
· It takes more than believe and faith to love others
· Religion without love doesn’t matter
· What matters is how I love God and how I love other people (it’s not enough to say I believe or even that I know my purpose)
· The Great Commandment
· 1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love.”
· But He says, “If you don’t love, you don’t really know God.”
· 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
· If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I believe will matter.

4. Nothing I give will matter
· Can you be in a relationship and give for selfish motives?
· Giving is not necessarily always loving
· You may give for a lot of wrong motives
· And the Bible says that if I’m not giving in love, then none of my giving counts and nothing I will give will matter

5. Nothing I accomplish will matter
· Personal achievements (Is it all worthless if you do not love)
· Bible says, “Relationships are more important than accomplishments.”
· Nothing else matters except whether I love Him or do I know how to love other people.
· How well did you love??

What is love?
1. Love is a command
· Not optional if we do not love, we are sinning
· Make time to care and fellowship with one another

2. Love is a Choice
· We choose to love and choose not to love
· Love can’t be forced on somebody
· Now when God commands it, that’s because we have a choice to accept or reject that command
· If love were a feeling, you can’t command a feeling
· You can’t force a feeling, but love is not a feeling
· Love produces feelings
· Love is part of a behaviour
· “Go After” means make a choice as an intention
· You must decide, choose, learn and practice to become a loving person. It is not natural.
· Naturally, we are all self-centred people
· It is not my nature to think automatically of other people
· It is a volitional act of the will
· You can choose to love in spite of your feelings and in spite of your circumstances. (that is the most mature love)
· Love is giving to another person without any guarantee of getting anything back
· Love is committing to the well-being of another person, or church or small group or community
· God wants us to be a PRO at loving others while we are on earth.
· God puts us in this small group to be a laboratory for love
· God has already planned for us to be in this small group even when we were in our mother’s womb

3. Love is a conduct
· It is a behaviour
· Love is by actions
· It is not something we feel, it produces feelings
· It is not just something we say or talk about.
· And it’s not just something we think about but conduct.

4. Love is a commitment
§ Our relationship with God is largely determined and affected by our relationship with other people
§ If we stay in a relationship of love with those in our family, small group and church and we learn to love the community around us, then we’re going to stay one in our hearts with God and he’ll stay one with us
§ Because God is love
§ Love is persistent, diligent and it keeps on giving through hardship, test, trial and tribulation
§ We’re going to be tested and stretched in your love
§ Mature love is tested love
§ God wants us to become like him and God is love
§ All relationship except God’s relationship will not last
§ Human relationship is not strong enough to last through all the difficulties of life. But God’s love can.
§ Open your eyes to look for opportunities to love others.

Discussion Question 1 – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 makes 5 radical statements about love. They are the first five fill-ins of your outline. Which statement strikes you the most? Why? (Page 181)

1. Nothing I say matters
§ When receiving of results (PSLE) or tests
When you did better than others, does your encouragement really brighten up the person who did worst? Is it genuine encouragement? Is your encouragement superficial? Do you feel cared for when your friends encourage you when you are down?
Love us not only about saying nice words, it is about doing it and being accountable to one another

2. Nothing I know will matter
§ We may know a lot of Bible Scriptures in our head from Sunday School. But if we do not practice it, then what is it for?
§ Relating back to studies, knowledge retain in our minds for only a short while if we do not revise it. Therefore, we must apply it to real life then you’ll remember it.

3. Nothing I believe will matter
§ We believe that God loves us but is that all? So what if we believe in Jesus Christ? Do my non-Christian friends know that I am a Christian from what I do and say to others? Are we a good representative of Christ followers?

4. Nothing I give will matter
§ What is the point of giving offering every Sunday? Are you giving because your parents told you to? How can you change your mindset then?

5. Nothing I accomplish will matter
§ Do good results really matter to God??
§ It does not. He wants you to do your best. It is not the end results that matter. He wants to see how you go through the process. Your character development matters more.

Discussion question 2 – What are some steps you can take to live this way?
§ Share food with friends who are poorer
§ Show acts of kindness to parents even though sometimes they may hurt us or are naggy
§ Love your enemies

Other questions that we can add:
o Do we really love others the way we should?
o What is our purpose in loving?
o How should you change the way you love others?

Serve together (Hook)
§ Bring cards, let the sec ones write to thank their friends, leaders or parents of what they’ve done for them
§ For the ‘Hook’, we can ask them to think about someone they love and how they show love towards that person. It is to get them to think of their own definition of love and later compare with the answers from the video.

Elizabeth & Janice

Additional pointers:

It would be good if you just help them fill up the blanks & go through the pointers that Elizabeth & Janice came up with as I think the time would not be sufficient (we only have abt 30mins for everything). Think they came up with a good hook (writing cards one) so you all may wanna do that.

Your emphasis should be on the discussion questions, our aim is to challenge what they already know so besides what has already been thought out for you, here are some other questions you can use:

What is the difference between a Non christian loving others and a Christian loving others?

NC love when it is convenient (spare time, with their talents) & conditional (family ties, friendships)
NC love when they feel like it
NC love when they think it concerns them (its like their problem if they don't love)

Are we like that? (We are all like that sometimes)

What then makes us different from NCs? Are we really Christians then? What issit about us that makes us Christians? (We struggle to love when it is not easy)

Discovery 3 (27/1)

2008-01-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

For this lesson I would highly recommend that you take the lesson to a personal level since some if not all your students already know the facts to salvation. Please split to your respective groups when you reach FaithActs and begin lesson when you are ready.

From the notes:
Do Gearing up 3a in your respective groups.

I think the notes are rather comprehensive so I would just add on to what is already there.

Jesus as God
You may want to do Col 1:15-17 to give the students a clearer idea of Jesus as God
vs 15: image of invisible God
vs 17: He is before all things (cf to Gen 1:1 & Gen 1:26) (no one was before all things except God)

Proceed on to go Gearing up 3b & 3c after going through Jesus as a man. I suggest that you do Gearing up 3c 1st as I think the lesson would flow better. or you may choose not to do either one.

His work
You may want to go further and ask why does it have to be Jesus who have to died for our sins (link back to last week's hook & also the hook 3c) and ask them what if Jesus didnt resurrect? What if what we have been hearing is not true? If you have the time you may want to share with them why you think that Jesus is real, in other words, your testimony. Then gather back at the conference room by 11:40am, I will be going through additional notes 3.1.

Personal sharing
I think if you find that the students already know all of this coz I know that some of them are saved, you may want to ditch the materials and do something more personal. You may want to share this with them, Ya, Jesus saves us? So what?. Remember that our role is to challenge what they already know, to let their head knowledge become heart knowledge, to challenge and ask them if they are sure that they are Christians. If they already know that Jesus died for them and He is the only one that saves then ask them the following questions:

Since you already know that Jesus is the only way to salvation then are you saved?

If yes you are then why are you still sinning? (you may want to raise up some things you have observed about them during the orientation camp or the previous 2 lessons, I know that some of them weren't sleeping even though they were told to so that may be a starting point)

Maybe we actually enjoy sinning? (share with them that we are born evil by nature (Col 3:5) and we do get a kick outta sinning and getting away with it, a good time to be personal with them)
But what are the consequences of sinning? (they already know that eternal death is the conseqence but remind them that punishment from sin is something we cannot run away from. Talk about the present consequences, like disobedience to their parents results in lack of trust, you may wanna share about the times you disobeyed your parents and their consequences, like being grounded, cut in allowance. Or what about betraying of friendships (e.g. gossiping) to belong to the 'IN' group? share with them James 4:4 that we are either with the world or with God)
Are we actually really saved or do we only think that we are saved? What are the signs that we are really saved? (you may wanna share how accepting God resulted in a transformation in our lives and challenge them if they have not experience this change that they should pray about it (you may wanna pray for them too :)) or they should question their salvation)

If no then what is holding you back?

I cant really think of any questions pertaining to this, but I think this may be a good time of sharing to understand your students better. You may wanna use some of the questions above too. Some of them might have been stumbled by their friends/family/relatives who claim to be christians but are living a life of sin. Maybe they have doubts about the authenticity of the bible (then you may wanna do some research to prove that the bible is true). Whatever the reason is you may want to pray for God to show them that He is real or for God to touch them at the end of the sharing session. :)

I think this is an important lesson so do spend some time in praying even as you prepare for this lesson. :)

Tips on preparing & leading lesson

2008-01-16T01:50:00.001-08:00

Just wanna share with u all some ways to make lesson preparation and leading easier. :)

1. Obtaining the focus of the lesson
When preparing lesson, it is always useful to read the passages and the title given and ask yourself what is the author's aim in coming up with this lesson and what is YOUR aim for the students for the lesson. As some study guides are not meant for Asians, the author's focus and your focus would be different.

2. Book (What does the bible say?)
This is rather self explanatory, the thing I want to focus on here is the difference in the students and our knowledge of certain terminologies in the bible, so you may want to look up definitions.

3. Look (How does this apply to me?)
I think we as leaders should ask ourselves how do we make lessons interesting and the bible alive and relevant for the students when we look at this part of the lesson preparation. Some things already mentioned are to share your experiences, use a hook etc.

I think sometimes it is also good to recall how we were like, our interests when we were their age and come up with questions from there. E.g. for the discovery 2 lesson, why do we deserve to die when we are not committing the bigger sins (murder, stealing etc.)? If God says He loves us then why would He want to punish us? If your students like facts or are naturally curious about certain things mentioned in the bible, you may also want to spend sometime looking up the background of the passages (e.g. Where is the Garden of Eden on earth? or is the Garden of Eden even found on earth?)

4. Took (What changes should I be making?)
Usually the application of the lesson would be linked to the focus of the lesson. It can be a challenge (using the discovery 2 lesson) like challenging them to share what they have learnt with the person they love who is a NC and make them see that they need God.

Or it can be a time of sharing and praying for one another e.g. share about and pray for a person they love who is not saved.

Or you can just end with a punch question

and many many more...

5. Hook
It is always recommended that the hook is done last as you would have a clearer idea what you are trying to focus on after preparing the rest. A hook is not compulsory but is used as a means to better illustrate the point of the lesson. It can be a game, a story, a song etc., its anything that is related to the lesson and would stir up their interest to the point you want to prove or what the lesson is about. So if you are planning on doing a hook, do bring up the hook again during the lesson. You may want to use this website to gain inspiration:(http://www.egadideas.com/).

Some problems that we have encountered whilst having a hook is that the hook exceeded the estimated time so there is no time for the lesson or the students could not settle down for the lesson after the hook so do have this in mind during lesson preparation.

6. One man's meat is another man's poison
Every group is uniquely made up so the focus of the lesson by the person/s preparing might not be what your group needs, so don't be lazy and spend some time thinking about your group's needs and change the focus of the lesson and some questions if you need to.

7. Usage of available resources
Notebooks, papers, laptops etc. Do use whatever if available to make lessons interesting and to help them remember what they have learnt. This is entirely up to you all. :)

That's all I can recall now. Hope this helps...

Discovery 2 (20/1)

2008-01-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

Hook

Gearing up 2a (5mins) You may want to leave the explaining of the hook to later

Book & Look

Read Romans 1:18

What is God angry about?

Godlessness, Wickedness, Surpressing the truth by their wickedness (it would be good to go through all 3 in detail and try to focus on e last i.e. we have all been to sunday school and know about God, but are we convincing ourselves that we are ok since we go to church, read the bible once a week etc?)

Read Romans 1:28-32

What are the people who don't trust and obey God like?

Get them to list a few (gossips, arrogant, boastful etc.)
List a few things that we are commonly guilty of e.g. disobey parents, gossip, envy.

Ask them if they have ever disobeyed their parents and use it as an e.g. for e next part (eg. went home later than curfew, what happened? disobedience to parents -> punishment (link back to Gearing Up 2a, when u break a rule, u have to pay e price of breaking e rule) -> damaged r/s (don't trust parents, negative feelings towards parents etc.)

So what happens to these people who disobey God?
vs 32 (deserves death)

Proceed on to Gearing Up 2b: break free (5 mins for hook, 5 mins for explaination)

Explain to them our inability to save ourselves (if you want you can give an eg of how you tried to overcome a sin when you didn't know God or perhaps how you couldn't even be bothered to overcome it)

Punch question:
Do you think that you deserve to go to heaven? Why?
Think about somebody you love (grandparents, pri sch best/good friend, parents?) that is a non christian, do you think he would be going heaven? If he is not going heaven then where do you think he is going?

If u have e time let them imagine how hell would be like. (James 1:17) If every good and perfect gift comes from heaven above then what happens when there is no God?

Took

We are all sinners & are unable to save ourselves, so how? (Focus of the lesson)
End by asking them to read Acts 8:32-35 and gather back to the conference room. (This would lead to e next lesson)

Armor of God

2007-08-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:10-24

Do you ever feel afraid? As a child, I remember being afraid of the dark! I needed my night-light to fall asleep. Understandably, I thought of the Armor of God as some sort of magical armor, perhaps similar, to that of the world of make-believe.

Make-believe armor doesn’t provide very much protection, but the Armor of God isn’t make-believe, it’s real. Its given to us to defend its wearer from intentional harm, and each piece holds a special significance.

The helmet of salvation is worn by believers in Message of the Gospel,

the breastplate of righteousness is worn by believers who choose to be just and to do right in the eyes of God (Php 3:8-9),

the belt of truth is worn by believers who are transparent and come to Jesus (Jn 14:6),

the shield of faith is worn by believers who have belief in the unseen (Heb 11:1),

the sword of the spirit is wielded by believers who grasp the Word of God (Eph 6:17),

and the shoes of peace are worn by believers who bring the good news. (Is 52:7; Rom 10:15)

Not wearing God’s armor is leaving ourselves open to attack by the devil, who is the ruler and authorities, the dark and spiritual forces of this world (v12). The devil tries to influence us to live apart from God’s will; introducing negative thoughts, twisting God’s word or even through spiritual encounters. His aim is to deceive and scare us, but the truth is that we need not be afraid. In fact, we should fear nothing but God himself! God gives us both the authority and power to overcome (Luke 10:18-20).

Our God is a faithful God; He will never leave us or forsake us. While we were yet sinners, He showed us his love by sending his son to die on the cross for our sins, and gave us his armor to wear. He taught us to pray – to communicate with him directly, and He gave us friends to support us, to pray for one another (v18-20). We need each other and more importantly, God. Not just in times of need but everyday and in all things. Praying is depending on God, asking of Him and part of putting on God’s divine armor.

We live in dangerous times, and we should all put on the Armor of God to protect ourselves. Yet sometimes we are unwilling to actively wear certain pieces of God’s Armor! We walk apart from God and refuse to act righteously by sinning. We neglect to read the bible, bring encouragement, or share the message of the gospel.

Do you want to wear the full Armor of God?

Here’s how we can:

Put on the Armor of God everyday and in all things. (v18)

Helmet of Salvation (Eph 2 & 3 Gospel)
Breastplate of Righteousness (Eph 4 Holiness)
Belt of Truth (Eph 5 Love)
Shield of Faith (Eph 2 & 3 Gospel)
Sword of the Spirit (Eph 5 Wisdom)
Shoes of Peace (Eph 4 Unity)

To put on the Armor of God, is to believe in God, accept Him as your savior; to be holy, read His word and have faith in His promises; to love Him and His people, standing strong as a united body, and to spread his message of love.

And here’s why:

Put it on to glorify God. (Eph 1:5-6, 11, 14)

See how the Armor of God corresponds to the themes of Ephesians?

God promises to protect us and give us this bold, enriching, fulfilling life! Decision time… are you willing to trade this for anything? Are you willing to submit all of yourself to Him, or is there a piece of Armor you don’t want to wear.