Druminnis



NCC W/B 04/05/20MondayQ31 - What do we believe by true faith?Everything taught to us in the gospel. The Apostles’ Creed expresses what we believe in these words: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.(Kids in bold)Bible Reading - Jude 3Teaching Points:What God’s Word, the Bible, teaches is not something we can change from generation to generation. It’s truth does not change year-by-year.Our Bible reading reminds us that the truth of God’s Word is something that is passed on to us. People teach others, who teach others, who teach others…...you get the picture! We didn’t make this stuff up!It’s also important to press home that while there are secondary issues that different Christians disagree on (like baptism, how often we have communion, how a church is specifically run), there a key, central, and really important truths that unites all Christians everywhere. It’s so we can say that we stand on and believe the same truth, and are united in the same Jesus.4467225371475The Apostles Creed is one of the ways Christians throughout the years have expressed the truth of God’s Word, and protected itself from things that are not true. It’s important to say that while the Bible is our final authority, and enough for us, that creeds (like the Apostles’ Creed), confessions (like the Westminster Confession presbyterians affirm) and catechisms (like this one!) are beneficial to us in expressing what God’s Word teaches as a whole. They are the ‘pattern of sound words’ that we are to follow, as we delight in the truth they express about our God (2 Timothy 1:13). The image above is helpful.Spend some time with those in your household explaining that while we change all the time, that God never changes, His Word and His truth never change. So we can trust Him, and trust that His Word is good, that He never fails to keep His promises and that we can gladly live for Him in obedience.Activity - Creed BookmarksCut out the bookmarks below, decorate, and use to not only remember a page in a book, biut also the truth of what we believe!Song - TuesdayQ32 - What do justification and sanctification mean?Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us. Sanctification means our gradual, growing righteousness, made possible by the Spirit’s work in us.(Kids) Justification means our declared righteousness before God. Sanctification means our gradual, growing righteousness.Bible Reading - 1 Peter 1:1-2Teaching Points:Today we learn about two really important truths about what happens to us when we turn from our sin and trust in Jesus by faith.First, we receive ‘justification’. An easy way of remembering this is saying it’s ‘just as if I've never sinned’ and ‘just as of I’ve always obeyed’. To be ‘justified’ is to be declared innocent. It’s as if we are in a courtroom before a judge, and we are declared ‘INNOCENT’ - free to go! Even though we know we aren’t innocent, for we have sinned against God, Jesus in His death and rising again takes the punishment of our sin for us, and gives us His innocence (righteousness) so that we would be declared innocent before God. We are forgiven, redeemed and reconciled to God! But that’s not all - we aren't just forgiven then left to our own devices to try and live for God now. We receive ‘sanctification’. This is a process where we are made more and more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, helping us to obey the Lord, as our Bible Reading tells us. Remember that Jesus clothes us in His righteousness. It’s like being given a perfectly clean, but over-sized jumper. Sanctification is growing up into that jumper - so that we become more like it’s giver!This is what we were made for, to ‘glorify God’ as we love, praise, and obey Him. We won’t become like this overnight, we will still sin even though we are forgiven, nor will it be completed in this life. But it will be completed in eternity, where we will be made complete, being in the presence of our Holy God. God promises to complete the good work He has begun in us (Phillippians 1:6).Both of these processes happen not out of our strength or will. They depend on God’s work for us in Jesus, and God’s work in us by His Spirit. This should lead us to thankfulness, and a desire to obey out of thanks and awe at God’s grace to us!Activity - What’s the difference?Complete the worksheet below to see if you can identify what words/things have to do with justification or sanctification. Challenge each other to describe what justification and sanctification mean.Song - WednesdayQ33 - Should those who have faith in Christ seek their salvation through their own works, or anywhere else?No, they should not, as everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ. To seek salvation through good works is a denial that Christ is the only Redeemer and Savior.(Kids) No, everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ.Bible Reading - Galatians 2:16Teaching Points:If people in your household do trust in Jesus, ask them do they ever doubt whether they are forgiven by Jesus. We all have moments whether we doubt whether we are Christians or not. We then start to look at our lives and try and work out whether we can be sure we are forgiven by the things we do. ‘Have I read the Bible enough?’ ‘Have I been to church?’ ‘Have I prayed enough?’ etc.The problem when we look at what we do or have done to try and get assurance of our forgiveness, we will never find it.Our Bible reading and question reminds us that no one will be made right with God through what they do - remember some of the questions way back the start, none of us keep God’s commands perfectly, and are guilty of breaking them and rejecting God. When we look at what we do instead of looking to Jesus and trusting that what He has done is enough for us to be forgiven, it’s as if we claim Jesus is not enough for us!Our question is clear - ‘EVERYTHING necessary to salvation is found in christ’. Not in ourselves, in others, in the minister, our friends, or anywhere else. Jesus is enough for us, for our salvation, for our life. We are justified by faith in Him alone. We are saved through Him alone. We are might right with God through Him alone. Let’s take the burden of trying to earn something before God and cast it on Him, receiving what He so lovingly gives to us in Jesus - grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, salvation, sanctification.Activity - In Christ AloneThis might be something different depending on where you find yourself, but why not respond to this good news that our salvation, our rest is found in Jesus by…...singing! Use the words of ‘In Christ Alone’ and respond in praise and thanks to the Lord. If you or someone in the house is musical, ask them to play it, teach the words to those who don;t know it - and sing! Here’s a video with the music and words if you prefer: Song - - Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through Christ alone, must we still do good works and obey God’s Word?Yes, because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, also renews us by his Spirit; so that our lives may show love and gratitude to God; so that we may be assured of our faith by the fruits; and so that by our godly behavior others may be won to Christ.(Kids) Yes, so that our lives may show love and gratitude to God; and so that by our godly behavior others may be won to Christ.Bible Reading - 1 Peter 2:9-12Teaching Points:Yesterday we thought about how our salvation, our rescue from sin is found in Jesus alone.But does that mean we can do what we want? Can we live how we want and just ask for forgiveness later on?Our Bible Reading tells us: NO! That’s not the way of the person who trusts in Jesus. We are to ‘abstain from the passions of the flesh’, and do ‘good deeds’.Why? Our question reminds us it is out of ‘love and gratitude’ towards God (for kids, gratitude means thankfulness). We obey God because of what He has already done for us, not to earn it. Instead when we trust in Jesus, we seek to obey God as the fruit of our salvation, not the root of our salvation. Think of a tree - what grounds the tree is the roots, which also supply it with the food it needs to grow the fruit. If you didn;t have the root, your tree would die or fall over in a storm! Faith in Jesus is the root - that’s what keeps us, saves us, and helps us grow, and obeying God is like the fruit, it is what is produced by faith in Christ as the Spirit works in us. Remember we need God's help to even begin to live for Him!If we want to learn to obey God and grow in love and thankfulness towards Him, we need to look to who He is in the Bible, and what He has done for us in Jesus. A man once said: ‘Who can be unloving and hateful to others in the light of the cross?’ We grow to love God more as we discover He has loved us first.Our question also reminds us that when we seek to love God more and more and seek to obey Him, that others will see, and we have the opportunity to tell them of Jesus.Activity - Activitree!Get a big bit of paper and draw a massive tree. At the roots, write or decorate the words ‘Faith in Christ’ or ‘Jesus’ or God’s grace’ to remind us of what we depend on for salvation. For the fruit on the tree, you could write on different pieces of fruit the different fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 to remind us of how those who have been forgiven by Christ should seek to live for Him, producing these in our lives with the help of the Spirit.Song - FridayQ35 - Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, where does this faith come from?All the gifts we receive from Christ we receive through the Holy Spirit, including faith itself.(Kids) From the Holy Spirit.Bible Reading - Titus 3:4-6Teaching Points:Today’s question helps us understand even more what happens when we come to trust in Jesus.We learn that even the faith we have, the trust we have, is something given by God to us through the Holy Spirit.We receive the faith we need to trust in Jesus. We can’t work it up in ourselves to trust in Jesus. Remember, the Bible tells us that we are ‘dead in our sin’ (Ephesians 2:5), that we reject God by nature, and don’t want Him! Titus 3:3 tells us that before God saved us, we were ‘foolish, disobedient...slaves to various passions and pleasures….hated by others and hating one another’. That’s how serious our sin is!Our Bible Reading reminds us how the faith we need to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin comes to us through the Holy spirit who ‘regenerates’ us. What does that mean?Take a stone from the back garden and try and make it become a flower. No matter how much you try or what you try, the stone remains a cold, dead, lifeless stone - we can’t make a dead stone alive, and it certainly can’t make itself alive. The Bible in Ezekiel 36:26 describes regeneration as God taking our hearts which are like stones towards God (cold, dead, lifeless), and making them into hearts of flesh (alive, life-filled, that turn towards God!). God, by the Spirit, takes people who are dead in their sin, who would never turn to Him and makes them alive, giving them the faith to trust in Jesus!! This is the greatest miracle ever!The Holy Spirit gives us new life, the sight to see our need, the faith to trust in Jesus, and the desire to live for Him. It’s a work of God in us as He draws us to Himself!How do we respond? Thankfulness - God saves us who hated Him and didn’t deserve it. Humility - we don’t save ourselves, we aren’t any better than others, and He is absolutely able to save the most unlikely of people. ‘The only difference is that something (or, rather, someone) absolutely wonderful has come into our lives and changed everything’ (Mike Edmondson).Activity - Word Search - What were we like before?Use the word search below to find out what we were like before God regenerated us, giving us the faith to trust in Jesus. For those in your household who don’t trust in Jesus it’s a reminder of who they still are outside of Jesus - an opportunity to point to God’s grace in Jesus!Song - 19052114300 ................
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