Jesus as a Baby

Jesus As A Baby

Family Fun Icebreaker: Can you trust God like a baby trusts his mother?

Topic 1 Question: Who Is Jesus?

Today’s Big Idea: Jesus as a Baby

God always has a plan. God created mankind and He knows exactly what humanity will do. Mankind needs God, but is rebellious and won’t listen to Him. So throughout scripture God shares that He wants to help humanity by sending someone special to help. God knows some people will listen to Him, and those smart people who listen will receive extra help from God. Jesus is the special one that God sent to earth to help. God’s goal is for you to trust Jesus. But for you to trust Jesus, God knew that Jesus needed to relate to you. So God sent Jesus to earth by being born as a baby, a human baby. Jesus entered life on earth in a similar way that you entered life. The story of Jesus’ arrival is told in Matthew 1:18–25. Take time to read it. Jesus came to earth as a baby and trusted His earthly parents to care for Him.

Talk with God: Read the scriptures aloud.

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7 NISB

Walk with God: Read aloud and discuss.

Jesus was wrapped in cloths and held in His mother’s arms when He first arrived as you were. He was small and vulnerable and trusted others to care for Him. He knows what it feels like to depend on someone else. He trusted

His heavenly Father to care for Him through the people on earth.

Discuss with your family:

Jesus trusted others to care for Him at a young age. It can be uncomfortable to be dependent on someone else. Most people like to be independent. But sometimes when you are sick or in need you have to rely on someone else.

How well do you trust others? What helps you trust them? Why do you trust them?

Prayer suggestion: Pray for God to help you trust Him.

I will be praying for you!

Stacy

Stacy A. Davis, Author

Exerpt from Come One, Come All, a Sky Ranch Family Devotional

© 2016 Stacy A. Davis, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Overflowing Cup by Terrie Chevaillier

The Overflowing Cup

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5

You have a cup that you walk around with.  So do your friends.  I have a cup.  It’s an invisible cup that we hold out each day.  No one can see it and you don’t really know you are holding it out and walking around with it.

The cup says, “fill me up, I want to overflow.”  Maybe you hold it out to your husband and expect him to fill it up.   Perhaps it is food, excessive exercise, the approval of others, tennis, kid’s sports, kid’s accomplishments, a fixer upper house complete with Magnolia Market furnishings (who doesn’t want that?) 

We wake up each day and are unaware that we pick that cup up and take it into our day and ask it to be filled as we move in and out of our circles and places.  Our hearts say to the things of this world….fill my cup today.  Some people wish you didn’t have your cup because they are hurt and tired of trying to be the one to fill it when they see you holding it out and coming towards you to with it.

I have a personal name for my cup.  It is called The Contentment Cup.  When I am discontent, I hold it out to all sorts of people and places until it reaches the mark of contentment.  The hard thing about that is that the next day my cup is empty and I have to take it back out and plan and go and do and fret and work, sometimes until the night to get it filled back up again.

Godliness with contentment is great gain.  1 Timothy 6:6

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding the promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8

We have an unlimited source of supply each morning that is just waiting to fill that cup up till it overflows.  And when you let Him fill it up each morning, you then get to take it into your home and into the world and instead of asking it to be filled by limited sources, you spill your overflowing cup out and over into the lives of others?  

Godliness spills out all over you and whoever you bump into.

Are you holding out your cup today?  If so, there is One who is waiting to fill it till it overflows.  Take it to Him and it will never run dry.  Not only will it bring you happiness, but others will be happy too.

Teaching Humility by Lisa Clark

"Mom, what's HUMILITY? I keep hearing that word!"

The best way for parents to teach humility is to model it.  But we're only able to be humble in thought, word and deed because of the true servant who modeled it for us all, Jesus Christ.  So telling the story of Jesus to our children teaches them what humility looks like and how we are able to be humble in this world of  "all about me" and self-centeredness. 

Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven to come to earth and be a man. He left his Father. He left all adoration and praise to be a man on earth so that we could have hope. He left all majesty, honor and glory to come to earth. He was a King. And he came to save us. He left his kingdom to come to earth and save us.

He was raised as a carpenter's son, learning carpentry by trade. He lived modestly, and at times had "not a place to rest his head" at night. He learned all he could from his teachers, was obedient to his parents, worked hard, resisted Satan and had no sin in his life. Never a bad thought. Never a disagreeable tone. No envy. No jealousy. No covetousness. Never pinched his siblings in the car. No sin. Perfect. And he lived this out in an imperfect world full of all kinds of filthy sin.

He was beaten, brutally, and nailed to a cross. All the while pursuing us. Forgiving us. Loving us. He died and rose 3 days later because he wanted us to have a relationship with his Father and we couldn't without him. There's no hope for us without Jesus. He never quit pursuing us.

We don't deserve what he did for us. But he did it anyway. 

That's humility.

Fall Apple Crisp

For our family, nothing says Fall and Thanksgiving like Apple Crisp!  

Enjoy the bounty of apples right now in this easy-as-pie (pun intended) recipe.  

 APPLE CRISP

Apple Filling:

2 Tbs. flour

3/4 cup sugar

4-5 cups sliced baking apples

 (1 apple = approx. 1 cup of sliced apples.  this time, I used Pink Lady, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith)

Crust Topping:

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 egg, beaten 

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease or butter a large pie plate or a 9” x 9” x 2” baking dish.  

• To prepare filling, mix flour and sugar in a medium bowl.  Add apples and toss gently to coat them.  Transfer the fruit into the prepared baking dish.  

• For the crust, combine flour, sugar and baking powder.  Make a ‘well’ in the center of the dry ingredients and blend in the beaten egg, mixing until crumbly.  Pour the topping over the fruit mixture.

• Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the crumb topping.  Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

• Place baking dish on a foil-covered pan to prevent spillovers in the oven.  Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.  

You can swap out the fruit, depending on what’s in season.  Blueberries and blackberries (alone or combined) are delicious in this recipe.  If using a fruit other than apples, omit the cinnamon.  Also, if you use a sweeter fruit (like blueberries), you might want to reduce the amount of sugar in the filling a bit.  

The harvest is plentiful!

Sue Beddingfield, SkyMom

God and All People

Family Fun Icebreaker: Do you have an embarrassing moment that taught you something? What?

Question: How Does God Relate to Others?

Today’s Big Idea: God and All People
The Bible explains God’s plan for a relationship with all people. God knows of Adam and Eve’s sin before they commit the act; God has a plan. Before He gives Moses the Ten Commandments, He knows people cannot keep His Law. God is aware that you require guidance to meet His glorious standard. God wants you to see that you need Him to live the right way. He planned all along to send Jesus Christ, His Son, to pay the price for all the sin of those who believe in Him. Jesus, the only sinless man, died on the cross almost 2000 years ago. Since Jesus had no sin, God raised Jesus from the dead and placed Him in heaven, so that He was not separated from God. God, in His great kindness, allows your sins to be paid for by Jesus’ death if you let Jesus be Lord over your life. After accepting Jesus as your Lord, you receive special guidance from the Holy Spirit and the gift of eternal life from God.

Talk with God: Read the scriptures aloud.

For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Romans 3:23 NLT

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NLT

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 NLT

Walk with God: Read aloud and discuss.
Even though you struggle with sin, God still helps you. God wants you just as you are, and He loves imperfect people. You don’t have to change first to be in a relationship with God. He accepts you as you are with patience, desiring for you to get to know Him and learn His ways. In time, as you read His Word, your heart changes. You begin to want to live more like Him. God helps you by giving you a desire to do the right thing, but the transformation is a process. Your trust in God grows as you learn more about Him; the change in heart happens in time.

Discuss with your family: God is a good influence on you. Do you see your need for God? How? Have you noticed that the more you learn about God, the more you recognize sin and resist it?

Prayer suggestion: Pray for God to help you see Him.

Stacy

Stacy A. Davis, Author
Sky Ranch Family Devotionals, from the book All In
© 2015 Stacy A. Davis, Inc. All rights reserved