Family Time…God comes to earth and belief
This week I am beginning the family journey through the “Sky Ranch Family Devotional: Follow the Leader.” If your family is new to Bible study, this is a good time to start and follow along with me weekly. In each blog post, I will discuss an overview of the main topic and how I tackled it as a Mom or personally and then give some prayer suggestions for your family. “Follow the Leader” is divided into 10 topics with 5 discussion times (family times) on each topic. Your family can take one devotional each week or you can do more than one, if you want to have a longer family time. The discussions are designed to be short and you can use the rest of your family time for sharing about daily life, planning for your family and praying for each other. Make sure to look at the leader answers at the end of each section, I have included an additional open-ended question to encourage a way to apply the scripture to your own life and it is interesting to for everyone to hear each person’s answer. You will be surprised what you learn about each other. The hope is for your family to grow in relationship with each other and Jesus; the devotions are designed to give families an easy way to share their faith with each other and then move into practical family life discussions as needed. Since families are often dealing with multiple ages, I recommend to limit your family time to 20 minutes, especially at the beginning. Kids, even teens, want parent’s time in group discussion, but if it takes too long or turns into a lecture, kids will stop participating. Teach your kids how to handle group discussion by taking turns, listening well, not dominating the discussion and not interrupting. These are great life skills. It will take time to teach them though, so be ready. To establish a weekly family time in your home, you will need to be the role-model and lead the group at first. In time, your pre-teens and teens can rotate leading the discussion. If they lead it, they will pay attention better; plus, whoever teaches, will usually learn the most. After your discussion, teach your family to pray for each other. It will bond all of you in more ways than you know. I would encourage you to write down your prayers for each other in a spiral and make note of the date. In time, you will really enjoy looking back at the answered prayers. I want to encourage you to enjoy this time with your kids; all of you will look back and cherish this time of sharing with each other.
This devotional is designed to cover the most basic things that you would want your kids to know about Jesus. The first family time devotional topic focuses on “Jesus is God“ and the weekly discussion is on “God comes to earth and belief.“ The main concept that separates Christianity from other religions is the recognition that Jesus is God meaning He is Deity or super-natural. This week you are looking at how did Jesus get to earth? What was the method that God used? It was a method we all recognize, birth through His Mom. But there was a difference in conception, if your kids are old enough, you can bring that into the discussion. Scripture shows how God planned Jesus’ birth in the Old Testament and it happened in the New Testament. God wants you to know His plans and tells you ahead of time through special scriptures called prophecy. The scripture in Isaiah is Old Testament scripture and was written almost 1000 years before Jesus was born on earth. Pretty amazing!
Do you have questions or need prayer for your family? Email me at SkyMoms@skyranch.org.
I will be praying for you!
Stacy
Stacy A. Davis
Sky Ranch Family Devotionals and
Teach Intentionally Author
This week we are in the 1st Topic and 1st Family Time (or page 13) of the Sky Ranch Devotional “Follow the Leader”…
Family Time 1:
Topic 1: Jesus is God…God comes to earth and belief
Talk with God: Read…Scriptures and questions below.
Isaiah 9:6 (Prophecy): For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
- In Isaiah 9:6, who is going to be called Mighty God?
John 1:1 (about Jesus) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- In John 1:1, who was God?
John 1:14, 17 (about Jesus) And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…17… grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- In John 1:14, what did the Word do?
- In John 1:17, who was the Word?
Walk with God: Discuss… Isaiah told us in scripture that God would come to earth almost 1000 years before it happened. Then John explains who Jesus is: Jesus is God. God had planned, and actually did come to earth, in the form of a man. How did you respond the first time you heard this? What helped you understand it?
Prayer suggestion… Ask God to help you understand who Jesus is.
Family Time 1:
Leader Answers:
- A Child, a Son
- The Word
- Became flesh
- Jesus Christ
- Discussion ideas: This idea that God came to earth in the form of a man can take time to accept and believe. Encourage your family to share why this is a struggle to believe and then ask…if the God of the universe can do anything that He wants, then why not this? Do you think that God always has a plan and a purpose for everything that He does?
© 2012 Stacy A. Davis, Inc. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment