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Family Devotions, Family Fun

Toothpaste Squeeze

You Will Need: 

GET STARTED

Gather your family around. Then squeeze out a good amount of toothpaste on a plate.

ASK—Do you think you can get it all back inside the tube?

Give each family member a chance to try. Some may try scooping it back in; Some may ask for scissors to cut it open and put it back. Just tell them no if you don’t want to ruin the toothpaste tube; still others may want to lick all the toothpaste off the plate and use their mouth to put it back. This is actually quite funny although if they push too hard, toothpaste may begin to come out of their nose—This really happened once!

ASK—Is it possible to get all the toothpaste back inside?  (No.)

SAY—The toothpaste is kind of like your words. Once something comes out of your mouth, you can’t take it back. So if you don’t mean it, or you don’t plan to follow through with it, don’t say it. Every word you say should be as trustworthy as a promise. 

ASK—Did God ever make promises?  (Yes, the Bible is full of promises for you.)

ASK—Can you name a promise that God made?  (Nothing can separate you from His love; He will never leave you; That you’re going to heaven once you’ve given your life to Jesus; etc.)

SAY—God also promised that a Savior would be born.

Read Isaiah 9:6 from your Bible.

SAY—This is talking about Jesus. God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world and the Bible also tells us how to accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.

Read Romans 10:13 from your Bible.

SAY—The best thing anyone can ever do with their mouth is to pray and give their lives to Jesus.

PRAY—List prayer requests and thank God for Jesus and how wonderful He is. Thank God for always keeping His promises. 

For Leaders

Kisses to God

Read 

The Greek word proskuneo (translated “worship”) means “towards to kiss” or to “adore”… “Literally, to kiss toward someone, to throw a kiss in token of respect or homage. The ancient Oriental (especially Persian) mode of salutaion between persons of equal rank was to kiss each other on the lips; when the difference of rank was slight, they kissed each other on the cheek; when one was much inferior, he fell upon his knees and touched his forehead to the ground or prostrated himself, throwing kisses at the same time towards the superior. It is this later mode of salutation that Greek writers express by proskuneo.”1 This is the heart of worship, an in-love relationship with Jesus Christ where you long to bow before Him, to turn “to kiss” Him. 

Reflect 

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20) 

Respond 

Christianity is not a religion. “Religion” comes from a Latin word meaning “back to bondage” because religion tries to squeeze your life into a rule book. Christianity is a relationship where the “rule book” Himself comes to live His life in and through you. Are you letting Jesus live through you? When was the last time you “turned to kiss” the Lord Jesus? Are you in love with Jesus Christ? How does this “in love” relationship come out in the way you live? 

Your thoughts?

Remember 

Our word “worship” comes from an Old Anglo-Saxon word, “worthship,” because when you worship, you are giving someone their worth. What “worth” do you give Christ daily? Live a life that blows Him a kiss. 

1Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D., ed.., The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, (Word Publishers, Iowa Falls, Iowa, 1992), p. 1233-4. 

Fun Stories

One Way to the Bathroom

There’s only one way into the bathroom.

Only one way, I say.

There’s only one door,

Unless, of course,

You dug through the floor.

There’s only two ways into the bathroom.

Only two ways, I say,

You could come through the door,

Or you could dig through the floor.

But what about the ceiling?

What if someone fell?

There’s three ways into the bathroom,

But only three, I can tell.

Unless you had a big hammer,

And burst through the wall,

And made for yourself,

A brand new hall.

Okay, that’s four ways into the bathroom,

But there’s only four, I say.

But there are four walls?

Okay! Fine! That makes seven!

There are lots of ways into the bathroom,

But there’s only one way to heaven.

Being a Christian

All “Christians” are going to heaven, but not everyone is a Christian. A Christian is someone who has given his life to Jesus. A person doesn’t become a Christian by going to church. A person doesn’t become a Christian by being baptized and just because someone’s parents are Christians doesn’t mean he’s one too. Even being good can’t get a person into heaven. There’s only one way: By giving your life to Jesus, which is the best decision anyone can ever make.

In Bible in John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.”

Read the Bible

D.I.V.E. Devotions – Mark 11:1-12:27

Dig In
–Dig in and enjoy God’s Word. What should I read in the Bible today?

Answer these questions each day…

Insight
–What did you see? What did you hear?

Value
–What did you learn? What should you do?

Examine
–Examine yourself as you pray. What will you pray?

Key Verse

Luke 9:23 – Follow God

As a family read Luke 9:23-25. What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Then play the game below.

Use the letters from the phrase FOLLOW GOD to make as many other words as possible.

HINT: There are 31 commonly used words that you can make.

Figure out how much time each of you gets–3 minutes, 4 minutes, or 5 minutes. Then see who can find the most words. Here are the rules:

From the given letters, find as many words as possible that are 2 or more letters long. The letter O (in the center) must be included in each word. Enter letters by clicking on them, or by typing them in (and by pressing return in some browsers). Have fun!

Teaching Tips

To Whom Are You Drawn

“The true nature of the heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. Show me who you love and I’ll tell you who you are.” *

Take a test of character and ask yourself with whom in your class do you spend most of your time. Is it a certain student? Are they the boys? The girls? Other teachers? Many leaders stay where they are drawn, and many adults are drawn to other adults. Just watch…in the middle of a crowded room with a hundred people, you will find a great percentage of the workers at the back of the room with each other rather than in and among the students where the real action is taking place.

To whom are you drawn concerning your group? Well behaved students? Or to those whose actions are more difficult and yet present you with greater opportunities to minister to them because of it?

To whom are drawn in life? People who are like you? (Yes, we all are, but how does that affect ministry?) Are you drawn to attractive people? People who will give you a kind word and a loving touch? Or, are you drawn to those who need a loving touch, a gentle hug, and a kind word?

Consider the people to whom Jesus was drawn. You will find him hanging around tax collectors and sinners—the least likely and the unlovely. The Great Physician came to seek and save those who were lost. Think about it.

*Max Lucado, And the Angels were Silent, (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah, 1992), p. 139-141, 144.

Family Devotions, Family Fun

One Way

You Will Need: 

GET STARTED

Choose a large area in your house where you can be on one side and your children on the other side. For example, you could stand on one end of the living room and they could stand on the other. Or you could stand at the top of the stairs and they could stand at the bottom. Tell your kids that you have a very special challenge for them. They have to cross from where they are to where you are without…(Depending on what the room is like, you’ll have to fill in the blank here. You want to make it impossible for them to come to you. For example, in a room you could say, “Without touching the carpet or crawling on the furniture.” For stairs, you could say, “Without climbing the stairs or touching the banister.”) When your kids begin to complain that it is impossible, tell them that there really is a way for them to do it. Challenge them to figure it out. The key is that you want them to ask you to come to where they are, pick them up and carry them to where you are. Eventually you might need to give them hints and once they solve it, carry them to where you are.

SAY—There was only one way you could get from there to here, and there’s only one way for us to go to heaven. Just like the game, we can’t get there on our own. That’s the reason Jesus died and rose again—to make a way for us to go to heaven and to know Him and to have a meaningful life here on earth too, but not everybody is going to heaven.

ASK—What did you have to do to get to this side? (You had to ask me to come to you.)

SAY—The only people who are going to heaven are those who have asked Jesus to come into their lives. (Take about a minute here to tell your kids when and how you gave your life to Christ.)

Read John 14:6 from your Bible. 

(If you have older children, ask them if they would like to read it.)

PRAY—List prayer requests and thank God that He made a way for us to know Him and to go to heaven. Pray that your children will give their lives to Him when the time is right or if they’ve already been saved, pray that God will use them to tell others about Him.

(If your child has questions about how to give his life to Jesus, you can find an easy way to share the plan of salvation on a child’s level HERE.)

For Leaders

Counting the Cost

Read 

Charles T. Studd was a famous sportsman in England, captain of the Cambridge XI cricket team. A century ago he gave away his vast wealth to needy causes and led the “Cambridge Seven” to China. His slogan was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” 

During the first decade of this century, Charles Borden left one of America’s greatest family fortunes to be a missionary in China. He only got as far as Egypt where, still in his twenties, he died of typhoid fever. Before his death he said, “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets!” 

A generation ago, Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador. Before he was killed, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” 

“…I [Billy Graham] have chosen Christ not because He takes away my pain but because He gives me strength to cope with that pain and in the long range to realize victory over it. Corrie ten Boom said, ‘The worst can happen but the best remains.’” 1

Reflect 

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) 

Respond 

Service is one of God’s purposes for your life and a heart for service begins when a person falls in love with Christ and is willing to say, “Lord, I will do anything you want me to do. Here I am. Send me.” Have you said this lately? Can you say, “Yes” to what God wants you to do even before you know what it is? “Yes, Lord. Now tell me what to do.” Are you absolutely in love with Jesus? For what specific service did God create you? Consider it this way: When you want to drive a nail, you pick up a hammer. When God wants to ____________________________ (fill in the blank), He calls on you. 

Your thoughts?

Remember 

You’ll never be happier and you’ll never be safer than right in the middle of God’s will— even if it costs your life. 

1Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983) p. 94-95.