Posts filed under ‘Bible lessons’
Sunday School Lesson
This week our students will be discussing prayer in Sunday School. We have been walking through the entire book of James this semester. Our scripture Sunday is James 5:13-18. I encourage you to talk with your teens about prayer and spend time praying with them (what a great new years resolution…to pray with your teen every day in 2009!)
Discovering the Meaning of Advent
We always had the Hanging of the Green at church when I was growing up. Then we would have the wreath with the candles up front and various families from the church would go light one of the candles during the service. I don’t remember if we had banners or not. Regardless, it was all just a fun show to watch for me as a young boy.
Over the years as I’ve been a part of various churches it seems that all churches have the Hanging of the Green or some other time of decorating the building at the beginning of December. All churches have the wreath with candles. It’s still fun to watch and participate. The services are a little different than our Sunday morning services the other eleven months of the year. And all in all it has become more or less a habit…I just expect that we will include each of the traditional elements that I was first introduced to as a young boy during December at church.
This year I decided to dig a little deeper and discover why it is we do these things at church in December. I’m really glad I did. “Advent” literally means “coming” or “arrival.” That seems right, as we are celebrating the arrival of the birth of Jesus.
But historically, Advent was not just a time of celebration. Originally it was a time of preparation for Epiphany (the early-January celebration of early events in Jesus’ life). Epiphany was a time for new Christians to be baptized and welcomed into the church. So Advent was the 40 days before Epiphany during which believers examined their heart, fasting, and doing penance.
After the date for celebrating Jesus’ birth was declared to be December 25 by Julius, bishop of Rome in the mid 300s, Advent became a time of reflection as Christians await the coming of the Messiah. This was still very much a time of fasting and penance as the birth of Jesus was so closely connected with the crucifixion of Jesus in the liturgical church calendar. The first part of Advent was to be a time for this personal reflection and confession (as symbolized even today with the 3 purple candles in the Advent wreath). In the fourth week there was a shift towards celebrating the coming of the Messiah (as symbolized by the rose colored candle).
In modern times Advent has become primarily a season of celebration awaiting the coming King. This does not eliminate the need for examining our hearts and confessing our sins during this season. With the focus on the Advent, or coming, of Jesus we remember that we are awaiting His Second Advent and we need to be prepared for that coming.
If you think about it, as Christians we should always prepare for, anticipate, and celebrate the Advent of Christ…His birth and redemptive work on the cross and His Second Coming. For me, this makes our congregational celebration of Advent much more meaningful to me. I hope Advent means more to you and your family than decorations and candles.
I’ll be teaching on Advent tonight at Escape. Yikes!!! I get the task of turning this historical lecture into an exciting and relevant discussion for a room full of students. I better get to work.
The Advent Candles
Follow Up…
Wow! Last night at Escape we had some really great discussion. I asked the question, “Is it more important to believe in Christ, or to become like Christ?” We divided the room into two sides and had those students who answered “to believe in” move to one side and those students who answered “to become like” move to the other side. It was really pretty evenly divided. Then I asked them to defend their answer, which led to some great debate. They were really engaged in the discussion! I love seeing students think about what they believe.
In the end we talked about the fact that you can’t separate believing in and becoming like Christ. You must believe in Christ for salvation. But then, Christians must allow God to work in their lives moving them to become like Christ…and this is a lifelong process. And it’s not an easy process (see Romans 7).
I encourage you to continue this conversation with your kids.
This Sunday we will continue our study in James in youth Sunday School. We will look at James 4:1-10 and talk about how friendship with the world is dangerous.
Escape November 5
Is it more important to believe in Jesus or to become like Jesus?
We’re tackling this question head-on tonight in Escape. We will look at scriptures that tell us very specifically that we must believe in Jesus in order to be saved. The Bible is very clear that there is no other way to God but through Jesus (John 14:6). But we will also talk about the fact that the Bible says even demons believe (James 2:19). So where does this leave us? There has to be more to salvation than just believing in Jesus right? This is where genuine faith comes into play! We place our unwavering faith in Jesus…then, according to the Bible, we are to allow God to transform us (Romans 12:2). Paul makes very clear that this is a lifelong process (Philippians 3:10-14), comparing it to a long distance race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) as does the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 12:1).
Ultimately, salvation comes from faith in Christ alone…a faith that requires us to believe in Jesus, to believe that He came to earth, lived a sinless life, was crucified on the cross, rose from the dead three days later, and now sits at the right hand of God waiting to come back for those who believe. But salvation involves a lifelong process of becoming more and more like Jesus (for the theologians out there, this is known as sanctification).
Be sure and ask your teen what he/she thinks about this…Is it more important to believe in Jesus or to become like Jesus?
