I hadn't yet gotten into my present habit of taking long daily walks. As a result, I was getting progressively out of shape--and heavier. My doctor suggested that I try riding a bicycle for exercise.
So, after an approximately fifty-year hiatus from bike riding, I started riding a bicycle ten miles a day on the bike path alongside the lovely blue Pacific Ocean between Marina del Rey and Santa Monica. I was fearful and wobbly at first, but the more I rode, the less my behind hurt, and the more I grew in balance and confidence.
One day, as I headed north toward my turnaround point at Santa Monica, I found myself going along faster and more effortlessly than ever before. What fun it was! I hardly had to push the pedals. Boy, this is great! I never realized that I would get in such good condition so fast. The muscles in my legs must be developing really well, I thought. I sat straight up on my bike and rode along like a conquering hero. King for a day! Then... Realty struck!
It happened when I turned around to come back. Wham! I was hit in the face with a very brisk wind. To make any forward progress at all, I had to almost stand up on the pedals. Now I knew why I had found it so easy going the other way. The strong wind had been at my back, pushing me along. But now I had a decidedly contrary wind. It was hard going. As I struggled along, making precious little progress, I was tempted to get off and walk the bike back home.
Then a though struck me. Hey, you are out here for exercise. Now you are really developing the muscles of your heart, lungs, and legs. It is the wind in your face that brings the most development, not the wind at your back. So I struggled on and made it back home, not feeling nearly as heroic as I had while going downwind earlier.
How true to life. Sooner or later we all learn that the wind is not always at our backs. Many times we face contrary winds that try our souls. We feel like quitting. The winds are just too contrary and too strong. But, thank God, out of the hard and gusty winds of disappointment, suffering, sadness, rejections, adversity, and pain, comes the development of our spiritual muscles.
It's fun to have the wind at our backs. But growth comes from having the wind in our face."
Source: Donald Russell Robertson "Dear You" (Word Publishing 1989)
]]>Questions for discussion
1. Should God's anointed be treated different from other men? Are they subject to the same judgment as others? What should our response be to those God has placed in positions of authority over us?
2. What authorities in your life do you have a difficult time submitting to? Why?
3. How should we respond when the actions and decisions of those in authority over us seem unjust?
4. Are you as content in your life as David seems to be, to simply let God accomplish his own will, in his own way, in his own timing?
5. What areas do you find difficult leaving them up to God?
6. What excuses could David have used to justify his killing of Saul?
7. We often try to get around rules and are impatient and try to make God's will come true by our own efforts. What do David's actions indicate in this regard?
8. Why do you think David showed respect for authority EVEN THOUGH that authority (Saul) was acting in a manner that was WRONG?
9. What can we learn from David's response to authority in dealing with those who have authority over us?
10. David apologizes to Abigail and Saul apologizes to David? Analyze the similarities and differences between their apologies.
11. Is revenge sweet or bitter? Explain?
12. Which of the quotes below is David most likely to agree with and which ones Saul is most likely to agree with:
13. What lessons can we learn from David's interaction with Saul for responding to those in authority over us?
]]>Could this be why Jesus is called our pioneer? Is this one of the reasons that he consented to enter the horrid chambers of death? It must be. His words, though persuasive, were not enough. His promises, though true, didn't quite allay the fear of the people. His actions, even the act of calling Lazarus from the tomb, didn't convince the crowds that death was nothing to fear. No. In the eyes of humanity, death was still the black veil that separated them from joy. There was no victory over this hooded foe. Its putrid odor invaded the nostrils of every human, convincing them that life was only meant to end abruptly and senselessly.
It was left to the Son of God to disclose the true nature of this force. It was on the cross that the showdown occurred. Christ called for Satan's cards. Weary of seeing humanity fooled by a cover-up, he entered the tunnel death to prove that there was indeed an exit. And, as the world darkened, creation held her breath.
Satan threw his best punch, but it wasn't enough. Even the darkness of hell's tunnel was no match for God's Son.
Even the chambers of Hades couldn't stop this raider. Legions of screaming demons held nothing over the Lion
of Judah.
Christ emerged from death's tunnel, lifted a triumphant fist toward the sky, and freed all from the fear of death. 'Death has been swallowed up in victory!'
Source: Max Lucado in "On the Anvil" (1985 Tyndale House)
]]>I fear our generation has come dangerously near the 'I'm-getting-tired-so-let's-just-quit' mentality...
Do I write today to a few weary pilgrims? Is the road getting long and hope wearing a little thin? Or to a few parents who are beginning to wonder if it's worth it all--this exacting business of rearing children, which includes cleaning up daily messes and living with all that responsibility? Or to you who have a dream, but seeing it accomplished seems too long to wait?...
So many start the Christian life like a lightning flash--hot, fast, and dazzling. But how many people...can you name who are finishing the course with sustained enthusiasm and vigor? Oh, there are some, I realize, but why so few? What happens along the way that swells the ranks of quitters? "
Source: Charles R. Swindoll in "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life"
]]>Materials
None
Setup
What to do
Variation
Use icebreaker questions like those found in Favourites
Searching for Dad
Use this as a Father's Day game or for a father child event
Who's father?
Creative game idea for Father's Day or a Father-Child event.
Father's Day Relay
A Father's Day Relay Game Idea
Father May I?
In this Father's Day variation of "Mother May I?" Youth ask Father rather than mother for permission
Father's Business Trip
In this Father's Day game, Youth must remember the business trips of father's going through the alphabet.
Searching for Dad
In this Father's Day game, Youth must describe their Father to others to retrieve a photo of their father.
Find Father's Tie
In this Father's day game, Youth must find the tie that has been hidden in the room.
Family Dress-up
Youth will play a game to remind them that family is important. It works for Father's Day too!
Old Testament Men Trivia
Trivia questions of men in the Bible.
Teaching Illustrations for Father's Day
My Father
Food for thought for Father's Day
Most Valuable Asset
Do we recognise the true value of fathers?
The Origin of Father's Day
The origin of Father's Day
Father's Are Wonderful People
A poem for fathers on Father's day.
The Right Thing
Ethics are simple matters of right and wrong.
Dream Car
How many times did we miss God's blessings because we can't see past our own desires?
The Father's Eyes
This story about an earthly father illustrates that Life is meaningful if lived for the Father!
A Father's Words of Wisdom
Traditional wisdom often heard from Fathers.
Involved Dads
Effect of Fathers on Children
When God Created Fathers
Poem about God's creation of Fathers by Erma Bombeck
Father's Day: A Tribute
Max Lucado reflects of Father's Day
A Father's Support
Children need the support of their fathers
What are Fathers Made Of?
Paul Harvey's definitions of a father
Wooden Bowl
The wise parent realizes that every day building blocks are being laid for the child's future.
A Father's Hugs
Youth need the love of their fathers. But many times fathers are afraid to show it.
Your Father
God is the blessed and loving Father of all of us! Regardless of the good or the bad of your earthly father, God loves you more and gives you a greater inheritance!
Christian home or religious home?
There are some principles and truths that are critical principles for parents who want to nurture spiritual development in teens.
Father's Influence
A father's influence makes a difference!
A Father's Influence
The influence of a father in the life of a child cannot be neglected.
Dad's Blessings
How many times do we miss Spirit's blessings and answers to our prayers because they do not arrive exactly as we have expected?
The Price of Children
What the cost and returns on being a parent?
12 Practical Ways for Men to Impact Fatherless Kids
How you can help fatherless kids
Father's Day Devotionals
A Successful Life
Whenever God wants to give us a gift, he wraps it in struggles and difficulties.
Father's Day Humor
Poem for Moms and Dads
Humorus look at raising kids
Father's Day Humor
A little humor related to Fathers
Outhouse Confession
Sometimes our actions unexpectantly affect others.
Student Excuses
Actual excuses given by students to schools
Top ten things you'll never hear a dad say
A little humor related to Fathers
Top 10 Things a Teen Daughter Doesn't Want to Hear from her Dad
A little Father- Daughter humor for Father's Day
The Fatherhood Cycle
This father's Day humor, reminds us of the funny stages we go through when thinking of the Wisdom of Fathers
Don't Eat the Forbidden Fruit
Funny look at God as the father of Ada and Eve. Great for Father's Day!
We thought you said Daddy!
A little Father's day humor to give you a chuckle
Father's Day Teaching Ideas
Father's Day Discussion
Possible discussion starters for father's day
God is my father
Youth will explore Fatherly qualities in God. The goal is to help youth learn that God is a father who will never leave and who will always treat them with kindness and love.
Author Unknown
]]>Say what you will about healthy eating and all, but I've always found it awfully difficult to explain to my son (who's 6'4" to my 6' in height), why junk food is bad for you.
One time my kids wanted to surprise me with a good breakfast in bed on Father's Day. They put a cot in the kitchen.
If you think about it, Adam had more trouble than any of the rest of us buying his Father a gift for Father's Day. I mean, what do you get somebody who's Everything?
I started early teaching my kids the value of a dollar. From then on, they demanded their allowances in gold.
]]>A father is a thing that growls when it feels good--and laughs very loud when it's scared half to death.
A father never feels entirely worthy of the worship in a child's eyes. He's never quite the hero his daughter thinks, never quite the man his son believes him to be--and this worries him, sometimes. So he works too hard to try and smooth the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him.
A father is a thing that gets very angry when the first school grades aren't as good as he thinks they should be. He scolds his son though he knows it's the teacher's fault. Fathers are what give daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than anybody's .
Fathers make bets with insurance companies about who'll live the longest. Though they know the odds, they keep right on betting. And one day they lose.
I don't know where fathers go when they die. But I've an idea that after a good rest, wherever it is, he won't be happy unless there's work to do. He won't just sit on a cloud and wait for the girl he's loved and the children she bore. He'll be busy there, too, repairing the stairs, oiling the gates, improving the streets, smoothing the way.
Paul Harvey
]]>He had earned a spot in the semifinals of the 400 meter race, and as the gun sounded to start the race, Derek got off to a great start. He was running the race of his life, and the finish line was in sight, when suddenly he felt a stab of pain in his right leg. He fell face first onto the track with a torn hamstring.
The race was over for Derek. He struggled to his feet before the medical team could reach him. Though every runner had passed him, he began hopping forward, tears of pain and disappointment streaking his face, determined to finish the race.
Suddenly, a man plowed through the security guards on the sidelines and ran onto the track. He raced up to Derek and hugged him, "You don't have to do this," Jim Redmond told his weeping son. "Yes I do," Derek answered. "Well, then," his father said, "we're going to finish the race together."
Derek's father gripped his son around the shoulders, and they faced the finish line, resolutely waving off the security men who hovered around them. They limped and hopped together, Derek's head sometimes buried in his father's shoulder, and stayed in Derek's lane all the way to the end.
The watching crowd gaped at first at the unusual scene. Then one by one, they rose to their feet, and began cheering and crying at the son's determination and the father's support.
]]>As he was sitting there, a little thought balloon appears over his head. He's thinking, "I remember when she was so young. I held her in my arms & loved her, and it was wonderful. Now look at her. She's all grown up, and such a beautiful girl, too. I wonder what she would think if I held her like I used to and told her again that I love her?" He finally concludes that she would be uncomfortable if he did that.
While he's thinking that, his daughter is thinking, "I wonder why Dad never hugs me anymore?"
Source: From the comic strip "For Better or for Worse"
]]>Materials
Preparation
Explain
What to do
Scripture Text
Read aloud Matthew 4:1-10
Discussion
Take it to the Next Level
Jesus was tempted with popularity, power, and possessions (material needs). But because Jesus understood his purpose in the world he did not give into temptation. There is nothing wrong with material possessions, power or popularity. But when they replace God as a priority in our lives they become a problem. In fact, later in Jesus' ministry we would see him providing for the physical needs of people, he would demonstrate the power of God, and he would be popular. Yet his priority was to do the will of God, to accomplish the purpose for which he had been sent into the world. God has brought each of us into the world for a purpose. The better we understand our purpose, the better we will be able to balance our priorities to fulfill that purpose.
Improving Your Teaching
This type of activity can be used for a variety of active learning lessons. Anytime there are choices to be made, or 2 or more facets of an issue, you can write these on posters and have kids move to that area of the room. The easiest is when there are two choices and youth are asked to move to the left or right of the room depending on whether they agree or disagree with a statement... or whether it is true of them or not. If there are lots of choices, just place them on the walls around the room. It gets the youth physically and mentally involved in the lesson by getting the kids out of their seats and thinking about where they personally stand in relation to a question or issue.
In 48 cultures around the world crime rates were highest among adults who as children had been raised solely by women. Closeness with parents was the common factor in hypertension, coronary heart disease, malignant tumors, mental illness and suicide. A study of 39 teenage girls suffering from anorexia nervosa showed that 36 of them had one common denominator; lack of closeness with their fathers.
An emotionally or physically absent father contributes to a child's
And let me say something up front again, when I say fathers, I am not referring solely to biological fathers; I am also speaking of step-dads as well. Over 40% of all marriages in the US involve a remarriage of 1 or both parties. 1 out of 3 Americans (80 million people) is either a step parent, step child or step sibling. 1 out of 5 children under the age of 18 is a step child. And by the year 2,000 step families (involving 1 spouse who has children) and complex families (in which both spouse have children) will soon be the majority.
Now, If you're like most men - even those who had a poor or harmful experience with their own fathers - you have a general idea of the kind of father you want to be. You have a picture in your mind of what a model father looks like: you want to be the kind of father: whose children feel secure, confident, loved and accepted whose children save sex for marriage, and remain faithful to their spouse in marriage. whose children develop a reputation as men and women of integrity; honest, ethical, hardworking. whose child might say, "my dad keeps his promises. whose children stand up to unhealthy peer pressure, children who develop healthy friendships,. whose kids say no to drugs and alcohol and risky behavior. whose children quickly admit their mistakes, who are forgiving and patient with others and who enjoy a healthy sense so self- esteem and self confidence. whose children have a hard time picking out a fathers day card (not because they say too much but say too little)
That's the kind of father we all want to be. That's the kind of father I want to be. But I know that I am not all I should be. And I know that for me to do this I need a model, I need an example of a father that I can pattern myself after, a father from who I can learn from and imitate.
Source: www.Sermoncentral.com
]]>Abraham- God took what was good and forgave what was bad and used “old forked tongue” to start a nation. Moses- would you call upon a fugitive to carry the Ten Commandments? God did. David- his track record left little to be desired, but his repentant spirit was unquestionable. Jonah- God put him in a whale’s belly to bring him back to his senses. But even the whale couldn’t stomach this missionary for too long.
On and on the stories go: Elijah, the prophet who pouted; Solomon, the king who knew too much; Jacob, the wheeler-dealer; Gomer, the prostitute; Sarah, the woman who giggled at God. One story after another of God using man’s best and overcoming man’s worst.
The reassuring lesson is clear. God used (and uses!) people to change the world. People! Not saints or superhumans or geniuses, but people. Crooks, creeps, lovers, and liars—he uses them all. And what they may lack in perfection, God makes up for in love.
Jesus later summarized God’s stubborn love with a parable. He told about a teenager who decided that life at the farm was too slow for his tastes. So with pockets full of inheritance money, he set out to find the big time. What he found instead were hangovers, fair-weather friends, and long unemployment lines. When he had had just about as much of the pig’s life as he could take, he swallowed his pride, dug his hands deep into his empty pockets, and began the long walk home; all the while rehearsing a speech that he planned to give to his father.
He never used it. Just when he got to the top of the hill, his father, who’d been waiting at the gate, saw him. The boy’s words of apology were quickly muffled by the father’s words of forgiveness. And the boy’s weary body fell into his father’s opened arms.
The same open arms welcomed him that had welcomed Abraham, Moses, David, and Jonah. No wagging fingers. No clenched fists. No “I told you so!” slaps or “Where have you been?” interrogations. No crossed arms. No black eyes or fat lips. No. Only sweet, open arms. If you ever wonder how God can use you to make a difference in your world, just look at those he has already used and take heart. Look at the forgiveness found in those open arms and take courage.
And, by the way, never were those arms opened so wide as they were on the Roman cross. One arm extending back into history and the other reaching into the future. An embrace of forgiveness offered for anyone who’ll come. A hen gathering her chicks. A father receiving his own. A redeemer redeeming the world.
No wonder they call him the Savior.
Source: No Wonder They Call Him the Savior © (W Publishing Group, 1986, 2004) Max Lucado
]]>Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. We are not happy here because we are not at home here. We are not happy here because we are not supposed to be happy here. We are 'like foreigners and strangers in this world.' (I Peter 2:11)... And you will never be completely happy on earth simply because you were not made for earth.
Oh, you will have your moments of joy. You will catch glimpses of light. You will know moments or even days of peace. But they simply do not compare with the happiness that lies ahead."
Source: Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name
]]>