Tipping the Scale

Materials
Find a balance scale or make one using paper plates, string, and ruler with a hole the middle. You can hold it with a string attached to the middle hole. Sheets of scratch paper for each participant. Wooden Cross.

Activity
1. On each sheet of paper kids / youth should write one positive thing they have done this week.
2. On other sheets they should write the other things they have done - unspiritual. No one else needs to see what is written.
3. Have everyone wad up the pieces of paper and place them on the appropriate sides of the scale. Which side is heavier?
4. Discuss things that someone might have put on each side of the scale. Make list on a whiteboard or poster of the things that are possibilities as kids / youth mention them.
5. Discuss things that could be removed from the unspiritual side and the things that could be added to the spiritual side. Have participants choose one thing they wish to change to get their life into better balance this week.
6. Now bring out the wooded cross and place it on the good side. Explain that when Jesus died on the cross, he tipped the scales in our favor. God no longer compares the good with the bad. With Jesus on your side you will not be found wanting. With Jesus on your side, your sins are forgiven and instead of having everything taken away, you will be rewarded with heaven.

Application
God evaluates our lives today in light of what Christ did on the cross.