Week 9: The New Testament and Adoption Day 1: The Benefits of Belonging – Romans 8:16-18 Have you ever felt like you just didn’t belong? When I first went to Russia, I had many of those moments. I would suddenly find myself in a room full of people having an animated conversation and all I …
NT 8:5 No Longer Slaves
Week 8: The New Testament and Adoption Day 5: No Longer Slaves – Romans 8:15 I don’t know her name, but I remember her face. She was about fifteen years old. Pretty. Blonde. Thin. Dirty. Her clothes were in obvious need of laundering and repair. Her hair hung in greasy strings about her face. We …
NT 8:4 The Spirit of Adoption
Week 8: The New Testament and Adoption Day 4: Spirit of Adoption – Romans 8:14-16 During the years that I lived in Russia, it seemed with every spring came Victory Day and with every fall came some very unwelcomed terrorist attack: Subway bombings, bus bombings, apartment building bombings, a theater siege, a school siege. Events …
NT 8:3 When God Spanks Us, Part 2
Week 8: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 3: When God Spanks Us, Part 2, Hebrews 12:5-11 “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few …
NT 8:2 When God Spanks Us, Part 1
Week 8: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 2: When God Spanks Us, Part 1 of 2 – Hebrews 12:5-11 I like my middle name. It’s part of me. It was chosen carefully to reflect God’s work in our family. I wouldn’t change it – but there have been plenty of times when I …
NT 8:1 Of Labor And Love
Week 8: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 1: Of Labor and Love – 1 Thessalonians 2:7,11; 1 John 2:1,12,13,18,28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21 The New Testament compares our relationship with those discipling us to the relationships of a nurse or caregiver to the children in their care. In the book of 1 John …
NT 7:5 Our Hearts Know
Week 7: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 5: Our Hearts Know – 1 Timothy 3:4-12; Titus 1:6 Not only was God careful to tell children how they were to behave, He also wanted their parents to know how their children were to behave. Two passages clearly show us that God expected the men …
NT 7:4 Stop Assuming
Week 7: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 4: Stop Assuming – Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20,21 Sometime last year, I sat down with my Sunday School class of 8-13 year olds and said, “OK, here’s the deal, our Sunday School material skips 5 chapters of the Bible between 1 Kings and 2 Kings, and …
NT 7:3 Growing Up, Part II
Week 7: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 3: Growing Up, Part II – Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:13,14; 1 Corinthians 14:20; 13:11; 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2; Matthew 18:3 (Go here for Part I) To some extent, Paul opened his conversation with the Corinthians regarding maturity in 1 Corinthians 13 when he said, …
NT 7:2 Growing Up, Part 1
Week 7: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 2: Growing Up, Part I – Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:13,14; 1 Corinthians 14:20; 13:11; 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2; Matthew 18:3 When I was ten or eleven years old, my family met a family whose child would never grow up. I don’t mean that she …
