TRAIL GUIDE: The Goal of the Soul
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 2, Lesson 3: The Goal of the Soul
What is the goal of the soul? Our souls were built for relationship with God. That relationship, once founded in Christ, can either be cultivated or neglected. Remember back to your childhood for a moment. When you learned to turn cartwheels or dive headfirst into the pool, did you shout, “Daddy! Look at me”? How about when you got good grades, your first job, or got engaged? In a healthy father-child relationship it is natural to want to please Dad.
How much more so our perfect heavenly Father? Cultivating our relationship with God means aiming to please Him out of love, not obligation. When we love God with our soul, we are pleased to please Him. Take a nice slow read of the following two passages and then prayerfully reflect on how we can help the kids cultivate their soul relationship with the Father.
“And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” – Jesus (John 8:29)
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” – David (Psalm 40:8)
“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation, He is my fortress – I will never be shaken.” -Psalm 62:1-2
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
John 8:29| Ps. 40:8 | 1 Peter 2:25 | Ps. 35:9-10
TRAIL GUIDE: Soul Mate
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 2, Lesson 2: Soul Mate
Who is your favorite person to be with? Who is your soul mate? If you could, would you spend every free moment with that person? I have often asked my children, usually when I am frustrated by their lack of time in the Word, if they truly love God. Of course their answer is “yes.” I usually follow up that question with something like this, “Do you find it strange that you spend so little time with someone who you claim to love above all others?” It’s a great question, but one that rightly should be turned back on myself. David wrote, “My soul thirsts for you, the living God.” Wow! What makes David different from many of us? Is it that we don’t thirst? I don’t believe so. Our souls do thirst and so do the souls of the children we minister to. What made David a man after God’s own heart was that he recognized what – or better, Who – would quench his thirst.
Our problem is that often we don’t recognize what we are thirsting for, so we try to quench our thirst with other things. It could be work, relationships, recreation, television, or video games. Does my soul thirst for God as the deer pants for streams of water? It sure does. The question is whether I choose to go to the Source of living water or something else. This isn’t a guilt trip, but it should be a call to each of us to examine our souls and ask the hard questions, then cry out to God for a soul makeover. Let’s try to help the children understand the depths of God’s love, that by Jesus’ death He purchased for us a front row seat in the Father’s presence now and forever. God wants to be our soul mate and Jesus died to make that possible. Don’t miss out on the gift of the gospel, God’s presence, which is living water for our soul.
“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation, He is my fortress – I will never be shaken.” -Psalm 62:1-2
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 63 | Psalm 143 | Psalm 42:2 | Psalm 23:1-3 | Psalm 107:9 | Luke 1:46-47
TRAIL GUIDE: With All Your Soul
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 2, Lesson 1: With All Your Soul
When we talked about loving God with our heart, we referenced our personality and passions. That’s pretty deep. When we talk about loving God with our soul, that’s deeper still because our soul is the innermost part of who we are. It is used as a synonym for life, our life, our essence. It’s the part God created to last for eternity. Sadly, sin introduced death into the world, and that includes the human soul. We are eternally dissatisfied until our soul finds rest in Him. Why? Because before we accepted Christ, our soul was dead in its trespasses and sins. We were longing for Him, for a perfect leader in this quest called life. After we know Jesus, our souls can rest because we have “returned to the shepherd and guardian of our souls”. (I Peter 2:25)
King David was Israel’s Poet King. He often spoke about His soul, “my soul is greatly dismayed…I will lift up my soul…my soul may sing praise…my soul will rejoice…” King David knew there was more to him than his mind and body. My soul is my immaterial essence. It is the eternal part of me that worships God best and also the part that can be separated from Him if I choose to put myself on the throne of my own life. As a Christian, I desire a makeover that will reform my soul so that I can love and put God at the center of everything. God has promised this makeover in Romans 8:29. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Everyday God is reshaping me to resemble Jesus – and that includes my soul.
“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation, He is my fortress – I will never be shaken.” -Psalm 62:1-2
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 63:1-5 |Matt 10:28 | Ecc.12:7 | Ezk.18:4 |Luke 16:19-31 |Mark 8:36 | Matt 16:26 | 3 John 1:2
TRAIL GUIDE: My Gift of Love
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 1, Lesson 3: My Gift of Love
“So what’s on your heart this week?” Hopefully you have taken some time during our study to reflect on how to use your interests and passions for God. But what about when you see things in yourself that fall short of God’s standard? Do we assume we’re a lost cause and of no use to God? We cannot hide our good qualities or our failures from Him. He “alone knows every human heart.” (1 Kings 8:39). But be of good cheer, the ungodly things I find in my heart bring me to Him in a special way, a humble way. I wish I could bring to Him a Great Commandment Christian, fully assembled and ready to serve. But I came broken, and though I’m not a slave to sin, my flesh still fights against my makeover. When I recognize this and grieve my sin, then I am in a position for God to transform my heart. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but the Lord promises that He is near to the brokenhearted.
In Psalm 147 we are reminded that it is fitting to praise God. The best way to praise God is to think about His actions and his attributes. The Psalm tells us:
God heals the brokenhearted. He names the stars.
He sends rain to the earth.
He delights in those who fear him.
He has unfailing love.
He sends us his protection.
He shares his commands with us.
He controls all nature.
He communicates his word to Israel and eventually to us!
Praise the Lord.
Loving God has many facets, praising Him for all He has done is one of them. Aligning our lifestyles with His word is another. What kind of heart does God want me to have? A pure heart, a clean heart, a kind heart and of course a heart that loves Him above all else. The kind of heart that Jesus displayed for us.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it.” -Proverbs 4:23MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
1 Kings 8:61 | Joshua 22:5
Psalm 37:4 | Psalm 57:7!
Luke 6:45 | Psalm 51:10
TRAIL GUIDE: God’s Gift of Wisdom
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 1, Lesson 2: God’s Gift of Wisdom
About two years ago, I started using a Mac laptop instead of my old PC. One thing that prompted that switch was the problems I was having with viruses on my PC. As it turns out, the Mac operating system is much less prone to virus problems. It does a better job on its own, without the expense of extra virus protection services, of keeping out unwanted and damaging material that could slow down or freeze up my machine.
Last week we talked about the good passions and desires that God has put in our hearts – let’s call them the pre-loaded software. We also talked about guarding our hearts from storing up ungodly things – let’s call them malware or viruses. The human heart was made for loving and glorifying God. Sin has corrupted that heart, but by faith in Jesus we can have our hard-drive (heart) wiped clean of sin and reinstalled with God’s programs, so that it is free to function as it was intended. The problem is that we still live in a sinful world where there are new viruses around every corner. That’s where God’s heart operating system comes into play: WISDOM. Wisdom comes from God and is the atmosphere in which all of your pre-loaded heart software works best. It is also highly resistant to viruses and will prevent unwanted items from piling up in your heart and slowing down or freezing up your system. If our kids want to love God with ALL their heart, then they need the right operating system… wisdom. “Whatever else you get, get wisdom.” (Prov. 4:7)
“Above all else, guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it.” -Proverbs 4:23MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Prov 2:1-11 | Jer 33:3!
James 1:5 | Psalm 19:7
Prov 10:8 | Prov 16:23
Prov 2:10
TRAIL GUIDE: Start With Your Heart
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 1, Lesson 1: Start With Your Heart
When Jesus gave the greatest commandment, He was responding to a scribe who was asking the most important question for someone who believes in the all-powerful God of the Bible. “What does God want from me?” Jesus was glad to answer. He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5. The answer was simple but profound… if you want to know what God really wants from you, the answer is love – practical, everything-I-have-and-am love. And it starts with your heart.
God has created each of our hearts differently, with different passions, different likes and dislikes. He intended each of these to be used in love for serving Him and others. But our hearts are not a closed-loop system. Things come in and out of our heart. Jesus teaches us in Luke 6:45 that, “For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” The abundance of the heart includes both the good things that God has placed there as well as the things, either good or evil, that we have “stored up” there. This is why it is so important to both know what is in our hearts already (Psalm 139:23), so we can ask God to remove anything that doesn’t glorify Him and store up good things there instead, but also to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) from letting in those things we don’t want to store up.
In order to keep our hearts in tune for loving God, we should do this check-up regularly in prayer and in the Word. How is your heart this week? Let’s do a self-check first and then we can help the children to do the same. David was man after God’s own heart. This doesn’t mean he was sinless, but that he had a heart fully devoted to God. Let’s ask with him this week, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” (Psalm 51:10)
“Above all else, guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it.” -Proverbs 4:23MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
1 Kings 8:61 | Joshua 22:5 !
Psalm 37:4 | Psalm 57:7!
Luke 6:45 | Psalm 51:10
TRAIL GUIDE: A Really Big Idea
The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend. We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.
EXTREME MAKEOVER, Introduction: The Great Commandment
Thanks for joining us in this quest to educate and challenge the children of our church. We want to give you a preview for the upcoming lesson. Any hiker worth his Gatorade looks over the map before he heads out. Our ‘Trail Guide Devotional’ gives you an opportunity during the week to think about the Big Idea and to look for ways that God is using these lessons in your own life.
What would you say is the most important thing in life? Jesus was asked that very question. He answered that it was to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength. Now that’s a big idea! His answer is now known as the Great Commandment, and we would like to be known as Great Commandment Christians.
By the end of this unit, we want our students to know what it’s like to live as a ‘Great Commandment Kid.’ Here is the good news – children all over Reston Bible Church will be hearing about becoming a Great Commandment Kid. The bad news, however, is that none of us can do it on our own. How can we love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength when we spend most of our time loving ourselves? We need a makeover.
Over the next several months, the kids will learn how to use all the faculties, resources, and power that God has given us to live the Christian life. No one does a makeover on anything that is fine the way it is. Makeovers are caused by a need, a deficiency or some kind of flaw that needs to be remedied. Let’s show our students that they can go to God and get cleansing for their hearts, growth for their souls, truth for their minds and purpose for their strength. We don’t need a little sprucing up – we need an extreme makeover!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” -2 Corinthians 5:15MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Rom 8:28 | Eph 4:23-24
Col 3:9-10 | Rev 21:5
Phil 1:6 | Rom 12:2
Eze 36:26 | Matt 7:24-26
Fall 2014 AWANA Registration Now Open!
From Marci Kinter, Volunteer Director of RBC’s T&T AWANA Club:
AWANA Clubs are gearing up once again. As a parent, you may be asking – what is AWANA? AWANA stands for Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed. RBC has had an active AWANA program for well over 25 years. Children from 4 years of age through 6th grade are welcome and encouraged to register and attend our club meetings. The club focuses on Bible memorization, establishing the need and desire to read the Bible every day, and growing Christian relationships and fellowship. We meet every Sunday night, starting September 14th, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. We ask that parents work with their children between club meetings to help them memorize the scripture verses as well as complete the activities in their books.
Why you should register and encourage your child to become an AWANA clubber? Consider these facts:
- 92% of AWANA alumni still regularly attend church
- AWANA alumni are 3.6% more likely to read their Bible several times a week
- 70% of alumni said they witnessed to their friends at least once a month.
I have been working with the RBC program for over 20 years. My children have gone through the program and are now adults living away from home. I am confident that the lessons they learned through the AWANA program are actively working in their lives. Let us walk alongside you this year!
Questions? Stop by our booth at the Ministry Fair (coming up on August 17!) We would love to hear from you! You can also get more info on AWANA on the RBC AWANA webpage. If you’re ready to register your children, you can do so online here. And, if you would like to serve as a volunteer leader, you can get started here.
Hope to see you and your children on September 14th, our first club meeting of the year!
-Marci Kinter
Quest in the Fall
Would you consider being a Quest Trail Guide this Fall?
Are babies more your speed?
Quest for the King Videos
Each day at Kids Camp, our kids engaged in a quest to seek out The King and His Eternal Kingdom. The misadventures of four friends shared their quest each day of camp!