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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.

SPOTTER, LESSON 3: God is Faithful to Forgive

 “Be imitators of GOD, therefore, as dearly loved children”  Ephesians 5:1 (emphasis added) The Bible makes plain that, when we are reborn in Christ, we are called to be “imitators of GOD,” that is, imitators of his communicable character attributes, those attributes GOD “shares” with his adopted children. We can know the character of our GOD because it is clearly revealed in scripture. Among his many qualities we find that God is loving, patient, kind, good, joyful, faithful, righteous, generous, courageous, creative, and, not least of all, forgiving. These are traits we should strive to imitate.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Forgiveness is sweet and grace is a great virtue when we are on the receiving end.  It is something to rejoice over.  But how things change when we are the “offended” party.  Suddenly justice takes center stage and we begin to entertain thoughts about whether the offender “deserves” our forgiveness.  We focus on our wounds and wallow in our injuries.  We think that the kind of forgiveness Jesus offered his enemies on the cross, “Forgive them for they know not what they do,” is impossible for us to imitate.  After all He is God.  But this excuse falls apart when we look a few pages further on into the book of Acts and we see Stephen imitating his Lord in the face of a brutal death by stoning.  “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”  Can we hope to attain to this level of forgiveness?  I’ll let Jesus answer that one.  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  With God’s indwelling Holy Spirit all things are possible.

As we close out this section on forgiveness, we should seek to help the children understand that on this side of heaven, we are striving to imitate Christ, knowing we will stumble and fall, trusting in his forgiveness when we do, and letting Him pick us up and urge us on to continue the climb He has called us to.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”   Phil.3-12-14

“Help me now to do the impossible:
Forgiveness.”  -Matthew West

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:

Ephesians 4:32, 5:1
Matthew 6:8-14
Matthew 18: 21-35
Phil.3-12-14

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.

SPOTTER, LESSON 3: God is Faithful to Forgive

Propitiation (Greek – hilasmos, meaning an offering to appease an offended party.)

How can a God who hates sin so much just let it go unpunished?  When He looks at His creation and sees how scarred and polluted sin has made it, He is greatly offended.  How can He not pour out his anger on the guilty?  How can God let wrongdoers go free?  It doesn’t seem fair. Unless, of course, I am the wrongdoer and then my math changes dramatically, and forgiveness seems a rather wonderful thing.   But the questions are still valid.  How is it just to leave sin unpunished?

The short answer is, it wouldn’t be just, if that is what God actually did.  But sin has been punished.  The sins of God’s people going all the way back to Adam accumulated and accumulated.  All the while God in his great mercy withheld punishment, looking forward to a day when One would pay for it all and wipe out the debt once and for all for those who believed in his coming.  “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.”   (Romans 3:25)

The best news is that, not only did Jesus receive the just wages of the sins of all who went before Him,  He also made available that credit of righteousness to all who would believe and receive Him in faith in the future.  He became our Passover Lamb.  The Lamb was slain, that work is done.  It is a historical fact that happened completely outside of us and was purely an act of God.  The only question that matters now is have you, by faith, applied the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts of your life?  Have your students?

“Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow”

(Elvina Hall, Jesus Paid It All)

“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”  -Robery Lowry, Nothing But the Blood

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:

Romans 3

Psalm 86:5

Ephesians 1:7

Hebrews 10:12, 17

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.

SPOTTER, LESSON 2: God is Faithful to Forgive

Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”  I think the same thing could be said about sin.  If we attempt to hide sin, to cover it up, to “regard” it in our hearts, it is only a matter of time before it will begin to stink up the place.  Numbers 32:23 tells us that we can be sure that our “sin will be discovered. It will be brought out into the open.”  In Hebrews 4:13 we are reminded that “Nothing God created is hidden from Him. His eyes see everything. He will hold us accountable for everything we do.”

So how does sin begin to stink?  King David, the subject of our case study, gives us detailed insight into the very real physical effects of un-confessed sin in the life of a believer.  When I kept silent,
 my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
 For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
 my strength was sapped
 as in the heat of summer. (Psalm 32:3-4)

Only when David, after being confronted by Nathan, recognizes his sin for what it is and despises it as God does, does he find forgiveness.  Then I admitted my sin to you.
   I didn’t cover up the wrong I had done.
I said, “I will admit my lawless acts to the Lord.”
   And you forgave the guilt of my sin.   (Psalm 32:5)

Belonging to Christ involves a change of mind, the adoption of a new worldview in which sin is seen through the eyes of God for what it is.  Confession begins with seeing and hating our sin.  Don’t let sin be a guest in your house.

“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”  -Ben Franklin

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 32:3-5, 38:18, 139:23-24
Numbers 32:23
Proverbs 28:13

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.

SPOTTER, LESSON 1: God is Faithful to Forgive

Confess (v): “to say the same thing about” (Greek – homologéō) “to make known, declare, tell.” (Hebrew – Yada)

To confess a sin is to uncover it and call it exactly what God calls it.  Effective confession must be accompanied by the willingness and desire to turn away from it.  Having a “change of mind” about the sin (repentance).

The pattern we see with King David in his sin against God with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah, the attempt at hiding those sins, the physical results of that attempt, and his subsequent confession in Psalm 51, serves as a case study for God’s promise of forgiveness.

Over the next several weeks, we will walk with our students through the hard truth that even David, a “man after God’s own heart,” failed the test and sinned against heaven.  Were it not for God’s promise of forgiveness, this reality could cause us to lose all hope of ever being useful in the hands of our Lord.  But the truth is that our God is faithful to forgive for the sake of his own Name and because He is, we can say to God, just as David did, “Let me hear you say, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Psalm 51:8)

“He will do it through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  -Romans 7:25a

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
1 John 1:5-10
Romans 7:7-25
Psalm 51

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.

FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 4: Victory Over Sin

“It’s an open-book test.”  Those words can indeed be beautiful to hear in the face of a difficult exam.  I remember clearly the first time I heard them in a high school chemistry class.  At once, my heart jumped because I had not studied well for the test.  In fact, I hadn’t studied well for the whole year in that class.  I thought, “This is a gift!”  Sadly, my joy turned to nervous sweat as I frantically thumbed pages and scoured the index of a book I had barely cracked all semester.  I quickly learned that, without a good working knowledge of the book, an open-book test isn’t much easier at all.  I needed the answers now and there just wasn’t time to find them because I didn’t know where to look.

The temptations or tests that we face in our spiritual lives are “open-book” tests too.  “Your Word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me.”  “How can a young person keep his life pure? By living in keeping with your Word.”    The psalmist says that the one who meditates on the Word day and night is “blessed.”  When Jesus was tempted in the desert after forty days without food, his weapon of choice against the Devil was the Word.  “It is written…” Jesus answered three times and Satan retreated.  When Satan distorted the words of God, Jesus knew how to answer him.  What if Jesus had, like Adam and Eve, simply listened to Satan’s lies and had no response?  Rather than being hyper-vigilant and sheltering our children, we must exhort them to be prepared for what WILL come.  And when they are tempted they will be able to say, “I have hidden your Word in my heart so that I won’t sin against you.”  It’s an open book test.  Know the book.

“How can a young person keep his life pure? By living in keeping with your word.”
“I have hidden your word in my heart so that I won’t sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9,11)

“So obey God. Stand up to the devil. He will run away from you.”  -James 4:7

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 119:9,11
1 John 5:4-5
Matthew 6:9,13
James 4:7

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.

FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 3: Victory Over Sin

If he could do it, it would be a personal best.  305 pounds.  He had trained at slightly lighter weights and thought he could chest press that much one time, but now, looking up from the bench at all that weight, his confidence was slipping.  He was about to get up from the bench and leave it for another day when a human mountain, an offensive lineman, who he had seen press this weight multiple times, stepped up to the bar and said, “Do you need a spot?  Come on – you got this.”

Our faith may fail. But God’s faithfulness never will.  What does it mean to say God is faithful?  Is it merely the textbook definition of faithfulness in human terms?  Let us hope not.  Faithfulness for a finite, limited creature is still, in the end, only wishful thinking or a good intention.  The fulfillment of man’s promises, even a very good man, is limited by his humanity.  Faithfulness for Almighty God is not only a good intention but a FACT, a reality which can be depended upon without reservation or doubt.  When God makes a promise, there is no possible situation in which He would not be able to fulfill that promise.  There are no extenuating circumstances capable of keeping God from fulfilling his faithfulness.  It is His character.

The reality of God’s faithfulness becomes ever so important when we are tried, tested, or tempted.  God allows testing and trials in our lives, just as He allowed Job to be tested, just as He allowed Peter to be tested. This testing is often a means to our spiritual growth.  Just as a muscle will atrophy if it is not used and grow when it is pushed up to the edge of what it can bear, so it is with our faith.  Faith that is never tested will never grow.  God knows how much you can bear and has promised to never allow you to be tested beyond that.  He will be your strength to stand up under it.  He is standing with you saying, “I’m here.  Come on – you got this.”

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. -2 Thessalonians 3:3

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
2 Thessalonians 3:3
Hebrews 4:14-16
Isaiah 41:10
Luke 22:31-32

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.

FREE CLIMBING, LESSON 2: Victory Over Sin

Helping our children understand the nature of temptation is an important step toward demystifying it and overcoming it using Biblical principles empowered by God’s Spirit.  When preparing to face an opponent, whether in athletic endeavors, war, or any other arena, we should study their tactics.  From which direction will they come?  A close study of scripture reveals to us the sources of temptation.

Temptation begins with a carnal thought pattern. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” (James 1:13-14)

Then, it is stoked by a world-system that is in opposition to the will of God. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1 John 2:15)

Finally, it is grasped by Satan, the great tempter, to bring it to fruition by questioning God’s truthfulness, making the sin appear attractive and filling the heart with desire. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)

“All the great temptations appear first in the region of the mind and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the inner man in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of truth.” – Amy Carmichael

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” -James 1:13

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
James 1:13-14
1 John 2:15
Genesis 3
1 Peter 5