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.

FIVE BY FIVE*, LESSON 1: God answers prayer.

Smart phones, satellite phones, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, text messages, LinkedIn… and on it goes.  We live in the most communicative era of human history.  We will go to great lengths to facilitate quick, clear, on-demand communication with whomever, whenever we want.  And when we lose connectivity?  Look out.  We want faster and clearer communication every day and we won’t tolerate downtime or poor connections.  The demand has created a telecommunications industry valued in the trillions of dollars worldwide.

With our insatiable appetite for communications, why is it that when we address prayer, communicating with our God, we have so much trouble?  There are books, seminars, systems, and campaigns, and yet we struggle both in theory and in practice when it comes to communicating in prayer with our Lord.  Maybe it is because we don’t know how it works.  Of course, for most of us, the same could be said about our smartphones – but that doesn’t stop us from using up the minutes like there’s no tomorrow.

I think it is more likely that we struggle because, in our heart of hearts, we are depending on ourselves and our gifts and talents to carry us through.  But this is an illusion, for when we stop and recognize the truth, in light of God’s Word (Romans 12:6, Deut. 8:18), it is God who gives us those abilities in the first place.  “In Him we live and breathe and have our being,” so we are in utter, constant dependency on God for everything, no matter how great or small, whether we recognize it or not.  Prayer is our recognition of that dependency, an expression of our trust in Him, and a key to unlocking God’s transformative power in our daily lives through close fellowship with Him.  It is how we can, “with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) and be changed forever.  God’s Word is clear.  Our God is a prayer-hearing, and prayer-answering God – a wonder-working God!

…Your Father knows what you need… -Matthew 6:8b

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
2 Chronicles 7:14
Matthew 6:5-15
Matthew 7:7-12
Hebrews 4:16

*What does “5 by 5” mean?  In spoken communication over two-way radios, a transmitting station may request a report on the quality of signal they are broadcasting. “Five by five” means a signal that has excellent strength and perfect clarity — the most understandable signal possible.

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.

ON BELAY, LESSON 3: Jesus saves and no one can take you from Him

“If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

This is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. We can find this truth foreshadowed in the events of the Old Testament and these shadows of what was to come are helpful to our understanding.  Just as Noah was safe from the flood of judgment in the ark, and Israelites pursued by avengers could be safe within cities of refuge, so it is with us when we are found in Christ.  Jesus welcomes us in to abide with Him where we can benefit from the price He paid for our sins.  There in Christ we are covered and protected from the judgment that was ours to bear because He bore it for us.

But there is another way in which we are in Christ that adds an additional dimension and benefit to the believer.  Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches – that when we abide in Him, we draw new life from the vine and bear good fruit.  In fact, we become one with the vine. It is true that in Christ we are safe from judgment, but it is also in Christ where we die to our sins in his death and are raised again to new life with Him in his resurrection.  In Him we have new life, a new way of thinking, and a new attitude towards ourselves, our sin, and our God.  We are and are becoming new creatures altogether in the safe harbor of Christ.  What wonderful news to communicate to our children, that in Jesus they are loved and forgiven and transformed and secure in God’s grasp. Even if we lose our grip, He won’t lose his.

Behold, I am making all things new. -Revelation 21:5a

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
2 Corinthians 5:17
2 Corinthians 3:18
Romans 6:1-4, 7:4

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.

ON BELAY, LESSON 2: Jesus saves and no one can take you from Him

What is the purpose of testimony?  Testimony is the solemn declaration usually made orally or in writing by a witness either in a courtroom under oath or elsewhere.  Its purpose is to provide information on which to base a decision.  Our memory verse, 1 John 5:11-2, begins with these words, “And this is the testimony…”  Whose testimony?  God Almighty’s testimony.  His testimony, or solemn declaration, is that eternal life can only be found in his Son and be had only through his Son.  We have already established that God is trustworthy so we know that the testimony is true. What decision then must be made based upon this information?  Why did God give us this testimony?

“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

This is the good news!  God’s testimony is that we are sinners, separated from Him (Isaiah 59:2), that we can in no way work our way to Him but can only be reconciled to Him by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), that He made this possible through the sacrificial and substitutionary death of his Son (1 Peter 1:8), and that because his Son was raised from the dead we can be part of God’s family by receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior (John 1:12).  This is God’s solemn declaration and the foundation for life eternal.

But these are written that you may believe… -John 20:31

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
John 20:31
Isaiah 59:2
Ephesians 2:8-9
1 Peter 1:8
John 1:12

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.

ON BELAY, LESSON 1: Jesus saves and no one can take you from Him

To live a truly eternal life, eternal both in quality (in God’s eternal presence and with His eternal purpose) and in duration (we will never perish), we must understand and place our confidence in God’s assurances to us.  An assurance is God’s pledge, His guarantee for His children born of the Spirit through Christ.  While there are experiential or subjective ways for us to get a clue as to our salvation and place in God’s family, our love for the church and the things of God (1 John 2:15, 3:14), and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) among them, it is only God’s “testimony,” His solemn declaration through His Word, that stands as our objective proof of the assurance we have that, when we have believed and received His gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus, we are secure in his hands.

Why is it so important to know we are firmly held in the Father’s hands?  From our childhood most of us can remember hearing these words, “Come on, Daddy’s got you.”  If you are like me you probably associate those words with an experience like standing on the edge of a swimming pool that seemed like a bottomless sea or sitting at the top of a slide that seemed like Mount Everest.  As we looked down at those outstretched arms we did some very quick calculations. What has my experience been with this person up to now?  Can I trust him?  If our father was a trustworthy and loving father who had shown himself to have powerful arms (at least compared to ourselves) capable of catching us, we most likely took a deep breath and jumped.  Experience shows us that over time our confidence level in this person grows and makes each subsequent jump easier until finally we are flinging ourselves, carefree into his arms.  When Jesus says of the Father, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand,” He is saying, “This is my Father and, through me, your Father as well and He won’t let you fall.  Jump.  Daddy’s got you.”  All of our other assurances in God are built upon this cornerstone.  Confidence in God’s faithfulness begins here.

No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. -John 10:29b

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
John 10:28-30
1 John 5:11-12
Psalm 145:13
Hebrews 10:23
Psalm 18:2, 62:2,6-7