Sunday Bible Study | December 18, 2016

Grades 9-12 | Abide - Stay Connected to Your Life Source

This week, we studied John 15:1-12, where Jesus uses a beautiful, clear metaphor to describe himself as our life source. He explains that he is the vine, and we are the branches.

In our culture, we often look for meaning and identity in many other sources. But only when we recognize Jesus as our life source can we experience complete, fulfilled joy. In verse 11, Jesus says he has spoken these things so our joy will overflow.

This week, spend a few minutes with your teenager reviewing our lesson. Here are some questions you can use to fuel your conversation:

• How does being connected to Jesus, our vine, make you feel more alive?
• In what ways is this connection evident in people’s daily lives?
• What are some things that might try to disconnect you from the vine? How can you be aware of those things and prevent them from interfering with your relationship with Jesus?

We appreciate your prayer and support for our ministry. May God bless your week!
 
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Grades 6-8 | A Bunch of Ordinary, Imperfect People

We’ve concluded our three-lesson series on Genesis. Each week we’ve discovered how this first book of the Bible is so important. It introduces us to the story of God. It shows how God is faithful and keeps his promises. And this week we saw how Genesis introduces us to some flawed, imperfect people.

Young teenagers sometimes think Scripture only focuses on “perfect” people who never struggled, never panicked, or never messed up—but that just isn’t true. The Bible is filled with stories of ordinary, imperfect people, including the four people we discussed in this lesson: Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Joseph.

Keep the conversation going at home this week by asking your teenager these kinds of questions:

• Tell me about a time you saw an ordinary person do something extraordinary for Jesus.
• Your group talked about the ways fear, manipulation, and jealousy can hurt us—which do you think is the biggest struggle for junior highers, and why?
• How does understanding that we’re all flawed, ordinary people help you rely more on Jesus?

As you go through your week, remind your child they we all make mistakes, but Jesus still loves us and wants us to partner with him to do amazing things in this world!