TEACHING

January

TEENS
Teen have continued coming to my house Saturday afternoons. The past two weeks I have done something a bit different. Two weeks ago I told the story of Noah using 10 pictures that I printed on 8x10 paper. After I told the story once we told the story as a group by looking at the pictures. Then I gave each girl a picture and they had to put them in order and say their part of the story. They girls had a lot of fun. We memorized Romans 3:23 and 6:23. We are living among evil just as Noah was. Noah had a choice – to follow what everyone was doing and go against God or to maintain a relationship with God. Noah chose to be righteous and walk with God and because of that choice, his family was saved. We too have a choice – to follow the ways of the world or to follow God. Are we (our lives, our families, our relationships) different enough from the world? Can God look at this evil world, disobedient country and luke-warm town and find us blameless, righteous, and walking with him?

Last week I told the story of creation (they learn evolution in school) and Adam and Eve the way as the Noah story – through pictures, retelling of the stories and saying the memory verses. We talked about God’s rules verses our desires. God had one rule for Adam and Eve, yet their desire to taste the fruit was more than their desire to obey God. Sound familiar? God has given us a way to have fellowship and with them fellowship come rules and our own free will. Often my desire to disobey is strong but I must trust that God is loving, just and in control all the time.

I then talked about one specific rule that God has for our lives – to stay sexually pure until marriage and then faithful to your husband. This is a sensitive subject. Just that day I learned that one of the girls had seen Jeff in the clinic and confessed to being sexually active. A father of two of the girls just had his 16 year old girl friend move in. I suspect several of the teens in the group have experimented in this area and have parents who have not been faithful to each other. Believe me, I put in a lot of prayer before sharing on this topic but I felt it was necessary and timely (it being February and all). The girls were silent as I shared God’s perfect plan for their lives and the need to obey him. I said I was available to listen and pray if any of them wanted to share privately.

Please pray for these girls…that their heart will be opened to the true gospel, that they will seek Him and desire to follow Him above following the desires of this world. Pray that they will be like Noah and stand out as righteous among our town. Pray that they will want to make godly decisions, that their bodies will be kept pure and that they will understand the forgiveness of the Lord.


SUNDAY SCHOOL
Since my teammate has been out of town, I had the opportunity to share the two stories (Noah and Adam and Eve….minus the sex talk) with the kids during Sunday school. The pictures held their attention well I thought (holding their attention has always been difficult). It is so encouraging to hear these kids shouting out scriptures.

Sunday school class



co 2009 Amy McKissick