God's Guidance System
The Bible and the Holy Spirit | by Maurice SweetsurBible Focus: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (ESV)
Going through life without reference to the Bible is rather like trying to draw a picture with your eyes closed - we will make a mess of it!
Have some children to try this out for themselves on the board. Blindfold your volunteers, then give them instructions to draw something simple like a house. e.g. Draw the basic square house, . . . . . windows, . . . . . roof, . . . . . . door, . . . . . . chimney, . . . . . tree in the garden, . . . . . . sun, . . . . . . etc. The volunteers and the rest of the class will certainly enjoy looking at the finished pictures!
God has given us his Word to guide us through life and to help stop us from going off in wrong directions. Here are two object lessons that you could use to illustrate this point:
1. Straight and Crooked Roads
All you need for this illustration are a few sheets of newspaper.
Some newspapers are printed "with the grain," and some "against the grain." This means that if you hold a piece of newspaper vertically, and begin to tear strips from top to bottom, they will either come out very straight, or very ragged (despite your best efforts), depending on the way the grain is running.
Find two different newspapers that tear in opposite ways - this should be easy enough. You now have two sets of papers, which will look pretty much the same, but one tears straight, and one tears crooked. You are now ready to begin your lesson.
Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
We are all on a path through life, either a straight path which leads to God, or a crooked path which does not. Choose about eight volunteers. Give one half the first set of newspaper sheets, and the other half the second. Ask them to tear the sheets into strips from top to bottom as straight as they can. One set of volunteers will end up with straight strips of paper, and the other half with a big mess! You can then conclude with teaching on "straight" and "crooked" roads as appropriate.
2. God's Guidance System
"We are all on a journey through life, and God has given us two things to help us - His Word, the Bible and the Holy Spirit. If, however, we try and travel through life on our own - without calling on God to Guide us - we will make mistakes, and go off in directions that are not part of God's plan for us."
Produce an ordinary (round) balloon. Blow it up, but do not tie it. Choose a volunteer to be your target. Have him/her stand about 6 meters (18') away.
Say, "This balloon represents a person trying to go through life on his or her own. Most people want to go the right way. Their intentions are good. Therefore I am starting off by pointing the balloon at the target, but let's see what will happen when I let go!" (It will almost certainly miss the target. Repeat a few times. You may be able to obtain "Rocket" balloons. These are long, and buzz as they travel through the air. Children love them, but they will still miss their targets!)
Say, "What this balloon needs is a Guidance System - something to help it hit its target. I have one right here. (Produce a 6 or 7 meter piece of string, and thread one end through a drinking straw. Have a second volunteer stand just behind the target, holding the other end. Blow up your balloon and tape it under the straw. Let the balloon go, and watch it hit it's target.) "That balloon kept right on target, because it had something to guide it. In the same way, we will stay on target in our journey through life - if we let the Bible and the Holy Spirit guide us."
Copyright 2005 Maurice Sweetsur
http://mauricesweetsur.blogspot.com
mnmsweetsur@xtra.co.nz
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