Question #3 is:
How many persons are there in God? There are three persons in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The memory verse is 2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

All analogies of the trinity break down (and in this funny little youtube video show how some of them are down right heretical) so it is hard to talk about the trinity with your child. Rather than trying to help your child “understand” the trinity, try helping your child “confess” the trinity. A God that we can understand completely would be a god of our own making anyway, so it should stand to reason that we can’t figure it out. But we can confess something to be true even though we can’t completely understand it.
By way of another bad analogy, I can’t understand how oxygen is absorbed into my molecules to make me live. It’s too complicated for me. But I believe that I must breathe. And that belief works out in me every time I take a breath. You don’t have to fully understand something to confess that it is true.
We believe that God is 3 in persons and one in essence, each person of the Trinity fully God, and there is one God. I can’t understand it, but I can believe it and confess it to be true.
Here’s another nice video from Alistair Begg that might help you think about how to talk to your kids about the trinity.

Sorry for the brevity tonight. I want to get this out for you for the week.

• Title: Elisha and Naaman
• Bible Passage: 2 Kings 5
• Main Point: God healed Naaman’s skin disease
• Key Passage: Hebrews 1:1-2
• Big Picture Question: How many gods are there? There is one true God who alone deserves worship.

God lives people before they love him. God healed Naaman even though Naaman was far from God. What a great God we serve.

This week, talk to your kids about the wonderful deeds of God in your family’s life. Are there times you can point to when God showed his love and provided for you?

Have a wonderful week.

Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful beginning of 2017. Now that the holidays are over, we’re back to a regular Sunday school schedule. This week we also start a new section of the Gospel Project called Prophets and Kings. The first unit in this section is Unit 13 – God the Revealer.

• Title: Elijah Confronts Evil Ahab
• Bible Passage: 1 Kings 18
• Main Point: The one true God defeated the prophets of Baal
• Key Passage: Hebrews 1:1-2
• Big Picture Question: How many gods are there? There is one true God who alone deserves worship.

This is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament. God proves definitively that He is God, and all others are fakes. Elijah challenges the prophets of the false god Ba’al to call on their god to end the drought, and as hard as they try, they can’t do it. The Elijah prays and God answers definitively.

God also proves that He is not like the world’s expectation of God. He will not be manipulated or coerced. He is free to do whatever he will do. The priests of Ba’al cut their bodies with swords and spears to try and get Ba’al to listen, and he would not listen. The one true God sent his one and only soon to have his body bleed and die to rescue us from sin. Quite a difference.

This story is dying to be acted out by kids! Maybe let your littlest one play Elijah and mom or dad be the Ba’al priests. As you retell the story, talk about how God is the true God and there is no one else like Him.

Have a great week.

We start a new unit this week on Wisdom Literature. This week it is the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes tackles the biggest question: what is the meaning of life? We might joke about it, as a “deep thought”, but, really…do you have a good answer to that question? Here are somethings to ponder with your kids:

• Title; Solomon Thought About Life
• Bible Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
• Main Point: Life has purpose only with God
• Key Passage: Psalm 100:5
• Big Picture Question: Why can we trust God? Everything God does is for His glory and our good.

God made Solomon wise so he could lead his country well, and for much of his reign he did just that. But even though Solomon was wise, there were some things that he wrestled with. Why am I here? What’s the point of it all? What is the meaning of life?

Your kids might not be asking you that question, but they’re struggling with finding meaning in things as well. They might not ask you the deep questions regularly, but if you’re like me, your kids have probably asked you some hard questions about life. They might be struggling with making friends, or dealing with disappointment. They might not understand why bad things happen sometime. So, out of the blue, they drop the “deep thought” on you. How do you handle those questions?

Do you punt? “Go ask your mother.” Do you go over their head? You start answering questions they’re not asking. Do you freak out a little bit? I’ve done all of those things as a parent.

If Solomon had trouble with those kind of questions, then we can be excused if we have some trouble too. But as you talk to your kids about their “deep thoughts”, consider how you can turn their question toward considering God. You might not be able to give them an answer they’re always satisfied with, but you can point them back to God. He is the answer to our deep questions. He makes life meaningful, and when life seems meaningless he brings order. He does this because He’s the creator of everything and He holds it all together. We can trust him, even when things don’t seem meaningful.

Have a wonderful week.

Solomon is such an interesting Biblical character. He is called the wisest man, and yet he makes the most foolish mistake. No, it was not that he got involved in a land war in Asia, it was that he turned his back on God and went after other gods. He forgot that wisdom comes from God! Here’s what you can talk to your kids about this week.

• Bible Passage: 1 Kings 11-12
• Main Point: God divided Israel into two kingdoms because Solomon sinned
• Key Passage: Proverbs 2:6-7
• Big Picture Question: Where does wisdom come from? Wisdom comes from God through His Word.

Solomon started strong. He recognized his weakness and his need for wisdom from God. So he sought wisdom from God and received it. But early on there is a crack in his armor: he take foreign wives. Now, there is nothing wrong with foreigners. They have a special place in the kingdom of God and Israel is supposed to treat them well. Leviticus 19:34 says “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” Solomon’s trouble was not that foreigners were around, but that he mistook treating them well with accepting their false gods.

Solomon trifled with YHWH God by entertaining the idea that there were other gods as well. He even built high places for these other gods, places where people could go and worship them! The king that made the great temple of God made competing places of worship for false gods. How foolish for such a wise king.

When Solomon acted foolishly, God decided that there would be a consequence: his kingdom would be torn in two. His son, Rehoboam, would cause this division by also acting foolishly. Instead of listening to wise counsel from his father’s advisors, he listened to his friends who tickled his ears, and his own pride pulled the country apart.

Still, God kept his promise to David. David would always have a king on the thrown in Israel. God would not take Jerusalem from David’s family. God redeemed even these foolish kings actions and brought through David’s line the all-wise King Jesus.

We all do foolish things from time to time. Share with your kids a time when you did something foolish, and share how the consequences worked out. Maybe you can think of a time that, though you were foolish, God redeemed it in your life. Warn against the foolishness of turning away from God and toward things that are not God.

Have a great week.