Seen or Unseen?

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Romans 12:1-8


TO CHEW ON: "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:4,5

Think of all the parts of your body needed for you to do common things like seeing, hearing, smelling, walking, talking. Take smelling for example.

• To smell something you need your heart and lungs to be working and your blood to be pumping so you can breathe.

• When the air enters your nose you need the smell sensors deep inside to pick up the smell molecules from the air.

• Those sensors send the message down nerve pathways from your nose to your brain.

• When the smell message gets to your brain , your brain has to figure out what you’re smelling.

• Then you need more nerve pathways to send messages to your legs and arms, to tell them if you should run away because your house is on fire, or to come for dinner because you’re smelling food cooking.

It’s a good thing the hidden-away parts of our bodies, like our hearts and lungs, don’t get jealous of our public parts, like our nose and feet, and decide to quit working because nobody is noticing them.


Each person who is a Christian is part of Jesus’ body on earth, the church. Our bodies need many parts working together to get a job done, and so does the church. If you are doing a small, hidden job for Jesus, don’t feel you’re unimportant. You are as necessary as someone who sings solos or has the main part in the play.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to be willing to serve You in hidden or public ways. Amen.



MORE: Gifts
In Romans 12:6-8 Paul tells us God gives people different abilities and strengths, called "gifts," to help them serve in Christ’s body.

Can you find the seven gifts Paul mentions?

1. _______________   2. ______________
3. _______________   4. ________________
5. _______________   6. ______________
7. _______________

What do you think your gift is?

ANSWERS

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Who's At the Controls?

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Romans 8:5-11

TO CHEW ON: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

Most vehicles, machines and toys have controls. Can you match the object with its controls?

1. Car ____      4. Bike ____

2. Computer ____ 5. Video Game ____

3. Canoe ____

The controls on most things are small. But the results of how those things are controlled are big. It’s the same way with our lives.

We determine who and what controls our lives in small ways. It's in the choices we make every day. We can make selfish choices and try to control our own lives. Or we can choose to let God the Holy Spirit control our lives. The consequences of both are huge.

If we choose to live by our “sinful minds” - our own ideas, plans and desires - the result is ________________. If we let the Holy Spirit control our minds and our lives, the result is _________________ and _______________. (Romans 8:6)

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, help me to live my life under Your control. Please show me how You want me to live today. Amen.



MORE: What’s Your Choice:
God never forces us to live for Him. He lets us choose.

Which of the activities below would help you live a Holy Spirit-controlled life. Can you add one more to the list?

1. Watch popular music videos on TV.

2. Read story books written by Christian authors.

3. Buy and read secular magazines about teen movie stars, fashions and dating.

4. Watch any videos that sound interesting, in spite of ratings and language warnings.

5. Collect and listen to Christian music CDs.

6. Read the Bible and memorize parts of it.

7. _________________________________________________

ANSWERS

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The War Inside Me

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Romans 7: 14-25

TO CHEW ON: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Romans 7:15

What happens when someone says, “Close your eyes and don’t peek”? Do you have a big urge to open your eyes and DO exactly what you’ve been told NOT TO DO?



That seems to be what happens when you concentrate on the things God tells you not to do. You know that disobeying our parents, stealing, lying and being jealous are things God tells you not to do. But have you ever found that the more you concentrate on those ‘don’ts’ the more you find yourself doing them?

In his letter to the Romans, Paul talked about the way people tend to act and feel this way. It is what makes it more natural for us to disobey God than obey Him. Later we feel sorry that we did what God said we shouldn't.

How do we escape from this circle of knowing we shouldn’t do something but doing it anyway? Paul gives us the answer.



Write the last words from Romans 7:25 in the blanks below:

“Thanks be to God – through ____________ __________ ____________ ____________.”

Some things that will help you escape the cycle of sinning:

A. Admit your sin to yourself and to God.
B. Ask God to forgive you.
C. Ask the Holy Spirit to alert you to when you take the first steps toward sin.
D. Ask Jesus to change you from the inside.

PRAYER: Dear God, Your power to change me helps me break habits of sinning. Thank you! Amen.



MORE: What If You Sin?
What things should you do when you sin? What things shouldn’t you do?

1. Get down on yourself and be discouraged for a few days.

2. Admit and confess your sin to God.



3. Memorize Bible verses that remind you of what pleases God.

4. Give up, because living for God is too hard.

5. Apologize to people you’ve hurt or wronged.

6. Accept God’s forgiveness and love.


ANSWERS




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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Not Guilty

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Romans 3:19-28

TO CHEW ON: "But now God has shown us another way to heaven. It is not by 'being good enough' and trying to keep his laws.... Now God says he will accept us and declare us 'not guilty.' He will do this if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. We all can be saved by coming to Christ." Acts 3:21a,22a - Simplified Living Bible

Suppose you stood before God today and He asked you, “Why should I let you into heaven?” What would you say?

- I tried my hardest to be good.
- I did more good things than bad things.
- I doesn’t matter what I believed because I was sincere.
- My heart is clean because the wrong things that I’ve done (sins), were paid for by Jesus when He died on the cross.


I hope your answer was the last one.

One of the things Paul explained to the Roman Christians was what Jesus’ death means to everyone who believes in Him.

Before Jesus came, God gave the Jewish people rules about how they were to relate to God and treat each other (the Ten Commandments). And He told them what to do if they broke those rules and sinned. The punishment for breaking God’s rules was and is death. Before Jesus came, God required people to sacrifice animals to die in their place.

"His offering - a kid of the goats" - Artist unknown

Then Jesus came. He lived a perfect life. Then He willingly died on the cross. God accepted Jesus’ death as the payment for our sins just like He had accepted the death of sacrificed animals in Old Testament times. But now we don’t have to make any more sacrifices - ever. The penalty for our sins and the sins of everyone who has ever sinned or ever will sin is paid. All we have to do is accept it.

"Christ came into the world to save sinners" Illustration by Annie Vallotton from the Good News Bible
© American Bible Society 1976, 1992, used with permission.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for dying and taking the punishment my sins deserved. Amen.


MORE: God’s Rules
We still try to obey God’s rules. But we don’t do it to earn our way to heaven. Rather we obey God because we love Him and want to do what pleases Him.

"The tablets of stone" - Artist unknown

How many of the Ten Commandments can you list?
(Check your list with Exodus 20:1-17).

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scroll Mail

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Romans 1:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle.... To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” (Romans 1:1, 7)

Paul spent a lot of time traveling from place to place telling people about Jesus. After people decided to follow Jesus, they wanted to spend time with other Jesus-followers. So they started churches.

Sometimes the baby Christians in these churches needed more teaching. Sometimes they had questions or there were problems. Because Paul couldn’t be everywhere at once, he helped these new churches by writing them letters (also called epistles). The book of Romans is such a letter.

"Romans" by Johann C. Weigel, 1695

These letters are a little different than the letters we write. They usually have the writer’s name at the beginning.

• This letter was written by 1.______________. (Romans 1:1).
  
• The people to whom the letter is addressed is further down. This letter was addressed to 2. ________________ (Romans 1:7)

In his letters, Paul does more than chat about the weather and what’s new in his life. In Romans he explains that everyone needs to be saved (chapters 1 & 2) and worship God, even those people who worship other gods or idols.

"Instead of worshiping God..."Illustration by Annie Vallotton from the Good News Bible
© American Bible Society 1976, 1992, used with permission.

He shows that living for Jesus is more than keeping rules; it means a change of heart (chapters 6-8). He describes what our life can be like if we let the Holy Spirit control us (chapter 12).

Romans and the rest of Paul’s letters are a very important part of the Bible. They teach us why and how to live for Jesus. In the next few weeks we'll be reading parts from those letters and the letters that others wrote. They help us learn what pleases God and how to live for Him.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank you for people like Paul, who understood and explained the good news about Jesus. Amen.


MORE: ScrollsLetters written in New Testament times were not written on paper and mailed in a stamped envelope.

• They were written on specially prepared strips of animal skin called parchment. These strips were attached to pieces of wood and rolled up in a scroll.

• They were often written by a scribe (someone who wrote for others as a job). The name of the scribe who wrote Romans was 3. _____________ (Romans 16:22).
  

• Many of Paul’s letters were delivered by Paul’s friends who were traveling to those places. Paul was in Corinth when he wrote this letter. The woman who probably carried this letter to Rome for Paul was 4. ______________ (Romans 16:1).
  

ANSWERS

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.