Wow.  I’m waaaay late on this.  In my defense, I taught on Sunday morning, scarfed some lunch and then hopped on the bus for the senior high ski trip … which got back late Monday night!  Then I had an all day staff meeting on Tuesday, and now I’m scrambling with last minute prep for the middle school winter retreat leaving tomorrow!  Anyway, here’s the quick version of what we did on Sunday morning!

The middle school kids continued the series from Mark Oestreicher’s ‘Wild Truth Bible Lessons‘.  George F taught the lesson entitled ‘Little Timmy, the teenage teacher.’  The key verse was 1 Timothy 4:12, with a goal of seeing the kids understand that they don’t have to be adults to really live for God.  They were also challenged to choose one thing to do this week to ‘go for it’ with God.  God doesn’t wait for us to reach a certain age before we can serve Him!

I taught the fifth of six lessons in our series working through Galatians.  I’m using The Complete New Testament Resource, Volume 1 from Youth Specialties as a launching pad for the series, which has been really helpful.  This week we read chapter five of Galatians, with a focus on Galatians 5:16-24, the passage on the fruit of the Spirit.  The goal was for students to understand how the fruit of the Spirit is developed in them as they walk with Christ. Paul wrote this passage to Christians to remind them that when they’re in a relationship with God, people will seethe evidence, so part of the challenge was to ask ourselves what our lives are characterized by. If not the fruit of the Spirit, which shows God’s presence in us, then why not?  Some follow up discussion questions that could be asked after reading the passage are:

• What is the conflict between sinful nature and the Holy Spirit?
• What are some of the acts of sinful nature that are really prevalent today? Which of those are most accepted and encouraged?
• What acts of the sinful nature tend to entangle you?
• Which characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit do you find most difficult to express?
• How do you see the character of the Holy Spirit growing in your life?