For February 8

News

1. Attendance 2/1/09 -- We had 597 in Sunday School Sunday!! 305 at 8:30 and 292 at 9:45!

2. Spiritual Growth Assessment Follow Up -- Everyone should have completed the Spiritual Growth Assessment by now, but you may want to remind your class just in case.

3. Discipleship Classes Start This Sunday!! -- Please emphasize the start up of the Sunday night discipleship classes that will begin this Sunday afternoon. I will have registration forms in your boxes just outside of your classroom. Please pick some of them up and take them into class with you and offer people a chance to register. If they will be attending worship after your class, they can place their completed forms in the offering plate. Otherwise, I would like for you to collect them and leave them in your box outside your classroom.

4. CARE Ministry -- If your class has not been involved in the CARE ministry on Tuesday nights, please come out and get involved. One class that has consistently been involved in CARE has grown twofold in attendance. CARE is every Tuesday night -- supper at 5:30, activities at 6:00 p.m.

Lesson Supplements for February 8

Bible Studies for Life
"Discover Fresh Hope"
Psalm 42-43:5

This lesson addresses the issue of emotional letdown or depression. People become depressed for any number of reasons. One timely reason is because the winter months often leave people depressed. The length of days seem shorter, and it is colder. This lesson is also timely because of the depressed economic condition our country is experiencing. The downturn in the economy impacts the emotional state of people.

How can we experience true joy? According to the Psalms in this week's lesson, we should first understand our soul's deep desire. We were created to have relationship with God. Therefore, within each of us is a deep longing to be truly connected with Him. The first step out of depression is an increasing awareness of God's presence in our lives. We become more aware of God's presence when we put our hope in Him. Putting our hope in him is a subjective act. Praising Him can be objective actions, such as singing, quoting scripture, praying, studying the Bible, etc. The Psalmist says, "Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him."

The second step out of depression that we should take is to depend on God's faithful love. We should reflect on past experiences in our lives when God's presence was exceptionally real to us. As we remember those times, we gain strength and are better able to handle current difficulties. God has proven himself faithful in times past, certainly He will be faithful now.

The third step according to this lesson is to follow God's life and truth. The Psalmist calls for God to send His light and His truth. These will lead him to the house of God and the place of worship. This gives us great hope! God has sent his light, He is Jesus. He has given us His truth and that is His Word. When troubles come that lead to an emotional letdown, we should look into God's word and let it lead us into His presence, the place of joy!

Suggested Activities/Discussion Questions:

1. Find statistics on depression and share them with the class.
2. Pay attention to news articles that deal with depression and discuss them in class as case studies. If you find examples in the news about individuals going through depression, re-tell the news story as a case study and ask questions like, "If you knew someone in this condition, what would you do?"
3. Ask, "What causes depression in people?"
4. Give your class members a sheet of paper and pen and let them write a Psalm of praise to God that would help them in a time of depression.
5. Ask class members to share experiences in their lives when God proved himself faithful. Be prepared to share such a time that occurred in your life.
6. Divide into groups and challenge each group to locate and record Bible verses and passages that would be "light" and "truth" for people in times of emotional distress. Collect their work and compile results into one "Class Light and Truth" document. E-mail it to the class during the week.

Explore the Bible
"You Can Feel Safe"
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

This lesson also addresses how Christians should handle adversity. Paul wrote this letter to a group of believers who were facing persecution. In addition to the outside persecution the church faced, there were internal issues that made things difficult. Paul addresses both of these pressure points throughout the letter.

Paul's joy over the Thessalonians is manifested in the first chapter. His joy is based on the faithfulness the church has exhibited indicating that they have experienced great spiritual growth. They were demonstrating endurance and faith in the midst of great difficulty. Paul spoke highly of the Thessalonians to other churches. The Thessalonians were a model of faithful endurance in the face of great persecution. As we remain faithful, God blesses us with strength and courage in the midst of adversity. One way to handle adversity then is to stand firmly on God's truth and remain faithful in the midst of it.

A second way to handle adversity is to gain strength from God's promise of victory. Things may be difficult now, but there is coming a day when the victory will belong to those who have persevered in their faith in God. God will "repay with affliction those who afflict you." Moreover, He will reward us for our faithfulness with rest from all of our afflictions. Jesus is coming again and this time will be the final victory. In times of adversity, we should think about these things. These things give us confidence in knowing that God is fair and we can trust Him.

I think we find a third way to deal with adversity in verses 11-12 and that is through prayer. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians. We as believers should pray for one another's endurance in the faith and our prayers should follow the pattern that Paul prayed for the Thessalonians. He prayed that God's power would continue to be at work in their lives producing Christlikeness. He prayed that their faithful intentions would yield kingdom results. Finally, his prayer was that the Thessalonians would glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. These are things we need to pray for each other at all times and especially in times of adversity.

Suggested Activities/Discussion Questions:

1. Christians all across the globe face various kinds of persecution, even here in America. You may want to do some research on the persecution of Christians worldwide to introduce this lesson. http://www.persecution.org/ is one website you may want to explore. You may also ask your class, in what ways are we persecuted in America?
2. Divide your class into two and have a debate. On one side will be those who claim that God is Fair. On the other side will be those charged with the task of claiming that God is not fair (This will be a stretch but participants have probably heard people in the world argue this point).
3. Have the class write a prayer that they will pray for each other during this next week. It should follow the model prayer that Paul prayed for the Thessalonians.


Comments Welcome!