Growing Spiritually Through Crises
Gregory T. Pouncey
Genesis 32:6-12,24-31
Before the Session
For teaching plans and full explanations of all the verses in today’s lessons,
consult the Explore the Bible leader guide or commentary.
Make sure each learner has his or her own Explore the Bible learner
guide.
Use Common Sense (Gen. 32:6-8)
Review the story of Jacob and Esau’s hostility and the
events that led Jacob to be separated from Esau. Ask learners to read
Genesis 32:6-8 and determine what emotions Jacob might have felt as he received
the news that Esau was headed toward him with 400 men. Ask learners why
they think Jacob responded as he did.
Summarize the following statements about crisis
management:
In our post-September 11th world, crisis management
has increasingly come to the forefront. The crisis at the World Trade Center
towers stretched crisis management agencies to the limit. But consider some
other events that have dramatically impacted many people in the world:
Increasingly, our world needs to learn how to manage
crises. Crisis management now has captured the attention of many authors.
But as the title of one book suggests, Crisis Management: Planning for
the Inevitable (available from
http://www.amazon.com), crisis management includes common sense
approaches to prepare for that which is yet to happen.
Ask:
Why is there a huge interest in crisis management in
our world today?
How is common sense an important part of crisis
management?
What common sense steps did Jacob take to prepare for
his meeting with Esau?
Pray to God (Gen. 32:9-12)
Direct learners to Genesis 32:9-12 in the learner
guide. Divide the class into groups and ask learners to determine steps
Jacob took to manage the crisis he faced.
Read the words of President Bush at the memorial
convocation for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings:
President Bush Speaks Words of Hope at
Memorial Convocation, April 17
People who have never met you are praying for you.
They're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured.
There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can
find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God.
What does it do for them, and how are they able to
cope with the crisis better?
Why do many oppose prayer in public forums until there
is a crisis?
Describe a time in your life when prayer helped you
cope with a crisis.
Learn from God (Gen. 32:24-31)
Ask a volunteer to read Genesis 32:24-31.
Read the following excerpt from an article in
Biblical Illustrator:
Within the story line of Genesis, Jacob was returning
to the land of Canaan, and he heard that his brother Esau was coming to meet
him with 400 men (v. 6). This news caused Jacob to panic. He believed Esau
was going to carry out his threat spoken years before to kill him (compare
27:41). Perhaps due to Jacob’s anxiety, he crossed the river at night,
sending his family and possessions on toward Canaan. Apparently, Jacob went
back over the Jabbok and was alone. There on the north side of the Jabbok,
Jacob wrestled with a “man.” Though not clear in the English translations,
the Hebrew text repeatedly used in this story the consonants y, b, q.
These three consonants form a play on words between Jacob, Jabbok, and the
Hebrew word for “wrestle.” The word play may signal that only through
wrestling could Jacob become someone different.
The wrestling match continued all night until at last,
the “man” touched (compare Isa. 6:7) and dislocated Jacob’s hip. Yet Jacob,
though clinging, asked for a blessing. The blessing came only after Jacob
told the mysterious man his name. The very utterance of the name Jacob
declared his corrupted character. He was the “heel-snatcher” (compare Gen.
27:36). In that moment, the “man” declared Jacob’s new name as “Israel.”
With the granting of a new name, a significant change was about to occur in
Jacob’s life (17:5,15). From that day forward, Jacob was known as Israel
(“God struggles” or “God rules”). Only by clinging to God (32:28) could
Jacob hope to experience change in his life.
Source: Byargeon, Rick W. (Spring 2008).
What Happened at Peniel? Biblical Illustrator, (Volume 4, Number
34, p. 52).
Ask:
What did Jacob
learn from his wrestling match?
How did that
knowledge change his life?
Why is getting
alone with God a healthy part of crisis management?
What have you
learned from times when you have wrestled with God?
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Adult
Bible Studies for Life
Bible Studies for Life EXTRA
March 16, 2008
Living 3:16—It’s All About Love
Dana Armstrong
John 3:16; 1 John 3:16-20; 4:15-18; 5:2-5
Before the Session
For teaching plans and full explanations of all the verses in today’s lesson,
consult any of the Bible Studies for Life leader guides or
commentaries.
Make sure each learner has his or her own learner guide.
John 3:16
Enlist a volunteer to read John 3:16.
Explain thatGod demonstrated His love
for all people by giving His Son to provide eternal life.
Read the following excerpt:
How Do I Know God Loves Me? (Psalm 103)
Just as Jesus demonstrated his love to by his acts of
love and sacrifice while on this earth, his has always been a mission of
love from the very beginning. Psalm 103 explains how we can know that God
loves us.
One of the most vivid characteristics of God is that
He is a God of love. The psalmist was descriptive in recording the
love-nature of God
God doesn’t simply “love,” but He is love itself. Love
is not merely one of his attributes, but his very nature. The Scripture say,
“We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love” (1 John 4:16
NIV). To say that God is love, is not to imply that love is God. There is a
difference like there is a difference in me saying my dog is a girl and my
girl is a dog. God is love means that God wants the very best for you. God
has your best interest in mind. He wants to give you good gifts and provide
you with “all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2 NIV).
The psalmist uncovers all the phases of life that
God’s love has touched and in turn benefited and blessed the recipient.
Spiritually, God’s love removes the
barrier that separates us from him by canceling the debt of our sin so
that we can enjoy a loving relationship with him (v. 3).
God’s love removes our sins as though they never existed. “As far as the
east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”
(Psalm 103:12 NIV).
Emotionally, God’s love removes our
guilt (v. 3). Much of our physical and emotional illness
is due to moral failure. In removing the sin and guilt from our lives
God’s love brings healing to our emotional life.
Eternally, God’s love redeems us (v.
4). The pit the Psalmist refers to is the pit of death.
God’s love rescues us, fallen humanity, from our own bent on
destruction, and grants us eternal life.
Authoritatively, God’s love places a
crown of royal glory and authority on us (v. 4). God’s
love “hath made us kings and priests” (Rev. 1:6 KJV). He have been
crowned with his love and given a new citizenship on this earth and in
heaven.
Physically, God’s love meets our
needs (v. 5). Like a father he desires to give us good
gifts of strength and endurance. Jesus, the embodiment of God’s love
came enjoying life, and he wants his children to do the same.
Judicially, God’s love hates what is
wrong and embraces what is right (v. 6). Here we find a
major difference between divine love and what so often passes for love
among people. Often, love is expressed as that virtue that accepts
everything. But, God’s love always makes judgment calls. And, his calls
are always just and right.
What do we know of God’s love? We come to learn some
important truths regarding God’s love.
God’s love is all consuming.
God’s love touches every part of our life. Nothing—no calling or
circumstance, no adversity or advancement, no pain or promotion, no
status or station—escapes the brush strokes of God’s love. God’s love
bleeds into every fabric and fiber of our lives.
The number of
times the three-lettered word “all” is used in this text reminds us that
God’s love is all consuming. His love touches every area of our lives. There
is nowhere we can go to escape his love. There is no problem that we will
encounter that is not touched by his love. There is no advancement that we
will make where God is not already there. Even when our world falls apart,
we can say, “God, I don’t know why this is happening. I don’t understand it,
but I’m sure glad to know you love me.”
God’s love is personal. The Bible cuts through all the
philosophical abstractions and declares that God is a Person. As a
personal being God is capable of loving and being loved. God’s love is
not simply for mankind as a mass. It is not a sentimental, vague,
diffused feeling—something like Charlie Brown’s attitude when he says,
“I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” God really likes individual
people.
Notice the
number of times the personal pronouns “me” and “my” are used in Psalm 103.
When God says “I love you,” He is saying that you matter to Him. You are a
person of worth. You are valuable to Him. Regardless of what others think,
in His eyes you are wonderful.
God’s love is beyond comprehension (vv. 13-14). Amazing, isn’t
it? God knows me and still loves me. God knows that I am a sinner, yet
He forgives; I am diseased, yet He heals; I am in a pit, yet He pulls me
out; I am ungrateful for His good gifts, yet He gives them anyway; and I
deserve justice, yet He grants mercy.
If you really want to understand
love, don’t listen to love songs, or people who throw the term love around.
If you want to get to the depths of what it means to love and be loved, look
to the cross of Christ, because there God’s love came to mankind. The cross
is the ultimate expression of God’s incomprehensible love to mankind.
If you ever wonder if God loves you look to the cross.
The cross is God’s way of saying, “I love you this much,” with his arms
outstretched. God’s final words to us are etched on a Roman cross. They are
blood red. They scream to be heard. They say, “I love you.”
Source: Ezell, Rick. How Do I
Know God Loves Me? (Psalm 103). Retrieved March 4, 2008, from
www.lifeway.com.
Ask:
List words that
describe the love of God.
How would you
describe God’s love to an unbeliever?
Say:
“For God so loved…” are words that changed everything. We are not condemned to
eternal separation from God because of our sin. Because He is love, He made the
ultimate sacrifice of His Son on our behalf. He loves us so much that He did
what was necessary for us to spend eternity with Him.
1 John 3:16-20
Read 1 John 3:16-20.
Ask:
What
similarities to you see between these verses and John 3:16?
How do we
ignore the needs of others on a daily basis?
Explain that those who truly understand God’s love for
them realize they also are to act in loving ways toward other believers,
especially toward those who are in need.
Read the following article:
A Hug for Nancy
Over the course of a summer, we entertain 2,000 guests
in our hotel, The Logan, in Ocean City, New Jersey. Location is definitely
part of the draw—it's a block away from the boardwalk. My husband Larry and
I had first vacationed there ourselves 38 years ago. We enjoyed it so much,
that Larry would always say to the owners, "If you ever decide to sell the
place, let me know." I thought he was kidding.
Until 28 years ago, when we became the new owners of a
turn of the century hotel. There I committed my life to Christ. From that
point, our desire was to use The Logan to glorify God.
But on this particular summer day, I was having a
difficult time at the reception desk. Two ladies stood before me. One did
all the talking. The other never made eye contact or spoke a word.
"I wonder what's wrong with her?" I asked myself,
trying not to stare.
The two had booked a room with us for several days, so
I was going to be seeing them regularly. How should I handle this? I could
ignore the silent woman and treat her like she was treating me, or I could
treat her like I did all the other guests. I opted for the second choice.
"Hi, Nancy! How are you this morning? Did you sleep
well? You must have. … you look pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!" I'd
say as she came down the steps into the lobby. Inwardly, I chuckled at how
funny I must have sounded. After a day or two, I heard her chuckle, too. But
she never spoke.
The day the two were checking out came quickly. "Lord,
is there a gift I can give Nancy that would help her to know that you love
her?" I prayed. Searching my room, I found a little plaque, which I quickly
wrapped in tissue paper. Frantically, I ran through the lobby, out the door,
and down the front steps. I was relieved to see that Nancy and her friend
were still in the loading zone, packing the car.
"Nancy, here's a little gift for you," I said
breathlessly. Then, without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her and gave
her a big hug in the middle of Sixth Street. She remained stiff and silent.
I waved goodbye as I climbed up the steps.
A prayer of intercession pressed on my heart. "Lord,
you know what is wrong with Nancy. Why doesn't she talk? Why was she so
unresponsive when I tried to hug her? She reminds me of a puppy that's
hurting. I'll probably never see her again. But you will. Please wrap her in
your arms of love and heal her hurts."
I busied myself with hotel matters. My thoughts
concerning Nancy were prayerful but shrouded in mystery.
A few months passed, and we moved back to our home in
Maryland for the winter. One day the mailman left a lot of mail, most of it
forwarded to us from Ocean City, New Jersey. One letter was from someone
whose name I didn't recognize—until I began reading.
Dear Joyce,
You may not remember me. I'm the lady who didn't
talk. I really did love my time at the Logan Hotel last summer. You had no
way of knowing but you gave me a very special gift when I left—your hug. It
was the first time anyone has ever hugged me in my whole life! I know now
that God really does love me and I need to get close to him again. Thanks
for letting him love me through you. I will never forget.
Love, Nancy
I never dreamed that God would take such a small
effort on my part to bring about such big results. (All along I thought the
gift was the one wrapped in tissue.) I know in my heart that it was really
God who wrapped Nancy in his love that day. He only used my arms.
More than 20 years later, Nancy and I remain good
friends. We continue to send each other stationery and gifts with "hugs" on
them. I never cease to be amazed when I pick up the phone and hear Nancy's
cheerful voice on the other end. She still loves to tell others about the
healing that God's love brought in her life.
One of her favorite pastimes is to listen to praise
and worship tapes, something I believe God has used as a powerful tool to
restore her feelings of self-worth and confidence.
After Nancy moved to Florida more than 15 years ago,
she studied to become a medical technician. In 1998, she graduated from
Bible school.
Nancy continues to enjoy God's hugs more than ever and
gives them as well. When I attended a woman's conference in Florida, Nancy
surprised me by meeting me at the airport. Her warm hug was worth a 15-year
wait.
I wish I'd had my camera on Sunday morning when I
accompanied her to church. I watched in amazement as Nancy, in her role as
church greeter, hugged everyone who came through the door.
To this day, Nancy's life reflects Jeremiah 31:12d:
"And their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall never
languish again." I'm privileged to have sprinkled those first drops of God's
love into her life with a simple hug.
In what significant yet simple way did Joyce show the
love of God?
What was required of Joyce in order for Nancy to realize
God’s love for her?
What do you suppose would have happened if Joyce had
ignored God’s prompting for her to reach out to this particular guest?
What is sacrificial love? Describe ways we can show the
love of God in simple, yet significant, ways to those around us.
1 John 4:15-18
Enlist a volunteer to read 1 John 4:15-18.
Share the following story with class members:
Mary Carr –
Changing Lives in the Lower East Side
When Mary Carr left family and friends in rural
northern Alabama for Manhattan, she found the allure of the Big Apple
not in the towering skyscrapers and cultural flair, but in the shadows of
the inner city.
In the Lower East Side of New York City, homelessness, poverty, drug
addiction, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and AIDS — staples of inner-city
life — lie in wait, ready to devour the city’s innocent victims — its
children.
“My kids go through trauma every day — parents being arrested or a parent
leaving them,” says Carr, director of Graffiti Community Ministries’
after-school program, a ministry of East Seventh Baptist Church (more
commonly known as the “Graffiti church”). “It’s nothing for a first- or
second-grader to talk about their parents shooting up with drugs the night
before. It’s heartbreaking to know that when we walk the kids home, they go
back into all that.”
Then came Sept. 11, and trauma was redefined for these
inner-city children when the World Trade Center towers toppled.
“They didn’t have to watch it on TV; it was all in their
backyard,” Carr says of the children in her after-school program. While the
nauseating smoke from the worst terrorist attack on United States soil
has since dissipated, Carr says she will be dealing with the emotional and
psychological fallout for years to come.
“The experts can’t even tell us what to do,” says Carr. “They don’t know
what’s going to happen to our kids five or six years from now.”
She says the children have become increasingly violent in the wake of the
Sept. 11 attacks by throwing chairs and using profanity. “Just to see the
difference in the kids is heartbreaking. They’re scared that it will happen
again. They’re scared of airplanes. They’re scared of bombs. They’re afraid
they’re going to run out of food.”
For Carr, a Mission Service Corps (MSC) missionary with
the North American Mission Board, helping children and teens discover
Christ’s love amidst the daily traumas of life in New York City isn’t
a 9-to-5 job — it’s her life.
Four days a week, she is at the elementary school’s doorsteps each afternoon
to greet almost 50 children in her after-school program with a hug and
loving smile. For the next two hours, she and her staff shower the children
with love and discipline through Bible stories, crafts, snacks, games and
tutoring.
The children express their fears and anxieties through
their artwork, nearly always including a drawing of the fallen World Trade
Center towers. Carr and her assistants help assure the children of
God’s protection by teaching them Bible verses such as Psalm 56:3 and 118:6,
Philippians 4:13 and Joshua 1:9.
“Our kids know every curse word in the book, but they also know those Bible
verses,” says Carr.
The children also know that Carr will be there for them. “They know I’m here
every day,” asserts Carr, “and even if we have to send someone home because
of behavior problems, they know I love them and I want them back. I never
send a child home without checking on them that night.”
When she visits children at their home, their parents are often not around.
At first, Carr says, she held a lot of resentment for the parents until she
understood them.
“Those parents were these children 10 or 15 years ago,” she says. “I think
the parents love their kids to the best of their ability.”
And that’s what Carr does — loves and nurtures children the best way she
knows how.
Although intent on becoming an international missionary
at age 18, Carr developed a passion for helping children while teaching at
Vacation Bible School. She then served as a director of a daycare
while in college and later as a house parent at a children’s home. Then she
went on a tour of the Home Mission Board (now called the North American
Mission Board — NAMB).
“When you walked in the Home Mission Board, they had this huge picture of
Annie Armstrong, and all that time I was still thinking I was going to do
foreign missions,” recalls Carr. “They had wall-to-wall pictures on every
floor of home missionaries doing work. I just cried and cried. When I saw
the first picture, I knew I was supposed to be in those pictures.”
Before leaving the Home Mission Board that day, Carr had
an application for a two-year missionary assignment. Her assignment landed
her in Manhattan at the Graffiti Community Ministries Center in 1992.
She served there three years before leaving for seminary.
While away from Graffiti for nearly 15 months as a
student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.,
God reconfirmed Carr’s call to Manhattan. In fact, she became so
burdened for the children she had left behind that she withdrew from
seminary with just four courses needed to earn her master’s degree in
Christian education. She returned to Graffiti in 1997 and finished her
degree though an independent study.
Despite the dangerous situations she sometimes finds
herself in, Carr says she has never felt out of God’s reach. Once she
interrupted a drug deal at 2 a.m. while searching for a missing
child. Another time, while searching for one of her teenagers, she entered a
pool hall alone and faced a gang of men high on drugs.
When Carr begins to feel overwhelmed by the demands of
ministering in New York City, she says she reflects on how God helped
her deal with her brother’s death in 1985.
“If God could get me through that,” reasons Carr, “then He sure can help me
do whatever He wants me to do.”
Taylor Field, director of Graffiti Community Ministries and a NAMB
missionary, describes Carr as the hardest worker he’s ever known. “Mary Carr
has changed the nature of this neighborhood for Christ,” says Field.
For Carr, changed lives make the arduous paperwork of grant writing,
completing tax forms, writing letters, as well as planning menus, cooking
meals and cleaning bathrooms all worthwhile.
“I’m just blessed to see God work in different people’s lives,” says Carr.
Source: Weeks, Lee. Mary Carr – Changing Lives in the Lower East Side. Retrieved March
4, 2008, from www.lifeway.com. This
article appears courtesy of HomeLife magazine.
Ask:
How did Mary
Carr live confidently and express love without fear?
Give examples
of how we allow fear to keep us from showing love to others.
Say: Believers can consistently show love for God and others without
fear because they know God keeps on loving them and keeps growing their capacity
to act lovingly.
1 John 5:2-5
Enlist a volunteer to read 1 John 5:2-5.
Ask:
Do God's
children always keep His commandments?
Then how do we
know if we are His children?
Say:
God’s commandments are demanding, but we are empowered by the Spirit and can
experience victory over this world through obedience. Those who love God keep
His commands, and by doing so they experience the victory of living by faith.
EXTRA! is a supplement designed
to enhance and expand the effectiveness of printed curriculum provided by
LifeWay Church Resources.
EXTRA! is produced by Publishing
Services and Multimedia, LifeWay Church Resources, Copyright 2007, LifeWay
Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
SPECIAL NOTE: Some Internet
addresses given in EXTRA! are outside the LifeWay Internet domain. Because of
the changing nature of the Web, EXTRA! editors cannot be held responsible for
content on pages outside their control. At the time of this posting, the
specific pages mentioned have been viewed and approved by the EXTRA! editorial
staff. However, at the time of your viewing, the information on these pages may
have changed. Links from the specific page addresses referenced in this material
possibly could link to inappropriate material.
