Review From January 23

Hi friends,

Hope you are having a great week!

We continued our talk on making good choices by discussing the topic "How do I know God's voice"

We started by having everyone take a partner, and then, with eyes closed, find that partner in a room full of other people calling to their own partner.  It was chaos.  And the lesson is that we have so many different places to turn to in making decisions, how can we identify God's voice in all the noise!

Then we turned to our Bibles and read the story of Gideon. (Judges 6)  Gideon was a judge in Israel.  He was told by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites.   God told him through an angel that He would be with him.  To test that the directives were actually coming from God.  He put out a fleece - twice - and asked for opposite results - first that it would be wet while the ground around is dry, then that it would be dry and the ground around would be wet.
God answered Gideon's request each time, and so when God asked Gideon to do something crazy (like reduce his army from 32,000 to 300 men to battle) we don't see him questioning God, or testing him again, he simply obeys.  The bible tells us not to put the Lord your God to the test, but it also shows many examples of God-loving people testing God and having those tests answered (Peter walking on water, Thomas needing to touch the scars of Christ to name a couple)  God is gracious to us, and knows our hearts.  He desires our hearts to want the things that He wants.

Next, we read James 1.5-7
This passage gives some good advice, starting by asking for wisdom.  It tells us that if people ask for wisdom from God, he will give it to them. 

Still in James, we read James 3.17. 
This verse shows us the result of asking for Wisdom.  Wisdom from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine and sincere.  Do you want to see these things happening in your own life?  Once God grants us wisdom, we will see these things growing in our lives.  But that also means that if the choices we make don't lead us to be all these things, then that probably means that we are not making good choices.

And finally, we read 1 John 4.1-6
John reminds us in this passage, that assuming that other people are giving God's message to us is a little naive.  People are human and will allow their advice and words to be swayed by other influences.  That means that our part is to test what they say with the Bible and see if it lines up with what He says. 

Our memory verse is James 1.5.

Remember that you can earn points for your team by doing your homework question (posted in the Pulse, and on the blog every week - 2 points per answer) and by memorizing the weekly memory verse. (5 points) also, you can look for bonus points posted here on the blog too. 

For this week's bonus point, I want you to tell me your favorite bands/or songs.  it doesn't have to be Christian music, I just want to know what you are listening to.  I will give 3 bonus points for this answer.

Have a great weekend!  See you Sunday!
CP