Look at how I’m hurting! See how much I suffer! Take away all my sins. Leader/Parent Devotion Image Credit: RichLegg/E+/Getty Images That is okay! Together you and your children can learn to trust God with your fears-no matter how big or small they are. You may also have fears and questions too. Read through the entire activity ahead of time, so you can prepare the supplies you need.Īs you discuss this hard topic, you may not have all the answers to your children’s questions. You will need to choose an indoor or outdoor option for the activity in the Responding section. This activity teaches children that God is bigger than their fears. Regular type indicates information for you, the leader/parent. Bold type indicates things to read out loud to your children. Leaves or small stones or other small objects.In the face of criticism, peer pressure, political pressure, economic pressure, and family pressure, we must love Jesus and our siblings in Christ more than we fear rejection. Ethnocentrism, racism, and indifference to racial injustice do not reflect the truth of the gospel. Paul confronted Peter, Barnabas, and the others because “they were not following the truth of the gospel message” ( Galatians 2:14). Peter’s ethnocentrism caused the other believers-including Barnabas, who had brought Paul to the multiethnic church in Antioch-to be led astray.įear is contagious. He feared the good ol’ boys from Jerusalem more than he feared his good God. His right doctrine did not lead to right living (holiness). Despite knowing correct doctrine, he gave in to fear. Peter knew that Jews and Gentiles were equal in the family of Abraham through Jesus: he saw Gentiles receive the same Holy Spirit as Jews ( Acts 10:34-36). At the table of grace, there is no “separate but equal.” Jesus welcomes all to the banquet table of Abraham. But at God’s table of grace, all his kids are the cool kids. In middle school, you might have sat with the kids who were not cool, but then when the cool kids walked by, you got up because you wanted to be included with the cool kids. When the “friends of James” arrived, it was like a middle school lunch scene. Why did Peter turn his back on Jesus, his gospel, and his Gentile brothers? Because “he was afraid of criticism.” To eat with someone meant that you accepted them. The irony was that in Jerusalem, James, John, and Peter had told Paul and Barnabas to “keep preaching to the Gentiles” ( Galatians 2:9). Peter knew the Jewish believers from James didn’t consider the Gentiles full members of God’s family because they hadn’t taken on the ethnic badges of being Jewish (i.e., circumcision). Then Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles. Paul opposed Peter because Peter ate with Gentiles until “some friends of James”-one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem-arrived in Antioch. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.
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