Jesus Loves Families

 PRINCIPLES, PRESENTATION, & ATTITUDES FOR WORSHIPPING GOD (FAMILY DEVO) Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. Not everyone believes that all religious paths lead to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This means that the right way to worship God is through Jesus. Let’s learn six principles that should guide us as we worship in church. (Parents, this is an excellent time to teach your kids what principles are and how we implement them in our lives.) Principle I: God wants people who worship in spirit and truth. This means you should worship God as the Bible teaches: right actions, right attitudes.  Principle II: Treat God with Respect. Just like you would show respect to a king, you should show even more respect to God. Don't do things in wo...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. A typical family arrives at a church on Sunday and sits down. Mom and the kids slide into a pew, and Dad sits at the end near the aisle. They look around at all the new faces and feel a bit uncomfortable.  A young mom with two kids, a little boy of four and a girl who's two and a half, comes to church hoping to get closer to God. She struggles to keep her children quiet, worried she might be bothering others or that her kids might be too noisy.  Families from different church backgrounds come in. They're not used to our way of worshipping, which might confuse them.  We don't want them to feel out of place because if they do, they might not come back. Then there's someone who has never been to church before. They've already faced a lot of fear just to step inside. ...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. Today, we're going to talk about how we can learn to worship God the right way, just like He wants us to. Imagine you're playing a game, and there's a rule book. You want to play the game right, so you read the rules carefully. That's kind of like what we do with the Bible. The Bible is like God's rule book for life and how we should worship Him. The Bible tells us to do our best to understand what it says (2 Timothy 2:15). Think of it like trying to solve a puzzle. We want to put all the pieces in the right spots, not make up our own picture. The puzzle of Scripture has two sections, the Old and New Testaments, and three big steps God used to teach us His whole will for us to live by. The First Step was when God was teaching the very first people on Earth about H...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. In John 4:23, Jesus tells us that true worshippers will worship God “in spirit and truth.” Here's what that means: First, “in spirit” could mean different things: It might mean with the help of the Holy Spirit, so we're connected to God through Him when we believe and follow the Bible. Or, it could mean from our own spirit, the inside part of us that thinks and feels. This means we should worship with our whole hearts, not just by going through the motions. It might also mean with the right attitude, like being happy and sincere when we worship, not grumpy or fake. Finally, it could mean that worship isn't limited to a specific place; it can happen anywhere because God is everywhere. Since Jesus didn't specify, it’s best to say He means all of these things. So, what d...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. Hebrews 11:23–27 tells us that Moses endured a lot during his ministry, but he endured it all because he lived as if he could see God, even though God is invisible to us in this life. What would you do if you could see invisible things? Some people might think of movies or books where characters have the power to become invisible or to see those who can, but in real life, seeing the invisible isn't about magic or superpowers. It's about believing in real spiritual things that we can't see with our physical eyes. The Bible says faith doesn't believe in things without proof; it knows about things we can't see (Heb 11:1). God put a sort of invisible curtain between us and the spirit world so we wouldn't get hurt by seeing things we're not ready for. If God we...