Daily Devotion, July 4, 2020

Devotion: Read Acts 9:1-22.

  The story of Saul is one of the most fascinating in all of the Bible. If his is not the most complete reversal of life trajectory in the Scriptures, it has to be in the top three. He was totally opposed to the followers of Jesus Christ. He was convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah and the people who were teaching that he was must be stopped. Their movement had to be wiped out. It was having too much of an impact. Saul believed they were messing up the minds of the people with their proclamation that Jesus was alive and belief in him would save them from their sins.

  Then he met Jesus himself. On his way to arrest some more of Jesus’ followers, the Lord appeared to him and completely turned him around. He would go on to be known as Paul. Instead of trying to tear the Church down, he would now spend the rest of his life building it up. He would travel thousands of miles by land and water to tell as many people as he could about Jesus. He would preach and teach and write about what God had done through Jesus and was continuing to do through the Holy Spirit.

Adult Challenge:

What aspect of your life needs a complete turnaround? Seek guidance and courage from God to make it happen.

Youth Challenge:

I think there are plenty of directions you can go with this scripture. The direction I want to focus on today is redemption and God’s grace. Here we see a man who has made followers of Christ his enemy and has set out to “do away with them.” Yet, God saw something greater in him and a greater purpose. I think many times we can think we have done something so awful that God has turned His back on us. I also think we can fall into the trap of asking God’s forgiveness and truly leaning into Him, but then we don’t forgive ourselves. Here Paul gives us a great example of accepting forgiveness and moving forward. What do you need to ask forgiveness for today? What is holding you back from living your God given life to the fullest?

Children's Challenge:

What You Do:

• Set out markers and give each person in the family a piece of paper.
• Draw a T-shirt design that tells something about who they are. Explain that it’ll be called a “Me-Shirt T-Shirt” because it’s all about them.
• If kids need help with ideas, ask them to name something that’s important to them such as their family, a pet, a favorite toy, or something they enjoy doing like sports or reading. Encourage kids to include something that represents their faith or love for God.
• As you feel led, share the gospel message with the kids as they work on their Me-Shirt T-Shirt design. You might consider using the avenue of your personal testimony to help kids understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Briefly tell the kids how you came to faith in Jesus.

 

God LOVED us. Before we were even born, God loved us. But something called ‘sin’ separated us from Him. Sin is the stuff we do wrong. Because God is perfect, sin keeps us from having a relationship with God.

 

God GAVE us Jesus. God knew that our sin would keep us out of His family forever, so He gave the most important thing He had: His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sins and fix our broken relationship with God. Jesus gave up His life on the cross to pay for our sin and make a way for us to be part of God’s family again.

 

We BELIEVE in Jesus. Believing simply means to trust. In order to accept God’s gift of salvation, we believe that we have sinned and that Jesus took the punishment for our sin.

 

We RECEIVE the gift of eternal life. That means we get to spend forever with God in a place that He made perfect. And once we receive this gift, it can never be taken away. There is nothing we can do to lose our place in God’s family.

 

(Note: Depending on your kids, it might be a good idea to simply “plant the seeds” and have a conversation about salvation, without explicitly leading kids to take the step of faith..)

 

• When everyone is finished, allow each person a few minutes to share their T-shirt designs with one another.

 

 “If you wore a shirt like the one you designed on your paper, people would know something about your story, wouldn’t they? They might know about your family, some of the things you like to do, and what you’re good at. They might even know the most important part of your story—your love for God and your faith in Jesus. None of the Me-Shirts are exactly the same, just like our lives and our stories. Jesus wants to use your story to make a difference. He wants to help you discover all the great things about yourself and how you fit into His great, big, amazing story!”