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A Melancholy Man
The character for this week's lesson is Jeremiah. Create a word picture of him for your notebook.
Jeremiah was a melancholy man whom God used to prophesy.
What qualifications did Jeremiah have to be a prophet? What qualifications did Jeremiah think he had?
Did Jeremiah think he was capable of doing what God wanted him to do? Describe how God can use a person who thinks he is small. Do you know of anyone like this?
Jeremiah was known as “the weeping prophet.” How can a sorrowful person like that be used by God?
A Lesson from God
“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel” (v. 6).
Maybe like you, I have some pieces of pottery in storage somewhere that I made in grade school. They are in storage because I am not proud enough of them to put them on display. But they have been “fired” in the kiln, and are beyond improvement. They can only be changed by breaking them, and then they are just trash.
Maybe like you, I have some pieces of pottery in storage somewhere that I made in grade school. They are in storage because I am not proud enough of them to put them on display. But they have been “fired” in the kiln, and are beyond improvement. They can only be changed by breaking them, and then they are just trash.
I am so glad that God always has a way of reshaping the clay! Lives of abuse and neglect sometimes seem to create a permanent piece, and people despair that anything new or beautiful can come from their piece of clay. But God has a unique way of reshaping even lives that have been made hard by sin.
A year ago our church began a ministry called Celebrate Recovery. Every other Wednesday night we watch a testimony supplied by the national organization of the transforming grace of God. When the testimony ends, the words I hear most in our men’s group are, “I would have given up on that person long ago.” But God didn’t. Instead He reshaped the clay.
Do you think you are beyond reshaping? Do you feel the hurts of life have made it impossible for you to be the person you were meant to be? (Gordon L. Snider)
A year ago our church began a ministry called Celebrate Recovery. Every other Wednesday night we watch a testimony supplied by the national organization of the transforming grace of God. When the testimony ends, the words I hear most in our men’s group are, “I would have given up on that person long ago.” But God didn’t. Instead He reshaped the clay.
Do you think you are beyond reshaping? Do you feel the hurts of life have made it impossible for you to be the person you were meant to be? (Gordon L. Snider)
Give God the broken pieces!
Jeremiah: A God-Called Man
Focus Text: Jeremiah 1:4-19
Central Truth: The faithful Christian can be confident of God's deliverance.
Objective: By the end of this lesson my students should be able to explain our confidence in God's deliverance even when suffering for Him.
Lesson Outline:
I. The Call (Jer. 1:4-10)
II. The Confirmation (Jer. 1:11, 12)
II. The Consequences (Jer. 1:13-16)
Handling Problems
Work together to create a word picture of Job for your character notebook.
Job was a patient man who endured temptation and suffering.
Job 1:3 says that Job was a great man. Why was he great? What personal characteristics helped him to be a leader?
How was Job able to handle problems that came up in his life? Do we have different problems today than Job had? How can we establish a trust in God like Job had?
Job's Response to Trouble
“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (v. 22).
Satan’s plan has now been put into action. Job has just received word of the loss of his wealth, and the devastating loss of his children. Anyone of these things would be enough to cause anyone to have a tremendous emotional reaction — a reaction from the base of one’s being; a reaction that would reveal the true heart of one’s character. It did this for Job. At this point, Satan should have given up and gone away. What was revealed about Job’s surrender to and trust in God is here made absolutely clear by the way he reacted to this news. In verse 21 we see that Job considered everything that had been taken away to be some- thing that was from God and had never ceased to belong to God. It was God’s to do with as He so chose. Job had a human reaction of grief, but the spiritual reaction of unwavering faith was the witness of where his heart was. The witness given of him by God is here found in verse 22. God, who saw his heart, didn’t observe any sin nor doubt as to how com- pletely Job trusted Him. (Tim J. Brubeck)
Satan’s plan has now been put into action. Job has just received word of the loss of his wealth, and the devastating loss of his children. Anyone of these things would be enough to cause anyone to have a tremendous emotional reaction — a reaction from the base of one’s being; a reaction that would reveal the true heart of one’s character. It did this for Job. At this point, Satan should have given up and gone away. What was revealed about Job’s surrender to and trust in God is here made absolutely clear by the way he reacted to this news. In verse 21 we see that Job considered everything that had been taken away to be some- thing that was from God and had never ceased to belong to God. It was God’s to do with as He so chose. Job had a human reaction of grief, but the spiritual reaction of unwavering faith was the witness of where his heart was. The witness given of him by God is here found in verse 22. God, who saw his heart, didn’t observe any sin nor doubt as to how com- pletely Job trusted Him. (Tim J. Brubeck)
“Perfect submission, all is at rest . . . lost in His love” (Fanny J. Crosby).
Job: A Patient Sufferer
Focus Text: Job 1:1-3, 8-22
Central Truth: Trust in God is the key element in enduring trials.
Objective: By the end of this lesson my students should be able to identify rewards for being patient in suffering.
Lesson Outline:
I. A Godly Man (Job 1:1-3)
II. A Devilish Scheme (Job 1:8-19)
III. An Unshaken Integrity (Job 1:20-22)