Hope you’ve had a good week! We have another challenge for you, and it is a tricky one today!
For this one, you will need two pencils, tape, wool or string, scissors and a few sweets. (Jelly babies are ideal if you have them, but any small sweets will do!)
First of all, tape the two pencils together, then tie a long piece of wool or string to each end. Lay the pencils on the floor and put a sweet on top.
Take the pieces of string and put them over your ears. Your challenge is to pull on the two pieces of string to raise the pencils up towards your mouth so that you can eat the sweet. If the sweet falls off, you have to start again. The challenge is to get the sweet into your mouth!
It might take a bit of practice!
Over the last five weeks, we have looked at the stories of people from the Old Testament of the Bible. We’ve thought about some of the people God used as leaders – Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, and David.
They were good leaders, but none of them was perfect. All through the Old Testament, God’s people were waiting for a special leader that God had promised to send – someone who was going to rescue the people from sin.
Today we’re looking at the New Testament of the Bible, when that person has finally come – it’s Jesus!
Watch this short video to hear the story of a man who met with Jesus:
Think for a moment: what does this story teach us about Jesus?
Do you remember the first thing Jesus said to the man when he was lowered down through the roof? Did it surprise you?
The first thing Jesus said was:
“Friend, your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 5:20 NIRV)
Maybe it seems a bit strange. Surely the man wasn’t asking to be forgiven; he was asking Jesus to help him to walk!
But Jesus saw that although the man needed his legs to be healed, he had an even bigger need. He needed to be forgiven for the wrong things he had done so that he could be friends with God.
In the end, Jesus forgave the man and healed him, showing that he cared both about the man’s obvious need and about his bigger need.
We all have different things we need, and it’s good to ask God to help us with those things – when we’re dealing with a problem, or when we’re sad or worried.
But all of us also have that deeper need – to be forgiven for the things we have done wrong, so that we can know God.
This is what the Bible says about it:
Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God… They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ. God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. (Romans 3:23-25 NCV)
Christians believe that we can be forgiven by putting our faith in Jesus and his death on the cross.
You might want to decorate a cross to remind you. Here are some ideas, but you can be creative and use what you have in the house.
Here’s a song you could listen to as you do that to help you think a bit more about what Jesus did.
Thank you, Jesus, that you were able to forgive the man and also to heal him. Thank you that you know what we need too, and that you met our deepest need by dying on the cross so that we could be forgiven. Amen.
