Sunday, December 4, 2016

Jesse Tree (December 4)



Day 4:  Abraham (Genesis 12:1-7; 15:1-6)

Abram lived in Ur - an ungodly place where the people worshiped idols - when the One True God came to him.   

“Go,” God told him.  "I will show you along the way where to go.

Would you go on this journey to God knows where?  Would you pick up and leave your family?  Your friends?  The only home you’ve ever known?   

His journey was not to be accompanied by friends or family, but it came with promises – from the One True Creator God, no less:  "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you." God said.  "I will make your name great – everyone will know it one day, and you will become a blessing for the whole world.  I, God, will be with you.

Would you believe?

Abram believes, and the God who breathes life into dust, and makes one into two, and those two into three or four or fourteen or a thousand, becomes his God.   

Where would you go if God called?  What would you do if he asked?  

Through Abram God would bless all the families of the world, just as he promised:  Through a child of Eve, who was one of the countless children of Abraham.

This child is the child we are waiting for now.  

All of us all around the globe, every year through all time, we wait for him to come – that he might bless all the families of the world - all the families there ever were, and those not yet conceived.  This One is the consummate Christmas gift.  

Jesus, when will you come?  We need you!

Questions to Inspire Family Discussion: 
Have you ever moved?  What is it like to leave somewhere that you love?  To leave friends and family to go to a place you know no one?

Tell about a difficult thing that you knew God wanted you to do, and you didn’t do it? 
Is there something even now that you know God wants you to do, that for some reason you haven’t done?  What holds you back?
What can you do to change your response?
If God asked you to leave your country, family, friends, home, would you go?



Learn together:
When Abram was called to follow God he was called away from his home to a foreign land, and there, God would build his people.  We are called to go as well, to make disciples of Jesus, as he continues to build his people!

Read Matthew 28:16-20

Where would you go if God called you?

Take some time today to learn about a family that serves as a missionary, whether in your home town or across the world.

What does it look like to live this Great Commission as we go about our everyday?
What is God calling you to do?
 


Share the Good News with Others:         
God's promise to Abraham was that the whole world would be blessed through him, through the life of baby Jesus, and through his body alive and at work in the world today.  Choose some way to be a blessing to the world.

Pray together:
Father, I abandon myself into Your hands;
Do with me whatever You will.
Whatever You may do, I thank You.
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me,
And in all Your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into Your hands I commend my spirit;
I offer it to You, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into Your hands,
Without reserve and with boundless confidence,
For You are my Father.
(Adapted from here)

Sing together:
Who But You (Life of Abraham) (youtube) (chords) 
Steady My Heart (Kari Jobe) (youtube)
Psalm 19 - The Psalms Put to Music (Jason Silver)
Psalm 19 - Seedbed Psalter



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