God Calls Isaiah

Bible Point: Respond to God's holiness with worship.

Key Verse: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:6).

Bible Exploration: Isaiah 6:1-8

To think about and discuss:

• How did Isaiah respond to what he saw and heard? Why do you think he said what he said? Isaiah was awestruck; he immediately knew that he was insignificant and unworthy; he instantly recognized God’s glory and worth; he thought he was ruined—he must have thought that to see God would kill him.
• What did a seraph do to Isaiah, and why was that necessary? The seraph touched Isaiah’s mouth with a hot coal to cleanse his sin; fire purifies; the coal represented God’s wrath; the coal symbolized purification; we have to be holy to be present before a holy God.
• How can we balance our need to revere God’s holiness with our desire to see God as a close friend? We need to remember that while God loves us, he’s still God; we need to have God’s holiness in our own lives as well.
• If we really recognized God’s holiness, what difference would it make in how we view our sins? in how we respond to God? in how we respond to other people? in our church services? in our worship time? We would better understand how our sins grieve God, and we would seek his love and forgiveness even more; we would take God’s presence in our lives and our church more seriously.

Family Challenge:

• Gather together and talk about what life would be likeif everyone was perfect and never sinned. (You mighttalk about serious things, such as how people wouldn’t hurt other people and all family members would always get along. Or you might talk about funny things, such as nobody would ever yell at the family dog.) Then think about God—how he is perfect and has never sinned. Explore how God feels when we sin and why God wants usto remember his sinlessness and glory and why we should humble ourselves before him.

Jonah Complains About God's Compassion

Bible Point:
Have compassion for people who don’t know God.

Key Verse:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some
understand slowness. He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Bible Exploration: Jonah 3:10-4:11

Many people are hostile toward God. Some people think that the
Bible is just another book, that they can find God in their own way,
that everyone will go to heaven, that God causes evil, and so on.
Some of these people go out of their way to be rude and hostile
to Christians. Yet, as we’ve seen during our lesson today, Jesus
not yet come back to earth because he wants everyone to have
opportunity to repent of their sins and receive him as Lord and
Savior. He doesn’t want anyone to spend eternity in hell.

To think about and discuss:

• Why is God so patient with people?
• When each of us realizes that God has compassion for all of us— Christians and non-Christians—what difference should that make in our lives today?
• Why do you think it’s hard for some Christians to keep reaching out with the love of Christ to people who seem to want nothing to do with God? Is there a limit to your love and patience with non-Christians?

Family Challenge:

• “Interview” a non-Christian friend. Get his or her perspective on what Christians are “really” like. Just listen, and try to understand why your friend has these perceptions. Ask God to give you insight on how you can best represent Jesus to others.

Jonah Learns a Lesson

Bible Point:
Following God’s direction is always the right choice.

Key Verse:
"The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in
them, but the rebellious stumble in them”
(Hosea 14:9b).

Bible Exploration: Jonah 1:1-3:10

Many of us are familiar with the story of Jonah. Jonah knew specifically what God
wanted him to do and made a very conscious choice to rebel against God and go the
other way. Sound familiar? Adults so often say, “If only I knew what God wanted me to
do…” But in reality, we often do know, and we often choose our own path rather than
God’s. Rebelling against God’s good plans for us is never a good idea! Today’s lesson
will help adults realize that following God’s direction is always the right choice, and it’s
also always the best choice for us.

To think about and answer:
• According to Jonah 1:1-10, what did God tell Jonah to do? How did Jonah respond?

• According to Jonah 3, how did the Ninevites respond to what Jonah said? How did God then respond to the Ninevites?

• Why do you think God gave Jonah another chance?

• What did these verses reveal about what happens when we don’t obey God?

Family Worship Challenge:
• Play Follow the Leader with your children. Have family members participate in lots of fun activities, such as sliding down the stairs and eating ice cream. Then talk about what it
was like to follow a leader in this game. Use this time to begin a discussion about what it means to follow God’s direction. Talk about the things we do that God doesn’t want us to
do. Then talk about God’s willingness to forgive us after we sin, and draw pictures of happy people who have asked for—and received—God’s forgiveness.

Wilomina Grace Dixit

Kumar and I are happy to announce the birth of Wilomina Grace Dixit. Born 5-28-08 at 9:19am and weighing in at 6 lbs .5 oz, we are very happy another baby girl in our lives. Jaelin and Eli are ecstatic to be big siblings and we now we are settling in at home.

For those of you who have been emailing and calling with your good wishes and prayers, thank you sooo much! We feel so loved by our church family and can't wait to show her off in person real soon. -Rej