Consider taking a baggie full of safflower seed to class. Pass it around and have members take some seed and place it in their hand. As you teach about the Parable of the Sower have members consider (“pay attention to”) the seed they hold. What do they see? What do they understand? Can they perceive God’s sovereignty? Do they understand His grace? Have them look carefully at the seed for heavenly meaning.
If the seed they hold were scattered on the ground, four possibilities occur. By God’s grace, some of the seed will sprout and produce a hundred fold. Praise God! But by His sovereign will some of the seed will not so much as germinate. Other seed will germinate, but quickly die. Lastly, some seed will germinate and sprout, but become stunted in growth and not be productive. God is awesome!
Jesus preached that people should repent. Those that do will perceive and know God and they will repent even more. God gives grace. However, those that do not repent will have even their ability to do so taken from them. God is sovereign.
To illustrate “looking but not seeing”, you could select some of the questions from this Power of Observation Quiz (a little tedious to get, but there are some useful ones in there!), and have fun with them in the class.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
A Point to Ponder:
Is there any special significance to Jesus saying to first gather the tares? Scofield and many others seem to say, "first gather the wheat into my barn", just the opposite of what Jesus says.
Well, my first reaction is that Jesus said it, so it must be so.
Looking at Scofield's notes, he bases his remark on 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, which I think refers to the 'harpadzo', or commonly called the rapture. Believers at that time will be taken first, but I think the parable of the wheat and tares is in reference to a final judgment.
Others reading this should weigh in on this, too.
Post a Comment