And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:9-11 ESV
As I write this, Christmas is two weeks away. I can’t believe that it’s crept up on me once again. This year I want to do a Christmas lesson for my small group guys that is a little different from what I’ve done in the past, more about that later. The next few lessons after the Christmas break will be Jesus and Gospel filled lessons. What better time than after celebrating the birth of Jesus to teach about Jesus, His life, His lessons and how he wants us to live our lives but most important, a relationship with Jesus.
This year my Christmas shopping is done early, well almost done, I’ll be done at the end of this week. This weekend our Senior Pastor began a series of messages about Christmas and this weekend he highlighted the topic of generosity at Christmas and all year-long. I made a promise to myself that this year I’m more concerned in my giving than in my receiving. Not sure yet how to get 16 high school freshmen to go along with that concept but I’m going to do my best!
This week I’ve begun to turn my quiet times and Bible reading to the books of Luke and Matthew and the story of the birth of Christ. I’m trying to look at that period in history though the eyes of each person mentioned in those verses, from the Shepherds to the Inn Keeper to Herod and to Mary and Joseph. I try to imagine the amount of trust and faith that Joseph must have had. You can create some great student small group lessons when you have your students imagine what it must have been like for the Inn Keeper to turn away the Savior of the World, or for Joseph to have total faith in the angel that visited him and told him a story about his fiancée that, well let’s face it, most of us would have a hard time believing.
How are you teaching on the Christmas story this year?
