Sunday School

The Greatest Gift

“I got an x box for Christmas it’s brilliant. You can play games really quickly and the pictures are amazing. It’s so exciting to play with my friends.”

“I got a Hugo Boss Tracksuit. It’s really cool and I look great.”

“I got a new I pad. It was very expensive.”

Amazing.

So many nice things to own and enjoy. Perhaps too many things?

In the end however expensive or brilliant they are they will wear out or break or get lost or we will grow bored or too old for them.

I know of a wonderful gift:

A gift that means that all the wrong things I do can be washed away

A gift that heals my hurts and comforts me through pain

A gift that gives me hope in difficult times like the ones we are going through now

A gift that says I’m valuable

A gift that gives me life beyond death.

When this gift was given even the angels sang for joy:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

Luke 2:14 NIV

Yes that small baby, born in weakness in a small stable is that wonderful gift.

Jesus

God with us.

His birth gives meaning to all of time and space and a wonderful purpose and meaning to our lives if we ask him to be with us and follow him.

Choose the best gift.

Lord Jesus

Thank you for coming to our world

As we celebrate the wonderful gifts and fun of Christmas

We ask that you would make a home in our hearts.

May we grow with you

May our lives be guided by you and your word

And may we live with you forever.

Amen

Happy Christmas to everyone and special love to all our Sunday School friends and Family. Though we have not met together for a while we have not forgotten you and hope that soon we will be able to meet again.

Lots of love from Colin and Sarah and Kay. Xxxxxx

End of Term!

See Colin’s message for the end of this year’s Sunday School term when we usually have a family service:

[pdf-embedder url=”https://portree-parish-church.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/28-June-2020-4.pdf” title=”28 June 2020″]

Fathers

Imagine the scene.

Little Ronald gets home from his shinty match starving hungry.

“Dad can I have some bread for a sandwich?”

“Sure son” says Dad while he sneaks a large bread shaped stone on to the plate…

Watch your teeth when you bite…

What kind of a horrible Dad would do that?

Yet we often think of God in a similar way.

We think that perhaps when we ask for something we will get something hard and damaging in response.

Perhaps he wants us to suffer?

Jesus knew how men thought and used that story in a parable  (Mathew 7 v 9 – 11)

Which of you, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

God is the ultimate loving perfect Father.

His very nature is Love. He will always give us what we need.

This love is truly reflected in the best answer to all our prayers and dreams.

Jesus.

In his life death and resurrection all prayer is answered with justice and love.

The stone was thrown aside

And the true bread of life made available to all his sons and daughters who ask.

Prayer

Lord we thank you on this day for our Fathers and honour them for their sacrifice.

We thank you that you are our loving Father too.

Whether our human fathers were good or bad or whether they tried or failed.

We thank you that any stone of hurt or harm placed on our lives can be rolled away and swallowed up in the new life that comes through Jesus.

Amen.

Winners and losers

When I was a boy I used to play a lot of games with my twin brother.

Whoever won would sing a song:

“I am the winner, you are the loser”

It always felt horrible to be the loser.

The world we grow up in often sorts us out into winners and losers.

Have you got money, popularity, power? Are you athletic and clever? Do you get what you want?

Are you a winner in the game of life?

Jesus understood that we all run after these things but told us that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6 v 33 )

He also said that the person who loses his life, who lays it down for others is really the winner of life

and that in the the end the first shall be last and the last shall be first. (Matthew 20 v 16 ).

In the desert Jesus was tempted to change the world through power, popularity and provision.

(Matthew 4)

But instead He chose a life of service and kindness that ended with a humbling death on a cross.

In the eyes of the world He was a failure.

A loser.

Those that hated him were alive and well and still in power.

Yet His life, death and return to life again has changed the world and everyone in it forever.

We know that in the end Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13 v 8).

We can serve and care for one another and not be losers but winners.

And even when we fail and do wrong things and when we are wronged and hurt by others, we can come to Him for healing and forgiveness.

Let us Pray

Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for us.

We bring to Him our lostness and our hurts.

Heal us from the pain of loss and sin.

Help us to gain our lives anew in this world and the life to come.

In the victorious name of Jesus

Amen.

After the fire

At some time in our lives everybody feels sad.

It may be because something bad has happened.

It may be because we have worked too hard and not rested.

It may be because we are disappointed that things have not turned out as we wanted them to.

It may even be that we have achieved so much, even reached our goal but then feel empty.

Sometimes there is not even a reason.

We just feel very sad.

This lock down has not helped

And many people feel down.

In our Sunday School before lockdown we looked at a man called Elijah. (1Kings ch 19 v 1 – 16)

He did great things for God and had strong faith to obey and see great miracles.

But he was still human like us and one day, even after seeing a great miracle he felt alone and very sad and a bit useless.

He even prayed that God would take him out of this life.  He was very depressed.

All he could do was repeat over and over again

I am just as bad as my ancestors, I am all alone, he lost hope.

God appeared to him first in a strong wind, and then an earthquake and then a fire.

But after the fire came a still small voice which helped him.

Which gave him hope,

Which gave him purpose.

It lifted him.

Today listen for the still small voice of God.

He tells you He loves you.

He tells you that He sent his son to die so your sins are forgiven.

He gives you a fresh start with his Spirit.

Move on.

Let us Pray:

Father. We are all too human and weak.

Reach out to us in our sadness and loss. Touch the hurting parts of our lives with your love and forgiveness. Give us new purpose and renewed faith.

In the wonderful name of Jesus.

Amen.

After the Feast?

I don’t know about you but I find myself eating more under this lockdown.

It is one of the strange things in life but often, even when you have eaten a lot, you still want a bit more. Even after a giant feast like Christmas dinner there always seems something missing.

A longing for something more, one more chocolate, one more crisp, we want something else even though we are full.

Is it just me?

Jesus understood this longing for something more in people.

He knew that despite all our activity and all our trying there would always be a God shaped hole in our lives. Some need we could not meet.

He knew that we could never be satisfied by just what we eat or own.

In the Bible (John 7 v 37 – 39) we read how Jesus said we could be helped:

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday when The Holy Spirit, who Jesus talks about in the words above, was given to those who believed  (See lesson from 2 May). 

We need the Holy Spirit in our lives to be truly satisfied.

Are you thirsty for meaning

Thirsty for significance

Thirsty for help

For forgiveness

For the Bible to not just be in your head but also in your life?

Then come to Jesus. Believe in him.

Let him pour out his Spirit to those who thirst.

Reach out with courage.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus

We come to you in our plenty and we come to you in our lack.

Fill us with your Spirit we pray.

Meet the deep unspoken needs of our hearts for meaning and value.

Make us your willing helpers

Through acts of kindness and love.

Amen.

Running

One of the good things about this lockdown is that most of us are still allowed to go out and do exercise every day. As an unfit overweight older man this is a bit of a challenge but I’m guessing that you kids run about like mad.

Do you ever get dirty shoes?

It’s so easy when you run around to get tangled up in stuff. Things have a habit of sticking to us. Mud, bracken, briars and pollen. I even had a sheep tick stuck to me once.
Things stick to us when we run.

The Bible describes life as a race ( Hebrews 12 v 1 – 2 )

It says that as we try to live a good life for God things can easily tangle us up.
The things that we do wrong like lying or being unkind trip us up.
Bad things that people say or do to us trip us up.
Cruel words can stick to us for years.

The Bible calls this sin.

The good news is that because Jesus died on the cross we can be untied and disentangled from the sin that so easily entangles us. We can come to him and he will set us free from the wrong things that we have done and also heal us from the damage that others have done to us.

Have you been tangled this week? Done things you know were wrong? Spoken harsh words? Thought nasty things? Have things stuck to you? Fear, sadness, memories of harm?

Draw near to Jesus.

Let us Pray:

Dear Jesus. Thank you that because you lived as a human in this world you understand our failings and fears. Thank you that we can draw near to you.
Forgive us now the things that we have done wrong, that cause us to stumble.
Heal us from the hurts and wounds that others have labelled us with.
Set us free to run the race of life with you as our guide and helper.
Amen.

Know that you are forgiven
Know that you are loved.

Light in the darkness

Hello again everyone. Last week we looked at a man who had a vision of Jesus in the last book of the Bible. This Sunday we are going to look at a man called Abraham who also had a wonderful experience of meeting Jesus when all seemed dark but this is from the first book of the Bible in Genesis chapter 15.

Are you afraid of the dark? I know sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night it can be a bit scary. You wonder where you are? Is anything hiding in the dark?

It’s nice to have the light on, or a candle or a torch. It can give us comfort and help show the way.

About four thousand years ago a man called Abraham was sitting in a deep and dreadful darkness.

He had tried to follow God as best he could but all he could see was darkness and sorrow. In fact God showed him that some horrible things were going to happen to his people and that they would even be slaves for 400 years. How awful! Imagine having a dream like that!

But God also promised him that these difficult times would end, evil had a limit, and that in the end, when it was over all would be well and that they would all be free and have all they needed.

(v 12- 16)

To show that this would really happen a blazing torch and fire lit up the darkness and God made an unbreakable promise to Abraham that all would be well in the end and that pain and suffering and death are only allowed a limited time and influence in this world.

Over two thousand years later Jesus said

“I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8 v 12 )

I believe that He himself was the blazing light that shone through the darkness and so encouraged Abraham all those years ago. I believe that because of his death and resurrection God’s great promise of life and hope remains sure and our troubles and darkness do not last forever.

Follow him.

Let us pray:

Thank you Jesus that you are the light of the world.

Shine your love deep into my heart today and give me faith to know that in the end even the darkest night will be over and all shall be well.

Amen.

Keys

Hello again everybody. Hope you are all well.

Do any of you have keys? Keys are important things as they help you to open up and lock things.

What type of things do we lock up?

Animals perhaps, precious items, money in a money box?

Perhaps you lock the house when you go out?

Keys help you to lock things in but they also help you to set things free.

Imagine how happy a little bird is when someone unlocks the cage it is in and sets it free to fly away into the wide and open sky.

Keys are precious especially the ones that set us free.

About 1824 years ago on a remote island called Patmos a man being held as a prisoner had a wonderful vision of Jesus.

The man was called John. He was very old and was suffering. He had been locked down on the island because he was a Christian and had to work hard in the hot mines by day and the nights were cold. He felt lonely as many of his friends had died and he wondered if the early church would survive.

Suddenly Jesus appeared to him and gave him hope. One of the things that Jesus said was

“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Revelation 1 v 17 – 18)

What fantastic news!

Despite our sufferings and loss we are not locked into death and suffering forever. The risen Lord Jesus has the keys to set us free from death and the  pain that comes from doing wrong things.

He is the first and last, He fills  all things with his love, all beginnings all endings, all hurts, all joys, all trials and all victories.

Though times are hard at the moment let’s take encouragement from these words of our Lord that have endured through the centuries and reach us now in our remote island.

Let us Pray

Lord Jesus, thank you for the hope you put into our hearts.

Thank you that you rose from death victorious and hold the keys of death and suffering.

Set us free from fear today, unlock your grace and life to flow over us and help us to fly free in the power of your new life.

Though we may weep now or be sad we know that in you Love and life is the final word

Amen.

Lesson 2 May 2020
His Spirit gives us comfort
After Jesus had risen from the dead he told his followers to wait in Jerusalem until he sent his Holy
Spirit to help them. ( Acts 1 v 4 – 5 )
They were sad and afraid. Hiding indoors.
Jesus seemed distant despite the miracles they had seen and they were worried about what would
happen in the future.

Sounds a bit like our own circumstance?

But Jesus had promised that he would not leave them as orphans alone in the world. So on the day
of Pentecost he sent his Spirit to fall upon them in tongues of fire and to live inside them to help
them know his presence and to grow in godly Character. ( Acts 2 v 1 – 4 )
This made all the difference.

People who were afraid and uncertain suddenly found renewed faith and confidence and were able,
though few in numbers, to proclaim boldly the truth about Jesus and to build the early church that
despite persecution is now the basis of faith for millions across the world.
We may not have such dramatic lives or impact but the Holy Spirit is still available to us right now to
strengthen and comfort us in times of difficulty and to help us produce the good fruits of love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control in our lives together.
( Galatians 5 v 22 )

Let us Pray
Thank you Jesus for your grace,
Thank you Father for your love,
Holy Spirit bring that comfort of grace and love into our hearts.
Still our fears, make us bold for you.
Increase our faith and help us to grow more in the small acts of kindness and forgiveness that reflect
your love to others.
Amen.

Finally some pictures from a few of our lovely children that do indeed reflect the joy of knowing
God. An Easter window from Alexander and a joyful Easter sunrise from Beth and Kathleen.
All the best xx

[pdf-embedder url=”https://portree-parish-church.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sunday020500-copy.pdf” title=”Sunday020500 copy”]