God has a way of igniting a passion for Scripture in us. It’s a flame that cannot be lit by ourselves, yet we have a role to play in fervently and prayerfully digging into Scripture. As we do that, we stumble across the truths that lay open on the page yet hidden from our understanding until the Holy Spirit reveals them to us, one onion-layer at a time. We can spend a life-time studying the Bible and still never exhaust its message and meaning.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 [NIV]
In the same way that most adults find the Bible intimidating, teenagers often have a desire to get to know the God of the Bible, but they don’t know where to start.
Our goal over 2 years, 2021 - 2022, is to use the LIVE curriculum to guide teenagers into a deeper friendship with Jesus as we explore how the world, the Scriptures, and our faith began. We hope that by the end of the 2 years, they will find the Bible more approachable, they will have the tools to appreciate it and they will spend time in independent reading, reflection and application for the rest of their earthly lives, not because it’s a fascinating read, but because it will affect their eternal destinies.
Our approach is to step through the Bible, one book per week, introducing that book to teenagers. It would not be possible to cover a book it its entirety so, after providing an overview of the book, we touch on a specific passage from that book in a one-hour interactive discussion at Striders and Eagles on Sunday mornings.
Our first series as we step through the Bible is the Torah, also known by its Greek name, the Pentateuch, which includes the first five books of our modern-day Holy Bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The timeline starts at creation and the fall of man, and spans thousands of years of history. Major events on the timeline include the flood of Genesis, (the name of the first book itself means “the beginnings”), then the call of Abraham, then the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the birth of the nation, Israel. Leviticus details the laws of that nation. Numbers tracks the wanderings in the wilderness for forty years before the new nation was able to enter the land that God had set aside for them. Lastly, Deuteronomy is a review of the laws, and a book that Jesus quoted from often. The Torah was sacred to the Hebrews, is pivotal to everything that follows in the Bible and is essential reading even for us today.
If you missed this section which started on 31st January 2021, you can click on the links below to access a short overview of the lesson, a relevant worship song, a video, a memory verse and a daily application guide. In addition, questions are included for Connect Group discussions as well as conversation starters on the topic for parents to engage with their children and teenagers each week.
Please feel free to use the material provided. For assistance, please contact myself or any of the Protea Valley Church youth leaders.
We pray for your families regularly and would love to partner with you in discipling your children to love and follow Jesus.
Linda Bischof
email: youth@proteavalleychurch.org
YouTube: Protea Valley Flavoured by Faith
Instagram: flavoured_by_faith