From Noah to Jesus
- Lynn McCann
- May 14, 2014
- 2 min read
At the Good News Group we want to help our members understand that the whole Bible leads us to Jesus and this term we have been studying Noah. It being a short half term of 4 sessions the story of Noah just happens to take up 4 chapters of Genesis…so that was helpful – one chapter a week!
As usual we tell each part of the story in different ways so that the wide variety of people we have coming to our group can hopefully access the story on a level that is appropriate for them. Again, pictures, Makaton, sensory experiences and objects, repetition, simple and clear verbal language, puppets and drama have been used. Here are some pictures…
We have been through the story and not shied away from the harsh facts of people’s SIN (ignoring God) caused God to want to destroy them. I think our group are getting used to the concept of SIN (and GRACE!) as we tell the gospel through all our teaching – not to make them feel dammed – but to explain that we cannot earn our approval from God…and that wonderful glorious gift of GRACE that came through Jesus.
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Just before Easter as our teaching on the Easter story came to a close we set up a way for our members to respond to the gospel. This is not easy when we don’t know what our members understand but we trust the Holy Spirit to do His work and want to give a clear opportunity for everyone to come forward and receive Jesus as their saviour.
We use a set of dark and white cloths. The dark cloth represents our living in darkness when our SIN means we ignore and say ‘no’ to God. Each person is offered one of these (with added visual symbols to help them remember what it means) and then invited to come to the cross and exchange it for a white cloth which represents our SINS being forgiven and forgotten. We pray with our members in small groups or individually and always respect their choice of whether to respond or not. We tell them that a Christian is someone who has said ‘YES’ to God and believed in his son Jesus.
Like all analogies this isn’t perfect, perhaps a bit messy, but it is about empowering our members (and their carers) to make a decision about whether they want to be a Jesus follower or not. We cannot make that decision for them but are endevouring to present the Gospel in a way that they can understand and respond to if they wish. (And many of them have…)
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