Jacob's Testimony: A Catechism Teaching the Praises, Strength and Wondrous Works of the Lord (Children & Youth)

By R. Joseph Ritter, Jr.

Teaching the Christian faith to children, young adults and those new to Christianity can be a daunting task. Many resources portray Jesus Christ as coming on the scene of an unfolding drama in the world, heroically reinvigorating those who believed in God, and showing us a whole new side of God. Other resources overlook the rich examples of God’s work in the world in the Old Testament. Jacob’s Testimony demonstrates with Scripture that salvation through Jesus Christ had been planned long before His birth and invites a reinvigorated understanding of the Old Testament. An in depth exploration of the Old Testament lays the groundwork for the salvation and eternal life that are now available through Jesus Christ and the power that can be ours through the Holy Spirit. An exploration of the New Testament ties the theology of salvation and faith back to the Old Testament at every step of the way.

Jacob’s Testimony may be used as a teaching resource in your own home, or in churches and small groups. Each chapter includes Scripture reading and discussion questions to help the reader apply the material. When Jacob’s Testimony was written, the author had in mind that a parent or spiritual leader would review each chapter with the reader. For parents, this is a great way to spend meaningful time with your kids and share your own stories of faith and your journey with Christ. You can keep up with the reader's progress, answer the reader's questions, and ultimately invite the reader to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

An optional leader's guide is also available.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Joseph Ritter, Jr.
• Release date: Jan 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310617539

R. Joseph Ritter, Jr.

R. Joseph Ritter, Jr. CFP® is the founder and president of Zacchaeus Financial Counseling, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving the financial planning and financial counseling needs of lower and middle income households. Joe received his Master’s Degree in World Mission and Evangelism from Asbury Theological Seminary. His non-profit leadership and Christian ministry includes such past positions as Student Minister, Director of Outreach, volunteer Chaplain with Transport for Christ International, and co-founder of Community Chaplains Association, a non-profit organization ministering to residents of assisted-living and retirement facilities. He is the author of 25 Days of Christmas Devotional, Sacrifice and Submission in Marriage, Jacob's Testimony, and You're Called to the Ministry. Now What?

Book preview

Jacob’s

Testimony

A Catechism Teaching the Praises, Strength and Wondrous Works of the Lord

Children & Youth

Grade 6 & Up

R. Joseph Ritter, Jr.

Smashwords Edition

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author of

25 Days of Christmas DevotionalTM

and

Sacrifice and Submission in Marriage:

Unlocking the Promises of Christ Through Obedience

and

You're Called to the Ministry. Now What?

ISBN 9781310617539

© 2013, R. Joseph Ritter, Jr.

Cover Image: Silhouette of father and son, Dubova, 2013

Used under license from Shutterstock.com

Scripture quotations taken from the

New American Standard Bible®,

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

The title of this book is adapted from Psalm 78:2-8, which reads:

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, 6 That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, 7 That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, 8 And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

This book is intended for use with children and youth ages 6th grade and up and is intended to be supervised by an adult in a Christian environment. This could be a parent at home, a teacher at school, or a Sunday school teacher or pastor at church. At the end of each chapter are discussion questions which the reader should answer and then discuss the answers and any other questions or comments with the supervising adult. This works best if it is done after each chapter and before the reader begins the next chapter. The questions provided are not intended to be exhaustive and are simply to encourage the reader to apply the Scripture reading and create an atmosphere in which additional questions can be discussed. The adult may use the companion leader’s guide for additional support in discussing the answers with the reader.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Greatness of God

Creation

Sin, the Curse and the Flood

Abraham: A Lesson in Trusting God

Joseph: A Lesson in Forgiveness

The Covenants

Ten Commandments

A Twist on Idolatry

Redemption: The Theme of the Bible

God’s Providence is Sufficient

God’s Practical Wisdom: Psalms and Proverbs

Prophetic Voices: Not Just a Minister

The Passover and the Throne of David

The Coming Judgment

Salvation and No Cheap Forgiveness

The I Will Statements of Christ

Regeneration and the Holy Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit

The Grace of God

Surrendering to Christ

Our Battle Ready Armor

Tithing: Not Just About the Money

Prayer

Call to Ministry: Using our Gifts, Talents and Abilities for God

Persecution, Tribulation and the End Times

Your Commitment

Introduction

They say necessity is the mother of all invention. This book is written out of necessity and is, therefore, an invention of my mind, heart and relationship with Christ. It is written with the best of intentions, and I have spent a great deal of time studying the Bible, reading books by Christian authors of long ago, and praying over the best way to raise my children.

As my children grow more quickly toward becoming teenagers and young adults, my concern for their spiritual welfare and eternal destiny grows in equal proportions, yet I have come to place my trust and belief in Jesus Christ because I am merely a steward of these children. My parents led by example, and I know that the best I can do for my children is to also lead by example, convey to them the things of God, and present them with an invitation to accept Christ as their Savior. Still, there was an immense amount of discovery on my part of what it meant to be a Christian and comparing what I saw in the world and the church to what I read in the Bible. The parents can only do so much. At some point the children will stand on their own two feet, and then the parents have to trust that they have taught their children well enough to follow Christ in spite of what happens in the world.

The world is not kind or even safe. The world is so vast, earth is such a tiny speck in the universe, and evil is lurking around every corner, so having something meaningful to hold onto and believe for significance and safety in the world is critically important. This book was necessary to me because I was not able to find a published resource that accomplished the tasks I felt must be undertaken if I am to be a parent that pleases God and teaches my children about Him in the best way I possibly can. There are a vast number of catechism materials and devotionals that are intended to introduce children to God. Many of them do a good job, and I would even encourage other parents who may be reading this to use those materials along side this book.

It is my opinion that those other materials fell short in a number of areas. One key area is the link between the Old and New Testaments. In these other materials, Jesus Christ is presented as a figure who enters the middle of a drama that was already unfolding for 2,000 years, without any background explanation for why His birth, death and resurrection were necessary in the context of the entire Bible. Other resources focused their attention on devoting a child’s life to Christ and building their spiritual faith but spent little time on the historical gems of the faith.

The significance of this book is that it tells the major stories of the Old Testament in the context of our daily life in Christ and relates the significance of those stories to today’s world. Nothing in the Bible is outdated because God does not change. The struggles faced by Old Testament characters are no different than they are today, only the faces on the dangers and struggles have changed. The other significance of this book is that it links Jesus Christ to the Old Testament and, more importantly, explains in detail the different ways Christ fulfilled the Jewish laws and rituals of remembering God’s work in their lives, such as the Passover and the Ten Commandments.

I once witnessed to a man and started with the law and the lamb. In my mind, there is no Christ if there is no lamb, there is no lamb if there is no law, and there is no law if God does not exist. I felt silly witnessing that way because I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about, however, I have always found it difficult to speak of Christ as an unannounced character entering an unfolding drama.

The rest of the book is centered around practical application of the Bible to everyday life. I spent a lot of years just trying to figure out who God was and why He was important in my life. I also spent a lot of time sorting through church doctrine that was not entirely accurate, and calls to ministry fueled more by emotion than a sincere thirst for God’s true design of my life and for my life.

If I can help any of my children to keep from falling into the pitfalls I fell into as a teenager and young adult and to ultimately reach the goal of eternal life, then this book will have met its intended purpose. If my book helps anyone else, then I will have fulfilled God’s design for my life.

The Greatness of God

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Scripture Reading: Job 38 and 39 (read the Scripture before you read this chapter)

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The Bible is for you to read. I am not going to write about every single verse or story in the Bible. This book is not intended to be an exhaustive Bible reference help, commentary or concordance. What I want you to take away from reading this book is how the Scriptures can come alive and be real and meaningful to you. The Bible can be read like any other book – it has an extensive amount of information, some historical, some practical and some that aims to persuade you. After you read the Bible, however, you may not have a full understanding of who God is. This is because the Bible is not alive to you. In the Bible are many references to God being the living God. The reason for this is to set God apart from the idols made of human hands, which are inanimate objects, and to help us understand that God is actively at work in the world. There is only one way to make the Bible come alive, and that is through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and allowing the Holy Spirit of God to enter into your heart.

Why you should do this is the subject of this first chapter. God is a great God. An example of who God is can be found in Exodus 3:13-14: Then Moses said to God, Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them? 14 God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM; and He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

Great is the God who only needs to be known as the I am. God claims to have created the universe, the fish in the sea, all the creatures of the animal kingdom, all plant life and even all human beings. I doubt you will ever encounter anyone else in your lifetime who will make such claims and have any evidence to prove he or she would be capable of such a task. The God who created the universe is the God who existed long before creation occurred. In Revelation 1:8, we read, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’

The human mind cannot even begin to comprehend what this means. A question I have pondered many times is this: If God created the universe, who created God? The answer is that God always existed, and all the claims and promises God makes in the Bible are empty and meaningless if He is dependent on someone else to fulfill them. The significance of an eternal God who is all-powerful is that He is fully capable to fulfill every promise He makes at any time He pleases. God offers us eternal life and a permanent place in his heavenly kingdom. While we cannot even begin to understand the significance of eternal life, such promise is cheap and empty if God is dependent on someone else to fulfill it.

The God who can help a missionary in China endure his final moments as a martyr, give the gift of love to a poor, hungry mother in Africa, and comfort a frightened child in North America all at the same time is no small God. He is capable of even more than this, though, and does more than that every day.

God is a great God, and because of His greatness he deserves our utmost reverence, respect, admiration, fear, trust, love and obedience. He deserves our best.

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Discussion Questions

What did you learn about God from reading the Scripture lesson?

Why is it important that God is a living God? Read Matthew 16:13-18. What does it mean to you that God is living?

How are the weather, animals, sea and stars in the sky controlled? Read Matthew 8:23-27 and write your thoughts about these verses.

Creation

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Scripture Reading: Genesis 1 and 2 (read the Scripture before you read this chapter)

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Was creation completed in seven of our days or were days longer then? Psalm 90:4 says a thousand years are as one day to God, so could creation have been completed in seven thousand years? One of the reasons, I believe, for this question is the age of the earth. Modern scientists continue to try and make arguments for time before people lived in the earth. They try to argue that the earth is millions of years old. If the earth really is millions of years old, then how did it come into being as a young planet and what would it have looked like? Could life have survived with everything being in infancy?