Family Growth Term 4 2018

Week 1: How Do You Know God Exists?

Big idea

Believing in God can be hard, but Jesus shows us the God who is worth believing in.

Bible passage

Acts 17:16-34

You will need

-A glass Bowl or clear container

-A drinking glass

-Piece of paper towel

-Water

All Ages Activity

Pour water into a bowl. Confirm with the group that the glass is empty. Stuff the paper towel into the bottom of the drinking glass. Turn the glass upside down and submerge it into the water.

See what happens – the paper towel does not get wet. You can check by lifting the glass straight out to find the paper towel dry. Ask the group if they know why it stayed dry. The air in the glass prevented the towel from getting wet.

Try the experiment again, but this time slightly tilt the glass to the side after putting it into the water. What happens? Do you see a bubble rise to the top of the water? This is the air coming out of the glass. And is the paper towel still dry or did it get wet?

Discussion:

We cannot see, hear, touch, smell or taste air but we don’t doubt that it is there. We can see evidence of it in our experiment and in the world. We have no doubt that without air we cannot survive.

We cannot see, hear, touch, smell or taste God so we need to look for evidence of Him. One of the best pieces of evidence we have is the eye witness accounts of his son Jesus who demonstrated the power of God by controlling the weather, healing the sick and not dying after he was killed on the cross. Like air we need God to survive, it’s through Jesus that we have the promise of eternal life.

Prayer idea

Dear Lord

Thank you that you have made air for us to breath to keep us alive. Help us to be totally sure that you exist the way we know that air exists. Thank you that you have provided evidence for us of your work in the world, especially in the eye witness accounts in the Bible. Thank you that through Jesus we can be with you forever.

Amen