Judgement & Mercy

Sometimes our lives, families and churches look good on the outside, but inside we find our hearts are far from God. The same was true for the Kingdom of Israel. From the outside, led by King Jeroboam, things were looking alright. But God knew their hearts and he was going to judge Israel for their sin.

This Sunday we’ll be walking through the book of Amos, learning of God’s message of judgment through this prophet. As we work through this book with our kids there are two things we need to teach simultaneously.  First, God is holy, and he is perfectly just in judging sin. Second, God is merciful, he graciously gave us Jesus Christ to take the punishment of our sin and restore us to himself.

This week we want our kids to see the weight of sin, the damage it causes and the way it separates us from God. We want our kids to understand that God is good and right in his judgment of sin. And most of all, we want our kids to see through this week’s lesson that God had a plan to restore, to redeem, to save. And it all revolves around the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s own Son.

In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old

~ Amos 9:11