Fri Oct 24

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words predestined or justified.

Reading

Romans 8:28-32—Good Luck?

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

People often wish us good luck.
Christians don’t believe in luck.
Christians believe that God will work all for good for them.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

What’s wrong with the idea of good (or bad) luck?
What sort of things are outside of our control?
What sort of things are outside of God’s control?

Notes

(See last day for authors.. Today’s notes are from a commentary on Romans by David Seccombe)

Many wished us luck when we set out with twenty teenagers to drive eight hundred kilometres in an old bus. As we departed I prayed with these young travellers, explaining to them that Christians do not believe in luck, but in God who controls all things.

During the trip one of our vehicles turned over on a rough road. As I reached the scene to find my wife lying in the red dust, the vehicle smashed beyond repair and people wandering round in a dazed state, one of the thoughts which flashed through my mind was, ‘What do we tell the kids now?’ People reacted to the news in two ways. Some said, ‘What terrible luck!’ Others said, ‘How lucky no one was badly hurt!’ How much our lives are surrounded by the idea of good and bad luck!

Down through the ages people have struggled with the concept of luck and fortune. You can plan your life to a degree, but there are random forces beyond your control. The Greeks saw good and bad luck as ultimate forces above and beyond even the gods. The Stoics advised grim resignation in the face of adversity. Epictetus and the Buddha saw the problem in desire, and taught that we should eliminate it, and so become impervious to misfortune. Less considered is the proverbial approach: ‘She’ll be right mate! It’ll all turn out for the best’. Sometimes it does; often it doesn’t. Yet strangely, this easy optimism is very close to the Christian attitude to life and probably was learned originally from the Letter to the Romans.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 16d, 134b

Prayer

Give thanks that God is in control, not luck.
Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Sunday.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.