Wed Nov 11

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word sea and wind and waves.

Reading

Psalm 107:23-32—When God Calms the Storm

Optional Reading

Luke 8:22-25

Keys for kids

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

Storms when you’re in a boat can be scary.
God can calm any storm.
Call to God in your distress. He will answer.

Questions

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

Do you like oceans? Why or why not?
What sort of storms do you face in life?
What do you do when you can’t fix them?

Catechism

WSC #92

What is a Sacrament?

A Sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

(Genesis 17:7, 10; Exodus 12; 1 Corinthians 11:23, 26)

Children's Catechism 118-119

What is the fifth petition?

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

What do we pray for in the fifth petition?

That God would pardon our sins for Christ’s sake, and enable us to forgive those who have injured us.

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

I don’t like large bodies of water all that much. When snorkeling with Nancy (and two guides) in the lagoon off Tahiti, I experienced as near a drowning as I ever hope to experience.

The people in this section of Psalm 107 are not snorkelers, but sailors. And their day at sea quickly became one of those “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.” Yet no matter how bad it gets, God is in control, God is listening for the cries of his people, and God cares.

Spurgeon notes that navigation was so little practiced among the Israelites that mariners were invested with a high degree of mystery, and their craft was looked upon as one of singular daring and peril. And these mariners faced that peril up close and personal. And they couldn’t fix it. We may not be sailors, but we will also face storms, literal or figurative, that we can’t fix.

But God can. God always can. We are counseled all throughout this Psalm, to cry to the Lord in our distress and he will answer. And, when He does, we give Him thanks!

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 107d, 22c

Prayer

Give God thanks that He controls the wind and the waves.
Pray for change in you from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.