Everyday Faith Family Pages---A Free Resource

Are you looking for ways to help families connect to God's Word? Check out this free weekly resource from CPH: Everyday Faith Family Pages. (Click the title to go find these downloadable PDFs.) Pages for the current unit for Growing in Christ, New Testament 1, are located at the bottom of the page.

Each page is designed to engage parents and families in concepts related to that week's Sunday School lesson. They are organized to match our Concordia Sunday School scope and sequence, but they can be used in any congregation with any family. They don't rely on Sunday School content, and they don't assume Sunday School attendance. You can print and distribute these pages to students as a take-home resource, or you can attach them to a email to every family. Use these pages to . . .

• Inform parents of what their children are learning in Sunday School.
• Stimulate faith discussions in the home.
• Encourage families that don't currently attend Sunday School.

Try this resource today! Your families will be glad you did.

Thanks for teaching God's children His Word!

Responding to Violence

Too many times in the past few weeks, we and the children we teach have witnessed sudden, violent attacks on ordinary people, people going about their daily lives with every expectation of peace and safety. It may cause us and the children we teach to be afraid for ourselves and for those we love.

It may be that conversations and questions about such events will be raised by the students you teach. You may wonder, how should I respond?

Your response, of course, will be your own, but I would encourage you to include these three things.

• Lead your students in prayer for the victims of violence, their families, and their attackers. Yes, I believe that prayer is a valid response to fear. It acknowledges that, though we may feel powerless and vulnerable, we have a God who is powerful, who loves us so much that He gave His own Son into the hands of violent men to save us. Pray that God will calm our fears, comfort those who are injured or grieving, that He will protect us from all evil, and that He will turn the hearts of those who would seek to hurt us to love---for us and for Him.
• Remind your students of God's love and power. The God who protected Abraham as he traveled, David as he defended Israel from enemies, and Daniel when he was threatened for his faith, is able also to protect us and will do so according to His will.
• Encourage your students to be strong in faith and bold in witness. Teach God's Word, the good news of salvation, each week to nourish and sustain your students.

God would not have us cower in fear. Instead He calls us to trust in Him.

 God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Faith: Our Work? or God's?

"Faith is a divine work which God demands of us; but at the same time He Himself must implant it in us, for we cannot believe by ourselves." Martin Luther (Luther's Works, American Edition, 1959, 1987 CPH).

So often, this is the point at which heresy creeps in to our teaching of saving faith, for we see believing as our work, what we do in response to God's Word. But, on account of sin, we are enemies of God, unwilling and unable to believe in Christ as our Savior. But, "the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith" (Small Catechism,
Third Article).

What a gift! The very thing that God demands of us, He gives us! Thanks be to God!

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!