Jo led family focus on 8th March 2021 as follows:

Opening Prayer

Questions:

What is God like? How would you describe God?

Bible Reading:

Exodus 34:6-7:

The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out,

“Yahweh! The Lord!
    The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
    and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
    I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
    I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
    even children in the third and fourth generations.”

Discussion:

What do you notice about God is in these verses?

God of love and God of justice.

How do you reconcile yourself with God being loving, compassionate and slow to anger on the one hand and on the other punishing wrongdoing to the third and fourth generation?

Bible Reading: God’s justice & mercy: Romans 3: 23-26

Conclusion

Analogy of a Police Officer – if a Police officer let criminals go we would not consider that Police Officer to be good. In the same way if God is good he must punish sin.

God’s love and God’s justice are two sides to the same coin. Focusing on one without the other is an incomplete picture of God.

Understanding God’s justice helps us to have a deeper appreciation of God’s love & grace & helps us to have a fuller understanding of the gospel to share with others

Activity

Jo prepared small circles to resemble coins and asked the family to make coin rubbings on the coin shaped cards. One side of the coin – 2 pence or 10 pence piece – on one side of the card and the other side of the coin rubbed onto the other side of the card. To finish the family each wrote Justice on one side of the cardboard coin and Love on the other side.

Prayer

Jo Jo

Written by Berry Bunch Jo