This week we see examples of God freeing people from bondage. But there are different ways to be a prisoner – both spiritual and physical. As you read Acts this week, ask your children to look for examples of what we can be prisoners of, and how we can be set free.
Monday February 22, Acts 16:1-5
Today’s Takeaways:
- Paul is joined on his travels by Timothy and together they continue travelling and preaching the Word.
- All the churches are growing both in faith and in numbers.
Today’s Talking Points:
- Get a map of Paul’s missionary journeys and see if you can find all the places mentioned in today’s verses. (Hint: they are often in the back of Bibles, but if you don’t have one here is a map of Paul’s second missionary journey)
- What do you think life was like in these cities 2000 years ago?
Tuesday February 23, Acts 16:6-10
Today’s Takeaways:
- Paul lets the Holy Spirit guide him while he travels around the region preaching.
Today’s Talking Points:
- Have you ever had a feeling or heard a little voice telling you to do a certain thing or make a certain decision? Did you obey? Did it give you peace in making that decision if you were unsure?
Wednesday February 24, Acts 16:11-24
Today’s Takeaways:
- A woman named Lydia becomes a believer after she hears Paul preaching. It must have been really amazing to witness people hearing and opening their hearts to God’s word. But notice that she didn’t open her heart and Paul didn’t open her heart. It was God himself who opened her heart to Him.
- Fun fact: because of the location where Lydia lived she’s considered the first European Christian convert.
- Paul (and Silas) command a bad spirit to leave a slave girl. That should make everyone happy, right? Wrong.
- The bad spirit helped the slave girl predict the future and that’s how she makes a lot of money for her owners. They seek revenge on Paul and Silas by turning them in to the authorities for disturbing the peace. And Paul and Silas are physically punished and jailed.
Today’s Talking Points:
- Why do you think Paul commanded the spirit to come out of the slave girl? After all it seems like she was confirming their message? (she was set free and not controlled by the evil spirit)
Thursday February 25, Acts 16:25-40
Today’s Takeaways:
- Peter and Silas pray and praise God throughout their night in jail.
- An earthquake came and opened the jail. But Paul and Silas did not run away (as most of us would probably do!) They stayed and were still there when the prison guard returned. He was so amazed that they stayed, he asked what he needed to do to be saved. If they left, he might not have been baptized then. To God, every single life is important.
Today’s Talking Points:
- We don’t know much about the jailer, but it seems his conversion was sudden. What do you think caused it?
- Why do you think Paul and Silas didn’t want to just leave secretly, but rather wanted to be escorted out?
- Has there been recently a time when things were really hard, but you still chose to be grateful and cheerful? (maybe even last week?)
Friday February 26, Acts 17:1-9
Today’s Takeaways:
- Paul and his friends keep traveling and preaching (have you been following on the map?) until they get to Thessalonica. As in other places, they earn many converts.
- However, there are still many people who are scared of the unknown and jealous of their popularity and success, and they want to put them in jail again. This time Paul and Silas are not found, but their new Christian friends are punished instead.
Today’s Talking Points:
- Today we read about one of the responses people might have to hearing the Good News (jealousy, anger and riot). Why do you think people might have reacted like this? What’s important to remember is that the Holy Spirit led Paul to keep sharing the message no matter what the people’s response was.
- Why did Paul always go to a synagogue when he arrived in a new city?
Munger Kids 