Good evening brethren and Happy Sabbath!  Last week's memory verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (NKJV), "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Read below and see if you can get a helper to help find clues for this week's memory verse!

Lessons as a child

When I was a boy, my father did his best to teach me all things.  This often involved fixing things - cars, plumbing, electrical work - you name it.  If it could be fixed (or at least attempted to be fixed), dad worked on it. Wherever dad was, there I was - daddy's little helper!

Now that I have children of my own, I try to do the same for them.  I tell them what my dad told me, "When you're older and you have your own money to spend on things, you can decide if you want to fix it, have someone else fix it, or throw it away and buy new.  My job is to teach you how to fix it, so even if you don't want to fix it yourself, you have an idea of what goes into fixing it, so you don't get ripped off!"

More than words

As I grew, that principle translated across physical things, and into spiritual principles.  The challenges of adulthood - spiritual and emotional - far surpassed the difficulty of fixing a broken down car or leaky sink.  While each of us has to find the answer to life's big questions for ourselves, dad still helped by pointing me to the answer key - the Bible!

The Bible of course is the written word of God, and our 'repair manual' for life.  And while this is a valuable book, there is another vital component that our heavenly Father sent to help us out - the Holy Spirit!

Getting answers

Having the written word is one thing.  Having God's spirit to help us remember what is written in the Bible, then understanding how to apply it, is quite another.  Fortunately, we do indeed have that gift of the Holy Spirit, to help teach, lead and guide us in our figuring out of life's difficult problems.

Dad taught me a lot about fixing things.  But the greatest lesson he taught me was that in order to answer the big questions in life, I needed God's help, through the Holy Spirit.  It is that Spirit which indeed will teach us all things, and help us remember what the Bible teaches us about working out life's challenges!