SFL
Reptarium Middle School is celebrating Smoke Free Lizard Week (SFL). But is the special speaker really smoke free?
Before You ListenLet's Get Started
Theme: Fighting the need to lie.
1. Psalm 31:18 talks about silencing people who are lying. Have you ever lied to avoid getting into trouble? Did it work? How did you feel?
2. Jesus says he is, “the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6). But he calls Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). As you listen this episode, think about whose side you’d rather be on?
After you listen
Quiz
Reflect
There are a lot of lies in this story. The temptation to lie is strong. For example, we use little lies to excuse our laziness or bad habits. We use big lies to cover up bad behavior, or to fool someone into liking us.
In Jeremiah 28, the prophet Hananiah lies. He tells the people of Israel that some of the prisoners Babylon took captive will be set free! This makes the people very happy. He hopes that by telling this lie, the people will like him. Jeremiah is encouraged too. But he warns the people that you can tell a real prophet by the fact that his prophecies come true. God knows that Hananiah is lying. So God tells Jeremiah that the prisoners will not be released. Instead, the the king of Babylon will become even more powerful. And God punishes Hananiah severely for lying to his people. Proverbs 19:5 reminds us, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not go free.” It may seem to make things easier to tell a lie. But in the end, it will make things worse.
Want to dig deeper into what the Bible says about lying? Check out Proverbs 12:22, Colossians 3:9-10, and Ephesians 4:29.
Challenge
How can mixing up just a little bit of the truth make everything all wrong? Take this Bible Quiz! Can you find (and correct) the mistakes in the following Bible story descriptions?
- God told Noah to build an airplane so that Noah could save all the flowers in the world from a flood.
- For worshiping God, Daniel was thrown into a freezer full of ice cream.
- Sarah laughed when God promised she would have her very own washing machine.
- Jesus was crucified on a cross, buried in a cave, and on the third day, the disciples ran away.
How did you do? Here are the correct sentences:
- God told Noah to build an ark (a big boat) so that Noah could save some of every kind of animal in the world from a flood.
- For worshiping God, Daniel was thrown into a den full of hungry lions.
- Sarah laughed when God promised she would have her very own baby son.
- Jesus was crucified on a cross, buried in a cave, and on the third day, he rose from the dead.
Telling mostly the truth just isn’t good enough for Christians. Christians follow God by telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
