Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

8 4 / C O R N E R S T O N E C U R R I C U L U M M E N T O R ’ S G U I D E

Again, the objectives represent the “residual message” (i.e., those ideas that, after all is said and done, we want the students to be left with) of the lesson. You ought to spend ample time reviewing them before the class session, and lead the entire learning event with a discussion of what they are, and why they are important. Do not hesitate to discuss these objectives briefly before you enter into the class period. Draw the students attention to the objectives, for, in a real sense, this is the heart of your educational aim for the class period in this lesson. Everything discussed and done ought to point back to these objectives. Find ways to highlight these at every turn, to reinforce them and reiterate them as you go. This devotion focuses on the promise of God as the foundation and heart of both the structure and life of the OT, and its fulfillment in the NT. The most credible, simple, and compelling way to structure our understanding of the biblical materials is in the motif of promise and fulfillment : God from the beginning declared that he would send a Savior who would once and for all time remedy the situation that occurred due to the voluntary and senseless rebellion of our forbears, Adam and Eve, and the futile revolution of Satan against the authority and rule of God. This promise and its fulfillment represents the very structure of biblical revelation, and makes clear the relationship between the Old Testament (as expression of the promise), and the New Testament (as its clarification and fulfillment). Our English word “promise” is related to the Latin term promissa , defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “a declaration or assurance made to another person with respect to the future stating that one will do or refrain from some specified thing, usually in a good sense implying something to the advantage or pleasure of the person concerned”. While the Hebrew does not appear to have a word that communicates specifically this meaning in particular, the idea of promise is clearly present in the use of dabar , translated hundreds of times in the way we use it today, i.e., promises made between people, or those made by Yahweh with his people (Deut. 1.11; 6.3; 9.28; 15.6; 19.8, 1 Kings 5.12, etc.).

& 2 page 129 Lesson Objectives

& 3 page 130 Devotion

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