Sin separates me from Jesus

The Basic Idea: To demonstrate that our sins separate us from God and that only through repentance do we have a relationship with Christ. During this lesson the presenter cuts sins out of the center of a piece of paper which brings "Me" closer to "Jesus". The paper will never be in two pieces showing that Christ' purpose is to bring you to salvation. He will never leave you or forsake you.
How is the trick done? The piece of paper has rubber cement all over the back and a HEAVY COATING OF TALC OVER THE RUBBER CEMENT. The paper is folded and each sin is cut off from the folded edge, by cutting both sides (The Jesus and Me sides) of the paper at the same time. The paper stays together because as you cut the paper the rubber cement from both sides is pressed together by the cutting of the scissors. The cut edge actually rebonds itself back together. This is a very light bonding of the glued edges so do not man handle the paper, and do not let the kids handle it or it will come apart. The Talc is there to keep the glued backs from sticking together. Please note that any trick can go bad and all tricks require practice. Do not try to do this cold in front of your class.

Introduction:
Concerning the trick that I am about to teach you: PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THE PEOPLE (CHILDREN or ADULTS) THAT YOU SHOW THIS TRICK TO WILL WANT TO KNOW HOW THE TRICK IS DONE. IT IS A SECRET THAT IS ONLY TO BE SHARED WITH OTHER TEACHERS! IF YOU TELL EVERYONE HOW THE TRICK IS DONE, THEN EVERYONE WILL KNOW ITS SECRET, AND THE TRICK WILL NOT BE AS POWERFUL. I AM SHARING THIS WITH YOU IN THE UNDERSTANDING THAT YOU WILL HANDLE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS TRICK IN AN ADULT MANNER, AND NOT TELL HOW IT IS DONE TO EVERYONE YOU SEE. REMEMBER, THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO TEACH USING THIS TRICK TOO!

Equipment:

1) 1 sheet of paper
2) pen,or pencil, or magic marker
3) Scissors
4) Rubber Cement
5) Talcum (Talc) Powder

Set-up:

As you can see from these examples, you start with a piece of paper. Write or type "Jesus" at the top and "Me" at the bottom. Find the center of the paper by folding the length in half. Do not write or type any sins on the "Jesus" side of this fold. On the "Me" side of the fold write or type several sins. Completely cover the back of the paper with Rubber Cement and let dry. Then Completely cover the Rubber Cement with Talcum powder.
With Jesus at one end and ME at the other end, fold the paper in half so that "Jesus" and "Me" are now back to back. They are not glued together because the Talc keeps the glue from gluing them together. With "Jesus" and "Me" back to back, you always cut at the fold end with the list of sins visible to your audience. At this point your audience sees "Me" at the top with a list of sins under "Me". They can not see "Jesus" because "Jesus" is folded up directly behind "Me". Cut the sin off that is closest to the fold. As you cut the sin off the scissor is actually exposing a new clean (UnTalced) glue edge at the cut edge and squeezing the two cut edges (Jesus side and Me side) together to glue the two edges back together as you cut. The two edges are glued together, not the backs. Everytime you cut a sin off, the cut edge becomes the new fold edge (see above). I know that this sounds weird, but you are actually cutting and regluing the paper edges back together at the same time along the cut edge. It is a neat trick. This is not a real strong joint so be careful, straighten (unfold) the paper out so your audience can see the entire paper. From a distance, you can not see the cut edge well. It looks like it had just been folded. Point out that when you repent of your sin, the distance between "Me" and "Jesus" is smaller. We grow closer to Jesus. Most people repent of all of their sins at one time. They remove all of the things that block their relationship with Jesus all at once. What we are trying to show is that sin blocks our relationship with Jesus and repentance brings us closer together. You can cut the sins off one at a time if you wish or all at once, which ever works for you.

What to say and how to say it: Hold up the piece of paper (flat, with no fold) and show that on Jesus' end of the paper there are no sins (1 John 3: 4-11).(Heb. 9: 14-15, John 20:31, 1 John 2:1) Jesus has no sins (1 John 3:5). He is perfect . On the "Me" end of the paper is a list of sins. Each sin stands between "me" and "Jesus". There is only one way to cut out sin and that is through repentance(2 Peter 3:9; 1 John 1:3,7-8; 1 John 2:1-6, 25 ). (Fold the paper at the center and hold it up with the sin side up, so the audience can see it.) Every time we repent, Jesus is true and faithful to forgive us of our sin. If our sin is (say whatever sin is closest to the fold, Stealing in this example). We cut that sin out of our lives by repenting. Why don't we all practice repenting by saying this prayer. "Father, your are the great forgiver of sins. I have sinned, please forgive me of the sin of (Stealing in this example) in Jesus' name." (Cut the sin that is closest to the fold (Stealing)off of the paper by cutting both sides of the fold.) (Hold the paper up again so that everyone can see that the paper is still in one piece. Note that when you cut out the sin "Me" actually got closer to "Jesus". Repeat the steps of repentance and cutting out the sin as many times as you need to cut out all of the sin on your paper.(At this point the paper should be short enough where "Me" should be right next to "Jesus") This is Gods perfect will, you and Jesus standing side by side in righteousness. All of your sins are gone. (1 John 3: 1-24)
You May find these verses helpful: James 1: 26-27; James 2: all and chapter 3; James 3:8-18; 1 John3: 11-24;
An additional reference is our lesson "Agape Love: the opposite of Love"

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