Jesus is Working in My Life

Application:

The lesson we learn from coupled pendulums is that they are bound together, and Christians are also bound together in close friendship with God and Jesus. Jesus promised to never leave us nor forsake us until we meet Him on that great day in Heaven! God keeps us safe day by day by His power, love and care for us.

Materials You Need:

Three pieces of soft rope about a metre in length.
Small screw hooks.
A hand-drill with a 1mm drill bit.
Masking tape.
Two solid hockey balls.
A table.

Preparation:

Drill a small hole in the hockey balls and insert a small screw hook into both. Tape two pieces of rope to a table top as shown in the figure and attach the other ends to the screw hooks on the hockey balls and allow them to dangle as pendulums. At the right time tie the third piece of rope to the two pendulums about one third of the way down on each side of the vertical ropes.

Effect:

By taking advantage of resonance, you can cause the two pendulums to swing in identical cycles. This represents that if we serve Jesus, He promised to keep us true to Himself until the day we go to be with Him in Heaven.

Performing the Effect:

Demonstrate how the pendulum balls swing in their own patterns but do not influence each other.
Now allow the pendulum balls to come to rest and tie the third piece of rope to the two pendulums about one third of the way down on each side of the vertical ropes.
Carefully swing one ball sideways in the same plane as the other ball. As it swings it will start to swing the second ball as the cross-rope pulls it in the same direction as the first ball.
Eventually, the second ball will take over and begin to swing the first ball in the same manner.
This alternate swinging will continue for quite some time since the two pendulums are coupled together.

Text:

1 Peter 1:3-5.

Swinging on My Own

A pendulum reminds us that Jesus promised to keep us until that day when we will live with Him in Heaven (Set up the two pendulums). Let's let the left-hand ball represent Jesus. If we start this ball moving, you can see that it keeps swinging at the same pace for a long time. (Start the left-hand pendulum swinging). This talks to us about the greatness and power of God.

The right-hand pendulum can represent us. Now if I start this ball moving it swings like the left-hand one. (Keep the left-hand pendulum swinging and start the right-hand pendulum swinging in a different rhythm to the left one). I see that both pendulum balls swing in their own patterns but don't influence each other.

Coupled Together:

This is like we were, before we asked Jesus to come into our hearts. We did not know Him and He had not written our names into His Lamb's Book of Life. We were not children of God and did not read or obey the Bible. However, if we couple the two pendulums together (Tie another rope to both pendulum ropes about 1/3 down from the table top). Let's start the Jesus ball swinging again, while the other ball (ourselves) is stationary. Look, after a time the first ball has started to pull the our ball and get it swinging. 1 Peter 1:3-5 shows us how we are kept true to Jesus by the power of God:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - reserved
in Heaven for you, who through faith are kept by God's power."

Our Heavenly Flame:

Jesus has put a heavenly flame deep in our souls. Sometimes the flame seems to burn brightly. At other times when we go through hard trials it seems to burn less brightly. Paul has encouraging words for us in 2 Timothy 1:12 when things get tough:

"For which cause I also suffer these things.
Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that day."

It is precisely at these times when Jesus gives us a pull and keeps us going. Just as the first ball will pull the second and start it swinging in time with itself.

Pulling Jesus' Pendulum:

We see that sometimes we get so filled with joy and zeal that we start to pull on Jesus' pendulum! (Reset the pendulums). I'm going to swing our ball. Now it's swinging Jesus' pendulum ball! When we do this, what joy we bring to Jesus as our lives shine brightly to those around us.

This reminds us of the time when Jesus sent His disciples out to preach. How Jesus rejoiced when His disciples returned, singing praises for the miracles that God had performed. The lesson we learn from the coupled pendulums is that we are bound together with God and Jesus. We share friendship with Jesus and He promised never to leave us or forsake until we meet Him on that great day in Heaven!

God bless!