Please join the Preschool and Children’s department as we pray for God to awaken the hearts of the parents within our community and our church. Every minute of every day there is a battle raging for the hearts, minds and attitudes of each family member within our community and within our church. Please pray that as parents we start focusing on the eternal matters of life and not the temporary matters of the flesh. We need to come together as one body united in Christ. There is nothing more the Devil desires than to divide us by tempting us with selfish desires. We must stand firm and stand together against the Devil’s schemes!

A Few random thoughts for the day:

I have been working my way back through the New Testament lately and I ended up in my avid coffee drinking wife's favorite book of the Bible Hebrews.

Chapter 2 especially caught my attention today.  Verse one states "we must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away".  

In our ever growing A.D.D. world (squirrel) have we lost the capacity to pay careful attention or do we consciously decide not to pay careful attention to the spiritual warfare that takes place around us daily. We often times stick our heads in the sand and try to not make decisions based upon eternal matters.  We act as if matters of eternal consequent are secondary to temporal acts of the now.   I think we try our best not to pay careful attention because if we did we might not make the all the same choices and we might not be able to keep up with the Jones' as our flesh compels us to do.  

What are we to pay careful attention to?  The Bible compels us to pay careful attention to the message of the Gospel and Christ's redemptive work on the cross.  According to 2 Corinthians 5: 17 if you are saved in Christ then you are a new creation. the old is gone and the new has come.  We are to pay careful attention to how we represent Christ as new creations and to how we sacrificially love others.  We are to play close attention to weather or not we are producing the fruit of the Spirit through our actions and behaviors.     

As you look at your life have you paid careful attention?

The WORD

the Bible teaches us in 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Have you had a chance to read David Jeremiah’s new book “I though I Would Never See the Day”?  It addresses the issue. 

We are living in an era of increasingly Biblical ignorant Christians.  We all too often rely on feeling or personal opinion about major issues.  I’ve been to several conferences where scripture seems to take a back seat to personal opinion or cultural theism.  I encourage all Christians to stand on the rock that is the Word of God and not to deviate!  We need to build a generation that understands and knows how to use scripture and that starts with us as leaders and parents.  Never make the assumption that your audience knows the implicit scripture.  Stand on the Rock of Scripture and proclaim it!

Hebrews 5:12 moving from milk to meat.   By our failure to engage children in the Word of God today we are raising a generation of increasingly Biblically ignorant adults in lieu of keeping kids entertained today.  Just take a quick look around, how many bloggers and children’s ministry leaders openly quote scripture as backings for their arguments?    

The Church

All too often unrealistic expectations are placed on those that work within the church.  The problem is we have mistakenly defined church as a noun.  Church should be a verb.  What does the Bible say about the roll of the church? As demonstrated in the Bible “church” is the collective activities of the Body of Christ.  As a group of believers we are instructed by Jesus Christ himself to go and make disciples.  That go is an action call to all believers.  The book of Acts gives a beautiful picture of how the church should operate.  With that picture of the church going and doing we can as a collective group accomplish all that God has called us to do.  The key is how do we relate that message to the Body of Christ as a whole and that is where the brick and mortar “church” comes into play.  The brick and mortar church is the vehicle we use for getting people trained and discipled for the mission of going. Most churches have now all but eliminated the time spent in the building and we seem to be growing an increasingly Biblical illiterate generation of believers.  We seem to have forgotten Hebrews 10:25 “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near”
Let us not also forget about what Jesus himself says about the church in Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  Pretty strong words!  We most always rely on scripture for basis of all our arguments.

The Church

All too often unrealistic expectations are placed on those that work within the church.  The problem is we have mistakenly defined church as a noun.  Church should be a verb.  What does the Bible say about the roll of the church? As demonstrated in the Bible “church” is the collective activities of the Body of Christ.  As a group of believers we are instructed by Jesus Christ himself to go and make disciples.  That go is an action call to all believers.  The book of Acts gives a beautiful picture of how the church should operate.  With that picture of the church going and doing we can as a collective group accomplish all that God has called us to do.  The key is how do we relate that message to the Body of Christ as a whole and that is where the brick and mortar “church” comes into play.  The brick and mortar church is the vehicle we use for getting people trained and discipled for the mission of going. Most churches have now all but eliminated the time spent in the building and we seem to be growing an increasingly Biblical illiterate generation of believers.  We seem to have forgotten Hebrews 10:25 “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near”
Let us not also forget about what Jesus himself says about the church in Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  Pretty strong words!  We most always rely on scripture for basis of all our arguments.

All 4 Him

1)       Why should we give all to Him?

The verse above tells us that in view of God’s mercy we should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.  We give ourselves to God because of His mercy. 

What is mercy?  According to Webster’s dictionary mercy is:

1)  Compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power;

2)  A blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion b : a fortunate circumstance < 3) compassionate treatment of those in distress.

The Bible defines mercy as:

"Withholding the judgment that one deserves"

           

What does Romans 3:23 tell us we deserve?

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The key is we are given the Gift of eternal life through God’s mercy of sending His Son Jesus. 

2)       All, what does that mean?

 In today’s world  children are increasingly offered more and more things to fill your life with.  Just as an example just in the world of electronic games you have; Nintendo Wii, X-Box, Playstation, Nintendo DSs, Playstations PSPs & I-Pods, I-Touches, Android Phones……..  you name it you have access to it.  That’s just electronic games how about sports, children now have access to Football, baseball/ softball, basketball, hockey, soccer, competitive cheerleading, dance, figure skating.  How about the world of music you can take lessons in violin, guitar, piano, voice, drums……

None of these things are bad, in fact most of them are extremely fun but when we start putting them before God that’s when it becomes a problem.  When the time spent on these things of the world keep you from studying God’s word or even attending Church that is when it becomes a problem.  When you let things of the world get between you and God.   

On Wednesday nights we have been studying the Ten Commandments commandment the first two commandments are:

Genesis 20: 3-6

³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.
 ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
From that scripture God is pretty clear that He wants our full attention.  The Bible states in several different places to Love God with all we have.  No where does it say partial love is okay.  

 

Family Support

Once again this post is a response to a blog post I read by a Kidmin blogger named     .  My response is written in red below.

While on my last Infuse retreat with Bro. Jim, a very interesting discussion broke out while my fellow infusers were working on a project. We were talking about the church’s responsibility to support, equip and inspire parents. I strongly believe that to a certain degree, the church should be involved in all of these things. Most parents need inspiration. They need how important it is that they take the lead and what will happen if they don’t. Parents also need to be equipped. Either through classes, small groups or even resources, we can equip them to fulfill the role God has given them to do. Last of all, we need to support our parents. They’re going to need help along the way and we’re here to help, right?
Every time I lead a child dedication class, the last thing I say is, “Parents, you need to know that we’re here for you. When you need help, we want to be there and get you through whatever you are facing.” However, during my discussion this weekend I realized something kind of important. Although we say we’re here to help and support parents, I don’t feel that we do very much of it. As I look back over the months, it seems like it’s a rarity that our children’s ministry is helping/supporting parents. It’s not that we don’t do it because we don’t want to or we’re avoiding something, but I think that very few parents are coming to us for help. I think that MANY families need help, whether the issue is great or small, but they’re just not asking for it. We can’t help what we don’t know about.
I wonder what it would look like if we started seeking out opportunities to support parents. What would it look like if we went beyond the causal, “How are you doing?” and asked more probing questions? What would it look like if all our kidmin small group leaders and volunteers regularly asked the parents they had anything they could pray with them about or just asking, “How’s everything at home? I noticed (insert child’s name) has been mentioning (possible issue) during prayer requests recently. Is there someway that we can help?” Even if parents don’t take advantage of the offer, would they feel supported and that the church is a place they can turn to for help?
I’m just curious and speaking from my own perspective/experiences. How is your ministry helping parents? Do you agree? Are there ways we could support parents more by being more proactive in our offers to help?

I agree we need to our parents invloved.  I think as with most parts of my ministry there is a balance to be achieved. Could we do more family centered activities, yes.  Do we eliminate all age based activities in lieu of family ministry, no.  We need to remember that not all children come from homes with parents capable or even willing to disciple their children.  We also need to keep in mind that age based ministry programs, which are done properly, can train up a child very effectively.  As we look back to Jewish tradition to the time before and around Christ’s birth the establishment of formal education was key to a child’s success.  The parents were seen as partners with the formal educators.  I think that is the way we should do it today.  The church and the parent form a mutually beneficial relationship that grows together in the overall goal of establishing a disciple of Christ.

  How do we accomplish that?  We offer ministry programs that teach the Bible not just morality tales.  We teach in a manner that produces spiritual fruit.  We give the parents an opportunity to participate through learning guides.   We offer opportunities to worship together.  We offer opportunities to serve together in the local community.  We don’t treat our precious few hours on campus as baby sitting time we let the parents know that these times are set aside for discipleship.   We teach that as Christian families we are different from any other mainstream families.  We should not be afraid to hold each other accountable.  Our primary goal, even as families, is to reach the world for Christ no matter the cost.