At Home with God

Halloween conjures up all sorts of thoughts feelings and fears for people. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has sat at home, willing my doorbell not to ring on 31st October. Every year children of all age groups are dressed up in costumes which are scary even for adults, and then knock on the doors of total strangers and ask for sweets or a trick will be played on them. My concern as a mum was that my children would see these graphic masks and struggle to sleep with these images in their mind. I would usher my children away from the door and tell them not to look out of the window so they didn't see the costumes people were wearing. Then God stopped me in my tracks..... 'These people are coming to your door, wanting something from you, why don't you give them Me?' Of course, I realised, I was missing out on the best evangelism opportunity of the year. All these children and families who were innocently coming to my door not really understanding what they...

How to Not Die Last year, while I was in the middle east, a lady from Iraq came and spoke with me. We have helped our children to learn how to pray, and many of them are becoming intercessors. Now we want to help them to evangelize. I have one question for you: How can we help our children to evangelize without being killed? This is not a problem that we often face in the West, indeed it was humbling to learn so much from her zeal and focus for the kingdom. Yet even as she spoke the Holy Spirit whispered the answer: We must teach our children to be Spirit-led. Many of us have shown our children how to lay hands on the sick. We may even have taught them and prayed for them so that they can hear the Holy Spirit speaking to them. But in both these cases, although the children have connected to the Holy Spirit, they have not been led by the Spirit. Instead they have chosen to listen and to pray in response to our instructions. These are great first steps in their journey with God, but now...

It’s Biblical Young children can connect with God. Jesus used a small child as a visual aid to show that the kingdom of God belongs to people who can be like the children. John the Baptist in the womb responded to the presence of Jesus in the womb (Luke 1). God points out to Jeremiah, the prophet, that before God formed him, He knew his future destiny (Jeremiah 1:6). When we work with the youngest of children we can have the great impact on their future lives. Moses and Samuel both grew up in less than perfect places, yet both had godly mothers who nurtured them in the first few years of their lives in preparation for their future destiny. When we work with children in our toddler groups, any opportunity we have to allow them to connect with God is a potential life-changing opportunity. So how can we help them to connect with God? The Word of God One Easter we taught some toddlers about how Jesus swapped everything at the cross. One person came on with a naughty sign around their neck....

Make Disciples! God says: “Go and make disciples.” This is he something he expects us to  do . Discipleship should be the main focus of all of our activity and ministry. What is a disciple? A disciple is a mini-Jesus (that’s why they were called Christians in Acts 11:26). Someone who thinks, acts, speaks and lives like Jesus (Luke 6:40). What can we do to help disciple children at different ages in their walk with Christ? I want to suggest three separate stages of development that we can provide for our children to help them grow like Christ. Spiritual Exposure Moses and Samuel both had godly parents. Both were raised by other people once they had been weaned (around the age of 3 or 4). Those who raised them were not godly examples – Pharaoh’s household was against God and Eli, the priest who could not discern between a drunk woman and a desperate woman, had succeeded in raising two children who had no respect for the things of God. Even though Moses and Samuel grew up in an ungodl...

Look what God has done! Helping Children to know God.

Jesus is preparing his church the bride. That’s us! We will be a people who know God’s word and who know God’s Spirit. We want to encourage you to raise up a generation who know the Bible and are truly led by the Holy Spirit. Here are a few thoughts to encourage you as we seek to do both these things with the children around us. Helping them to become word based: When you share Bible stories with the children, do it with a Bible open in your hands, even reading directly from the Bible so that children see the value you place on the Bible. In the modern era of visual aids and DVDs it is possible to run a whole programme or family time with your Bible sat untouched on a shelf. Have set verses that you expect every child in your church and family to know. Every child raised in church should at least know John 3:16 from an early age. Do you set out challenges for them to live our the word in their daily lives and then follow up to see how they did? Helping...