At Home with God

So recently I have been thinking about the things we should be intentional about sharing with our children. If you were to choose four things to encourage personal hygiene it might look like this: Brush your teeth twice a day Wash your hands Shower regularly Put your clothes to the wash Parents of teenagers will appreciate how important these four are and what a difference it makes to the whole house. If we were to choose four things to do with time management it might be we say: Do what you have to do before you do what you want to do. Make a task list. There are seasons to work and seasons to play. Always make space for people. So, all this made me wonder what would be the top four things I would want my children to know about the things of God. I have to say the list surprised me and spurred me to action. So here is my current top four, with a few comments. (Subject to change of course).      1. The Gospel This seems like the most basic thing our children should kn...

  The rule of 6 Imagine life if we could only mix with 6 friends. Here in the UK, this doesn’t require much imagination with current Coronavirus restrictions, but it certainly gets you thinking. How intentional would you be about those 6 friendships? What would be your mix of non-Christian to Christian friends? Imagine telling the children of your church to pair up with two other children in the church, meeting and praying together. Each child could then reach out to three of their friends to share the gospel. Imagine the impact we could have in the schools at this time. When we lived in London we led a children’s ministry that had an extensive schools ministry. With over 200 full time evangelists that we had trained up and sent out into different schools across the city. It was amazing to see the fruit: These evangelists were bold to preach the Gospel and saw many children turn to Christ, yet not once were they uninvited from the school. Imagine that! At the moment it is challengi...

  Big events require big monuments (or mementos). When you spend lots of money to go on the holiday of a lifetime or see the concert you have longed to see without taking home a memento of that time.  Whether it is the photos that you have taken or heap tat from a gift shop a wise person will find a way to bottle some of the memories of the time. God specifically instructs the Israelites to keep a memento of key events in the Bible. For example, God told the Israelites to collect up stones when they passed through the river Jordan on their way to Jericho (Joshua 3). God himself placed a memorial in the form of a rainbow to promise that he would never flood the earth again. Of course mementos are not just there to remember the good times, they are also there to remember the harder times and serve as a warning and a way of counting blessings into the future. The simple act of wearing a poppy on remembrance Sunday to remember those who gave their lives to fight for our freedom he...

Excerpt from God’s Generals for kids volume 3 - John Alexander Dowie By Roberts Liardon & Olly Goldenberg  Soon after John arrived in Newton a plague swept through the region. People were becoming sick, coughing and dying all around. People were dying so quickly when they got the plague that there seemed to be no escape and they were very afraid. John had ministered at forty funerals in just a few weeks. It looked like the only reason he was there was to bury the dead people. John sat in his study and thought about the situation. Thirty more of his congregation was sick and dying. Where was God? He was praying for the people to be healed, but it seemed like God just didn’t want to answer. John knew that God could heal people, so why wasn’t God doing it. Sickness was winning. Death was destroying lives and there was no one there to deliver people. John sat at his desk, his head hung down into his hands as great sobs shook his body and tears poured like a river down his f...

Children can be leaders. Children should be leaders. Children who follow Jesus will find themselves leading others. I have seen this happen time after a time. This should be no surprise, for those who are of the kingdom of God are called to be leaders in the world: our calling as salt and light is not dependant on age or spiritual maturity. Indeed, Jesus implies that anyone who is following him is the light and salt of the world (not that we need to become it). The only question is whether or now we will hide our light and whether our salt will lose its saltiness.  This means, by definition, our children are called to lead. By leadership I do not mean that children will take over the church eldership and start managing the church budgets. I mean that they are prepared to make a stand for God no matter what comes their way.  This is part of what it means to be adopted. No wonder the rebuke from Paul over the church in Corinth’s inability to judge correctly is so pa...

The worship song had begun and the girl on the camp started to pray for everyone around her. I am all for children praying for each other, but something about what she was doing caught my attention. I stepped off the platform to chat with her and after a brief conversation encouraged her not to worry about anyone else at this time, but to worship God for the remainder of the song. I climbed back on to the platform to carry on leading. Five seconds later she was praying for people again. ‘You are not to pray for people now, now is the time to worship Jesus.’ Moments later the girl was off praying for others. It soon became clear that she had been taught to minister to people, but did not know how to minister to the Lord. In part one of this series we looked at the importance of giving our children opportunities to stretch their faith. If their faith is to develop, it must have a forum in which it can move beyond the theory into action. The hall of faith listed in Hebrews 11 shows t...

Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. If we are to disciple our children we must see them grow in faith. Ineffective faith will result in children falling away from God. Faith comes from hearing God’s word (Hebrews 10:17). That’s why I am so passionate about making sure that we proclaim the Gospel to the next generation and give them an opportunity to engage with the Bible for themselves and see God’s word lived out in their lives. Responding to the Gospel results from hearing God’s word preached. This Faith then needs to be strengthened (Acts 16:5), tested and grown (2 Corinthians 10:15). All of this happens when we have to move our faith from the place of theory and concepts into the place of action and experience. James illustrates this when he says in James 2:17-18, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith b...