After we gave thanks for the snack we started back at the beginning of the Jesus storybook. This is round two for many of the kids who have been at the After School Program daily. And this is chance two for many of the kids who have not attended or been inattentive to the stories in the past. I began and read from the introduction of the storybook about how the Bible is not first and foremost a book of rules, nor is it a book of heroes, but the Bible is a story-- the story of God coming into the world in Jesus Christ to rescue us. Every story in the Bible whispers His name. Then Stephan read the story of creation to the kids and we talked about how "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The kids who showed up today were very young. All of the kids shared around the table their favorite stories about the beach and other places in creation. Meanwhile, Stephan and I kept trying to emphasize how God made it all. We ended with prayer.
Note: One girl who has been coming every day regularly this year asked me a lot of questions about the Bible today. She also asked me if I had another Bible (like mine) that I could give to her. The funny thing is that I do! I actually two of the Bible that use-- the second one I have been planning to give away for a long time. It has been my goal to give the Bible to my first genuine convert. Now, I am unsure if this girl was actually converted through my ministry here or perhaps the other neighborhood bus-to-church ministry, but regardless I am going to give it to her! She has a very genuine love for the Lord. I am so excited and I just know she is going to love it. I also ended up giving her a mini introduction to the new testament. I showed her how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are where we read about Jesus; Acts about Peter and Paul and how they went everywhere telling people about Jesus; Romans, Galatians, etc... are the letters to the Christians of Rome and Galatia telling us even more about Jesus. I also showed her Psalms and how they are songs and prayers that we can pray, sing, and trust. We read Psalm 23 together.
Tuesday's Story:
On Tuesday we told the story of Adam and Eve with an emphasis on them 1. Being our first parents, & 2. Being the first sinners by whom we have all inherited a sin nature and now humanity as a whole stands guilty before God as "sinners." We talked about how the first thing Adam and Eve did when they sinned was (trying to) hide from God by running away-- and not only running away, but also they tried to cover-up their shame and guiltiness by making clothes made of fig leaves. We talked about how this is what we all do when we realize that we have run from God. We try to hide from Him and avoid the subject of God, and we try to do lots of "good" works and nice things for people to make ourselves feel better. But this still does not fix the problem in that we have sinned and rebelled against God! Finally I tried to explain how the clothes of animal skins in the garden represents the righteousness of Christ, but it was very hard to do... I explained it by saying that God killed an animal to put the animal skins on Adam and Eve for clothing, just like how Jesus died to forgive us our sins. We need Jesus just like Adam and Eve needed the clothes from God.
Note: Also during this time we had a powerful discussion about creation and evolution. We talked about how in school they teach we are related to monkeys. Several kids told stories of this and how they thought it was silly because they (the children) believe God made us. One little girl said that her teacher asked the entire class, "Do you all believe that you are related to monkeys?" Of course the whole class was supposed to say, "Yes..." We talked about how this is not true, but GOD MADE US. We emphasized that people who do not believe in God, but believe we have all evolved from animals, have a big problem-- they cannot explain how the universe got here.
After all of this, about 20 minutes had gone by, (which is a little bit lengthy for a snack time story and teaching / preaching...) And so toward the end during the closing prayer it was very difficult. A few children would not stop talking and making jokes to each other, which then led the entire group of children astray during this time. I ended up stopping in the middle of the prayer and strongly rebuking the children. Now I did not merely "yell" at them in anger, which would be a mistake... but I was so moved and full of sorrow in this moment that it seemed my face was bursting red in agony. I did raise my voice and I pleaded with the kids that prayer is the most important time of the day. I told them I do not care if they laugh at me, or if they laugh about how silly Adam and Eve can be, but DO NOT laugh while we talk to God! When we pray we are talking to God Himself and He should have our full attention. The kids became silent and so then we ended in prayer. Times like this are not easy, but are also extremely crucial. It is during these times that we are not merely doing "rituals", but are implanting values in to the hearts of children. Perhaps the value which was demonstrated in this instance was that our God is a serious God and so we must take Him seriously!
This all leads up to an important question... How much should we expect of children regarding the things of God? After teaching and preaching to the kids every Mon-Fri over the last few months, I believe kids are much more capable than we give them credit for. Not only do that have gigantic hearts that are full of trust, (and the trust should must be given to God), but also they are more intellectually capable than we think-- however, the kids need somebody to be with them not only to exemplify a godly life, but also to patiently and simply instruct and reprove them in the way they should go.
Wednesday's Story:
On Wednesday we told the story of Noah's Ark. We emphasized how God saved Noah from the flood because Noah believed God. At the end of the story, I asked the kids a lot of questions about the story... I asked questions like, "Why did God save Noah?" (he believed God...) and "What happened to everybody else?" (they died...) and "Why did God destroy the people?" (they were wicked and did not believe God...) As we talked our way through these questions with the children, it really got them all thinking... And so I explained how God is holy and God hates sin, but God is also love and so I preached that we must believe in God and trust Jesus that He will save us, just like Noah trusted God to save him. Lastly we talked about how people would have been making fun of Noah back then for building a big boat, when nobody else believed! But when the flood came and Noah was safe, the people were not laughing any more. Who was laughing? God. But, but, but...?
(Psalm 2, ESV)
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us."
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 "As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Derision, that is, according to dictionary.com:
de⋅ri⋅sion
–noun
ridicule; mockery: The inept performance elicited derision from the audience.
So let us "kiss the Son"-- that is, our King Jesus.
"lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him."-- Like Noah.
It's sad, that this God of the Bible sounds so foreign to many of our (naturally) God-hating ears. May God give us the grace to (supernaturally) see Him as He really is. So be it.
Thursday's Story:On Thursday we told the story of "The man who didn't have any friends (none)"-- that is, Zacchaeus. The kids enjoyed this story so much! Zacchaeus had no friends because he was a tax collector and especially because he was a thief. He didn't only charge the people for taxes, but he also charged them a "fee" on top of it which he kept for himself. The kids understood this. I stopped in the middle of the story and asked the children, "Doesn't Jesus know about Zacchaeus?" Now since we have well established among the kids that Jesus is the "God-Man", (that is, that He is completely 100% God AND that he had come in to the world as completely 100% a real, human Person in a real body...), all of the kids agreed that Jesus did know about how bad of a sinner Zacchaeus really was. So then I asked them, "Why did Jesus go to Zacchaeus' house?" We all agreed because Jesus loved him. Then I asked the group, "Does Jesus love sinners?" One girl, who comes from a sort of sportsy-do-gooder family replied, "No." and the whole group was listening. I quickly corrected her and said, "Yes He does!" I explained to the group how the Bible says that we all have sinned and we are all bad sinners, and that is why it is so amazing that God loves us. "This is good news!" We continued telling the story about how Zacchaeus humbled himself and gave away half of his stuff to the poor and paid back the people that he stole from 4 times as much. The book ends the story like this, "Jesus loved Zacchaeus when nobody else did. He was Zacchaeus' friend, even when no one else was. Because Jesus was showing people what God's love was like-- his wonderful, Never Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love."
Friday's Story:
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