Skip to main content

Helping Kids Discover Jesus

 


I am beyond frustrated how badly Evangelical churches are at helping kids discover Jesus. Many Sunday schools go over David and Goliath, Daniel in The Lion’s Den, and many other Old Testament stories, but if Jesus is mentioned at all it is usually at Easter. The problem is who Jesus really is does not get clearly defined. Few evangelical Sunday schools are equipped in how to explain Christology and Trinitarian Theology, that Jesus is The Fullness of Deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:9), He is the Son of God (1 John 4:15) who is One with the Father and Holy Spirit, One God in Three Persons Blessed Trinity (Matthew 28:19), and that He is God and Savior (Titus 2:13). My nephew went to Vacation Bible School and many Sunday schools at an Evangelical Church and he asked me, “Who is Jesus? Is he God or something else?” What a horrible indictment of the sad state of affairs in Sunday schools! Children not knowing who Christ is! Its time to forgo Noah’s Ark and Jacob wrestling with an angel and explain who Jesus is to children! That salvation is in no one else! (Acts 4:10-12). That Jesus Christ is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6) and that faith in Jesus The Son of God gives you eternal life! (John 3:16-18, John 6:40, Romans 10:9-10). 


Evangelical Churches and other modern models are failing the youth. Our greatest goal should be that kids discover Jesus and who He is, That He is God Incarnate and Son of God, The Messiah and Christ, The Lord God Himself! We cannot fail in this! The Gospels, not the Old Testament should be the focus of Sunday School till children can explain back who Jesus Christ is! That is what is important! Jesus! Why is it kids know the Garden of Eden, but cannot fully explain Emmanuel, God With Us?! I understand there are churches who are dogmatic in explaining theology and Christology, I am not claiming all Protestant Churches are failing in this; only that my own personal experience  in evangelical circles is when I was kid Jesus was not mentioned much at Vacation Bible School or Sunday School. I had to learn who Jesus truly is from my parents teaching me from the gospels at home, and attending a Baptist Bible program. Then as aforementioned my nephew had the same problem, he went to an evangelical church and knew not who Jesus was, and I had to explain Christ and who He is to my nephew! I wrote a post about how we need to be like The Lutherans were we do Confirmation and have kids memorize The Apostle’s Creed, and be able to explain they understand the fundamentals of the faith like Trinitarian Theology  and Christology. If we fail in this, then we fail as Christians! We arn’t Noahians, Davidians, Danielians, and Jacobians, we are Christians! Partisans of Christ! Jesus is our Savior and God! He is our focus!, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,” (Hebrews 12:2), “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true [supreme and sovereign] God, and [in the same manner know] Jesus [as the] Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3), and “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11). And yet there are kids who are not being instructed in who Christ is, which makes having faith in Him problematic if you do not know who He is!!! Ugh! I am furious that this is happening and yet I am not surprised! I have seen Sunday Schools were they just put videos on and do not bother to teach! This is a problem, and we must deal with it! Do not assume as parents your children know who Christ is! You have to be diligent and teach them at home who The Blessed Savior, Lord, God, and Son of God is! We cannot rely on others to help our children discover Christ! We must make kids coming to faith in Jesus and knowing who He is a priority! Daniel and Lion’s Den can wait, David versus Goliath can wait! The Son of Man, and Son of God has to be The Focus! For salvation, eternal life, reconciliation with God, and knowing God is only possible in & through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israel’s Conquest of Canaan: The Nephilim and Giants

  Christianity Today asserts that the conquest of Canaan can be a “stumbling block” for believers. This probably is because of a foolish idea of comparing it to a modern conquest happening in our world. The truth is that God had Israel conquer Canaan because it was ruled by evil giants, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33). These are Anakim or Nephilim, the children of angels and human women, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of  Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus’ Name in Aramaic

There has been a trend to render Jesus’ name Hebrew, יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The problem is neither Christ nor his apostles, nor the Jews in 30-33 A.D. spoke Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. A ramaic is the oldest language on earth and was the language Jesus spoke. In fact, the oldest Old Testament is the Septuagint a Greco translation around 132 B.C.E. (165 Years Before Christ)that was translated from Aramaic. The Masoretic Text, The Hebrew Old Testament most Bibles use, dates from 7th to 10th Century A.D. (Medieval Times).  This translation does not cross reference with the words of Christ in the New Testament which are Aramaic and Koine Greek.  If the Aramaic was what Jesus spoke, then by what name would have been called? Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Isho or Eesho, spelled ܝܫܘܥ . That is the name of our Lord in Aramaic! He would have heard his name in this dialect, “Hail Isho or Eesho!” as well as the Greek, Ἰ ησο ῦ ς , Iesous.  Aramaic is disappearing, only a few peop...
Post a Comment
Read more