Back to the Basics

Lately, I've been reading through the Gospel of Mark. In Mark 10:15, Jesus basically tells us that unless we have faith like little kids, we won't get into Heaven. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty sobering thought! Sometimes I think that grownups make faith more complex than a Stephen Hawking book! And I guess that's what caught my attention in this verse. I like stuff like this because it's simple. Simple is peaceful. Simple takes the pressure off. Sometimes it's good to get back to the simple basics of our faith, isn't it? Have you noticed that when we take a break from deep theological concepts, we seem to find a deeper understanding of faith? We seem to have a refreshing view of what faith is all about and how simple it really is. I think this is one of the main reasons why I enjoy teaching children.

In the pages of Genesis, we see the themes of creation, human rebellion and sin, God's judgment and His grace, God's covenant with mankind, and the first hints of the message of salvation. These concepts are what the Christian faith is built upon. When you think about it, all of redemptive history comes down to the first books of the Bible. Understanding the story of creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah and the flood and Abraham are so critical to our understanding of the New Testament and what Christ's death on the cross was really all about.

So here we are, finishing up the first quarter of Good News Club, and we've talked about a lot of stuff! We've talked about how God created the world around us. We talked about how God created these strange things called "people", and how they screwed up, but God gave them another chance to make it work with a weirdo named Noah. In the weeks to come, we'll be moving into a five lesson series on the "Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the upcoming blogs, I want us as parents to meditate on a few things together: What do all these Old Testament stories have to do with Christianity? How can we use these stories in bringing children closer to a healthy relationship with God? How can these stories bring children to a deeper level of understanding of their faith, and further along in their spiritual development?

It's one thing for our children to know the stories, but to know how they connect with their faith in Christ is how they will begin to see that their faith is real. They will begin to see that faith in God is not just something we do at church on Sunday or at Good News Club. Rather, they will begin to see that faith is who they are.

Noah - Stepping Out on Faith

How have you stepped out in faith this week? What's holding you back? How can we teach our children what it means to have real, active faith?

Walking with God

We all want good relationships in our lives, right? Most of us strive to develop relationships and make noble efforts, but it’s not always easy. We live in a fast-paced culture, and unfortunately relationships get put on the back burner, or the microwave for that matter. But spend a few minutes thinking about the people who are closest to you in life, and then ask yourself why. What is it that makes those relationships stand out? If we really desire close relationships, it requires that we do a few things to make it work, right? We have to spend time with the other person. We have to make an effort to not only talk to that person, but we have to listen to them as well. We also have to do things that are important to the other person. And most importantly, when times are hard, we need to stand by the other person, no matter what the circumstances are. If you neglect one or more of these areas, chances are the relationship is not going to be as strong as you would hope it would be.

Now think about you relationship with God and ask yourself the same questions. Ouch! Let’s face it. If we’re honest, I’m afraid that many of us would have to admit that on occasion, we might have more of an acquaintance with God rather than a true relationship. Sure, we go to church, maybe a small group, we might check in with Him a few times a day and read a little bit of our Bible. But when it comes to actually building a relationship, we might as well be building a skyscraper. God might be in the same room, but do we actually walk with Him during our day?

Kids are no different. They long to have healthy relationships with people, as well as with God. They may not understand everything about faith, but it’s almost as if they instinctively have an attraction to God and things of God. Walking with God was the theme of our lesson last week and came from a very obscure little passage in Genesis. In Genesis 5:21-24, we are introduced to a guy named Enoch; the great, great, great, great grandson of Adam and the Father of the oldest living person on record; Methuselah. It is said that Methuselah was 969 years old when he died. Hence, the reason many folks shout, “Get out of the way, Methuselah!”, when they find themselves behind a slow elderly driver in the fast lane!

As we read through Genesis 5, we find that it is nothing more than a family tree from Adam to Noah. It begins with Adam and moves on through his family line something like this: “When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. And after he became the father of Kenan….” Well, you get the point? It goes on like this through chapter 5 and ends with the birth of Noah and his sons. For 32 verses you can read the same repetition of Adam’s lineage, line after line. In fact, I had a theology teacher in high school that made us write out this chapter 50 times for punishment! I think I had it memorized at one time!

But in verse 21, something stands out that causes us to pause. There’s a break in the repetition. Something is different. “When Enoch became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

We know very little about Enoch, other than what we just read. But the one thing that stands out, and speaks us today about our relationship with God, is that Enoch walked with God. In a culture that had for the most part turned its back on God, Enoch’s priority was on serving God before anything else in life. A person that “walked with God” practiced a lifestyle that was radically different from most people. Their faith was a holistic way of life rather than a regimented system of following the rules.

This week, I spent a lot of time thinking about Enoch, and what it really means to walk with God in our culture. I spent a lot of time thinking about our kids, and how much more difficult it will be for them to walk with God as they grow older. I also spent some time wondering what kind of example I am for my two boys. It’s not easy, but our children watch us very closely and they notice what kind of lives we live. When you get right down to it, the best example of what it means to walk with God is not Enoch; Its Mom and Dad.

Walk with God, Moms and Dads!

Marc Driscoll's Family Dinner Devotions Method

Do you have trouble finding time to have family devotions? When you do, do you face the frustration of wondering what to do? Does it work? Are the kids getting it? Well, I found this approach from Marc Driscoll that seems very realistic and effective. Give it a try, and let me know what kind of results you get! Marc Driscoll is Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, founder of the Acts 29 Network, author and speaker.

Step 1 - Eat dinner with your entire family regularly.

Step 2 - Mom and Dad sit next to one another to lead the family discussion.

Step 3 - Open the meal by asking if there is anyone or anything to pray for.

Step 4 - Someone opens in prayer and covers any requests. This task should be rotated among family members so that different people take turns learning to pray aloud.

Step 5 - Start eating and discuss how everyone’s day went.

Step 6 - Have a Bible in front of the parents in a translation that is age-appropriate for the kids’ reading level. Have someone (parent or child) open the Bible, and assign a portion to read aloud while everyone is eating and listening.

Step 7 - Parents should note key words and themes in the passage and explain them to the kids on an age-appropriate level.

Step 8 - Ask questions about the passage. You may want to begin with having your children summarize what was read—retelling the story or passage outline. Then, ask the following questions: What does this passage teach us about God? What does it say about us or about how God sees us? What does it teach us about our relationships with others?

Step 9 - Let the conversation happen naturally, listen carefully to the kids, let them answer the questions, and fill in whatever they miss or lovingly and gently correct whatever they get wrong so as to help them.

Step 10 - If the Scriptures convict you of sin, repent as you need to your family, and share appropriately honest parts of your life story so the kids can see Jesus’ work in your life and your need for him too. This demonstrates gospel humility to them.

Step 11 - At the end of dinner, ask the kids if they have any questions for you.

Step 12 - If you miss a night, or if conversation gets off track, or if your family occasionally just wants to talk about something else, don’t stress—it’s inevitable.

Worship: Are you "Abel"?

This morning, I was reading through Genesis 4:1-16, the story of Cain and Abel. I've read through these words hundreds of times and never really applied them to myself in a practical way. Sure, we see how jealousy can destroy lives and we see how anger can utterly consume us. But is there something deeper to this story? What does this really say to us in the 21st century? And more importantly, what can we teach our children through this story? Well, here's my thought.

If you really listen to the words of this story, it focuses on one primary thing: Worship. It has everything to do with proper worship of God and less to do with a man killing his brother. Cain and Abel had both prepared sacrifices to God. Basically, Cain brought God some heads of grain and Abel gave God some animal fat. God seemed to like Abel's sacrifice, but not so much Cain's. Was it because Abel shed blood for God? Probably not, because the sacrificial system had not been established yet. Was it because Abel's sacrifice was worth more monetarily? Probably not. More than likely, both sacrifices would have been worth equal amounts. Actually, I think it had less to do with their sacrifices, and more to do with their intentions.

You see, I think that what we are looking at here is a heart issue. Abel came to God with a heart of thanksgiving and praise for what God had done in his life. He brought to God the best sacrifice that he could possibly think of. He was overflowing with thanks to God and in an act of worship, he gave God his best. Cain, on the other hand, simply gave God a sample of what his crops produced. He was acting in a manner of obligation, in hopes that God would continue to bless his life. His heart wasn't right with God.

God wants the best that we have to offer Him, not out of obligation, but because of who He is. He wants us to overflow with praise and worship to the point that we feel we cannot give enough! Unfortunately, many of us are not much different than Cain. We come to church and worship a God that resembles Santa Claus, because He's gonna find out whose naughty or nice, right? We look at worship in terms of what's in it for us, not what we can give to God. But, imagine how radical kids lives would change if they grasp this very basic concept or worship! Imagine the blessings that could be poured upon them if they begin to worship God like Abel! Imagine the impact on culture, if we could raise a generation of children that worship God with ALL they have and bring Him the BEST they possibly can! Imagine!

Adam, Eve, You, Me and God

Teaching children stories from the Old Testament is not always easy, is it? Hey, I admit it! When I served as a Children’s Pastor one of my biggest struggles was how to present a curriculum that would teach kids the essentials of the Old Testament without causing them to stare out the window or want to skip Children’s Worship altogether! Equally frustrating was encouraging my teaching team through our Old Testament levels without getting that much dreaded call, “We really need a break from teaching for a while.” But this got me thinking, and I might have an answer to this. Have you ever noticed that when we teach children the stories of the Old Testament, we tend to kind of focus more on the stories, the people and the events, rather than focusing on God? We focus on the “creation”, but less on the “creator”. We like to focus on the cuddly animals, the cozy ark, Noah and his family waving from the windows, but we sheepishly shy away from God’s judgment. We focus on Adam and Eve, apples and a mean green snake that creeps out from under a tree, but we shy away from the seriousness of the fall of man, and how we suffer for it today. In a way, we focus more on what man has done, rather than what God has done.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking fire and brimstone here! I’m not saying that we need to scare kids into the kingdom of God. Teaching kids is, and should be, fun! We don’t have to throw out all the cute stuff and there are some Biblical issues that kids just can’t handle within their spiritual development. We still need to teach on their level and makes things fun and applicable to their age and learning level. But after teaching this week’s lesson on Adam and Eve, I came to a conclusion that I wanted to share with you.
When you get right down to it, I think that we sometimes feel that the events of the Old Testament are just too difficult to understand, complex and quite frankly, boring for children. We look over an Old Testament story or lesson and our first reaction is, “No way! This is too deep for kids to grasp. I don’t even get this myself? Why can’t we just stick with the stories about Jesus? They understand that stuff!” And what happens? We inadvertently cut off the nose to spite the face. We break scripture down into Cliff's Notes Versions of what “we” think they can understand. And in essence, we compartmentalize God’s Word, without linking it to redemptive history and ultimately to Christ.

Let’s look for a moment at the story of Adam and Eve. Our first reaction might be to focus our lesson on the “man” and the “woman”, what they looked like, what the animals and Garden of Eden looked like and maybe how they functioned within creation. We might focus on what they did, how thy lived and how they related to one another, and to God. And these are all very significant issues in helping us contextualize the story. But let’s briefly take a different approach to this. What is the emphasis of this story? What do you think the author of Genesis really wanted to get across? What did God want to communicate as He spoke through Moses? Well, here’s my thought.

I think the intended emphasis is not really on the “creation”, but the “creator”. The greatness, creativity and power of God! Through His divine power, God brought all of this into being, and we had nothing at all to do with it. And guess what? We still don't. And that’s OK! But let's go a step further. How did God create Adam? Did He simply speak him into being as He did with the rest of creation? No! God personally, intricately and specifically formed Adam out of the earth. And then we see a very distinguishing action that isolates man as the pinnacle of God’s creation: He “breathed” life into Adam! This is not only a physical creation. This is the creation of a spiritual being from the very breath of God! There is so much more here than just physical creation. No other part of God’s creation received this designation.

But the story doesn't end there. God sends a procession of animals before Adam, so that he can give them all names. Was that the only reason that God produced this circus like parade? I don’t think so. I think that the main reason God called on Adam to name the animals was for him to say, “Hey, God? I don’t think any of these are going to work for me? I may be wrong, but I can’t see myself making more of “me” with these things. They’re cool! They’re awesome! But they’re not quite like “me. Something’s missing...” God may have whispered, “Adam, you’re exactly right! Let’s fix that.” And he did!

So, as we teach children about the events of the Old Testament, let us be encouraged and excited by the simplicity of these stories. When we keep the focus on God and His works of creation, children will understand. They will see that the awesome God of the universe created all that we see, and we are really just bystanders to His power and glory. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty cool!


(Art - "Adam & Eve" - Oil on wood by Christina Saj, 1996. www.christinasaj.com)