Dear Partners in Service,
Last Sunday we invited the adult Sunday Bible Study to join the children’s Sunday School. The lesson was appropriate for both audiences. Receiving a child into your arms in the name of Jesus is a magnificent way of knowing the Lord more intimately. How we deal with children is a signal of our fellowship with God. Something is deeply wrong in the soul that does not love and hold a child.
Therefore, it may be good to call to mind the ways Jesus related to children. Think about these and let them stir in you the longings of Christ. What could be more significant than receiving Christ and receiving God the Creator in him? Amazingly, Jesus says we may do this in our ministry to children.
1-Jesus was a child; Isaiah 9:6
2-Jesus took children in his arms and blessed them; Mark 10:14-16
3-Jesus healed a child of a foreign woman; Matthew 15:28
4-Jesus cast a demon out of a child; Matthew 17:18
5-Jesus raised a child from the dead; Mark 5:41-42
6-Jesus used a child’s bread and fish to feed 5,000; John 6:9-10
7-Jesus said you should become like a child; Matthew 18:3-4
8-When Jesus came, children cried “Hosanna!” to the Son of David; Matthew 21:15
9-Jesus predicted the terrible days when fathers would give their children up to death; Mark 13:12
10-Jesus said that if you receive a child in His name, you receive Him and the One who sent Him; Mark 9:37
We are coming to the end of term at the Bible Institute. At the beginning of the year students are often timid about speaking up during class. The students come from various church backgrounds all professing to be Christians, but many of them only know what their church leaders tell them. We have explained that the three most important words in our classes are “The Bible Says.” As they get into their Bibles and actually read what God has said in His Word, they become more animated in class discussions and more confident in their faith.
Sherry had a touching comment from one student’s final exam at the Bible Institute this past week:
“I have learned in this class to have genuine love towards my friends and others who God brings into my life and that my life’s focus should be on my God and what He has planned for me. I have learned to be obedient to that call and pray it may be true throughout my life. Thank you for teaching me to be that man who wants to walk with and please God.”
His name is Lucky, but his comment is more than “Luck.” It is a blessing!
It is, indeed, a blessing to be used by God to make disciples and train them to reach the members of their communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Thank you for your prayers and support as we continue…
