KidzPort April 18 – I Doubt It

April 20, 2010

There is a major difference between “doubt” and “disbelief.”

Thomas experienced “doubt.”   In fact, Thomas has come to be the person that we identify with doubt.  (Where do youthink”Doubting Thomas” comes from.   Thomas wasn’t present when Jesus visited the disciples for the first time after the resurrection, and when they told him about it, he had a very reasonable reaction: “I doubt it.”

In a court case, there are two ways the lawyers try to convince a jury what happened: testimony and evidence. Testimony is what someone says they saw.  Evidence is physical proof of what happened.  Testimony and evidence support one another.  If a witness testifies to something, and the evidence bears him out, then everything he says is more credible.

Thomas had plenty of testimony, but no evidence.  But like Horatio Caine on CSI:Miami, he wants to follow the evidence.  He wants to put his hands in the wounds of Jesus.  He wants to see His smiling eyes for himself.  He’s not doubting God, by the way.  Thomas is doubting the other disciples, who up to this point have not been the most trustworthy bunch, to be perfectly honest.  So when Jesus walks in, Thomas has his evidence.  And he believes.  And there is the difference: doubt only requires more information.  Disbelief is a choice to not believe, even after seeing the evidence.

So many people see the evidence of God in the world and in their lives, and still choose to disbelieve.  But as Jesus says,

“Thomas,because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  John 20:29

For Parents:

• Read John 20 with your child.  Notice how various people react to Jesus’ resurrection: Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, Thomas.  Did they have doubt? How did they deal with it?
• Talk about a time when you didn’t believe something.  Did anything change your mind?  How did you balance testimony and evidence?
• Pray together for “Holy Spirit Faith”  - that you and your child would be blessed because you have not seen, yet believed!

Schedule Note:  Family Night on Friday, April 30.

KidzPort August 30 – Eat some corn

September 1, 2009

The Israelites took a long time to get to Canaan.  And there were certainly a lot of them. 

Exactly how many Israelites came out of Egypt is a question that is still not satisfactorily answered to this day.  I’ve seen numbers ranging from a low of 20,000 to a high of 10 million.  The most common assumption (based on the biblical count of 600,000 men) is about 2.5 million people. 

All those folks had to eat.  If we take the common average of 2.5 million, 3 meals a day, for 40 years we get over 109 billion meals!   That’s a lot of Big Macs, except there was no McDonalds drive-thrus in the desert.  In fact, there wasn’t much of anything out there.  Even if everyone carried all they could out of Egypt, that food would last a very short time, not 40 years. 

The Bible tells us that God provided for the Israelites supernaturally by giving them manna.  (Ex 16:13-21)  Manna was a bread-like food that God gave to the Israelites each day with the morning dew.  They would collect just enough for the day, for anything else would go rotten.  They had to count on God every day for their food.  (They did not collect on the Sabbath, they would take two days worth the day before) 

Once the Israelites got to Canaan, however, they were in the place where God had promised them.  And when they entered Cannan, almost everyone who and come out of Egypt had died, and there was an entire new generation of God’s people – a generation that only ever eaten manna, had only ever gotten their food from God.  Joshua 5 tells us:

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. 
Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.  And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day.  Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.  (Joshua 5: 9-12, NKJV)

So when God removed the punishment of Egypt from His people, he also allowed them to fend for themselves, somewhat.  Of course, God was still providing – after all, He provides everything.  But He allowed them to eat what the land produced, in all it’s variety.  The King James Version says that they ” …did eat of the old corn of the land…” when they got there.  The word ‘corn” here means any and all kinds of grain – wheat, barley, oats… 

Imagine eating one thing all your life, and then suddenly being brought before a huge buffet! 

For Parents:

• Read the verses in Joshua with your child.  Talk to them about how it must have felt to suddenly be able to eat anything they wanted.
• Ask your child why most of the Israelites who came out of Egypt died before entering Canaan.  (Because the spies were afraid)
• Ask your child who were the only people who came out of Egypt and entered Canaan.  (Joshua and Caleb)   Ask them why.  (Because only they trusted God to give them Canaan as promised.)

KidzPort March 15 – Sponges and Faith

March 16, 2009

Last week, we gave the kids a homework assignment.  You can read about the details in that post, but here’s what we found:

The wet sponge was soft and pliable.  It readily absorbed water, and even when folded, crushed, stomped on and twisted, it regained is original shape, and still held water.  More importantly, it was excellent at cleaning – which after all, is it’s purpose.

The dry sponge was hard and brittle.  It took awhile for it to absorb any water.  When it was folded and crushed, it was in great danger of breaking. And it was lousy at cleaning anything.

If Jesus is the water, and we are the sponge, this is a great illustration of how we need to keep ourselves immeresed in Jesus – the Water of Life.

We also talked about walking in faith.  In Jeremiah 42, we see an Israelite nation in fear of Babylonian invasion.  Some of them want to leave – to flee to Egypt.  But as we say in class, “Nothing good ever happens in Egypt.” 

Egypt represents slavery in many places in the bible.  The Israelites were more willing to return to the land that they had been slaves in than to stand fast in the land that God had promised them.  But if God had promised them the land, they rightfully should have had no fear.  Jeremiah tells them in 42:10 :

If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. (NKJV)

We need to stay in the places that God puts us, and walk in faith, even when times are difficult.  God’s promise is clear in this.

For Parents:

• Talk to your child about faith.  What does in mean to them? Give them examples of when you walked in faith – and when God answered His promise.
• Repeat the experiment of last week.  Each child should bring their sponge to class next week.
• Hold your child accountable for what they need to bring to class each Sunday – a bible, a journal, a pen.  Also, work with them on the memory verse above. (Jer 42:10)