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Today we are Celebrating the Resurrection with our Children!
Children are a vital part of our church and life on planet earth. They are important for many reasons. The joy they bring to our lives and the potential that resides within each of them give us a sense of both wonder and excitement when we think about our children.
Children play two essential roles in the life of the church. First, they are our teachers. Jesus made it clear that there is something that children have that we need in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Our lives are made spiritually richer as we seek to understand what it is about children that Jesus found so necessary for His kingdom.
Second, our children are the recipients of our testimony. They are the ones to whom we pass on our witness that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is worth giving our lives to. We do well to learn the lessons that our children would teach us while at the same time telling them what we know of the values and character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Without children, our church would be in serious trouble. What is true for our church is also true for our nation and our planet. If we are to raise our children to be faithful followers of Christ, who are prepared to make an impact on our world, they will need to know not only that Jesus loves them, but they also need to know something about the world in which they live.
Here are ten pieces of information that our children ought to be aware of as they are shaped by their parents, their church, and the Holy Spirit into followers of Christ, who will share His love with the world:
1. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all trace their roots back to Abraham. If we believe what we read in the Bible, we see that all three of these religions have their roots in an experience with the God of Abraham. We have an experience with God that is unique because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Not all people have had that experience. Teaching our children to find common ground and respect differences will better equip them to share Christ’s love.
2. Seventy percent of the cocoa beans used in the production of chocolate come from the Ivory Coast and surrounding countries, where there are more than 280,000 slave laborers. Most of these slaves are in the Ivory Coast, and some 12,000 of them are children. If our children are going to impact the world for Christ, they need to know the real cost of the items we purchase at convenience stores.
3. In the United States, one out of five children live in poverty.
4. In the United States, two out of five children live in single-parent homes.
5. In the United States, one out of three children lacks a significant father figure.
6. American children are more likely to be murdered, poor, pregnant, drug-dependent, or incarcerated than the children of any other industrialized nation.
7. Prison officials in Indiana and California use the reading scores of third graders to determine the number of prison cells that will be needed in the future.
8. In the United States, 35 million people — including 13 million children — are hungry or living on the edge of hunger.
9. Right now, just over 50 cents of each U.S. Federal income tax dollar is used to pay for either current or past wars.
10. 2.6 Billion people have little or no knowledge of the way that God has loved them through his son, Jesus Christ.
What our children need to know and what we need to remember, is that boys and girls all over the world need the love of Christ as much today as they ever have. Christ has called His followers to share His love in Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. For us, that means starting in Knoxville, then Tennessee, then the United States, then the uttermost parts. This is our calling as a part of the Body of Christ. We do not exist to satisfy our own desire, but to do what Christ has commanded us to do. We are raising up a generation of children who will be able to share Christ’s love with others in ways we never even imagined. We are privileged to share Christ’s love in a city, state, nation, and world that needs it in so many ways.
Joy and peace,
Ed
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