Growing up I attended all sorts of children's ministries- sunday school, AWANA (briefly), wednesday night classes, youth group, camps, vacation bible school, and so on. In all those years no one ever bothered to tell me about what people's names meant, that numbers mean something, and that the wise men were mocking Herod when they asked about he who was born king of the Jews.
I love things like that- bits of knowledge that enhance your bible reading and cause you to hunger for more knowledge.
When I was a child I thought that the Bible was God's word and it was just full of stories about people whose names I could not pronounce and lists of things I could not do.
Having spent my whole life in church I could answer all the questions about all the major people in the bible, and I could give you some doctrine too.
It was not until I read the bible for myself that I realized a lot had been left out of my education.
I certainly can't blame anyone for my lack of biblical knowledge- it is always up to the person in question to study for themselves- but I was rather astonished that no one had ever told me that God hardened Pharaoh's heart as Pharaoh refused to obey Him.
That's a very necessary part of the event, people, I wonder how on earth I learned anything meaningful from those Sunday School lessons except for the event details (minus a few things).
I keenly remember my ignorance and I do not want to do that to the children God has entrusted me with.
For instance:
Since I've taken over the Bible class I've taught the children a song called 'Did You Ever Talk to God Above'. It's a very sweet and simple song about prayer and our ability to pray to God whenever and where ever.
We sing it every Sunday so they can learn it and a few Sundays ago I elaborated on the song a bit. I told them that God 'neither slumbers nor sleeps' (Psalm 103) and that He will always listen.
We continued through the class and our lesson for that day was 1 Samuel 8.
Reading along, we came to verse 18:
And ye shall cry out in that day because
of our king which ye shall have chosen
you; and the Lord will not hear you in that
day.
One of my very astute students pointed out: didn't you say that the Lord will always hear us?
I explained to them about how God has given them a full warning, they know exactly what they are getting into and they are choosing to do wickedly. They are purposefully bringing God's judgement upon them.
I explained that God is love and God is a consuming fire. (I think we, as part of God's beloved Son's body, forget that God is a consuming fire. We don't experience that side of Him very often.) I also explained that God is perfect in His anger and jealousy- things we equate with sin.
To me this is a vital part of a child's biblical education: to know who God really is.
Frankly, I thought He was like Santa Claus- a kindly old man with a long white beard that cried when we sinned.
Yeah... no. God is not like that. I'm not sure where I got that idea but it was not done away with by any of the teaching I got from anyone.
I was more interested in studying the Bible when I learned who God really was: A holy God who will take vengeance on His enemies and bring every soul to his or her knees in worship.
One of my favourite verses is:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a
white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Revelation 19:11
That one verse alone should tell you everything you need to know about who God really is.
Last thing:
A false balance is abomination to the
Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:1
Any teaching about the Bible must be balanced. You can't only preach out of the four gospels and expect to have balanced preaching, you can't only preach on the 'good things' and have balanced preaching, you can't preach against sin all the time and have balanced preaching.
Balance comes from preaching 'all the counsel of God' (Acts 20:27). If you leave anything out, your preaching and teaching is not balanced and what's worse: not honest.
Do not shy away from difficult topics when you teach. Teach the Word and let the Lord take care of it.
(Obviously have discretion when it comes to things like Judah's situation with Tamar, David and Bathsheba and so on- don't go into deep details on that, you don't want to teach them how to sin or put any ideas into their heads.)
When it comes to teaching I do three things: pray, study, and let the Lord lead.
Prayer
I've written it here a few times: I do not know what my students home lives are like. Right now they are all from Christian homes, I know their parents and have met some of their grandparents- all saved people. There may come a day when I'll have unsaved students with unsaved parents. I don't know. I do know that God knows what each one of them need to hear.
In prayer I ask that God will give me the wisdom, discernment, and knowledge to teach them. I ask Him to guide me in my thoughts, studies, and teaching. The class is His, I have no right to usurp His authority by doing what *I* think is best.
Here are some of the things I pray for:
-Each one of my students by name
-All their families
-Class time
-that each child will learn something
-for peace during class
-for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit
-for ways to teach them, activities to help learn, and songs to sing
-for utterance
Those are just a very few things but it puts God in control and gives me peace concerning my classes.
Study
At the moment I am working through a lesson book my pastor has given me. I'm following it through until it is finished.
I find it is incredibly important to study ahead of my current lesson so I have an idea of where I'm going. I also make sure to have my lesson plan done by Monday or Tuesday. The sooner I have it done, the more I can pray over it and prepare for it.
I only use scripture when I teach. I will certainly use examples from my personal life and things that I know, but I let the Bible tell its record itself. For example: this week we're studying David and Goliath. I'll go to the passage and select verses to for myself and my students to read out loud. As we go verse by verse I explain things to them, answer questions, and point out details and lessons we can learn. I'll always have a main thought to point out to students but I want God's Word to speak for itself and no important details left out.
On Sunday mornings instead of my usual devotions I will read a chapter of Proverbs and re-read the passage I will be teaching in my bible class.
Let the Lord Lead
Something I keep myself from doing is thinking about what I am going to say during my lesson.
I plan the verses we will read and I'll think about how to relate it to the children personally but I will not rehearse exactly what I will say.
Here's why:
I was once a warehouse manager for a Vancouver jewellery store company. There was a girl named Jordan who started giving me trouble- she was leaving early, not locking the jewels away when she was done, not completing her tasks properly, and so on.
Finally I had to do something about it but I was seething mad. I wrote out a list of the things I needed to speak to her about and while I waited for her to get back from her lunch break I rehearsed what I was going to say to her.
I did pray to God about it but I kept repeating my own angry words in my mind.
She came back from her break and I spoke to her. I said everything that I had rehearsed in my mind.
She stormed out angrily and never came back.
After the dust had settled and I thought about what I had said that made her storm out, I came to this conclusion:
My prayer for God to guide my words did not take because I did not let Him.
I planned out everything I wanted to say and said them in anger.
God did not help me at all because I did not let Him.
For this reason, I do not rehearse anything I am going to say. I let God guide me the whole time and He does. Many times the lesson does not turn out at all how I think it will simply because God leads in a different direction from what I had planned.
Like I said, I do not know what the children need to hear but God does. I just need to trust and obey Him.
I hope this was in some way a blessing to you!
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