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Foundation of Christian Life 

    A young couple is sitting on the front porch drinking iced tea and enjoying the evening breeze on a hot day in July.  A storm is approaching from the West and it promises relief from the heat for the next couple of hours.  As the radio played softly in the background, the wife leans over to her husband and gently says, honey I have some news I think you will want to hear.  Giving him long enough to set down the glass of tea she whispers, “We’re going to have a baby.”  With all the excitement he could muster he jumps in the air and shouts with glee.  “Are you sure?”  She nods her head in affirmation.  They begin hugging and kissing just as the rain begins to fall.    

    This couple will start asking all the great new parent questions.  Will we have a boy or girl?  Will he have hair Will she be healthy?  Will he play baseball in college?  Will she get good grades?  These are great question, but they all fall short of the ultimate question.  “Will my child live forever?”  Hang on just a minute.  Live forever?  That is not a question you will ask, or is it?   

    When does the conversation of salvation begin, and how can we do it with purpose?  It is always best to begin with what the Bible teaches.  Deuteronomy 6 tells us that it begins with whoever lives in the in the home.  All the family should be fully immersed in the teachings of God.  So, a new baby living in the home will begin with daily rituals that lead Him toward Christ.  When our children were young they were read or were told Bible story after Bible story.  When we put them down for the night we sang every hymn we could think of.  We are to instruct our children about God at every opportunity: at church, on the ball field, at dance class. We are to show them God in everything.   

    To help start the conversation we offer a parent-child dedication service on Mother’s Day.  In this service it is made clear that salvation does not happen for the child at this time, but rather we enter into an agreement with the parents as a church to do all we can to bring this child to an understanding of salvation, and when she decides to accept Christ we will be there to help her grow spiritually.    In this brief service, I read from 1 Samuel and Luke where it states that every child should grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.  The parents and congregation affirm their willingness to follow God in this way.    

    The church uses programs to help in starting, or keeping gospel conversations going.  For instance, it is in Sunday school where we learn the Bible stories.  Through song and story our children learn about every book of the Bible in age appropriate lessons.  They will learn to worship, pray and apply their lessons in life in Children’s Church and Kid’s Worship.  They will learn to use their God given talents to worship in our Worship Arts Ministry.  On Sunday nights, they will learn that everyone can be a missionary.  The church also offers basketball and soccer through Upward.  Two times a week we offer Christian Karate.  We have support groups for homeschoolers and their parents.  If you wanted to, we can help you almost every night of the week.  But these are not to be the end.  They are the starters of conversations that should continue in the home. 

    The real question though is what is being done in the home?  In a recent Lifeway study it suggests that regular Bible reading is the largest indicator of young adults owning their faith as adults.  This is followed by family prayer time.  All of the other indicators are well down the list.*  The Good News of Jesus and His gift of salvation starts in the home and should be centered on these two objectives.  It is through this that people gain a true relationship with Christ.  There will be a time where the child will have to own their own faith.  The child will have to understand sin and what that does to our relationship with God, but until that time comes we are to live our faith so they can clearly see the way when it comes.  In the next article we will look at what the introduction of the Gospel to children looks like, but first we are to bring up our Children in the Lord and introduce Him to our children when they are young.  Let us be faithful to the task.       

*”Nothing Less Study.” Lifeway: Nashville, 2017. 

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Club House News

Amazing news!  Our starveyors learned last week that even though we messed up God’s perfect creation, He made a plan to fix everything.  We then asked our starveyors if they know how God’s plan of salvation works.  Twenty-seven children took the opportunity to pray and accept the free gift of salvation on Thursday.  We are in the process of talking with each child and their parents to further their commitment to Jesus.  If your child has asked questions about salvation and you would like for us to help you with these discussions, please let us know in the church office.  We would love to help you in guiding others to Christ.  We truly have had an amazing week learning about the God of the Universe and His plan for our salvation.  That is best thing we learned this week as we were Searching the Visible and Discovering the Invisible.

The Penny Report

It does seem that every penny in Saint Charles County has been found.  The money we collected is going to Antioch Baptist Church in Hannibal Missouri.  They had a fire destroy the church at Christmas and are currently making plans to rebuild their children's educational space.  Remember, this will help them with things like whiteboards and the DVD curriculum series, What’s in the Bible with Buck Denver.  The girls out gave the boys this year, so good job girls.  However, the collective effort raised close to $1,000.

Family Night!  was a great success.  We had bounce houses, obstacle courses and food for everyone.  We began our night with the children singing their VBS songs.   After all the fun in the Worship Center, it was out to the church grounds for bounce houses and food.  During the carnival, we showed Created Cosmos from Answers in Genesis.  If you have not been to the Creation Museum outside of Cincinnati, you will want to check this out from the library.  Any other time you would have to drive to northern Kentucky.  We then also had the VBS movie to show how God is always in control and always has a plan for our lives.

Attendance at a glance:

246 Children enrolled

102 Adults on the children's side

134 Youth enrolled plus 15 Adults

497 people attending VBS

Average attendance 368

Pennies $1038.85 (unofficial count)

27 Salvations and 4 desiring baptism.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Colossians 1:15-16

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