Children’s church reflection for 21 August 2016

It comes as quite a shock how, in society today, so many people struggle with depression. People are constantly searching to be happy and sadly they seek happiness in temporal sources. We are aware that our children face the same struggles and therefore our focus this week is how God is our Joy. God gives us joy that is greater than a temporal happiness and that cannot be taken away.

Our Part

We explained to the children how the joy that God gives to us is far greater than the emotion of happiness. Some days we may feel sad, we feel insecure or angry, but when we find our joy in who God is and what He does for us, despite how we are feeling, that joy cannot be lost. We have grown up hearing fairy tales ending with, “And they lived happily ever after.” We explained how this belief is often misunderstood. We looked at Paul in the New Testament as an example. From a sinful life he is miraculously saved and as the myth goes, “And so he lived happily ever after.” This however was not true. Paul faced prison, shipwreck, abuse, and more. That doesn’t sound so “happily ever after”. However, Paul does claim to be full of joy, knowing that his joy is found in Jesus. He was a great example of how despite what life throws at us, our joy in Jesus cannot be taken away. This joy is our salvation, our relationship with Jesus and our hope in all of His promises.

Your Part

Be aware of the emotions that your children experience and as we have taught throughout the term, remind your children who God is to them. When they are afraid, God is their courage. When they are unsure, God is their faith. When they are sad, God is their joy. Keep reminding your children who God is. As your children are challenged with emotions, help them see what it is and apply how God helps us find life and strength to move forward. And remind your children how God’s joy can never be taken away.

We hope that your joy will be made more alive in God as you see your children live in God’s joy.

– Children’s Church team

 

Bear Much Fruit: Destiny

21 AUGUST 2016

Download the recordings below

BEDFORDVIEW MORNING

Marcus Herbert


 

Rich Towards God

A biblical, balanced view of money.

Children’s church reflection for 14 August 2016

Earlier this year as a church we felt God encourage us to challenge the effect of fear in our lives and how we should respond to fear by keeping our eyes and faith on God and His promises. The reality is that children are challenged with fear all the time. Have you ever wondered where we actually learn the idea of fear? God doesn’t tell us to fear. So this week our focus was on how God is our courage.

Our Part

On Sunday we addressed some of the fears that our children are facing. Fears are real, they exist and so we need to address them. We showed a clever object lesson that helped the children see how in God we can overcome our fears and handle them.

We then looked at some of the characters in the Bible who clearly faced fear but by keeping their faith in God, they overcame their fears and saw incredible victory (think of David’s many stories, Joshua, Daniel and his friends). We focused on how God is greater than our fears. God promises that He will watch over us and care for us, and so He won’t let our fears have victory over us. With that, the focus of our craft and stories all tried to encourage our children that when they feel afraid, they can remember that God is all-powerful and He will give us courage when we need to gain the victories for God.

Your Part

When your children display fear, address the fear they are experiencing and then point to Jesus. Remind your children constantly how God loves them and longs to protect them and so he will give us courage to overcome fear. Keep encouraging your children with God’s promises that they feel confident and when fear comes again and again, your children can face their fear head-on with their faith in God and His character and promises.

– The Children’s Church team
Please don’t forget that you can download the curriculum to view all of our content for this term.
Children’s Church team

Bear Much Fruit: Song of Songs Part 2

14 AUGUST 2016

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BEDFORDVIEW MORNING

Marcus Herbert


BEDFORDVIEW EVENING

Craig Herbert


 

Crossroads

In life we face many crossroads. These are times in our life when we honestly don’t know which way to go. Either way might fundamentally change our life, and we have no idea what the final outcome will be.

But we must make a decision. If we stay at our crossroads forever, we will never be able to move forward, and enjoy all God has for us.

This term at REV Youth Bedfordview, we’ve invited people to come and share their stories of their crossroads in life. How did they find out where to go? What was the core revelation that helped them, and continues to help them? What is God’s plan and intention when we reach these crossroads of life?

There’s a very simple way to unravel the mystery of what we should do and that is this: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). If we can only grasp that, decisions will begin to become easier to make and we can relax in the knowledge that we’ve gone down the right road.

 

 

Spiritual Victories

by  Heidi Strong
10 August 2016 at Bedfordview

Bear Much Fruit: Song of Songs

7 AUGUST 2016

Download the recordings below

BEDFORDVIEW MORNING

Marcus Herbert


BEDFORDVIEW EVENING

Nathan Gernetzky


 

Children’s Church reflection for 7 August 2016

This Sunday at Children’s Church, as we continue discovering who God is and who He has called us to be, we looked at how God is our faith. Without faith we find that we cannot be in relationship with God. It is therefore vital that we fully grasp the faith we need and the faith we are given by God. The privilege we as the teachers had is that we got to speak to children and, as Jesus emphasises, there is such great faith in children. Their will and desire to believe in a living, all-powerful God who loves us unconditionally is the perfect foundation for us to teach them more truths about our awesome God. We encourage you not to take for granted or downplay the faith your children have.

Our Part

Our emphasis came from Hebrews 2 where we are told to keep our eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith. Across the sites we are teaching a series on bearing much fruit and we are clearly hearing God’s desire for us, His church, to return to intimacy with Him and, out of that place of intimacy, we can bear much fruit. This is the same emphasises God is making to our children. Our games, the stories and the craft (making binoculars at some sites) all encouraged us to remember to keep our eyes on Jesus. One of the biggest points we wanted to make was that when life gets tough, and it will get tougher for our children, only God is faithful to stay true to us and strong enough to help us. We are called to therefore keep our faith in Him.

Your Part

Your children watch you constantly and a lot of their learning comes from observation (mostly observing you). So who are your eyes on mom and dad? Our kids were taught how the distractions of this world (money, fame, objects etc.) are not worthy of our faith. Instead we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, who is always faithful and always seeking to care for us. Challenge yourself to fix your eyes on Jesus. Whatever situation you and your family are facing, let your children see and hear you declare that you will keep your eyes on Jesus. When times get tough for your children, our prayer is that their first response would be to put their faith in Jesus and rely on Him. And when we lack faith, God will give us more faith.

Help your children grow in their faith by reading the Bible more with them, point out God’s promises and His miracles, look at prophecies made over your family and your children and remind your children of all God has done. Our children will surely believe it.

The Bible is full of stories of people who become heroes because of their faith in God. We pray our children become the next generation of heroes for God’s kingdom.

– Children’s Church team

The King & His Kingdom: Building on the Rock

by Greg Mc Alpine
5 August 2016 at The Exchange
Part of the King and His Kingdom series

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