This weekend we continued teaching the kids about the awesome account of Jesus’ birth and the events that took place around it. We specifically taught them how the wise men honored Jesus with their gifts. We also showed them the various traditions that people around the world use to honor Jesus. In Poland, the people honor the star of Bethlehem, and they do not begin the meal (the “Wigilia”) until the first star is spotted. In Bethlehem, Christian homes honor Jesus by painting a cross over their door and by placing a star on a pole in the village square. These are just a few ways people around the world honor Jesus at Christmas.

This weekend we taught the children how the wise men honored Jesus with their gifts. Many of us are very familiar with the wise men’s gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We talk about these three gifts of honor and, indeed, we should. Besides, these gifts allow us to focus on the Christ Child. The gifts are for him. Yet there is a fourth gift the wise men gave to honor God that we may not recognize as a gift. That fourth gift is the gift of listening to God: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road” (Matthew 2:12). Their adherence to the dream’s warning was a gift as well. God used this dream to warn the wise men. By being attentive to this dream, they listened to God.

This week as you interact with your children remember that like the wise men, you also offer the children the powerful gift of listening, listening to their laughter, their responses, and their concerns. This week take the opportunity to be attuned to the presence of your children by listening to and celebrating with them how people honor Jesus around the world.

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor”. Luke 2:52

This weekend we taught the children the biblical account of Jesus’ birth and how the shepherds responded to the good news. In Jesus’ time, shepherds were considered the lower class citizens. The Scriptures tell us that shepherds were living in the fields (Luke 2:8). Their job was a dangerous one because they were exposed to nature that included wild beasts and thieves. The shepherds who tended their own sheep were often the youngest or the oldest of the family those who could not perform much labor on the homestead. Some shepherds tended the flocks of others, working as wage earners. These shepherds were usually the sons of peasants who did not inherit land or possessions. Shepherds were often nomadic, living off the land with their sheep. Yet God chose to reveal the birth of Jesus to lowly shepherds. God could have chosen kings or persons with clout and authority. Instead, he chose shepherds. It was obviously a good choice. These shepherds were among the first missionaries of their day, for they did not keep the good news of Jesus’ birth to themselves. After finding Joseph and Mary and seeing the Savior for themselves, the shepherds told others, and others were amazed at what they heard (Luke 2:17-18).

This weekend’s lesson will help the children connect with this biblical account of Jesus’ birth and how the shepherds responded to the good news. As you interact with your children this week, encourage them in responding with joy to the good news of Jesus’ birth. Also, listen to any concerns your children may have. While Christmas is exciting for some, for others it brings along with it pressures: financial concerns, holiday family strife, perhaps even being alone at Christmas. Some children may have picked up on some of the stress of Christmas from you their parents or other adults, so they may express these concerns as well. Pray with and for the children. Use all the activities you will be doing this week to point them to ways to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11

Our celebration of the last week of Jesus’ life is called Holy Week. It was an eventful week. Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph on Palm Sunday; He taught in the Temple; ate the Last Supper with His disciples; He prayed in Gethsemane; He was betrayed by Judas; and He was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Jesus’ closest disciples fled in fear, and on Friday, when Jesus died, it was mainly His women followers who witnessed His death. The Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset, so there was no time to complete the normal burial rituals. The women watched as Jesus’ body was hastily placed in a tomb hewn out of the rocky hillside.

Each of the four Gospels reports that early on Sunday morning, after the sabbath was over, it was the women who were first to witness the Resurrection. They came to the tomb to wash and anoint Jesus’ body, but the tomb was empty! Some people accused the disciples of fabricating the story of the Resurrection. However, since women were not allowed to be legal witnesses in those days, the disciples would have surely devised a better plan if they had intended to fool anyone. The fact that women discovered the empty tomb, then, actually added credibility to the account!

The account of the Resurrection is an account about the power of God, power that is stronger than hatred, than fear and stronger than death itself. Children have many reactions to Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Some simply accept it without question, while others are disturbed by Jesus’ suffering and death. Help your children know that Jesus’ death is not the end of the story. Help them see that the good news is that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today!

This week encourage your children to explore the account of the Resurrection and what it means to them. Encourage them to wonder, to pose questions, and to grow in their faith.

“I am the resurrection and the life” John 11:25

Dear Family,

We are less than two weeks away from Easter. It is the day in which we celebrate the greatest single fact in the history of the universe and that is that Jesus Christ was crucified, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead and He is alive! What an amazing thing for us to celebrate!

This year we will be having two services at the beautiful CCk:WestCampus located at 15900 SW 56 Street. Service times will be at 9AM and 11AM. There will be an awesome kids program as well. You won’t want to miss this! And you won’t want your friends and family to miss it either. Easter is always a great opportunity to invite folks that normally won’t go to church.

I pray that God would use you to step out with boldness to call and invite everyone that you can think of to join us for one of the services. We have some cool flyers available at the info center for you to hand out. Grab a stack and get to work! I am looking forward to what the Lord is going to do.

Let the lost be found,
pedro

Tomorrow most if not all of us will get together with family and friends and celebrate Thanksgiving. It is a time of reflection and remembrance, a time when we remember those pilgrims of long ago and their journey in search of a new land, but why did they come? They tell us plainly in the governing document they signed, the Mayflower Compact: “For the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our King and Country.” They wanted to worship the Lord in the way their consciences and their understanding of Holy Scripture led them, which included building a community in which they could daily live out their faith in Jesus Christ. They called their dangerous effort “an errand into the wilderness.” Sadly, many of them died in that first terrible year. Hunger and disease took their toll. But the Pilgrims are honored because they did not give up.

When their little ship, the Mayflower, returned to England, not one of their little band abandoned the call. They called on God to sustain them. And they accepted the timely help of the Wampanoag Indians, especially the English speaking Squanto. Without this help, they might all have died.

The story of Plymouth Rock also reminds us of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They would place standing stones in key places to help them remember how God had led them, how He had watched over them. The Pilgrims identified most strongly with the people of God in the Bible. There may never have been so highly literate a community. All the Pilgrims eagerly learned to read words so that they might read the Word.

This Thanksgiving is a good time to remind our children of the many blessings that Our Lord has showered upon us in the past year. Even in this time of war and of deepening economic hardships, the harvests of our fields are still abundant. Our people have been spared further terrorist attacks, and we passed through a hotly contested election without the violence that too often mars political conflict in less happy lands.

Most of all, we give thanks for the joys of family life. When we gather around a holiday table, the faith, love, and commitment of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers bind our family circle. Let us also remember to give thanks to God for the brave young men and women who stand guard for us and our blood bought freedoms in distant lands.

And let us resolve in this season to live as “living stones [who] are being built into a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving.