Hey VBS family!!
We are so excited your child has been with us for the beginning of our Walking With Jesus adventure this week! Today we discussed some familiar stories for many of us, but the Bible is never ending and always has more to say than what’s on the surface. We wanted to share some of what we discussed today, but we also want to invite you, as the parent, along on this journey as a family!
Consider these even a challenge to do each evening either after dinner or before bed. We believe God wants to speak to you to!!
Who knows, maybe this is something you continue to do even after our Adventure With Jesus week!
Walking with Jesus Day 1
To truly understand the Bible, we should be aware that these stories, recorded accounts, and letters we read of in the Bible were written to a certain people, in a certain culture, in different languages. Reading the Bible becomes even more exciting when we start to try to place ourselves in their personal experience just like we did today.
Earlier, we read about when Mary first found out that she was going to have a child, in fact she was told that she was going to give birth to the Son of The Most High and that he would be given the throne of his father David. Let’s just say, WOW! There is a lot going on here. First, take a minute to go over Luke 1:30-38. Kids, this is your opportunity to teach your parent! Try and tell the story of the angel who spoke to Mary and what the angel told her. Also, who else was going to have a baby right before Jesus?
Did you know?!
The term Son of the Most High is a phrase we should pay attention to. Throughout the course of the Bible, we see other gods mentioned. In fact, devout Jews believed in Yahweh and knew the Torah (the first 5 books of our Old Testament Bibles) well, but their culture was influenced heavily by Greek mythology. Worshipping multiple gods was common as they believed not one god had all the power or influence. These gods had certain powers. Some of those gods you may have even heard of including Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, and Apollo to name a few.
These gods played a central role in the lives of the people during the arrival of Jesus. It was believed that these gods would need to be appeased in order to find favor with them. The people would perform sacrifices and even certain rituals to try and make them happy or to keep them from getting angry.
We don’t often think of other “gods”, but the Bible is a story that shares about a spiritual battle that has been going on for a very long time where a battle of who is the one true God. If you remember, the serpent in the garden tried to convince Eve that Yahweh didn’t want her and Adam to eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil because if they did, they would become “like him.” The serpent lied and said that God was worried that someone else would become a god as “powerful as he is”.
As we will see this week walking with Jesus, no one is like the one true God and the Bible will show us how even today he sits on his throne as the King of Kings! King David plays a large role in the Bible as well; in fact he authored over half of the book of Psalms! He was a king that loved the Lord. Kings and rulers also played a large role in how societies were ran in the time of Jesus. God has been on a mission to restore creation to how it was supposed to be when he first created it. What he made was very good, or “tov meod”.
Can you say that as a family? -Tov Meod
Tov meod is Hebrew for “very good”. If you memorize that, you have learned to speak two words Jesus himself would have spoken! Pretty cool…
People were designed by God himself to show the rest of the world who God is, just like if you play sports, you represent your team, or as a musician you represent the whole band. King David was supposed to show the world how a true king is humble and serves his people like God does. A true king doesn’t bark orders, or get angry all the time, but loves and serves his people. King Jesus is like no other king that we have ever seen.
Now we can see that when the angel said to Mary, “you will give birth to the Son of the Most High, from the line of David, the angel is saying that through Mary will come the one God that is above all other God’s the true King of the cosmos and he will never stop being King! This is such a big deal, but as Jesus grows older, we will see how so many people were upset when he claims to be the King of Kings.
Today, we don’t often consider “other gods”, but maybe that’s because we can’t often see them. If a god is something we “worship” meaning something we devout a lot of our time or energy to and we try to find meaning or purpose from, could we possibly serve other gods and not realize it?
The people of Jesus culture were tempted to trust other god this way too. The goddess Athena promised wisdom and knowledge, but the Bible tells us to “lean not on our own understanding, but to commit ourselves to God.”
Trust in the Lord will all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
Apollo promised healing, but Jesus said the he is the healer, but Jesus said
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners" Isaiah 61:1
Not only is Jesus unlike any other God, he has come into our presence and wants his rightful place in our hearts.
Here's some questions to answer as a family…
It’s easy to think that we have all the answers. This is something both adults and kids do. Kids, I bet even your parents would tell you that they used to think they know everything, but often that is not the case! We need a savior, but what’s amazing is that Jesus not only came to help save us by coming to live with us, but we can now also see that there is no other God like him. He truly has proven himself as the Son of the Most High!
1. How today as a family might you begin to trust in the one true God, God with us, even more?
2. It appears a God would want to show off how mighty and strong he is, but Jesus came as a baby born in a manger. If Jesus is the one true God, why do you think he came to Earth this way?
3. As we praised Jesus earlier today just like the shepherds did for all they had seen and heard, what can you praise Jesus for as a family?
*hint. Sometimes life is very hard and it isn’t always easy to find reasons to praise Jesus. As mentioned earlier today, the choices people have made over hundreds and thousands of years has made our world a pretty messy place at times. Mercy and grace are two powerful things that God extends to us. Maybe there are times that even our parents have been very patient will us when instead we maybe deserved something different.
It's not always easy to see when God shows us mercy and grace, but simply recognizing that God is very patient and chooses to allow “loving kindness” draw us to him may be reason enough to praise him. He is the one true King and although we often worship other gods, he is patient for us to return to him with a genuine and sincere heart.
Today has been a very special first day at Amen Adventure VBS!
We are so grateful you have taken the time as a family to come closer together and to look into the heart of our incredible God and King.
We are excited for our next step along our journey with you!
