SuperStar!

Last Sunday, we went Backstage with the Bible to look at two groups of perople. One group was the Egyptians and they had everything. The second group were called the Israelites and they were not rich or famous. They were actually slaves to the Egyptians. Even though they didn't have possessions of their own, they were called God's chosen people.
The fact is, God will remember His people and reward us in heaven and the rewards will be much greater than money or fame!

Psalm 139:14 "I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

God has a plan for you since before the day you were born. But, you have a choice to go with His plan or not. It all starts by putting Him first in your life.

What does God have planned for you? Missionary? Youth leader? Pastor? Doctor? Farmer? Computer Specialist?

You are special to God, and he has a special plan for you too!

Perseverance!

Last Sunday we talked about Noah and his patience through the entire ark event. I think if I had to stay in a boat for more than a year with all those animals--I just might go crazy!

But, 2 Thessalonians 3:5 says, "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance." Perseverance is "not giving up, but continuing on!"

James 1:3 says, "...know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

Hang on! Keep a good attitude! And persevere!

You may read more about Noah's journey of perseverance in Genesis 6:5-8:22.

Let's Make A Deal

Jesus exchanged his life for the penalty of our sin. We now have hope of heaven, rather than hell. That's a great trade for us!

Read together John 6:26-28
These verses was when Jesus had fed the 5,000. Some people followed him because they wanted food that would temporarily satisfy their hunger. They were interested in the temporary that would make them feel good immediatly. But Jesus was more concerned about the long lasting feeding of their soul.

1 Timothy 4:8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This last Sunday was Let's Make A Deal Sunday. We had kids come up that had something to trade. They then pick a container that they wanted to trade with. The tricky thing was, they didn't know if they were going to make a good deal or not.

Question/Answer:
What's going to help you the most in the long-term?
1. Skittles or Fruit
2. Coke or Milk
3. Watching TV or reading?
4. Sitting on the couch or exercising?
5. Playing video games or reading your Bible?
6. Going to a sports game or going to church?
7. Listening to non-Christian music or listening to Christian music?

I encourage you to make the good deal! Make the good choice! Choose the thing that will be LONG lasting.

Praying With Children

Recently, a parent asked me some advice about praying with her children. I thought you may be interested in seeing what I said. Bless ya!

Pastor Randy

---Response---

You, as parents have the great opportunity to create an environment where your kids will desire more of God in their lives. I often think of the verse, "Taste and see the Lord is good." We want to give kids a good taste of what God has for them. And we want that taste to be something that makes them yearn and hunger for more of God. There's a big difference between force feeding kids a plateful of food though, and giving them a taste. I also recognize that "in the natural" a child usually has an attention span of about 1 minute per year of age...if they are interested in what they are doing. (That's why a 4 year old teacher cannot tell a 10 minute story.)

I believe that prayertimes can be a part of that "tasting" process when children are exposed to the goodness of God. These prayertimes should fit a child's perspectives and appear directly applicable to their lives. We do want them to think that prayer is relevant and life-giving. If they are bored and turned off by the prayertimes, they will assume, in time, that prayer is boring and irrelevant.

Something I did, when my kids were younger, is this:
There were times where I would go to my bedroom to pray. I'd tell the kids that's what I was going to do, and if they wanted to join me for prayer, they were welcome. (No guilt. No heavy-handedness. Just an invitation.)

Often, one or two of them would come in and spend 5 or 10 minutes with me kneeling by the bed. I would always pray outloud.

I would invite them to join me in "conversational prayer." Which means we would:
1. first of all list things that we should pray about.
2. Then I would pray first about that thing (for a few sentences or a paragraph)
3. Then they would pray about that same thing outloud.
4. Then we would move on to the second thing on the list...maybe they would pray first this time...
5. We alternated praying together until we got through our list.
6. Then I would always pray a prayer of blessing on them, and allow them to go if they wanted too.
These were precious times.

I also think of scripture that talks about "pray constantly." (1 Thess. 5:17) So, throughout the day, when driving the car, etc., I'd just say a short outloud prayer, yes to God, but so my kids would also hear me. I want them to understand that prayer is a normal, often repeated, part of life, and not just a scheduled event.

Through the years I have also taught this acrostic for prayer:
P- praise (thank God for who He is and what he has done)
R - Repent (things to be sorry for...and things in me that need to change)
A - Ask (ask God for help. Prayer for others too)
Y - Yeild (Saying "not my will but yours be done." and also allowing God to speak to me...)

I've taught kids that if you spend just even a minute on each of these, you will pray about five minutes a day. It's easy for that time to stretch longer once started.

There's a few thoughts. Hopefully they are helpful!

Bless you as you disciple those wonderful girls!

Pastor Randy

Freedom!

Today I find myself at Assembly Park Camp in Northern Wisconsin. I, and most of my family, are kids camp speakers here with a great group of kids and staff. It took about five hours to drive here from Willmar.

Last night I shared the message of Jesus' sacrifice and saw many children, for the first time. commit their lives to Christ.

It made me think about how wonderful it is to live in a country like this, where we can tell others about our faith in Jesus. Not everyone can do that around the world. Some places will not allow people to talk about Jesus.

Right now, my daughter Brooke, is in Guatamala. She is there with Greg Phillips (who did our Family Extravaganza a year ago.) They are going into orphanages, schools, and prisons telling people there about Jesus too.

As our special guest, Jeff Struecker, said on Sunday morning. We should be thankful for our freedom as a country. But, God wants us to have freedom spiritually too.

You may read about that in John 8:34-36. Take time to read that today, and be thankful that Jesus' sets us free from sin!

See you soon!

Willmar Fest Parade

We had a great time with almost 50 people helping represent Kidsworld ministries at the parade. Did you see us there?! We were out to promote the upcoming VBS on July 26-29. Get signed up now at http://www.willmarag.org/