Category: Old Testament
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Consecrating Our Work Unto the Lord
Read More: Consecrating Our Work Unto the LordThe following is the text of the sermon that I preached at Eternity Church in Richmond, VA on January 30, 2022: Consecrating Our Work Unto the Lord Scripture Genesis 2:15 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 3:17-19a 17 And…
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Did God the Father Abandon Jesus on the Cross?
Read More: Did God the Father Abandon Jesus on the Cross?“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” guest post by Russell Joyner Why would Jesus say something that sounds so discouraging? In Jewish tradition, in a moment of great distress, one should pray. When all looks hopeless, pray. When you can’t think of what to pray, then recite one of the pre-approved inspired…
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A Taste of Heaven
Read More: A Taste of HeavenA few miles north of Waco, Texas, just off of Interstate 35, sits a Shell gas station and convenience store that looks like any other gas station except for one thing: the line for the convenience store bakery is almost always fifty people deep. That’s because the bakery, called the Czech Stop, specializes in a…
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Where’s Haggai?: How to Help Kids Navigate the Bible
Read More: Where’s Haggai?: How to Help Kids Navigate the BibleIt’s on page 1,195 of course! So yeah, even most adults need the table of contents if the pastor says, “Turn to the second chapter of Haggai as we look at what this prophet says to Zerubbabel.” And if you work with kids in a church or ministry setting, you know the challenge of trying…
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What Cain and Jesus Share
Read More: What Cain and Jesus ShareWhat?! You’re comparing Cain, the first murderer, to Jesus? How dare you! Follow me here. I was writing a paper about ministry with children and I suddenly discovered in the Cain and Abel story something I had never seen before… You probably already knew that Cain was the first child to be born (remember, Adam and Eve…
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The Sheep of His Pasture
Read More: The Sheep of His PastureKnow that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3, NIV
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Cardboard Craft: Noah’s Ark
Read More: Cardboard Craft: Noah’s ArkMy daughter was making a zoo with blocks and her little plastic animals. I figured, “Why don’t we just make a Noah’s Ark since we have all these animals?” I’m not the most crafty person in the world, but I know how to cut cardboard boxes. So I started cutting up an Amazon shipping box.…
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An Undivided Heart
Read More: An Undivided HeartI love the simplicity of Scripture. The ability to rely on God and to have an undivided heart comes from Him! “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness: give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name” (Psalm 86:11).
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Godly Play: A Model for Ministry with Children
Read More: Godly Play: A Model for Ministry with ChildrenGodly Play is a teaching system used by many churches around the world to educate children about God, the Bible, and also invite them into the Christian narrative. Jerome Berryman developed the curriculum and he was influenced by the educational theories of Maria Montessori. I observed Godly Play in action once when I was in…
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Sunrise at Masada
Read More: Sunrise at MasadaMasada was the final Jewish stronghold when the Romans took Jerusalem and the surrounding areas in the early to mid 70’s AD. It is small rocky plateau in the desert just west of the Dead Sea. Herod built a grand palace atop Masada in the 1st Century and ruins of his palace still remain. Today…
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Super Easy Scripture Slides and Images
Read More: Super Easy Scripture Slides and ImagesI recently stumbled upon a fast and free way to make Scripture slides for Children’s Ministry (or any other ministry, for that matter) with an array of free and attractive backgrounds. And it may already be in your phone/device. It’s built into one of the popular apps out there – the free YouVersion app of the…
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“What’s in the Bible?” Curriculum Review
Read More: “What’s in the Bible?” Curriculum ReviewI am somewhat of a bibliophile (one who loves books). And more particularly, I love to learn about and study the book of all books – the Bible. I guess that would be a more accurate use of the term “Biblio”-phile. So it is with excitement and anticipation that I share with you a new…
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Whatever is Right
Read More: Whatever is RightPaul tells us to think about things that are right (Phil 4:8). What is right? There is right and there is wrong. As Christians, we believe in a divine Creator who is also the moral standard for the universe. Without a moral standard, how can we know right and wrong in the first place? Does…
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Jerusalem IMAX Review
Read More: Jerusalem IMAX ReviewYesterday, I saw the IMAX film Jerusalem at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta. Put out by National Geographic Entertainment, it shows both the bloody history as well as the beautiful peoples and cultures who live there today. I spent a semester living in the Old City of Jerusalem when I was in college for a…
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Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten Plagues
Read More: Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten PlaguesI have taught Children’s Church lessons for over a decade and I think yesterday’s lesson on the ten plagues was one of my favorite lessons to ever teach. Please don’t think that I love dark and dismal things like plagues. They really are pretty negative. Biblically speaking, they were real judgements carried out on lots…
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Visiting Israel with a Toddler
Read More: Visiting Israel with a ToddlerMy wife and I celebrated our 10 years of marriage this past May by visiting Israel and the West Bank. It was a two and a half week trip and we have a daughter who is two. We decided that we did not want to be away from her for that long of a trip,…
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MVOTW!
Read More: MVOTW!A crazy new word has entered my vocabulary this summer – MVOTW. It stands for “Memory Verse of the Week.” I have learned that elementary kids and preteens love weird words. They also love doing silly motions to spell out or act out something. So each week at camp this summer, I have taught the…
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Just the Outer Qatza
Read More: Just the Outer Qatza“Qatza” is the transliterated Hebrew term for “fringe”. I’m reading through the book of Job right now and something struck me in Job’s discourse in chapter 26. This is quoted from the NIV, Job 26:7-14, bold lettering mine: 7 He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. 8…
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Lions who Don’t Hurt Donkeys
Read More: Lions who Don’t Hurt DonkeysThis morning, I experienced a “Wow” moment after reading a story in the Bible. Here I am, 27 years old, just graduated from seminary, the son of a pastor, currently serving in ministry – and I read a Bible story about which I was totally unfamiliar. I’m in Children’s Ministry, so I am used to…
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Popular Posts
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“Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety Performers
I am happy to announce that my PhD dissertation has been published to ProQuest, an academic database for published research. I have made the dissertation open source, which means anyone anywhere can access the full content free of charge. Here is the full dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/holy-fools-exploring-journey-calling-christian/docview/2622316783/se-2 Please share far and wide. I am very much excited…
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The Easiest Large Group Game Ever
This is probably the easiest large group game ever invented. If you can think of an easier one, please let me know in the comments. Heads or Tails! This game of heads or tails involves EVERYONE in your large group. It is actually better the larger the group gets. There is an elimination factor to…
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Merry Christmas from the Joyners!
Greetings from our family in Richmond, Virginia! We are thankful for you, our friends and family. We are also thankful to the Lord for His gift of the love to us all this season. This past year has been a roller coaster of experiences and emotions, specifically regarding our spunky little Annie, who is now…
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Book Release! Incredibly Bad Dad Jokes
I have been writing down my original Dad jokes for several years now, but recently they dramatically increased. While the past five months of my life have been the toughest for me as a Dad (with Annie’s medical crisis), the Dad jokes actually came out in full force during this season. You see, in my…
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A Children’s Ministry Poem
From the mouths of children come questions galore about heaven and angels and Satan and more. They speak what their hearts say without holding back, so the wonder of God is something they never lack. Oh God, who are you? Who inspires the minds of little ones many, so that they may find this Jesus…