Category: Bible
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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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“Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety Performers
Read More: “Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety PerformersI 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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Acts Memory Verse
Read More: Acts Memory VerseOne of only two agraphon (plural of “agrapha”: a Jesus quote outside of the Gospels) in the New Testament. The other is 1 Corinthians 11:22. #mvotw#mvotwyear
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John Memory Verse
Read More: John Memory VerseThink of all the new stories about the life of Jesus that we will hear when we get to heaven! #mvotwyear #mvotw
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Mark Memory Verse
Read More: Mark Memory VerseLet the little children come to Jesus. Do not put any roadblocks in their way. #mvotw #mvotwyear
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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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Numbers Memory Verse
Read More: Numbers Memory VerseThis is the blessing to Aaron and his sons that God commanded Moses to tell Aaron. One thing I love about this blessing is that following this blessing, God then tells Moses, “so they [Aaron and his sons] will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (v. 27). Wow. God shines…
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Exodus Memory Verse
Read More: Exodus Memory VerseHere we are at week 2 of memorizing a verse from each book of the Bible in a year. This week’s verse comes from the Song of Moses and Miriam found in Exodus 15. They are praising God for delivering them from the hands of the Egyptian army after fleeing from them and making it…
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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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Stewards of the Story
Read More: Stewards of the StoryLast night, I was working with my seven year-old daughter on a Bible verse that she is trying to memorize. The verse spoke about the “fear of God” and we had a good discussion about the definition of the word “fear” in that context. While that alone is a whole other discussion, the point I…
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Teaching the Good Samaritan Story to a Modern Audience
Read More: Teaching the Good Samaritan Story to a Modern AudienceI’ve had the chance to teach the Good Samaritan story to groups of children and preteens over the past month. I adapted the Bible story from Luke’s Gospel to speak to the kids in their cultural context. In Mississippi, for example, I orchestrated a skit that had a Mississippi State Bulldog fan kneel down and…
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Fidget Spinner Bible Lesson
Read More: Fidget Spinner Bible LessonSo here’s a way to teach a Bible lesson using a fidget spinner…. What Really Lasts? Bring and show off as many of these fad toys as you can find (show pictures if you don’t have the actual toy): the hula hoop Lincoln Logs the pet rock the Rubix Cube Slinky the slap bracelet Beanie…
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Scripture Memory for Kids
Read More: Scripture Memory for KidsI have an acronym for scripture memory that I use at camps: MVOTW. It stands for “Memory Verse of the Week.” You pronounce it, “muh-vah-twuh.” Kids love saying it and we put motions to the words to help us remember whatever verse we are working on. Most camps and vacation Bible schools have a theme…
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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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Valentine’s Day Lesson for Children’s Church
Read More: Valentine’s Day Lesson for Children’s ChurchHere is a brief presentation I gave for the kids at my church on Valentine’s Day 2016. I do some juggling in it, but if you give a similar lesson (which you are free to do, of course), just insert your own version of something impressive to demonstrate to the children instead of juggling. The…
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Four Ways to Help Kids Get Excited About the Bible
Read More: Four Ways to Help Kids Get Excited About the Bible(Picture above thanks to JaredFanning.com). Also found at http://visual.ly/top-10-most-read-books-world Here’s the file of the image: In my previous post, I shared about a large group game idea called “Super Bible Trivia.” I wanted to follow that up with a few practical tips that help us share the wonder of God’s Word with children. Here are a…
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Large Group Game: Super Bible Trivia
Read More: Large Group Game: Super Bible TriviaI’ve played a fun game with large groups of kids over the years that I call “Super Bible Trivia!” This contestant-driven stage quiz game is more of a staged drama than an actual serious quiz game. But it is set up so that the kids think it is a normal quiz game at first. Don’t worry, they’ll…
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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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The Role of the Children’s Pastor
Read More: The Role of the Children’s PastorI’m reading a great book on ministry with children right now called Children Matter by Scottie May, Beth Posterski, Catherine Stonehouse, and Linda Cannell (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 2005). Here is a quote that made me stop in my tracks: “Our responsibility is to create an environment in which the child can learn about and enter…
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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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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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Bring Me Game Ideas
Read More: Bring Me Game IdeasThe ‘Bring Me’ game is a group activity ideal for engaging children. The leader requests random items, and the first person or group to bring the item gets a point. The game uses technology as it allows for internet-based scavenger hunt challenges. The leader needs to adapt the items according to the group’s characteristics. The…
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The Interrobang as a Metaphor for the Hypostatic Union
Read More: The Interrobang as a Metaphor for the Hypostatic UnionIf you have no idea what that title means, that’s OK. It is actually fairly simple to explain those weird words, which I will attempt to do. The “hypostatic union” is an important theological concept to understand about the person and work of Jesus Christ. It basically says that Jesus Christ is one person, two…
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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…