My dear Trinity family:
Our theme for this year is “years may come, and years may go, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
Keeping this in mind, we have decided to conscientiously go on a Bible Reading Journey together. We are not doing this Bible Reading journey just as a church- which is great! We are going on this Bible reading journey with our sisters and brothers from all over the world. This means that whatever time of the day it is, someone is reading the same passage of the Bible, in some part of the world, as you did on any day. How cool is that!
God is speaking to someone from that same passage of the Bible, as he spoke with you on that day. Amazing!
This Sunday is Noah’s Ark Sunday. This is the Sunday on which we focus on our children.
Last month, on Noah’s Ark Sunday, we heard from our missionaries in South Africa and in Colombia, about what God is doing through our children in those parts of the world.
God speaks to us through our children.
When God took his people out of slavery, he told them this,
Deut. 6:4-9
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
He said them, “Do you want a vibrant spiritual life? Let it all revolve around your children. You talk about what God is doing to you and through you, in every aspect of your life, with your children. They, in turn will ask you questions and point out things which will make you better followers of God.”
Sadly, the people forgot all about teaching their children, and talking about the Bible, all the time, as God commanded them. So, they lived mediocre, to very horrible lives.
During the time of Jesus, they continued to live these kinds of sad lives.
Parents brought their children to Jesus. But his disciples behaved like bodyguards. They drove away the parents, perhaps even shoved the kids. Sad! Isn’t it?
Thankfully, we have one example of a disciple who learnt from the Lord. He is not a prominent disciple of Jesus. All the great thinkers talk and write about apostles like Peter and Paul. Not many write about this disciple. His name was Andrew.
Andrew was probably the younger brother of Peter. He was probably the quieter one. Peter was the loud, type-A personality. One of the disciples of Jesus, John the Apostle, recognized this quiet strength of Andrew. In his Gospel. John underlines that Andrew was the first apostle to be called by Jesus. He also underlines that Peter becomes a disciple of Jesus because of Andrew. This is powerful!
This Sunday, we will spend some time reflecting on Andrew. We will focus on a huge miracle that Jesus did. He fed 5,000 men. These were the heads of family households. They had their wives and children with them. So, Jesus would have fed at least 25,000 people- children, women, and men.
How did he do this? It was because of the friendship between Andrew and a slave boy.
Jesus looked at all the people, and knew that they would die of starvation, if he did not feed them.
He looked at his disciples and said, “Feed them guys!”
They looked at Jesus, as if he had lost his mind.
But Andrew was different. He had befriended this little kid. This little kid was not the son of some important village people. He was a slave boy. Andrew knew what kind of lunch package he had. He did know from where he got this food. Maybe, someone had pity on this starving slave boy and had given him five rotis and two little sardine fish from Galilee.
Andrew really got to know this little lad, from his heart-to-heart conversation with him.
Andrew did what Deuteronomy 6 and Jesus asked Christians to do.
In his quiet way, Andrew said, “Lord, this little slave boy is willing to sacrificially share his five tiny rotis and two sardines! What do you think?”
The rest, as they say, is history!
Next Sunday, we will hear about lessons that our Director of Noah’s Ark, Christina Palazzolo, from Noah’s Ark kids.
We will also hear from two amazing missionaries, serving our Lord in India about lessons they have learnt from kids in India.
We will learn some important lessons from them!
So, please bring your kids, grandkids, and all!
Come willing to hear and learn from our kids!
Your Shepherd,
Professor-Pastor BJ
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