How do we learn? So often, there are different ways of learning: by listening, by reading, by doing. We try to incorporate different ways of learning for children so that God’s word finds a home in their hearts.

We have made and painted salt-dough bread to remind us that Jesus is the bread of life and made a gate out of lollipop sticks to reinforce that truth. We made cotton wool sheep to go in a sheep pen and made a paper vine with grapes to remind us of that truth! A paper plate grave with the stone rolled away reminded us of the truth of the resurrection and we used maps and mazes to help us see that Jesus is the way to God. Tea lights in glass jars reminded us of the truth that Jesus is the light of the world; glow sticks were another reminder of this truth.

Colouring pictures, mazes, wordsearches, videos, games and songs are all ways we can teach God’s word in age-appropriate ways. We believe that God’s word is an anchor for our lives and that children need to learn the truths of God’s word from a young age. Over the next few weeks, in addition to preparing for our ‘Boogie-Woogie’ Nativity on 18^th December, we will be looking at many of the other names for Jesus in the Bible, each of which brings us closer to a more balanced understanding of who Jesus is.

Please pray for the children who attend our services, for Julie and Stephen as they teach them Biblical truths each week, and for parents who have the ongoing responsibility of bringing their children up to know the Lord. We are all part of God’s wider family and have the joy of passing on the baton of faith to each new generation.

We firmly believe that one way to learn God’s word is by singing it! Somehow, songs help us to remember Biblical truths and we are grateful to Garry for writing a song based on these verses.

I am the bread of life.

I’ll give you all you need on the spiritual side.

This spiritual diet is required –

You’ll get it from me ‘cause I am the bread of life

I am the light of the world:

Lighting up the darkness and causing a stir,

Never switched off – that’s a guarantee,

‘Cause I am the light of the world.

I am the door.

You’ll get a warm welcome and so much more.

There’s lots waiting in the heavenly store;

Just come through me, ‘cause I am the door.

I am the good shepherd of the sheep.

I’ll care an’ protect, give you all you need.

By still waters I will lead,

Because I’m the good shepherd of the sheep.

I am the true Vine.

Stay attached to me an’ you’ll be fine.

You’ll produce fruit at the right time,

If you’re in me ‘cause I’m the true Vine.

I am the way, the truth, the life;

Give you all you need an’ I’m by your side;

You can trust me ‘cause I’ve never lied.

I am the way, the truth, the life,

I am the resurrection life.

Death is not final any time.

A brand new start you will find,

Because I’m the resurrection and the life.

At our ‘Little Big Church’ service tonight, we shared with the church what we have been teaching the children in Sunday School since September and how we have been able to answer the question ‘Who Is Jesus?’ by looking at seven ‘I am’ statements He made about Himself in John’s Gospel.

In using the name ‘I am’ (John 8:58), Jesus made explicit reference to Himself as God (since this was the name God used to Moses in Ex 3:14.) He went on to give further explanation of who He is in these seven statements:

1. I am the bread of life (John 6:35)
2. I am the light of the world (John 8:12)
3. I am the good shepherd (John 10:11 & 14)
4. I am the gate for the sheep (John 10:7)
5. I am the true vine (John 15:1)
6. I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
7. I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)

With the aid of homemade bread, grapes, glow sticks, knitted sheep, gates made from lollipop sticks and other visual aids, we have explored these ideas, reminding ourselves that:

1. Jesus feeds us and nurtures us through His word. (see Matt 4:4)
2. Jesus is light, a light shining in the darkness. He wants to share that light with us so that we can help illuminate the darkness. (Matt 5:14-16)
3. Jesus is the door to God and acts like a shepherd, leading us and guiding us.
4. Jesus is the true vine; only as we are connected to Him can we live fruitful lives.
5. Resurrection means death doesn’t have the final word. We can know life in all its fulness now (John 10:10) and we can know our mortal bodies will be raised to life again even after death. (1 Cor 15)
6. Jesus is the way, showing us how to be reconciled to God. He is the truth, so we can trust what He says. He is the life, which means He is God, for only God has life in Himself.

Footprints showing us the way…

Garry continued speaking from Genesis 43 this morning. Last time, we left Jacob wrestling with the truth, unwilling to let his youngest son go to Egypt, but eventually he must agree in order to save his family from famine. They took extra things to make up for what they had been given and must have been dreading what would happen on their arrival, but in fact, they learned that they owed nothing; their debt had been paid and they were actually treated like valued guests, being welcomed to a feast. This is a picture of how God treats us. We deserve nothing from Him, but He lavishes His love and gifts upon us. Instead of condemnation, we are invited into His family to become His children and heirs (see Romans 8).

The brothers were, in fact, haunted by their past and what they had done to Joseph (Gen 42:21). We too can be haunted by our past, seeing ourselves as beyond God’s reach and mercy. Ultimately, though, we all have to realise that we are all sinners and therefore all must come to God in the same way through Jesus Christ. All of us are utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wills for us in our own strength (see Rom 3:23, The Message); we can neither look down on others or feel worthless ourselves; we must simply come to God in sincerity and repentance and accept His wonderful welcome!

It’s a sobering thought to realise that all need God desperately, whether they (or we) realise it or not Paul spoke about Christ’s love compelling us to share the good news (2 Cor 5:14). We need to ask God to move us through His love so that we we continue to share this good news with everyone.

The brothers came to Egypt ready to pay for the original grain they had been given as well as the new grain they needed, to find out that the payment had already been made. We too can rejoice that Christ has paid the debt of sin for us and so there are no longer any barriers to coming to God. God does not approve of sin, but He does accept and welcome sinners. We come to God just as we are and by His grace we don’t stay as we are; we are transformed and re=made. We are not just accepted grudgingly, but brought to a feast (see Matt 8:10-11, Luke 13:28-30, Matt 22:1-2).This may well not be seen in this life (Heb 11:35-38); there is, as Aaron Shust wistfully puts it in his song ‘Ever After’ no such thing as ‘happy ever after here.’ Nonetheless, the hope of the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9) fuels our present endeavours and encourages us as we seek to reach out to those who have not yet arrived at God. We are being transformed into the image of Christ and have much to look foward to!

If the first five chapters of Revelation bring us confusion about symbolic numbers and visions of heaven which are not easily understood (but at least make it clear that worship is central in heaven and God is still sovereign, ruling over all), chapter 6 opens the door to much more frightening topics about the judgment of God. The timing of these events (often relating to Daniel’s vision of ‘seventy weeks’ and Jesus’s discourse about the end times in Matthew 24, notoriously difficult chapters to interpret) is open to debate; the whole notion of the Tribulation and what this really means (and whether the church is still present on earth during this period or has already been raptured by Jesus) are topics which have been debated through the ages without anyone being able to definitively prove their point of view. It can be hard to determine what is exactly meant by the seals being opened, and this is not helped by modern opinions which refuse to believe the fully rounded revelation of God we find in the Bible.

We like the idea that God is love; we are relieved to be able to talk of His mercy, grace, goodness and kindness. Forgiveness and restoration are popular topics. But if we read the Bible fully, we find also that God is a God of judgment, wrath and justice. For us, these things are mutually exclusive and so we prefer to ignore His calls to repentance, His ruthless attitude towards sin and His uncompromising quest to perfect holiness in us. It’s far easier to believe that all roads will eventually lead to God and that all people will eventually be saved. Ease has never been a criterion for right living, however.

The Bible is clear that Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6) and that the way to relationship with Him comes through His sacrifice on the cross. Revelation 5 has painted a picture of a Lamb on the throne, the lamb being the animal sacrificed for sin in the Old Testament. We have been told of Jesus, ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.’ (Rev 5:9) It should therefore come as no surprise that when the seals are opened, they speak of judgment and terrible times: times of false peace, war, death, famine and scarcity, martyrdom and judgment, because God cannot ignore sin forever. To do so would be a travesty of His character, leaving evil unpunished.

We flinch at the severity of the judgments we see; we wonder how God can still love humanity if He is prepared to allow such suffering; we do not enjoy these visions at all. Ultimately, there are no easy answers to the thorny question of the judgment of God, but the martyrs seen in this chapter asking the perennial human question, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ (Rev 6:10) remind us that there must come a day of reckoning if God is just and true. The ‘great day of wrath’ (Rev 6:17) is not a pleasant topic, but it is found here in the Bible, and if we wish to withstand it and have confidence on the day of judgment, then we must trust in the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (Rev 13:8) and accept the limitations of our human knowledge and understanding.