Discipleship
Help Kids follow Jesus
Jesus Said, "Come, Follow Me."
Jesus not only wants us to believe He is Lord but to spend our lives following Him. However, many times knowledge gets in the way - either the lack of knowledge or the wrong kind of knowledge.
God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)
Many accept Jesus into their life but receive little guidance for their next steps. They do not understand what it means to live for Jesus and do not have a grasp of who God really is. They make a choice to believe in Jesus, but they lack the knowledge needed to become His disciple. Every disciple is a believer, but not every believer is a disciple. In order to follow Jesus and become His disciple, we need knowledge that comes from His Word.
Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)
There is a war going on for your child's heart and mind. With lack of knowledge (or the wrong kind of knowledge), many youth are abandoning their faith when they become young adults. Many parents and churches have put more emphasis on discipling children to protect their children's future. Making disciples of the next generation is certainly essential for their future. However, let's not forget the "right now".
Kids are never too young for God to Move in their lives.
HSM provides tools to teach kids about the Bible so kids can gain knowledge of God's Word, learn to apply it to their lives, develop a relationship with God, and boldly follow Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our goal is discipleship - for their future and for the right now.
The following is a testimony from the co-founder of HSM.
When my youngest son was two years old, he had developed a small vocabulary that wasn’t always easy to understand. He had made it a habit to say something to you and then keep saying it until you repeated that word back to him. He wanted to make sure you understood what he was saying.
One Sunday morning, we dropped him off in his Sunday School classroom like any other Sunday. However, we were later told about a morning that was not so ordinary. While spending some time playing during class, my son approached one of the teachers. He said a word to her and then stood there waiting for her to repeat it back to him. She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly, so she asked if he was trying to say another girl’s name in his class.
Apparently, that wasn’t it and he said the word to her again. This time the teacher thought she heard him say the word pregnant. The teacher knelt beside him and asked him to repeat the word so she could be sure to hear. Again, he said, “Pregnant.” As the teacher repeated, “Pregnant” back to him, he gave a satisfied smile, shook his head yes, and off he went.
The Sunday School teacher was shocked to the point that she had to leave the room to compose herself. She and her husband had been trying to conceive a child for some time without success. Could this little boy’s message possibly mean something? Within 24 hours, the Sunday School teacher discovered she was, in fact, pregnant.
To my knowledge, my son had never heard the word pregnant before. My family didn’t know anyone pregnant, had not tried to get pregnant ourselves, and had no reason to ever use that word. I stayed home with my children and knew what they had been exposed to and what they had not. I am certain he did not know the word pregnant, especially in his limited two-year-old vocabulary.
About a year later, word of this story reached our Pastor. He was so amazed that he retold the events from the pulpit. (Listen to a clip of what the Pastor said above.) During the sermon of the Pastor retelling the story, my son was sitting in the audience with his aunt and was squirming around in the pew acting as if he wasn’t paying attention. As our Pastor recounted the story, my son paused, looked at his aunt and said, “Is he talking about me?”
God used my little boy to give a message of hope to someone, and he had no problem delivering it. In fact, he wanted assurance that he had been heard.
This wasn’t the last time something like this has happened with our son. He has occasionally told us things that has left us in amazement. When he had just turned three, he once said to me, “Did you know God fixed our lives?”
I said to him, “How did He do that?”
My son responded, “He got us all healed. He healed our praise.” At the time, my husband and I had intentionally been focusing on praising God. My three-year-old had no way of knowing that.
In the book of Joel, it says, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…” (2:28 NKJV). God is at work in the lives of all people at all ages.
Peter, one of the twelve disciples and a close friend to Jesus, told Jesus, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matt. 26:35) However, scripture tells us that Peter did deny Jesus not once but three times.
Later, in the book of Acts, we find a new Peter. A man who, previously wanted to hide his identity from a servant girl, was now speaking boldly in front of thousands of people. He was walking securely with power, authority, and confidence regardless of the consequence. The major change in Peter is the major change that can happen to all of us when we put our faith in Christ. And there is no minimum age requirement.
What was this change? Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7 NKJV). It can be hard to fathom how being without Jesus in the physical world is an advantage until you fully realize what the Holy Spirit brings to the table.
It does not matter if you are two or 92, the Lord has a purpose and a plan for your life. God wants you and your children to boldly be a disciple of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.