“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” —Deuteronomy 11:19
Hello CrossTrain family, and grace to you from family ministry! We are excited to begin a new facet of family ministry as we lay the foundations for our families and our children’s faith. We spoke in our last letter of the how important it is to be in the word with our children and teach them to develop the habit of daily being in God’s word. We will continue to provide ideas of how to do this, but will also be helping families with specific verses to teach their children.
Have your children ever asked questions such as “who made the world?”, “why is there pain?”, “who is Jesus?”, “what is sin?”? These are foundational questions that we must be prepared to answer! Our goal in family ministry is to help with this. We will be providing families 26 scriptures to teach our children over the course of a year in order to answer these foundational questions and many others. Our desire is that as parents, you will be equipped to lay His word up in their heart and to teach your children to view the world through the lens of scripture; that they may be equipped for every good work!
Just as described in Deuteronomy, we hope these scriptures become part of daily discussions. It doesn’t have to be a formal sit down, lecture, and memorize. It can be as we are eating breakfast, doing dishes, driving, completing chores, playing catch, planting a new tree, or laying down to bed. There is no bad time for God’s word! Try simply reading it a few times out loud and then have the kids join. As you become more and more familiar, try without looking at the Bible. As you continue throughout the week, explain what the verse means. What truth does it reveal? Why is it important? I promise this does not take long… even one minute devoted to this a day can accomplish the goal. We just need to get started!
We will be providing one verse every two weeks which will typically be accompanied by 1-3 simple questions that the verse helps to answer. The verses are ordered in hopes of walking us through explaining what the Bible is, who God is, who we are, what is sin, consequences of sin, what Jesus did, how we are called to respond, and what it looks like to be born again. There will be nothing exhaustive; we are beginning the lay the foundation. The list of scripture can always be added to, but the verses will be foundational to their knowledge of God. We are VERY excited to begin this and we are coordinating with other ministries to reinforce these scriptures throughout the weeks. Please ALWAYS feel free to speak with me (Adam), Audra (Mrs. Adam), or any of our ministry team with questions!
CrossTrain Family Ministry Bible Verse 1:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” — 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Why this verse? The bible defines itself. It tells us that it is God breathed. There is no other source given the authority that scripture is given… it is the very breath of God! There is nothing else described in this manner. When Jesus was challenged by the scribes or Pharisees, the authority to which he would turn was scripture… “it is written”, “have you not heard”. Scripture helps to teach us, reprove, and correct us so that we can be trained in righteousness and transformed more into the image of God. Scripture makes us completed and equipped for EVERY GOOD WORK. There is NOTHING truly good you can do that scripture does not prepare you for.
Follow up questions that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 can answer:
Where did the Bible come from?
Why do we need the Bible?
We are VERY excited to begin this portion of the ministry with our CrossTrain families! I pray that the Lord would cause his Spirit in us to make us strong and courageous as we teach our children the biblical foundations of our faith. I pray that he would take away our spiritual blindness, that his word would be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I pray that He would cause us to view the world through the lens of scripture, the only objective truth and that his word would fill us, and overflow that we may tell others of the hope that is within us and we would be used to usher His sheep into the fold. I pray for the salvation of our children and that through his word, they might hear, and that hearing the word of the good news, God would grant them faith; that their hearts of stone would be turned to hearts of flesh. For His Glory alone. Amen!
All to the Glory of God-
Adam and Audra — Family Ministries