We had a great day yesterday, kicking off another year of Promise Kingdom! I'm excited to work our way through most of the New Testament this year - not only to see Jesus forshadowed in the Old Testament, but to hear Him speak and watch Him minister through the testimony of the Gospels.
Many of you are receiving this Promise Kingdom Blog entry via email. You will continue to receive new entries each week unless you choose to unsubscribe, which you can do with the link at the bottom of this email. I'm hoping this helps increase my communication to you this year.
Welcome Jaime!
I want to welcome Jaime Beyersdorf to our PK staff! Jaime joins Sue Butler in the Upper Elementary Class. We're very grateful for God's provision in providing a teaching partner for Sue!
Temptation of Jesus
Yesterday we focused on lesson six of our Gospel Story, The Temptation of Jesus. I strongly encourage parents to be using the family devotional, Old Story New, to review the lesson each week and talk about it with your children. Last night our family talked about how important it was for us that Jesus NOT give into temptation. And He didn't! He remained sinless so that He could be a perfect sacrifice for sin and our perfect righteousness. We also found it interesting that it was God, through the Holy Spirit, that led Jesus into the wilderness, in order to be tempted by the devil!
If you don't yet have the devotional, please let me know.
I also want to encourage entire families to join us in memorizing God's Word together. Your kids should get a head start on the next week's verse in class, but it would be great if you could include a few minutes to review the passage in your family worship time each evening (and it will help you memorize the passage as well!).
The memory verse this week is Revelation 2:10. You can always get the verse at the bottom of each page of our website, or the Fighter Verse website (www.fighterverses.com), or get the Fighter Verse app for your iPhone or Android.
The other day one of my kids complained about having to memorize a passage each week for Promise Kingdom, since they already have to memorize another passage each week for school. I told them how fortunate they were to have the opportunity (while their minds are still young and memorize more easily) to get so many of God's Words into their minds that the Holy Spirit can use in their lives. Over the school year, if they memorize just four verses between church and school, they will have memorized 144 verses! In three years, that's 432 verses! 432 verses that the Holy Spirit can use to guide, convict of sin, encourage, and help to endure. I only wish that I had that opportunity when I was young! But it's not too late to start!
Check-In/Check-Out
Let me also remind parents that you can check in your children at 8:45. Beth Anderson will have a craft activity each week that the kids love to work on until 9:00. I also want to encourage you to accompany your child(ren) to check-in. They can still print off their nametags using the computer, but I would prefer a parent be with them. Likewise with pick-up. Please make sure you retreive your kids after the service using your security tag. I know it can seem silly since we all know each other. But remember, it's not primarily about us, but any guests with children that we hope show up from time to time. Think about dropping off your children to complete strangers. Unfortunately, churches have become a target for predators. We may know we're safe. But a guest does not!
I've instructed our workers to escort any children who are not picked up in a timely manner (I'm guilty too!) to their parents, rather than simply releasing them. We understand when you are ministering to others and cannot get down to pick up your children. We just ask, in consideration to our volunteers, to get your children as soon as possible each week.
I'm so grateful to God for each of you, and for another year to partner together to plant our children in the deep soil of the gospel! Have a grace-filled week!