I Go To Church Too

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 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…

Hosea 4:6

There are a few things I am pretty passionate about… one of them is seeking and teaching truth. On Sunday nights at our church we are teaching apologetics to the kids, pre-K through 5th graders participate in these classes. We are using Ken Ham’s Rhyming Books for our Pre-K and Answers for Kids with our Kindergarten through 5th graders.

Now at first this study seemed a little boring and maybe a little mundane to both kids and teachers… but it didn’t take long for the importance of what they were learning to kick in… and now kids and teachers are digging deeper with fire and passion to learn more. My Kindergarten through 5th grade teachers have even decided to go back and review all the past lessons that they went through during the “mundane” time because now they are seeing it with new eyes.

I. LOVE. IT.

This past Monday I just went into their classroom and sat down in the middle of the floor and thanked God for these two women of God who are so excited to be teaching these kids truth. I literally and physically can feel the power of the Holy Spirit in that room… even when it is empty.

The Spirit is hovering over this room like He hovered over the earth and moved over the waters… He is hovering over the minds of those in that room and He is moving over their hearts. It’s glorious I tell ya! Absolutely glorious!

In case you are wondering what happened to “turn the lightbulb on” let me share it with you. Well, first let me start with this… There is this beautiful crazy thing that happens when vocabulary and knowledge meet.

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your mind to my knowledge

Proverbs 22:17

One of the things that I do when I teach the Bible is ask the kids if they know what a word means. I teach them the definition, not just the English definition, but the Greek and/or Hebrew as well. Lack of vocabulary and knowledge of the definition of a word keeps you from grasping the totality of its meaning. It also keeps you from asking questions and distinguishing differences.

Here’s an example to consider. When we are children, just beginning to speak, we learn several colors… orange, red, blue, green, yellow, purple… so then everything we see is grouped into this color wheel according to our known vocabulary and knowledge.

A maroon car is red and a scarlet dress is red and a burgundy bag is red…

The ocean is blue and a navy coat is blue and a turquoise bracelet is blue…

However once you learn the vocabulary and combine that with the knowledge of these colors… then it is very easy for you to distinguish between turquoise, navy, blue, burgundy, scarlet, and maroon. These are all very different and unique colors… but apart from knowing the vocabulary of what to call them, they are just red or blue.

This is the way our mind works…

 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Acts 8:30-31

We have passed through a generation in the church where we did little real teaching for our children and youth… the goal was really just to keep them entertained. We also have came through a generation here in the church that did very little real teaching of Scripture… it was more of a read a verse and spend an hour going around the room philosophizing that verse and asking what does it means to you, instead of just flat out what did God mean and what do I need to do to line myself up with what God said.

With the lack of real teaching in the church kids didn’t have the vocabulary or knowledge to even question what they were being taught in schools or in church.

I believe this was by our enemy’s design.

What happens when we, including our kids, do have the vocabulary and knowledge… exactly what happened in our small town Bible belt public school happens.

Two kids who had been faithfully attending our Sunday night apologetics class where siting in their 3rd grade classroom when the teacher assigned the science lesson reading. These two children read in their lesson things that were the exact opposite of what they had learned in their apologetics class. These two students took their book up to their teacher and told her that these books were wrong. They did not just say they were wrong because of what their momma said… these two had the vocabulary and knowledge to boldly explain scientifically and biblically the errors contained in this book. The teacher’s reply: “I go to church too, and you are just 3rd graders and have no clue what you are talking about” That was her “educated” response.

These two knew what they knew and as the other children in the classroom asked them questions they were able to share truth, scientifically and biblically, with the other children in their class. What did the teacher do when she heard them doing so… she pulled one of them out in the hallway alone and told her that she was to stop teaching that stuff to the other kids.

Here’s the thing people. EDUCATED PEOPLE CANNOT BE DECEIVED.

Those who KNOW what they know cannot be controlled.

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

2 Timothy 1:12

It is hugely important in this day that our children know truth.

Real. Biblical. Truth.

If you profess to know Christ and believe His Word and you teach children in your church… then teach them… teach them faithfully and fervently… or get out of the way so God can put someone in there who will. These are eternal lives we are dealing with… and this is indeed an evil day.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.

1 Timothy 6:20-21

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