Redeemer Children's Ministry

“Let my People Go!” Take #1. -May 13

Hello Church Family!

Moses suffered from a common assumption. He’d been protected by God, called by God, spared by God, and confronted by God. He was 100% sure that God was on his side, even if he was still a little nervous about going before Pharaoh to demand that his people be set free. God had promised that He would be with Moses, so he assumed that if he could just get in there it would be smooth sailing…right?

Not so. After a miserable “failure” of a first attempt (which ended with the Israelites even worse off than they started…thanks, Moses!) Moses complains to God. What’s the deal here? What about this whole “I will be with you,” thing? So, God gives Moses the next piece of the puzzle. He is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart to give Him a chance to show his power. It will not be Moses’s persuasion or Pharaoh’s sense of justice that takes the glory, it will be God’s mighty works.

So Moses and Aaron go back. They have a show down with Pharaoh’s magicians involving staffs and snakes. Aaron threw down his staff and it turned into a snake. So did the magicians! But then God’s snake, the one made by the power of God and not magic, devoured the inferior snakes. God is more powerful than magic. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hard. What will come next???

“God said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’” Exodus 3:15

be free,

Bekah

Resources

• Click here to see Sunday’s order of worship.
• In Training in the Pews, we covered Week 29, Day 4   in the Long Story Short Devotional. We learned about Exodus 3.
• Main ideas to discuss with your kids from Christian Education:

This was our last Sunday of CE. The classes reviewed what they have learned, and celebrated with their teachers!

God’s Holy Place and God’s Holy Name- May 6

Hello Church Family!

The story of the burning bush is familiar to most of us. Moses is tending sheep in the desert when a bush (which is on fire, but not incinerating) calls out to him. I’d heard this story so many times that I’d forgotten how truly amazing this was until the children responded. That’s one of the things I love most about kids- they remind me when I’m supposed to be amazed.

So God speaks out of the burning bush and tells Moses to take off his shoes because wherever God dwells is holy ground. He then tells Moses that he is the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God tells Moses that he is God’s chosen instrument for freeing the Children of Israel from slavery. This is huge. He’s telling Moses that he will return to a land he fled to confront a man who would want to kill him, to free a people who do not know him. So much for a quiet life with the sheep.

Moses protested. Pharaoh would never listen. The people would not believe him when he said he came from God. But God assured Moses that he would be with him when he talked to Pharaoh. As far as the Israelites went…

“God said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’” Exodus 3:15

be free,

Bekah

Resources

• Click here to see Sunday’s order of worship.
• In Training in the Pews, we covered Week 28, Day 2   in the Long Story Short Devotional. We learned about Exodus 3.
• Main ideas to discuss with your kids from Christian Education:

2-year-olds: Jesus is the Boss, They are working on their memory verse, Psalm 118:24.

3 year olds: The Greatest Commandment: Love God and Love Each Other Matthew 22:37-40

4 year olds: Jesus Heals Jairus’ Daughter, Mark 5

5 year olds: Jesus Confronts the Pharisees, Matthew 23

6-7 year olds: Review

8-10 year olds: Benefits to Believers at Death, Luke 23:43, WSC # 37

Moses Picks Sides- April 29

Hello Church Family!

Moses was like the guy who won the lottery. Sitting in Pharaoh’s palace, surrounded by the best that the Ancient Near East had to offer, he must have felt like the luckiest man in the world…except one thing. Every time he walked through the city, looked out the window, or went to visit one of Pharaoh’s magnificent buildings, he saw his people enslaved.

Moses knew that he was not an Egyptian. His heart was pulled toward his people: the mother who nursed him and the sister who watched over him. Not to mention the hundreds of kinsmen who were forced to work for their Egyptian masters. A conflict must have been brewing in Moses’ heart because when he saw an Egyptian foreman beating a Hebrew slave, he came to the slaves defense and killed the foreman.

Now we see that Moses is not as much of an insider in the palace as we thought, because Pharaoh is ready to kill him in retribution. Perhaps this was Egyptian justice, but it’s not the sort of treatment we would expect for someone who grew up as one of Pharaoh’s family members. Everyone knew Moses was different, and he had sided with his people- God’s people.

Moses fled to the desert, which is where we left our story. Will God be faithful to the wandering man who doesn’t know where he belongs?

Hebrews 11:24-25, ” By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

be free,

Bekah

Resources

• Click here to see Sunday’s order of worship.
• In Training in the Pews, we covered Week 28, Day 1  in the Long Story Short Devotional. We learned about Exodus 2: 11-15.
• Main ideas to discuss with your kids from Christian Education:

2-year-olds: Jesus is Alive!, They are working on a new memory verse, Psalm 118:24.

3 year olds: Jesus Rebukes the Pharisees John 8:12-59

4 year olds: Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son, Luke 7:11-17

5 year olds: The Great Commission

6-7 year olds: The Importance of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit who Helps us Understand

8-10 year olds: Benefits of Justification, Adoption, and Sanctification, Romans 5:1

God is Faithful to a Mother and her Baby- April 22

Hello Church Family!

When we left our Israelite Family, a baby was floating down the Nile River toward an uncertain future. His sister was watching nervously, not daring to interfere. Their mother was at home relieved that her baby boy had escaped Pharaoh’s army…but surely she was sad to see him go!

We picked up the story as Pharaoh’s daughter (who had no reason show kindness to the Israelites) finds the baby in the basket floating down the river. Miriam (the baby’s sister) comes forward to suggest a wetnurse for the child. Pharaoh’s daughter agrees, and Miriam carries the baby home to a qualified wetnurse…the baby’s mom! Imagine the mother’s surprise when she saw her baby again! Imagine her relief in knowing what happened to the baby, and that he would be safe.

Of course, we know some things that this mother did not know. One day her baby would grow up to set his people free…sound familiar? God’s faithfulness to his family continues through the generations until one day, another mother would hold her baby, completely unaware of the mission God had for him. Jesus would be a baby born to set his people free in a greater way than even the baby in the Nile.

Hebrews 3:3 “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses–as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.”

be free,

Bekah

Resources

• Click here to see Sunday’s order of worship.
• In Training in the Pews, we covered Week 27, Day 3  in the Long Story Short Devotional. We learned about Exodus 2.
• Main ideas to discuss with your kids from Christian Education:

2-year-olds: Jesus is Alive!, They are working on a new memory verse, Psalm 118:24.

3 year olds: Jesus Searches for his Lost Sheep, Luke 15:1-7

4 year olds: Jesus Heals the 10 Lepers, Luke 17:11-19

5 year olds: Jesus Ascends and Sends the Holy Spirit , Acts 1:1-11

6-7 year olds: The Road to Emmaus

8-10 year olds: Sanctification, WSC #35, Phil 2:13.

God is Bigger than the Nile River- April 15

Hello Church Family!

After a breif detour to the future as we connected Abraham’s family to Jesus, we have returned to the Old Testament. This week we began another story of God’s faithfulness to his chosen people.

After Joseph brought his family to Egypt to save them from the famine, they stayed and made their home there. They stayed for 300 years! Their families grew and grew until there were many many Israelites. The new Pharoah did not remember Joseph and how his God had saved Egypt. When he looked at the Israelites he saw something scary: a huge group of people who could possibly take over if something was not done.

Pharoah ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the Hebrew baby boys as soon as they were born. This would be a terrible command to the midwives, but they feared God more than Pharoah and they disobeyed. So Pharoah said, “Fine! I’ll have my own people do it. Throw the baby boys into the Nile.”

One woman managed to hide her baby for the first few months that he was alive. When he got too loud, she put him in a floating basket and sent him down the Nile River to begin his adventure in God’s faithfulness. We don’t know his name yet, but we are waiting to see what God has in store for the baby floating down the Nile.

We see God’s sense of ironic faithfulness already: the Nile was supposed to be a grave to the baby boy Hebrews. But for this baby, it is his Salvation. Only God’s faithfulness can turn danger in to freedom, death into life, and the grave into salvation.

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the faithfulness of God and his servants, the Hebrew midwives. “And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.” Genesis 1:21.

be free,

Bekah

Resources

• Click here to see Sunday’s order of worship.
• In Training in the Pews, we covered Week 27, Day 1 and 2  in the Long Story Short Devotional. We learned about Exodus 1-2.
• Main ideas to discuss with your kids from Christian Education:

2-year-olds: Jesus is Alive!, They are still working on their memory verse, Psalm 100:1.

3 year olds: Jesus Ascends into Heaven, Leaving Us His Spirit, Acts 1:1-11

4 year olds: Jesus Heals the Woman who was Bent Over, Luke 13:10-17

5 year olds: “Blessed are those who believe without Seeing!” The Story of Doubting Thomas, John 20:24-29

6-7 year olds: ”Blessed are those who believe without Seeing!” The Story of Doubting Thomas, John 20:24-29

8-10 year olds: Adoption, WSC #34, I John 3:1.