Watch the “Lord’s Day Live!” and “Scripture Explains Itself!” videos then copy the following “Doodle Bible School,” “Application Sermon Questions,” and “Scripture Explains Itself!” questions. Click the “Submit Answers” button below each set of questions and paste the questions into the email. Answer the questions and send them to us. Read “To Keep the Faith” then follow the same instructions to submit the “To Keep the Faith Questions.”
Doodle Bible School
Lesson 13
Were you able to watch the entire lesson?
1. What is the theme of Joshua 20-21?
2. Can you doodle the picture clue?
3. What did the tribe of Levi get besides cities? (14:1)
4. Can you quote the memory verse?
5. Who owned the cities of refuge? (Numbers 35:6)
6. A person could seek refuge if the manslayer had struck another without what? (20:3)
7. To whom was the manslayer to explain his case before being granted entrance? (20:4)
8. How long was the manslayer to be granted refuge? (20:6)
9. The manslayer could return home after the death of whom? (20:6)
10. Have you ever accidentally hurt someone? How did you resolve the mistake?
Application Sermon Questions
Lesson 13
Were you able to watch the entire lesson?
1. What was the title of this lesson?
2. What was the first point made within this lesson? (Joshua 13)
3. What was the second point made within this lesson? (Joshua 7)
4. What was the third point made within this lesson? (Joshua 9)
5. How much of God’s promise to the house of Israel had been fulfilled by the end of Joshua 21? (Joshua 21:45)
For additional ways to capitalize on the information in the chapter above, click the link below.
Home Church Worship Guide – Joshua 20-21
Scripture Explains Itself!
Lesson 13
Were you able to watch the entire lesson?
1. What contexts are inevitable when living the Christian life? (Psalm 23:4-5)
2. Why do sheep have no fear of evil? (Psalm 23:4)
3. What word indicates that true shepherds violently protect their sheep? (Psalm 23:4)
Reading Assignment
Lesson 13
Asking the Question: Why? (Part 2)
During our last lesson, I told you about the conversation I had with my oldest son, Bryson. This time, I want to share the second conversation I had that involved the question, “Why?” It was with my youngest son, Gabriel who is currently a junior in college. Basically, I told Gabriel what I had said to Bryson, “I keep reading things about the way we teach Bible stories in children’s classes and how it doesn’t work, but I wonder why it worked with you.” Here are some of the things that came about from that statement and our conversation:
“The thing that went right with me, and some of the other kids my age, was that we were allowed to have certain responsibilities like preaching on Sunday nights or leading singing or teaching the younger kids in their Bible classes. There’s this idea that Jesus puts forth in the parable of the talents where the master comes to the servants and says, ‘You have done well with little, now I’ll set you over much.’ (Matthew 5:19-23 – paraphrased) I think that principle applies to the way people view responsibility for themselves as well. If you give them a little responsibility, they will want to have more responsibility, which is why setting them over much is a good reward for the fact that they were faithful with a little. But I think that principle taught us that, even though the system for how Bible classes work is broken, we could still take responsibility—take ownership of the Bible classes we were in, take ownership of the Church—because we had responsibilities for certain aspects of the way the Church runs and that responsibility only grew over time. On the other hand, there were kids that weren’t given responsibilities that didn’t ever have any ownership of it (the Church) and, once they graduated from the youth group, they didn’t know what to do with themselves, because they never had any level of ownership of anything other than the youth group and then that was gone. However, for me, the ownership was more of the Church as a whole, so once I graduated from youth group and moved on, I was able to say, ‘Well, I can take ownership of some other aspect of this.’ In fact, we (my family and I) even left the congregation that we were at, at the time, and now I’m seeking responsibility over some other congregation because I was given a taste of that responsibility and felt that, since I have this ownership, I want to get more.”
In another conversation with Gabriel, he went into more detail about children’s and teen’s Bible classes and why they “seem” to fail our youth:
Most of the time in our Bible classes as kids, we were told the same Bible stories like the story of Creation, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, etc. We didn’t learn how to apply these stories to our own lives. Even when the teachers made an application, it did not fit the actual meaning of the Bible story. We spent more time doing crafts or color pages or word puzzles instead of focusing on the meaning behind the Bible lesson.
As we graduated from high school, because we were always separated from the adults during Bible class, we felt out of place when we “had” to sit in “their” classes. Most of us became bored with the way they did things. We didn’t feel like we belonged in the teen class or the adult class.
I believe this is the main reason so many college-aged Christians leave the Church and lose their faith. They were never taught how to apply the Bible to their own lives or where they fit in with the rest of the congregation. Churches should keep the adults and children together instead of separating them from one another, such as happens with “children’s church” or a “teen room.” This is called age-based segregation.
Do you see the difference between these two conversations and the end results? Did you catch any keywords? We will come back to that, but for the moment, I would like to discuss this idea of age-based segregation. I know many congregations look at this from the perspective of the desire of the parents to be able to listen and learn during Bible studies and worship services. However, they do not make the connection that our families are being separated from each other more and more. Every day, most families go in various directions—husband’s job, wife’s job, children in daycare or school—and come back together for a few hours at night. What happens during those few hours? Homework, sports, preparations for the next day, getting ready for bed and then sleep. Sometimes these families eat supper together, but many times they have to hurry through supper to get somewhere else. There is very little family time and the family suffers for it. That’s why it is important to give families time to connect with each other as they assemble together with their church family. Study the Bible together and worship God together instead of separating families into different age groups. Being part of a church family should not bring about more family separation. It should help us become closer and give us, as parents, the opportunity to see our children grow in the Lord.
I also asked Gabriel, when I was working on Lesson 11, what suggestions he would give to help children become more socially active with their church family and less socially active with the world. (As a reminder, part of the list I gave you in Lesson 11 included take church family mission trips, go on campouts as a group, plan men’s and women’s retreats and find a way to involve the children, etc.) His suggestions that I used were:
- Host events that help demonstrate the talents of your children, like debates (public speaking), recitals, plays, spelling bees, etc.
- Go hiking with your church family or take a nature hike.
- Host a summer reading program for various ages along with bringing in special guests who teach a skill or act out Bible stories.
- During worship services and Bible classes, keep the adults and children together instead of separating them from one another, such as happens with children’s church or a “teen room.”
He also stated that it is not effective when adults treat teens like kids or undermine their abilities or spiritual depth. So often, we do not realize how much spiritual depth teens do have because we only see their youth and inexperience, but many teens are talented in public speaking or singing (or can be easily trained), they are excellent in teaching younger children, and, when given the opportunity, demonstrate a deeper relationship with God than most adult Christians. My husband and I have seen this many times during the 20+ years that we worked mainly with teenagers. Yes, they make many mistakes and bad choices, but adults do the same, don’t we? Remember Hebrews 10:24? “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works…” Teens are a part of the Church, therefore they should be encouraged and treated as such.
Now, let’s go back to the keywords in this lesson. How many did you notice? Here are few:
- Responsibility
- Taking ownership
- Application
- Age-based segregation
- Socially active
How can you apply these thoughts to the children in your life? Can you start today by giving them responsibilities in your home? It can begin with household chores, but it can also include saying a prayer at meals and during family time, reading Scripture out loud (even if it’s just for you), helping you prepare food for the sick or shut-ins and going with you to deliver it, making cards or writing letters for church family members, singing together, and the list goes on.
Can you encourage the church leaders to include children in your congregation’s responsibilities in order to help these children “take ownership” of certain aspects of the Church?
Can you teach them how to apply the Bible to their own lives? If you struggle with this yourself, then today is a good time to learn how to do it. Start by asking God to give you wisdom and the right person to help you. You will quickly learn how to apply the Bible to your own life and soon be able to teach children how to do the same. It will be something you and they will use throughout life.
Can you encourage your congregation to have family Bible studies in place of “age-based segregation” classes? If not, would they consider doing it both ways? If your congregation has children’s worship, could you encourage your church leaders to reconsider by giving them solid reasons as to why it’s important to keep families together for worship?
In lesson 11, we already talked about our children becoming less socially active in worldly things and more socially active within their church family. Have you taken the time to start implementing some of those ideas or approached your congregation about doing some of these things? Not to make you feel uncomfortable or guilty, but now is not the time to procrastinate, especially when it comes to the spiritual lives of the children you love so much.
As a Homemaker Hero, I strongly encourage you to prayerfully consider what you have learned so far in this series of lessons. Make a list of what you can do. Take at least one of those things and start using or doing it today. Most of these things will have several steps to completely accomplish them, so list the steps and start there. With God’s help, you can do this! You can encourage your children to keep the faith! You can help another generation rise up to serve the Lord!
NOTE: If you missed the first nine lessons in this series, you can go here (lesson 1), here (lesson 2), here (lesson3), here (lesson 4), here (lesson 5), here (lesson 6), here (lesson 7), here (lesson 8), here (lesson 9), here (lesson 10), here (lesson 11) and here (lesson 12) to catch up.
To Keep the Faith Questions
Lesson 13
1. What did Gabriel say went right with him?
2. What Scripture reference did he use? How does this principle work and have you used it in your home?
3. What reason was given for Bible classes not working? Is there a way to make them work?
4. What were the five keywords listed? Did you find more that you would like to list?
5. As a Homemaker Hero, what have you learned from this series of lessons? Did you make a list? What is the first item you want to use or step you plan to take in order to encourage your children to keep the faith and “take ownership” of the Church?