Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Children to be brought for Christ


Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those He loves,
    as a father the son, he delights in.[b]    

“The birth of every child in this world shows the profound love of God towards this world and the utmost concern towards mankind. (A declaration of the United Nation)    
We observe November first Sunday as the Sunday school Sunday. Bringing every child to Jesus Christ is the motto of our Sunday school. An Anglican evangelist Robert Raikes started Sunday school in 1725 to teach working children. Mar Thoma church officially inaugurated the Sunday school in 1905 at Maramon Convention under the leadership and hard work of the late Rev. V. P. Mammen with the motto of bringing every child to Jesus.
 In the synoptic gospels, we can see that the mothers brought children to Jesus. Mathew 19:13. Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”.
John: 6: 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”
In the verses of Proverbs, we can see the responsibility of the parents to teach their children how to embrace the discipline of our loving Lord. The Scriptures teach that the discipline of the Lord expresses God’s love to us as a child of God so that we become more God-centered like the Son of God.
In the gospel of Mathew, we can see the eagerness of mothers to bring their children to Jesus for His blessings. In the gospel of John 6, we can see the responsibility of the disciple Andrew to bring a child unto Jesus. Andrew detects and directs the boy to Jesus. Once the boy put his little resource in the hands of Jesus, He developed that into plenty. Our little is plenty in the hands of Jesus.
Children like wet clay need to get the right impression and shape before they get hardened. They are our heritage from God. The above Bible verses give the importance and the responsibility of the parents to bring children to listen to Jesus, through the gospel teachings. The incident of the little boy who came to Jesus shows the discharge of the parent’s responsibility by sending him to hear Jesus. In the gospel, it is not mentioned the mother, who prepared his lunch and sent him to listen to Jesus. How serious are we to send our children to Sunday school to learn the word of God? How serious are we as teachers to bring the children to Jesus like the disciple Andrew? When we look at all these above Bible portions, we can see the responsibility of parents, and the Sunday school teacher’s role in the bringing up of little children.    
Let us examine ourselves and find out where we stand today in bringing children to Jesus. Are we like the mothers who brought children to Jesus for laying His hand on them or like the disciples who rebuke the children without bringing them to Jesus? Let us renew our dedication to send our children to Sunday school to learn the word of God and experience the presence and guidance of Jesus Christ in their lives.

Prayer
 O Lord our heavenly father, we bring our children in thy mighty presence. Accept them, bless them and use them for the glorification and extension of thy kingdom. We pray for our Sunday school students and teachers. Bless them all. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen

Thought of the Day
 Train up a child in the way he should go, and he is old, he will not depart from it” (proverb 22:6)

.P. T. Mathew, Mar Thoma Church of Dallas, Farmers Branch, Dallas Texas

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