Discipline and Love

As hard as it is to deliver a consequence to a child for a bad choice, the alternative can often be even worse. When I am tempted to forego discipline, I have to ask myself, "What is the most loving thing I can do for this child?" In almost every case, the answer is to give the child the consequence he has earned, so he can learn the lesson God has designed for him.

A good consequence, delivered with empathy, demonstrates love and respect for your child's freedom to choose and his ability to learn from the consequence of a bad decision. The author of Hebrews says it well: "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Heb 12:11).

Post provided by Parenting by Design

Express Truth #3

Warren W. Wiersbe explains to us that when God spreads His Word there are 4 different types of responses that we can have according to Matthew 13. The hard heart which has no place for the Word of God and therefore the enemy comes and steals the word just as a bird eats seeds off of the ground. The shallow heart which has an emotional response to the Word of God but as soon as difficult situations come along, gives up just as a plant withers in the hot sun. The crowded heart which receives the Word of God but never cleans out the old ways of thinking and therefore the Word of God is lost among the worries, lusts and cares of life. And finally the fruitfull heart that receives God's Word and understands it. The fruitful heart is the one that hears God and jumps into action at what He says.

When we position ourselves to be like good soil for a seed, we come across the reality of Express Truth #3, "God speaks to me through His Word and by His Spirit." This week we will be acting out the parable of the sower and learning about what it means to tune into God just as a radio tunes into a station. God is speaking to us constantly through the Bible, to us directly, through what we learn in church and even what our parents tell us, but it takes practice to learn how to hear and understand what He is saying.

Express Truths

If you sat down and thought through the lessons that you would like your children to learn before they strike off on their own, or even by the time they reach a certain age, what would those lessons be? Over the past several months I have been praying and seeking God about what it is I would like to impart to the children that pass through our ministry before they move into OutBreak with Pastor Seth.

A few months ago, once I solidified the six major truths I would like to impart, I decided that I wanted to really launch these truths when we welcomed our new 1st graders. So throughout this month and next we are going to explore our 6 Express Truths that will be a major part of what we learn throughout the entire year. I plan on developing each lesson and series to focus on one of the 6 truths whether we're learning about prayer, fasting, worship, money, bullies, obedience or any other type of life lessons or lesson from the Bible.

Last Sunday we focused on Express Truth #1 "I am a child of God the King" and learned that no matter what happens to us, or the choices we make, it will never change the fact that God loves us and He is our creator.

This week we are focusing on Express #2 "I can trust God no matter what". We will be looking at the life of Joseph and learning that even when bad things happen, I can trust God, when God asks me to do scary things, I can trust God, or when I am concerned with my well being, I can trust God.

So talk with your kids this week and ask them what types of things they find hard to trust God with, share some times when you had to trust God, and pray with them to choose to Trust God no matter what!

Kingdom Conference

Elim Gospel Church will be hosting an awesome conference this fall. We are featuring guest worship leader, Kent Henry, and the outstanding ministry of Jack Taylor, Bishop Joseph Garlington, and Leif Hetland.

The Kingdom Conference is a great opportunity to experience God and get refreshed at the beginning of the school year. I would highly recommend bringing your grade schoolers for one or more of the meetings to help enrich and empower them as well.

For more information Click Here to check out our website.

Move Up Sunday/Water Baptism

Hey Parentz-

All Aboard the Express Train

This Sunday we have 2 very special reasons for you and your children to make it out to Kidz Express. The first is that we will be celebrating the arrival of our new 1st graders into the Grade School Ministry. Parents of new 1st graders are welcome to join us with their children for the entire service as we give them a tour of our regular Sunday morning service, worship, games and as we start our series All Aboard the Express Train where we'll explore the first 3 of 6 truths that we believe and focus on in Kidz Express.

Also, during second service I will be teaching a class from 10:45-11:05am for any grade schoolers interested in being water baptized on July 17. This opportunity is open to anyone who has confessed Jesus as the leader of their life and would like to declare that publicly. Please let me know if your children are interested by emailing me at robhagstrom@elimgospel.org. (Parents, if you would also like to be water baptized, email Pastor Eric Scott at ericscott@elimgospel.org)