the gospel and children

Post by **_SoaringEagle** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:07 pm

How would one present the gospel to children? I have a cousin that lives next door to me and am fairly close to her. She is 11 and I found out she wants to be baptized, but she doesnt know what that means. Her mother isn't a disciple, so she lives in a home where Christ is not exalted as Lord, Savior, and King. How could it be presented to be understood by her, and children her age in general?

Post by **_TK** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:24 am

kind of reminds me of philip and the ethiopian. he explained isaiah 53, explained how jesus fulfilled that passage, and then asked him if he believed- and if he did, he could be baptized. maybe its fairly simple.

TK

Post by **_SoaringEagle** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:53 pm

definately food for thought... 8)

Post by **_Paidion** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:40 pm

...and then asked him if he believed- and if he did, he could be baptized. maybe its fairly simple.

Only problem is: Luke did not write Acts 8:37. It was added later. No manuscript before the sixth century contains it.

Post by **_Rae** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:26 am

My NASB version puts that verse in []. I guess that's why.

Post by **_schoel** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:03 am

SoaringEagle wrote:How would one present the gospel to children? I have a cousin that lives next door to me and am fairly close to her. She is 11 and I found out she wants to be baptized, but she doesnt know what that means. Her mother isn't a disciple, so she lives in a home where Christ is not exalted as Lord, Savior, and King. How could it be presented to be understood by her, and children her age in general?

My son was 4 when he began asking questions about what baptism was due to Bible stories he had learned. My wife and I described to him that baptism was way of saying that from that point, a person would love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and would follow and obey Jesus. Then we talked through some practical situations of what that looked like, appropriate for a 4-year old. We told him that this decision was his to make alone; that daddy or mommy couldn't make it for him. Our goal was to communicate the basics with the understanding that he has the rest of his life to grow into understanding the other stuff.

Immediately, he responded that he wanted to follow Jesus. So we baptized him as soon as possible in the bathtub.

By the way, I was baptized fairly early as a child (6) when I didn't have much of a clue as to why. I was probably just trying to make my parents happy. However, I know that it was an event that God took seriously and ever since then I have felt the breath of the "Hound of Heaven", even in times when I've been purposefully disobedient to Him. I can't describe it as an OSAS experience as there have been ugly periods of disobedience, but rather that God has never let me stray without still feeling his presence.

I've also been baptized again as an adult, with the realization that my understanding in God has grown and I wanted another point of commitment that matched my maturity level.

Regarding your cousin, I'd also recommend finding ways to keep her connected to the Body of Christ since she lives in a home where Christ isn't exalted.

Hope this helps,
Dave

The Narrow Path Ministries

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