How to Make Atheists in the Children's Story
I've heard it from a thousand hospital patients! They don't believe anymore.
"May I pray for you?"
"It won't do any good."
After years of Sunday School and Church School, why do so many have no faith in God when they need Him most?
We make them atheists in church! It's during the Child-ren's Story when they're little. They grow up hearing, "God won't let anything bad happen to you."
Then the doctor says, "It's cancer." Or their wife says, "I don't love you anymore." Or, the boss says, "We have to let you go." What do they feel? They feel like they've been told "a story," alright! They feel God is for naive kids. They feel let way down by a promise Jesus never made! What God promises is...
Those wonderful Bible stories should be told right!
The lions den was dank and smelled like a zoo cage. The growling echoed super LOUD like on the Discovery Channel! And when the giant cats lunged, Daniel pulled back just in time!
Paul's shipwreck WAS a miraculous intervention by Almighty God to save 276 from drowning (Acts 27:37)! But, He didn't save them FROM the storm. Look at the story's details...
He saved them by going THROUGH the storm with them!
The Isrealites in 1450 BC weren't on a "walk in the park" when the Creator altered hydro physics all night long so they could successfully flee for their lives from the military super power of their age!
In Luke 7, Jesus caused the heart of a poor widow's dead son to begin pulsing and his chest started rising and falling with new life breaths!
But, she didn't get him back until AFTER her face was a waterfall of tears pressured by the bills she now could not pay. [E. White, Desire of Ages, p. 318] It was hard, but Jesus had a solution waiting for her!
How wonderful that we can depend on the same healing power that restored the crippled man at Bethesda!
Trusting a Savior who is just as able to heal now as then doesn't mean that restored health is His best gift for us when we pray "according to His will" (1John 5:14). When the man ran away leaping for joy with his mat under his arm, there were still lots of sick people left at the poolside. But, those who looked to Him had Him right beside them in their trial. For them, His nearness was better than healing when viewed from above. He was true to His promise...
Let's' not leave kids with the false impression that believers will be spared hard things in life. Nearly all in Hebrews 11's Faith Hall of Fame suffered! The greatest Bible heroes gave the "last full measure" for their Lord.
I'm not advocating gory details for infants and toddlers. But, let's quit making atheists who scrap the Lord when our rosy path stories don't come true. Instead, let's tell how God walks through hard stuff with us and "encourage God’s people to endure patiently every trial and persecution, for they are his saints who remain firm to the end (Revelation 14:12, TLB)."
What do you think, Dave
