Children not knowing Jesus

[nursemichelle95]

I think this relates to endtimes but if not admins feel free to move it.

Something happened last Wednesday that really opened my eyes to the times that we live in. I've always thought that kids have an idea of who Jesus is even if their parents are not self-proclaimed Christians. Maybe it's because I've lived a sheltered life in the Bible belt. Moving to an area that has a lot of Northerners will open your eyes to the way the rest of the country is, I guess. :(:

At the church that we are attending, we just started a King's Kids program. The church is a little one usually during off season (as in the season of snowbirds) and there are only about 6-7 kids in the church. My oldest son has a friend from school that we invited. This child is a "good" child and I had assumed that he knew something about God even though he told my son he had never been to church.

He asked Wednesday night if he could have one of the booklets that all the other kids had. These are like daily devotionals and have a little activity to help the child get the "message" of that particular set of scripture. Anyway, I was explaining to him that he would use his Bible to answer the questions. He then asked me, "what's a Bible?" I was a little stunned because I just assumed he knew what a Bible was. I proceeded to tell him what a Bible is and then I asked him if he knew who Jesus is. He said, "Some guy that was born on Christmas." So, a little shaken, I started to tell him who Jesus is...the Son of God that died on the cross for our sins. I have never witnessed to a child before (other than my own) so I was a little nervous but asked God for guidance. The boy told me that "you go to Heaven if you are good and Hell if you are bad." Without beating him over the head , I explained to him that the only way you go to Heaven is by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. At the end, he told me "I always just thought Jesus was a bad word". I almost fell out. I did well as far as keeping my composure composed but inside I was screaming and crying.

This is amazing. I am not saying anything bad about his parents but I cannot believe that here in America that a child has NO CLUE about who Jesus is. It's just incomprehensible to me. Like I said, I guess I've been sheltered.

No wonder I've heard that other countries are sending missionaries here. :(:

Please pray for this boy AND his family. His name is Cody and he is 12. I'm praying that he becomes saved and helps to lead his family to Christ. My son was a little upset by this. He knows that you only get to Heaven through Jesus and he is already starting to bear a burden for lost souls. Please also pray that God would give my son the courage and the wisdom to talk to Cody about Jesus.

I think Cody will go back with us this week. I certainly hope so.

[MovinOnUp]

((((God Bless You))))

I am praying for Cody and will continue to pray for him as the Lord leads and also praying for you and your son--may you both continue to shine brightly in this young boy's life in Jesus Name! and may you both be protected from the enemy as you continue to witness to him. I will also pray for Cody's family-that they would all be saved in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ!

[Ready4Jesus]

((((God Bless You))))

I am praying for Cody and will continue to pray for him as the Lord leads and also praying for you and your son--may you both continue to shine brightly in this young boy's life in Jesus Name! and may you both be protected from the enemy as you continue to witness to him. I will also pray for Cody's family-that they would all be saved in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ!

I'll second that! Praying....

[Sonflower]

:pray

[Writesinme]

It IS hard to believe that, right here in America, a child could not have at least heard that Jesus is God's son, and have some idea of what a Bible is.

Our youngest son is adopted from the Ukraine. We brought him here when he was 7 years--and he had no idea who Jesus was. We got to work on that right away!

Our latest dealing is with our 12-year-old son--he's born again, but has become friends with a Jewish boy. This boy considers our son such a friend, that he invited him to his Bar Mitz'vah. (sp?) Anyway, our son is worried about his new friend, spiritually, and in this particular case, doesn't know how to present the truth, that Jesus is the only way. It's a tough position for a pre-teen! His friend says he doesn't believe all the Jewish teaching and training he's had--said he goes along with it because it makes his parents proud.

[Selah]

Believe me--this is happening in America. :(:

I have a friend who I've gone to church with who is very faithful and a strong believer, but she shared with me that years ago she had gone through a rough time period. She wasn't walking her faith, got a divorce, moved to a new area and didn't find a church. She had been given custody of her daughter, and raised her.

She told me that she knew deep down that she believed in Jesus during these years, but it wasn't reflected in her decisions. She didn't talk about Him because she was angry with Him, but she still felt like it must have somehow been apparent that she was a Christian.

That belief was shattered when she was having a conversation with her daughter--then 12 years old--and she mentioned to her that she was thinking about having them both attend Christmas service that Christmas (that was soon coming up). Her daughter asked why, and she told her, to worship Jesus. Her daughter turned to her and asked her, "Who is Jesus?"

She almost crumbled to the floor. :cry

In shock, she repented and witnessed to her daughter starting right then and there. This was around 10 years ago now. Praise God her daughter is now a believer! :nod

[Alliswell]

Our regional AWANA ministry hosted a conference called "Rock Solid Kids". It was a very convicting seminar in these postmodern times about what kids believe, and how important it is to be proclaiming a true Gospel message to children.

During the conference, they called the ages 5-14 years old the "Golden Hour", using the analogy of a trauma victim having their outcome determined by the care they receive within the first hour. Just like that, the majority of people come to Christ within the years of 5-14. Sure, there are folks that fall outside those parameters, but the majority are saved within that time frame.

The truly eye-opening part of the conference was the statistics of "churched" kids and their beliefs. It was enough to make you cry...especially when they showed video clips asking children who had grown up in the church fundamental questions about salvation.

During the conference, they gave us a book:Rock - Solid Kids
Giving Children a Biblical Foundation for Life by Larry Fowler. It was written to help parents, teachers and children’s ministry leaders build a strong ministry—in the home or church—modeled on scriptural teaching. It showed how to clearly present the gospel to children in a way that is scriptually accurate, and developmentally appropriate. You can buy the book on Amazon.com

My husband is not a reader by nature - he couldn't put the book down. It is a quick read. Then we read it together together as a devotional.

Praying for Cody - that he will be able to return to your children's group, and the LORD will open his eyes and his heart.

[The Sower]

:clap :clap :clap

[savedandhappy1]

Praying and not surprise have said things to and in front of some people that you could tell had no idea what I was talking about.

[ConservPride]

This reminds me of that documentary movie where the guy ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days. In one segment he was trying to show how kids recognized a picture of Ronald McDonald more than other "famous" photos. Pictures that he showed that most kids couldn't identify included George Washington, the Wendy's girl, and one photo that a kid guessed as George W. Bush. The guy said "Close" and turned the photo around. The picture wasn't George W. Bush, but was a photo of Jesus. :(:

[Stephanie]

I think this relates to endtimes but if not admins feel free to move it.

Something happened last Wednesday that really opened my eyes to the times that we live in. I've always thought that kids have an idea of who Jesus is even if their parents are not self-proclaimed Christians. Maybe it's because I've lived a sheltered life in the Bible belt. Moving to an area that has a lot of Northerners will open your eyes to the way the rest of the country is, I guess. :(:

At the church that we are attending, we just started a King's Kids program. The church is a little one usually during off season (as in the season of snowbirds) and there are only about 6-7 kids in the church. My oldest son has a friend from school that we invited. This child is a "good" child and I had assumed that he knew something about God even though he told my son he had never been to church.

He asked Wednesday night if he could have one of the booklets that all the other kids had. These are like daily devotionals and have a little activity to help the child get the "message" of that particular set of scripture. Anyway, I was explaining to him that he would use his Bible to answer the questions. He then asked me, "what's a Bible?" I was a little stunned because I just assumed he knew what a Bible was. I proceeded to tell him what a Bible is and then I asked him if he knew who Jesus is. He said, "Some guy that was born on Christmas." So, a little shaken, I started to tell him who Jesus is...the Son of God that died on the cross for our sins. I have never witnessed to a child before (other than my own) so I was a little nervous but asked God for guidance. The boy told me that "you go to Heaven if you are good and Hell if you are bad." Without beating him over the head , I explained to him that the only way you go to Heaven is by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. At the end, he told me "I always just thought Jesus was a bad word". I almost fell out. I did well as far as keeping my composure composed but inside I was screaming and crying.

This is amazing. I am not saying anything bad about his parents but I cannot believe that here in America that a child has NO CLUE about who Jesus is. It's just incomprehensible to me. Like I said, I guess I've been sheltered.

No wonder I've heard that other countries are sending missionaries here. :(:

Please pray for this boy AND his family. His name is Cody and he is 12. I'm praying that he becomes saved and helps to lead his family to Christ. My son was a little upset by this. He knows that you only get to Heaven through Jesus and he is already starting to bear a burden for lost souls. Please also pray that God would give my son the courage and the wisdom to talk to Cody about Jesus.

I think Cody will go back with us this week. I certainly hope so.



I will **definitely** pray for Cody and his family.

I hate to tell you this - but Cody's situation isn't rare. I have a relative whom I love very much who is Christian - well, Christian in the way that she can be Christian; she's quite old now - and until very recently, she didn't realize what the Trinity was, didn't know Jesus was Jewish (she thought he was Christian, and when I told her he was Jewish and tried to explain why we celebrate Christmas as his birthday and so forth... she looked at me very suspiciously and said, "Honey, I think you're mistaken. If Jesus was Jewish, we'd be celebrating Hannukah instead, because we'd be Jewish too"). When I tried to explain the Trinity concept, she got so flustered because I was saying (in such a way to indicate that I thought she just *forgot* what it meant - I had no idea she never *understood* it) that Jesus is the Son of God, but that He is equally God - He's God in the flesh basically... well, she got very upset because, as she put it, "I've always heard that Jesus is God's SON, but you're saying Jesus is GOD... but that can't be. I have to ask someone at the church because I think you're confused about something there."

Anyway, I did my best not to give her a fit - and I prayed for her. I know God loves her and I know that she has faith to the degree that she understands scripture (and she does understand that Jesus is her Savior and so forth; she just has a very slight understanding of things. She has some level of dementia I think, but even before that, she always seemed to have a hard time grasping certain things religiously. I just never realized the depth of her confusion - and according to her, the topics I brought up, such as the Trinity and so forth - weren't things she ever learned in depth. She also had trouble reading the Bible because it was "complicated" to understand - so at one point she was reading Children's Bibles and also Daily Guideposts in the morning.

Anyway - that little boy was certainly blessed to happen to run into you and have the opportunity for a conversation to form... otherwise, he may never have learned about Jesus in any depth. Now maybe he'll be very curious about other things he doesn't know!

-Stephanie

[nursemichelle95]

Thanks, you guys for all the advice and kind words.

He spent the night last night, and, when I picked him up his mom said that he enjoyed church on wed. He didn't go with us this morning, but, I'm hoping he'll go again this Wed. His mom said she was raised Baptist and her husband was Episcopalian...and, I really didn't get to talk in depth to her but the way she made it sound she is now like I used to be. Didn't like church because of all the hypocrites. Actually, I didn't accept Jesus for a long time because of that. I always thought, "If that's how Christianity is, count me out."...but, now I know.

I'm praying that the family will be able to learn to look to Jesus, also, instead of His followers.

[Christianmomof3]

but was a photo of Jesus
Wow! where did they get that? I did not know they had cameras then.

[ConservPride]

Wow! where did they get that? I did not know they had cameras then.

:laugh

Ok, a pictorial rendition of what it is thought Jesus looked like.

[HeartlandGal]

My sons friend was staying the night a few years ago. They were eating breakfast and I heard them talking.

Friend "My sister is going to have a baby soon"

Son "I didn't know she was married"

Friend "She's not married'

Son "Well who will be the daddy for the baby, I thought all babies had to have a mommy and a daddy???"

Friend "I don't know, I guess I will have to be the daddy and my mommy is pregnant also, since she isn't married I guess I have to be a daddy for that baby also.

We started inviting him to church. One time during VBS we had a lesson on something Jesus did. Afterwards he came up to me holding a bible and said "Can you show me where in this book is more stories about this Jesus?" I explained the bible to him in more detail and he was stunned, he said "You mean this stuff is all true? This guy really did do these things? This isn't made up stuff?"

A year later he was baptized. However, his mom still is not interested.

[twelvesmaster]

It's an uphill battle, but one we cannot stop fighting,

It's difficult to teach children about Jesus when he's not given first place at home. The children in my sunday school class listen when I talk about the Savior, or anything else from the Bible. The problem is that it's not reinforced at home. When they come back the following Sunday (if they come back), it sometimes seems as if I'm starting from square one -- they've already forgotten what I told them previously. I have asked some of them if they have Bibles at home. Many affirm that they do. I'm continually surprised that the ones with Bibles still can't tell me who Adam and Eve are, what Moses did at the Red Sea -- in other words, basic facts of the Bible that you'd think would stick with a child because they are so "life-changing." I have come to the conclusion that many parents would rather their kids go off and watch TV or play a video game, than be approached by them to read the Bible, or a Bible story -- and of course, the children happily comply with this neglect of their spiritual life because they don't know any better.