How would you teach a class of 1-2 million people who are living in the desert, are constantly on the move, and have no education? To make it even harder, you have to teach them about God, and you have no Bible or any other books.

This was the situation God faced when he delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt. What did he do to teach them about who he was? He designed and pitched a tent! “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8).

For more see my sermon notes and infographic.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB) Listen to previous episodes here.

Let me tell you about how I met Jesus in the Bible. I was born into a Christian family. My parents took me to church and also taught me the Bible at home. However, I did not want to meet Jesus when I was young because I wanted to live my own life without him. Although I went to church, I did not listen very much to the sermons or to my Sunday school teachers. Also, sad to say, I did not read my Bible much.

It’s no surprise, then, that I did not meet Jesus. I didn’t really want to. I am not proud of that. Indeed, I am ashamed of it and often wish I could live my childhood and teen years all over again.

But Jesus did not give up on me. Even though I did not want to meet him, he wanted to meet me, and he did not give up on me. In my early twenties, my life was not going well. I was trying to live without Jesus and I was very unhappy. After some sad events in my life, I went home to my parents, and they talked to me about how I needed to meet Jesus. My mom gave me a book to help me study the Bible, and I started reading it carefully for the first time. My prayer as I opened my Bible was, “Lord, please show me Jesus.”

Jesus Lives in the Bible

Almost immediately I was amazed at how Jesus began to pop out of the pages of the Bible. The book that I had thought was so boring was now alive and exciting. I wasn’t reading a lifeless book; I was meeting a living person. Every day I learned more and more about this lovely person, Jesus Christ. As I did so, Jesus became more and more real, clear, and present to me. Soon, he was as real to me as my mom and dad!

As I read my Bible each day and met Jesus in its pages, I was sure I was hearing his voice speaking directly to me in the words I was reading. It then felt normal and natural to start speaking back to him in prayer and talking to him about my life.

Jesus Lives in Sermons

I started listening to my pastor’s sermons with new attention. Again, Jesus came alive in the sermons. I was not just listening to my pastor; I was listening to my Jesus, and I was loving him more and more—so much so that I couldn’t wait for next Sunday and started listening to recorded sermons from other preachers in my car on weekdays. I sometimes felt as if Jesus were in the passenger seat beside me chatting to me through the sermons.

Jesus Lives in Christians

I couldn’t keep all this to myself and started going to homes where I knew other Christians who loved Jesus would meet and talk about him. I listened with amazement as they spoke about Jesus as a living person in their own lives too. I had many questions, and these Christian friends patiently answered them week after week. And as they did so, it was as if Jesus were in the room with us, as one of our friends. We also memorized Scripture verses about Jesus and challenged one another to recite them. Those were such happy, happy times.

Jesus Lives Today

Now, thirty years later, Jesus is more real and precious to me than ever before, and that’s why I’m so excited for you to meet him early in life rather than wasting years like I did. I’ve therefore written this Bible reading plan to help you meet Jesus in Bible reading, in listening to sermons about the Bible, and in discussing the Bible with others.

As you work your way through this, pray, “Show me Jesus!” If you do, he will meet with you and come alive in your life in an unforgettable way.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB) Listen to previous episodes here.

It’s hard to do things on our own, isn’t it? It’s much easier to do something, and keep doing something, if we have others with us, or watching us.

For example, how much school-work would you do if you had no other students and no teacher in your class? Having a teacher and other students makes us work harder, doesn’t it?

It’s the same when it comes to Meeting with Jesus. If we just try to do it on our own, we will probably forget to do it, we’ll maybe just decide not to do it, and we won’t get the benefit of knowing what others have discovered, and we won’t have a teacher to remind us to keep going.

That’s why we don’t have a reading for Sunday. As we saw in the last podcast, we still meet with Jesus on Sunday, it’s just that we do it in church in the worship services. But we also want to meet with Jesus together with our family.  Let’s think about what role the family has.

Families can meet with Jesus through the week

I know it helps when there are two or more kids doing the book together in the same family. Each reminds the other, and each kid wants to keep up with the other. It’s also neat because we can help one another if we get stuck or share what we learned with one another.

So, that’s through the week. What about Sunday?

Families can meet with Jesus on Sunday

I suggest setting aside ten minutes on Sunday for Dad or Mom to sit down and just check your answers and that you’ve been doing the work.

There’s also a discussion question on the Sunday page that asks you to think and talk together about what you learned in the past week. Maybe your parent can also ask you if you have any questions or what you learned about Jesus that week.

The aim is to have fellowship together, to meet with Jesus together as we remind one another of what we’ve read, encourage one another with what we’ve read, and motivate one another to keep meeting with Jesus.

Do you see how we can meet Jesus together as a family?

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB) Listen to previous episodes here.

One thing you’ll notice about Meeting with Jesus is that it doesn’t have any reading for Sunday. There are passages to read Monday to Saturday but none for Sunday. Why is that?

Is it because I don’t want you to read your Bible on Sunday?

Of course not.

Partly it’s to give you a day to catch up if you missed a day through the week. And you will. From time to time you’ll forget to read the passage and fill out the question. That’s OK. Just use Sunday to catch up.

But it’s also because Sunday is the day when we go to church to worship God, listen to God’s Word read and preached, go to Sunday school, and meet with our friends. These are all great times to also meet with Jesus.

Jesus has promised to meet with us when we gather together in his name (Matthew 18:20). So, yes, we can meet with Jesus on our own reading the Bible and praying, but we can also meet with Jesus together. Jesus loves to meet with us when we gather to worship him.

So we want that to be the focus of Sunday. Before you go to church, ask Jesus to meet with you and others there. Pray for that when you sing the songs, when your pastor leads you in prayer, when you listen to God’s Word read and preached, and when you go to Sunday school.

If you open Meeting with Jesus, you’ll notice we’ve given a whole page to Sunday. Under the “Listening to Jesus” section you’ll see a place for you to fill out the sermon title, the sermon verse, and even take some sermon notes. And then there’s a final question. What did you learn about Jesus today in church?

You could take your Meeting with Jesus book with you to church and fill it out during the sermon. But it’s easy to lose a book at church, so it might be better to take notes on a piece of paper and then fill it out when you get home.

Why don’t you tell your pastor you’re working through Meeting with Jesus. He will be so encouraged. It always makes me so happy to hear of kids reading the Bible.

So Sunday is a day when you meet with Jesus with others and that makes it a very special day.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

“Full and free! Fullness and freedom!” Two great longings of the human spirit. We want to be full and we want to be free. We want to be full of goodness and free from evil. We want to be satisfied and we want to be safe.

That’s what Christianity offers the human spirit–fullness and freedom. That’s what Colossians is all about. It offers fullness and freedom. Full of Christ and free in Christ. That’s what the Apostle wanted for the Colossian Christians, and, indeed, all Christians (Colossians 2:9-10).

That’s why the devil and his helpers do everything they can to undermine the Christian’s fullness and freedom. They employ three main tactics to empty believers of fullness in Christ and deprive believers of freedom in Christ.

• The chains of legalism (lawyers)
• The chains of mysticism (mystics)
• The chains of asceticism (monks)

Let’s see how God saves us from the lawyers, the mystics, and the monks, and therefore protects and preserves our fullness and freedom. He did that for the Colossians, and he can also do it for us. We can live full and free in Christ.

For more, see my sermon notes.  Index to other sermon notes here.

Frustrated in your attempts to get your children into the holy habit of daily Bible reading?

Disappointed in kids’ resources that are way too ambitious and demanding?

Desperate for your children to meet Jesus in the Bible?

Trying to use the lockdown for spiritual profit?

Why don’t you have a look at my new book Meeting With Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. This Bible reading plan for children ages 6–12 guides them through the life of Christ over the course of a year, teaching kids what Scripture says about Jesus. In less than five minutes a day, children will get to know the life and teachings of Jesus and his offer of abundant life to all who believe in him.

It’s similar in style to my previous book Exploring the Bible Together: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. But whereas Exploring the Bible took kids through the main stories and teachings of the whole Bible, Meeting with Jesus focuses on the life of Christ.

Reformation Heritage Books have negotiated a special deal with Crossway for Meeting With Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Instead of $19.99, it’s $12.

And, as a bonus, I’ve started a short daily podcast on Meeting with Jesus that your kids can listen to after they have completed each day’s reading and question. The podcast series starts with a number of questions about who Jesus is and explains how to use Meeting with Jesus. Next week, I’ll start daily podcasts to go with each of the daily readings. Here are the first few (the latest episode is on top, so scroll down if you want to begin at the beginning). You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.