Faith

Sunday Reflection – October 2, 2022

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Increasing Faith

Luke 17 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7 “Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner’? 8 Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’? 9 You won’t thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you? 10 In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’”

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Growing our faith (October 2nd)

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Read Luke 17:5-10 with your family.

Sometimes when we read the stories in the Bible some words jump out at us and that is all we focus on. The word “slave” is one of those. Most of us only know the slavery that happened in the USA 150 years ago, a slavery based in racism. That is not the type of slavery Jesus and his followers would have known. In order to take that big word out so we don’t get distracted, our video uses the word ‘servant’.

But Jesus was not really talking about people paid, but people unpaid who were expected to do what they were asked. The disciples Jesus called were not paid to spread the world of God, they were just told to do it.

In this story these disciples ask for more faith, as though it was a gift like food or water that Jesus could give. But that is not how faith works. Some of the people with the biggest faith in God think they have don’t have as much faith as they should. Some people who think their faith is huge really don’t have much faith in God at all.

Jesus tried to tell them even the smaller imaginable bit of faith was enough to make extraordinary things happen.

Faith is a choice. No one can give us more faith, not even God. We have to choose to have faith. And when we make that choice, it is always going to be enough.

Kids Korner: God brings people to faith (August 8th)

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Our Story

About our story

Read John 6:36-50 with your family. The people listening to Jesus had a hard time understanding what Jesus was trying to teach them. They looked at each other and said something like “we know his mom and dad, so why is he saying he came down from heaven and knows God personally?”

Sometimes it’s really hard for adults to hear the message of the story instead of the asking questions that are about their own self interests. Jesus understood that and kept trying to help them understand that his message was bigger than the daily needs of the people who wanted Jesus to feed them more bread and fish.

In the middle of this whole conversation, Jesus said something really important: That God brings people to faith. We can’t do that ourselves. We can’t get our parents to believe or friends to believe, only God can do that. What we CAN do however, is talk about God caring for everyone, just like Jesus did. Then maybe if our friends and family want to hear more, they will be open to the lessons of Jesus wanting to make sure all people were part of God’s world, where there would always be enough to eat for everyone.