by Dennis Su

Summer is winding down and that means a new year of Sonlight (elementary age children’s ministry) is just beginning.  With that comes change.  Some staff are moving on to different ministries or have relocated entirely, and new prospective staff are in the process of observing to confirm their interest or have already committed.  We’ve promoted two of our oldest children to Lumos (youth ministry) and are excited to get a new batch of young ones from Sparklers.  Each year we also see change come in the form of curriculum.  To give some background, children’s curriculum is often created by different providers and can span multiple years, focusing on different themes for an entire year.  In years past, we’ve gone through curriculum put out by Children Desiring God and this last year, Answers in Genesis.  This year we’ll be using curriculum created by Generations of Grace (http://www.generationsofgrace.com/).  It’s exciting to know that we’ll have new resources to aid in teaching the kids and to provide our staff with new ideas on how to share God’s truth.

This year we’ll be studying the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.  We’ll take a short break to focus on Christ’s resurrection during Easter and on Christ’s birth during Christmas.  Every few weeks we’ll also be having a review of past lessons to help us remember what we’ve learned and to re-emphasize the major objectives of the lessons.  At the end of the year, we’ll be reviewing the MVP (mission, vision, passion) of Lighthouse.

Despite all the changes happening in Sonlight including any new curriculum, it’s important for us to constantly remember our objectives in Sonlight.  In particular, to share the gospel and impart the sinfulness of man.  To say it another way, we need to be God-focused.  While the excitement of a new curriculum is refreshing and something to look forward to, it’s more important that what we do teaches the kids the holiness of God and that He is the one who sent his Son to be our Savior, and to exemplify God’s work in our own lives.

by Shelby Wong

June is right around the corner and we are winding down the year in Sonlight. In the blink of an eye, a whole school year in this ministry has come and gone. Through this time, I am very thankful to God for what he has taught me through the children I claim to serve.

When I first joined the Children’s Ministry, my main goal was to get kids thinking about God at an early age and to help them contemplate where their heart is behind the matter. I had just finished a year as a Teacher’s Aide at a private, Christian school and knew how much these little brains were capable of. Simply memorizing was an easy task for them. They are like sponges! They retain all sorts of information given to them. I thought it was time to take learning to the next level and start getting the kids to think about what they are learning. My goal was to get the kids to personalize what they learn. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Even though this sounded great in theory, putting it into practice was another story. On Sundays, after serving in Children’s Ministry, I would go home thinking, “Did these guys really understand what the lesson was about? Do they see how this relates to God and to them personally? Why don’t they respond when I ask them about their sins? If we are called to minister to the lives of these children, shouldn’t I be trying to draw out the heart? Am I failing at teaching these kids?”

I was humbled to realize I was too focused on what they can show for themselves. I wanted them to be able to express where they see their sin, and what they can do to change. I was so caught up on the end result, or behavior modification, that I forgot God is the One who changes hearts in His own time. God is the One who sees to it that their hearts are changed. I am simply called to faithfully teach and support them by posing the right questions, answering their questions, and investing in their lives.

There are times, however, when we have wonderful conversations about the day’s lesson and expand it to our own lives. It is then that I get a glimpse of understanding their little souls. It is truly a blessing to serve these kids and interact with them as they teach me more than I can teach them. God doesn’t need me to be with them, and they certainly do not need me. However, He has called me to serve here and learn alongside these little souls. For this, I thank God.

by Hanka Rodgers

The more I thought about this article, the more I was convinced that God gives me the desire to serve – generally, but also specifically in Sparklers – to teach me and help me grow, rather than because people really need me to serve them.

I feel like sometimes we focus so much on the fact that we serve in our ministries that we fail to notice how much we can learn and grow in them. Honestly, if you go on a mission trip to the Czech Republic or Argentina and you come back talking only about how much you helped them, I am not sure you really understood what you were doing. The same is true for ministries at church – we do serve to serve (and ultimately to glorify God), but at the same time, God is so gracious that He helps us benefit from our ministries as well, and we would be foolish if we didn’t see it. Sometimes I am not sure if He puts me in a ministry because He wants me to serve the other person, or because He wants the ministry to serve me.

Serving the body of Christ and people who don’t know Jesus is a privilege. Philippians 2:13 says that He works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure – even the fact that we want to serve is only by God’s grace. Without His changing our hearts to grow the desire to serve, we would never want to serve Him or other people. Serving in Sparklers is a privilege, and that is what I would like to focus on here.

To be honest, as much as we sometimes love talking about “planting seeds” in children’s ministry, the reality is that we don’t always see much fruit. If you ask a random Sparkler what they learned the past Sunday in Sunday school, most of them will say, “I don’t know.” Or they will say they learned that Jesus had long hair. Or something equally important and spiritually enriching. It is ok. God doesn’t tell us to only do ministries that “bear much fruit”. He tells us, however, that if we stay in Him, we’ll bear much fruit (John 15:5) and that’s the kind of fruit we can see if we look at our ministries from a different perspective than the “I am serving them so much” perspective.

One of the privileges we have as staff on Sparklers is teaching. I am not planning on fighting for women’s rights to preach more at church (I did go through that stage in my early Christian life, but I promise it’s over), but I am very thankful that Sparklers are also taught by women. Not because I love preaching to people and telling them what they should do (even though I kinda like telling people what they should do), but because of the studying and the listening part. Don’t get me wrong, I am not that dumb. I know I could be studying the Bible for hours, even without teaching at Sparklers. But I am a sinner. And in my sinner’s life, really deep study of the Bible moves up the to-do list much faster when I have a lesson to teach, or a Bible study to prepare for. And you know what’s best? When you start studying for one lesson and the lesson gets changed the week before you teach. That is God’s grace. From certain perspective.

It is not just the studying though, but also the actual lesson. Every Sunday morning we all meet before the service to listen to the person who is teaching that day. Everybody always first teaches the lesson in front of all the staffers, so that we can criticize – excuse me, encourage – him or her and share some comments. Seriously though, it is one of the times I am very thankful for. There have been lessons that made me thankful for the truth of the gospel more than “adult” sermons. I myself just taught a lesson on Acts 5, where God sends an angel to let the apostles, who were thrown in jail for preaching the gospel, out of prison. I talked about God’s amazing power and the amazing power of the Holy Spirit who can do great things through us – not because we are so good, but because He is so powerful. It was the Holy Spirit who gave the apostles words, courage, and wisdom to teach God’s Word, and I have the same Holy Spirit as they did. That is quite encouraging to know when you mess up the “morning teaching training” in front of the adults, and you feel like those kids won’t learn anything from you that day.

Another great advantage of serving in Sparklers is that children are so honest. We should all do our best to show everybody around us how great God is, and be good examples. However, with adults we sometimes get away with things. Adults won’t ask their parents what was Mr. This-and-That doing with his phone (that had the word “Facebook” on the screen) while pastor Patrick was preaching. You also won’t see adults innocently copy some of your sinful behavior or calling you out on it when you do something wrong.

We don’t get to only listen to the kids tell us things, but we should also listen to us talking to the kids. In some way we are getting used to telling kids all the time they are sinners. Whenever they disobey, we try to show them that in disobeying us, they disobeyed God. And we try to help them understand that they disobey because they are selfish sinners. But do WE understand what great sinners we are? Do we try to find the “heart issue” behind our disobedience, or do we only care about “heart” when children are involved? When children get in conflict, we always tell them to talk to the other child first and if it doesn’t work, we help them resolve it. How do we resolve our conflicts though? Do we go to the person first, or do we talk to everybody else? If you are in children’s ministry dealing with quite honest sinners all the time, you can’t avoid examining yourself from time to time concerning some really important issues.

Last, but not least, if you serve in Sparklers, it takes about two weeks for you to discover R.C. Sproul’s book The Poison Cup. For some reason, some of the kids love the book and want us to read it all the time. I’ve read the first half of the book much more often than the second half, but I don’t mind. I can never be reminded too much of how evil we were before God saved us, and what a great price He had to pay to do it.

These are just a few lessons you learn if you serve on Sparklers staff. There are definitely more, but I think you got the idea. If you really want to learn and grow, come serve in Sparklers. Or any other ministry.

by Abram Kim

Children’s Ministry, like any other ministry, can have those moments when you, as a staff volunteer, can feel burned out. The wear and tear during the year can be draining physically and emotionally. The repetitive and sometimes mundane tasks of service can quench the excitement that was there at the start of the year. The prayers become rehearsed and rote. The songs are stale and dry. The lessons are familiar and contemptible. Our Christian life takes us through valleys like these, and when they do, our service suffers and Christ’s glory dulls in our lives.

What is the solution? Athletes go back to the fundamentals when they are in slumps. The Christian must also return to the fundamentals of the faith. We must remember the kindness of God to give us another day to live, a kindness that ought to lead us to repentance for taking His grace for granted (Romans 2:4). We must recall the MVP of Lighthouse Bible Church and discover once again the great purpose of our lives.

The 2013 Shepherds’ Conference once again featured powerful and timely plenary and seminar messages for my soul, even though I did not physically attend the event. Of particular impact this year were John MacArthur’s first message on John 3 and the seminar session on Children’s Ministry by Grace Community Church’s Children’s Ministry pastor, Matt White. The fundamental concept from these messages that strengthened me was that the ultimate goal of ministry, and our purpose in this world as Christians, is evangelism, yet at the same time the work of salvation is not under our control and we can add nothing to contribute to it.

The supreme purpose of the Christian is to make disciples of Christ in the context of the local church in obedience to the Scriptures out of a love for God and others (MVP of Lighthouse). This is in one sense an impossible goal. No one on our staff is capable of turning a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. No one can raise the spiritually dead, or give sight to the spiritually blind. This is a supernatural work. This is a re-creative work. This is a work that God alone can perform.

Nicodemus and the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not understand this. Nicodemus came to Jesus and was curious at what he would say to him. He knew Jesus was from God, “for no one can do these signs that [He did] unless God is with him.” (John 3:2) Jesus, knowing what was in the heart of man and the key question that Nicodemus had on his mind (John 2:24-25), addressed the issue of salvation from sin to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

The world of the Pharisees was founded on the idea that religion earns merit in God’s economy. But Jesus shattered that notion with his earthly analogy of birth. No baby contributes to their own birth. What did you contribute to your own birth? Did you give the doctor or your mother a helping hand or an encouraging word? If anything, perhaps you complicated your mother’s labor and there were risks of injury or death. Nicodemus, the preeminent teacher of the day, understood Jesus’ analogy well, for he too taught in analogies to help people understand the truths of God’s Word. But Jesus’ analogy on how to be saved, well, this lesson undermined the core of his philosophy. There was absolutely nothing he could do to contribute or secure his own salvation in God’s Kingdom. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4) Isn’t there anything you can do to contribute to your spiritual birth? There has to be something you can do, isn’t there? The answer from Scripture is clear. There is no hidden knowledge to acquire or religious action to perform to gain favor with God. Just as we contribute nothing to our physical birth, we contribute nothing to our spiritual birth. It is an act of God from beginning to end.

Jesus offers Nicodemus one more earthly analogy to help him understand the heavenly realities he pondered in his heart. The salvation of a soul is like the wind. We can hear it and see its effects, but we have no control over where it comes from or where it goes; the wind will blow where it wishes. Nicodemus’ understanding of spiritual realities is crumbling from its foundations, and all he can say is, “How can these things be?” (John 3:9) He is silent for the remainder of the conversation as Jesus continues to expound on the love of God for sending a Savior to save sinners in this wind-like manner. The task for the sinner is to believe Jesus is the Christ and the only way to be saved. But this belief (faith) will not happen unless the wind blows, until the Spirit breathes spiritual life to the spiritually dead.

The earthly analogies Jesus taught Nicodemus are helpful in understanding how we should evangelize the lost. As parents and as the church, we all must be diligent to teach the full counsel of the Word of God and to preach and model the gospel to the children in our care. But this is our duty and responsibility in obedience to Christ and the Scriptures, as ones alive in the Spirit. Knowing Scripture and the gospel will not raise the dead or direct the wind of salvation. Salvation is God’s work alone, and He alone will receive the glory for the salvation of a soul. This can certainly happen to a 5-year old, and we praise God for that, but the salvation of a soul is not and never will be dependent on the quality of a Children’s Ministry curriculum or the skills of the staff.

This of course doesn’t negate our responsibility as a church and parents to be faithful to our calling to diligently and prayerfully instruct and disciple the ways of God, as written in the Word of God. Our work is in obedience to our Lord. All the more, our work must have at its core time on our knees before the throne of grace in prayer for the wind to blow in the direction of the little ones we love and care for. And this is the chief goal of our ministry. At the same time, we must continually remind ourselves to have the perspective that salvation is not our work, lest we find ourselves as Nicodemus did at the end of his conversation with Jesus, confused and dumbfounded by our inability to contribute to salvation.

Each week as we gather, there is an opportunity for the wind to blow. Let us earnestly and eagerly pray that the wind blows today for someone we love, young or old. “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

by Danica Chu

Ever since I was in high school, God gave me a heart for kids of all ages. When I first started going to LBC, I wanted to serve in the children’s ministry because I wanted to serve in an area where I could meet families of the church. I prayed and asked God to place me where He saw fit for my life and where I would grow the most. I kept looking out for opportunities to serve, knowing that wherever I am placed, it is where God wanted me to be and that was His plan for my life. When I saw that there were opportunities available in the Sparklers’ ministry, I prayed and asked God if this was where He wanted me to be. After much praying and consideration, I went ahead and filled out the application and sent it in to Mike Hasegawa.

During the application and observation process, I noticed that whoever was in the classroom, they really took time to prepare their lessons and made sure that God’s Word was being preached every week. I noticed how all the teachers were gentle with the kids, caring for them and loving them the way God had loved the staff. One thing that really stood out to me was how the lesson was presented. At the end of each lesson, the conclusion always came back to the Gospel. Even at such a young age, the teachers were trying to instill in each Sparkler what Jesus Christ has done for them on the cross, dying for their sins.

Each lesson taught is divided into three parts: the hook, the actual lesson and the conclusion. The hook is an attention getter for the kids. It usually involves one of the staff or an everyday illustration, something that they can relate to. The actual lesson is the part when the teacher teaches from a passage of Scripture. We (the Sparklers’ staff) know when we are teaching and what passage of Scripture we are teaching from. Therefore, we are able to study and prepare it in advance. This is because we want to make sure that we are handling God’s truth accurately and not adding or removing anything from it. The last part of the lesson is the conclusion. The conclusion is when the teacher tells the Sparklers’ what the main point of the lesson is, how it ties into the hook and the lesson itself and we try to present the Gospel to them as well. Usually, we try to repeat what our main point is throughout the entire lesson. I think preparing and studying for the lesson take the most time because of how much time is being spent on reading the passage, meditating on it and studying it.

Mike always told us that we should give ourselves plenty of time to study, read and meditate on it. It’s something that I have been learning and attempting to do in my own devotionals. Instead of just glancing over the passage and checking the box to show that I did my reading for the day, I learned that I need to slow down and take it all in. Read the passage slowly, make notes, question things that I don’t understand and research it. This is what God has called us to do as believers, to meditate on God’s Word and search for ways to apply it to our daily lives. I started to apply this process to my own quiet times. I’ll admit, I’m not perfect. This isn’t the easiest process for me to do. But I ask God everyday to give me the discipline to sit down and study God’s Word, the way I normally would study God’s Word to teach the lesson. This should be an integral part of our daily routine as believers, to study God’s Word, meditate on it and always refer to it.

Ever since joining Sparklers, I’ve learned a lot from just sitting in and listening to the lessons being taught. I’m always reminded of one of God’s characteristics: His humility that led Him to the cross, His continual faithfulness from the Old Testament to the New Testament and many more of His characteristics. I have learned so much from serving in the Sparklers’ Ministry, for my own spiritual growth, seeing where I fall short in my walk with God. God has been so faithful to the Sparkers’ Ministry in providing faithful men and women who have a willing heart to serve one of the youngest affinity groups at LBC. I’m excited to see where God takes the Sparklers Ministry next!

by Abram Kim

The start of a new year provides opportunities to reflect on the previous year. Of all the events of 2012, from my perspective, the single-most tragic event of the year came near the end of the year, on December 14 when 20 children and six adults were tragically killed and two more wounded at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Very few people knew of this small town before December 14, 2012, but now all of America and the world are familiar with the town. School shootings are always tragic, but the fact that this was an elementary school and that so many children lost their lives magnifies this tragedy.

I would have imagined that during the ensuing weekend, most of the churches across America held services and vigils to pray for the victims and their families at Newtown. LBCSD was no different. The day after the Newtown tragedy was LBCSD’s annual Christmas Concert, and the message from Elder Mike Chon related to the tragic events in Newtown and the hope we have in Christ. The next day, our church gathered that Sunday morning and Pastor Patrick Cho addressed the tragedy again, reminding us of the brevity of life and the hope that can only come from Christ. The news of Newtown was obviously on the hearts and minds of the leaders at LBCSD and it needed to be addressed to give our church proper biblical perspective. Pastor Patrick shared with LBCSD five reasons that Christians should speak up in the midst of tragedy like the one in Newtown. I wanted to use his outline to consider how parents and children’s ministry leaders can teach children to understand tragedies like Newtown.

1. Newtown reminds us that the real problem is our radical depravity.

What happened at Newtown is sad and very tragic. That goes without saying. But consider the gravity of the tragedy. Imagine in a moment’s notice the terror of that violence and rage from a complete stranger. Imagine not being able to play with your best friends because they are no longer with you. We need to explain the magnitude of this tragedy because it brings us closer to understanding the gravity of our sinfulness to the perfectly holy God.

Most of us may not experience in our personal lives or first-hand such wickedness. But regardless of what secular society may preach about man’s inherent good, the potential for this kind of wickedness, including its magnitude, resides in us all. It isn’t even that we are mostly good people that have sinned some and need a Savior to clean up the little mess in our lives, as some Christians may preach. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It is only by God’s grace that tragedies like Newtown don’t occur more often. Newtown provided a sober look into the all-encompassing problem in this world and in man, our radical and wicked depravity.

2. Newtown reminds us that the gospel is the only solution to the real problem.

The immense gravity of wickedness can only be cancelled by an immense amount of righteousness. Of course none of us have any righteousness of our own to begin with. So who can save us? Of course, Christ alone! When we reflect on the depths of our own sins, we turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ and revel in the glorious depths of His grace. The greatest problem in this world we can emphasize to our young ones is sin, and the only solution is Jesus Christ. He is the only way, truth, and life (John 14:6).

3. Newtown reminds us that life is short and our opportunities are limited.

With all the advances in medicine today, the simple fact remains that no one can be certain of their last day on earth (even in some cases of attempted suicide). My mom would say that we may all have an order coming into the world, but there is no order leaving this world. Accidental deaths happen all the time. Homicides seem more tragic because they have the appearance of being preventable. But the fact remains that death is not far for any of us.

Consider the millions of babies in the womb that never get to hear the gospel because they are aborted before full term. As infants and toddlers, children may not fully grasp the concepts of holiness and sin, but we ought to teach them diligently. We believe God bestows special grace to those souls before the age of accountability. But no one can be certain what that age might be, and it might be different for every child. Every opportunity ought to be taken advantage of to teach the whole counsel of God’s Word, the character of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday School hour and LKC evening must count. Every little moment in the home and discipline opportunity must count. We must diligently be ready to teach and disciple and counsel and love and point toward our Maker, Savior, and Lord. So teach us to number our days, that we gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

4. Newtown reminds us to look to God because He is in control.

God is not the source of evil (James 1:13), but God is still in control over all the evil that happens in the world, and in the mystery of providence brings it all together for His glory (Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28). We must be reminded that God is in control, even over the small and big evils in this world. When the world around you comes crumbling down, or your understanding of the world is shaken at its core, it is natural to seek someone or something to confide in. And we must teach our young ones that God is the most dependable one we can turn to, for He is always faithful. God was and is fully in control, and will continue to always be fully in control throughout all time. Tragedies in life ought to prompt us to repent of our sins and turn to the God who is in control (Luke 13:1-5).

5. Newtown reminds us that God is judge, and He will avenge.

Some may feel that Lanza’s suicide somehow cheated our society from exacting justice on him for his wicked deeds, and cheated the families involved from experiencing justice in this world. Yet no human court could come up with the penalty due such evil. Vengeance is the Lord’s (Romans 12:19). God is the perfect Judge and Executioner. Evil will be dealt with justly, for God is the Great Judge. No one can hide, no one can escape.

For those who are in Christ, Jesus bore the great wrath of God that we deserved upon Himself on the cross. The punishment was immense because our sins were immense. It required an infinite sacrifice to atone for our infinite sinfulness. When will the time be when God consummates the world and brings final judgment to those that are still in their sins? God isn’t slow to fulfill His promise of justice, but rather is patient so that more will be saved in Christ (2 Peter 3:1-10). And may God be gracious to grant us the opportunities to share the gospel with those around us, especially our children, that they may be saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

by Mabel Tse

I’ve had the privilege of serving in the Fireflies’ Ministry since 2005.  For the past seven years, the Fireflies’ Ministry has gone through many changes and it’s been so neat watching God shape this ministry.  I initially joined nursery because I love children of all ages and wanted to practice sharing the gospel with infants and toddlers.  It’s been such a humbling experience, to say the least.  At times, I found myself focusing too much on how cute the babies were and how I just wanted to have fun with them, rather than seeing them as lost souls in need of hearing God’s truth.  It’s so easy to get caught up in the external behavior rather than addressing the heart issues.

Since having Abigail, I’m thankful to have another perspective towards nursery… the perspective of a parent dropping their child off into the care of others.  It is difficult letting go and trusting someone else with someone so precious to you.  One of the things I love about nursery is that we have ladies from all walks of life… from collegians to singles, from married ladies without children to married ladies with children.  Recently there have been a lot of ladies who have stepped down from staff but God has provided many more ladies who’ve joined.  I can understand how with so many new faces, it might make it more difficult letting go of your child.  But the thing that reassures me is knowing the commitment that the Fireflies’ staff has to sharing the Gospel to our little ones and focusing on addressing the heart.

I’m thankful that Fireflies provides opportunities for infants and toddlers to learn about God.  It’s also wonderful seeing the ladies on our staff encourage one another and learn from one another.  This ministry is not only an opportunity to teach infants and toddlers but also an informal discipleship ministry between the ladies on staff.  Within our staff, I’ve witnessed many conversations where collegians will ask singles and married ladies questions on how to be a godly woman.  I’ve seen how the older women took on Titus 2:3-5 roles and made the most of opportunities to teach the younger women how to love children.  Likewise, I’ve heard from many singles and married ladies about how encouraged they are after talking with the collegians and experiencing their zeal and passion for God.

God continues to bless the Fireflies’ Ministry with more children…by the end of this year, there will be twenty new babies!! Despite all the new changes, the goal of Fireflies staff remains the same…planting seeds of truth in the hearts of the little ones and ultimately praying that God will bless them with salvation.  Let us continue to pray for the Fireflies’ Ministry to pass on God’s Word to the youngest members of our congregation and pray for the salvation of these souls!

by Abram Kim

On October 7, 2012, Sonlight concluded the lesson on the 4th C of history, Confusion. The first three C’s are Creation, Corruption (the Fall), and Catastrophe (the Flood). The last three C’s are Christ, Cross and Consummation. On the timeline posted in the Sonlight room, we see that the 4th C of Confusion encompasses the period from the Tower of Babel to the incarnation of Christ.

Dennis Su did a fantastic job explaining that the 4th C is about how God confused the languages as Noah’s descendants disobeyed God and congregated at the land of Shinar instead of filling the whole earth (Genesis 11). It is a story well-known to those brought up in the church. But this historic account has more significance than just that we have hundreds of languages around the world and that our skin colors and cultures are a little different.

The question I had to my small group kids at the blue table (3rd to 5th grade boys) was, “Why did God want to fill the whole earth with His people?” God gave the same command to multiply and fill the earth to Adam and Eve. God’s intent from creation was to have a world filled with His created people. God thought it necessary to give this command again after the global flood wiped out all but 8 people on the earth. Noah and his family lived in a world so saturated with sin that Scripture describes God as “grieved” at the sinfulness of man (Genesis 6:6, ESV). Perhaps in this culture it was easy to forget God’s commands only a few generations ago to the original man and woman and so God thought it necessary to reissue the command.

The why can be explained in simply by the ultimate purpose of life, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But this does not explain thoroughly exactly why the entire face of the earth needed to be involved. We can only conjecture as to why God thought it desirous to fill the earth. I have shared on occasion with those who would listen that I considered God as wise and creative and beautiful in preparing for Himself a varied collection of peoples and cultures and time periods to worship the one true God for all eternity. Whatever God’s reasoning, He wanted the entire world to be filled with those that will worship Him and enjoy Him forever. Noah’s descendants were not obedient to this call and God forced the issue by confusing the language of the people.

So now that we understood the facts of the biblical account, I wanted the blue table to think about implications and application for today. The world today is indeed filled with people. We celebrated Columbus Day on October 8, 2012 to signify that an influx of Europeans invaded the Americas a few hundred years ago. There are so many diverse languages and cultures and people groups around the world. But the question is are they worshiping God? God doesn’t desire the world to be filled with sinful men again. Though He won’t wipe out the world with another global flood (the rainbow is the symbol of God’s promise), He will come to judge sin soon.

We find in Acts 1:8 the New Testament version of God’s command from Genesis. No longer are Noah’s descendants or Israel responsible to spread the glory of God to the ends of the earth. That responsibility now falls squarely on the Church of Jesus Christ. Herein lies the Vision of LBC’s MVP. That was the conclusion of the blue table’s small group discussion, and then we continued on in Sonlight with snacks and games.

The need for God-fearing and God-loving churches still exist today because the need to fill the ends of the earth with God-fearing and God-loving people still exist today. The vision of LBC is to be obedient to God’s command to fill the earth, and we as a Sonlight staff pray that the vision will be passed on to the next generation of God’s people to continue the work, until the Lord’s return.

by Abram Kim

It is the start of another school year and Sonlight is well underway towards partnering with parents to teach the truths of Scripture to the next generation of our church. This year, Sonlight, LBCSD’s elementary ministry, is veering from Children Desiring God curricula and will teach from a curriculum by Answers in Genesis titled, “Answers for Kids Bible Curriculum.” I found this curriculum at the 2012 Shepherd’s Conference and got it because I wanted to consider using it for Sonlight. My hope and prayer for this curriculum is to show our Sonlight children what it looks like to have a biblical worldview, including the 6-day creation of the entire universe.

The first part of the curriculum teaches the 7 C’s of history: Creation, Corruption (the Fall), Catastrophe (the flood), Confusion (tower at Babel), Christ, Cross, and Consummation. This was the VBS theme for LBCSD in 2008. It was a great overview of all of history from a biblical perspective. This will be a great starting point for the year. All of the world and all of history belongs to our God. We as a staff pray that these lessons will help our Sonlight children view creation, history, and their lives from a biblical worldview.

The rest of the curriculum goes through some common questions people have about the Bible, including the age of the earth and dinosaurs. We will explore topics like how we got the Bible, is the theory of Evolution true, and why people around the world look different. Though some of the science in this curriculum might be beyond the comprehension of some of the children, it is still good to introduce these topics from the Bible. We need to be reminded ourselves and pass on to the next generation the clear and unrivaled authority of Scripture. We must be reminded that the source of truth is God Himself, and that the Bible we have is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16).

It seems that this world gets more wicked and more vile day by day. The cultural norms now tolerate blatant evils and accept lies as truth. Evolution is accepted as fact. Abortion happens everyday. Children no longer live under authority and are often treated as if they are adults already, as parents bypass the rod for a form of self-esteem that increases self-reliance and leads them away from the Sovereign Lord.

As a church, we must continue to educate our children in the truths of Scripture. Truth is the only dependable and reliable weapon against falsehood. Our constant prayer as a ministry is that God will enlighten the hearts and minds of every child in Sonlight and that God’s truth will guard their hearts and minds as they grow up in their generation. May they have a greater biblical upbringing than we ever did. May they be equipped to discern what is true and false, and to ward off the plethora of deceitful falsehood surrounding our culture. Please pray with us this year that our Sonlight children will develop a truly biblical worldview.