Taking Care

This week is Vacation Bible School, from 9:30 in the morning until noon.  There’s a lot of excitement. There’s a lot of Bible reading.  There are a lot of questions.  The gospel is given, Jesus is taught and salvation is a topic of conversation.

There is the temptation on the part of some Christians to rely on a form of “The Sinner’s Prayer” and call them saved when a child repeats it. We don’t.  Care must be taken that this isn’t a moment of excitement, of peer pressure or teacher’s great desire.  It is a moment of understanding if a child says they’ve been saved.

Two of my great-grandsons will be baptized this coming Sunday.  Church is not new to them.  They attended long before they moved closer to us.  They’ve attended Sunday School for years.  The older made his profession of faith this summer at Youth Camp.  The younger made his this week in Bible School.

Care was taken with First GGS and he was counseled by several adults to be certain he understood the reason for and the meaning of salvation. Second GGS needed that same attention, from the same people, to be certain he was not following an example nor desiring the same attention, but understood what he was doing.  Guess it also comes down to the adults understanding that, too!

We are aware of Matthew’s example of the sower in Chapter 13.  The word is given to all, but some of it never takes root nor grows into fruitfulness.  Christ explained this parable to His disciples:

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. [Matthew 13:18 KJV]

It is our responsibility to see that the ground is prepared:

But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. [Matthew 13:23 KJV]

That’s what I want for my loved ones.  Not:

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. [Matthew 13:22 KJV]

Nor:

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. [Matthew 13:20-21 KJV]

So, time is taken with each child, not just my great-grands.  Questions asked, explanations given, discussions with parents included – all this long before baptisms are scheduled.

It sounds simple when we read:

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. [Acts 16:30-31 KJV]

Never forget the following verse:

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. [Acts 16:32 KJV]