Blessings

Good Morning!  What a glorious couple of days we have had in our town!  Happy Thankful Thursday!  I do a Wednesday night 'Kidz Bible Time' as a discipleship class with a few of my kids from Kidz Klub.  Right now I only have 4 kids in the class, but they are 4 very committed kids who love Jesus with all their heart!  The book we are doing right now is called Getting a Grip on the Basics for Kids.  I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time.  A recurrent theme in Kidz Klub [Children's Church] is to have a relationship with Jesus.  When you have many kids that come on Sunday only, it's difficult to really drive [having a relationship with Jesus] home so that they truly understand and develop their own personal relationship with our Lord.  This book is perfect for helping them to understand exactly what 'having a personal relationship' means.

My class, Jeremiah-Grace-Leah & Alyssa, has truly begun to show signs of developing that relationship.  For the past few weeks we have been 'beginning' our own personal Bible reading time.  Being a children's pastor, I am a fan of rewarding, some people think it's bribery, my kids for things they have done.  That being said, a couple of chapters ago, we talked about reading the Word of God every day.  I developed a 'Bible Reading Contract' and told them that there are 7 days in a week and I am only asking them to read 5 chapters every week.  I don't care where they read, I just want them to read.  I purposely did not ask them to read 7 days a week because I didn't want to overwhelm them...yet!  I have been pleasantly surprised that each of the last 4 weeks, ALL 4 of them have read the 5 chapters PLUS more - every week.  Each Wednesday we get new 'contracts' and they give me their old one for the previous week.  Now, earlier I said that I reward them for their reading.  We have a Dollar General store just up the street from our church and so after we get started  each Wednesday, our little group walks down to the Dollar General and I buy them all the candy bar of their choice.  We go back to class and eat our candy bars while we continue on in the book.  It works very well for us.  *smiles*

Last night, our study was on the blessings of God.  One of our texts for the evening was Deuteronomy 28:1-14.  The blessings God has promised us are so many.  The kids really seemed to get in to it, too.  Take a look at what God promises to those that obey His commands:

         

 ¹ If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. ² All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

 ³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

 ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

 ⁵ Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

 ⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

 ⁷ The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

 ⁸ The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

 ⁹ The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. ¹¹ The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

 ¹² The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. ¹³ The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

How amazing is God?  He promises blessing upon blessing to those of us that hear and obey the things He commands us to do.  Think about how blessed the Israelites would have been had they ALWAYS listened to God...think how blessed we WILL be WHEN we fully listen to God and obey Him!  Every single part of our life will be blessed.  That doesn't mean that the enemy won't attack...but it DOES mean that God will bless us...

I am so very thankful for this passage in God's Word and I am so very thankful for the promises of God and for His blessings.  Won't you take a moment today and thank God for His bounty of blessings?

Have a thankful Thursday and be blessed,