JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
Acts of the Apostles 6
Seven Men Chosen to Serve
1But as the believers* rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.
2So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. 3And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”
5Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
7So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
God was doing a great work in the early church, for they were increasing in number! This is a wonderful thing; many people were putting their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for salvation. Although lives were changing, conflict began to spring up inside of the church body. The Hellenist (Jews who embraced Greek culture) were upset with the disciples for not caring enough for the women whose husbands had passed away. This is important because taking care of these women was an important part of Jewish lifestyle. But God did not let this small concern stop his Gospel from spreading! Thank goodness!
You see the disciples had to choose between caring for the widows and teaching God’s Word and prayer, both of which are good things. They didn’t have enough time to do both. But how did they choose which to do? God gave them wisdom to choose other men who were full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit to help them. God cares for the small things, like caring for the widows, just as much as the large things, like preaching his Word. The men they chose took care of the widows, while Peter and the other disciples preached the Word! Which led to more and more people coming to know Jesus!
Each person in the church has an important job to do. As part of the church, you also have a job to do in serving others. What might your job be? Maybe it’s serving with a parent on Sunday parking cars for church. Maybe it’s inviting the kid who is new to sit with you during kids’ church. Maybe it’s taking care of your younger sibling so your parents can help a friend in need? We all have things we can do to serve the church and help the Gospel spread in our world.
Take time today to talk with a parent about how you can serve in the church. Think about what God wants you to do to help spread the news of Jesus and serve others around you. Then, make a plan with your parent to get involved or start serving in that way.