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
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
54The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.* 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
57Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.*
59As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Acts of the Apostles 8
1Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
Persecution Scatters the Believers
A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2(Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) 3But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.
Share a story about a time when you had a big emotion. Maybe you were angry about something. Maybe you felt confused. Maybe you felt super happy. Go around the room and have each person share a story about a big emotion you had.
In our story today, there were a lot of people who showed big emotions. Stephen finished sharing God’s story of how he rescues people through Jesus, but the people listening were not very happy. Even though there were lots of different emotions shown by lots of different people, God was in all those moments.
Today, as you read our passage, underline all the words that show the emotion the different characters show in our story. You can use the list below to track the characters in today’s story.
God, thank you that you see every big feeling I have. You saw Stephen’s courage. You saw the believers’ fear. You see mine too. Right now, I want to tell you about a big feeling I’m carrying(pause — let kids silently or quietly name their emotion)
Help me trust that you are bigger than my feelings. And help me, like Stephen, to keep my eyes on You even when things are hard. Amen.”