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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Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south* down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
30Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
32The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
33He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”*
34The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
36As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”* 38He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.
Each Monday, our job is to observe our passage for the week. If you have your own bible, using a highlighter to help you observe is a great practice. Our goal is to look at the passage a few different times. Our goal is to zoom in more each time we read the passage. You can think about it like taking a mental picture. By the end it should be a close up!
In Acts 8:26-40, we see God gave Philip a mission. An angel of the Lord appeared to Philip and told him to head south to a road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. On this journey, he came into the path of a man who was traveling to Jerusalem. The man was a eunuch— someone who worked for a royal king or queen and didn’t have a family of their own. Look at the story again, reading through slowly to answer the following questions:
God, thank you for sending people into our lives—like Philip—who help us understand who Jesus is. Help us to listen when you tell us to do something, even when we don’t understand why. Give us courage to talk about Jesus with the people around us. And remind us today that the good news about Jesus is worth being joyful about. Amen
Every week, pick a day to pray for people around the world who haven’t heard about Jesus yet. The Joshua Project website posts a new unreached people group every day—pull it up at dinner, before bed, or on the way to school and pray for them together.
