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
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
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And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
10Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. 11He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’”
Sometimes in school your teachers might use physical objects to teach their lessons, like using apples in math class to add and subtract or playdough in science to learn about shapes and physical properties. These lessons can feel creative or out of the box, but doing something physical can help us learn concepts that feel hard to grasp.
In Acts 21 and throughout scripture, we see that God also speaks to us and teaches us in creative ways. Yesterday, you read about God giving Paul a prophesy through Philip’s daughters, and today we see God speaking to Paul in a surprising way through a prophet named Agabus. After reading the verses for today, follow the activity below to better understand what God was saying to Paul about his journey to Jerusalem.
Act out like you are in a play Agabus’ warning to Paul in verses 10 and 11, the people’s response in verse 12 and Paul’s response in verses 13-14. You can assign someone to be Agabus, someone to Paul, and someone to be Paul’s friends in verse 12.
Before you pray, spend time talking through the discussion question below:
Father, thank you for speaking to us in creative ways, and that you do not leave us alone when we are afraid. Thank you for giving Paul, and us today, wisdom that surpasses our understanding. Please help us to trust you even when the path that you are leading us on may not make sense. Give us your courage to share the gospel even when it is hard!