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.
Want weekly retellings of our favorite Bible stories and conversation guides? Listen to the Join The Journey Jr. podcast with the whole family every Monday!
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
If you had 2 minutes to grab your most treasured item from your house, what would it be? Our answers probably vary, though you might say your favorite stuffed animal, a book you love, or a picture of your family. Paul’s words in Philippians 1 show us exactly what and who he treasures the most: his relationship with Jesus Christ.
Today we are taking a break from Acts to look at another one of Paul’s letters in Philippians. Though this is a different part of scripture, we still see Paul’s same spirit of courage and deep love and obedience for Christ in his words to the Philippians. One of the joys of reading God’s Word is that, through different authors, time periods and stories, God’s same themes of redemption and his love for us are present!
It might surprise you to find out that Paul wrote the book of Philippians after the events of Acts 21, and after his trip to Jerusalem that everyone was so worried about. Paul did a lot of hard things in the name of advancing the gospel, yet he never lost his hope and desire for Christ.
Spend some time talking through the below questions about Philippians 1 and how it relates all the way back to Acts 21.
Before you pray, spend some time discussing ways that you have seen God move in your life or your family’s life while you have faced a hard situation like Paul. How does this make you feel about God and his character?
God, thank you that, like Paul, we can have faith and hope in you that does not waver even after going through hard times. Thank you for giving us the courage to face what is hard, and that you use those situations to bring you glory. We praise you for your trustworthiness and ask you to show us how we can trust you even more with the hard things in our lives.