Jesus Time
What it is & Why we do it…
Scripture(s): Proverbs 22:6, Luke 13:27, John 10:14, 17:3
Notes: ‘Jesus Time’ - whatever it looks like for your family - should never become a religious thing you do, before you get on with ‘real’ life. It is a foundational time from which all other parts of life are built on…
Description:
After living the lives we did, and suffering the consequences of ignoring God and His way of living, we didn’t want out kids to go through the same. We want to give any children God gives us the most love and the best possible start to life that we can. For us that is not money, position or academics - it is time, trust and truth.
The reasons we wanted to homeschool were clear from the start:
- The first was that they come to know God for who He is for themselves.
- After this we wanted them to have good morals and character
- Last we wanted them to learn how to think - not so much what to think.
- They all had vastly different learning styles so we recognised that it was far too much for an under paid teacher with 30+ children in each class to be able to bring out their best…
As the first priority was that they know God - we wanted to make sure they had regular opportunity to get to know Him. It was no good for us to just teach them about Him or have them ‘ride our coat tails’ - they need to get to know Him for themselves.
And so ‘Jesus Time’ was born. This time could look very different on a day to day basis - one day it might all be lying on each others beds - the next sitting at the desk - the next it might be working on the house or in the field - the important thing is that we fulfil the goal.
The goal of Jesus Time is…you guessed it - to get to know Jesus. Not to just know about Him or do certain (religious) things - but to actually get to know and experience the Creator of the Universe...
It is interesting to note, that when the Bible talks of knowing Jesus - it is not a head knowledge, remembering things in a test ‘knowing’ - but an intimate, deep and experiential knowing. (John 17:3)
Now that the goal is clear - we have another question: How can we get to know Jesus?
We have come up with a few things that we find are key ways to get to know Jesus. The list is not comprehensive but we find it covers the basic things. We’d love to hear any ideas you have regarding this list…but here’s ours for now:
- Read the Bible
- Pray
- Worship
- Bow Down (and listen)
- Act out a story
- Teaching
- Communion
- Art / expression
- Look @ what God made
- DVD
- Outing
Before we go on - it is vital to explain that every single one on this list (and any additional ones you use) need to always be verified by the Word of God (the Bible). If it doesn’t line up with the Bible - throw it out! Seriously - it is incredible the amount of people we talk to that are struggling due to following empty ideas and teachings from ‘pastors’ and ‘churches’, because they don’t follow the Bible. Many just use the Bible to support their own / secular ideas - this will not help you nor your children.
Ok back on track…the activities in this list can help us and our children get to knowledge of, interact with and get to know Jesus. It is also a time where the whole family can interact and get to know each other more deeply. It is normally quite laid back even if we are sitting at desks. It is interesting to note that when Jesus taught the most in depth things to those closest to Him, He sat down. He wasn’t standing up at a pulpit - but sitting down reclining with them.
We do this part of our day first - it is positioned as the most important - more than anything else. We generally take 15min - 45min depending on what we are doing. Sometimes it goes on a lot longer but in general it doesn’t take long.
Each day for Jesus Time is different - sometimes highly structured, other times just what ever comes / goes. We have a number of teachings that we go through (see further notes for details) but we also sometimes just do what we feel God wants us to do. Let’s face it - when God speaks, things happen!
We do have two regular activities that we do as part of a routine:
Tuesday = Choose day - On a rotating roster each of the children get to decide what to do from the list. Another great way to get to know them and learn what they like.
Worship Wednesday - self explanatory.
Sunday - generally a ‘sabbath’ of rest and soaking in God’s Word - listening to the audio Bible, watching Bible dvds, games etc. We do generally go to a church on Sundays as part of this.
Although this article is about Jesus Time - it needs to be mentioned that the essence of who Jesus is and our trust in Him needs to be modelled at all times. They will learn so much of the character of God from our actions and what we do outside of these ‘Jesus Time’ slots.
Although there is much to be said about this - for now just remember that recognising your faults, repenting in front of them, saying sorry and asking forgiveness of them is vital. One thing about kids - they understand failure and they are forgiving (well if you have modelled it)! Also explaining to them why what you have done is wrong & how different God is helps them understand His nature.
There is much good teaching on parenting and different discipline techniques etc - but we have found that most of them require a huge effort of performance on the part of the parent and it can be hard to live up to. If you find it hard - or keep making the same mistakes (i.e. getting angry, depressed, avoiding conflict or emotional connection etc) I would like to suggest you seek help to deal with these things.
The way we have worked through a vast amount of our issues is Transformation Prayer Ministry (TPM) - a method of getting to the root of the problem then allowing Jesus to deal with it. We find that this technique helps God deal with things that truly need no maintenance or effort once gone. No repeating phrases, remembering to do x, y or z if this or that happens - no bad feelings from things that used to cause you to react! And it is God who brings the truth, not a person so they know clearly what He is capable of! We believe it is so effective and needed that we have trained in the technique and will be offering it as a ministry in years to come.
As the children see you changing, they will give God the credit and learn to love and trust Him -if only for that! But we have seen God help each of our children through very specific things - from thumb sucking, finger biting, fears of snakes and spiders etc. Some have been a long work - others we have use TPM and fears have gone literally in 30 minutes never to return.
We try to celebrate these things, thank God for them in our prayers together and help them remember them.
A huge key that I learned through years of working with recovering addicts was to get people to write down their successes and interaction with God. Then later (especially in hard times) they can read through it and remember in their own words what He has done.
This is great for the children and something that could be of paramount importance later in life. i.e. one of our children was getting phobic of spiders (there are a lot where we live!) and after 3 nights of bad dreams, crying and sleeping them, I tried TPM. ½ hour later and they were completely calm - with a spider clearly visible just above the bed.
From that point on they have refused to let me kill spiders in their van. It’s not like they need to write this down to remember it at the moment…but later in life it may be a key thing to look back on to see His power and care.
We hope that some of this will be helpful to you - we will keep regular updates of activities as we do them and have time to report back - and maybe we’ll see you at one of them one day!
Until then - keep living, keep loving!
Conclusion: Living with God, thanks to Jesus, is an exciting life and one that can be imparted to those around us!
Further Notes:
Explanation of the Jesus Time list:
- Read the Bible - sometimes a story, parable, teaching, prophecy etc. One of the things we try to make sure of is that every part of the story is explained and / or expanded to the children. There is so much in the Bible that can often get over looked if we just read through it monotonously. But if we explain it and really engage with it we will learn so much about the people of past - but also about the God who loved them, forgave them, guided them, protected the,, provided for them…
- Pray - this can take on many forms - praying & laying hands on each other, holding hands in a circle & praying in general (i.e. telling God what you want & thanking Him for what He has done) or praying specifically for people who we want to know Christ or be healed.
- Worship - Although at times we would praise God, jumping around and dancing - the goal here was to actually engage with worshipping God
- Bow Down (and listen) - This is a physical humility - bowing down, staying still and silent before God and listening to what He may want to say to us.
- Act out a story - This is an amazing way to engage with the character and stories of Jesus - actually acting them out. From simple parables to expeditions, the most amazing part is how the children start to actually see the character of God as they act out these stories.
- Teaching - This could be a Bible study, a book or other to do with who God i, what He did, what He does and what He thinks.
- Communion - Although this can be a religious event, it can also be an amazingly intimate and powerful realisation of what Jesus has done. The general rules and systems don’t matter - the important things is the heart of the person engaging.
- Art / expression - Sharmini particularly loves this one and has encouraged the children in this. What is going on for you - how do you feel, what is happening, Express what is really going on - and see if you can represent where god is or what He wants…
- Look @ what God made - This could be a walk, looking out the window, using binoculars, using microscope, telescope - but always just looking at what God made and realising who He is - what do these things reveal about who God is? It often involves collecting things, from sand to bugs to leaves and maybe even eating what we collect. It always starts with a verse like Romans 1:20
- DVD - any teaching, apologetic or Gospel DVD / clip that indicates someone else’s take on a Bible story or the history of the universe! We don’t allow this very often as we have other times where this is a family event (i.e. Family Fun Friday might have this when raining)
- Outing - this would normally be to do with evangelism.
Again - make sure whatever you are doing lines up with the Bible and mix it up - be you…God has given us all creativity and a uniqueness that our children love and respect - use that to point them towards God!
Jesus can reveal Himself in a number of ways…and it is different for all people. I might put an article together on Love Languages that will talk more about the way God reveals His love to us and the way we show it to others, but for here we’ll just centre on the basics. First He reveals Himself through the Bible which can be read or listened to (head knowledge, words of affirmation), through inner knowledge (revelation), a feeling (physical touch), visions (quality time) and the actions of others (gift giving, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service!). Now let me state clearly here - with the Bible NONE of the others can be relied upon. ALL of them must line up with what the Bible says or they are false.
Teachings:
We use a vast variety of teaching materials and topics. In general, they all have their own Bibles and I use an iPad for reading, the lesson and or the teaching.
After some teachings I will round up with a “Harry the Hindu’ role play. For instance - how can you be saved? We might have learned a short series of points - like “Realise your sin, Repent and Receive God’s forgiveness”. We would learn the Bible verses to back this up (and don’t worry we would teach them more depth like the fact that God chooses, His Spirit brings conviction and the ability to realise & repent and ways in which we do actually receive!) and try to use illustrations / acting to convey the themes to the younger ones.
So this might go on for 1 - 10 sessions (not all in a row) then I will want to find out what they have remembered…So I start Jesus Time with “I am Harry the Hindu” (might be Ivan the Ignorant or Mohammed… you get the idea!) and I will argue with them, using questions a person who is a Hindu might.
They ale get the chance to be with one of us when we talk to others about Jesus and hand out tracks so they hear a lot of things that are helping them learn. As an aisd, when we have had non christian children here, they have been given the Gospel - but not by the adults! I might give a few details of this in another article on evangelism…
Sometimes a teaching is a topic (ie Miracles of Jesus) and the older children will research for a day or two using the Bible, Bible on iPad and a Bible dictionary or two. We come together and then read all the verses we have and go through them slowly. Sometimes we correlate the information into a document that others can use (ie Fruit of the Spirit).
Many times the teaching is in the way of a quiz - children love quizzes! Well ours do - I seem to remember hating tests at school but anyway… The quiz might or might not have prizes and it might be around the camp fire - the winner might get to make up the next question (a bit like eye-spy).
Some teachings are going through books / study aids. For instance we have been going through ‘Rose Guide to the Tabernacle’ for over a year - a little bit at a time. This gives amazing insight to things that many Christians over-look in the symbolism and depth of who God is, His Holy character and what Jesus fulfilled.
Once finished we will start on Rose Guide to the Temple.
Other books like ‘Hank Hanegrafs Questions’ also provide very easy to follow and short topics that are highly relevant to us all - children included.
Boices Expositional Commentary gives amazing lessons but they are long and in depth - best to digest & use what you can for the children.
Commentaries - we own about 30 commentary sets - many are HUGE. We don’t generally allow these for Bible reading in general but will start to allow the eldest to use them for serious study on particular passages. The lighter ones to do with backgrounds are great for understanding the culture and original meaning of the text especially if you use a word-for-word or literal translation (like the KJV, NASB etc) as this is vital to understand the text. As we use the NLT (on it’s 2nd revision now), the need for this is reduced as the meaning has already been presented. I personally have used this on innumerable occasions trying to verify the NLT - I have yet to find serious fault.
I came to give life…the best life!
Jesus Christ
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