Children's Challenge: Week 48
30 November–6 December 2015
John’s second and third letters are only one chapter long. One of the verses that stands out in John’s second letter is chapter one, verse six: ‘Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another.’ You might like to go and have a look at this chapter and see if there is anything else that stands out for you. In the third letter, John encourages and praises a man named Gaius for his love, care and hospitality for those who are travelling through his town—let’s look at verse five: ‘Dear friend, you are doing a good work for God when you take care of the traveling teachers who are passing through.’ The letters include some great things to remind us how to live, love and care.
After John’s three letters we have the book of Jude. Jude wrote this letter to remind Christians everywhere that they need to be prepared and to stay strong, especially when there are people who will try to distract us from the real truth of Jesus and what it means to be a follower of him. Jude is only a short letter but includes some great reminders for each of us.
Do you know people who make fun of God and those who follow him? It can be difficult to be strong against those who are mean and might bully us because of who and what we believe in. We need to be ready for this. If you were going to enter a race, you would do some training to build up the muscles in your legs. If you were going to be doing manual work, you might do some weight training to build strength in your body generally. What might you do to prepare to stand up against those who make fun of you for following Jesus? What might you do to help build up your faith and courage?
Talk to people in your family or at church about what they do to help them be strong in their faith.
Remember the verse below. There might be other Scripture verses you can find that can help:
‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go’ (Joshua 1:9).