[今日經文 Today’s Reading: 出埃及記 exodus 8-11]
8 於是摩西和亞倫被召回來見法老。法老對他們說：「去，事奉耶和華—你們的 神吧！但要去的是哪些人呢？」 9 摩西說：「我們要帶着年老的和年少的同去，要帶着我們的兒子和女兒，以及我們的羊羣牛羣一起去，因為我們要向耶和華守節。」8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.”
出埃及記 exodus 10:8-9
經歷了多次災難之後，法老“似乎”心軟了，說要讓以色列人去曠野事奉神。 他問摩西：“但要去的是哪些人呢？” 摩西回答說：“讓我們[所有ALL] 的百姓一起去-年老的和年少的, 我們的兒子和女兒，還有我們的羊群和牛群……” 這激怒了法老，因為他不願意讓小孩子們離開。 他只願意讓成人，而且只允許成人去事奉上帝。
神的心意是要世世代代去事奉耶和華！ 世界知道這一點，所以它竭盡全力要擄掠我們的孩子。 不幸的是，教會常常滿足於在沒有孩子的情況下事奉主。 即使我們“一起”去教堂，我們也從來沒有真正“在一起”。 孩子們去兒童主日學，青年人去青年崇拜，更不用說當成年人忙於許多教會活動時，孩子們在教堂裡玩電子遊戲。 難怪我們的孩子長大後離開教堂——因爲我們從來沒有真正“在一起”事奉主。
青少年次文化在第二次世界大戰之前並不存在。 崇拜時將家庭分離僅發生在1950年代和60年代，當時教堂開始在晨間崇拜的同時開始進行兒童的崇拜活動。 在那之前，每個人都一起去教堂崇拜。 近來，我們已經相信，不能期望孩子與父母一起敬拜或分享他們的屬靈生活。
在神的殿中揚聲歡呼-革命性的兒童事工觀點, 羅娜·詹金斯
讓我們都一起去事奉主，包括我們的兒女； 否則，世界很高興擁有他們。
禱告：親愛的上帝，願祢提醒祢的教會，祢的心意是“讓我所有的百姓去”事奉祢，而不僅僅是成年人。 讓我們學習摩西的榜樣，決心不丟下我們的孩子。 奉耶穌的名，阿們。
*今天的標題是由 11 歲的 Caleb Ji 提出的，他每個週間的早上都會參加吹號者事工的每日靈修。
After many plagues, Pharaoh “seemed” to soften his heart and said he would allow the Israelites to go to serve God in the wilderness. He asked Moses, “But which ones are to go?” Moses answered, “We will [ALL] go with our young and old…with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds…” This angered Pharaoh because he wasn’t willing to let the little ones go. He was willing only to allow the men, and just the men, to go to serve God.
God’s heart is for ALL the generations to go to serve the LORD! The world knows this well so it puts forth an all-out effort towards grabbing our little ones. Unfortunately, the Church is often content to serve the LORD without the children. Even though we go to church “together”, we are never really “together”. Children go to children’s Sunday School and youth go to Youth Worship, not to mention that while adults are busy with many church activities the children are playing video games in the church building. No wonder our children leave the church when they grow up – we were never really “together” to serve the Lord.
The teenage subculture did not exist before the Second World War. The separation of the family in worship happened only in the 1950s and 60s, when churches began to run children’s worship simultaneously with the morning service. Until then, everyone went to church together. These days, we have come to believe children cannot be expected to worship with their parents or share in their spiritual lives.
Shouting in the Temple – A Radical Look At Children‘s Ministry by Lorna Jenkins
Let us ALL go TOGETHER to serve the Lord, including our sons and daughters; otherwise, the world is very happy to have them.
Prayer: Dear God, may You remind Your church that Your heart is to “let ALL My people go” to serve You, not just adults. Let us learn from Moses’ example and determine not to leave our children behind. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
*Today’s title was crafted by 11-year old Caleb Ji who attends Trumpeter Ministries’ daily devotions every weekday morning.
