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Importance of Living according to God's Word

Growing in Christ thus being an important part of the church - Part 1

Growing in Christ is the way that one becomes an important part of the church. The early values of prayers, God's word, meditation helps children to grow in Christ and thus become important part of the church. Church attendance, participation, involvement, all helps the children to grow in Christ. We should teach our children to become more involved in the church. Children however small they may be should learn to love the church and sit in the church in the most respectful manner. Every child should learn to sit quietly in church and begin to understand every part of worship. The child should sit and look at everything that happens in the church. We should be able to teach them from the small age the Rich heritage of the Marthoma Church. It is the church that they are born in and they will have to grow with good values which the church teaches them from a small age so that they will be become more and more fruitful to the church. We as parents have the responsibility to teach our children from a small age to love the church and act in the most respectful manner in the church. If the congregation stands up to sing the children should stand up and when the congregation sits he should learn to sit. When there is the time for prayer all through the time the child has to sit with his eyes closed. Allow the children to have a small Bible for them which they can bring to church and during the time of the sermon they can turn to the portion from where the sermon is taken. Taking the Bible to church is a very good practice which children should have from a very young age. During the whole service the child should be allowed to hold the liturgy and repeat a few things what the congregation says thus making the child involved in the church. We should never encourage the children to get up from their seats as often they need, talk or read books of their choice in the church. Children always feel restless in church feeling we can’t understand anything or there is nothing I have to do. So we find children playing with the anything they have may be their shoes, their dress, or a small coin or a dollar. This attitude in children must be removed and we as parents have to see that they become involved with the songs, the Bible portion and the Liturgy.

"And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. Luke 18:15-17.The kingdom of heaven belongs to the children and Jesus loves children to know and learn his word from a small age.

In order to make the children more restful in the church we should prepare them for the Sunday worship. We should talk to them in the morning the importance of going to church, the worship, and the Bible portion that will be read. Teach them to be quiet during the service but encourage them to get actively involved in the service, the prayer, the songs, and the Meditation. The children should know how important the church is and the importance of Christ in their life .

The Bible says in Luke 2:49 Jesus at a very small was in the temple" When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Growing in Christ alone can make them an important part of the church.

Next Part... How children can become more active in Church

- Elizabeth Anil

STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

Safe in the Arms of Jesus

“And he took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.” Mark 10:16

The great hymns of Christian faith communicate the truths of Scripture in singable form. They take the infallible assertions of God, convert them to verses, and drop them into our hearts like internal symphonies. The great hymns are an assorted collection of dearest friends who enter our homes as live-in guests to comfort us in trial, strengthen us in temptation and enrapture us in praise. These hymns remind us of God’s promises when we are too weary to open our Bibles, and they relax our hearts when we are too worried to sleep. They frame our praise, word our prayers, express our faith, and harmonize our hearts. They reinforce our faith, with the bracing timbers of God’s Word while repelling the attacks of the enemy.

On March 5, 1858, Fanny Crosby, the blind hymnist and America’s “Queen of Gospel Songs,” quietly married Alexander Van Alsteine. A year later, the couple suffered a tragedy that shook the deepest regions of Fanny’s heart. She gave birth to a child – no one knows if it was a boy or a girl. In later years, she never spoke about it except to say in her oral biography, “God gave us a tender babe”, and “soon the angels came down and took our infant up to God and His throne.” One of Fanny’s relatives, Florence Paine, lived with the poet for six years and could never get her to talk about this. The child’s death seemed to have devastated her, and she privately bore the sadness all her life.

Years later, on April 30, 1868 musician Howard Doane knocked on the door of Fanny’s apartment in Manhattan. “I have exactly forty minutes,” he said, ”before I must meet a train for Cincinnati. I have a tune for you. See if it says anything to you. Perhaps you can commit it to memory and then compose a poem to match it.” He then hummed the tune. Fanny clapped her hands and said, “Why that says “Safe in the arms of Jesus!’” She retreated to the other room of her tiny apartment, knelt on the floor, and asked God to give her the words quickly. Within half an hour, she had composed the poem in her mind and dictated it to Doane, who dashed off to catch his train.

During her lifetime, “Safe in the arms of Jesus” was among the most widely sung of Fanny’s hymns, and she considered it in a class by itself. She claimed it was written for the bereaved, especially for mothers who had lost children. Often when comforting a grief stricken mother, she would say, “Remember, my dear, your darling cherub is safe in the arms of Jesus.” Rev. John Hall of New York’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church told Fanny that her hymn had given more ”peace and satisfaction to mothers who have lost their children than any other hymn I have ever known.” It isn’t hard to understand why.

-Annie Varughese