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December Joke #1

Why did the candy cane get in a fight?

Because it wanted to get a licking.

Believe it or not, a Candy Cane can represent a lot about the real meaning of Christmas.

If you turn it upside down, it’s a “J” which can stand for “Jesus” whom God sent to be the Savior of the world.

Turn it right side up and it looks like a shepherd’s staff. The shepherds were the first people to whom God proclaimed through the angels that the Savior had been born.

The red stripe can represent the blood that Jesus shed on the cross to save us from our sins and white stripe can represent the purity that only comes when people receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.

As you eat the candy cane, everything disappears and only the white remains. This can show how Jesus removes our sins to make us “whiter” than snow.

What’s Christmas all about? It’s all about Jesus!

Learn more about how you can have personal relationship with Jesus – Click HERE.


Sharing Jokes with a Purpose is a great way to share the Gospel with your friends.

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A Call from Within

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From a sermon preached by Jack Hyles in 1974:

I was an introvert when I was a boy. I was still sucking my thumb when I was fourteen. On my 17th birthday I weighed 93 pounds dripping wet and full of bananas. I could not pass public speaking. I was called “Jackie boy.” Nobody took me seriously. When God called me to preach, the angels wept and Heaven’s flag was flown at half-mast for three days!

One day when I was an older teenager, the chairman of our deacon board, Jesse Cobb, met me after the service on a Sunday morning in the back of the auditorium. Jesse was the best lay soul winner I think I ever met. He said, “Jack, will you do something with me this afternoon?”

“What, Jesse?”

“Will you go soul winning with me this afternoon?”

“Jesse, you know better than that! You know I am a timid introvert. I would not know what to say if I went out soul winning. Jesse, I couldn’t do it.”

“Jack, I will make you a deal. All you will have to do is to just go with me. I will do the talking. All you will have to do is listen.”

Well, since I had a Ph.D. in listening, I said, “Now, let us get this straight. You talk, I listen.”

He said, “Well, you may have to say hello.”

I said, “I think I can handle that.”

So that afternoon for the first time in my life, I went soul winning.

Jesse Cobb and I knocked on the door. A big high school football player, tackle on the Adamson High School football team named Kenneth Florence, came to the door. Kenneth looked down at Jesse and at me. Jesse looked up to Kenneth and said, “Kenneth Florence?”

“Yes, sir.”

“My name is Jesse Cobb.”

“How do you do, sir?”

“And this is Jack Hyles.”

I generated all the extroversion at my disposal and said, “Hello.”

“Kenneth, Jack here wants to say a few words to you.”

Stuttering, I said, “Kenneth, will you go to church tonight?”

Jesse said Kenneth said, “Yes, I will.”

And I said, “You will?”

Kenneth said, “Yes, I will.”

I said, “I will come back and get you at seven o’clock tonight.”

At seven o’clock that night I went by to get Kenneth Florence. For the first time in my life I knew that God had given me a soul I had to win. I didn’t know one single Scripture of the Roman Road. I had never taken a soul-winning course. I had no idea in this world what to do.

The sermon was finished. I put my arm around Kenneth’s big, broad shoulders and said, “Kenneth, would…would…wouldn’t you like to be saved?”

He said, “Yes, I would.”

I said, “I can’t tell you how, but if you will come with me, the preacher can. Follow me.”

We went down this aisle. The pastor met me. I said, “Pastor, Kenneth wants to be saved.” I then turned and walked away. I got about two rows back, and the pastor said, “Hold it, Jack. Kenneth, Jack here wants to kneel and show you how to be saved.” No, Jack didn’t!

But I knelt and put my arms around Kenneth’s big, broad shoulders and said, “Kenneth, I do not know how to tell you how to be saved. John 3:16 says something like this: Jesus died for you because God loved you and gave Himself for you. Now, I believe that if you would be willing to ask God to forgive you and trust Him as your Savior, God would save you tonight.”

Thank God, somebody had already told Kenneth how to be saved. So Kenneth Florence bowed his head, and on his knees he began to pray something like this: “Father, thank you that this fellow is interested in me. I know I am a sinner. I know Jesus died for me, and I know that You, God, can save me, and I do now trust You as my Savior.”

While he was praying, something turned loose inside my soul! I tell you, the fireworks of Heaven began to ignite! The lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, the sparklers began to sparkle as I realized that here was something I could do. I couldn’t make the football team, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t make the senior play, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t get a date, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t make the basketball team (I did make the team, but because my legs were so skinny, people laughed at me, and I would not go on the floor); but I could point a person to Heaven.

I got off my knees and said, “Dear God, this is something a little introvert can do. This is something ‘Jackie boy’ can do.”

There is not a man or woman or a boy or a girl in this house tonight who can’t point someone to Jesus Christ…I am saying, there was a call in my breast, a call from within! I am praying that God tonight will give you that call, burning in your soul, and you will leave this place determined to be a soul winner. *

Reflect

Read from your Bible what Peter and John said in Acts 4:20.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

When David Livingstone returned from Africa to England for a visit, he recounted some of the hardships which he had endured. Then he added, “The thing that kept me alive, the thing that kept me going, were the words of Jesus, ‘Lo, I am with you always.’”

Yes, in the midst of the fiery trials of life, we are not alone and even though David Livingstone later died on the mission field, he gave his life in service to the Lord.**

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

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*Curtis Hutson, ed., Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 44-46.
**W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 329.

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Evangelism

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When Gypsy Smith was converted as a boy, he became interested in his Uncle Rodney’s salvation and began to pray for him. In those days it was not considered proper for a child to speak to his elders unless he was spoken to, especially about spiritual matters. So the boy prayed and waited for his opportunity.

One day the uncle asked, “Laddie, why are your trousers almost worn out at the knees?”

The boy answered, “Uncle Rodney, they have been worn out through praying for you. I want so much for God to make you a Christian.”

The uncle put his arms around the boy, and a few minutes later fell upon his knees and cried out to God for salvation.*

Reflect

Read Ezekiel 22:30-31 from your Bible.

Respond

Gypsy Smith was burdened for the salvation of his uncle. For whose salvation are you burdened? For whom do you find yourself praying, longing that God will move in their life? A student in your class? A friend or a neighbor? A work associate? Or does this burden and passion for lost souls seem to be absent from your life? Many believers lack a passion for the salvation of lost people because they live too much in this world—they are not eternally-minded, storing up treasure in heaven and living in the reality that everyone they meet will either spend eternity in heaven with Jesus or in hell, separated from God forever to pay the price for their own sins.

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

“I still, from my armchair, preach in great revivals. I still vision hundreds walking the aisles to accept Christ. I still feel hot tears for the lost . . . . I want no Christmas without a burden for lost souls, a message for sinners, a heart to bring in the lost. May food be tasteless, music a discord, Christmas a farce if I forget the dying millions; if this fire in my bones does not still flame. Not till I die or not till Jesus comes will I ever be eased from this burden, these tears, this toil to save souls.” -John R. Rice, age 85

(Part of a 1980 Christmas letter dictated a few days before his death)**


Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 338.
**Curtis Hutson, ed., Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers), preface.

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Share

Read:

Paul Bell was our missionary to the Mexicans in Bastrop, Texas. One Saturday afternoon he mingled with the men who came to town at that time. He came in contact with a man in his sixties and found him to be a ready listener to the sweet story of Jesus and His love. Later this man was gloriously converted. He said, “I can’t read or write, so I want you to teach me John 3:16. And since my people love to sing, I want you to teach me a gospel song.” With painstaking care, Brother Bell taught him John 3:16 and a stanza of the song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The man also promised to come to church and be baptized.

Three weeks went by and the man didn’t show up. On the fourth Sunday he came and brought with him five other Mexicans. He walked down the aisle with them and said, “We are all here to be baptized.” In this brief time, with just a little bit of knowledge, he had led five men to Christ. He lived for two more years. Again and again he would come in and bring someone that he had won to Christ. The total reached about fifty. Then one day somebody came to Brother Bell and said, “An old Mexican woodcutter is dying, and he is calling for you.” Brother Bell went out and found the man. “I am so glad to see you,” said the woodcutter, “Will you quote my verse for me?” Brother Bell did this and then the man said, “Now will you sing my song for me?” Brother Bell lifted up his voice and sang. He saw the old man’s lips moving for a while, then they stopped. At the end of the song, he saw that the soul of the dear old Christian had slipped out to be with his God. But in two year’s time, he had won fifty souls with one verse of Scripture and one stanza of a song.*

Reflect

Read Acts 1:8 from your Bible.

Respond

Evangelism is one of the five purposes God has for you. He created you to shine His life and light to all you meet. How effective do you feel in bringing other people to Christ? In what ways can you grow stronger in this area? What is your vision for seeing people saved?
Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

You are witness everyday—either for Christ or against Him.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 429-430
© Copyright 2017 Kolby King

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“I Don’t Need This Anymore”

A number of years ago, I stood outside an old, leaning house. Years of neglect marked the small place. There was trash strewn across the front yard and it was squished along of row of other inner-city homes. Across the street was an abandoned field with chest-tall grass and I could hear dogs barking all around. Standing next to a pile of beer cans on the front porch, I gently knocked on the door. When it opened, my visitation partner and I saw one of the biggest men I’ve ever seen. He was taller than the door frame and his shadow filled the sides. He invited us inside and we stepped forward to see him in the light. He was muscle from head to toe, wearing only gray shorts, and as he closed the door, he began to make fists. I had spoken to him earlier on the phone and he had been expecting us but he suddenly became angry. Muscles grew across his body as he stiffened. He raised his fists to his head and everything inside me screamed, “Get out of here. He’s going to kill you!” But then he turned and leaned on the wall.

“I hate my life,” he said as tears streamed down his face.

“Kenny,” I said, “Let’s sit down and talk.”

I sat in the middle on the couch, sandwiched between this giant of a man and my friend who immediately began sharing Jesus with him. This man was a ex-convict, just recently out of prison but already back in a world of hurt and trouble. He never told us what he had done to spend so many years in jail, only that if he told us, “you would want to leave this place and never talk to me again.”

I watched this man argue that God could never forgive him and then soften as the Holy Spirit brought conviction and truth. At last, I watch as he bowed his head and prayed one of the most simply but powerful prayers I’ve ever heard, “God, I got nothing to give you but if you’ll take me, I’ll come. Amen.”

He looked up. For the first time, a smile filled his face. His eyes, that had looked so dead, now looked so alive. God had saved him!

Moments later, as we continued talking about his new life in Christ, he stood up and grabbed something from the coffee table. We followed to the kitchen as he lifted a beer can and drained it down the sink. “I don’t need this anymore.”

God changes lives. Pray for us as we seek to reach those who normally wouldn’t come to church.

Learn more about this ministry at www.330events.org.

©Copyright 2017 Kolby King


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