Context for Kids

Episode 37: When People Hurt You

This week, something happened to me to make me very sad and so I want to talk to you about what to do when you are sad and what forgiveness is and is not all about. Hopefully this program will also help you to be a better friend when others are sad.

Episode 36: The Creation Covenant, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Great Lawsuit

What is the Creation Covenant and what does it have to do with the Flood? Is God cruel or kind? Sometimes it is hard to understand why we should trust God when we see scary stories about the flood so we’re going to talk about what all of this teaches us about God’s character.

Episode 35: Blameless and Righteous?

In our very first real episode for the second Torah portion of the Bible, we immediately see that Noah was righteous and blameless—in his generation… Is that a compliment or not? And what do these words mean? As they are very important to understanding the Bible, we’re going to explore them.

Episode 34: God’s Favor and the Power of Hyperbole

What kind of a guy was Noah before he found favor with the Lord? Was he a good guy or a bad guy? What what the heck is hyperbole and why will we spend so much time talking about how silly it can be?

Episode 33: God’s Regret and the 120 Year Mystery

What is the one-hundred-and-twenty-year mystery In Genesis 6? And can God really have regrets? What does the Bible tell us? What does the Bible not tell us?

Episode 32: Are People Basically Good?

God regrets making humans because we are wicked from cradle to grave, the Bible tells us in Genesis 6. But what about the philosophers who claim that people are basically good? And what does our wickedness tell us about God and how we can trust Him? And what does any of this have to do with the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees?

Episode 31: The Sons of God and the Nephilim

This story hits you like a mack truck, out of nowhere, and then just disappears again like it never happened. Why is it in the Bible? Who are these guys? What the heck is going on here?

Episode 30: What is God’s Will?

Before we launch into the flood story, it’s very important to understand the theology of “Creational intent” aka “God’s original purpose” aka “God’s will.” We’re going to run into people, for the rest of the Bible, doing awful things that don’t represent what God originally wanted for us and usually, nothing is said one way or the other about whether they were right or wrong. That can make Bible study very confusing for kids. Studying creational intent is how we can keep people from feeling like they have to make excuses for what everyone in the Bible was doing—things like slavery which we all know is terribly wrong. By teaching kids to look backward to the Garden where all relationships were once healthy and good, we can give them the critical thinking skills to learn to live lives more reflective of God’s plans in creating us in the first place.

Episode 29: Big Numbers and Big Mysteries

Genesis five is really weird. We have these people who lived really long lives but the numbers are very strange when you look closely at them. Also, what does it mean to walk with God and what on earth happened to Enoch?

Episode 28: Praying When We Are Angry

Sometimes when we are angry, God is the last one we want to talk to but He really should be the first one we go to. This week, I am going to share a fictional story about how things could have handled differently by Cain, in order to teach kids how to talk to God when they just want to avoid Him instead.