4-14-15-2018 Soldiers Of The Cross

4.14.18

The Little Boy’s Mama said, “thank you both so much for making breakfast! It is such a treat to not have to cook!” His Daddy said, “what’s this about Royal Rangers? What is it exactly?”

The Stranger said,”It’s where boys and girls get together, in separate groups. Women with girls and men with boys. They earn badges for learning things. They’re taught how to tie a knot in a rope and how to cook, how to sew, how to clean a house, how to grow vegetables, things like that. It’s very educational for the children and they earn rewards for learning these things. Sometimes the kids get together to learn the same things. However most of the time they are in their own separate group of gender.”

His Mama asked, “how often do they meet? When do they meet? Where do they meet?” The Stranger laughed and said, “generally it’s once a week, it’s either in a meeting place or someone’s home, or at the church. There is usually – depending on how many children there are – there’s usually at least two adults there for every 7 children. This is a small town, and the boys seem to outnumber the girls here.”

“Yes that’s true” said his Mama. “Maybe the younger children could meet together and have two sets of parents, or similar. Anyway,” he said, “it’s something to think about. It usually lasts as long as the school semester. It doesn’t have to be every week, it can be every two weeks, but the children look forward to it and it gives them something to do every week. It is better to have it every week.”

His Mama asked, “What are the Little Girls called? It can’t be Rangers can it?” “The girls are called Girls Ministries.”

His Mama exclaimed, “oh that can’t be! The boys get to be called Royal Rangers and the girls are dumbed-down to Girls Ministries? No, we will call them another name. We will call them all..let me think..”Soldiers of the Cross.” We will have Warrior Princesses and Warrior Princes. They will learn the Bible and they will learn how to cast out demons and heal the sick and set the captive free. Along with learning how to sew, clean and tie a knot”, she grinned.

“You go Mama!” Her husband laughed and said “well! I guess it’s settled! I guess we will be having Soldiers of the Cross meetings here in this town!” “And we will also have that for our Bible studies. We will read our Bibles and teach ourselves and others how to be Warriors of Righteousness – Soldiers of the Cross.” “Amen,” said her husband. “Amen,” said The Stranger.

“Well”, said The Stranger, “we need to be getting on to Scripture School or we’re going to be late. That would not be good.” “Okay! Thank you for the breakfast!” They said again.

The Little Boy grabbed his school books and The Stranger put on his overcoat. They started walking up the rocky road. They stopped at the Little Girl’s house and she was waiting outside by the gate. She said, “what took you so long?” The Little Boy said “oh! oh! I’ve got to tell you this! My Mama and Daddy and probably your Mama and Daddy, are going to start a Soldiers of the Cross Club!” “What’s that?” she asked. I’ll tell you on the way to school, but we’ve gotta catch up with The Stranger, or we’re going to be late for Scripture School!”

So the Little Boy told her all about it on the way to school. They got to school and everybody else was already there. The new teacher, Ms Amazing, smiled and said, “why you slowpokes! We’ve been waiting for you! We’re going to have the first class over there, she pointed underneath that big tree. There’s stools set up already, so if you all go over there and get your seat I’ll be right there.”

She grabbed up the bags full of children’s Bibles, and all the other things The Stranger had purchased, with The Stranger helping her carry them over there. She had the necklaces that the children were to wear that day. She passed them out. Then she began to teach a Sunday school lesson about Jesus.

The Stranger left and went over to the cafe where people had already gathered and they were  unloading lumber from trucks.

4.15.18

“Honey!” she exclaimed, “I’ve been reading Ephesians lately, mostly 1 through 4. And I realized something!” “What?”

“I realized that the Word of God has life in it. When we say the words that are in the Bible, because there’s life in them, things begin to happen! I realized – and I suppose that’s the Holy Spirit teaching me – that when I say the words that are scriptures in the Bible, it activates them!” “Wow, that’s something! I think I have been learning that as well. However I don’t spend as much time reading the Bible as you do. That will change. From now on I’m going to get up a little earlier in the morning and I’m going to pray and read the Word instead of doing it at night.”

“Honey, I think that’s a great idea. Do you want alone time or do you want to do it together?” She asked.

“I think alone time would be good in the morning for each of us and then at night we can discuss what we learned and if we applied it that day and what happened. What do you think?” “I think that’s a great idea!” Her husband replied, “basically it’s the same thing the kids are doing at school. Learning scriptures.”

“Oh honey, you’re right! I just didn’t think about it like that” she said laughingly. We definitely need to pray and ask the Lord if he wants us to do the Soldiers of the Cross Club.” Her husband asked, “if not us then who?” His wife replied, “well it could be the Little Girl’s parents or any other parents. It doesn’t have to always be us.” “That’s true” her husband said, “and if we take on too much we’re liable to get burned out.” “Besides”, she continued, “we have our vacation to take, and other parents are going to have to be involved because it takes several people to do this.” “That’s true” he said. “Well I need to get to work Babe. I’ll see you tonight at supper!”

“You remember The Stranger’s coming, right?” she asked. He said “yep! I’m excited and also this is our son’s first day in Scripture School. I’m sure there will be lots of news at the supper table!” He gave her a kiss and left the house.

——-

In the Scripture School the kids sat there listening to the teacher closely. They were enthralled with a story she was telling them about Samson. They had no idea there were stories like that in the Bible.

The teacher gave them the scripture they were going to memorize that week. It was Phil 4:8 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

“Children, I want you to get a piece of paper and write down the meaning of each of those words. That’s your homework for this week. You’ll probably have to get your parents to help you. Remember you have your necklaces on, so when you need to speak to each other, call them by the name on their necklace. One more thing, children.” They looked at her expectantly. “I would like you to try to use one of the words in the Philipians 4:8 scripture when you speak to another student. “True, honorable, right, pure, lovely or admirable. When you speak to each other I want it to be positive.” “Yes teacher,” they said. “Teacher what’s positive mean?”, one of the children asked. The teacher said, “positive means something that is good, something that you would like to hear yourself, something that’s nice.” “Thank you teacher.”

“Children, we have to go to the regular classroom now, but I’ve given you crayons and coloring books and I would like you to color the first two pages and read the stories in your children’s Bible that relates to those pages. “Can we read them to our parents?” asked the Little Boy. “Sure you can! That’s a great idea! You can also read them to your brothers and sisters if you have any.”

Don’t forget your crayons. There’s also a backpack for each of you. Is there someone who would like to help me pass these out?” The Little Girl’s hand shot up, the teacher said “okay honey why don’t you help me pass these out?”

So they gave one backpack to each child. The teacher said, “Friday morning when you come into the class, I’ll give you all different colored pens and you can write your names on the bags. They all started chattering, they were excited. The Little Girl asked, “will there be glitter pens?” The teacher laughed and said “yes honey, there will be glitter pens. Is everyone ready? Let’s go!”

Next