Today is Palm Sunday. This is the day we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

As Jesus and his followers were approaching Jerusalem, He told his followers to go on into town where they would find a new donkey, never been ridden. His instructions were for the followers to untie that donkey and bring it to Jesus. Naturally, Jesus knew they might ask: “what if someone asks us what we are doing?” So Jesus instructed them to say “the Master needs the colt.”

Sure enough. The townspeople did ask: “Why are you untying that colt?” Jesus’ followers answered the way Jesus told them to answer. Then they took the colt to Jesus, put their coats on it and put palm branches and coats on the road to walk on as they paraded into Jerusalem.

This is the true story straight from the Bible, Mark 11. This donkey was a new, never ridden donkey who carried Jesus into town.

At Christmastime, we hear and see another story of a donkey that carried Mary and Joseph on their journey. This, of course, is a true story with a fictional twist.

Both donkeys had very important jobs of carrying our Savior! “Praise God! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

During our mid-week Bible study, we’ve been studying the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It has been an interesting study to discover some deeper points than just the creation account and the first family (not the president’s family).

We made an interesting discovery this week up to chapter 6. When Adam and Eve made wrong choices and decided to go against God’s command to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were separated from God. Then when Cain killed Abel, we discovered a family separation. Then in chapter 6, we discovered that there was a separation in the community when the people were wicked and evil and God wanted to destroy them all and start over.

The famous Deputy Barney Fife of The Andy Griffith Show was right. We must “nip it, nip it in the bud.” We must nip sin and evil ways at the start because it only gets bigger and worse as it goes on. The sin in Genesis went from separation from God to family to the community.

Barney Fife \”nip it in the bud\”

I recently finished reading Formational Children’s Ministry by Ivy Beckwith. This is a fabulous book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in teaching children and partnering with families to help develop the spiritual lives of children and teenagers.

The author explains that in a sense we must get back to some basics of spiritual formation methods. We must examine God’s way and how He designed spiritual formation and the faith community (the church). The church is meant to work as a team in developing and shaping the lives of children. We must be intergenerational in that approach and avoid so much of the separation of families at worship gatherings and church activities. The more experiences we share, the more conversations we will have in which to share and do life together.

Purchase a copy of this book for your bookshelf. Read it. Share it. Put it into practice to meet the needs of families in your ministry. Be creative with intergenerational activities.

I was recently asked the following question regarding children/youth:

What do you do when the parenting standards you have are different than the Christians you are around?

I gave the following simple quick answer at the time because it was on a Facebook comment:

You should stick with the parenting standards for which God chooses for you and your family and how He presents them to you to meet your family needs. Each family is unique just like each child is unique. One style works with one child but may need to be tweaked to work with a different child. The broad picture is the same with different details. That was the short Facebook post answer.

Here is a longer, more detailed answer:

That question can be applied to life in general, not only to parenting standards but to Christian standards. When Christ-followers choose Jesus and choose to follow His ways, it can be difficult to make right choices when other Christians we are around appear to make choices for which we might not think are the best ones.

We must follow God’s directions (The Bible) for our personal lives and standards because He knows our paths. He knows what we can handle. If we are hanging around a group of people who claim to be Christians but they are doing or saying things that we don’t think are Christian acts or words, then we must choose to withdraw or join in, depending on God’s choice for us.

We must take into consideration the situation and the culture where we are. A group of Christians in a non-faith-based workplace in a northern region may do things differently from those in a southern region. Cultures are completely different in different parts of the country. We must use the Bible as our ultimate book of standards and guide. Follow the standards of Jesus. He was the #1 Christian and hung out with people with standards that others didn’t necessarily approve. That was His way and He was reaching and teaching others by entering into their worlds. Sometimes we must meet others closer to their worlds than we want to be in order to make a Christian impact. That doesn’t mean we forget our Christian ways and act worldly; it just means be real.

May we show Jesus to others by being real.