Years ago a committee of my old youth group members decided to hold a 25 year reunion.  The timing was perfect as our former youth pastors were in Australia for a holiday from their mission work in Thailand.

The committee chose a small local restaurant with the assurance from the restaurateur that we would have the venue to ourselves.  But when we arrived we found we were sharing the restaurant with a line dancing club.

One of our former youth members had become headline news when she and her husband were arrested in Laos and charged over the disappearance of finished and rough-cut sapphires worth millions of dollars.  When the mining company licensees had fled the country, they were left to face the charges, and were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.   The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs intervened and they were released after 10 months.  A condition of their release was payment of fines and compensation of $1.1 million Australian dollars. She shared some details with us about that harrowing time.

Remember that line dancing club?  There was no way they were going to remain seated!  They pushed aside tables and chairs, pushed play on the CD player, and took to the floor. Suddenly, our friend jumped to her feet and thrust herself into the middle of the line.  She had no idea what she was doing but did her best to copy the steps, falling over herself and the other line dancers, laughing the entire time.  I was embarrassed for her. But I needn’t have been.  I realized later that it was because she knew what it was to be imprisoned that she knew what it meant to be free!

Live as One Ransomed!

Just as the government paid for our friend to be ransomed, Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all.  ‘For there is One God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…’ (1 Timothy 2:5&6)

What’s is a ransom?  A ransom is something that is paid to provide for the release of someone who is help captive.  Jesus paid our ransom to free us from sin, death and hell.

Freedom is something we need to teach to our children in Kid’s Church.  About freedom from sin and death because of what Jesus did for us.  About freedom from condemnation, and about freedom to be who God says we are!

 

Lessons in Freedom

Here are just a few lessons that teach children about the freedom we have because of Christ Jesus!

 

Freedom from tyranny:  The Resistance  https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-Resistance.pdf

Freedom from the kingdom of darkness:  You Belong to the Day  https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/You-Belong-to-the-Day.pdf

Freedom from crying, death, fear, sadness and pain:  Heaven  https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Heaven.pdf

 

‘So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’  (John 8:36)  We should not be concerned at making a spectacle of ourselves when we are exhibiting what freedom looks like.  Because to those who are captive it is surely something yearned for.