Kids Bible Devotional for November 19, 2024
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Focus Verse
Acts 8:1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. (NKJV)
Jump Start
Here’s a 14th century proverb you may have never heard, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”
God designed nature to do some pretty amazing things to survive. Take plants, for example. They can grow other plants by many means. Some are produced through pollen. Yes, that same white or yellowish dust that makes you sneeze. Some are reproduced through stems, roots, and leaves. Still others rely on animals to carry their seeds to be planted.
What most plants have in common is that for them to make more plants like themselves, their seeds must be scattered. In many ways, that’s how the first church grew in the first century AD. What caused them to scatter? Persecution. Yes, threats from Jerusalem and later Rome did not stop the church. It only caused Christians to seek refuge as far as their feet or ships could carry them. Wherever they went, they carried the gospel message.
Today's Devotion
A pair of squirrels scurried underneath the large oak tree in the front yard. One of the furry rodents grabbed an acorn, lifted it to his ear, and shook it. This scene played outside the front window seemed so comical to Tyler that he burst into laughter.
His older brother, Trevor, came up beside Tyler and peered out the window. “What are you laughing at, Ty?” he asked.
“This dumb squirrel just shook an acorn next to his ear,” Tyler replied, pointing. “He looked like us on Christmas morning shaking our presents to guess what’s inside the box.”
“Yep, looks like they’re building up their winter hoard,” Trevor said.
“Where do they take the acorns?” Tyler asked.
“All sorts of places. They bury some. They hide some in whatever hole they can find. You know, some trees, like oaks, rely on squirrels to survive.”
“They do? How?”
“Trees obviously can’t plant their own seeds. Acorns are seeds. The trees drop them so for animals like squirrels can gather them up, carry them off, and bury them. Since squirrels can bury them anywhere, there’s no telling where the next oak tree will spring up. Just hopefully not in our yard. Dad will just mow it down.”
“Squirrels, the magnificent seed scatterers,” Tyler said.
Trevor rolled his eyes. “Well, I don’t know about magnificent. But you certainly got the seed-scatterer part right.”
Wrap Up
Acts 8:1 opens with a statement about Saul, who we later know of as Paul. Before he came to Jesus, he attacked Christians for their faith. This verse shows that he played a part in the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which we read about in Acts 7. Stephen’s death caused many of the Christians to flee Jerusalem.
The followers of Jesus took flight for their own safety. However, this migration caused the gospel to scatter like seeds into all parts of Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth, just like Jesus said would happen in Acts 1:8.
Persecution is what drove them away from Jerusalem, but a hunger for God in places where they went caused churches to sprout up everywhere like mighty oaks.
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