Welcome to the EK Blog!

If this is your first visit to my blog, then welcome! In order to provide a more concise curriculum to our children, I have decided to start incorporating these occasional blogs to coincide with our Sunday morning curriculum. The reason for this is that many of the topics that we discuss on Sunday mornings will not all fit on a single 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper. The take-home sheet simply serves to inform you, the parent, about what we discussed. It also gives you many of the scripture references that we used throughout the lesson. In essence, it gives you a tool to reinforce the lessons that we teach on a regular basis in Extreme Kids. Please note that the blogs will pertain only to the lessons that we teach 1st-4th grade. The K4 & K5 classes use a different curriculum that’s geared towards basic Bible knowledge. I may also comment on a FUSE lesson or two, although many times the lessons do coincide with the lessons taught in EK.

On occasion, I will expound on the take-home portion of the lesson by posting a blog here, on my blog page. If I do so for that week, I will make a note of it on the take-home sheet. Of course, I will continue to occasionally enter random blogs as I feel the need to vent about particular issues, have a moment of inspiration, or what have you. However, this particular blog will serve to reinforce the lesson that we will teach in EK on Feb. 1st concerning our lesson: “Who Is Satan?”

Our goal for this lesson isn’t to give undo attention to Satan. Far from it! Our goal is to help parents and children understand a bit about the being who caused so much trouble from the get go. What’s amazing is that Satan has so little power, yet manages to cause so much trouble. Here are some of the notes that the teachers used to formulate their lessons for their classrooms. These notes came from our curriculum that is written in-house at VWC, so you're getting it from the "horse's mouth" so to speak. Here they are:
__________________________________________________________________________________

This lesson stemmed from a lesson that we taught in FUSE last Sunday about Satan and all the vile tricks he uses to mess us up. Needless to say, we don’t want to give Satan that much attention, but we do need to be aware of his power and of his intention for our lives. There are many things that we could discuss about Satan, but we will only hit the highlights. Whatever we discuss, one thought must always be kept at the forefront: Satan is already defeated. There is absolutely nothing he can do to us beyond what we allow him to do. The misconception comes into play when we consider the works of the flesh (ours and others) that impact our lives to be the direct influence of Satan. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Names of Satan
Satan goes by a lot of names listed in Scripture. Some of these include:

•The Angel of the Bottomless Pit
•The Adversary
•The Accuser of Our Brethren
•Beelzebub
•Belial
•The Devil
•Father of All Lies
•Abaddon / Apollyon (the Destructor)
•The Prince of the Power of the Air
•The Great Red Dragon
•The Enemy
•Lucifer
•Evil One
•Murderer
•Enemy
•Sinner

All of these names are used to identify the chief opponent of God, and thus, our opponent as well. Satan is a busy guy, and as such, he is known by many different names. However, one thing remains constant: he is a low down dirty liar who will stop at nothing to see us destroyed. In fact, we know this from Scripture:

The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.
- John 10:10

These were the words of Christ in reference to the work of Satan in the world. Satan’s sole purpose is to kill, steal, and destroy! What’s more, he will use any means necessary to do so. Even so, there is something that is fundamentally interesting that is at the root of Satan’s objectives: he is virtually powerless to do so. In fact, the only real power that Satan has is to lie. That’s it! His ability is to lie, plain and simple. Satan seeks to kill, steal, and destroy us through lies. It sounds very petty at first, but upon closer inspection, it quickly becomes apparent that Satan is no fibber. In fact, he is a master of deceit. We will take a look at some ways that Satan uses lies to achieve his goals, and how we need to be aware of his methods of trickery.

Satan’s Tools
We’ve already discussed that Satan’s only real power is to lie. Everything that he does is a perverted copy of what God can do. The downside is that he is a very capable liar, and we already know the advantages that camouflage gives to the enemy. There are animals in creation that use deceit and camouflaged to very good effect in life. Satan uses it as well. Let’s look at some of the common ways he does this.

1. Deceit

For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. - John 8:44

There is no substitution for wrong information. Satan will not stop in order to get us to believe a lie. If he can cause us to doubt God, God’s power, God’s people, or what have you, he has already won. Believing wrong information can lead to an entire series of ailments for people. Think on this: if Satan can get a person to doubt the very existence of God, then he has already won. What are the chances that a dedicated atheist will come to church or listen to a Christian’s testimony? If Satan can get a person to believe a lie before they ever hear the truth, the battle is already won.

Of course, not every deception is about the existence of God. In fact, for the most part, the deception is much more subtle. Here is an example I gave the FUSE kids last Sunday. Let’s say that you have a child in your class this Sunday, who, for whatever reason, is just feeling a bit froggy. They continually disturb the class, cut up with their friends, goof off, and generally make a spectacle of themselves. Finally, you have to pull them aside, fuss at them, and sit them by the wall for a while. Now, you have done nothing wrong (other than maybe let the child get too out of hand before correction). You have acted as you should, sitting the child in time out. However, I can almost guarantee you that there are some imps lying around waiting for this opportunity. All of a sudden, that child will begin to think: “Gee, Mr./Mrs. so and so is really mean! In fact, I don’t like them anymore. In fact, church is boring! I didn’t do anything wrong, so I don’t know why I’m sitting here. If church wasn’t so boring, I wouldn’t have to have fun all by myself! Here I am, sitting out, being bored. I guess it’s better being bored here rather than being bored there. In fact, I don’t even like church! It’s more fun to sit at home and play video games than come here...” That’s how rebellion begins. A child is corrected for doing something wrong, but believes that they are innocent. This can happen at church, school, on the playground, or even in our homes. Our prison system is filled with “innocent” people who “didn’t do it.” Satan will do his best to make others believe that those in authority over them are wrong, rotten, and out to get them. Of course, children aren’t the only ones to fall prey to this master lie set by Satan. Teenagers are famous for this. I know of some adults who believe the same lie concerning their boss/employer/job! If Satan can convince us of our infallibility and of other’s stupidity, then he’s got the battle mostly won. A small seed of deceit accepted as truth can reap a harvest of pain and regret, once fully bloomed.

2. Temptation

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
- James 1:13-15

Temptation is nothing more than making sin look better than it actually is. It’s fun to sin! Come on, be honest. You know that sin is fun. If it wasn’t fun, then nobody would sin, we’d all serve Jesus, and all go to heaven. However, we know that this isn’t the case. Again, Satan is a master deceiver, and he can make sin look much more enticing than it really is.

We know that the problem with sin is that it will eventually kill you, spiritually for sure, and even perhaps physically. Our example above about the child who starts hating teachers and church has its root in temptation. That’s why we make the rules clear from the get go. We want children to know what is expected of them, and how they are to behave. If we don’t make them aware of that (constantly), then we are doing them a grave injustice! However, once a child knows the rules, they may be tempted to break them. Everyone gets froggy every now and then. It’s part of our nature. The problem is that after we initially warn a child to not do wrong, and they continue to do so, they are demonstrating that they have a lack of respect for authority (at least, at that particular moment). The lie for this goes something like: “Nobody’s watching! Go ahead and talk to/hit/push/spit on/etc. on so and so. You won’t get caught! You’re too sneaky for that....” Notice the lies in that simple statement. Go ahead and do it, you’re innocent, and you are much more clever than those in charge. Believing that will get anyone in a world of trouble.

Temptation goes much farther than what we’ve discussed here. Temptation occurs whenever something we like, or think we’d like, becomes available. We can only really be tempted in areas that we’ve fallen before, or other areas that we’re extremely curious about. Temptation comes from within our own human nature. Satan is just there to goad on our flesh to hopefully get us to indulge in our flesh, and ignore God. One a pattern of sin start, then we develop an addiction, which leads to all sorts of woes for us and for those who love us. Satan is a master at temptation because he is so skilled at deception. Again, the chief power of Satan is to lie, and he’s very good at it.

3. Distraction

I really don’t have a scripture reference for distraction. My discourse on distraction comes more from personal experience and from the experiences of others. I’ve often said that if Satan can’t take you out by helping you to sin, he will do his best to take your eyes off of God through distraction. The best example I can think of in Scripture is that of Peter walking on the water with Jesus. As long as Peter kept his eyes fixed on Jesus, all was fine. It was when he began looking at the waves and the wind that he began to sink. Satan’s distraction does much the same to us.

Distraction can come in any number of ways. What distracts us can vary from person to person, as some of us are more naturally better focused than others. Satan will try to get us so concerned about something that we completely take our eyes off of God. This could be anything from finances, to a test, to job-related stress, to what have you. The “cares of this world” can truly burden us down! For children, distraction could be video games when they should be doing homework or spending time with God. It could be a bully at school who they know they’ll see tomorrow, or a tough test that’s coming up (they’d probably be more prepared if it weren’t for the aforementioned video game). These are a but a few examples! In FUSE, we classified distraction into 3 areas:

1. Fun Things – Things that steal the time you should be using to accomplish
other things. (i.e.: video games)

2. Frustrating Things – Things that aggravate you so much that you have a hard
time thinking about God. (i.e.: tough homework)

3. False Things – Things that cause you to worry about them, so you’ll take your
eyes off of God. (i.e.: big tests and the like)

4. Guilt

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
- Rev. 12:10

Guilt is a biggie that Satan uses. He is known as “the accuser of our brethren.” One of the best examples of this is found in the book of Job, whenever Satan attempted to get Job to turn against God. One of Satan’s goals is to convince God that we are not worth of redemption. However, God knows the pains that Jesus went through to make us worthy, and to redeem us. As this is the case, Satan turns his attention towards us, to convince us that we are definitely not worth of any good thing.

His goal here is to convince us that we are so rotten that we are not worth of any sort of love, be it God’s, Mom or Dad, friends, or whoever. Guilt seeks to convince us that we’re stupid, no good, inherently evil, or whatever. Basically, it’s there to make us feel that we are hopelessly lost. Guilt can be a terrible thing! Note however that there is a huge difference between guilt and conviction. Conviction is whenever we feel bad for something wrong that we’ve done. It is the prodding of the Holy Spirit to make right whatever we’ve done wrong. Guilt occurs after we have been caught doing something wrong, or after we’ve confessed a wrongdoing. It comes from a lack of understanding God’s grace. It can also come from an outside source that refuses to forgive us. Satan will use either, as he’s no respecter of methods. He simply wants results!

The Bottom Line
There are several things we need to remember about Satan:

1. His goal in life is to steal, kill, and destroy.
2. He hates your guts.
3. He’ll use his power of deceit to ruin your life and the lives of those you love.

We’ve looked at some of the ways he tries to accomplish his goal. However, the truth of the matter is that Satan has no real power over us, beyond what we allow him to have. Satan is a defeated enemy! He has no authority over us! He knows this, and therefore tries to convince us that he is bigger than us, that God is too small to defeat him, and that it’s better to sin than to serve God.
Satan is a defeated enemy, and he knows it. The only thing he can do now is to convince others that his way is better, and take them down with him. Satan truly is limited in his power, and absolutely has no hope against the properly prepared child of God. It’s been said that even the weakest Christian has power over Satan by virtue of what Christ did on Calvary. With this knowledge, can anything truly be against us? Consider this:

How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, 'I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God's stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.' But instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. Everyone there will stare at you and ask, 'Can this be the one who shook the earth and the kingdoms of the world? Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a wilderness? Is this the king who demolished the world's greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?'
- Is. 14:12-17

In the end, we will look at Satan and wonder how it was possible that something so insignificant and small could cause so much damage. The truth of the matter is that because of a lack of knowledge or a relationship with God, we allowed him to.
And there you have it! As you see, it would be impossible to cover so much detail on our little take-home sheet. Keep in mind that not all lessons are this detailed, so I will not expound upon every lesson unless popular opinion demands that I do. Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions! I most definitely welcome your feedback!
Children truly are a gift from God! As such, we are required to teach them all they can to succeed in life and in their walk with God. In Extreme Kids, we take this mandate seriously, and therefore want to take every opportunity to help you, the parent, accomplish this.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this blog! Feel free to read the other blogs as well. They’re not necessarily EK blogs, but they are somewhat entertaining/educational. Thank you for all you do, and for allowing us to serve your children.

In Him,
Bobby