Context for Kids: Recent Episodes
Tyler Dawn Rosenquist
Historical Bible context for kids (of all ages) plus character lessons archived each week from my online radio show ”Context for Kids” through Hebrew NationRadio.
Where is Isaac? After the ram appeared, Isaac was nowhere to be found, and what happened to him and his family is one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible--one that led the ancient Rabbis to ask questions about the coming Messiah.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/08/11/episode-178-the-mystery-of-isaac/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/-O5IahQoosw
When I was a teenager, there were people with certain diseases whom everyone was scared to get near, and in every generation, there are people who are hated because of what they do for a living, what they believe, or where they come from. Last week, we saw how Jesus dealt with the hated Samaritans, and this week we are going to talk about Princess Diana and Mother Theresa--two ladies who reached out to people whom others hated.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/08/04/episode-177-jesus-and-the-outcasts-lepers-and-tax-collectors/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ttxs-mNIauU
If we want to see what love looks like, we have to look at how Jesus treats the people whom everyone else disapproves of being with. This time, we are going for the double whammy of a woman who wasn’t even a Jew but one of the Samaritans, their hated enemy.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/07/27/episode-176-jesus-and-the-outcasts-the-woman-at-the-well/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/NqXyJiV3vRM
This week we are going to look at what Jesus said about kids, their angels, and anyone who hurts them.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/07/13/episode-175-you-never-bother-god/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/aae1xF8jOTY
We’re going to talk about a very important part of God’s love this week—justice! What did Jesus mean when He said that people who exalt themselves will be exalted and people who humble themselves would be humbled? How do the stories of Joseph, David, Jesus and the churches of Revelation teach us how God’s love works in making things right?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/06/27/episode-174-gods-honor-reversal-rollercoaster/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/iYaD7oevFXw
This has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year on social media so far but the last two weeks have been the worst so far. Sometimes, when grownups and kids are in front of a computer and can’t be punched, the say the most terrible things you can imagine to others--things they wouldn’t ever say if they were in front of the person. And if they would say those things in person, they need Jesus really bad. So, we are going to talk about body shaming and insults and how we should treat one another.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/06/13/episode-173-grownups-behaving-badly-on-social-media/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/-jjdFK_LUZ8
Yeah, everyone calls it the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man but when we look at what Jesus was telling His audience of mostly poor Jews, it was a funny and outrageous story about a very rich man who is so rotten that he ends up getting thrown into the canyon where all the trash of Jerusalem is burned.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/06/08/episode-172-the-rich-man-on-the-trash-heap/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/zqwC_7i3ZtM
I love the Doctor Pimple Popper TV show because she has something in common with Jesus in the work she does to reunite people with their communities! Jesus healed people and no one did it better than Him but sometimes we forget that the most important thing about many of His miracles is that He got people back together with their families!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/05/23/episode-171-the-miracles-of-jesus-and-why-it-isnt-good-to-be-alone/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ciy2tIX2bh0
How do we love like Jesus? We’re going to talk about the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, how goats aren’t evil, and what it looks like to love the least of these in school and church.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/05/07/episode-170-sheep-goats-and-the-love-of-jesus/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/BhKgIiGHnE0
Before we go back to Genesis and tackle the ever growing family of Abraham, we need to understand love as Jesus taught it. Otherwise, we might make the mistake of thinking that God approves of the nonsense those guys get into. Case in point—selling your little brother as a slave is not okay.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/05/02/episode-169-love-and-the-good-samaritan/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZUjw_df4TEw
Love is a very complicated thing in the Bible and so we are going to treat it very seriously. The Bible shows us that God’s love is emotional and active and also very interested in justice and mercy. And of course, we can’t talk about love without mentioning Mister Rogers!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/04/25/episode-168-being-like-jesus-what-is-love/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/f8GG7YuiGzE
What is joy and how is it different from happiness? This week, I teach the kids about my own journey from sorrow to joy and we’ll talk about Jesus’s joyful life.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/04/03/episode-167-being-like-jesus-joyfulness/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayDINsXL8Qk
What does Paul mean when he talks about peace? What does Jesus have to say about peacemakers? Is peace a feeling or an action or both? To learn about this we will have to travel all the way from Galilee to Galatia and then to Rome.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/03/26/episode-166-being-like-jesus-peacefulness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/orlaG6H0SJA
Abraham just found out on the Mountain of the Lord that God will provide. God was getting ready to make His final promise to Abraham and He swears by Himself that absolutely everything He ever promised to Abraham is a done deal and will happen through Isaac and his descendants.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/01/22/episode-165-abraham-and-the-mountain-of-the-lord/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/HFBAbXGSsiQ
When is a sacrifice not a sacrifice? That’s the big question this week as the Angel of the Lord interrupts the sacrifice of Isaac. And what does this have to do with Jesus? We will also be discussing the ancient concept of the heavens in ancient Near Eastern context.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/01/14/episode-164-god-saves-isaac/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8NRh5pNcZXs
Wait a minute—Isaac notices a red flag. They have the sacrificial knife, the coals for a new fire, and the wood, but there is no animal for the slaughter. As Han Solo would say, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” and Isaac is finally alone with his father and able to ask the question his father doesn’t want to answer.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2025/01/07/episode-163-isaacs-scary-question/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/9vAf94KTA7s
Last time we were with Abraham, he had a terrible decision to make. Was he going to sacrifice Isaac in the Land of Moriah or was he going to refuse, or at least argue with God about it? Abraham's response is even more confusing than God's request--absolutely nothing for three whole days. We are starting to see hints about Jesus in this story, and so we will talk about the "type" of Isaac and the "antitype" of Jesus both carrying wood on their backs.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/12/18/episode-162-father-abraham-said-nothing-ru-serious/
YouTube (longer version): https://youtu.be/qQKLk8UmszU
So, this year, I want to talk about Advent, which is a season on a lot of liturgical calendars but is often misunderstood as being another name for Christmas--which it isn't. Advent is a word meaning "the arrival of an important person or event" and because Advent almost always (but not this year) overlaps with Hannukah and many scholars believe Jesus was conceived in the winter and born during the Fall Festivals, I would like to think that the Light of the World was indeed conceived during Hannukah, beginning a nine-month season of waiting with anticipation for His birth for Mary and ourselves looking even more forward to His second coming. Let's tell a "what if" story based on the Gospel of Luke to see what the beginning of Mary's wait might have looked like.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/12/04/episode-161-jesus-the-hannukah-king/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/S-S7AomkCh8
This week we are looking at the difference between being sad and being ungrateful. I am also talking to the kids about why Jesus was all He had to be and how anything less wouldn’t have been enough to save us.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/11/26/episode-160-thankfulness-and-the-dayenu-of-jesus/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q5F9PL4dXOA
This week, we are beginning the last chapter of Torah Portion Vayers, where God says something shocking to Abraham in order to test him.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/11/20/episode-159-abrahams-terrible-test/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ekW1OgGhoWM
Genesis 12 begins next week and we have two more things we need to learn before that. First of all, we are going to talk theology with typology, which is a fun and clever way to discover clues about Jesus all the way through the entire Bible. Then we get serious and talk about human sacrifice but don’t worry--I am not going to be gross about it.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/11/12/episode-158-types-antitypes-and-human-sacrifice/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/U4Hz5T8QHu8
To better understand the Akeida in Genesis 22, we need to have some background on the olah offering—also translated as the whole burnt offering or ascending offering. What was it? How was it different from other sacrifices? Why did they believe that God needed smoke in order to smell it? This lesson is going to give us a lot of ancient Near Eastern context!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/10/31/episode-157-what-is-an-olah-offering/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ad-8iFZnUpI
Oh my gosh, we start Genesis 22 in two weeks and can you believe it? The Bible hasn’t mentioned love even once! Is that a problem? Not really. Love will be mentioned for the first time in chapter 22. And it isn’t even God’s love. This week we will talk about how God has been showing His love and faithfulness and loyalty in a lot of ways even though the word isn’t mentioned—and when we really want to see God’s love in action, there is no better lesson than the life of Jesus.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/10/23/episode-156-being-like-jesus-love-part-1/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/jJDlLUgeo7w
Wow, here we are at the end of Genesis chapter twenty-one at last! Before taking a break for the Fall Festivals, we’re going to look at the consequences of not being trusted as well as not being trustworthy—as both Abraham and Abimelech know very well. And we’ll be talking about sheep, wells, and planting trees in the middle of the desert!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/09/25/episode-155-abrahams-stolen-well-and-a-new-covenant/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLiDI1wuJEU
Oh man, I hate this portion of the Bible. It’s so messy and sad and frustrating. Abraham is upset about Sarah wanting Ishmael gone forever—I mean, of course he is! God hasn’t chimed in but when He does, it’s shocking so we will need to get an explanation. God isn’t done with Hagar or Ishmael yet, and Hagar is going to get one more visit before she exits the Biblical account of her life.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/09/18/episode-154-do-whatever-sarah-says/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/pqYl7zMx-9o
A huge theme in ancient writings (and especially the Bible) is the difference between foolish and wise people. When we aren’t aware of it, we are tempted to look at everything people are doing in the Bible as examples of what is good and right but the Bible isn’t that sort of book. It’s a book about God being wise and putting up with humans—when even the best of them do some incredibly foolish things. The contrast shows us how patient and kind God is. Another word for patience is long-suffering because that’s what best describes God and how He must suffer in dealing with our nonsense! So, what does it mean to be a fool in the Bible and in our lives today. What does it mean to be wise?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/09/04/episode-153-the-fools-and-the-wise-in-the-bible/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/PZFYw7uqAGE
Hurray! Isaac is weaned and has passed through the very dangerous first three years of life in the ancient world. Abraham throws a big party to celebrate but not everyone is happy. What happens when seventeen-year-old Ishmael expresses his anger over being replaced by a toddler? Why did Sarah even think that her solution was okay? In talking about the rejection of Ishmael, we’ll also have a conversation about the rejection of the Messiah and the difference between what is normal vs what is good.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/08/28/episode-152-sarahs-disturbing-demand/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/tNZTet_2qgU
We’ve been waiting for ten chapters, since Sarah was introduced at the end of chapter 11, and finally Isaac is here. But why is the story so short??? In fact, why are all the stories about Isaac so short? For someone we’ve been anxiously waiting for so long, he doesn’t get nearly as much attention as his father Abraham and his son Jacob. Sometimes the mysteries tell us just as much as the long stories do.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/08/22/episode-151-shes-having-a-baby-and-shes-ninety/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/MghzUjfDcPA
Few things are less understood and acknowledged than God's incredible patience, and there’s no better time to discuss the patience of God than when we are beginning to wrap up the story of Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, and Hagar. Impatience wrecked their family peace while God’s patience leads to Jesus! And Jesus shows us God’s patience in how He dealt with His very annoying disciples.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/08/14/episode-150-being-like-jesus-patience/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8CN5QHtLefU
Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy studying the history of the ancient Near East because it is also the history around the Bible. But what is it? Where is it? And how is it different from the Greco-Roman Near East of Jesus? And does it make any difference?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/08/07/episode-149-what-is-the-ancient-near-east/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/kRAxGPzjLIU
I have been wanting to do this lesson for a long time and I wish someone had shared all of this with me—or even any of it with me—when I was a beginner. We never read anything without translating it in our own minds, and the Bible is no exception. We read the Bible and decide what it means based on our own lives, understandings, and what we have heard from others. How does the Spirit help us with our reading and what doesn’t the Spirit do? Is every thought while we are reading the Bible from God? How does God use Bible reading and Bible study (not the same thing) in our lives?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/07/31/episode-148-what-happens-when-we-read-the-bible/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/2FNwXGhfRUU
Our last teaching in Genesis 20. Abimelech finally does what he should have done in the first place if he wanted to marry Sarah, and he finds himself in the unpleasant position of having to reward someone who lied to him so that Abraham will pray for him and his household. Although this would have made sense to Abimelech, what are we supposed to think about it?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/07/18/episode-147-abimelech-pays-and-abraham-prays/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Zuo_sYdhGXk
God is getting Sarah back home, but Abraham starts making excuses—can we believe any of them, or is he just trying to keep himself out of trouble? Abimelech is furious, and so are his people when they hear about Abraham’s plan. But what are we supposed to think about all of this? And what do we do when a friend tells us to lie if we want to still be friends?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/07/10/episode-146-is-sarah-really-abrahams-sister/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/UnHI2aR4Vo4
Considering the fact that Abimelech has kidnapped Sarah, it’s shocking to us that when he tells God how innocent he is, God agrees. But God is most certainly not giving Abimelech a pass and makes a terrifying threat that Abimelech had better do what is right—or else.
Sorry for the delay, been down for the count all week and never got this uploaded. No video or transcript yet but I will get them up tomorrow or Saturday.
You’re not going to believe this but we’re going to have a replay of Genesis 12 where Abraham lies to Pharaoh about Sarah his wife and gets her into more trouble. How is this time the same? How is it different? And how is God going to get her out of it this time? And who is Abimelech and who are the mysterious Philistines?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/06/25/episode-144-abraham-sarah-abimelech-and-the-big-lie/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/-sk7BXt8dj4
We are circling back to talking about what it means to become more like Jesus again because, as we will see again next week when we start Genesis 20, Abraham has a real problem with lying when he is scared and not trusting God. What did Jesus do when He was afraid? What does the Bible tell us about lying and when is it the right or wrong thing to do?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/06/12/episode-143-becoming-like-jesus-honesty/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/WzRuQjsi4Lg
Were all disciples men? What does the word even mean? What did Jesus have to say about disciples and why He had them in the first place? Was Jesus the only person to ever have disciples? Are you a disciple of Jesus or are you not quite sure? What should we think of when we hear the word disciple? What words did Jesus say about what it takes to be one of His disciples? So many questions. This week we’re going to talk about this very important topic because in your life, nothing is more important than becoming a disciple of Jesus so you’d better know what that means and what it doesn’t mean.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/06/05/episode-142-are-you-a-disciple-of-jesus/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Bf9OajfN7jk
This week we close out Genesis 19 and say goodbye to Lot. Sometimes it is easy to forget that this chapter of the Bible is about Lot and not about the wicked city he is living in. Lot isn’t done with his bad decisions, and some of the worst are yet to come. Why can’t Lot just trust God and obey? Why do there always have to be arguments and foot dragging? What can we learn from looking at the end of Lot’s life, as far as the Bible story tells us?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/05/29/episode-141-the-end-of-sodom-and-lots-story/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/4YpXKzyiOhs
Lot is super irritating and what he does this week proves that just being unhappy with how people are acting isn’t enough to make a difference in a wicked place. No one respects Lot or takes him seriously—not even his future sons-in-law. Lot still isn’t willing to leave Sodom, even when his neighbors want him dead but God keeps forgiving Lot and giving him chances to do what is right. We’ll also be talking this week about what forgiveness is and isn’t.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/05/22/episode-140-angels-to-the-rescue-what-is-forgiveness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/wOJMOF0guEE
There are a lot of bad dads and moms in the Bible but if Lot isn’t the worst one then he is near the top of the list. Being a young girl in the ancient world was a very dangerous thing and sometimes the members of your own family could be your worst enemies. How far will Lot go to obey the hospitality codes of the ancient world? Who is he willing to sacrifice in order to look good? And what can we learn about the men of Sodom from the way they reacted to what Lot tried to do?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/05/15/episode-139-lot-worst-dad-ever/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Yr9yWll9RqU
This week we will be talking about the mysterious angels in disguise, what Lot did to make his neighbors angry, and what a city gate was.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/05/06/episode-138-mysterious-strangers-in-sodom/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/b2LMiM2ulJg
The truth is that we know more about angels on tv and in Christian art than we do about angels in the Bible, and so before we dive into our first real encounter with angels in Genesis 19 we’re going to see what the Bible does and doesn’t say about Angels. And we’ll talk about the three most famous angels of all!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/04/09/episode-137-talking-about-angels-in-the-bible/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/nGEpf1E44xI
Who is the first intercessor in the Bible? Abraham! He went to bat for the people of Sodom, appealing to and reasoning with God's mercy over His sense of justice. This makes him very different from everyone who went before Him--especially Noah!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/27/episode-136-the-one-when-abraham-tries-to-save-sodom/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/3S6g6yZth5M
Last year, we talked about the stories of Esther and Vashti, but this year, we are going to focus on irresponsible King Ahasuerus, Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who didn’t follow his own wise advice, and the wicked Haman.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/20/episode-135-esther-and-the-great-big-mess/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fq9diKf9mG8
Do you know what a prophet is? There are many stories going around that make it look like prophets were fortune tellers, but nothing could be further from the truth. God is going to name Abraham a prophet in chapter 21, but in Genesis 18, he is already being treated like one. Understanding prophets and what they are and are not will help you understand much more of the Bible than if you think they are all about predicting the future. And what does all this have to do with Sodom and what God is telling Abraham He expects from his family?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/12/episode-134-abraham-the-first-prophet/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/jIWyR6Vxe0s
Most people look at Sarah’s laughter in Genesis 18 and think nothing of it. We think of what it looks like in the movies or in our picture books but what does the Bible tell us about Sarah laughing when she heard she was going to finally be a mom? Why are we so confused about what the Bible does and doesn’t say and what does it tell us about the story Moses was telling the children of Israel?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/05/episode-133-sarahs-mysterious-laughter/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/XHQmICJa-cA
This week we are beginning Torah portion Vayera, which covers the time from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to the Akeida in chapter 22. Today we start out with a very mysterious appearance of three strangers soon after Abraham circumcised all the men in his household. From the very first line, we know that one of the strangers is God but why is He there and how will Abraham react?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/02/29/episode-132-abraham-and-the-three-mysterious-visitors/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/57C8PgcxFJo
Well, I was planning on doing a teaching on patience but that isn’t going so well lately so I decided that this was the perfect time to do a lesson on hospitality because that’s mostly what Genesis 18 and 19 are about! Just like Honor and Shame and Covenants, once you understand the rules of ancient hospitality, you will know it when you see it and it makes the Bible a lot more interesting. So, until I get a lot more patient, we’re back to studying Genesis and beginning Torah Portion Vayera—which starts in chapter 18 and goes all the way to the end of chapter 22.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/02/21/episode-131-hospitality-travel-and-family-in-the-bible/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/HUH8ocjk7vM
Kindness is complicated. It’s a lot different than just being nice because Jesus wasn’t always nice but He was always kind. Being nice is just being pleasant to people, but kindness is treating people better than we think they deserve to be treated. And that isn’t easy when we are angry, sad, in pain, or just plain frustrated. Kindness is going to be really important to understand when we get back to Genesis 18 and 19!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/02/14/episode-130-being-like-jesus-kindness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/--gql90WhDI
Well, whenever someone says goodness is how to be like Jesus, it makes me want to say, “Well, duh…” but what does goodness even mean? It means so many different things in English that it makes your head spin. This week we will talk about what “goodness” means in the Bible and how the Holy Spirit works in us to get us closer and closer to being good.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/02/07/episode-129-being-like-jesus-goodness-and-the-holy-spirit/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IKKwwvTyMw8
What faithfulness means to us today and what the Greek word pistis meant to Paul are sort of the same but also very different. Fortunately, what Paul meant will teach us how much we can trust Jesus and how we want to become people who can be trusted by Jesus.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/01/23/episode-128-being-like-jesus-faithfulness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IcI7sxNeYmA
Mercy is a huge thing in the Bible and so we would expect Jesus to not only teach about the importance of being merciful but also that He would be merciful. Mercy is a big step up from showing self-control. To show how mercy works, we’re going to look at one of the funniest parables about the Ungrateful Servant. It doesn’t seem funny at first, but believe me, it’s really hilarious once you stop to think about what is going on and how crazy the situation is.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/01/16/episode-127-being-like-jesus-gentleness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/MSmYNFzHCTI
It’s one thing to say that Jesus had every single fruit of the Spirit to perfection, but quite another to look at what that really means when you have the authority and power to do absolutely anything you want. It isn’t so much about what Jesus did but what He was capable of. That makes Him even more amazing!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/01/11/episode-126-being-like-jesus-self-control/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/y0xhF3ElCzY
Have you ever been scared to pray because you don’t want to say the wrong thing or because you are afraid that you can’t trust God to do what is right or that He will be angry if you are honest? Today, we’re going to talk about why we can always be ourselves when we are talking to God. And not only that, but about how having to be perfect in our prayers comes from pagan religions and not from the Bible.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/01/01/episode-125-your-prayers-dont-have-to-be-perfect/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/KxlBNUKxwMk
Forgiveness is hard to understand and even harder to do. Grownups ask me all the time about what forgiveness is and isn’t, and if it means forgetting and acting like nothing happened or if we can still be careful when someone is dangerous. Learning about the forgiveness from God we have through our King Jesus, and what Jesus told us to do, and how He helps us grow from people who never want to forgive and don’t know how to even begin, to people who are able to forgive, helps us to follow God maybe more than any other thing He asks us to do.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/12/27/episode-124-being-like-jesus-forgiveness/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/KG3k-vYPE64
We are about halfway through the story of Abraham in the Bible. His life story in Genesis is traditionally divided into two "Torah Portions"--Lech Lecha and Vayera. As we just finished Lech Lecha, I wanted to toss out all the context and to just enjoy myself telling the first part of Abraham's story the way that extra-biblical Jewish writers did to tell the story more creatively.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/11/13/episode-123-the-lech-lecha-story/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/qTLi1VVJWo4
Special episode: Many kids feel (or are made to feel) that they are mistakes for this or that reason. It’s an issue near and dear to my heart so we are going to tackle it.
Oh no! God has made it clear that it was always His plan to give a miracle baby through Sarai and now Abraham realizes that his beloved thirteen-year-old son Ishmael won’t be his heir. From now on, what was once just a mess is now heartbreaking and it will only get worse.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/11/08/episode-122-was-ishmael-a-mistake/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/A0XDVWuLRIk
This week we will be talking about one of the themes of Scripture—miracle babies! Sarai’s will be the very first of seven and that calls for a new name, new promises, and new problems for Abraham.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/10/31/episode-121-sarais-new-name/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/vgnbqUGa-MY
God is going to tell Abraham to make a decision that can’t ever be taken back, by obeying a commandment that can’t ever be undone. And what does it tell us about how different our God is in how He feels about kids and slaves? And why weren’t women included??
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/10/23/episode-120-circumcision-no-slave-or-free/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/vP_r2e-kiD8
When God makes a Covenant, He really makes a Covenant. In chapter 17, Abraham is given the promise of a permanent Covenant, which means it will be around as long as God is around. And you know, that’s forever!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/10/18/episode-119-a-permanent-covenant/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/2hACXSgYML0
The surprising new covenant promise is revealed and Abram gets a brand new name! I can’t tell you how relieved I am that I can write Abraham from now on because it’s easier to remember than Abram.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/10/09/episode-118-abrams-new-name/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8tM3Rv98dyw
God appears to Abram for the first time in twenty-four years (I am not counting the vision appearance of the Word of the Lord in Gen 15), introduces Himself by a new mysterious name, promises a new covenant, and gives Abram a new command!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/10/02/episode-117-el-shaddai/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ifm-4Uo4whI
Sorry, parents--but in order to teach Genesis 17, we can’t avoid talking about circumcision—a subject that was absolutely normal and not at all embarrassing in the ancient world. It’s actually incredibly interesting! And not only that, but we have to talk about what holiness is and about the nine special signs in the Old Testament. I will also be posting an episode on my grown up show, Character in Context, helping adults to understand circumcision if you want to teach it yourself.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/09/26/episode-116-holiness-circumcision-and-signs-in-the-bible/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/fGCK8tKpv4M
For Yom Kippur this year, the Day of Atonement when the Temple would be cleansed from the sins of the people of Israel, I want to talk about invisible sins and how they mess everything up.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/09/18/episode-115-yom-kippur-why-does-god-hate-lies-so-much/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/cOHEZ_YyV8o
Hagar is unique and important in the Bible for a lot of reasons. We’ve already talked about some of them but perhaps her most important contribution to our faith is when she gave God a name. No one else ever does. What does that name tell us about Hagar, about God, and about her son Ishmael? Plus, we’re going to explore another “what if” story to try and make sense of what happens later.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/09/11/episode-114-what-hagar-did-for-god-that-no-one-else-ever-did/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/hPzWTN31rds
Who is the first person to actually see AND talk to the Angel of the Lord? It’s Hagar! In this episode, we’re going to see how much God loves Hagar and even calls her by name when Abram and Sarai don’t. God has some amazing promises for Hagar that would eventually mean a completely different and better life for her. In fact, God makes Hagar a promise that He has only ever made to Abram at this point.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/09/06/episode-113-hagar-and-the-angel-of-the-lord/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ho8yoG24748
Genesis 16 isn’t a good chapter for Abram, Sarai, and especially for Sarai’s Egyptian slave Hagar. Sarai comes up with an idea to get a child for herself by following ancient Near Eastern custom, and Abram goes along with it. The result is one huge mess and a whole lot of pain for everyone.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/08/30/episode-112-taking-matters-into-their-own-hands/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/zKI2achyLoA
Today we are going to learn about a very important young lady in the Bible. Her name is Hagar and even though the people in her life treated her badly, God treated her like a VIP, a Very Important Person. All of chapter sixteen is about Hagar, so she deserves her own story “before the story”. We will be learning about Egyptians, slavery, and about how important it is to treat others as though they are better than we are. We will also be learning how to do something that Hagar couldn’t ever do—speaking up when something isn’t okay.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/07/24/episode-111-hagar-and-the-importance-of-having-a-voice/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/bQS5Je1mHG4
This is an episode designed to address a serious issue for both adults and kids—what does it mean to honor mother and father, and how does one obey their parents “in the Lord” as per Eph 6:1? There isn’t anyone in Christian or Jewish leadership who hasn’t been asked these questions—generally by adults suffering under the weight of abusive and irresponsible parents. So, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to kids about what it does and doesn’t mean--we certainly don't want kids to be obeying every adult they come across, right? Warning: this could be triggering for your kids if you are a bank-robbing mom wanting them to drive the getaway car, as that was the over-the-top example I used. Any resemblance to any real person is completely accidental, obviously.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/07/18/episode-110-what-is-obedience-and-who-should-we-obey/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/_ZqwjofDW5M
We talked about this a bit back in episode 107, but this episode is actually about a lot more than it looks like on the surface. When we know what to look for, this is the most powerful promise yet about the Messiah, Jesus. God made a promise to Eve, and now He makes an even greater promise to Abram! This will be the last lesson in Gen 15.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/07/10/episode-109-the-covenant-of-the-pieces-and-our-king-jesus/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/2WE77oHh9Qw
In Gen 15, God gets really specific about the scary future of Abram’s descendants, some good news for Abram, and the reason why he can’t have the Land of Canaan yet. We’re also going to talk about why Jesus’s disciples are just like fruit trees.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/06/27/episode-108-the-bad-news-and-the-good-news/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/l4Zz2ice3sY
In Genesis 15, Abram asks God for a sign and God tells Him to do something so utterly bizarre that it will require quite an explanation! We’ll also be talking about the prophet Jeremiah and the time the citizens of Jerusalem made a very big mistake.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/06/21/episode-107-cutting-critters-super-gross-but-super-cool-too/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/qIEtQXxZtfU
Gen 15:4-6 Abram has been promised that his kids and grandkids and great grands will be as many as the stars in the sky! God says that Abram is going to be a daddy but what about Sarai? This week we will talk about great faith in the Bible—from Abram to the people who surprised Jesus with their faith!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/06/13/episode-106-look-at-the-stars-abram/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/wyR9-soZFpQ
Continuing with Gen 15, this week’s lesson is a lot about relationship building with the God who wants all of us, even our complaints! We’re going to learn about Ethan the priest’s complaint in the Psalms and about adoption in the ancient world and how the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was adopted by Joseph.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/06/06/episode-105-abrams-complaint/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/40Yn3YyQt0k
Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible! It is where God finally makes His covenant with Abram, promises to deal with the sins of humanity Himself, gives someone a vision, and says “Fear not!” This week, I will explain the difference between dreams and visions, talk about what the “word of the Lord” might be, and the difference between when God, the angels, and Jesus tell people to “Fear not!”
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/06/01/episode-104-fear-not-abram/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IQ9opcDWvcg
What’s Pentecost? Why do we study Exodus and Ruth this weekend? And how does the story of Ruth change God’s mind about the Moabites?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/24/episode-103-pentecost-ruth-and-how-kindness-changes-everything/
Video: https://youtu.be/xH2npc9_Ehw
Before we start chapter fifteen of Genesis, I want to talk about what will start happening in chapter sixteen and continue all the way to the end of the Bible. There are a lot of bullies and God doesn’t like it. We’re going to look at some surprising bullies and also the people who were bullied and read a Psalm that tells us how people who are rich, powerful, strong, and popular are expected to treat those who aren’t. We’re also going to talk about our own responsibilities and how we can be bullies too and what the consequences are if we choose to do that.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/17/episode-102-bullies-in-the-bible/
The King of Sodom wants to make Abram an offer that he figures can’t be refused. But Abram has other ideas because of his growing trust in God. But why does that rascally king think he can accomplish and why is he even doing it?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/10/episode-101-abram-and-the-rude-dude-from-sodom/
One of the great unsolved mysteries of the Bible is the identity of Melchizedek, the priest king of Salem (which will later be called Jerusalem). We’ve seen it before, as with Nimrod, that when the Bible and history don’t tell us anything about someone in the Bible, there are a lot of crazy stories trying to fill in those gaps. However, what we really can know about Melchizedek is still very important and very interesting.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/03/episode-100-the-mysterious-melchizedek/
At one point, Lot was camped by the city of Sodom and now we see that he is actually living in the city—and when the rebellion of the five kings goes terribly wrong, Lot and his family get taken as captives and all their stuff gets taken too. Instead of paying a ransom for his safe return, Abram and his allies assemble an army and take back all the people and all the stuff that was taken.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/04/27/episode-99-abram-the-hebrew-and-the-case-of-the-kidnapped-nephew/
If you have read my curriculum book The Ten Commandments and the Covenants of Promise, then some of this will be a review for you. Otherwise, this week you will be learning about why these kings were fighting and how understanding their relationship with King Chedorlaomer also helps us to understand God’s relationship with the children of Israel and with us too!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/04/18/episode-98-four-kings-vs-five-kings-suzerain-vassal-covenants/
Today we are going to talk about the most exciting fifty days in the history of all the world! And also about why the strangest day on the entire Biblical calendar turned out to be the most important of all. If you have never heard of the counting of the omer, hold on to your hats because that’s what we will be learning about today.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/04/12/episode-97-jesus-and-the-omer/
There are terrible times in our lives when everything seems to have gone so wrong that nothing will ever be right again. When Jesus died, the disciples must have felt like their whole world ended. They had given up their jobs, their families, and everything to follow Him. They had hoped to be rich, famous, and powerful when Jesus became King and suddenly, they probably wished that none of it had ever happened. But God always has other plans, even when things seem darkest and most terrible.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/03/30/episode-96-passover-and-the-importance-of-hope/
Do Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob show up in archaeological records? Why or why not? Chapters 14 and 15 of Genesis are going to need a lot more archaeology to explain than what has gone before and so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about how we know what we know about the Biblical world, who figured it out, and how and most importantly, where I get my information from so you guys can find it too. There will be a ton of links in the transcript this week for those of you who really want to "dig in" to the world of the Bible.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/03/22/episode-95-the-archaeology-of-the-bible-part-1/
Abram wisely solved the problem of the family squabbles by allowing Lot to choose whatever land he wanted—which could have gone terribly wrong, but Abram trusted God that no matter what, his children would still inherit the Land of Canaan. Lot chose the very best of the Land for itself, but that is going to come with a high price tag.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/03/15/episode-94-lots-terrible-decision/
Maybe during COVID you found out how difficult it can be for a bunch of people to be in a small space for a long time, and that’s what happened with Abram and Lot, who had so much stuff and so many slaves and hired men that there was a lot of arguing over who should be able to feed their animals in what places. What is Abram going to do to solve this terrible problem? And how does it show us how much he trusts God?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/03/08/episode-93-a-whole-lot-of-trouble/
This weekend, Jewish people from all over the world will be celebrating Purim, a holiday which honors God for saving His people from the wicked Haman during the time of the Medo-Persian Empire. We can learn a lot about courage and bravery from this story about two Queens who stood up for what was right.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/28/episode-92-esther-and-vashti-two-brave-queens/
Every once in a while, something is going on with Christians or the world and I think it is important to explore it with the kids so that they understand better what everyone is talking about. This week we’re going to learn about revivals and outpourings of the Holy Spirit and what we can learn about them from looking at Ezekiel, Acts, and the ministry of Jesus.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/22/episode-91-whats-happening-at-asbury-and-what-is-a-revival/
Abram, Sarai, and Lot all return to the land of Canaan and when Abram returns to his home base in Bethel, he calls on the Name of the Lord again. But what if he had done that before he went to Egypt? How might that have changed the story for the better and saved a whole lot of people a whole world of hurt—and especially Sarai and her maidservant Hagar.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/14/episode-90-praying-when-we-are-scared/
Sarai got into big trouble by agreeing to lie about who she was, and now she is a captive of the Pharaoh but God has special plans for her life so He does something pretty amazing to save her. We will also be talking about the importance of ethics in the Bible and in our real lives.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/08/episode-89-god-saves-sarai/
Abram has a lot of ups and downs in his walk with God and this week we will be talking about one of the downs. Famine strikes the land of Canaan and Abram takes Sarai and their household down to Egypt where there is plenty of food. There’s a big problem though—Sarai is a very beautiful woman and Abram asks her to promise him something that puts her in a lot of danger.Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/01/31/episode-88-abram-the-terrible-famine-and-the-dangerous-lie/
Everyone is talking about Baby Jesus now, all over the world, but what you may not know is that God just loves to do things through “impossible” babies who couldn’t have even been born without God working incredible miracles. So, this week we are going to look at Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist to see how God makes impossible things possible and especially through the greatest miracle baby of all—Jesus!Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/12/22/episode-87-seven-special-babies-in-the-bible/
What if the Maccabees never stood up to Antiochus Epiphanes? What if they had lost the war? What if Mary and Joseph had never been born or they had been raised as pagans? Thousands of things could have gone wrong, but fortunately, Hannukah is the story of how things happened in such a way as to make sure that Jesus, our Savior, was born!Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/12/14/episode-86-no-hannukah-no-jesus/
We are taking a break for the next two weeks to talk about the celebration that made the birth of Jesus possible! That’s right—the Feast of Dedication aka Hannukah. This week we’ll talk about the importance of being loyal to God no matter what! Next week, I will explain why there is no Jesus without Hannukah!Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/12/07/episode-85-hannukah-and-the-importance-of-loyalty/
Abram, Sarai and Lot all arrive in the Promised Land and God actually appears to Abram for the first time and makes him two more promises that help to explain his very first promise to Abram! But uh oh, what problem will this cause with Lot? We’ll talk about sacred groves, regional gods, altar building and what it meant for Abram to “call on the Name of the Lord” outside a Canaanite city.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/30/episode-84-more-promises-for-abram/
Wow! Abram listened to God, believed His promises to bless him—almost—and left his home for the land of the dreaded Canaanites. But why did he disobey and bring his nephew Lot? And how does all this relate to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/24/episode-83-the-journey-to-canaan/
This week we will tackle one of the most important things in the Bible—God’s very first promise to Abraham! Up to now, the world has mostly been a mess but God is about to take matters into His own hands to create for himself a nation unlike any other on earth. We’ll be talking about the words bless and blessing and what they mean when they are referring to people. As a bonus, we’ll see exactly why no one in the Bible is perfect except for Jesus and why that’s okay.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/16/episode-82-the-promise/
Today we are going to introduce the family of Terah and discuss why the Bible is about to change so drastically! The life of Abraham literally changes the world forever, and as we would expect, the story of the Bible is going to change as well. Up until now, we have only been in the introduction—God has been introduced as the Creator, as the Savior, and as the one who has never stopped wanting to fix our drama—and now we get to see Him finally putting His rescue plan into action. This is the last teaching of Torah portion Noach so next week, we will be in Lech Lecha!
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/09/episode-81-a-man-named-abram/
The Bible really changes when we get to Genesis 12 and so I wanted to take a week to talk to the kids about what the Bible is and isn’t and why there are so many different kinds of writings by so many different people in it, and why we can trust it.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/02/episode-80-what-is-the-bible/
Before we start talking about Abraham next week, it’s really important to talk about “the prayer before the Lord’s prayer” which we find in Deuteronomy and begins with the Hebrew word shema, which isn’t an easy word to translate into English but it is a very important word that we need to understand. If that wasn’t confusing enough for us, we also have to figure out what the heck it means that God is “one” because people have been asking questions about that for a very long time.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/10/26/episode-79-the-shema-prayer-god-is-one/
I wanted to take some time to talk the kids about the trauma they experience after losing a beloved pet. My favorite cat Monty died unexpectedly last week and I took some time when the grief was still raw to write up this broadcast so that I could help kids to be comfortable with their emotions and to know that love is still a wonderful thing even though it can also cause us a lot of pain. I also talked a bit about how to be sensitive and kind when others are hurting. It is my hope that this will encourage conversations with parents and kids not only about pets but also when relatives pass on.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/10/19/episode-78-being-sad-when-our-pets-die/
This is the last of three special teachings on the Fall Festivals of the Bible that will all come out this week before they air on the radio because it’s important to understand the festivals before they happen so that we can celebrate them. Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, was the biggest party of the year in the Bible. The hard work of the harvest was all done and they could rest for the winter, knowing that they had enough food to eat. So why did God tell them to go camping? And what does any of this have to do with Jesus?
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/09/22/episode-77-sukkot-a-commandment-to-go-camping/
This is the second of three special teachings on the Fall Festivals of the Bible that will all come out this week before they air on the radio because it’s important to understand the festivals before they happen so that we can celebrate them. Do you understand the reason God commanded that Yom Kippur be celebrated forever? Do you understand what all those sacrifices were about, from the ancient Near Eastern perspective of the cleansing power of blood and sacred spaces? Through my own stories and parables, I will explain why Yom Kippur made the Temple habitable for God and the effect of sin on His Tabernacle, Temple, and even the Temple of Living Stones we are part of today.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/09/21/episode-76-yom-kippur-cleaning-gods-house/
This is the first of three special teachings on the Fall Festivals of the Bible that will all come out this week before they air on the radio because it’s important to understand the festivals before they happen so that we can celebrate them. This teaching will be about the festival that has a lot of descriptions in the Bible but no actual name! That’s why we call it different things but they all mean that we are going to celebrate and worship God our King and His Son Jesus, the King of kings.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/09/21/episode-75-the-feast-with-no-name/
We’ve finally reached the eleventh and final episode of Wonderful You! Today we are going to sum up all of the important aspects of our identity and talk about how God uses them to show Creation who He is and what He is like. But an accurate picture of God takes more than just a handful of people, it takes us all and it is only by working together in love that we can be God’s mirror.
(Parents, this is the eleventh in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/09/14/episode-74-you-are-gods-mirror/
God has amazing plans for your life, even if you don’t know it. And you have the ability to do whatever God wants you to do—but you have to make good choices and prepare yourself. God’s plan for you, what you can be, is called your potential. Whether or not you make the choices to be all that God wants you to be is up to you. This week we’ll talk about what you can do to prepare for your future so that you can be the amazing person God designed from the beginning!
(Parents, this is the tenth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/09/07/c4k-73-your-amazing-potential/
There are boundaries everywhere—and they are very important. You have boundaries too, even if you don’t know it. Good boundaries keep us safe and tell us what is and isn’t ours. Where we make our boundaries is a big part of deciding who we are and what we are and aren’t willing to put up with! When we do certain things, it leaves less time for others, which make other kinds of boundaries. Body boundaries are also very important because what we want to have happen to our bodies matters a lot.
(Parents, this is the ninth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/08/31/episode-72-your-boundaries-are-important/
Like it or not, we are defined by the choices we make and not by how we think about ourselves. So, how do we develop an identity like Jesus? What if we’ve already done a lot of terrible things? What does it say about us when people hurt us? Is Jesus really in our heart or does the Bible say something even better?
(Parents, this is the eighth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/08/23/episode-71-who-are-you-the-things-you-do/
What does it mean to be committed to God?
This week we are going to talk about the importance of our commitments and how they shape our character and what they say about us. In fact, it’s one of the most important challenges in the Bible as God tells us to commit to Him, His ways, His path, His commandments, our husbands or wives, our parents, justice and righteousness, etc. Does that mean that we can’t be involved with anything else? Of course not, but we have to be watchful and careful because it is very easy to become committed to things that are harmful to ourselves and others! I have done it myself!
Parents, this is the seventh in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/08/17/episode-70-we-all-commit-ourselves-to-something/
Why do we make the mistake of thinking that the sports teams we like, and the places we come from, and how pretty or handsome we are, or how athletic or smart we are make us better than the people around us? And how do all those things take the place of belonging to Jesus? How important are all those things and what is the difference between obsessions and addictions and likes, interests, and hobbies?
Parents, this is the sixth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/08/08/episode-69-you-dont-need-to-be-a-big-shot-to-be-important/
If I were to ask you who you are, you would consult your memories to give me an answer. Without our memories, who are we? And what if those memories are traumatic, does it mean that we will be broken forever? Does it mean that our lives are over? No way. We will also talk about our feelings when older relatives forget who we are and treat us strangely because of dementia and Alzheimer's.
Parents, this is the fifth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/08/03/episode-68-who-are-you-how-your-memories-work/
If you guys are anything like me, I bet that sometimes you feel like the world would be no different without you. We all feel like that sometimes. But today I want to teach you guys about community and why we all need each other and how God created us so that we could be with Him and so that He could be with us. You aren’t a mistake or an accident, you are someone that the rest of us need. We’ll also talk about how the people we are friends with change us and how we change them, and the difference between people who are true friends and people who are just buddies.
(Parents, this is the fourth in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls and still valuable. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/25/episode-67-you-are-needed-learning-about-community/
The things that have happened to us and the things we have done, and the things our family and ancestors have done can be really hard to live with. We have all done terrible things that we wish we could undo, and especially when people know about them and make us miserable about it. It can seem like our life is over and so that’s why this week we are going to talk about our histories and why they aren’t the whole story about us and why we can be honest about it. We are going to look at Jesus’s family history and the things people did to embarrass Him! And the best thing of all? We’ll be talking about YOUR identity as part of God’s family.
(Parents, this is the third in a series designed to help kids deal with identity and gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/18/episode-66-your-history-is-not-your-whole-story/
You are a wonderful work of art! You are your body and your body is you—you can’t do anything without your body! And a lot of people will have a lot of opinions about you and your body but what’s the truth? Probably not what you think.
(Parents, this is the second in a series designed to help kids deal with gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever.)
Transcript at https://contextforkids.com/2022/07/11/episode-65-your-body-matters/
(Parents, this is the first in a series designed to help kids deal with gender confusion by showing them that no matter what they like or what they look like or what they are good at, they are still boys and girls. When we try to push kids into filling stereotypical roles, we’re often the ones creating the confusion that they are forced to find a way to live with. I do this without making any mention of sexuality whatsoever. I will be following this up with a program this week on Character in Context where I talk to adults about how we have caused this problem, and especially within the Church.)
Being a kid is confusing and sometimes there is a whole lot of pressure to be feminine or masculine, and a lot of people have a lot of different ideas what that looks like. But what happens when we become the people that God wants us to be? What happens when we allow God to decide what each and every person should be and what what kinds of lives and jobs He wants them to have?
What would it be like to be working on a project and, all of a sudden, you can’t understand anyone else? And what’s the joke about Babylon in Hebrew? We’re going to talk about the Bible and its tendency to make Dad jokes in the original languages. And we’re also going to tackle the question of whether or not it is okay to settle down, or are we always supposed to be on the move?
Transcript at https://contextforkids.com/2022/06/27/episode-63-dazed-and-confused-and-scattered/
Why was God so concerned about the Tower of Babel? So what if they can accomplish whatever they want to do? Why is God standing in their way? And why does God stand in our way sometimes when we want to get things done?
What was the Tower of Babel and why was it built? Although everyone thinks that they know, we aren’t entirely sure because it doesn’t tell us—and you know when that happens we get a lot of “what if” stories and if you listened to the teaching on all the Nimrod myths, you know quite a few of them. This week we aren’t talking about legends but instead about archaeology—and the very cool thing about how the Bible says the Tower was built! As a bonus, we will talk about the Temple that God wanted built as well as the Temple that Jesus is building!
Transcript at www.contextforkids.com
Part two of the Tower of Babel Series! What did it mean that the people had one language and one vocabulary? Didn’t the last chapter tell us that there were like seventy languages? This week we are going to talk about the different possibilities and we are going to discuss what an “international language is”—plus, we are going to talk about the festival of Shavuot/Pentecost where all those confused languages went into reverse so that all people could hear the Greatest Story Ever Told!
Transcript at contextforkids.com
The people who built the Tower of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves, God gave a name to Abraham and Jacob, and God warns us about the importance of His own Name. But what does “Name” mean and how did Jesus talk about the Name of the Lord in the prayer He taught us?
Before we get into Chapter 11, the Tower of Babel and the journey of Abraham, we need to talk about ancient Mesopotamia—what it was like, what people’s lives were like, and the things that Abraham would have grown up with. A lot of people think of that area of the world and assume it is all desert, but it was more like a garden paradise! How were their lives the same as ours? How were they different? What did they look like and how did they dress? What did they eat and how did they live? Knowing this is important to understanding the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Lot.
For me, this is the fun stuff. What do a fiery furnace, magic underwear, an army invading heaven, idolatry, and a marriage between people who were born 1500 years apart all have in common? They’re all part of the wild development of Nimrod myths from the time of Jesus until modern times. But the Bible says almost nothing about Nimrod, and history says nothing. So why are there so many stories about him floating around out there? And how many different names can I come up with for magic undies?
For someone who is talked about so much, the Bible sure doesn’t say much about Nimrod! Or does it? This week we are going to look at what the phrases “powerful hunter” and “in the sight of the Lord” mean before having fun next week talking about all the different stories people have made up about Nimrod.
Just like with Adam and Eve and their kids, the Bible is telling us again that we are one big human family with one big God, but why was that story so important for Moses to tell and why is there no other story like it in ancient history?
No child I teach is ever going to have an excuse for believing that the Bible supports any form of racism.
Sometimes, grownups come up with some pretty zany ideas that they think come from the Bible but instead, we can use the Bible to show that they are nonsense. As we did with the Mark of Cain, which was actually a blessing and not a curse, this week we’re going to talk about the claim that all of the descendants of Ham were cursed by God—when what really happened is that one of Ham’s sons was cursed by Noah. We’re also going to discuss how this wrong belief has been used to hurt people all over the world.
The most important thing that ever happened in the history of the world was when Jesus rose from the grave--but why? How is resurrection different from raising the dead? What is vindication? What will our lives be like when we are resurrected? We're going to talk about Passover and about Yom HaBikkurim--the day of First Fruits--because they are 100% about Jesus!
This week I am going to introduce you to my wonderful, funny, and beautiful young friend Savannah Smalling who is going through a tough few years in and out of the hospital. And when things like this happen, or any other tragedy, we ask ourselves the same question we hear in the lamentation Psalms--why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? We're going to look at Psalm 73 and how the Bible encourages us to bring our complaints and confusion and anger to God. Is this a question we can even answer? Let's find out.
If you are on Facebook, you can follow Savannah's journey here. She loves talking to new friends!
https://www.facebook.com/My.Sweet.Savannah.Smalling
Just like when we talked about what Adam and Eve could have done differently, and what Cain could have done instead of getting angry and killing his brother, this time we are going to talk about how Noah reacted and maybe what he should have done instead. We’ll be comparing him to Jesus, who faced a similar situation where he was naked and humiliated and behaved very differently.
This is a very confusing part of the Bible. Noah messes up really badly. Ham makes the situation even worse. Then Noah speaks his only recorded words in the Bible and sometimes we aren’t sure how we should feel about them. What do we do when the Bible tells us what happened but doesn’t tell us how we should feel about it?
We’re going to see the word covenant for the second time and now God is going to keep the promise He made all the way back in chapter six. God told Noah that He would make a special covenant with Noah, but first Noah would have to make the ark and obey everything that God told Him to do or there would be no Noah to make a covenant with! What exactly is God going to give to Noah and his family and to the whole world?
After Noah offers up a bunch of critters and God decides to never destroy the earth again, God surprises everyone by changing their diet. They can eat meat now, and so their relationship with animals is going to change drastically—but God also has to teach them about blood and what it is and is not allowed to be used for.
This week we will see our first altar mentioned in the whole Bible so we are going to talk about what they were used for and about what kinds of animals could go on an altar and about the whole burnt offering. We’re also going to talk about how God can like the smell of the offering being roasted when he has no nose. And we have a lot to share about how Noah was the beginning of God’s plan to save us all.
Finally, God tells Noah and his family that they can get out of that stinky ark. I bet they kissed the ground! But what kind of life could they expect compared to what they had and why does this part of scripture sound so much like Genesis 1?
Why did Noah think that the earth is flat?
Some of the things in the Bible don’t really line up with what we understand about the world around us because God uses what we believe about the world to teach us about Himself. Not only does He do that now with us, but Jesus did it in His day and God also used what Noah, Abraham and Moses believed in order to teach them about what is really important in life. Our understanding of science and the world around us has always been changing since the beginning, but God remains the same. Since the Bible is a book about God, there isn’t room in it to bother with science. Not only that but we’d never understand what God understands about the world anyway because our brains are way too small.
One of the weirdest things in the flood story is that after telling Noah how to get everything done for so long, once the flood starts, God stops talking and the Bible even says that God had to remember about Noah and the animals. But what does the Hebrew word zakar really mean and how can we know that God never actually forgets about us?
Are the animals coming onto the ark by two’s or by fourteen’s and what’s all this about clean and unclean animals? Did Noah have to give them all baths or what?
Over and over again, we hear about Noah doing everything God commanded Him. Why is this important?
This is the very first time that the word covenant is mentioned in Scripture, but what exactly does that mean and why is it important to understand before Noah builds the ark? And we’re also going to talk about hyperbole again.
I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning, recorded it, edited it and am putting it up before it airs this week on the radio. In light of the recent tragedy in Afghanistan and the understandable fear and outrage among adults, kids are often left not knowing how to handle the emotions that we as adults often aren't handling well either. All around us we see adults getting angry and attacking the wrong people when they feel out of control, but what power do kids have to change anything? Plenty! We're going to talk about what it means to have God's phone number and our obligation to mention those who are suffering even when we can't do anything concrete to help them when they need help right now. Kids need to know that when they pray, God always hears them and acts even when we can't see the results, and we are also going to discuss what Jesus had to say about these kinds of events.
As we go through the Bible and especially Genesis and Exodus, we will come across so many situations where we will have to make a decision whether someone was right or wrong, which is a good thing to do. But the temptation is always there to say, “If I was there, I would have done things so much better!” We’re going to use the story of Peter at the Last Supper to talk about why bragging is a bad idea but also about how God knows that we are going to mess up and never gives up on us.
This week we are going to learn about a very myth-understood word! And we will be doing that so that we can talk about one of the flood myths of ancient Babylon written down during the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the Atrahasis Epic. We’ll learn a bit about ancient storytelling, the difference between mythology and lies, and how we can compare and contract stories from the Bible with the writings of other cultures to learn how different our God is from the false gods of the nations.
This week, something happened to me to make me very sad and so I want to talk to you about what to do when you are sad and what forgiveness is and is not all about. Hopefully this program will also help you to be a better friend when others are sad.
What is the Creation Covenant and what does it have to do with the Flood? Is God cruel or kind? Sometimes it is hard to understand why we should trust God when we see scary stories about the flood so we’re going to talk about what all of this teaches us about God’s character.
In our very first real episode for the second Torah portion of the Bible, we immediately see that Noah was righteous and blameless—in his generation… Is that a compliment or not? And what do these words mean? As they are very important to understanding the Bible, we’re going to explore them.
What kind of a guy was Noah before he found favor with the Lord? Was he a good guy or a bad guy? What what the heck is hyperbole and why will we spend so much time talking about how silly it can be?
What is the one-hundred-and-twenty-year mystery In Genesis 6? And can God really have regrets? What does the Bible tell us? What does the Bible not tell us?
God regrets making humans because we are wicked from cradle to grave, the Bible tells us in Genesis 6. But what about the philosophers who claim that people are basically good? And what does our wickedness tell us about God and how we can trust Him? And what does any of this have to do with the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees?
This story hits you like a mack truck, out of nowhere, and then just disappears again like it never happened. Why is it in the Bible? Who are these guys? What the heck is going on here?
Before we launch into the flood story, it’s very important to understand the theology of “Creational intent” aka “God’s original purpose” aka “God’s will.” We’re going to run into people, for the rest of the Bible, doing awful things that don’t represent what God originally wanted for us and usually, nothing is said one way or the other about whether they were right or wrong. That can make Bible study very confusing for kids. Studying creational intent is how we can keep people from feeling like they have to make excuses for what everyone in the Bible was doing—things like slavery which we all know is terribly wrong. By teaching kids to look backward to the Garden where all relationships were once healthy and good, we can give them the critical thinking skills to learn to live lives more reflective of God’s plans in creating us in the first place.
Genesis five is really weird. We have these people who lived really long lives but the numbers are very strange when you look closely at them. Also, what does it mean to walk with God and what on earth happened to Enoch?
Sometimes when we are angry, God is the last one we want to talk to but He really should be the first one we go to. This week, I am going to share a fictional story about how things could have handled differently by Cain, in order to teach kids how to talk to God when they just want to avoid Him instead.
Adam and Eve have another baby, whom they name Seth, and during his life, people begin to “call on the Name of the Lord.” What does that mean and why is that important throughout the rest of the Bible?
We’re going to talk about Cain’s children and grandchildren and great-grand…you get the idea. All but one seemed to turn out pretty good, proving that only Cain was cursed and not his descendants. They developed a lot of wonderful technologies—which tells us quite a different story than we will find in pagan accounts. And we will also talk about Lamech, the first guy to take two wives (and we will talk about the problems that brings throughout the Bible) and to just be a flat-out bully.
One of the age-old Bible questions is, “Who was Cain’s Wife?” and to answer that, we also have to ask, “Who did Cain think was going to kill him if they found him?” If you remember Episode 20, we talked about how theological history is different from our modern history books and that will help us uncover the solution to this mystery. Also, Cain founded a city—does that make cities bad? What does the Bible say about cities and where does Revelation show us ending up when Jesus is king? And we’re going to talk about why there are so few women and children mentioned by name in the Bible.
Oh, if only Cain had listened and made better choices! Now God has to tell Cain the consequences of his terrible actions—and Cain is going decide to reject God entirely. Will God abandon Cain or continue to care for him?
Cain refused to listen to God and then took out his anger on his brother Abel. Now Abel is dead and Cain is still angry at God. This week, we will learn what Jesus had to say about being our brother’s keeper and how our hearts get hardened when we refuse to obey God and do what is right.
This is one of those frustrating Bible stories where we aren’t told nearly as much as we want to know. Cain and Abel both make offerings to God. Abel’s offering is accepted and Cain’s isn’t? Why not? We don’t know. How does Cain know his offering isn’t accepted? We don’t know! Where the heck are Adam and Eve while all this is happening? We don’t know that either! What we do learn is that God is very, very concerned about us when we have gone in the wrong direction.
I know--I skipped archiving an episode but it will go up next week. It occurred to me how stupid it was for me to be archiving the Passover program the day after the Passover just because of when it is airing. So, this is the episode airing throughout this week, but it is going up here first.
Since we were talking about Cain and Abel’s offerings last week, this is the perfect time to discuss this week’s Bible holiday—Passover. What does the Passover teach us about God and what does it tell us about Jesus?
This week we’re going to talk about what kind of Book the Bible is—and specifically Genesis 1-11. The kids will learn about the genre theological history and why it is important to understand before talking about why God started out the Bible with one family instead of many—and what He was teaching us by telling the story that way. We’ll be talking about racism and why it is not compatible with our life in Christ.
One of the most frustrating things about life is free will! We love having it but we hate the mistakes we make because of it. Couldn’t God just force us to do the right thing? And what is exile and what does it mean in the life of Adam, Eve, their kids and all of us today?
Through our studies of Genesis 1-3, we see that sin has come into the world and God has promised to deal with it. The Bible is a book all about the promises God keeps and their fulfillment—and in promising to deal with sin and death—well, that’s where Jesus comes in. So exactly who is Jesus, what did He do, and what is the Gospel of the Kingdom? What is it that we are called to believe in order to be saved?
One of the great unanswered questions of the Bible is “what if Adam and Eve had just admitted what they did and said they were sorry?” Of course, we will never know for sure but the Bible tells us exactly what to do when we sin. We have to get right with God by going to Him and admitting it.
Let’s put all that we have learned together and read Genesis 2 and 3 (or most of it anyway) as though we are right there. How does our understanding change based on a first-person experience?
Sin was now in the Garden but so was the Tree of Life. Sometimes God has to take us away from His blessings for our own good when we will misuse them. Also, sometimes the consequences of our sins can be far worse than we ever thought when that temptation seemed so worth it. But some things just can never be undone.
Eve, and then Adam, made a terrible mistake and trusted the wrong guy. Will they fess up or will they make their sin even worse?
In this episode, a new character emerges, a serpent with the tempting offer to make the two humans more like God and less like gardeners. What will they decide and what does it teach us about how we should relate to God?
Did you think that work just has to be a result of sin? And that no one had to work before Adam and Eve rebelled against God? Actually, the Bible tells us that the first thing God did once He put Adam in the Garden was to give him a job! Let’s find out about the job of the first Adam and learn about how the “second Adam,” Jesus, always knew how to do His job.
The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are two of the most mysterious things ever created by God—this week’s lesson takes us from Genesis to Revelation and into the ancient Near Eastern world.
Genesis 2 says that God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and so we are going to take a look at the deep sleep of Abraham in Genesis 15 and burial practices in the ancient world to find out the original context of this strange account.
Hebrew word alert! Toledot is an amazing word meaning “generations” or “account” but what does it teach us about how we can always count on God to never lose track of us, forget us, or lose interest in us? We will also talk about the very first Temple in history—the Garden of God!
Prayer can be a very confusing thing—but it doesn’t have to be! As we go through the different sections in the Bible, I will be introducing the kids to how to interact with and trust God based on what we have learned. This first lesson will revolve around the Parable of the King Who Listened and it will teach kids about the access they have to God.
This week, I am going to teach the kids the trick of reading the Bible experientially. It helps bring the Bible into the mindset of history and it is actually a critical thinking exercise that will help kids see what is and is not in the text as they grow older.
What does it mean that God rested? Did He take a nap after six days of hard work? Does God even sleep? We're going to have a cool archaeological lesson this week about ziggurats and about God as King of the Universe He created.
What does it mean to be made in God's image? We're going to talk about archaeology and ancient kings and even about idols. And what about the perfect image of God that we see in Jesus?
People in the ancient world thought that gods and goddesses were responsible for every single part of nature but when God told the story of Creation to Moses, He made sure He did it in a way that people would know the truth. Nature and weather and the sun, moon, and stars are created--just like us!
This week we are going to talk about what the phrase "it was good" means because God says it not once, but six times in Genesis 1 and He even says "it was very good" once. Again, because the Bible is a book about God, we're going to take a look at what "it was good" says about how different He is than all the other false gods being worshipped by the nations surrounding Israel.
What does the first chapter of Genesis say about the power of God's Word? How is His ability to create things totally different from our ability to make things? What does the Gospel of John say about Jesus's identity as the Word of God? What miracles did He perform to prove that His words are creative too?
This is my fun first introduction to what Bible context is and why it is so important. To do this, I talk about a whole lot of funny and sometimes gross things that people do, wear, eat, and say that don't make sense to people from other cultures. Bad news, parents, we're going to talk about some of your fashion choices when you were kids. We'll play the idiom game and discuss probably the funniest verse in the entire Bible and how, without context, it just sounds very ridiculous in Hebrew.
If you want a transcript, be sure to check out my main website www.contextforkids.com and if you want an easy way to listen to this on your tv, check out my youtube channel, Context for Kids.
I am very excited to be airing a new radio show on Hebrew Nation Radio www.HebrewNationOnline.com starting in November 2020.
As always, we will take all that complicated PhD material and boil it down into interesting kid-sized pieces. We will also be talking a lot about Biblical character and what it really means to follow our Savior Yeshua/Jesus. I am very excited about this and hope you will be too. Make sure to subscribe to the channel so that you find out about new programs just in case you miss one. I will also be posting transcripts for each broadcast for the hearing impaired over at www.contextforkids.com each week.