Bruce A. Ware - Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God

Big Truths for Young Hearts

Other Crossway Books by Bruce A. Ware:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Gods Greater Glory
Gods Lesser Glory
Their God Is Too Small

Big Truths for Young Hearts

Copyright 2009 by Bruce A. Ware

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Chris Tobias

Cover photos: iStock

First printing, 2009

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB have been taken from The Holman Christian Standard Bible. Copyright 1999, 2000, 2003, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

ISBN PDF: 978-1-4335-0602-4

ISBN Mobipocket: 978-1-4335-0603-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ware, Bruce A.
Big truths for young hearts : teaching and learning the greatness of God / Bruce A. Ware.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4335-0601-7 (tpb)
1. Theology, Doctrinal. 2. Christian education of children. I. Title.
BT75.3.W37 2009
248.8C45dc22

2008045248

BG 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my two children,
both precious daughters,

BETHANYCHRISTINA and RACHEL ELIZABETH:

How deeply thankful I am that God gave me the privilege
of being your dad; how richly blessed I am
to have received unfailingly your kindness, love,
and respect; and how overjoyed I am to see you walking
faithfully and happily in the good and wise ways
of our great God.

Contents

By Bethany Strachan and Rachel Ware

This book is very special to us. As Bruce Wares daughters, we view Big Truths for Young Hearts not only as a rich resource for children and adults, but also as a tangible representation of the teaching we were blessed to faithfully receive from our dad throughout our childhood.

For the past two decades we have lived with a father who loves theology and loves to teach theology. We both remember him teaching us all six verses of the hymn May the Mind of Christ my Savior by the time we were three years old. During our annual summer road trips to see family on the West Coast, Dad and Mom used the time in the car to lead our family in singing worship songs, memorizing Scripture, and discussing theology. Dad would often begin a conversation with a question: So, do you think Jesus had to be both God and man? or How can God be good and still allow bad things to happen in the world? Not exactly laid-back vacation banter, but we loved those family conversations. We girls would sit in the backseat of our family Toyota and rack our brains trying to think of a biblical answer, knowing all the while that Dad had one. He was passionate about sharing truths with us that would give us confidence in our faith. This passion came through in family discussions at dinner, late-night chats in his study, and the daddy daughter dates on which he often took us. Though we did not fully realize it then, those conversations were life-changing and heart-shaping. It was Theology 101 given outside the classroom.

Dad really believes the things that are in this book. His theology shapes the way he lives, as we have seen many times. In confronting theological challenges of his day, Dad has displayed uncompromising commitment to Gods word. During hard times, he has trusted God and said along with Job, The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. When praised for his gifts, he has had a humble attitude, consistently focusing attention on the Source of every good gift. He is generous with his time and money, faithful in evangelism, untiring in teaching, and devoted to his family. We tell you all this because we want to honor Dads integrity. Though of course he is deeply aware of his own sin, he strives to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Big Truths for Young Hearts is the same Theology 101 we learned growing up. It is a rich collection of truths that come straight from Scripture and answer questions about who God is, his work in the world, and the hope we can have through a relationship with Christ. Many people, whether evangelical or otherwise, have misconceptions about the basic doctrines of God. We need to understand these doctrines in order to understand life correctly. This book takes us straight to the heart of the Bible to help us do that.

We want to include a brief word to parents and children. To parents: it may sound clich, but we followed our fathers teaching in part because he practiced what he preached. Like all children, we needed to look up and see our parents looking up at a great God who has great things in store for those who love him. The practice of faith really does make it powerful. To children: were so glad that youre learning truths about God! It doesnt always seem fun to have to sit and listen to your parents. But this subject is actually more exciting than anything else you could think of. As you get older, youll be very glad that you had parents who loved you and who taught you about the most important person you could ever know: God.

Lastly, to our dad: we love you so much and are so proud of you. You are a tender father, a loving husband, and a faithful provider. Thank you for raising your daughters so that we, to this day, feel cherished. Most of all, thank you for believing the gospel, teaching it to us, and faithfully showing us through your own life that God is great.

With love,
Bethany and Rachel

Introduction:
On Raising Children to Know and
Love God through Raising Them to
Know and Love Theology

The beginnings of this book go back nearly twenty years, to when I was teaching theology at Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon. Bethany was six, Rachel was two, and I recall Jodi and me trying to figure out just how best to get two fun-loving, giggly girls to bed in a way that kept our sanity but didnt distract from the sheer happiness they enjoyed that last hour before sleep came upon them both. One night it occurred to me that since they loved being with us this last part of the day and werent quite ready for sleep yet, I might consider co-opting the time and using it to do what I loved most and what they needed most (though they wouldnt have known this yet)teach them great and glorious truths of the Christian faith!

What began in those evenings turned into something better than I had planned or envisioned. Surely God led in this despite my mere play it by ear endeavor to make something work. I began in those early years spending ten to fifteen minutes with each of our daughters at their bed-side, going through the doctrines of the Christian faith. Of course, I didnt explain to them that I was basically teaching them the same theology sequence I taught at seminary, but that is exactly what I did. We started with the Bibles teaching on divine revelation and looked at some key pas-sages about Gods revelation in creation and in our consciences and then his remarkable revelation through his Word, both the living Word, Jesus, and the written Word, the inspired Scriptures. We would read a key text or two and then talk about what it means. Id work at giving explanations they could understand, and it became apparent to me right away when they got it and when they didnt. Facial expressions and questions from children say much about whether they are grasping the ideas and see both their truth and their beauty. When we finished one area of theology, wed move on to the next, with no set time and no deadlines, so we just enjoyed reading Scripture and thinking about these areas one by one. As much as I longed to convey truth that would help shape their minds and worldviews, I also prayed deeply that God would be pleased to enable them to see the glory and beauty of these precious truths. Mind and heart are both essential in this process, and I knew I must constantly trust God to do this work in them, a work that only he can bring to pass.