BONUS- Just in Case You Ever Feel Alone with Guest Max Lucado In this sweet little episode, Rachael invites pastor Max Lucado to come on the show to talk to the children about feeling lonely. Max is a powerful storyteller, father, grandpa, and pastor, and speaks from experience when talking about the ways we can overcome loneliness. We pray this ep…

70// Jesus Gives His Friends (And Us!) A Very Important Job: A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study Do you like to receive mail? I love going to pick up mail from the mailbox and seeing what's inside, especially around the Christmas time of year when things might be presents or gifts. But the mail also carries important information, bills and ne…

69// What Jesus’ Resurrection Means for Us: A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study If you've listened to the podcast yesterday, you know that it was a really hard story to hear. It was all about how Jesus took on our sin and the punishment we deserved. Well, today is the second half of the story. And I will tell you that it is my favorite part o…

68// This Is How Much Jesus Loves You: A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study Hi kids! Today, we’re going to read and study Matthew 27:11-61. This is a tough story in the Bible to read, because it’s the story of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross for our sins. As we think about what that means, let us remember how much Jesus loves us, even enough t…

67// Jesus Chose to Obey His Father: A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study If your mom says to clean your room, what do you want to do instead? What does God want you to do? Today, we’re talking about obedience - the ultimate act of obedience was Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. Because he obeyed his Father, and because he rose again, we…

66// What Jesus Was Willing to Do for His Friends // A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study How willing are you to help your friends? In our story in Matthew 26, we see that Jesus was willing to do hard things to help his friends. Some of his friends had a hard time accepting what Jesus said he was going to do. But in our story today, we’ll see …

65// What’s Going to Happen When Jesus Comes Back? A Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study If Jesus showed up in your room right now, how do you think you would treat him? Do you think that you would make him feel welcome and loved? If he asked you for something, would you give it to him? In our message today, Jesus is describing for people what …

64// What to Do With The Blessings God Gives Us: A Kids Daily Devotional on The Parable of the Talents Today, we’re studying Matthew 25:14-30, known as the Parable of the Talents. Parables were stories Jesus told to help his listeners understand important spiritual truths. In this parable, we learn about a master who gives his servants different am…

63// Ready Hearts: How Kids Can Prepare for Jesus: Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study Hey, kids! Rachael starts off this episode feeling a little unprepared, and talks through what it might be like to feel unprepared in other situations in our lives. Even thought it’s Christmas time and we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus coming as a b…

62// Building Strong Character Block by Block: Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study On today’s episode, we are talking about humility and pride. We learn about what Jesus had to Say about being sincere and serving others. We also learn where all of our gifts and talents truly come from. This episode coincides with episode 446 of the adult versio…

61// The Number One Rule: Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study Today’s episode is all about rules. Sometimes, people argue over rules. They might say certain rules are more important than others. They might even argue over which rules are the most important for us to follow. Sometimes people get pretty upset if others disagree with what they thi…

60// Money Doesn’t Last, But This Does: Kids Daily Devotional, Kids Bible Study In our Gospel lesson today, we’ll see that Jesus encountered some people who tried to trick him with a question. They asked him, should people pay taxes to the government? These church leaders wanted to trap Jesus, hoping he would give them a wrong answer. But of course…

59// The Best Party You’ll Ever Go To Do you like parties? Most people do! Jesus once told a story about a great party, but not everyone was invited. He wanted to paint a picture for his followers about what the Kingdom of God was like. Let’s study this Bible story together and learn what God wants us to understand about his Kingdom and the party h…

58// What Kind of Fruit Are You Growing? Did you know that God describes our good works and our good character as fruit in the Bible? God helps us bear good fruit for his kingdom - fruit that we’re meant to give away, not keep for ourselves. We’ll talk about what this metaphor means in more depth in today’s episode! This episode coincides with epis…

57// Jesus Always Keeps His Promises When Jesus was preaching and teaching, a lot of the religious leaders of the day questioned his authority. In today’s Bible reading and devotional, we’re going to look at Jesus’ response to those questions and how we can know that Jesus always keeps his promises. This episode coincides with episode 440 of the ad…

56// The Most Important Thing You Need Today, I want to think about some things that you and I need to live. What would you say some of those things are? Well, for me, I would say it would be things like water, and air, and food. Well, God wants us to know about another thing we need to live, in fact, there’s something he said we need to have etern…

55// Serving Others With Love In today’s episode, we discover why being a servant is greater than seeking power. Explore how Jesus, the King of the universe, chose to be a helper, surprising even the disciples. This episode inspires kids aged 6-12 to find joy in serving others, just like Jesus did. Learn why greatness is measured by kindness, not b…

54// But It’s Not Fair! Have you ever thought about the perspective that when something isn’t fair, it’s actually a good thing? In today’s episode, discover why fairness isn't always what it seems and how this relates to God's incredible grace. Tune in for a meaningful episode that reminds us to be grateful, patient, and embrace the wonderful gift …

53// Why Money Can’t Buy Lasting Joy If we want to be a follower of Jesus, we have to do what Jesus tells us to do. Even if it's hard, like giving up our nice things, like our money. But Jesus wants us to know that money can never make us happy - not forever. Money can’t bring lasting contentment and we certainly can’t take it with us beyond this l…

52// Jesus Especially Loves Children Our Bible story for today is about how much Jesus loved little children. So much, in fact, that he scolded his friends when they tried to keep kids from coming to him. This is the story you want to have written on your heart any time you doubt God’s love and care for you - God cares so deeply for you! You are a …

51// How Do I Know If I’ve Really Forgiven Someone? Most of us know how to say sorry - and I’ve bet we’ve all practiced saying it! And for little slights and hurts, it’s easy to say, “I forgive you.” But how do we forgive when the hurts are bigger - when we’ve done something that has really upset someone, or a friend or family member hurts us with …

50// How To Be A Good Friend Today we are talking about how to be a good friend. Part of friendship is working through disagreements when they happen. Sometimes it can be really difficult to do that, but our friendships will be stronger because of it. Let’s learn from Jesus about the ways we can help our friendships draw us closer to Him. This epis…

49// A Camping Trip You’d Never Forget Have you ever been on a camping trip? You might go hiking, you might make special food, you might see a new view that you've never seen before. Well, today we're talking about Jesus taking some of his friends on kind of like a camping trip, they went up on the mountain, and something pretty remarkable happened…

48// Who Is Jesus? When Jesus was alive, people often speculated and sometimes even got confused about who he was. And in this passage, Jesus is asking his disciples who they thought he was. The answer to that question has eternal consequences. We know that Jesus is our Rescuer - God himself came down to save us. How can you tell others about Jesus…

​​47// Anyone Can Have Faith in God Today we are learning about a woman that no one thought would have faith. Yet we see her coming to Jesus with the kind of faith that impressed even Him. As we think about what it means to share the gospel, it reminds us to share the message of the good news with others, no matter who they are or where they come f…

​​46// Words that Build Up, Words that Tear Down Sometimes, the words that come out of our mouths are not good at all. Lying, grumbling, angry words, words that cut down instead of build up… in today’s Bible passage, Jesus says that the words that come out of our mouths are more important than what we put in our mouths. We learn how Jesus is more c…

45// Peter Walks on the Water Can you imagine what it would have been like to see Peter and Jesus walking on the water? This incredible story of faith and rescue shows us the power of God and his provision and protection over us. Let’s study this Bible story together and look for what God might want us to take away and apply to our own lives today.…

44// An Amazing, Incredible Miracle There are some really incredible stories in the Bible, and the story of Jesus feeding thousands of people with one boy’s lunch is certainly one of them. There was even food left over! When we give God what we have, he can multiply that into something incredible. We might not think that we have a lot, but God will…

43// The Terrible King Can you think of a time when one of your friends or maybe a brother or sister wanted you to do something wrong? We’ve all had that experience. It can be really hard to say no. Today, we’re going to talk about a really terrible king - King Herod - and what happened when we decided to give into doing wrong instead of doing righ…

42// Why the Kingdom of God Is Like a Precious Treasure Today, we're talking about two people in the Bible who found treasures. Jesus tells his listeners that the Kingdom of God is like a precious treasure. Why is that? Because to be in the Kingdom of God is to be in a place of perfect beauty, safety, peace and love. In our study of Matthew today, …

41// How to Deal with the Weeds in Our Lives If you’re ever confused about some of Jesus’ teachings, don’t worry - you’re in good company. Even Jesus’ closest friends and companions struggled to understand what Jesus meant! Today, we see in our section of Scripture that the disciples came to Jesus and asked him to explain the parable of the weeds a…

40// Inspecting the Fruit of Our Lives We’re not done with our farming metaphors! Today, we’re talking about what in the world Jesus meant when he talked about weeds growing up in the midst of good wheat. We’ll discuss what it looks like to inspect the fruit of our lives and how to see what is good and what is not. When we put our faith in God, we …

39// Having Hearts Like Good Soil Jesus lived in a day when everyone was a farmer and gardener, so he used a lot of stories about farming to describe what his Kingdom was like and what God is like. And Jesus said that God is like a farmer. Today, we’ll study the parable of the sower and how it can help us understand what God is like, and what we ho…

38// Bearing Good Fruit with Our Words The Bible says that eventually, on the Day of Judgment, at the end of our lives, we're going to have to give an account for all of the words that we speak, everything that you have said, you're going to have to give a report to Jesus for. Today, we’re going to look at words that bear good fruit and words that …

37// Why Were the Pharisees Mad That Jesus Cast Out Demons? The Pharisees were astounded at Jesus’ ability to cast out demons - but, having already made up their minds about who Jesus was, it also confirmed their worst suspicions - they believed Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan. They simply could not believe that Jesus was operati…

36// What Is the Sabbath? Today we're talking about how Jesus healed a man's hand. That's great news, isn't it? Well, for everybody else, it would be great news except the Pharisees. See the day that Jesus healed the man's hand, was on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a special day, it was a holy day that was set apart for God. Jesus is going to challe…

35// Jesus Points the Way to the Kingdom of God Today, we're talking about signs. Have you seen any signs today, or this week when you were maybe on the way to school or on the way to church, there are signs everywhere. Well, in biblical times, people looked for signs to in fact, they would read the old scripture prophecies from the Old Testament, …

34// Who Can You Welcome Into God’s Family? Have you ever thought about what the word welcome means? You've probably heard the word plenty of times before. When we welcome others, we're communicating to them that they are valued and that we're so glad to see them or be with them. But sometimes, we might struggle to be welcoming. Today, we’re going …

33// Sheep, Snakes, Doves & Wolves, Oh My! Do you know what a metaphor is? It’s when two things that seem really different are compared to one another. There are a lot of animal metaphors in the Bible! In this passage of Scripture, Jesus tells us to be like three animals - sheep, snakes, and doves. And then he tells us that there are people who are…

32// Some People Will Accept the Gospel, and Some Will Not Sometimes, when we share the good news of Jesus, people will accept it. And sometimes they will not. Today, we are going to talk about the instructions Jesus gave his disciples for how to go about sharing the gospel and what to do when their listeners reject the good news. This episode coin…

31// Sending Out the Disciples The disciples spent so much time learning from Jesus, and now it’s time for them to help Jesus by sharing His good news. In today’s episode, we learn exactly who those disciples were, and how we can be disciples in our own lives. This episode coincides with episode 407 of the adult version of the Hearing Jesus Podcast…

30// Helping God With His Harvest Did you ever think about how God may want to use you to share His love with others? Just like a ripe harvest, there are people around us that are ready to learn about God. Today we talk about what that means and some ways we can help God by sharing His love with others. This episode coincides with episode 406 of th…

29// The Compassion of Jesus What does compassion mean? Well in today’s episode, we learn that compassion isn’t just about feeling bad for someone, it’s doing something to help them in their suffering. We learn how Jesus responded to people that were hurting, and it helps us understand how He wants us to respond, too. This episode coincides with ep…

28// A Seat at the Table With Jesus Sometimes the way Jesus does things surprises people. In today’s episode, we are learning all about how Jesus surprised the religious leaders by the way that He treated the people that everyone else hated. As we learn together how Jesus treated Matthew, it helps us to know how to treat others that are different f…

27// The Power of Faithful Friends When you first study the bible story of Jesus healing the paralytic, you might think that the main characters are just the paralyzed man and Jesus. But Matthew wants us to recognize the paralytic’s friends and their incredible faith. It's the faith of the friends, sometimes, that makes all the difference. Today, a…

26// Jesus Has Power Over Evil We know that God is real, but there's also a very real enemy in our world. You may have heard his name before; he's called the devil. And to be perfectly honest, the devil has a plan to hurt, kill, and destroy as much of God's goodness as he possibly can. And sometimes that includes even hurting us. But there’s good n…

25// Jesus Calms the Storm Do you ever remember a time in your life when you were in a big storm? Like a really, really big storm? Sometimes the storms can surprise us. That's kind of what happened with Jesus and the disciples when they were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus’ friends we’re totally afraid, but Jesus took a nap! Let’s find out…

24// Jesus Didn’t Have a Pillow?! What did Jesus mean when he said that the “Son of Man does not have a place where He may lay His head”? Today, we’re studying Matthew 8:14-22 and learning together what it costs to follow Jesus - it’s not about money, but it does involve us giving something up. The good news is through Jesus, what we gain is so muc…

In Matthew 8, we read a story of a man with faith that amazed Jesus. It was the kind of faith Jesus wants all of his children to have! The Centurian trusted that Jesus was who he said he was - and we can trust that Jesus is just as powerful and ready to heal today as he was all those years ago. As we read the story of the Centurian and his faith, w…

Have you ever been so sick you were not allowed to be around other kids? That’s called being contagious. Well today in our scripture study, we’re going to hear about a very contagious man whom Jesus was able to heal with just the touch of his hand and the words from his mouth. It’s an incredible story about the power of God over illness - there is …