CELEBRATING

30YEARSOF DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

IN THIS ISSUE:COMPASSION

SCRIPTURE AND SCIENCE FOR KIDS

MAN'S COMPASSION

GOD'S COMPASSION

EXAMPLES OF COMPASSION

VOLUME 31:06 JUNE 2020

COM

PASS

ION

HAVE YOU EVER USED THE WORD SPLAGCHNIZOMAI (PRONOUNCED

SPLANK-nee-zo-my)?

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEONE IN PAIN AND YOU DID NOT EVEN HAVE WORDS TO

DESCRIBE YOUR REACTION. IT WAS ALMOST LIKE YOUR STOMACH TWISTED A LITTLE. MAYBE YOU HAVE SEEN VIDEOS WHERE

PEOPLE WRECK ON THEIR BIKES OR FALL REALLY HARD. IT’S ALMOST AS IF YOU CAN

FEEL THE PAIN WITH THEM.

ALLY, IT MEANS “TO BE MOVED DEEP IN YOUR STOMACH.” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, HOWEV-ER, THE WORD IS TRANSLATED “COMPASSION.”

SO WHY WOULD THE ENG-LISH WORD “COMPASSION”

BE TRANSLATED FROM A GREEK WORD THAT MEANS

“TO BE MOVED DEEP IN YOUR STOMACH”? THAT

SEEMS ODD. WHAT DOES CARE AND CONCERN FOR

OTHERS HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR STOMACH?

“AND WHEN JESUS WENT OUT HE SAW A GREAT MULTITUDE;

AND HE WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION FOR THEM.”

PROBABLY NOT, UNLESS YOU KNOW HOW TO SPEAK GREEK. WHEN YOU LOOK AT

THE WORD, IT LOOKS A LITTLE LIKE THE WORD SPAGHETTI. YOU MIGHT BE WON-

DERING WHAT THE WORD MEANS. LITER-

What does compassion mean? It means you have deep care and concern for the suffering and

pain of others, and that sentiment pushes you to do something about it. A good illustration is when a

mother sees her son fall and skin his knee. She is concerned about his pain, and helps by comforting him, washing the scrape, and putting on

a bandage.

words. It is the feeling you get when you see pain and suffering and know

you need to do something about it.

In English, we have a similar way to describe com-passion. Often we will say, “My heart just broke for that child.” Or, “My heart went out to him

when he fell.” Why would we say our heart went out? That sounds worse than a deep movement in our stomach. Both languages are trying to describe

an experience deep within us that is difficult to put into

JESUS WAS THE MOST COMPASSIONATE PERSON TO EVER LIVE ON EARTH. LET’S LOOK AT SOME TIMES DURING HIS LIFE WHEN HE HAD COMPASSION ON OTH-

ERS. IN MATTHEW 14:13-21, WE FIND THE FAMOUS STORY OF JESUS FEEDING MORE

THAN 5,000 PEOPLE. VERSE 14 SAYS,

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COM

PASS

IONJESUS SAW THESE PEOPLE AND HIS “HEART

WENT OUT TO THEM.” WHAT DID HIS COM-PASSION LEAD HIM TO DO? HE HEALED THEIR

SICK, AND HE FED THEM.

MOST OF US WHO SEE A PICTURE LIKE THAT FEEL CONCERN FOR

THAT CHILD’S SUFFERING.

In Luke 13, we read a story about a man who did

not have compassion. In this story Jesus was in the synagogue

WHAT IS THE LONGEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN WITHOUT EATING? MAYBE YOU WENT THROUGH A SURGERY AND

COULD NOT EAT FOR A DAY OR TWO. IT IS A TERRIBLE FEEL-

ING. YOUR STOMACH SEEMS TO BE SCREAMING AT YOU. JESUS KNEW ALL ABOUT HUNGER.

REMEMBER THAT WHEN HE BE-GAN HIS MINISTRY AFTER HIS

BAPTISM, HE FASTED AND DID NOT EAT ANYTHING FOR 40 DAYS. HE KNEW EXACTLY HOW THESE PEOPLE FELT. THAT’S WHY HE WANTED TO HELP THEM AND SHOW THEM

THE LOVE OF GOD.

COMPASSION MEANS THINKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.

SADLY, MANY PEOPLE ARE SO CONCERNED ABOUT

THEMSELVES, THEY DON’T TAKE TIME TO STOP AND THINK ABOUT OTHERS.

Have you ever seen a picture of a child who is starving? If

you have, maybe you remember seeing the

poor little child’s very thin arms and

legs. Maybe you remember being able

to count all the child’s ribs barely covered by skin.

COMPASSION MEANS NOT ONLY FEELING CON-CERNED, BUT ALSO TRYING TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP IF WE CAN.

on a Sabbath. A woman came in who had a very crooked back and was bent over. She had not been able to raise herself up for 18 years. That is twice as long as some of you reading this have been alive. Jesus saw her and wanted to help, so He healed her. The ruler of the synagogue got mad at Jesus, because He healed

her on the Sabbath. This man was too busy trying to “be in charge” to stop and think about others. He never even thought about the woman. His heart did not go out to her. He was not moved deeply in his stomach.

He was so self-centered he did not even think about her troubles.

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ACTIVITYACTIVITY

PAGEPAGE

True or False

3

4

7

1

8

5

2

6

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A HELPING HANDS

COLORING SHEET

1. ___ Compassion means to feel sorry for others, but not necessarily to do anything about it.

2. ___ Because we can’t heal people today like Jesus did, we are not able to be compassionate.

3. ___ Jesus was the perfect example of being a compas-sionate person.

4. ___ Few people are mainly concerned about them-selves.

5. ___ Compassion means to have deep care and con-cern for the suffering and pain of others, and that sentiment pushes you to do something about it.

6. ___ We should always keep our eyes open for people who need help.

7. ___ The English word “compassion” is translated from a Greek word that means “to be moved deep in your stomach.”

8. ___ In Luke chapter 29, we read a story about a man who did not have compassion.

ACROSS:

3. A man from Kenya who stopped to help a fellow runner who collapsed

4. A ruler of this place was too busy “being in charge” to be compassionate toward others and to recognize an awesome miracle that Jesus worked (Luke 13)

7. The amount of people Jesus fed in Matthew 14 ex-ceeded this amount

8. Translation of the Greek word splagchnizomai in the New Testament

DOWN:

1. Number of days Jesus fasted prior to His baptism

2. A long (funny-sounding) word that literally means “to be moved deep in your stomach”

5. Book of the Bible in which we read about Jesus heal-ing a woman who had not been able to raise herself up for 18 years

6. The most compassionate person to ever live on Earth

JESUS ALWAYS

THOUGHT OF OTHERS.

DO WE?

OF COURSE, WE CAN’T HEAL

PEOPLE TODAY LIKE JESUS DID.

DOES THAT MEAN WE CAN’T HAVE COMPASSION? CERTAINLY NOT. MAYBE

YOU HAVE HAD A BROKEN BONE AND WORE A CAST. DO YOU REMEMBER

HOW BADLY YOU WANTED TO GET BACK TO PLAYING SPORTS AND DOING “NORMAL” THINGS? MAYBE YOU

REMEMBER SEEING EVERYONE ELSE RUNNING AND PLAYING AND YOU

WISHED SO BADLY THAT YOU COULD JOIN IN. THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE

ANOTHER PERSON IN THE SAME SITU-ATION, YOU COULD GO SIT WITH THEM AND PLAY A GAME THEY WOULD ENJOY.

THAT WOULD BE COMPASSIONATE. DiscoveryMagazine.comDiscoveryMagazine.com June 2020 • June 2020 • DiscoveryDiscovery 4747 46 Discovery • June 2020 DiscoveryMagazine.com

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APOLOGETICS PRESS, INC.230 Landmark Drive

Montgomery, AL 36117(800) 234-8558 (Orders)

(334) 272-8558DiscoveryMagazine.com

© 2020 Apologetics Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Editor: Kyle Butt, M.Div.Associate Editor: Eric Lyons, M.Min.

Layout and Design: Rob Baker, M.Ed.

Periodicals Postage PAID

Yearly Subscription Fees in U.S. Funds Only • United States of America: Individual rate: $14 each • Bulk rate (at least 5 to same address): $12 each.Club rate (at least 10 to different addresses paid together): $12.50 each

ANSWERS

Discovery is published monthly by Apologetics Press, Inc., 230 Landmark Drive, Montgomery, AL 36117. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Montgomery, AL. POSTMASTER: Send address changes

to Discovery, 230 Landmark Drive, Montgomery, AL 36117; USPS# 20

CROSSWORD CHALLENGE: Across: 3. Simon Cheprot; 4. Synagogue; 7. Five thousand; 8. Compassion; Down: 1. Forty; 2. Splagchnizomai; 5. Luke; 8. Jesus. TRUE OR FALSE: 1. F; 2. F; 3. T; 4. F; 5. T; 6. T; 7. T; 8. F.

LAST YEAR A MAN FROM KENYA NAMED SIMON CHEPROT WAS ABOUT TO WIN A 10K RACE THAT HE WAS RUNNING IN NIGERIA. JUST BEFORE HE REACHED THE FINISH LINE, HE SAW ONE OF HIS COMPETITORS COLLAPSE IN THE ROAD BESIDE HIM. INSTEAD OF CROSSING THE FINISH LINE

AND WINNING THE RACE, HE STOPPED TO HELP HIS COMPETITOR. HE CARRIED HIM ACROSS

THE FINISH LINE.

LET’S HAVE THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST THAT URGES US TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP.

WHEN HE WAS ASKED WHY HE DID IT, HE SAID, “MY DAD TOLD ME ONE DAY, ‘WHEN YOU’RE

WALKING AND YOU MEET A SICK PERSON ON THE ROAD, HELP HIM. DO NOT LEAVE HIM,’

SO THAT WAS THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MY

MIND.”1

1 Quoted in Blake Alsup’s article titled “Kenyan runner gives up win to help collapsed competitor cross finish line, awarded $15,000” (2019), New York Daily News, May 30.

That is compassion.

LET’S MAKE SURE THAT WE KEEP OUR EYES OPEN FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP. AND LET’S MAKE SURE WE DO MORE THAN JUST THINK ABOUT THEIR SUFFERING.

48 Discovery • June 2020 DiscoveryMagazine.com© COPYRIGHT, APOLOGETICS PRESS, INC., 2020, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED