{"id":45909,"date":"2007-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/children-play-with-bomb\/"},"modified":"2007-11-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:50:52","slug":"children-play-with-bomb","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/children-play-with-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"Children Play with a Bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Children will play with virtually anything they get their hands on. It&#39;s no surprise, then, that when Dutch children in the town of Barneveld uncovered an unexploded World War II artillery shell, they played with it. In fact, they had games with it for several months.<\/p>\n\n<p>That shell was still live and contained high explosives. Thankfully, the deadly plaything did not explode in the Barneveld playground as the children tossed it about. Eventually the authorities learned about the shell, confiscated it, and exploded it in a safe place.<\/p>\n\n<p>Those who are not yet mature often fail to recognize the danger of what they are doing. For children, the world is a playground, and bombs make great toys.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[310],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[430],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3569,3572,3677,3731,3746,3764,3790,3869,3999,4002,4029,4104,4219,4361,4409,4438,4502,4778,4803,4958,4977,5096,5131,5134,5157,5231,5279,5300,5302],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45909","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-choice","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-decision","tax_ctp_tags-desert","tax_ctp_tags-discernment","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-folly","tax_ctp_tags-foolishness","tax_ctp_tags-fun","tax_ctp_tags-growth","tax_ctp_tags-immaturity","tax_ctp_tags-leisure","tax_ctp_tags-lust","tax_ctp_tags-maturity","tax_ctp_tags-movies","tax_ctp_tags-recreation","tax_ctp_tags-renewing-the-mind","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-stumbling-blocks","tax_ctp_tags-television","tax_ctp_tags-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-thoughts","tax_ctp_tags-vices","tax_ctp_tags-wisdom","tax_ctp_tags-world","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Children Play with a Bomb - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/children-play-with-bomb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Children Play with a Bomb - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children will play with virtually anything they get their hands on. It&#039;s no surprise, then, that when Dutch children in the town of Barneveld uncovered an unexploded World War II artillery shell, they played with it. In fact, they had games with it for several months. That shell was still live and contained high explosives. 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