10 Gospel Truths-They're Back!!!

If you enjoyed the 10 Essential Gospel Truths from March you will be excited about this book like I am! Helping Children Understand the Gospel has each of the 10 truths that I posted! It’s only $7.50 and you can have it at the reach of your hands! I just bought my copy. Lord willing, I will get good use out of it this summer with my very own class to teach (It’s not set in stone yet). Obviously, the truths in this book have been a huge blessing to me. But it’s not just me others have praise for the truths it contains too:

"It has been amazing to have the gospel forefront in our family's everyday living. We are learning 'everyday talk' and to keep the gospel central."

"This is not just truth our kids need to learn. We are learning, too!"

"We've been keeping the 10 Gospel Truths on the dining room table to talk about during dinner. In the last few weeks, my husband and I have noticed just how much more we talk with our kids. (We'd been getting away from sit-down family meals for awhile and made a new commitment to all be there.) We've had great conversations with the kids about God as Creator, tried some of the activities about the crayon saying to the designer 'I don't want to draw,' and we've seen the kids really 'get' the idea that God made our world—not evolution! God made them—and is the Boss! God wants them to obey—every day!"

As a refresher,  I listed the10 Essential Gospel Truths that will be presented in the book.  I’m sure it will be all I’ve said & more! Get the book! Have some great conversation with the children in your life or even friends in your life!

1.      God is the sovereign Creator of all things.

2.      God created people for His glory.

3.      God is holy and righteous.

4.      Man is sinful.

5.      God is just and is right to punish sin.

6.      God is merciful. He is kind to undeserving sinners.

7.      Jesus is God's holy and righteous Son.

8.      God put the punishment of sinners on Jesus.

9.      God offers the free gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in Jesus.

10.               10.      Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life—enjoying God forever in heaven.

 To read a more in-depth review of the book. Go here.

Essential Gospel Truth #10

10) Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life — enjoying God forever in heaven.

Suggested Verse: Luke 9:23;  John 11:25;  1 John 2:25;  Psalm 16:11

Explanation: “If you want play the piano or be on a baseball team, would you expect that it would take a certain amount of time and practice? Would it be a good thing want to think about this before you started piano lessons or joined the baseball team? Why? There is a “cost” involved in the choices we make. If you want to play the piano well it will demand your time because you will have to practice. You will need to give up other things in order to do it. What might you have to give up in order to play the piano well? What will you need to change in order to be a good baseball player?

                  Salvation is a free gift offered to you by God and it is given to everyone who truly repents and is trusting in Jesus. But salvation is a free gift that will cost you something also – the cost is your whole life! What does that mean? It means that you must to do things Jesus’ way instead of your own way. It means that every day you must trust and follow Jesus for the rest of your life – when you’re 10, 20, 50, and even 90 years old. In order to do this, there are things you will have to give up and things and you will need to change.

                  For example, you will need to spend time praying instead of just playing. You will need to spend time reading your Bible instead of just watching television. You will need to spend time thinking about God instead of just thinking about friends. And that is hard work! Have you thought about the “cost” of trusting in Jesus? Are you ready to truly repent and trust Jesus and then do things His way for the rest of your life? Even when you get old?

                  God has a promise for everyone who is trusting in Jesus: He will give you a special Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit is God and lives inside every person who trusts in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful and He is there to help you with the hard work of doing things Jesus’ way. The Holy Spirit will begin to change you so that you love, trust, obey, and enjoy God more and more. 

                  There is a cost in following Jesus, but God has promised a HUGE reward for everyone who trusts in Jesus. A reward that is so great and exciting that it is better than anything that we can even imagine. What is it? Eternal life! Eternal life is living forever in heaven with God. Heaven is a real place where everyone who is trusting in Jesus will someday go to live. God’s people won’t sin anymore. Our bodies will be perfect. No more ouwies. No more being sick. No dying. No more feeling hurt or lonely. There will be no bad things or things that scare us in heaven. Everything will be clean and perfect and beautiful. But those things aren’t even the best part of heaven. The best part of heaven is that God will live there with His people. We will finally get to really SEE Jesus! And there is nothing or no one who is as amazing, great, wonderful, fantastic, beautiful, and exciting as Jesus. And being with Jesus is what will make us happy forever.”

Heather’s Illustration:

·       Practice: When the child is practicing (baseball, piano, Spanish, etc) Explain to them “It sure does take a lot of time and effort to become skilled at doing this doesn’t it? But after your game the other day it sure did pay off when you hit a double because of all your batting-practice. That’s a little bit of what its like to follow Jesus. It will cost us our time and effort to read our bibles and to pray but there will be a special happiness knowing we are doing what Christ has called us to do.”

---Emphasizing the Holy Spirit’s Role in following Jesus---

*It is important that “cost” doesn’t get associated with living a life of works. Driving home the role of the Holy Spirit will prevent a mindset of works*

·       Planting a flower: Plant a flower seed with the child. Talk about “ We are planting the seed. We will also water the seed. Do we make it grow? Who makes it grow? Can we say ‘Listen here flower seed you grow right now!” No. It does not listen to us. We follow the process by planting and watering but it is not us that makes it grow. God does. He makes what it is supposed to be- a flower. That is a little bit of what it’s like to follow and obey Jesus. We do what he calls us to do and the God-the Holy Spirit- will work in us to help us be what we are supposed to be-a follower of Christ.

Implication: If you are trusting in Jesus for your salvation, you must follow Him. Jesus has promised that when you die He will bring you to heaven to live with God and enjoy Him forever.

Heather’s thoughts:  When I was listening to the message on-line Jill Nelson ran out of time and wasn’t able to give illustrations. So sorry you weren’t able to get her experienced illustrations. You only have mine. I hope they make sense. If you have any illustrations for this one, I’d love to hear them!

Well that’s the last one. I hope they have been a blessing to you in working with the children in your life-or even simply understanding the elements of the gospel.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope ~Romans 15:13

Heather

Essential Gospel Truth #7

7) Jesus is God’s holy and righteous Son.

Suggested Verses: John 1:1, 14;  1 Timothy 1:15

                 

Explanation: “How did God make a way for sin to be punished and sinners to be saved? By sending His one and only Son, Jesus, into the world. Because Jesus is the Son of God, He is fully God. That means that everything that is true of God the Father, is true of Jesus. For example, Jesus is all-powerful – just like God. That is why Jesus could things like healing sick people, making crippled people walk, making blind men see, and bringing dead people back to life. 

                  But when God sent Jesus to live on this earth, God also had Jesus become fully human. That is why Jesus was born as a real baby and grew up like real boys do and became a grown man. Because Jesus became a real person like you and me, He knows what its like to be sleepy and hungry. He understands what it is like to learn to walk and run and read and write. He knows how hard it can be to trust and obey God all of the time. And even though Jesus became just like us in all of these ways, He was able to do something that we could never, ever do. Jesus never once sinned! Because He is

God’s Son, He was born without a sin nature. Jesus was born without the desire to sin. And even when the devil tempted Him to sin, Jesus never sinned. Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s holy, righteous, and good commands ALL of the time!  Jesus is holy and righteous. This is great news for sinners!”

Illustration:

---Showing how Jesus never sinned---

·       Jesus temptation vs. Adam’s temptation

o   Adam was in the Garden & had everything to eat-Adam sinned

o   Jesus was in the wilderness & had nothing to eat –Jesus didn’t sin

o   Both tempted by Satan- Adam failed, Jesus succeeded

·       Make a list (of all possible sins): Write them on a white board with a marker. (Fill as much up as you can). Take an eraser and one by one ask “Did Jesus ever do _______?” No, he never stole, fought, envied, cheated, etc. Until the white board is all clear. Jesus never, ever sinned.

Implication: Jesus, God’s Holy and Righteous son, came into the world to save you

Heather’s thoughts:  I love the order of these presented. Because  #7 will have already been explained (which is “God is Holy & Righteous”) children will be able to see how they (Jesus & God) have the same character. Not only that, but it lays the foundation for also explaining the Trinity-because they share the same characteristics.

Sorry this post was so late tonight. Hope it blesses you anyways!

Tomorrow I will be posting Essential Truth #8 which is “God put the punishment of sinners on Jesus.”

Essential Gospel Truth #6

6) God is merciful. He is kind to undeserving sinners.

Suggested Verses: Psalm 145:8;  Ephesians 2:8-9

Explanation: God is holy and righteous. God is right to demand that people be holy and righteous like

Him. God’s commands show us what it means to be holy and righteous. God’s commands also show us that we are all sinners. Because God is just, He is right to punish sinners – you and me – with death and hell. This is our biggest problem! And we are helpless to solve this problem. Is there anyone who COULD help us? Yes, GOD! God is all-powerful and nothing is too hard for Him to do. How could He help us? And why would He want to help

us? 

                  God is a merciful God. That means that God is kind to sinners who don’t deserve His kindness. God’s mercy (or grace) is like a free gift or present. Presents are wonderful things that someone gives to you. God gives helpless sinners the free gift of His kindness. It’s a free gift from God because it is not something that you deserve. God gives it to sinners because He wants to, not because He owes it to anyone. You can’t work for God’s mercy or earn God’s mercy by any- thing you do. How does God show that He is merciful to sinners? 

                  One way is by being patient with us. Even though God is right to be very angry with sin, God is slow to get angry and slow to punish us. God doesn’t have a temper tantrum when people sin. God’s anger isn’t “out of control”. He doesn’t throw us eagerly into hell when we sin. The fact that you and I are still alive, even after we have sinned against God, proves that God is patient with us. It is a free gift of His kindness – even though we don’t deserve His kindness.

                  But even though God is patient, He still must punish sin. So God in His mercy made a way for sin to be punished and sinners be saved. God, in His great kindness, made a way for sinners to be saved from death and hell so that we could go to heaven and live forever with God instead. That is the most merciful thing that God could do! That is the best free gift that God could ever give to sinners Did God have to do this? No. God did this because He is merciful and good.”

Illustration:

For starters discuss the Prodigal son (Luke 15): Read this story with children. Point to how the father gave undeserved kindness to his son. Then use examples in your child’s own life where they have received mercy show them and explain to them: That’s a little bit what it’s like when God is merciful to us.

·       Assign child a task: “If you dust the house today, I will give you one dollar.”  They dust. You say, “You have earned one dollar, I’m going to give you one dollar.” Later in the day, surprise your child and say “You know what? I want to give you a gift.” Give them a gift and ask them, “Now did you do anything to earn this gift?” They could say “Well I dusted the house earlier” and you respond with “No. I gave you a dollar for the dusting the house earlier-you earned that. I wanted to give you a gift just because I wanted to do it-because I love you. It wasn’t for anything special you did.” Then you can use an illustration to show them: “That’s a little bit of what its like that God show’s kindness to undeserving sinners. He gives us a free gift not because of anything we have done or earned but because he wanted to-because he loves us.”

·       Task & with payment: (This time give them something impossible to do). “Move the sofa from this side of the house to the other side of the living room.” (Don’t come up with a solution right away. Let them struggle through it). Later on in the day, you can say something like “You know what? I’ve decided that Dad will move the sofa for you. And Dad doing it, then I’ll give you the dollar. That’s mercy. Something impossible you couldn’t do. You couldn’t get the prize but somebody stepped in and did it for you. Out of kindness, you didn’t earn this dollar, you didn’t deserve it but I accepted that somebody came in and helped you-that’s mercy.”

Implication: You must depend on God’s Mercy in order to be saved.

Heather’s thoughts: Yesterday (explaining about sin & hell) was something very hard to hear & explain to children. However, without that it will be hard for us & others to see the magnificent beauty of God’s mercy on us.  Keeping in mind the things we’ve talked about so far, once we have the complete story or gospel, we will be able better see the wholeness of God’s beauty-the Holy God that came down to save and redeem a sinful chosen people through his son Jesus Christ all for the sake of His glory. May God grant us the grace to understand these things for ourselves so that we may joyfully share the good news to others-and especially children.

Tomorrow will be Essential Gospel Truth #7 which is “Jesus is God’s Holy & Righteous Son.”

Essential Gospel Truth #5

5) God is just and; right to punish sin

Suggested Verses: Romans 1:18; 6:23a

Explanation: “Because God is holy and righteous, He is right not to permit or allow any sin. Sin – even one

sin – is not okay with God. God hates sin and is very angry with sin. God is right to punish sin. That’s what it means that God is “just”. And God has decided that the right punishment for sin is death and hell. Death means experiencing God’s great anger forever in a place called hell. 

                  Because everyone is a sinner – including you and me – we all deserve to be punished by God. God would be right to send us all to hell. And there is nothing that we can do to help ourselves: We can’t become sinless by trying to do more good things than bad things – its too late for that isn’t it. We’ve already sinned too many times.  We can’t obey God perfectly – no matter how hard we work at it. We have a sin nature that makes us like the wrong things and makes us want to do the wrong things. We can’t clean away our sin.  Mommy and daddy can’t help you – mommy and daddy are helpless too. 

                  There is nothing more terrible than hell – it is worse than spankings, or bad ouwies, or being afraid, or being apart from mommy and daddy forever. We can never be happy in hell but we are helpless to save ourselves. We can only be happy forever if we go to heaven and live with God forever. But sinners can’t go to heaven. We deserve to be sent to hell. This is a huge problem – it is our biggest problem!”

H. B’s Interjection: As hard as this could have been to read, it would be even harder to get the words out of your mouth to a little child. Yet even harder still will be to stop yourself from jumping to the end of the story and telling what Jesus did on the cross & what he accomplished there. Why would you stop yourself? Well Jill Nelson said this:

Now let this sink in!  Don’t jump to the solution. We want our kids to wrestle with this. Don’t worry about having them feel bad! In fact, none of us can feel as bad about our sin and the offense it is to God as we should. And you need to feel something of the depth of condemnation before a Holy God, before you can begin to truly be amazed by free gift of salvation, justification from this same God. Let your children think about it, ponder, and feel it.

Illustration: (Looking at the world & the earthly effects of sin)

·       Crimes & Jail: “People are punished for their crimes & sent to jail, disobedience to parents results in various kinds of punishment”

---Why is it right that guilty people be punished?---

·       Angry Child: “He/she kid throws rock & cuts your eye: Why would it be a good thing for him to be punished? What does punishment show?”

---Why we can’t save ourselves & why it is good & right for God to punish sinners---

·       Bake cookies- (Instead of baking cookies for 10 minutes bake them for a half of an hour. What you will come out with is a very burnt cookie.) “Is this the way cookies are supposed to be? No. Would it be right for me to now say ‘These cookies are good anyways’? No, because then I would be a liar. It would not be right for me to say ‘These cookies are okay. They are good. No problem lets serve them to company’ That wouldn’t be right.

Where do these cookies belong? What would be right for us to do with these cookies? Throw them away. Can those cookies unburn themselves? No. They can’t. That’s a little bit-just a tiny bit of what it’s like that God is right to punish sinners. When we disobey God, even one of his commands, it’s a little bit like baking cookies at the wrong temperature. Just as the cookies have become darkened and bad, our hearts have become darkened with sin. It wouldn’t be right for God to say ‘that’s okay, they’re good anyway’ Then God would be a liar. God will not say ‘I was just kidding when I said you have to obey me perfectly all the time & be righteous & Holy. I won’t really punish you with death & hell. It’s okay. You are okay just the way you are.’ Just as those cookies are helpless to unburn themselves, we are helpless to change our own hearts. And you know what, you might be sad that we threw away a whole batch of cookies, but there’s something a whole lot more sad. That is, that you and I deserve to be thrown into hell and be punished forever by God. That’s a lot sadder.

Implication: You deserve God’s punishment of death and hell and you are helpless to save yourself.

Heather’s thoughts: With that, I don’t have much else to say. I wrote an entire blog on my feelings about presenting the ENTIRE, COMPLETE, WHOLE gospel to children. (Click here to view it). Yes, that would include telling children there is a place called hell & we deserve it.  Jill gives us an excellent way to share it lovingly & truthfully.

Tomorrow will be Essential Gospel Truth #6 which is “God is Merciful. He is kind to undeserving sinners.”

Essential Gospel Truth #3

3) God is Holy & Righteous

Suggested Verses: Deuteronomy 32:4;  Romans 7:12;  Leviticus 19:2, 37

Explanation:“God is so great. He is unlike anyone or anything else. God is holy. That means that God is perfect in every way. God is also righteous – everything He thinks, says, and does is right. He never does anything wrong. God never has sinned and never will sin. 

            Because God is holy and righteous and because God made you and me to be like Him, we must be holy and righteous too. In the Bible, God gave us His holy and righteous commands. They are good commands. For example, the Ten Commandments tell us what kind of thoughts, desires, words, and actions are holy and righteous. In order to be holy and righteous, God says that people must obey these commands, perfectly, all of the time.”

Illustration:

·      Mommy & Daddy’s Rules (younger children): “One of the rules we make for you is that you have to hold mommy & daddy’s hand to cross the street. Is that a good rule? Yes. Why is that a good rule? It shows that mommy & daddy love you and want to protect you from getting hurt. You know what? God’s rules are even better than mommy & daddy’s rules. God’s rules are perfect. (Talk to child about rightness of 5^th commandment of honoring father & mother)

·      4-year-old Driving! (for older children): “Suppose a 4 year-old wanted to drive my car: Should I let him do that? Why not? If I make a rule that no 4 y/o can drive my car, would I be mean? Why is it a good thing? How does that rule show that I am right in my decision & good toward that child?” (With older children you can review the 10 Commandments & discuss how each rule shows that God is right & good-and how these commandments are good for you.)

---Comparing the difference of what it means to NOT be like something---

·      Real apple vs. Artificial apple: “Is this artificial apple a real apple? No. But it was made to be like the real thing. If somebody came and showed me the artificial apple instead would it be the real apple? No. Even though it’s a little bit like it, it’s not really perfect looking like the real apple. It looks ruined. It doesn’t look right. That can help us to understand a little bit of what it means that God wants us to be like him and be holy & righteous-to be perfect & without sin.”

Implication: God’s commands are holy & righteous & good and you must obey them all of the time.

Heather's thoughts: We don't have to be scared of teaching little ones big ideas. With using examples like these we can teach them deep foundational truths at a young age. "Righteousness" sure is a big word for a little kid but it's not so big when you tell them "this means that everything He thinks, says, and does is right." Well, there you have it! And what an easy way to illustrate the goodness & rightness of his commands by simply talking about why parents have the rule of crossing the street holding hands. They see those big cars fly by, they understand that it's safest to hold hands crossing streets.

You'll notice in the explanation she said "In order to be holy and righteous, God says that people must obey these commands, perfectly, all of the time” and also that we must by Holy because he is Holy. What do you think about that? Is it too heavy to teach a child such a hard thing-knowing they will fail? I mean how in the world can we be holy, righteous all the time? 

Well the truth is we can't. Which brings us to Essential Gospel Truth #4 which is "Man is Sinful" 

Something to think about:

Should we not teach/tell children that they are to be Holy & Righteous like God is-just because they can't? Well I believe by teaching them this (and also the following point), it is important for them to realize that they cannot be perfect, sinless, and always doing right. This is a good thing to feel-a feeling of helplessness.  It will be able to help them see that they need something bigger, more perfect than themselves-that they need a Savior.  

Essential Gospel Truth #2

2) God created people for his glory

Suggested Verses: I Corinthians 10: 31, Isaiah 43:6-7

Explanation: “People make things to have a special purpose. Cars are made for driving in. Refrigerators are made to keep food cold. These things are made in a special way so that they can do what they were made to do. God created people for a special purpose also, so God created people in a certain way. God created men and women and boys and girls in His image and likeness. That means that God created people to be like Him in certain ways. God created us different from the animals and all other things. For example, we were created with minds that can learn about God. Dogs can’t do this. God created us with hearts that have certain feelings and emotions so that we could love God. Gorillas can’t love God.
Why did God make people in His image and likeness? God made us this way so that we would show how great He is! God created us so that we could know Him and have a very special kind of relationship with Him. God wants us know and love Him so that you and I would want to say things like: God is the greatest and best! I love Him most of all! God makes me more happy than anything or anyone else! This is the purpose that God created you for!
And God wants His people to be able to do this forever. That is why God created heaven. Heaven is a place for God’s people to live with Him forever. Living forever with God is the best thing ever!”

Illustrations:
• Trucks (little boys love ‘em): Say something like…
You: Is it real?
Child: No.
You: Is it like a real one?
Child: Yes.
You: It was made to look like one & act like one in certain ways. If it was made to look like a real truck would it make this noise? Quack, quack, quack… No, it was made to go “vroom, vroom, vroom.”
• Stuffed animals: Say something like “These were made to be like a real dog: soft, ears, nose, four legs. That’s a little bit of what it means to be made like something. We were made to be like God in certain ways. Not in how we look but in how we act.”

---Illustrating the uniqueness of being created in God’s image---
• Bringing a pet to church: “Why you don’t bring your dog to church/Sunday school: Could the dog pray when we pray? No. Could the dog sing praises to God as we sing together? No. Could the dog open his bible & enjoy the words & pictures? No. Could a dog make choices to obey God’s command? No. That’s a little bit what it means to be created uniquely.”

---Created to show how great God is---
• Mirror activity: “Mirror is created to show the reflection of something. Hold flower in front of mirror, what will be shown in mirror? The likeness of the flower, it’s beauty, it’s colors. That’s a little bit of what it means that we were created to show how great God is. Our hearts our to be like mirrors to show God: You are beautiful, you’re all powerful, there’s nobody else like you.

---Joy of having a special relationship with God---
• Recalling a special event: Have child recall special event in their lives: (friends, vacation, etc) “Living together with God is a million times better/exciting/so much, much better than that." (Constantly pointing out to them that God is more enjoyable & exciting than anything else).

Implication: God created you for a special purpose. He created you to show how great He is.

Wow! Jill Nelson really thought all this out! I loved it each time I read through it to edit. These seem to be such basic things that most of us didn't learn till we were more "mature" in our walks. But can you imagine raising children & teaching children how we were created for his glory at a young age?! As a Child Development Major in college, we always learned it was all about the child and thier self-esteem. The aim was to always boost that self-esteem with lots of praise so they could be healthy adults. While that has it's place,the MOST MOST MOST important thing is that HE (focus off ourselves & children) created us in HIS image. We are here to reflect HIS glory. Eternally we will all acknowledge this-whether now or later.

So with that, tomorrow I will have for you Essential Gospel Truth #3 which is "God is Holy & Righteous." You could probably think about how to explain "Holy" to children...but what about explaining the BIG word "Righteous" to a child? You'll see tomorrow!

Essential Gospel Truth #1

#1) God is Sovereign Creator of all things.

Suggested Verses: Isaiah 44:24, Psalm 19:1, 24:1, 22:8

Explanation to children: "There is a living, eternal God who created all things. Eternal means that God had no beginning and will have no ending. God was never born. He never had a birthday. He has always been alive and will always be alive. God will never die. And this one, eternal God made everything – all by Himself. God made the sky and the stars and the ground and the trees and the plants and the animals and all the people. God can do this because He is an almighty God. This means God is all-powerful and nothing is too hard for Him to do

Because God made everything, everything belongs to God. That means that God owns all of the rocks, trees, stars, oceans, plants, and people – everything! God is also the sovereign ruler over all that He has created. That means that God is “the boss”. He is the King of His creation and He controls it and rules over it."

Illustration: (Use child’s contact with the created world-see, smell, touch, taste & hear)
• Seeing a Rainbow: Instead of- “oh, that’s pretty” Say- “God created rainbows to show us how beautiful he is.”
• Thunder: “God created that thunder to show us a little bit of how powerful he is.”
• Favorite pizza: “God created that pizza because he wants to show us how good he is.”
• Hugs: “God gave you a mommy & daddy and that hug is to show you how loving God is”
• Playing with the puppy: “God created your dog to play to show you that God is a happy God”

(Use opportunities like that to show how great God is through what he’s created)

Further Illustrate that God has a rightful rule over his creation:
Box of crayons Activity (Younger child): Give them crayons & say, “Why don’t you draw a picture of something. You choose whatever you want to draw.” As they start drawing put your ear to the crayon box & say “Wait a minute Sarah. Stop drawing. You know what? The crayons are saying to me that they don’t want to be a puppy.” The child will look at you strange. You say “ I think your crayon should decide what your picture is going to look like-not you…..Is that right? Who should decide how the picture will look? The crayons or the child who is drawing the picture?” *This can help our children understand everything belongs to God so it’s right for God to decide how his creation is going to look. He owns everyone, he owns everything, he is the boss-not us.

Baking cookies (Older kids) - As they are adding ingredients you can do the same thing. “You know I think these chocolate chips would rather that they not have the flower and sugar in there. I think it would be better if we let the chocolate chips decide how they will be baked” The child will look at you and think “What in the world are you talking about? Who is going to decide what goes in the chocolate chip cookies? The baker or the ingredients?”
*Use this kind of obvious illustration to say “that’s something like understanding that God is the sovereign ruler of his creation. He decides what is true and right. He decides what his world will look like.”

Finally we don’t stop there. We give the Implication: God created YOU. YOU belong to God and it is right that God rules over you.

Just want to tell you guys again. This was taken from Jill Nelson's "Presenting the Gospel to Children" from www.childrendesiringgod.com. If you'd like to hear all 10 of the Essential Gospel truths right now, go there. But I'd love to hear what you think about this one. Tomorrow I'll post Essential Truth #2 which is God Created People for His glory. I look forward to sharing and also seeing what you guys think!

The Prequel

As you may know, I’ve been listening to & taking notes on many messages from the Chilrendesiringgod.com. Wow is all I can say! So much good stuff going on there! One in particular really blessed me and made me think. So this is what I’ve decided to do: for the next ten days (starting tomorrow) I will present them here. Now let me say this, though I am very interested in presenting the gospel to children because I work with them everyday, I believe they will bless any Christian. More than likely you will be/are a parent and this will bless you in explaining deep truths to children. You may do children’s ministry or a VBS camp on a mission trip in the future. Whatever it is, this will not be a waste of your time. If you happen to be looking at this and you’re thinking “I’m not a Christian, this doesn’t concern me.” Well, let me also say this: even though you are not a Christian, I’d invite you to check out these “10 Essential Gospel Truths.” It’s helpful for any person interested in checking out what the gospel is-especially because the explanation and illustrations are written for children. I learned so much even though it was written for children’s understanding. So I invite you, check out my blog the next ten days, see how to explain beautiful truths of the cross, heaven, hell and the sovereignty of God. Each Post will include: one essential GOSPEL TRUTH, suggested VERSES that support it, an EXPLANATION in children's language, ILLUSTRATIONS to make help them see it in a visual concrete way, and an IMPLICATION that will challenge & even demand a response from a child or person.

P.S. I want to make clear that most (practically all) of what I will posting will be taken from Jill Nelson's message on Presenting the Gospel to Children.

Hope you follow along!

Did they want to kill or hurt Jesus?

I have two stories here that will eventually collide.

Story #1: Coming from a secular to a Christian private school has been an interesting transition. I’ve had many questions-especially about telling Bible Stories:

When talking about the story of Esther do I say Haman wanted to kill the Jewish people or hurt the Jewish people? Do I include that the King had Haman killed in the end? Even more when talking about Jesus, how do I talk about him being crucified? How do I tell them he died on a cross?

Now I don’t speak from years of experience. I’ve never really even taught Sunday school. I’ve been in Early Childhood for only a few years….only one really teaching…and not even a full year at Christian Preschool. So I have this huge conflict: not wanting to scar the children but also wanting to tell them the complete truth-that I personally hold so dear.

It’s funny though, even the women at our school that have been teaching for awhile seem to also struggle with the tender emotions of their preschoolers and are always looking for creative ways to give the story of the cross without having to crush them.

So here I am asking myself for the glory of God, do I say they wanted to hurt Jesus or they wanted to kill Jesus?

PAUSE

Story #2: Through the past 6 months working at this job my husband and I have also been learning a lot about the preciousness of God’s word-it’s authority, power & truth. Also, we believe in the authority, power & truth of the complete gospel. As a newly married couple we have come to really treasure these things and the Holy Spirit’s moving through it all.

Now COMPLETE gospel here must be defined. Is it the good news that Jesus died for our sins? Or is there more? YES there’s more! The complete gospel is that we are a fallen human race. Fallen, sinful people cannot come before a Holy God. So God sent his perfect holy son to live a perfect holy life while also being 100% man and allowed his blood on the cross to wipe away our sin. (So often we stop right here) But then JESUS ROSE! He conquered death with power! Through this he gave us a hope that we could one day leave this earth and be with him forever. That hope is available for those whom decide to put their faith in him & count him as more precious than anything the world has to offer.

As a couple, we have come to the conclusion that the complete gospel is what people need. They will never be able to put their trust in this Jesus person that only died for their sins, or this Jesus person that only lives in heaven. No, the complete, full gospel is what a dying people need to hear about.

Now here’s where the stories connect:

Tell me if I’m onto something but are not the little precious preschoolers part of that “dying people” that I talked about? Don’t they deserve to hear the whole truth? Don’t they need to know that Jesus died on a cross because people hated him?

I agree with anyone who says those are very strong words that can bring very strong emotions. BUT HEY! Did you forget something?! That’s not it! Don’t forget about the GOOD NEWS!

Dear little preschooler,

The story doesn’t end there. Yes, he did die on a cross. Yes, he was placed in tomb. Yes he was dead. But that’s not all. Jesus is the precious son of God and he proved it because three days later Jesus came to life. He was dead no longer. Jesus rose from the grave! He showed himself and his power to his friends. We can put our trust him, because he has done what no perfect man has ever done. He came back to life!

Do we not tell our friends and those that are lost that it is “Good News” for a reason? The reason being that there is actually first “Bad News.”

And who said that for a preschooler to cry or be sad about Jesus dying is a bad thing anyways? Why is it okay for them to cry when they hurt their knee but not okay for them to have the natural emotion of crying when they hear that this Jesus they always hear about died? It is a good emotion to feel. We should praise God that He enabled them to feel it. We know that this very same sorrow lead us to repentance. It sure did for me.

I wonder this: Has my fear about saying “kill” and “die” been due to a lack of the complete gospel preached in the churches WE as Christians have attended? Is that why it is so hard to tell the children something WE are not even used to hearing-let alone saying? Either way, hard or not the Holy Spirit will guide us always in giving his complete truth. He does not want us to keep the children from coming to him. I always pray that I would never be a roadblock for them coming to Jesus. A roadblock could be a watering down of the gospel for preschoolers? Now that is something to consider.

To my fellow Preschool teacher/Sunday school teacher,

We are evangelists every day for the Lord as we get to teach children about this Jesus that loves them enough to die for them on a cross. May we not forget, or fear to tell them. May we never forget what makes the gospel “GOOD NEWS”. He’s Risen! Our Savior has risen! We need not fear a tear or two, we only need to tell them the precious truth and let the Holy Spirit work it out in their lives. HE is powerful enough to do so.