Who is the fairest of them all?

This week as I teach the children about People being made for the glory of God, I’ve been saying things like: God made us to tell Him “God you’re the greatest! God, you are the best! God you are the strongest! God you are the biggest of all!” Over and over we’ve been talking about this: during circle time, at the writing table, even while we play outside and singing songs. It’s been fun watching them getting it. Let me explain.

This week’s theme is Super Heroes and Princesses. So I’ve had the chance to read some books about fairy’s and princesses. I don’t normally try to tie the picture books into the truth I’m trying to teach. I just pick fun books.

However, this morning after I was done teaching them about how we were made to tell God He’s the best, one precious girl thought of God during the story.

I was reading about a character named Alice the Fairy (by David Shannon) spilling juice to magically turn her shirt from white to red, and literally using her wand to make it dark (by reaching her wand to the light switch). Then as I read about Alice asking of the mirror “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” I heard a sweet little voice that said, “God is the fairest.” Okay so I know teachers say this all this all the time but it really did “warm my heart.”

Now I know she didn’t know what “fairest” meant. However she did catch the –est ending. Since we were talking about God being the biggest, strongest and greatest-I’m sure she related that to God. But that does not make it any lighter. She is learning that God is always the best of everything. Though she didn’t know what fairest meant, she gets that God is the best of everything. And I'm thankful. Because He is.

Thoughts of a preschool Teacher...

So if you don’t know already…I’m officially a pre-school teacher! Horray! God is good and gave me a surprise teaching position for the summer.

This week was a lot about setting boundaries and getting to know them. Also, we learned about how God is the sovereign creator of all things.

Some things I will remember for next time I teach this is that:

• The 10 Gospel Truths were made for 5+ in mind (my kiddos are just barely four).
• I didn’t need to use all the object-ideas.
• Most of them don’t need to necessarily be used at circle time/devotion time but could be used throughout the entire day during free-time or outside-time.

For the devotion we memorized Psalm 24: 1. I did rearrange the verse (awkward-but I wanted them to understand what they were saying). I rearranged it like this: The earth, everything in it, and all the people who live in it, are the Lord’s. If you compare it to the ESV, it’s not so bad right?

There were only a couple of kids that were actually there everyday- so of course they got the verse! However, even the kids that only came twice during the week also memorized it! The capacity for these kids to memorize is amazing so it’s such an important time to fill them with the word of God.

One thing that has been fun this week was hugging and them and swaying them while singing: “Danny, Danny, God made Danny, with brown hair and brown eyes, and a beautiful smile!” I know that 5-year-olds are not so impressed with fun little movement songs. So it’s interesting to see how much a one-year difference makes. These kids love to sing and dance and don’t have as many reservations about it.

So I’m a teacher, the lessons were not perfect, hiding scripture in hearts is vital and I had fun making up songs about God as Creator. God is good. 

Video: 10 Gospel Truths

Friends, friends, friends, I cannot say too much about this booklet. If you have a passion for working with children or work with them in any way. YOU HAVE TO HAVE this booklet. It helps give children big facts about God while explaining it to them in a kid friendly way! If you'd like to see a promotional video on it go here.

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.

The Holy Spirit & Batteries

Easter weekend I was blessed to spend time with my 4 y/o nephew. As we were in his room playing with toys, he found a toy that didn’t work. He asked Grandma to get batteries. I briefly mentioned that the batteries currently in the toy-phone were dead, didn’t work, and had no power. Grandma came back and together they placed the new batteries inside. He pressed the number one and a voice said “ONE” He pressed the number two and the voice said “TWO.” He questioned, “The new batteries have power?” I said, “Yes, Danny the batteries have power and they make the phone work.”

Later as we were driving back home, the light bulb went on! Awhile back I wrote the final “Essential Gospel Truth.” It was basically describing that Christians live to please God and have received the promise of living forever with God for eternity. In that blog were illustrations to emphasize the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of a believer. Thanks to God for giving me eyes to see, He showed me a better illustration than the one I previously wrote. Here it is:

In Illustrating the Holy Spirit’s role in a believer’s life:

Battery Powered Toys:

While talking to a child you could say this: "This toy cannot do what it was made to do unless there is power inside of it. We can push it to make it move, or even pretend the buttons work. But it needs power to work and do what it was created to do.  We can give the toy power by putting new batteries in it. Then it will do what it was made to do. You know what, that is a little bit of what it’s like when God gives us the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives it helps us to do what we were created to do. Without the Holy Spirit it is hard to please God on our own-we don’t have the power to do what we are supposed to do. With the Holy Spirit, we have the power to love God and love others."

Why is this important-especially for young ones?

As I write, I still don’t have all the answers to the work and role of the Holy Spirit. However, as I learn more about children and think about my life as a believer I’ve seen the sneaky trap of “salvation by works.” When I don’t read my bible everyday or my Christian duty in some area, I am so quick to get burdened with my sin. As I try to shake this wrong attitude, I see more and more the importance of not just teaching children that it is good to share, good to be honest, good to give, good to be gentle and good to believe the bible. And while those things are good to talk about, (Lord-willing they will learn to love doing those things for the glory of God) if the Holy-Spirit and his work in their lives is not emphasized it seems we could be leading them into either pride for doing so many good things, or leave them full of burdens because they are not able to do good things. Speaking this essential truth to them will teach them humility and dependence on God to do good works. 

Essential Gospel Truth #9

9) God offers the free gift of salvation to those who repent and believe

Suggested Verses: Mark 1:15;  John 3:16-17;  Acts 4:12;  Ephesians 2:8-9

Explanation: “Jesus came into the world in order to save sinners from death and hell so that we could go to heaven and live with God forever. The word salvation means “to save” someone. And because of what Jesus did, God now wants to give sinners the free gift of salvation. Salvation is like a wonderful gift – in fact, it’s the best present that you could ever receive! Salvation is a free gift because it’s something you don’t deserve and could never earn or work for. Jesus did all the work for you! 

                  Does that mean that everyone – all people – are saved from death and hell because of what Jesus has done? Does it

mean that as long as you know the story about what Jesus did on the cross, you will be saved? How can you and I get this free gift from God? God has decided that He will give salvation to everyone who repents of their sins and believes in Jesus. When God decides to save a sinner, He brings about a change in his or her heart. What is this change? Repentance and belief. To repent means that you understand that you are a helpless sinner who deserves the punishment of death and hell. And knowing that, you feel terrible about your sin and your disobedience to God. You hate your own sin, your sin nature, and sin of all kinds, and want to turn away from your sin and look to Jesus for forgiveness.

                  Believing in Jesus means that you believe true things about Him: You believe that He is God’s Son. You believe that He

never sinned. You believe that when He died on the cross, He was punished in your place. You believe that He rose from the dead and is living today. You believe that He alone can save you and bring you to heaven to live with God forever. But believing in Jesus is not just about knowing and agreeing with true things about Jesus. I can believe that someone is a good pilot, but if I’m afraid to get on his plane and fly with him, I’m showing that I don’t really believe in his ability as a pilot. 

                  That is a little like what it means to “believe in Jesus”. It means that you are trusting Him to save your life. You are 

depending on Him. You are placing all of your confidence in Him. You believe that He died on the cross for YOU not just for other people. You believe that He will bring YOU to heaven to live forever with God. And, if you are really trusting in Jesus, you will also repent of your sins. Repentance and belief always go together.”

Illustration:

·       Egg Activity: Show your children an uncooked egg. Give them a small prize. Then give them a whistle. Tell them “I promise you, if you blow this whistle three times that egg will break. And you will receive that big prize. If you decide to blow this whistle three times and that egg doesn’t break, then I’m going to take away the prize in your hands. What are you going to do? Do you want to keep this prize, or do you trust me that that egg will break when you blow that whistle three times?” (There will be children in the class that will not blow the whistle because they do not take the teachers/parent’s word-not sure that the parent/teacher will follow through with the promise. They are not confident in that promise. But if that child is believing in you and confident & trusting in you, they will blow that whistle three times.) Once the whistle is blown three times the egg WILL break (not by itself-but by the teacher/parent) J

o    The Catch: They were thinking that somehow it was the whistle that would break the egg. It’s not the whistle that breaks the egg.

o    Points to drive home:

§   It wasn’t you: “Was it you that broke the egg? No. Was it the whistle that broke the egg? No, it was me responding to you blowing the whistle, that the egg broke. That’s a little bit of what it’s like to have faith and to trust in Jesus for your salvation. You are depending on him & confident that he will do what he says he will do.”

§  It’s not just faith: It’s not our faith that saves us. It is the object of our faith-namely, Jesus. Just as that child did not break the egg by the whistle, it was my response to their faith.  God says he will save everyone who trusts in Jesus. He responds by giving them the free gift of salvation.

Implication: God tells you to believe in Jesus & repent of your sins and you will receive his free gift of salvation.

Heather’s thoughts: I love this egg activity! Though I think it will mostly work for the upper elementary, I’d like to try it with younger. I’m thinking even 4-5 year olds would follow along and learn too. The points to drive home were real good. What an amazing truth to learn at a young age that “It’s not just faith.” People put their faith in many things sports teams, what people think of them and money. We could even put our faith in good things like  husbands, wives and friendships. The only thing is those things will never save us or leave us eternally satisfied. Jesus-the object of our faith-is the only thing worth putting all of our faith into. Once we do that, he responds with the gift of salvation. What a big thing to learn for a little child!

Tomorrow will be the final Essential Gospel truth! So stay tuned for “Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life — enjoying God forever in heaven.”

Essential Gospel Truth #8

8) God put the punishment of sinners on Jesus

Suggested Verses: Isaiah 53:5;  Romans 5:8;  2 Corinthians 5:21;  1 Peter 2:24

Explanation: “Our biggest problem is that we are sinners who deserve to be punished by God with death and hell.

But because God is merciful, He made a way for sin to be punished and sinners to be saved. How? God sent Jesus into the world to save helpless sinners. How could Jesus do this? Because Jesus is fully God, He did something that

you or I or anyone else could ever do. Jesus obeyed all of God’s commands, all of the time. Jesus never sinned, He is perfectly holy and righteous. How does this help sinners? 

      Since Jesus is holy and righteous and had no sin of His own, He was able to be the perfect substitute for sinners. What is a substitute? Someone who takes the place of someone else. For example, a substitute teacher takes the place of your teacher when she is absent. A baby-sitter takes the place of mom and dad when they are gone. 

      Jesus acted as a substitute for sinners by taking the place of sinners. How? Jesus was willing to take the punishment for all the sins of His people. Jesus received from God the punishment that His people deserved. Jesus did this on the cross. This is what God sent Jesus into the world to do. That is why Jesus was hung on a cross – so that God, His Father, would punish Jesus instead of having to punish His people. When Jesus died on the cross in place of His sinful people, He experienced all of the terrible anger and hatred that God has toward their sin. 

      Not only did Jesus take away the sin and punishment of His people so that our sins would be forgiven, Jesus also gives something to His people – something that you and I need in order to go to heaven and live forever with God. What did Jesus give to His people? His perfect righteousness!  Remember, God says that we must be holy and righteous and obey Him all of the time. Jesus always obeyed God. Jesus is righteous and holy. When Jesus died on the cross He took away the sin and punishment of His people and then gives to them His perfect righteousness!” 

      But Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story. After Jesus died, He was buried. But guess what? Jesus didn’t stay buried. He was resurrected from the dead. That means that He rose from the death and came alive again! Jesus’ resurrection is proof that He has won the battle over sin and death and hell. And because of this, God’s people are now saved so that they can someday go to heaven and live with and enjoy God forever! Jesus is a living Savior. There is no one else like Jesus!

Illustration:

·       Times of discipline (for younger children): “What if daddy said that he would receive your spanking in your place instead of you? Would that be good news? That’s a little bit of what it’s like when Jesus died on the cross. Jesus took all the spankings that his people deserved and he got spanked in their place. God punished Jesus for our sin, so that we would not have to be punished by God and could go to heaven and live forever with God.”

·       Back Pack Activity (Older children): Get the biggest backpack/pack. Label it “my sin” put it on your child & start loading, loading, loading with books or heavy objects till they are weighted down. Then tell your child “that’s a little bit of what it’s like to be weighted down with sin. God said there’s a right punishment for all that sin you are carrying. What is it? God’s punishment.” Give the adult playing Jesus “Holy & Righteous” and give your child a sign sign that says “SIN.” Now say, “ We are going to pretend that Dad is Jesus for a minute. We are going to give dad a bag to carry but guess what? There’s nothing in it because Jesus had no sin. He was Holy & Righteous. Have the adult playing Jesus lift the sack off of the child and carry it himself. Then give his own sack to the child. Then ask “Now Jesus took the sin of his people and bore it on his body and the tree, what then should Jesus get? Who gets this sign that says “SIN”. Jesus does. That’s a little bit of what it’s like of what Jesus did on the cross for sinners. He traded.”

·       Give a test: Make a test for your child (math/spelling). Make it so that it is impossible for child to get it correct. You take the same test, knowing that you could get them all correct. Put your name on it. Grade the papers. Say, “This one is all wrong. Jacob got every single problem wrong. He gets a ‘F’. Mom got them all correct. She deserves and “A.” She gets a prize because she got them all right. So mom’s got the prize now.” Now mom will take Jacob’s test and cross out his name and put her own name on it. Then take her own test and cross out her name and put Jacob’s name. Say, “Now who will get the prize? Jacob will. Was it because he did anything to get it? No. Mom traded tests. She gave him her perfect test, her perfect score, and the prize and gave it to Jacob. She took Jacob’s test and made it her own. That’s a little bit of what it’s like of what Jesus did on the cross for sinners. He traded with sinners.

Implication: Jesus died on the cross to be punished in your place

Heather’s thoughts: I remember the first time I heard of a parent doing something like this. It was so beautiful. My friend Wes told me that his professor was going to discipline his daughter. She was supposed to stay in time out for a certain amount of time. However, this time the father decided he was going to take her burden on himself. He let her go about her business while he took on her time-out. Later he explained the gospel through what he did for her. Wow! It almost made me cry when I heard it. What a beautiful thing that Jesus would take on every sinful, wrong, horrible thing we’ve ever done and carry out that punishment.

Tomorrow will be Essential Gospel Truth #9 which is “God offers the free gift of Salvation to those who repent and believe in Jesus” Almost to number ten! Hope you guys stick around!

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 #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!