The more I learn about the Gospel – God’s sweet grace, His abounding love, His beautiful story of redemption – the more I fall in love, and the more I want to share this Good News with others.
And this mamma’s heart?
It beats louder and stronger for the hearts of my children. – To know God’s love. To bask in His salvation. To be found in His presence. To be filled with all the fullness of Him.
And what’s more?
God wants that too.
From the littlest one, God desires a relationship, and even expects it.
What an honor and a great responsibility to day in and day out be an instrument in the hands of God to lead these children to true repentance, salvation, and a fervent love for the Lord.
NOT because of anything I can do! No, this mamma full of sins that still flare and words all jumbled and fears of saying it all wrong and moments of actually getting it right – I can’t save them.
And NOT simply as a way to take them through “steps to God” or to lead them in a prayer. No, it’s so much deeper than checking off a bunch of items on a list or repeating a prayer when seeking to please this mommy.
Only by the gift of His grace can we share the Gospel, love the Gospel ourselves, live the Gospel story out in our lives, and see that same Gospel reach the hearts of our children.
So with little eyes watching, the colorful chalk gets dumped on the sidewalk and the drawing begins… of this message that can’t get told too much.
1 Peter Family {Bible} Time – Week 3
Correlates with this week’s 1 Peter Bible Study!
{Read through 1 Peter 1:3-12 with your family, and then share the grace, the gospel, the salvation message with your kids with a little chalk. :)}
God – the one true God; awesome, wonderful, powerful, Creator of all things, and King of all kings; He made me and He made you (and you and you and you), and He loves us with a deep, immeasurable love. And He wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us (that means YOU!).
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
But there’s a problem. Something has separated us from God, so that we can’t be with Him, and that is sin. Sin is all the wrong things that we do. Have you ever done anything wrong? Even just a “little” thing? God never did even a tiny thing wrong. He’s perfect and holy and so very great. But we ALL are sinners and even one tiny sin separates us from God – like there’s a big giant wall that reaches to the stars in between us, so that there is absolutely no way we can be near Him on our own.
Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
And because we sin, there is a punishment. The Bible says that this punishment is death – separation from God for eternity in a place called hell. But God? He’s in heaven, where He wants you and me to live with Him forever and ever. But there’s still this “Grand Canyon” of sin in between us, and we can’t get across on our own. We can try our best to be good, we can even go to church, but there’s no amount of jumping, striving, trying, earning that will get us to heaven.
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
BUT, thankfully God has given us an incredible gift. He loved us and is so full of mercy that while we were sinners Jesus died for us! He lived a perfect life because we never could. And when He died, He took the punishment for all of the tiny and great big sins you and I would ever do. And when He rose three days later? He defeated the power of death making a way (the ONLY way)for you and me to be in heaven with Him forever. And that barrier of sin, or giant canyon? It’s like Jesus built a way right through… a bridge across… through His life, death, and resurrection!
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
John 14:6 – “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And the Bible says that all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. More than solely a belief in Him. It’s this desperation for Him when we see that He is the only solution to our sin problem. It’s this turning from our sins and turning to Christ. It’s this faith in our hearts of what He has done on our behalf.
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Romans 10:9 – “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:13 – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And when we receive this most amazing gift? It’s greater than we can fathom! He not only saves us, but makes us alive in Christ and children of God. He dwells in you and He dwells in me. See that? Sin has been washed away, now there’s “Jesus in me and you!” The barrier is gone, now there is peace and unity and a living hope as His power is at work within us. I don’t think there are words enough to describe the wonder and the glory and the precious blessings He bestows on us… this inheritance than can never perish, spoil or fade. It’s far more amazing than we can even imagine!
John 1:12-13 – “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
1 Peter 1:3-4 – “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,”
And, so no matter what we face today – we can be filled with inexpressible, glorious joy because of His great work for us and in us and through us.
1 Peter 1:6-9 – “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Just one little way to share the beautiful gospel and message of salvation with our kids as we continually point them to Him.
Let’s keep speaking of the grace that was to come with our kids!
1 Peter Family {Bible} Times: #1 1 Peter Introduction “When All Our Kids Hearts are Dirty” – #2 1 Peter 1:1-2 “How to Get Kids to Love the Bible”
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How to Share the Gospel With Kids is a post from: Our Family For His Glory
Click here to download the {FREE} twelve week 1 PETER BIBLE STUDY – Growing in the True Grace of God. {Please give it a few minutes to download… thank you for your grace!}