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In
the beginning God made everything that exists. He made space, all the stars and
planets, the earth, and the animals, plants, and people on the earth. Before
God made everything, was He here? Yes. God has always existed. This is hard to
understand, because most things we know about have to begin sometime. But God
did not begin like other things. God has always been here, and he will always be
the God of everything. Before
God made everything, was He lonely? No, and yes. No, God was not lonely, because
God is three persons in one. The three persons of God are God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So, even before God made anything else, the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoyed friendship with each other. They worked
together to make everything. Even though God is three persons, God is one God.
There are not three Gods, but one. So,
God was not lonely. But, God wanted to create people so that he could share his
love with them. So he made the whole universe, all the galaxies, stars, and
planets, including our planet, Earth. He made the earth so that people could
live there and have all the things they need. On the earth he also made all the
plants and animals, mountains, oceans, rivers, streams, forests and fields. God
made the sun and moon, trees, fish and birds, even bugs. God made the sky with
clouds so that it would rain sometimes. Water from the rain helps the plants
grow and gives the animals and the people something to drink. When we look up in
the sky at night, we see a very beautiful universe, and when we look around the
earth we see a very beautiful world that God has made for the people that he
created. Here
are a few Bible verses that talk about the beautiful creation. In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
O
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! .. When I consider
the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have
set in place, what is man, that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you
care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and
crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:1,3-5
Sometimes
children look at a tree and say, "Did God make that tree?" or they
look at a house and say, "Did God make that house?"
God does not make every tree and house. When God made the first trees and
plants, he made them so they would have seeds, and more trees would be made from
the first trees. And he made the animals so they would build nests, and also so
they would have little baby animals. So now there are lots of animals. And he
made people so they could build houses and other things, and so they could have
babies, if they choose to, and be a family. So now there are lots of things that
people have made, and there are lots of families and lots of people.
Just
as God made the whole world, he made the first people. When we read the story of
Adam and Eve in the Bible, we learn some things about why God made people, and
what he wanted them to be like. In chapter 1 we talked about how God made the
people because he wanted to share his love with them. The Bible teaches us that
God made people in his image. This means that the people are like God in some
ways. God made us like him so that we could be his friends. Also, God made us
like him so that he could talk to us and we could talk to him. In this way, God
tells the people how to live so that God will be happy and the people will be
happy. Sometimes the Bible also talks about the people being his children. So,
God wants us to be his friend, and he wants us to be his children. This is why
we think of God as our "heavenly father." What
are some of the ways that people are like God? Can you think of any ways? How do
you get to know your friends? You talk to them. So God made us so that we could
talk to him and listen to him. We call this prayer. Another way that God made us
like him is that just as he made the world, we can make things too. We can't
make things out of nothing, like God made the world, but we can make things
using the tools and materials that God gave us in the world. This is called
"creativity." People are creative. They can make or create things.
Have you ever thought about a picture, and then drawn the picture using pencil
or crayons and paper? This is creating a picture. Have you ever made a building
out of blocks or leggos, or made up a new fun game that you had never played
before? You can do this because God made you as a creative person. Another
way that God made us to be like him is that we can think. We use our mind to
learn things, and we think so that we can figure things out. Have you ever tried
to do something, and you thought about it to try to figure out what to do? This
is thinking. Whenever we are learning, we are thinking, like learning how to
talk, tie our shoes, eat food with good manners, learning to write, or read, or
spell new words, or do math. All of this is thinking, and we can do it because
God made us in his image. He made us like him. God
also made us like him so that we could love him and love each other. God loves
us, and he wants us to love him too. He wants us to love other people. Some ways
to love other people are to treat them nice, to talk to them, and help them when
they need help. We can love people by being happy when they are happy, and sad
when they are sad. Did you ever have a friend, or a brother or a sister who got
hurt? Did it make you sad? When people that we love get hurt, it makes us sad
and we want to help them. Did you ever go to a birthday party and have fun with
a friend because it was their birthday? When you love someone, if they are happy
then you are happy too. When
mothers and fathers take care of their children by feeding them, providing a
home and keeping the home clean, teaching them, playing with them, and all the
other things parents do, this is because they love the children. Parents teach
children what is right and wrong, help them learn how to behave, and when they
disobey, parents punish the children. This is because the parents love the
children and they want the children to be happy. This is like the way God loves
people. God teaches his children what is right and what is wrong, what is good
and what is bad. God does this because he loves us and he wants us to live a
good and happy life. Just like parents, God must punish the people who do wrong. Do
you think that God is sometimes happy, and sometimes sad, sometimes angry and
sometimes having fun? These things are called emotions. We have emotions when we
are happy or sad or angry, when we cry or when we laugh. We have these emotions
because God has emotions, and he made us to be like him.
It is hard to think of God as thinking, or talking, or
being happy or sad. God is so great that he could make the whole universe. So it
is hard to think about what God must be like. God is a spirit, so we cannot see
God like we can see people. God knows that it is hard to know what he is like.
So he gave us the Bible to tell us about himself, about the world, and about
ourselves, the people. So, we can learn about God by reading the Bible, and we
are very thankful to have the Bible. It teaches us all kinds of things about the
world, about God, and about how to live. But God knew that there was an even better way for us
to learn about him. What do you think is the very special way that God teaches
us about himself? If you can't think of the answer, then think of the most
special person that has ever lived. Who was that person? JESUS! God had a special plan from the beginning of
creation for how he would help us to know what he is like. So, at the right
time, Jesus, God's Son, who is God himself, was born as a baby. It was a miracle
for Mary to have the baby Jesus, because no one had ever had a baby like Jesus
before. The birth of Jesus is what we celebrate at Christmas, and the Bible
stories that we read about Jesus at Christmas tell us all about the time when
Jesus was born. Jesus grew up in the family of Mary and Joseph. Joseph
was Jesus' earthly father. We do not know a lot about Jesus when he was a little
boy, but the Bible tells us that he grew to be smart and healthy, and his
parents were pleased with him. God his heavenly Father was also pleased with
him. So, Jesus had a father on earth, Joseph, and his Father in heaven, God the
Father. This is why we call Jesus God's Son. Most of the things we learn about Jesus in the New
Testament happened when he was a grown man, about 30 years old. The most
important thing to know about Jesus is that by looking at how we lived we can
find out what God is like. What kinds of things did Jesus do? Think of some
Bible stories of Jesus, and how we learn about Jesus from the way he treated
people. Jesus was kind to people and helped them, because he
loved them. This teaches us about God's love. Jesus taught the people about
right and wrong, and about what God wants people to do. In this way he taught us
how to live so that we can please God. Everything that Jesus did was pleasing to
his Father in heaven, because he always did what was right. We call this
"doing God's will." Jesus always did the will of his father. So, we
can learn how to do what pleases God, to do God's will, by trying to live the
way that Jesus lived. Jesus helped people who were sick, and we should try
to do the same. Do you know anyone who is sick? Have you ever been sick? Were
you glad that someone took care of you? Many people that were sick went to Jesus
for help. He healed many of them in special ways. Many times when Jesus helped
people, it was a miracle, because he helped people in ways that only God could
do. When Jesus healed people by doing a miracle, people learned that God can do
anything, and that God wants people to be healthy and happy. So today we should
do whatever God asks us to do so that people today can be healthy and happy
also. Jesus loved people that other people sometimes didn't
love. Do you know anyone who doesn't have many friends? Do you know anyone that
people are mean to? Jesus does not like it for people to be mean to each other,
so he helped people that other people didn't like. Sometimes this made people
mad, but he did it anyway, because he loves all people. It is not right to
mistreat people. God wants us to help people who are mistreated, because he
loves them. So Jesus taught us how to always do what is right, how
to be kind and to love people and help people. He taught us how to do God's will
and be pleasing to God. Of all the things that Jesus taught us, there is one
thing that is most important. He taught us that God wants us to be one of his
spiritual children, to be in his family. We need to be saved in order to be in
God's family, and this is what it means to be a Christian.
One time a man named Nicodemus came to see Jesus to
ask him questions. He told Jesus that he knew that Jesus had come from God.
Jesus told Nicodemus that if he wanted to go to heaven, he needed to be born
again. Jesus called heaven "God's kingdom." Jesus
said .. "No
one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Later Jesus told Nicodemus .. "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." John 3:16
In
order to become a part of God's family, we need to be born spiritually into his
family. Just like a baby is born into a family with a father and mother, to
become a part of God's family we need to be born spiritually. Why do we need to
be born into God's family by being saved? If
a person is not a part of God's family, then they cannot be friends with God,
talk to God, and they will not get to go to heaven to be with God. This is
because of sin. Sin is when we do things that are wrong and that make God
unhappy. Sin separates us from God, because God is holy. The wrong things we do
are like a deep canyon that separates us from God, and keep us from him. Every
person sins, all of us. We are all sometimes selfish or unkind, or we treat
others badly or do not always tell the truth. We are all sometimes disobedient,
and sometimes we have a proud attitude and think that we are better than
everyone else. All these things are sin. The
Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23) Other words that mean the same thing as sinful are
"ungodly" and "wicked." Even though we try often to be good,
we find that really on the inside we are bad. Do you like to get your way, to
have lots of things for yourself, and not have to follow rules or do what other
people tell you what that you are supposed to do? These kinds of feelings helps
us understand that we are sinful, because we think about our self so much and
want to get our own way. In
order to be in God's family and know him as our friend, we need to be godly, not
sinful. But how can we do that? We cannot do it by ourselves. We could never be
good enough to be in God's family and go to heaven because of our sin. But God
wants us to be in his heavenly family, so he has made a way for us to be saved
through his Son Jesus. A
Bible verse that explains this is Romans 5:6: "For when we were still
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." To be without
strength means that we cannot be godly by ourselves. We cannot live the way God
wants us to. Sin separates us from God, and if we stayed separated from God, we
would die. We cannot save ourselves from this death; we need God's help to save
us. The
Bible says, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us." (Titus 3:5a) This means that we cannot
do it ourselves. We need God's help. Because of sin, we deserve to be punished.
But God wants to give us life instead of punishment. This is what
"mercy" means. It means God giving us something good when we deserve
something bad! Remember, God loves us! He created us to be in his family! Someone
has to be punished because of our sin. If we were punished, we would die.
Because Jesus never sinned, and because he is godly, he could die in our place
and take our punishment for us. He wanted to do this because he loves us. This
is why the Bible says that salvation comes through Jesus. In Acts 4:12 it says
... Nor
is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved.
This
means that Jesus is the way that we can be saved and become part of God's
heavenly family, and Jesus is the only way. We cannot do it by ourselves, and no
other person can help us except Jesus.
Chapter
4 explains how we need Jesus' help to be saved. To be in God's family, we need
God's help, and the way he helps us is by giving his son Jesus. This is why
Jesus died to take the punishment for our sin. God
wants everyone that he has created to be one of his children. In the Bible, we
find, "The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) But he will not make us become one of
his children unless we want to be in his family, unless we want to be a follower
of Jesus and to give our life to him. So
how do we become one of God's children? How are we saved? We are saved by
trusting Christ to save us. We trust Christ to save us by believing the
following things:
This
is what it means to "believe in Jesus." In the Bible, we find,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." (Acts
16:31b) If
this is what you believe, and you want to be God's child, then tell God these
things in a prayer. God is a spirit, and he hears whatever we tell him in
prayer. When we tell him these things in prayer, he saves us right then. He
justifies us, that is, forgives us and regards us as righteous. He adopts us as
his child and makes us part of his kingdom. When
we are lost and separated from God, we are a part of the kingdom of darkness.
But when we are saved, God places us in his spiritual kingdom. We cannot see the
kingdom with our eyes; it is a spiritual kingdom. Now, as God's child, we know
that we have eternal life; we will live forever with him! For
he delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom
of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13,14
God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in His son. He who has the Son has
the life. He who do not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things
I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that
you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:11,12,13
Becoming
a Christian is a wonderful thing. It is the most important thing that can happen
to a person in their whole life. When we become one of God's children, we have
made a commitment to obey him. There are some things that he wants us to do. First,
he wants us to tell others that we are Christians. One of the most important
ways that we do this is by telling our church family that we have decided to
become a Christian and that we want to be baptized. Baptism is a way for us to
show everyone that we have decided to follow Jesus! Also,
Jesus wants us to learn about him by reading the Bible and going to church, and
as we learn about Jesus then we can know how to obey him and always do what
would please him. The
Bible speaks of followers of Jesus as "disciples." Just before Jesus
went to be with his father, he told his disciples, Go
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew
28:19-20
So, Jesus tells us to obey all of his teachings, and to tell other people about him, so that they can be saved and become his disciples also. And, Jesus tells us that he is always with us! So, he will help us obey him and do things that are pleasing to God. |
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