Sparks Highlights 11.2.16

****Sparks Highlights****   Last week, we learned how obedience and trust go together to obey God – and when we obey God, He gives us the victory.  That is what happened in the case of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.  They followed God’s commands to the letter and the walls of the city came tumbling down.  Tonight, we learned about a man named Gideon and his army of just a few men were able to defeat the large enemy, the Midianites.  See, brute strength, might, smarts and plans don’t win our battles for us.  Our strength, might, smarts and plans come from the Lord.  We simply have faith in Him, obey Him, trust Him and God takes care of the rest!  Gideon learned that with just his three hundred men against the thousands of Midianites!  Your Sparkie has made a sword to remember Gideon and remember to have faith like Gideon.  Read about this exciting true life battle in Judges 6 & 7!

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.     

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 10.26.16

****Sparks Highlights****   Despite knowing that God was taking care of every need – the miraculous  exit from Egypt, parting the Red Sea, providing food and water in the desert, the nation of Israel still didn’t trust God and they disobeyed.  God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey in the Promised Land – where He was leading them.  In that promised land, though, lived other people that would need to be conquered by the Israelites.   They sent out 12 spies and ten out of the twelve were fearful and persuaded the people to be fearful.  Only two of the spies (Joshua and Caleb) trusted God, knowing that God would provide their victory.  Because of the people’s disobedience, God said that none of them would enter the Promised Land, but only Joshua and Caleb with the children of those that disobeyed – the rest would wander around the wilderness for forty years and die there.   When that forty years had passed, Joshua was given the command to lead them.  By obedience to God, the Israelites then were able to enter the enemies’ territories and have many victories, but when they disobeyed, God did not allow the victories.   Tonight we learned about one of the amazing victories they had by conquering the city of Jericho – the victory was not by strength or might, but by pure obedience to God.  Ask your Sparkie why we made horns tonight!  The Hebrew name Joshua means “God saves or God rescues, or God is salvation” in which Joshua is another figure in the Old Testament who is a picture of Jesus Christ and His salvation for us.  As we work our way through the Old Testament, we continue to see how God saves His people and He continues to save us today. You can read about this in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org .     

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

****Sparks Highlights****   The nation of Israel worshipped God after the triumphant delivery (salvation) from Egypt.  God provided the nation of Israel a leader in Moses as God gave direction to Moses specifically of what was expected of the people.  A nation has laws and God had laws for the nation of Israel.  His laws show us how we are to love/serve God and how we are to love/serve others.  These laws, though, were not to be just a set of rules, but a clear picture of God’s perfect holy standard.  Any action opposite those laws is sin – and the penalty of sin is death eternal.  In God’s eyes when one law is broken – when one sin is committed - we are guilty of all of them.  That should sound familiar to your Sparkie as the K in SPARKS refers to James 2:10 that says ‘whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all’. No one can live up to this perfect standard of keeping all the laws/not sinning because no one is good enough.  In fact, the law was never to save anyone.  Keeping laws or doing good things to live by the laws doesn’t earn us to Heaven because we are never good enough.   The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that no one is righteous, no not one.  The penalty of that sin is death eternal, but the gift of God is eternal life. That gift is shed blood of Jesus, dying, for our sins; and we believing in that shed blood to cover our sins and save us from the penalty of our sins.  By accepting that gift, we have eternal life.  Jesus is who all of our Old Testament accounts, of people being saved/delivered from something, are all about.   You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org .     

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 10.12.2016

****Sparks Highlights****   The children of Israel (the children of Jacob and ultimately Abraham) grew to be a big nation as they lived in Egypt after Jacob and his family moved to Egypt to be with Joseph.   Many rulers came to power in Egypt after Joseph who were not kind to Israel as they put the Israelites in slavery.  At just the right time, God had a baby born to the Israelites named Moses who was to deliver them from the bondage of slavery.  Your Sparkie can tell you all the amazing details of how baby Moses was hid in the river in a basket to escape the ruler’s law that all Israelite boys were to be killed and was then eventually found by the ruler’s own daughter. Moses was raised in the ruler’s own palace, but was raised part of the time by his own mother who taught him about God.  God eventually called to Moses to be the leader of Israel, going before the ruler to act as God’s instrument by showing the mighty power of God through terrible plagues brought to Egypt all to convince the ruler to release Israel from Egypt.  Then God showed His amazing power as the Israelites were able to leave Egypt and God parted the Red Sea to allow them to travel on dry land.  We all, like the Israelites, are in slavery – we are in slavery to our sin.  Just like the Israelites needed someone to deliver them from their slavery, we need someone to deliver us from our slavery to sin.  That Great Deliverer is Jesus Christ.  We are continuing to learn about that Great Deliverance all Sparks Year!    Read about this amazing deliverance in Exodus Chapters 1-14.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein

Sparks Highlights 10/5/16

****Sparks Highlights****   Indeed Abraham was to have more descendants than the stars in the sky and more than sands by the sea. This was God’s promise to him.  Abraham’s son Isaac, who we also met last week, grew up to have two sons – Jacob and Esau.  Jacob grew up and God changed his name to Israel – Israel is the nation we know today.  Jacob had twelve sons of which have been known to be the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son, and because of that, the older brothers were jealous.  They initially threw him in a well to die, but eventually sold him to some traveling men who then sold him into slavery in Egypt.  Joseph had been blessed with ability to interpret dreams – part of which angered his brothers.  Joseph was wrongly accused of a crime in Egypt and was thrown into jail.  He was eventually released because of his God-given ability to interpret dreams of the Pharaoh.  Joseph was removed from jail and put into second command in Egypt under the Pharaoh!  All the while, Joseph never questioned God and continued to serve Him – even in times a normal person might despair and question God.  The amazing true story of Joseph did not end with his rule in Egypt.  There was a famine in the land that brought Joseph’s brothers in to Egypt to get food.  They then were re-united with Joseph. Joseph could have done whatever he pleased out of revenge, but he forgave his brothers, and the whole family – the children of Israel – came to live in the fertile land of Egypt.  Truly, Abraham’s descendants multiplied into the thousands in Egypt at this point.  All because of Abraham’s – and Joseph’s – faith in God.  God also gave us another picture of the salvation we have in Jesus as his people were saved from death of a famine and given a great deliverance. Read about this in Genesis chapters 37-45.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein

Sparks Highlights 9.28.16

****Sparks Highlights****   Again, after the flood, the people on the earth began to sin and do what was right in their own eyes.  Yet, again, one man named Abraham and his wife Sarah, were found to be faithful to God.  God promised great things to Abraham as he was obedient to God – including the fact that Abraham would be the father of a great nation.  This would seem impossible because Abraham and Sarah were very old without any children.  God fulfilled that promise in the birth of Isaac.  When Isaac was young, as a test of Abraham’s faith, God told Abraham to sacrifice his own son.  This seemed so improbable to Abraham, because after all, he was old and God promised him to be a great nation.   Out of great faith and obedience to God, though, Abraham obeyed.  He believed God’s promise to him even though the situation seemed improbable.  He took his son to the place God commanded and began to prepare Isaac as a sacrifice.  How puzzling it must have been to Isaac, but Isaac trusted his father and was obedient – obedient to the point of understanding his own father would sacrifice him.  He did not struggle, but obeyed even unto the point of death.  When God saw Abraham’s obedience, God halted the sacrifice and provided a substitute for Isaac. A ram was caught in the thicket and Abraham sacrificed the ram in place of Isaac, a substitute  – so Isaac wouldn’t have to die.  God provides us today the substitute for our own eternal death – that in his own Son Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ willingly laid down his life on the alter as a sacrifice for our sins.  The Bible states, like Isaac, he didn’t struggle – he willingly layed down.  Jesus Christ was like the ram who died in Isaac’s place.  Jesus Christ died for our sins so we wouldn’t have to.  He didn’t stay dead, as the ram stayed dead, because He conquered the power of death when He rose from the grave.  In order to enjoy that freedom from eternal death, we must have faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins and be obedient to God, trying to live for Him by being repentant of our sins and turning away from them.  This can be found recorded in Genesis 17-21.  Tonight their decorated photo albums are to remind them of how God is faithful to all generations.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org .    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 9.21.16

****Sparks Highlights****  After Adam and Eve’s disobedience, and thus the first sin, things to continued to get much, much worse. In fact, their own son Cain murdered his brother Abel and sin continued to be passed down through all the generations thereafter.  Genesis 6:5 says “then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…”  That sounds a lot like our world today.  Genesis goes on to say that God was sorry that he made man on the earth and that He was grieved in His heart.  Sin grieves God’s heart – it did then and does today.  God purposed to destroy all creation – with a flood, but Genesis says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  God made a way to save Noah and his family from that destruction and death.  He instructed him to build an ark for his family, two of every kind of animal and for any man that would turn from his sin and have faith by stepping in the ark for salvation from the flood.  No other man made that repentance and so every living creature outside of the ark when the flood waters came was destroyed.  Noah and his family were saved from death because of their faith and obedience to God.  You see, the ark and the salvation that it gave to the living creatures inside is a picture of Jesus Christ and the salvation He provides us from the destruction and death from our sins.  Turning to Jesus and turning from your sinful ways and putting full faith in Him will save you from the destruction and death of your sins.  After the flood, God made a promise – covenant – with Noah that He would never again destroy the earth with flood waters.  He did that with the sign of a rainbow which we can still see in these days.  Let your Sparkie tell you all about this.  You can read of this in Genesis chapters 5-9.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks.   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org

 Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 9.14.16

****Sparks Highlights****  Last week we marveled about God’s creation – the world.  He created it in six literal, remarkable days. Everything God made was perfect – because everything about Him is perfect.  In fact, after each thing he created he noted and saw that it was good.  God created man in His own image, and Adam and Eve lived in the perfect Garden of Eden and had communion with God.  They did not know sin until Satan himself in the form of a serpent came into the garden and deceived Eve. Satan is called “the great deceiver” and still deceives us today.  Adam and Eve had been given a command to move freely about the Garden of Eden and that they could eat from every tree – except that of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Satan deceived them so that, with their own free will, they took of the fruit and ate.  This was the first sin and their communion with God was broken forever.  God’s penalty of sin - as we are told in the Bible – is death and it was at that point they began to die. That sin has been passed down through all the many generations of humans.  But, God in His mercy, provided a promise to Adam and Eve that their sin could be forgiven and the relationship with Him restored with a substitute for their death penalty.  They needed to be saved from that death.  The penalty of sin for a perfect, holy God still needed to be paid, but He provided salvation from that by substituting someone else.  That substitute was and is Jesus Christ and we are going to spend the rest of the Sparkie year learning more about that promise.  You can read of this in Genesis chapters 2 & 3.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks.   You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org. 

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 9.7.16

****Sparks Highlights****  Welcome back old Sparkies and welcome new Sparkies!!  We are going to have a great year as we have many new shining faces for Jesus!  This year we are going to do as last year working our way through the Bible – The Old and New Testaments - from Creation to the time of Jesus on this earth.  We will learn how the Old Testament gives us glimpses of Jesus and then in the New Testament learning about Jesus – Who He is and how He can be our Savior.  Sure, many of these accounts in the Bible are referred to as stories – but they are more than that.  These accounts are true life biographies – each of these biographies sheds some light of why we need Jesus Christ as our Savior and who He really was and is today.  Besides our study time together, each child works independently in their books memorizing Bibles verses, so please work with your child to help him/her – and you can commit them in your memory too.  The Bible tells us that we are to hide God’s Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. 

Tonight we have studied one of the most amazing feats of time – God creating the world in 6 literal, remarkable days.  Everything God created was perfect – even the first man and woman.  But something very bad happened – sin- with that first man and woman that caused the perfectness to die.  These two needed something to save them from death, which was the penalty of their sin.   – We, a few thousand years later, have inherited that sin and that need for salvation from the penalty of our sin.  We are going to spend the rest of year discussing that sin and that need for salvation – from our Savior Jesus.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks. You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.  The Sparks do have homework by working through their books.  Your child will earn “sparks jewels” and other adornments for their Sparks uniform as they work through their books and also with attendance.  To earn an attendance award, a child can only miss one unexcused absence per quarter.   (Excused absences include: sickness, deaths, inclement weather, attendance at another church’s AWANA.)   

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 4.27.16

****Sparks Highlights****    Tonight is the last night of formal Sparks!  Next week is the AWANA Awards night where each AWANA child will be recognized and all parents, grandparents, cousins, neighbors – whoever is welcome to come!  There will be a meal and program.   Please plan to come!   Tonight we finished up our discussion of The Great Commission which is to preach the gospel all around the work.   Ask your Sparkie why we made flags.  We can start by sharing our key verse John 3:16 with anyone we see!  This whole year we learned about why we need a Savior, how God saves us and why we can trust Jesus as that Savior to save us!

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   We will miss everyone this summer, but there will still be summer activities at the church on Wednesday nights.  You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.     Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 4.20.16

****Sparks Highlights****    After Jesus resurrected from death, He appeared to multitudes of people to prove His resurrection.  Everything He ever said was true – including His resurrection from the dead.    His time on earth was then done and it was time for him to ascend back to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.  Before ascending back to Heaven, Jesus instructed His followers to teach all the world His gospel.   After we are born again, as we discussed last week, our responsibility is to spread the gospel as Jesus commanded.  We are to spread the gospel to all those in the world – and we start right here in our own neighborhoods.  So how do we do that?  We tell others about everything we have learned about thus far in Sparks - how Jesus came to the earth, a perfect sacrifice for the penalty of our sin, how He rose again, and thus is our Savior as he saves us from the sure punishment of our sins.   This enables others to believe and understand that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and thus believe on Him and have eternal life.   John 3:16 our Sparkie key verse is an easy verse to share that wraps up the gospel in just a few words – these are God’s words to us.  God’s Word is the Bible and that is where we should point others to reading the gospel and hearing it from us.   We made bracelets tonight to help us remember how to share God’s Word.  Next week will will talk more about how God’s World gets shared around the world.

We have one more night of Sparks next week, then Wednesday 5/4/16 is the AWANA Banquet where each club participant will be recognized.  This is for parents, grandparents and whoever else might want to come!  A yummy meal will be provided for you.  You can check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 4.13.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We have been learning over the last few weeks why Jesus can be trusted as our Savior.  Now, when we put our faith in Him as our Savior – what comes next?    We are told in John 3:16 that if we believe in Jesus as our Savior we will have everlasting life.  But Jesus also claims that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  The belief is more than just accepting that Jesus is who He says He is – it is about surrendering your life to Him.  When we truly put our faith in Him and understand to truly take to heart why Jesus gave His life for us on the cross, that belief is confessing our sin, turning our life to Him to let Him lead us and change us.  That is the being Born Again that Jesus is talking about in John 3 where we were studying tonight.  Your Sparkie’s butterfly is just an example of that change.  Caterpillars are a living being that changes itself into a butterfly – it metamorphoses in the cocoon to become a butterfly.  It is still the same living creature – it just looks different and acts different as a butterfly – it is born again in a sense as new appearance.  That is just like us when we let Jesus change us – we are still the same living creature, but when we are born again by our surrender and His changing us – we are the same living creature, but we act different – and look different to others when they see that change.  What a great time to make a change in your life, if you haven’t already – be spiritually born again this spring season – when the physical world around us is sprouting new life, so can you in Christ Jesus!   

May 4^th is our awards and family night.  Please plan to join us.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder,  Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights

****Sparks Highlights****    So is Easter just about bunnies, eggs and chocolates?   Just like is Christmas about Santa, lights and presents?  No.   At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus coming to earth in human flesh – God Incarnate – born as a baby.  He grew up to become a man just like we do, but He was no ordinary man as we have been studying the last few weeks.  He is God Himself and is our Savior.   He can be trusted as our Savior because of all the amazing attributes that He and He alone has that allows Him the claim to be our Savior.    At Easter, He was sacrificed on the cross – sacrificed as the Lamb to accept the penalty of death for our sins.  However, just as He claimed though, He conquered that death because He is God Almighty and rose Himself the third day – our Resurrection Sunday.  This time of year known as Easter – or better yet to be known as Resurrection time, or instead of Easter Sunday be celebrated as Resurrection Sunday - is our remembrance of that time.  God wants us to remember things – He wants us to have remembrance times because it helps us be thankful for the past and for the future.   We who trust in that death of Jesus as the penalty of our sin and place our faith in the Resurrected Jesus who conquered death and sin, we can be thankful for our past and its forgiveness by God and the future of a new, eternal life to be spent with Him.  We just have to have true faith in Him and surrender our old ways and old life for new life, reborn life for us through Him.  We have learned the past few weeks that Jesus can be trusted as that Savior from the death of our sins.  Ask your Sparkie why and how He is, then ask your Sparkie about the specific events that led to the Resurrection that we celebrated on Easter Sunday – Resurrection Sunday.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 3.30.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We have seen the amazing attributes of our Savior Jesus – He is Holy, He is Powerful, He is our Provider, He is our Teacher, He is our Healer,  He is also our Shepherd, and tonight, we learned how He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.   God the Father proclaimed Him publically at the time of Jesus’s baptism as His Son of whom He was well pleased – so God told us who Jesus was – and Jesus proclaims the bold statement that He is the only way, truth and the life.  He is the only means of salvation, He is the only means to Heaven, He is the only means to God.  Jesus in John 14 tells us that He is the only means or way to the father – He is the Way.  Throughout the New Testament, teachings dealt with sin and its penalty, and the Bible describes Jesus as the very word of God in the flesh – He is the truth.  Our key Sparkie verse John 3:16 tells us that God gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life – He is the Life.  There are a lot of false teachings out in the world that people can make it to heaven – get to God - by good works, by spirituality, by living by rules, by religion, by self-proclaimed prophets such as Mohammed, Buddha, Joseph Smith.  These are all false beliefs.  Jesus is the ONLY truth and ONLY way to God, and therefore the ONLY life.   We can trust Him as our Savior because of whom He says He is.  He is the only person to have claimed He would rise from the dead – and He did just as He said!  We celebrated that on Resurrection Sunday – Easter Sunday.  And, He can make those claims of who He is because He showed Himself to be holy and without sin, powerful as our creator and in control of all, provides us our very substance, teaches the truth, heals our every infirmity – particularly our sinful heart, shepherds us and at the same time was the sacrificial lamb for our sin penalty. But most significant of all, He can be our Savior because God says He is and that He is the only way, only truth, and only life.  You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at  www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 3.24.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We have seen the amazing attributes of our Savior Jesus – He is Holy, He is Powerful, He is our Provider, He is our Teacher, He is our Healer, AND He is also our Shepherd.    The Bible tells us that we are alike sheep who have gone astray and Luke Chapter 15 tells us that Jesus, our Good Shepherd cares enough for each and every one us that He will come to find His sheep that have gone astray – one of the many.   What a comforting thought that Jesus cares for each of us to consider us that much loved that He would come to find one of the many!  Psalm 23 tells us, too, that the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not be in want as He supplies our very most needs – even before we know it.   If you know anything about sheep, it is that they are helpless animals that need to be led to food and shelter and need to be protected from other animals that hunt them.  So just like sheep, we need a leader for our lives and a protector from the evil one Satan – who the Bible says hunts for whomever he can devour.   Jesus is that leader for our lives, but in order for Him to lead, we have to surrender our will to His.  And not only is He the Shepherd, but He is also proclaimed to be the spotless Lamb of God as He was the sacrificial lamb for our sins.   Easter is a celebration of His sacrifice for us.  His death provided the payment of the penalty of our sins – what a Shepherd to do that for His flock!  Jesus took the penalty, but when on to conquer death as He rose again.  No one else is able to take our penalty and no one else has been able to conquer death.  What precious truth to consider this Easter Season – as that is what Easter is all about – His resurrection.   The mercy and grace of God provides us Jesus as the payment for our death sentence of sin, and that we can have eternal life if we have faith and accept Jesus as our Shepherd – our Savior. 

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 3.16.16

****Sparks Highlights****    Besides showing us His Holiness, His Power, His Provision, His Wisdom/Teaching, Jesus is our Healer.  He is often referred to as the Great Physician.  Jesus, God Incarnate who is our Creator, also can heal all our sickness.  Crowds would often flock to Jesus to heal their sicknesses – blindness, deafness, muteness, lameness, leprosy, and years of bleeding.  His touch would heal them, His words would heal them.  But you know what our greatness sickness is?  Our sin.  Jesus is the Healer of our greatness sickness because He has taken the punishment of our sins upon Himself – that is the antidote, the medicine, for our sickness.    Each time Jesus would heal an infirmity, He would note that it was the person’s faith that would heal them – make them whole, and then Jesus would challenge them to depart and sin no more.  See, each person’s problem was not just a sickness of body, but more the sickness of their sinful heart.  Jesus didn’t just take the time to heal their bodies – with doing that He showed His power as God, but more powerful than that, is when He told them their sins were forgiven them.  Only God – our Great Physician – can heal our sinful hearts.  But as Jesus said, it takes faith to accept Him as our healer, and a willingness to sin no more by giving Him our hearts.  Sure, after we put our faith in Him, we are not perfect in that we still sin, but at that point we should have the concern to confess that sin, and as the Bible tells us, He is faithful and just to forgive us that sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  We still need our Great Physician to heal our hearts then, too!

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 3.9.16

****Sparks Highlights****    Besides showing us His Holiness, His Power, His Provision, He also shows us His Wisdom.  Jesus was the greatest teacher during His time on earth.  He took every opportunity to teach.  Jesus taught the leaders of the day and the poor alike – He taught them about their sinful hearts and need for repentance.  He often taught His lessons in stories, in parables, that help us understand the meaning of His points.  Every meeting with people, every situation was used to teach about God’s love, mercy, judgment and grace.  Many modern-day people consider Jesus just a good teacher – but He is more than that.  He is our teacher that points out our sins and provides way of correction, restoration with God.  You can reject what a teacher tells you, but it doesn’t make it any less true when it is the truth.  Tonight we learned specifically on how Jesus taught us to pray and share through examples He has given us in Matthew 6.   We are not to just follow commands to recite words or just perform good deeds; we are to use these as examples of how to have the right heart that pleases God.  The first step of having a heart that pleases God is to have a repentant, humble heart that has been surrendered to God and the rest just comes naturally out of the heart that seeks Him.  It is only through Jesus that we can have a prayer relationship with God.  We are to pray without ceasing.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 3.2.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We have learned Jesus is holy, so He can take our sins’ punishment, to be trusted as our Savior. Last week we learned that Jesus is powerful and our creator, so He can be trusted as our Savior.  This week, we are learning that Jesus is our provider so He can be trusted as our Savior.  How much food do you think it takes to feed 5000 men and their women and children?  With Jesus, our provider, it only takes 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish – and there were baskets left over.  Ask your Sparkie to tell you about this amazing account in John 6.   Jesus challenges us that we are to trust Him for our daily provision many times in the New Testament.  God provides for the sparrows, the lilies in the field and knows the very number of our hairs – so if He cares that much – should we be without ever?  No.  Just as a parent provides for his/her children, our Heavenly Father, God, provides everything for us – the air we breathe, the gravity to hold our feet on the ground, skills to earn a living for our family.  Everything is a gift from above from our Provider.  Philippians 4:19 says: And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  What an amazing provision!

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at  www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 2.24.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We learned why Jesus can be our Savior as He is holy, without sin.  He did not succumb to temptation to sin.  He knows what temptation is because Satan himself tempted Him, but He did not sin – therefore, because of His holiness, He can be our Savior.   He knows our weaknesses to sin.   Tonight, we learned about His power.   Our P in SPARKS stands for Power – it says in Psalm – “Great is our lord and mighty in power”.   Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh on earth, created the earth and all the galaxies as the Bible tells us in Genesis 1:1.   Creation is evidence of God and it listens to the voice of its creator.  In Mark 4, we see how Jesus and His followers (disciples) were caught in a storm with the wind and the waves surrounding them.  All it took was Jesus to give the verbal order to the wind and the storm to “Peace Be Still” and immediately the storm ceased.  The disciples were amazed, as we should be too, but not surprised.  Jesus is powerful over His creation and all events.  He even is powerful to be in control of all our circumstances – all our storms.   And as we will learn about in the weeks to come, He is powerful over death.  He raised people from the dead. He raised Himself from the dead. And because of that, we can trust Him to save our soul from eternal death.  Do you trust His Holiness? Will you trust His Power and accept His salvation?

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at  www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 2.17.16

****Sparks Highlights****    These weeks of Sparks we have been learning about salvation – our Bible heroes and their lives are pictures of Jesus.  They were saved or were used by God to save someone else.  We learned that Christmas was when Jesus – God’s Son, God in human form – came to earth in human flesh as a baby.  Last week, for Valentine’s Day we talked about God’s love for us that He gave us that gift of Jesus that when we believe on Him, we can have everlasting life.  That gift of love took the punishment of our sin, which was death.   He was and is our salvation from the punishment of our sin.  Tonight, and for the rest of the Sparkie year, we are learning about who Jesus is and why He is the One who is fit to take that punishment and to claim He is God in the flesh, to claim why He is the One and Only One that can grant us salvation.   Specifically, tonight, we are looking at Jesus’ character of Holiness.  He was tempted to sin, yet did not.  He could not take the punishment for our sin if He Himself was a sinner as He would be no different that you and me.   Indeed, we are not perfect as Jesus to never sin, but we can use His example to help us try not to sin.  Jesus was tempted three times in Matthew Chapter 4, and each of those three times, He used the help of His Father God to resist the temptation.   Those words He quoted were words of His Father, and you know, we have those same words in scripture.   That is why it is so important to learn God’s words, memorize scripture.  These verses your Sparkie works on every week are the words of God!   They can hide those words in their hearts that they might not sin against God.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 2.10.16

****Sparks Highlights****    All of our holidays – whether remembrance days or just special days – can remind us of God and His provision for us.  Thanksgiving we are thankful to Him for His blessings.  Christmas we are blessed by the gift of His Son Jesus Christ coming to earth as a man.  Valentine’s Day – it is not a remembrance day, but it is a special day that we can be thoughtful of the greatest love of all – John 3:16 – our Sparks key verse tells us that God so loved the world.  He so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   The penalty of sin is eternal, everlasting death, but God provided a substitute to take that death – His son Jesus – that when we believe in Him with all of our heart, soul and mind and He then so becomes the Lord of our life, we have everlasting life through Him.  He loves us that much that He sacrificed.  We talk about loving people – God is Love because He has given us the greatest love anyone can give and receive – that Jesus laid down His life so that we might have everlasting life.  We just have to believe, it is nothing we earn or pay back. This Love is free to those who believe.  Do you really know and have Love this Valentine’s Day?

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder and Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 2.3.16

****Sparks Highlights****    We have learned thus far about many heroes who obeyed, but there were heroines, too.   One such was Esther.  There is even a book of the Old Testament bearing her name that accounts her obedience to God.  She was a queen who saved the whole nation of Israel.  The evil king’s advisor Haman had plotted to kill all the Jews.  Esther was challenged by her Uncle Mordecai that she needed to tell the king she was Jew and that her people needed to be saved.   Esther would have to present herself to the king without being called by the king – this was unheard and might cost her life.  Mordecai pointed out to her that God may have just put her in this certain time in history for His special purpose.  It was true then and even so true now.  Esther pleased the king and thus he extended his golden scepter, as an invitation, to her which was the sign that she could approach him.  Esther was able to save her people from death after she accepted the king’s scepter  (invitation) to inform him of the plot to kill the Jews.    Again we see the picture of God’s salvation for us!  He extends the open invitation to us to come, to approach Him.  The “golden scepter” that He extends for us is Jesus, and we are allowed to approach God when we accept Jesus.  And when we accept Jesus, we are saved from eternal death – the certain punishment of our sin.   Esther saved her people from physical death, and Jesus saves us all from eternal death.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 1.27.16

****Sparks Highlights****   The last two weeks we have learned of the salvation people had as the obeyed God. Their salvation did not come from their obedience, but that God showed Himself great to save them from certain death in a fiery furnace and at the mouths of lions.  Tonight, we studied someone who didn’t obey God right away – in fact he ran the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go.  Jonah was given a task directly by God and Jonah chose not to obey.  He ended up in the belly of a big fish, and it was there that he repented of his sin. God again showed His greatness and mercy in that Jonah was saved from certain death.  Read about it in the book of Jonah and ask your Sparkie how Jonah got swallowed by the big fish.  Even though we sin, God shows us His greatness and mercy in that when we repent of our sin, he forgives us and saves us from the penalty of our sin which is death.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 1.20.16

****Sparks Highlights****   Last time in Sparks, we learned about the three Hebrew friends that God saved from the fiery furnace – how about being saved from the mouths of hungry lions?!  Again, a Hebrew young man by the name of Daniel obeyed God.  There was a law in the land that no one could bow or pray to anyone but King Darius.    Daniel knew he was to pray only to God, so he continued to do so.    The Bible describes that he purposed in his heart to obey.  When you purpose in your heart to do something, it means you put that ideal above all else, no matter what the cost.  That is exactly what Daniel purposed – to obey God.  And when he was found out that he was obeying God rather than King Darius, by punishment of that law, he was thrown into the lions’ den.  God shut the mouths of the lions and Daniel was unharmed.  God again was able to prove Himself – obey and trust Him, and He will save.  He will save and show that he is mighty and powerful.  Read about this other exciting story of God’s salvation of His people in Daniel Chapter 6! 

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at  www.fbc.littletonil.org.     

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights

****Sparks Highlights****   Kids and people of any age can make good decisions to serve and obey the Lord – such were three Hebrew young men we know by the names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  They knew that God did not want them to bow down to the golden statue of the king.  The penalty of disobeying the king was to be thrown into the fiery furnace.   The three young friends obeyed God, instead of the king, and refused to bow before the statue.  Under penalty of the law, they were thrown into the fiery furnace.  But, God did not allow them to be burned or even harmed by the fire.  When the king looked into the fiery furnace he saw not three people, but four.  The king saw the fourth person, an angel of the Lord, sent to protect the three friends from the flames, to save them.  That is exactly what Jesus does for us.   He saves us from the fire – the Bible tells us there is a lake of fire that burns night and day for eternity apart from God.  That lake of fire is the place of punishment for the penalty of our sins, but when we accept what Jesus did on the cross and make him the Lord of our life, Jesus saves us from that punishment.  We continue to see the plan of salvation through the lives of ordinary people  - this time, three young men who obeyed and only served the Lord.  Read about them in Daniel 3.

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!    You can also check out the AWANA program at           www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Mrs. Jennifer Schroeder,  Mrs. Barb Stein.