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 3.25.15

****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.

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 3.4.15

****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 2.25.15

****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 11-19-14

   A most joyous time of the year is here!  Thanksgiving is the time to remind us to give thanks to God for all the many blessing of the year – and it shouldn’t be that way just one day of the year, but every day.  The Bible tells us that we should have thanksgiving in our hearts at all times.  Psalm 118:1 (a verse that all Sparkies learn) says “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.”  That about sums up Thanksgiving!  There are so many, many blessings in our lives that render a thankful heart to God.  Then from Thanksgiving, we move right into the Christmas season – and indeed we can be most thankful for God’s goodness and mercy in that He gave us His only begotten perfect Son Jesus whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.  Jesus did something for us that no other man could have done for himself – His sacrifice was the payment for our sin’s death sentence.  We cannot do that for ourselves and no other person can do that for our sin.  Only Jesus can do that.  He is the only way.  John 3:16, our Sparkie key verse, tells us that God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life – not die in our death sentence.  Eternal means for ever – indeed His mercy endures forever!  We have much to give thanks to the LORD!

Next Wednesday, we DO NOT have Sparks because of Thanksgiving.  We pray you have a day full of thanks to the LORD!  We will meet again as normal on December 3rd.  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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks highlights 3.19.14

****Sparks Highlights****    Besides showing us His Holiness, His Power, His Provision, He also shows us His Wisdom.  Jesus was a great 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.

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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 2-25-14

****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!   We hide those words in our hearts that we 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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.