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 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 12-11

  As the world now turns its attention to Christmas because of gifts and parties, we should be turning our attention to the Greatest Gift of All. That is the Gift of God that through His Goodness and Mercy, He gave us His One and Only Son Jesus Christ that came to the earth in the form of man.  He was born of a virgin and took on the likeness of man, yet was God in the flesh – God dwelling among us  - Emmanuel.  The last few weeks have flown by in Sparks, but we have been studying many important Bible accounts in the Old Testament that have shown us the picture of Jesus and His Salvation for us.  Jesus is the Deliverer from the penalty of our sins – what a gift!  It is free to those who confess their sins, believe and allow Jesus to be the Lord of their life.  Tonight we learned how hundreds of years before Jesus was born on the earth, His birth was prophesized in many Old Testament.  Not only was His birth prophesized, but also His death and resurrection.  Everything said of Him and everything He said has come true – even some things He said are yet to be seen. We know those yet to be seen things are true because He has proved Himself over and over.   

Our Sparks key verse is John 3:16 – that is the greatest gift to us.  Have your Sparkie recite it for you!  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 10-14-15

  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 Jesus’s shed blood, 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 9.16.15

  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 10.2214

****Sparks Highlights****   JOY FOR THE NATIONS!  That has been our theme tonight to wrap up the missions conference at our church.  For the last several days, we have been hearing from missionaries from our Midwest area that are spreading the joy for the nations which is salvation through Jesus Christ.   We have learned of some being church planters and church revitalizers in the US and others going to the Caribbean to spread that joy.  We have been challenged that we don’t have to travel over all the world to spread that joy – we can do it right here.  That is what we are trying to accomplish in AWANA.  In Sparks, we focus completely on Jesus – going through the Old Testament with the true life events of people being used by God and  through their circumstances to be pictures of the salvation that we have in and through Jesus.  Then, the last part of our year is focusing on Jesus Himself and why He is the trusted, one and only means of salvation.  We hope your Sparkie had a good time tonight learning about our missionary guests, what missions is all about, but even more importantly continuing to learn about Jesus who is the JOY FOR THE NATIONS!  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 10.15.14

****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.  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 Jesus’s shed blood, 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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 9.17.14

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 in His heart 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

Sparks Highlights 9.3.14

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.) 

Sparks Highlights 4.23.14

  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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 4.16.14

   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.    What an amazing thought as we head into Easter - Resurrection Sunday this coming week!   

We have breakfast at the church at 8:30 AM – come celebrate Christ’s Resurrection with us!

You are welcome to join us anytime at Sparks!   

 You can also check out the AWANA program at           www.fbc.littletonil.org.    

Sparks Highlights 4.9.14

****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 publicly at the time of Jesus' 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 are looking forward to celebrating that on Resurrection 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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.