Sparks Highlights 1.21.15

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. Carol Sheley, Mrs. Barb Stein.

Sparks Highlights 9.10.14

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.