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 9.9.15

  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 3.2.15

 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 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 Highlights 3.18.15

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 3.11.15

****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 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.