Choosing God

.....and we have a winner!!! Congratulations to Kelly! She has 3 boys ... I wonder how she will choose who gets the shirt. Don't fret tho... We have 2 more weeks of give-aways. A random comment maker on this weeks blog will win a Mr. BibleHead shirt next week. The deadline is April 1st.

Last week we found out about God's wonderful plan and how he wants us to join Him in heaven forever. Remember the A,B,Cs? Admit....Believe....and Confess. Some of you may have been thinking about that. You may have want to let God know that you are ready to be in His family. Here is a short prayer. You don't have to say it word for word. But you must believe it in your heart. God loves you. Just talk to Him. Tell Him:

Dear God,

I admit that I do the wrong thing sometimes, and I'm sorry,

I believe that Jesus is your son and that He came to earth and died for my sins.

From now on, I will follow Jesus because I want to be more like Him.

Thank you God .

If you prayed that prayer and meant it in your heart, that means you joined God's family!

Jesus is now preparing a special place for you in heaven!

The Holy Spirit is now living inside you!

And the angels are singing and celebrating!

You made a great CHOICE!

Today we are going to talk about why God created us with the ability to choose sin.

Remember that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God? Have you ever chose to do something that you knew was not right? We all have. Adam and Eve sinned and were removed from the Garden of Eden. Now everyone that is born, thinks more about themselves than they do about God. So why didn't God just make us so that we couldn't sin?

God could have made us like robots. We could be programmed to always obey and tell Him that we love Him evey 20 minutes. But God wants us to choose to love Him.

If you had a toy that said "I love you." when you pressed it's stomache. Would that make you feel as good as when your mom or grandma hugs you and says "I love you"? Do you think your toy would be happy when you tell it "I love you too." When we tell God we love Him, it makes Him happy. We can choose tell God we love Him when we pray and we can show God that we love Him by obeying Him. God says that we should love Him and love others, when we do , we are obeying Him and showing Him that we love Him. God tells us He loves us through the Bible, and through people. Every time someone tells you that they love you, it's also God telling you that He loves you.

Every time you do something, you are making a choice. Remember that God gave you that ability. If you are in God's family, you can ask the Holy Spirit who is living inside you to help you make the right choices.

Here is a coloring page for you.

Next week we are going to talk about Easter. Easter is a day for celebrating! Then in two weeks we will be back in the first book of the Bible, Genisis and the story of Noah and the ark.

God's wonderful plan & Mr BibleHead giveaway

Whoo Hoo! Today begins the first Mr. BibleHead give-away! I will be giving this nifty Mr.BibleHead t-shirt to one lucky person who leaves a comment after this week's post. The deadline is Thurday, March 24. Kids please ask your parents or guardian if it's OK. There will also be give-aways for the next 2 weeks.

I hope you liked the story about Stanley the Snake in the Garden of Eden. Remember 2 weeks ago we talked about how Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden. They were so sad because it was a wonderful place. God would walk and talk with Adam and Eve. God was sad too. Because Adam and Eve sinned, we can't be with God either.

But God has a plan . He wants us all to join him in heaven! (2Pt3:9) Heaven is a perfect place. We can't go there because we are not perfect. Jesus is perfect. He was very happy in heaven. God asked Him to give up everything so that we could be allowed to go to heaven. Here is God's wonderful plan:

Jesus came to earth as a baby. That's when we celebrate Christmas. Jesus' birthday. He lived a perfect life.(Heb4:15) He never disobeyed his mom and dad, or never lied or stole. When he was 30 years old, Jesus started teaching people about God. He healed some people so that they would know God, but His main purpose was to be punished. Why do you think He came to earth to be punished? God is so good that he can't let anyone get away with sin. He has to punish someone. Jesus came to take our place. He was punished so that we don't have to be.

Have you ever been punished for disobeying? What if you lied, and your mom said to go to your room while the rest of the family went to a movie and out for ice cream. As you were walking upstairs to your room, your dad says "Wait, I'll go sit in your room. You go to the movie and out for ice cream." God loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus to take our place so that we could spend forever in heaven! (Jn3:16)

So why doesn't everyone get to go to heaven? Because God gave us a choice. He created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose, and they made a bad choice. (Next week we will talk about why we can choose right or wrong and why God made us like that) We can choose the gift of heaven that God is offering us, by believing that Jesus took our punishment. We know that we deserve to be punished.(Rm3:10) We understand that Jesus took our punishment. We are so grateful to Jesus that we want to obey Him from now on.

Here is a fun way to remember. A B C !

(A)dmit that you have sinned.

(B)elieve that Jesus is God's son and that he died for you.

(C)onfess that you will follow and obey Jesus. (Rm10:9)

When we do this from our hearts and really mean it, God says that you are guaranteed a place in heaven when you die. The Bible also says that every time someone is saved (ABC), the angels throw a big party in heaven. (Lk10:15)

Stanley the Snake in the Garden of Eden

The Good Little Snake

by Judy Andrews

Everything was just fine for Stanley the snake in the Garden of Eden. He was a harmless little snake and just wanted to play with all the other animal children. He liked playing with the lambs, the muskrats, the raccoons and the turtles. In the Garden of Eden none of the animals were enemies so they all played together all day long. That is how it will be in heaven too.

Stanley loved foot races with Billy the Buffalo. Oh, I forgot to tell you that snakes had legs and feet in the Garden of Eden. Well, everything was peaceful and fun and loving in the garden....

... until one day, all of a sudden, the garden became very dark. The animals scurried about trying to figure out what was going wrong.

"What is it?" Stanley pleaded with his best friend Morris the Muskrat.

"Something is wrong in the garden." Morris cried out.

"We should find Adam. He will know what to do. " Stanley said trying to calm his friend.

"That's just the problem." Morris yelled as they ran. "Adam and Eve caused the trouble!"

They joined all the animals that were rushing to the center of the garden where the great tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood. They stopped at the ridge that surrounded the center of the garden where God always walked and talked with Adam and Eve. They looked over the ridge and there stood God, majestic and awesome as always. Adam stood before him and Eve

was on her knees crying! Nobody ever saw anyone crying in the garden before, because there was no sadness or pain in the perfect garden. Then in the distant, Stanley and the others spotted a very strange beast. It was a snake, but not a sweet snake like Stanley and all his snake family and snake friends. This beastly snake was puffed up. He was swelled up like he was full of bad things. He was snorting and hissing like he had been very angry since the beginning of time.

"Do you know that snake Stanley?" Doris the Dove asked as she landed on Stanley's head.

"No." said Stanley. "He isn't like any snake I ever saw. He isn't sweet and full of love like all the snakes I know."
"That's because he's not really a snake." A voice came from behind. Everyone turned and saw Henrietta the Hummingbird darting above everyone. "A few of us hummingbirds went down there. That is no snake Stanley! That is God's enemy.... Satan! He has just done a terrible thing!"

Suddenly there was a great earthquake and everyone was tossed around like dolls. Stanley was screaming as he tried to stay close to his friends, but it was no use. Things were falling all around him. Poor Stanley couldn't even tell what was up or what was down. The earth shook for what seemed like days..... then all of a sudden it was still. Stanley was in some weeds as he stared up at the sky. Suddenly Henrietta the Hummingbird appeared. "You OK Stanley?"

"Yes I think so Henrietta." Stanley said as he rolled over. Then he noticed something terrible. His legs were gone! " Hey! No I'm not OK! Somebody stole my legs!"

"They weren't stolen Stanley." The little bird explained. "God punished the evil snake because he brought sin into the garden.

"Well that's not my fault!" Stanley complained. "Why should I have to suffer because someone else did wrong."

"Everyone is suffering, Stanley." Henrietta continued. "Look around you. We are no longer in the garden. No one can go back there. The earth, the animals and the people are fallen because Adam and Eve did the one thing that God told them not to do."

"What could they have done that was so bad?" Stanley asked. They kept the garden nice. Adam named us all, and they played with us every day."

"Remember God told them that they only had one rule and that was not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?"

"Oh no, they didn't." Stanley gasped.

"Yes they did."Henrietta quickly replied." Now they are cursed and we are cursed."

Stanley tried to crawl without his legs. He wanted to show Adam and Eve what they had done to him. He struggled but finally mad it over to where the two were standing.

"Look at me." Stanley said to them. "My beautiful legs are gone! I look stupid like this! Now what are we going to do? Is there any hope for us?" Finally after a few moments, Adam turned and looked into Stanley's eyes. Adam smiled and touched Stanley's head. There was hope and love in Adam's eyes.

"I know you are sad. We all are Stanley." Adam said to the little snake. "But God will not leave us to perish. He loves us too much for that. Before we were punished, God gave us a promise. He said that someday His Son would come to earth and make it all like it was before. He will defeat the evil snake Satan. He will defeat death and He will make everything perfect again."

"He will?" Stanley asked with happy tears in his eyes. "Maybe then I will get my legs back."

Don't worry Stanley. " Eve said as she picked him up. Stanley wrapped himself around her arm. "You look so cute like this. "We will take care of each other until Jesus comes and makes everything right."

Eve put Stanley down on the ground and he gave her a hug as he coiled around her leg. Stanley was still a little sad, but now he had a Savior to look forward to. He had hope for the future. Besides if Eve thought he was cute without legs, he thought he might get used to it... for a while.

The end.

I hope you liked the story this week. I have a real treat for you next week. We are going to have 3 weeks of give aways leading up to Easter. Some really cool stuff! Next week we are going to find out what God's plan is. And how He will let us back into the garden.

The Fall of man. (Gn3)

Last week we found out that God had placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. When God first made Adam and put him in the garden, He was walking around with Adam giving him a tour of the whole place. When God and Adam got to the center of the garden, God pointed out a certain tree. He told Adam that he could eat the fruit from all the other trees in the garden, but not this one. The tree even had a name. It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

"If you eat the fruit from this tree." God said. " You will die." (Gn 2:11)

One day Adam and Eve were strolling through the Garden of Eden. Eve heard a voice and she looked down and realized that a snake was talking to her. "Did God say that you can eat any fruit from any tree in the garden?" the snake asked.

"Any tree except for that one that is in the very middle of the garden," Eve answered.

The snake then said,"God just doesn't want you to be smart like him, if you eat the fruit from that tree, you'll be as smart as God." The snake must have been leading Adam and Eve to the center of the garden as they were talking, because as they got closer to the tree, Eve saw that the fruit looked delicious. She thought for a moment about how cool it would be to be as smart as God. (She didn't know that the snake was lying to her in order to trick her) Then she plucked a piece of fruit from it's branch and took a bite. Adam, who was standing right beside her took a bite too!

Right away, they felt strange. They never noticed before that they were naked. So they grabbed the first fig leaf they could find and covered themselves. Just then Adam heard God walking through the garden and calling out to him. "Adam , where are you?"

Adam and his wife, Eve hid behind some trees because they knew that they had disobeyed God.

What do you think they were feeling? Maybe guilty... or scared....or sad? Did you ever do something that you knew you were not supposed to?

How were you feeling afterwards? God wants us to feel bad when we do something wrong. That's how he made us. That is called our conscience. But God doesn't want us walking around feeling bad all the time. So what can we do? We can say that we are sorry to whoever we disobeyed and to God. Then we can decide to obey next time.

The snake was really the devil disguised as a snake! He is very tricky. We don't have talking snakes trying to trick us every day, but we do have the devil whispering in our ear. God didn't tell us not to eat certain fruit, but he does talk to us through the Bible. The more we learn about what God is telling us through the Bible, the more we will know what to do when the devil whispers in our ear.

So, back to Adam and Eve. God knew where they were and He knew what they had done. God asked Adam what he had done. Adam blamed it on Eve and Eve blamed it on the snake. God doesn't like when we blame others. That means that we are not sorry.

God had to make Adam and Eve leave the amazing garden that he had made just for them. In the garden, Adam and Eve would have lived forever. But now they were going to die someday, just as God had told them. This was called the fall of man. But God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had a plan to bring Adam and Eve and all of us back to the garden someday. In two weeks we will talk about that plan. Next week I will tell you a story about a good snake named Stanley that lived in the Garden of Eden. I think you'll like it.