What a fun and energy filled night our 4^th Kids Quest was!!  We held strong with 15 friends this past Tuesday, and we are sad to think that we only have one more Kids Quest this summer! What a privilege it has been to hangout with these precious children and share the love of Christ with each of them. It’s been so fun to see each of them opening up with each other, listening and engaged in the story & object lessons, and having fun with their friends!!

This week we focused on the name: Messiah: Jesus, Savior, Lamb of God. We talked about different stories in the New Testament that show us what sets Jesus apart from any other man, that He truly is the Son of God ….He is all powerful, all knowing and all loving! We learned that the reason that He came to earth was to save His people from their sin. From the very beginning of time this was God’s ultimate purpose. He is our Redeemer, Savior, and Rescuer.  We recognized that we ALL are sinners; only Jesus was perfect and free of sin. God is a holy & righteous God. He cannot be mixed with the unrighteous or unclean. Jesus is the one who cleanses us and forgives us of our sins and is our ONLY way to come into the presences of holy God!

We have found over the summer that the kids LOVE to participate in their making their snacks. So this evening we made gospel cross cookies using the gospel colors to help tell the story of the “good news” (that is the definition of gospel) that Jesus brings! Many of you may remember the leather bracelets with yellow, black, red, white, blue & green beads on them that were very popular years ago. Well for Kids Quest, we decided to do gospel cross cookies and let the kids place each of these colors on their cookies as I talked them through the following steps.

(We started with the shape of a cross – painted in icing – on our cookies.)

We first took a yellow M&M (I’m using orange b/c yellow doesn’t show up as I type –imagine it’s an orangy-yellow:))…this reminds us of Heaven. The bible tells us that heaven has streets of gold! But the best part of heaven is that God, who created us, lives there.  The Bible says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Jesus, God’s Son, is in Heaven preparing a place for ALL who put their trust in Him. (John 14:2-3) God is holy & perfect. He cannot allow anything in Heaven that is less than perfect, so there is one thing that can’t be in Heaven and that is……

SIN…..We then took a black M&M and put it on our cross cookie. Black reminds us of sin. Sin is anything you think, say or do that does not please God, like lying, cheating, being selfish, or hurting others. God’s word says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) That means everyone big or little, young or old! No matter where you live or who you are, you have sinned. Everyone is born a sinner and inclined to sin due to the fallen nature of all humans. God says that sin must be punished (Romans 6:23) and the punishment for sin is to be separated from God forever in a place of suffering…..a place called hell.

BUT God has a wonderful plan so that we will not have to be punished for our sins…. God sent JESUS CHRIST, His perfect Son, to be born as a little baby….Jesus lived a perfect life—He NEVER sinned!

When He was grown, wicked men nailed Him to a cross. The red reminds us of Jesus’ blood shed for you and me. (we then placed a red M&M on our cross cookie) The bible says that without the giving of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews  9:22). So Jesus Christ willingly died to take our sin punishment.  “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4  Now b/c of what Jesus has done for us, our sins are forgiven to those who believe in Jesus.  The Bible says: “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1:12

The white M&M reminds us of a CLEAN heart! ( we placed a white M&M on our cross cookie)

How can you have a clean heart?

A= Admit to God you are a sinner and want to turn away from your sins

B=Believe in Jesus Christ-that He is God’s perfect Son, who died for your sin, was buried and rose again.

C= Call on Him to save you from your sin.

 So next we added the blue M&M to represents Baptism.  Baptism doesn’t save us. Instead,  it is an outward symbol of an inner change and transformation. A symbol that we died and rose with Jesus. In the same way that Jesus went down into that grave, we go down into the water of baptism, which represents our death to sin and the burial of our old life.  “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (1 Corinthians 5:17)

Of course, there is no absolute guarantee that you can send out into the Universe, you’ll receive another big YES back your way. http://www.midwayfire.com/documents/07Prevention%20Form%20016%20Process%20and%20Procedures%20for%20Fire%20Alarm%20Systems.doc viagra without prescription How to use this generic ED medicine? Firstly, get an approval from the medical cialis 10 mg midwayfire.com practitioner and ask about the dosage pattern. This levitra price medication will work by improving blood flow in the penis. However, pharmacy online viagra there are other massages especially designed to cure the symptoms of erectile dysfunction and benefit your overall mental health. Lastly the Green M&M stands for growing in God’s word and our relationship with Him. When you ask God to forgive you and save you, you become His child. God wants you to get to know Him better and to grow more to become like Him.

Four things that will help you to grow:

1.Pray & talk to God everyday

2. Read & obey the Bible (reading the Bible enables you to know what He is telling you to do, then do it)

3. Tell others about Jesus

4. Go to a Bible believing church

 As a child of God, when you sin, stop and tell Him about it.  He promises in His word.. .“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Ask God to help you live a life to please Him! This IS the gospel, the “good news” that Jesus came to earth, died and rose from the grave in order that all who believe will live!!

*taken from Child Evangelism Fellowship copyright 2006

Our verse for the week is:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Please help your child memorize it this week!

See the attached pictures of our fun night of water games and tug-o-war (the best was adults against kids …and if you wonder who won…YES, the 4 adults won )

Huge thank you to Linda for staying around to be our photographer for the evening, for The Matlacks for helping keep things under control during games, and for all of you that have brought items or donated money towards our “store night” items.

Just as a reminder: our next, and last Kid’s Quest for the summer is this upcoming Tuesday night from 6-8:30 pm. We will have a short devotional, “store” time (where the kids get to cash in all of their points towards prizes), pizza & popsicles and crazy fun water wars….so come in your swim suits ready to get SOAKED and have a fun last night all together!!!