Well, Hi Friends! We have something really awesome to share with you and while it's not directly related to our mission trip to Honduras, at the same time, it actually is ... and that's why we want to share it with you! Make sense?
Let me explain ...
... we went camping this past weekend; we had a great time and it was so nice to "get away". During one of the evenings, it had become really windy and it was so much so that it was difficult to sit by the campfire so we decided to go in for the night. When we were putting some things away and getting ready to go into the camper and shuffle our doggies in also - we had a little incident - dun da dun dun! This is the part that I tell you that Oliver, the elder of the doggies, is really beginning to show his age and he doesn't move around all that well. He was having a hard time rolling over (too bad I don't have a photo, or even a video, to help you visualize this) but as he was having difficulty, dear, sweet husband attempted to help Oliver roll over ... and guess what happened? Oliver bit Brian! He bit him pretty good, broke the skin in several fingers and, of course, I must tell you that dear, sweet husband did not react all too well (I'm not too confident that too many of us would, really).
At this time we'll skip the "whys" of Oliver biting his master and get right to the point of the story ... well, both girls were a little surprised by the whole incident and once we were all in the camper it was noted by Brian that "Baba shouldn't have reacted that way and we didn't want them thinking that type of response was a standard for conflict." I might be losing you here, however, this is when Brynn said to her Baba that she didn't want him to do that again because then he wouldn't get to go to heaven.
I knelt down beside Brynn and I asked her, "Brynn, why do you say that? How do you think we get to go to heaven?"
Brynn said, "By being good and doing nice things."
If any of you reading this think the same thing, this might hurt a bit, but keep reading ... this is most definitely for you. We sat Brynn down and had a very long conversation with her (Molly listening intently the whole time). Now, you must know, we pray together as a family every day. We talk about God and Jesus and church and read the Bible and sing Christian songs at the top of our lungs! We send our children to Sunday School and AWANA and we have taught them the TRUTH about our Salvation. But when it comes right down to it ... it really is up to them to take it all in and make it their own. Each one of our children will come to a point when they will either take what they've been given and live their lives according to it OR they will leave it behind and live (or struggle) without it.
Brynn is still quite young and though she's heard the WORD, it's not simple to know for sure whether or not she has taken it to heart or if it is just information in her mind at this point.
Brian and I, in a tag-team effort, decided to start at the beginning and we began by explaining to Brynn the colors of the Gospel bracelet that we had helped to make earlier in the week. We went over this briefly already but now we would go over it more in depth. We got out paper and crayons - she picked out all the colors, because, of course, she had that part memorized.
We went through them one-by-one ...
Green -- The beginning -- the beautiful Garden of Eden that God made for Adam and Eve (we let Molly draw a tree, with some grass and she even drew apples in the tree) the Garden was supposed to be a wonderful place for them to live because God loved them and created them to enjoy all the beauty He had made.
Black -- Destruction -- SIN entered the world when Satan (the serpent) deceived Eve in the Garden and she ate from the one tree that God said was forbidden; then she convinced her husband, Adam, to do the same. They disobeyed God and their disobedience meant they could no longer live in the Garden of Eden; (we colored right over the beautiful tree that Molly had drawn with a black crayon so that you could not really tell there had been a tree there) they had chosen to do things their own way which resulted in their lives being full of difficulty and hardship.
Red -- LOVE/Blood of Jesus -- God had a plan to "UNDO" the terrible mess that had been made. Now that sin had entered the world, it spread quickly and seemed unstoppable. Every human being is prone to sin and sin is what keeps us from God. So God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of all the people and Jesus died for us so that, even though our bodies will one day, our souls will be with God in heaven (we took the red crayon and colored over the black that covered the tree)
White -- FORGIVENESS/Clean Slate -- When Jesus' blood was shed when He hung and died on the cross, His blood washed away the multitude of sins of all the people, in the whole world, for all time. Picture the Magna-doodle ...
and there's a whole lot of mess on the page, the lines go everywhere, all squiggly and garbled ... one Yucky MESS! But when you slide the knob over, all the mess is gone; the slate is now clean. That's what it was like!! (we folded over the paper so that the clean, white part of the paper covered the crayon mess we made)
Gold -- Heaven -- The streets in heaven are paved in gold and it is bright and shiny and perfect. When we believe that Jesus died for our sins, shed his blood just for us, we are reserved a place in heaven and that's where we'll be when our bodies die.
Brynn seemed really to understand this, and it might just have been because she was tired but she wanted to keep going. So, we tried another approach ... Brian started out using the one-verse evangelism technique (we explained this here) and he started out by drawing the picture that showed himself, me, Molly and Brynn on one side of the canyon and God/Heaven on the other side of the canyon.
He asked Brynn how we were going to get to where God is. Of course, she knew the answer ... she said we were just going to jump across. Then he told her that it was too far; if we try to jump, we will just fall down the giant canyon. She really tried to figure out how we could make it across (I think that lots of people do the same thing; we try to find our own solution and we think that is going to get us to heaven someday).
On our side of the canyon, SIN is there and if we stay where SIN is, we will end up in Hell, a very-real, not-so-nice place where God is NOT (**special note: even in our darkest moments or most tragic events that we often liken to "being in hell", we often don't realize but God is there. Hell is the place where God truly is absent). On God's side of the canyon is heaven ... golden streets and awe-inspiring brightness that we cannot comprehend ... eternal life with our Lord.
We used John 3:16, a Bible verse that Brynn knows by heart and has recited numerous times.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
We asked Brynn to recite the verse, ... slowly ... and when she got to the part about "His one and only son", we asked her who that was and she said, "Jesus". We asked her, "What did God give Jesus for?" And she said, "To die on the cross".
So, we drew the cross in between the gap, in between US on the one side of the canyon and GOD on the other side of the canyon. We colored it in and wrote JESUS on it. We started over and we inserted Brynn's name and Jesus' name and when we got to the part that says "BELIEVES" ... we wrote that on top of the cross and we kept going until we got through the verse. When we were finished, we had a "paraphrase" of the Bible verse John 3:16 that Brynn could personally apply to herself.
For God so loved BRYNN, that He gave JESUS (to die on the cross to save US from our SINS), that if BRYNN BELIEVES in JESUS (that he died on the cross to save US from our SINS), Brynn will not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE in HEAVEN (with GOD and the streets of Gold).
We spent a long time talking about this and amazingly, both Molly and Brynn were intent on listening and participating the whole time! It was such a wonderful time of bonding and sharing! We were not certain of Brynn's understanding and we did not know if she was ready to accept Jesus as her Savior. All of us were pretty tired at this point but we suggested that we pray and thank the God for our time. We all held hands and Brian prayed ... in thanksgiving for our opportunity to share and to grow ... for Brynn's specialness and her attentiveness, ... for her understanding to increase and the great expectation of her acceptance of Jesus as her Savior.
When we were done, we all looked at Brynn ... and my throat got all tight and my eyes started welling with tears ... because Brynn had tears in her eyes and she looked so serious. I asked her, "Brynn, are you okay?" She said, "Yes." I asked her why she looked like she might cry and she said she didn't know and her voice cracked as she said it. Well, then, the tears started streaming down my face and being that Brynn was sitting right next to me, she wrapped her arms around me! She held onto the piece of paper that we had been drawing on and she said, "I have to keep this, okay?"
Absolutely, baby ... me too (so I took a picture)!
Circle this word and ask, "How would you feel if your boss refused to pay you the wages that were due to you?" Deep down, we all know that it is only right that we get what we deserve. Similarly, we earn wages from God for how we have lived our lives.
Draw a circle around "sin," asking your friend what he thinks when he hears this word. You might explain that sin is more an attitude than an action. It can be either actively fighting God or merely excluding Him from our lives. You can ask, "Has God ever seemed far away?" If he says "Yes," add that that's one of the things sin does-it makes God seem far away. Now draw two opposing cliffs with a gap in between.
Circle this word and ask what thoughts come to mind. Explain that death in the Bible always means some kind of separation.
While circling this word, mention that it is important because it means that a sharp contrast in thought is coming. What we have just looked at is bad news; what follows is good news.
Draw a circle around this word. Ask, "If wages are what a person earns, then what is a gift?" Remind your friend that someone must purchase every gift.
Circle this and explain that the gift you are talking about is free. It is from God Himself. It's so special that no one else can give it. Ask, "How do you feel when someone gives you a special gift?"
Circle these two words next, and then ask, "How would you define these words?" Contrast one side of the cliff, death, with the other side, eternal life. Ask, "What is the opposite of separation from God?"
Draw these words so they create a bridge between the two cliffs. Help your friend to consider that every gift has a giver, and only Jesus Christ can give the gift of eternal life.
Write this word over the bridge you just drew. Explain that friends trust each other, and tell your friend that Jesus wants a trusting friendship with him. All he has to do is admit that he is responsible for the "sin" of either fighting or excluding God from his life. That is what trust means-trusting that Jesus wants to forgive us for rejecting Him from our lives. At this point, you can ask him if he wants to start a relationship with God that will last forever. If he says "Yes," invite him to pray a short prayer in his own words, asking Jesus to forgive him.
