Friday, April 29, 2011

BAPTISMS!!

“From the lips of children and infants, You, Lord, have called forth Your praise.” (Matthew 21:16)

Jesus quoted this passage from Psalm 8 after the chief priests and teachers of the law had gotten pretty upset at the children who were shouting in the Temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

It made the religious people mad enough that the crowds had shouted that through the streets on Palm Sunday. And now the kids were copying what they had heard from the adults in the Temple courts.

So they asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

Jesus simply replies, “Have you never read, “From the lips of children and infants, You, Lord, have called forth Your praise?”

He loves their worship! God not only accepts the praise of His little babies, He delights in their faith!

Many of the kids in our Prevention Program have put their faith in Jesus this season as we have talked about who Jesus really is. Their faith is simple, and the way they declare His praise is profound. They sing and dance in His love for them.

Just this spring season, we have had 88 new children come to our Kids’ Club. And a total of 353 kids have come through our Prevention Program since it first started.

And we celebrated the baptisms of 19 of our children this season!

They proclaimed Jesus as their Lord as other children and onlookers from the motel gathered around to take in the day’s events. Everyone listened as the children stated their reasons in wanting to get baptized.

Their explanations were amazing. The majority of them simply said that they loved God and that God loved them. Some said they wanted to be with Jesus forever. Some said they wanted Jesus to save them. Others said they wanted to become a new person.

The Greek definition of the word baptizo means "to overwhelm." As each of the 19 children were overwhelmed with the cold water in the kiddie pool, they were also overwhelmed with a new identity in Jesus, and they are entering into a new covenant relationship with Him.

Our desire has been to see these children come into their true identity in Jesus, and this has happened right before our eyes.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Faith Like A Child

Wow! What a day at Kids’ Club! In the words of the United Pursuit Band, “Praise is befitting to the One who died! Your Name is high and above every name on Earth and in Heaven. You are good. You are holy. You are worthy.”

Recently, I feel like I have been under quite a bit of attack from the enemy. He knows that we, at NightLight, are preparing for baptisms with the kids the week after Easter. He knows that these kids are already believing in Jesus, and that their baptisms will mark the beginning of a covenant relationship with the One who is victorious over him. Satan absolutely can’t stand that Jesus is a CHAMPION! And he wants to taunt and discourage the ones on Christ’s winning side in any way that he can.

But the enemy will not get the last word with me … nor with these kids. Nope. I am more than a conqueror. And these kids will rise out of the water into new life with Jesus. I don’t care what that liar has to say about it.

Tonight, we talked about how the payment for sin is death, but that God made a way for us to not have to die, and that His way brings LIFE FOREVER. (Romans 6:23)

I started off my lesson tonight with a bottle of water. I asked one of the kids to put a pinch of dirt in the bottle, and then I went to take a sip. The kids went crazy. “NOOO! DON’T DRINK IT!” One girl even came up behind me and grabbed the water bottle from my hand, and said, “DON’T DRINK THAT!!! THAT’S GROSS!!”

I told the kids that it was just a little dirt, but they didn’t care. They wouldn’t let me drink it. I went on to tell them that the dirt in the water bottle is like sin. Even a little bit makes us dirty and unclean. And we deserve death when we sin.

I then asked one of the kids to try and get the dirt out of the water bottle, so that I could have some clean water to drink. He looked at me like I was crazy. So I asked the other kids if they could get the dirt out. It is not possible to remove dirt from a bottle of water, and neither can we get sin out of our lives on our own.

So I told them about the One who makes us clean when we’re dirty with sin. I told them about His death, and that He didn’t stay dead for very long. No way! He left death in the grave, and rose to new life. And because of His sacrifice and His resurrection, we can LIVE FOREVER WITH JESUS!

I then pulled out a gift bag that was marked, “To: Maribeth. Love: Jesus.” I asked the kids if they thought I needed to pay for the gift, but they said that since it was a gift, I didn’t need to pay for it. Inside, I found a brand new water bottle with pure water in it. No dirt. No sin. Jesus paid the price for our sin, and gives us brand new pure LIFE as a free gift.

I asked all of the kids to close their eyes, and answer some questions for me. I asked them if they believed that Jesus is the Son of God. Hands started flying up in the air, and they stayed up when I asked if they believed that Jesus died for them, and rose from the dead. Some of the kids put both hands in the air when I asked if they believed that Jesus could get all the dirty sin out of their lives, and make them clean again.

A couple of them even announced, “I got both my hands up!” Then I started seeing feet fly up in the air when I asked if they wanted to have new life with Jesus. It was such a sweet (and absolutely hilarious) sight to see kids lying on their backs with both of their hands and feet sticking up in the air (but their eyes stayed closed, of course).

I am so amazed at how desperately these kids want Jesus.

Such beautiful faith!!

“And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

These kids are ready for baptism. And satan can just sit on a tack. A lot of tacks.