God Calls

This year we get to take the preschoolers through a journey of seeing God's plan for all peoples.  I have loved getting this series ready and am looking forward to having others come in and share with the kids as if they're the character in the story.  

We started Sunday with a simple introduction--God had a plan from the beginning.  We looked at Genesis 12:1-4.  God's call to Abram. 

I open my Bible and listen to God,

He tells me what I should do. 

I know that He loves me, 

He hears when I pray.

And ALL OF HIS STORIES ARE TRUE.

We have just finished looking at the stories from the Bible about when Jesus was born.  Now we're going to look at the first book of the Bible and how Jesus was mentioned there!

God, the Father, knew from the beginning that He would send Jesus to be our Savior.  He knew that the only way for any person to join His forever family was to love and believe in Jesus.  

He picked one man, Abraham (Abram).  God CALLED Abraham out of a country and out of a family that didn't know the one and only true God.  I don't know how Abraham knew it was God, but he OBEYED the call of God.  Abraham didn't even know where he was going.  Abraham trusted God to show him the way.  

God told Abram that He would make his name great.  God promised to bless Abram and his family so that Abram would be a blessing to all the families of the earth!

God went on to tell Abraham and his family about Himself.  Abraham and his family lived differently that those around them--people noticed the differences!  We call Abram's family "God's chosen people."  We have the Old Testament because those in Abraham's family wrote God's words down for us.  We are some of the families who are being blessed because Abraham's family wrote this [hold up Bible].  

We get to now learn about God because of THIS TRUE BOOK.  And you know?  There are people in the world today who still don't have God's Word in a language they understand.  There are still families who still haven't been blessed.  And God said ALL FAMILIES.

The MOST important blessing God gave Abraham was that through his family, God sent Jesus.  Jesus is the only way for people to know God and to become part of God's forever family.  Jesus is related to Abraham! 

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, describes for us how it will be in heaven.  There will be a great multitude--"multitude" means "many, many people"--they will be worshiping God.  They will be singing for joy and worshiping Jesus--and EVERY language ever spoke on earth, every nation, every family will have someone there. Only those who believed Jesus died for them will be there.

Now, we know about God and how He wants to bless ALL FAMILIES--how that has been God's plan from the beginning.  We get to now tell others about God, about Jesus, about what we know.  We can tell our friends at school, our neighbors, our family, other families.

Some of our missionaries go to places where they have heard of Jesus but don't know that He is the ONLY way to God.  Some of our missionaries go to places where they've never even HEARD the name "Jesus."  They all trust God when he said ALL FAMILIES will be blessed.  God has called missionaries to go to places near and far.  

Maybe someday, God will call you.

Our Bible verse for the next six weeks:

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!               Psalm 67:4a 

One day, ALL nations will be glad and sing for joy--they will worship the One who is worthy.