How God Led Me To Work With Children

Immediately following my salvation experience, my pastor’s wife asked me to take her to a Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) teachers training class.  We met every week during the school year.  This training has been invaluable to me in my Christian walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This class was divided into two parts.  First, we were taught how to take the Bible, and develop a good Bible lesson and we were taught how to show someone how to be saved.  We memorized Bible verses so that we had Scripture in our minds to pass on to others so that they could be saved.  It is the Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses to change people’s lives.  We were taught to always give the salvation message in every lesson, as well as those truths that would help a saved child to grow in confidence in his/her salvation and how to live a life pleasing to God.  We were taught that in every class, most likely, there are both saved and unsaved children.  Each child has a need to be given those Bible truths that will help them at their point of need.  The saved child needs to know how to live pleasing to his Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The unsaved child needs to know what Jesus has done for him so the child can put his trust in Jesus for his salvation.

The other half of the session was a Good News Club.  Here, a Bible lesson was taught, and we adults were the “children” in the class.  The idea was that we would go out and teach that lesson in a Good News Club in our community.

After my husband had become a born-again believer, we had a club in our home.  One day, our second daughter, about 5, raised her hand at the invitation to receive Jesus, and her Daddy counseled her, and she put her trust in Jesus to save her at that time.  She is a grandmother now, and dates her salvation to that day.

Because of his work, my husband was not able to be a part of a Good News Club after that year.  That was sad, because it is hard to find a better team than  a husband and wife  as teachers in a Good News Club.  Though my husband could not help, I continued teaching a club, either in our home or a friend’s home for many years.  I continued to teach even after my children had grown up and left the nest.

Maybe you are wondering what a Good News Club is.  Children from the neighborhood are invited to come to the home for an hour, usually immediately after school.  During that hour, refreshments are given.  The children are taught songs, a Bible verse to memorize which they are encouraged to recite the next week, and they are taught a Bible lesson. There  are visuals for the songs, verses, and the lesson.  At the end of the lesson, an invitation is given for those who want to, to come and talk to us so that we could help them make the decision to receive Jesus as their Savior.  No pressure is to be put on the children; this is to be a choice they would make for themselves.   These classes meet once a week through most of the school year.

In recent years, we have been allowed to hold a Good News in the school. Bible clubs are allowed with he same rules and restrictions as secular clubs have. I have been a part of a Good News Club in a local grade school for the past 5 or 6 years.  Last year we averaged about 30 students, and so far this year we have had about 20.

For more information about a “Good News Club”

It has been such a privilege to be doing the work that I believe God has called me to do.  My joy and delight is to teach children.  It would be a great joy to teach persons of any age,  but I believe God has called me to teach children.  When I am in front of a class of precious boys and girls I am truly happy.

Has my life always reflected Jesus?  Sorry to say, “No”.  I have failed Him miserably so many times.   But my Lord Jesus Christ has never failed me.  He has been there in my times of need.  He has answered so many of my prayers, even though I have not deserved such goodness from Him.  I am so thankful for such verses as; John 6:37, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”  and Hebrews 13:5, “. . . I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”.   I am so thankful that someone came to me with the gospel message.

 What is the GOSPEL message ??

It could be that someone who reads this is in similar circumstances as I was for the first 23 years of my life . . . in confusion and fearing God’s eternal judgment.  Such a person does not have to continue in that fear.  I would have been spared a lot of misery if I had learned these truths as a child.   The Gospel is simply the “GOOD NEWS”  that God has provided the Way for us to know that we can be forgiven of our sins and to know that we will, one day, be in God’s heaven.

The following is a  presentation of  that wonderful gospel message: To do this,  I will use the  letters A through D to help with that presentation.

A.     Admit . . . that you have sinned against a holy God.

God tells us that we have all sinned:

Romans 3:23 — “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” 

You need to know that sin has consequences, and that is death – forever separated from God. 

Romans 6:23 — “For the wages of sin is death. . .”

That death is an eternal death, that the one who dies without Jesus will be in a terrible place called hell . . . forever. The Bible says that it is a place where “the fire is not quenched”.  That fact is so awful that we find it hard to comprehend.

B.     Believe . . . that Jesus took your place — your punishment — for sin when He died on the cross.

II Corinthians 5:21 — “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

We could read this verse this way:

“For He (God the Father) hath made Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) to be sin for us (you and me, the sinners), who knew no sin (Jesus is perfectly good, no sin in Him) that we might be made the righteous of God (perfectly good in God’s sight) in Him (in the Lord Jesus Christ)”.

We need to understand that Jesus died, but didn’t stay dead.  He was buried and rose again.   

I Corinthians 15:3,4 — “. . . how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that      He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures”.  

We must understand that we cannot do anything to save ourselves, Jesus did it all for us.

Ephesians 2:8,9 — “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  

Because Jesus took our place – took all of our punishment for sin – we can be forgiven for all our sin.

Ephesians 1:7 — “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”.

C.     Choose, Confess (or Call) . . . upon Jesus, trusting Him, and asking Him to save you.

Romans 10:13 — “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

When we believe, then we can ask.  Prayer does not save us.  Prayer is the means of communication between God and us.  Believing in what the Lord Jesus did for us, does.

Romans 10:9,10 — “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness: and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.  

Another promise verse is this:

Acts 16:31 — “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house”.

Do you believe God when He says that you have sinned and that you are a sinner?  Do you believe that Jesus is the Lord?  Do you believe that Jesus took your punishment and completely paid your sin debt when He gave His blood and died on the cross? Do you believe that he died, was buried, and three days later rose again and is alive?  Do you believe God’s promise that when you believe, you are saved simply because you believe?  If your answer to all these questions is “Yes”, tell it to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to save you so that you will never be punished in hell for your sin, and that one day you will be in God’s heaven.    

D.     Depend . . . on God’s Word to know that you are saved.  The question is, do you know for sure that you are  saved?  If you say, “Yes”, the next question is, “How do you know that?” You can know for sure when you depend on what God has promised.

Both Romans 10:9, 10, 13 and Acts 16:31 are promise and condition verses.  That is, they give you God’s promise, and what you must do to receive that promise.

In Romans 10: 9,10,13  What is God’s promise?  That you would be saved.

What is the condition you must meet so that you are saved?  You must believe.

Did you do your part?  If you say, “Yes, I did my part.  I believed.”

Then the next question is, “Did God do his part”? Obviously, there is no doubt that God will do what He has promised.  When we fulfill the condition part of the promise, then God will do the promise part.  We simply trust God’s Word, that He will do everything He has promised.

If you did your part, then God kept His promise, and you are saved; all your sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven.

Colossians 2:13 — “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses”.

Forgiveness of sins is the most wonderful gift anyone could ever receive. It is also the most costly gift ever given.  Jesus has commanded us to “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”  There is no higher calling for us who have trusted Jesus for our salvation,  than this, to show sinners how they can receive that precious gift of eternal life.

How about you, dear reader, have your sins been forgiven?  It is written in II Peter 3:9, the Lord is “. . . longsuffering, not willing that any should perish.”  

The Lord loves you and is not willing for you to spend eternity in hell. Today is the day of salvation.  Even though God loves you, there will come a day when it is too late.

Hebrews 9:22, — “. . . it is appointed for man once to die, but after this the judgment. . .”

If there is any doubt about your salvation, please, make that choice today while there is yet time.

 ©2013 Mark Davis

Other Submissions by Doris Swartz:

A Letter To A Young “Bride-To-Be”
Doris Swartz Pt. 1 – How I Traded Fear For Peace

Recommended Reading:

Your Spiritual Wages

Still Excited? or Dead?

The Spiritually Dormant Life