THINK TOGETHER
What is a Christian?
READ TOGETHER
Christianity is very different from every other religion on earth. Do you know what a religion is? A religion is a whole big organized list of things that you believe and a whole big organized list of things to do because you believe them. Usually when we use the word religion we are talking about what we believe about God or about how to be good enough to go to heaven. And every religion except Christianity says that there is a list of things that you have to do to go to heaven. Things you have to do to make God happy and to earn his forgiveness.
But Christianity is very different. It is much more than a list of rules to obey. Christianity is rooted in God’s great big promises called the New Covenant. The Old Covenant given at Mount Sinai gave the people a list of rules – the Ten Commandments. But the New Covenant gave us a list of promises. Here’s how the prophet Ezekiel explains the New Covenant. See if you can hear some of the promises God makes to us:
Ezekiel 36:26-27. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
You see, Christianity isn’t just another religion. It’s a very close relationship with God. So close that he lives inside of you and you live inside of him. I know this is hard to understand, but it’s true – God lives inside of us! He controls our heart. He controls our desires and our love. When we trust that God loves us through Jesus, he gives us the Holy Spirit to replace our old heart of stone with a brand new heart of flesh. Now we don’t have to change ourselves, God does it all. God changes us with his grace and love. And all we have to do is trust our savior Jesus.
Because of Jesus I have a new heart and I don’t have to earn my way to heaven.
With Jesus I can trust my new heart that is loved by God and loves God and others.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Talk about desires that you have that come from Jesus?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, because you died for me and rose again, and because I died with you and rose again, I can have your Spirit, the Holy Spirit in my heart. Wow! Amen.
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