Paperback(Ages 8 - 12)
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780310708995 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Zonderkidz |
| Publication date: | 04/11/2005 |
| Series: | Faithgirlz |
| Edition description: | Ages 8 - 12 |
| Pages: | 192 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.56(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d) |
| Age Range: | 9 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Jennifer Vogtlin is Kristi Holl's eldest daughter and formerly an educator in special education preschool and pre-kindergarten. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.
Read an Excerpt
For Abby Dawn Vogtlin, with love from Nana.
How you've blessed my life!
A Narrow Road That Leads to Wider Promise You can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate that leads to life. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the road to life is narrow, and only a few ever find it.
Many of your friends will encourage you to join them on the wide path. It looks like fun, and Satan promises that you'll feel loved and accepted if you live as the world lives. You'll have more 'friends' on the broad path. You won't be branded a 'narrow-minded Christian' if you choose to travel on the Anything Goes Highway. On that wide path you'll hear that cheating to get good grades is okay,
that R-rated movies don't hurt you, and that it's cool to drink and take drugs.
The broad way is also the way of disappointment and false promises. It can't deliver love and acceptance and long-lasting happiness because it's Satan's lie. Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV) says, 'There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.'The broad way might be 'fun' for a while, but your heart will never find peace this way. True joy and acceptance are found through God on the narrow path. Traveling God's way can mean a difficult, rocky road at times. But it leads to peace here on earth and eternal life in heaven. It's not heavily traveled,
but Jesus is always with you, so you're never alone.
You're standing at a fork in the road. Take off with confidence down the narrow way---to life!
Did You Know...
that Jesus told the disciples they had to be like children (and have childlike faith) to enter heaven?
Read Matthew 18:2--5.
Girl Talk:
What path are you walking on right now?
Do you think God would be happy with your choices?
God Talk:
'Lord, I don't always make the right choices. Help me to be courageous and choose the right path.
I want you to be proud of me.
I love you. Amen.'
Beauty 101:
Walking down a path is a great way to get exercise. Fast walking for twenty to thirty minutes a day gets your heart pumping. Walk only during the day, and take a buddy with you!
More to Explore: Luke 13:24--25
Never-Ending Love Our limited human minds find it hard to grasp how much God loves us. His love continues forever and can be counted on in all our times of need. God pulled us to him with his love and kindness. 'We love Him because He first loved us' (1 John 4:19 NKJV).
Think about the person you love most in the world. Then multiply the love you feel for this person a thousand times.
That's only a tiny drop of the love---the everlasting love---that God feels toward you.
Every day for a month, take a few minutes to think about how much God loves you. Say it out loud: 'God loves me. The all-knowing,
all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe loves me!' See how that changes your feelings during the month. We would live much differently if we truly understood how much God loves us. He wants only the best for us---10 all the time. He wants to meet all our needs---we only have to ask him. (That doesn't mean he will give you everything you want, but instead everything he knows you need.) He wants to fight our battles for us---we only have to lean on him. He wants to give us direction and to have the joy Jesus died for us to have.
God wanted us so much that he pulled us to him. Jesus said,
'No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him' (John 6:44 NIV). People do not come to Christ strictly because of their own ideas or decisions. It is God pulling them to him. He loves you and wants you that much!
God's love for you is without limit. Soak it up!
Did You Know...
that God is faithful to those who love him? Moses tells the Israelites what will happen to them, depending on whether they love God or hate him.
Read Deuteronomy 7:8--10
for more of the story.
Girl Talk:
Do you feel that God really loves you?
How do you think he shows his love to you each day?
God Talk:
'Lord, it's hard to believe that you love me so much, but I am so grateful to have your love. Help me to show love to others the way you show your love for me. Thank you for never leaving me.
Amen.'
More to Exp lore: Psalm 103:17 and Titus 3:3--6
Cultivate Your Faith When you plant garden seeds, you don't expect much of a crop from dry, rocky ground, or a patch full of weeds.
But good soil---black soil full of minerals---will produce up to a hundred times the amount of seed that was planted. In the same way, people with good hearts, ready to receive God's word and act on it, will also produce an abundant harvest.
They will become all that God created them to be.
God has given you special talents and abilities that he wants you to use. Do you love to run fast? Do you have a good singing voice or an ability to play the flute well? Can you write poetry, or paint watercolors? God wants you to enjoy the gifts and talents, but also use them to bring joy to others and glory and praise to God. Is your life producing such a harvest? It can!
If you don't like your harvest, check
12 your soil. Is it full of weeds (like resentment,
Devotion #3
'The good soil represents those who hear and accept God's message and produce a huge harvest---
thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted.'---Mark 4:20 (NLT)
laziness, or jealousy)? Then deal with the weeds. Pray for help to get rid of them, then do what God tells you to do. Is your soil dry and hard from lack of water (from ignoring reading your Bible)? Then soak it in the rivers of living water from God's Word. Then you'll grow the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22--
23 NKJV).
If your soil needs attention, be a good farmer and plow it. Plant it with seeds of obedience to God's word---then wait for that bumper-crop harvest!