Kids Page issue3 vol. 2










 

 

Kid's Good News
Vol 2-issue 3         March/27 /2003

Contents:

Story time: Charles Finney and his conversion
Scientific facts: Is Bible Infallible? Part 9
This Week's Riddle #45
Answer of Riddle #44 and Winner
Our Email Addresses

                     

Story time
Charles Finney and his conversion

Charles Finney who was used by God with might and power was born in Connecticut, USA on August 29, 1792.  His parents were not very religious people so he rarely heard a sermon unless some visiting preacher came and preached in his place.  When he was in Adams he
heard the messages of Rev. George W. Gale.  It created so much confusion, and several questions arose in his mind rather than edification. 

Many a times Charles spoke to Mr. Gale and asked for clarification but he felt that Mr. Gale could not completely satisfy him or explain the terms that he used very frequently in his messages.  Many questions remained unanswered in the mind of Charles finny.  Some of the questions were, what did he mean by repentance? Is it a mere feeling
of sorrow for sin? Is it altogether a passive state of mind, or did it involve a voluntary element? If it was a change of mind, in what respect was it a change of mind?  What did he mean by the term regeneration? What did such language mean when applied to a spiritual change? What did he mean by faith? Is it merely an intellectual state of mind? Does it merely mean a conviction, or persuasion, that the things stated in the Gospel were true? What did he mean by sanctification? Did it involve any physical change in the subject, or any physical influence on the part of God? Charles Finney did not know the answers and he felt as if Mr. Gale also did not know the answers.  They had many conversations but it did not satisfy the young and curious mind of Charles.  Rather it made him more curious to know the truth.

The knowledge he gained from his regular Bible reading, from the prayer meetings he attended and from the messages of Mr. Gale convinced him that if he died, he would not be in heaven.  These thoughts got settled in his mind that if soul is immortal then he needed a complete change in his life and he needed a lot of preparation to go to heaven where he could live with happiness.  But still he could not make up his mind whether the Gospel is true or false or whether anything about Christian faith is correct.

Meanwhile he precisely noticed that prayers offered were not answered.  But while reading the Bible he came across the passage about prayer where Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). He also read about God’s willingness to give His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.  Many a times he heard people asking for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but very rarely did he hear about receiving.  It was a sad stumbling block for Charles as he saw people so earnestly asking, but not receiving.  He could not understand whether it was due to any mistake of those who prayed or was it his
misunderstanding of the Bible or whether the Bible is not true?

Once he was asked whether he wanted to be prayed over, but he refused saying, "I know that I am a sinner but your prayers have no meaning for me because you have prayed so much but did not receive anything from God yet." 

But when he continued reading the Bible, he found out the reason for their unanswered prayers and he came to know that it was because of lack of faith in their lives.  They prayed but did not expect to receive anything from God so they did not receive it from God.  These thoughts gave him a bit of relief but for two to three years he was in a confused state of mind thinking that Bible is not the true word of God.  But he had to choose either of one from the two alternatives that was before him either to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior or live a worldly life.  At that time he was so impressed by the Holy Spirit that he could not continue to postponed his decision.

On one evening of Autumn 1821 he decided to settle the matter of salvation once for all.  But he was afraid and ashamed to ask any questions to his church members or his Pastor.  So he spent much time in reading Bible.  One day while going to office, he heard his inner voice speaking, "didn’t you promise God that you will give your heart to Jesus?"  But there was a great struggle going on in his mind.  Finally he went to a place in woods where no one could see him and knelt down and asked Jesus to forgive his sins.  When he did that, he felt as if all the sin and guilty feelings vanished from his heart.  The thought of God was sweet in his mind and he felt a great tranquility in his heart which he could not describe. 

When he walked towards his village it was already night.  But he had gone in the morning to pray and it seemed as if it was only for a short time that he prayed but he did not realize that he spent this much time in prayer.  His heart was in complete peace and his guilt had left him.  Next day he felt the desire to spend more time in prayer.  At night after bidding goodbye to his friend, when he closed the door of his home, he became overcome with tender emotion and he felt like pouring out his whole soul to God.  He rushed to pray.  There was no light in the room neither was fire burning in fireplace but it appeared to him as if there was perfect light.  It seemed to him that he met Christ face to face and he fell on His feet and poured out his soul at the feet of Jesus.  God filled him with Holy Spirit and he literally experienced the power of Holy Spirit going through his body.  He wept aloud like a child and made confession.  His heart was filled with unspeakable joy and love.



Is Bible Infallible?

By Vinod Isaac

So far we explored four areas of Genesis account. 
1.) Eye Witness account 
2.) Material evidence 
3.) Purpose and Attachment and 
4.) Existence of evil.. In all of these so far
we see that the evidence is overwhelming. Today we are going to dig little more deeper and look into the area of "Impact of Evil".
 
Gen 4:7  "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
 
Genesis 4:7 very clearly describes that the most severe Impact of sin was that man lost acceptance in the sight of God. I heard this question time and again doubting why would a loving God send people to hell? Answer is, "it is not God who sends us to hell but it is our sin that takes us to hell." Genesis 4:7 is the first verse in the Bible that uses the word ‘sin’ and this verse gives us some of the great insights about today's human misery. 
 
Last time we had seen that this verse gives us the very definition of evil and gives us overwhelming evidence that the existence of sin in today's world is consistent with the description of Gen 4:7 hence Genesis defines evil in the most accurate terms.
 
Abel and Cain both brought an offering before the Lord. Cain's offering was rejected because of his sin but Abel's offering was accepted because of his righteousness. Now Cain is angry in the very same way as many times people get angry at God for their own faults. God asks him why he is angry.
 
Gen 4:6  So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
 
In this context God is trying to make him understand that it was his fault and that he needed to get himself corrected.  When people say "I don't believe that such a loving God will send people to hell", they forget that sin has it's consequences and that there is no way a Holy God can close His eyes and just ignore sin. If He ignores sin then He will not be justified as ‘just God’. Because it is not fair to let sinner go unpunished.
 
So because God is ‘just God’ and as sin and God can not go together, man becomes unacceptable to God because of sin. Now the liberal theologians will say, "I don't believe that". My answer is, "whether you believe or not, rule is rule, and your not believing can not change the rule."
 
Even today consciously or unconsciously humans follow this rule. If you commit crime you go to jail. You are no longer acceptable in society. But because humans are unjust this rule is not implemented fairly. God is just and so a person can't escape by giving false testimony or false evidences.
 
Who are likely to be charged in the justice system of God? Answer is, ‘All’. Rom 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Again in Rom 3:10,11 Bibles makes it very clear that all are sinners. There is none righteous.
 
Rom 3:10  As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11  There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
 
Now the theologians/pastors who try to keep their position, or try to become acceptable in a political system or try to become honorable among people, give people a blanket clemency that they are all ok and that they are great people. Some even declare that they are all saved while knowing very well that these people are living in sin. In other words they try to make a mockery of God. It is contrary to the Word of God.  God does not support such claims. If today a liberal theologian have to walk down to Cain, he/she will say, "Cain you are the greatest person in the whole world. You are the champ buddy."  But the fact is Cain is a sinner and he needs to do well otherwise sin lies at the door and the sting of sin produces death. Rom 6:23  "For the wages of sin is death."
 
So if I go and tell Cain that he is doing ok, what I am doing is that I am encouraging him to sin more and ultimately get the death penalty. Sin bring such a horrible conclusion in the life of a person. Impact of sin is horrible, it's consequences are horrible.
 
God did not stop there. He loves you and me so much that he made a way out of this horrible situation. He sent His only begotten son to this world, so that whoever believes in the son shall not perish but have everlasting life. Isn't it wonderful?  Jesus came down to this earth to save those who are lost.

To be continued....

  This week's Riddle #45

Name two people from the Bible whose hair are not supposed to be cut.

Kids, who will be able to answer correctly, their names will be published
here.  While answering please do not forget to write your
"name" and "age"  To send your answers click here

Answer of Riddle #44 and Winner

Who was stoned to death in New Testament?

Answer: Stephen

Riddle was taken from Acts 7:59 (7th chapter tells us the whole story)
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."


Congratulations:

Winners:  

Ann David, 11 years old
Lucy Edwin, 14 years old
Bincy A Thomas, 13 yrs, Kuwait. 
Bevin A. Thomas, 12 yrs, Kuwait
Bryan A. Thomas, 8 yrs, Kuwait. 

Our Email Addresses

Please note our new email addresses.
Kid's News letter: kids@csinewsletter.com
Vinod: Vinod@csinewsletter.com
Sheela: Sheela@csinewsletter.com
Sherly: Sherly@csinewsletter.com

You can access CSI Kid's Good News using following URL too:
http://kids.csinewsletter.com


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