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The theme of our vacation Bible Schools this summer was “The Chain of God’s Promises”. The lessons covered some of promises made by God to mankind from the first sin by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the return of Christ at what is called the Rapture of the Church. We had 17 kids attend in Elliston and 23 in Wolf Creek. One young student in Wolf Creek asked Jesus to be her Savior. That was the best part of two very good weeks teaching God’s timeless truths and promises to these 40 kids. Of course, we had excellent help and support from the congregations of the Elliston Church and the Wolf Creek Baptist Church.

Lesson 1 was God Makes a Promise. The point was that when God makes a promise, He keeps it. There is no chance He won’t keep it. You see before God made the world; He had a plan to send the Savior to redeem man from his sins (1 John 4: 9-10). Being God, he is omniscient, he knows everything, even before it happens. That is what many call “foreknowledge”, he knows beforehand what we will do. He knew Adam would sin when tempted by Satan, and he had a plan in place. The promise is Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This verse tells us the offspring of the woman (Jesus) will crush (destroy) Satan.

God had said obey and I will bless you, but sin (disobedience) will bring death, and we all must die as a result. That includes physical death and spiritual death (separation from the Creator).

Lesson 2 looked at a man who trusted God’s promises, Abraham. We learned from this lesson that God will fulfill his promises he way he intends. We, like Abraham get impatient and try to do things on our own, but God’s way is best. God had promised Abraham in Genesis 12: 1-7 that he would make Abraham into a great nation, that he would be blessed and that all nations would be blessed through Abraham. Well, it took 25 years, but God did bless Sarah and Abraham with a son of their own, Isaac. In the meantime, they devised a plan to have a slave woman bear a son, and that did not work out too well. God blessed them though and out of Abraham’s offspring the nation of Israel was born. And yes, Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through his mother Mary.

Lesson 3 focused on the Birth of Christ. The promise of Genesis 3:15 was coming closer to fruition. The prophets of the Old Testament made over 350 predictions about Jesus and his work. He came to the nation of Israel as a descendant of David, born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, and was the sinless Savior of the World. His name means Jehovah Saves, he was God with Us, Immanual. His people, the Jews, rejected him. They did not want Jesus pointing out their sin and hard hearts, just like so many today do. But he is right there for each one who turns to him in faith for salvation.

Lesson 4 was the story of Nicodemus, the great rabbi of Jerusalem. He was very smart, and a teacher, but there were things about Jesus that Nicodemus did not understand. So, he asked to see Jesus and they met at night. Jesus said you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. The rabbi asked how can this be? Jesus explained it is a miracle of God to save someone. The Holy Spirit must reveal the truth and we must believe that truth for it to have the intended result. It is a faith operation. When we get born again into God’s family our sins are forgiven. God can then use us in ways that we may never have ever dreamed or thought of.

Lesson 5 was on the death of Christ. It taught that each of us must realize that Jesus died for our sins to bring us eternal life. You see we are all like sheep that have strayed. We need a shepherd to bring us back home. Jesus was like a silent sheep before his accusers, he often did not answer their hostile and loaded questions. He suffered physically and was scorned and rejected. He died a lonely death with all his followers save John and the women having left him. He surrendered His life as a payment for the sins of the world. And God was satisfied with the payment Jesus made on our behalf. And one day He will return to take his people home to heaven.

Have you by faith applied the blood of Christ to the sins that are keeping you out of heaven? I hope you will. God keeps his promises and you can take that to the bank!

Dave Carroll is an area missionary with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency; and Pastor of the Wolf Creek Baptist Church. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or davecarroll@infaith.org.