the gospel in colours

Today I shared the gospel with the Riverview children using coloured paper.  There is a version of this teaching called "The Wordless Book."  I modified it a bit to add a few more colours.  I had a simple translator, and Mella backed up my teaching with a review.  They had a simpler version of this teaching before, but they again needed more foundations.  Here's a taste of the lesson:

I love colours.  I’m an artist, so I love drawing, and then colouring in my drawings. 
What’s your favourite colour?   
Hands up for those who love red.
How many of you love blue?
How about purple?  Who likes purple?
How about the girls – any of you like pink?
Tony, what’s YOUR favourite colour? (turquoise)
And Miss Mella?  What’s your favourite colour? (yellow)
My favourite colour is green.
I’m going to show you a few colours and talk about them.
So we have GOLD 

​GOLD:  Gold reminds me of heaven – because gold is shiny like glory.  Heaven is a real place!  Heaven is a place where no one gets sick and everyone is happy. There are no tears in heaven.The most wonderful thing is Heaven is where God lives. He wants to invite us there to live with him after we live here on earth. But something very important tries to stop us from going to heaven.  It’s something that really bothers God.

BLACK:  Now we have BLACK!    What do you think black represents?  It’s something that prevents us from being with God.    SIN.   What is sin?  Sins are the things we do that make God unhappy.  Some of this is doing, saying or thinking bad things.  Some sins are things we do every day.  They include telling lies, disobeying your parents, hurting others and being selfish.  Like wanting all the candy for yourself, when it’s for everyone.
But sin isn’t just something that boys and girls do.  ALL of us have sinned.  I’ve sinned.  The Bible says that everyone has sinned and falls short. The Bible says that  Everyone has sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory (Romans 3:23)
What does sin do?  Because of sin, our hearts aren’t clean.  God is perfect.  He’s good, he’s clean and has no sin. Because God is clean, He can only allow people with clean hearts into heaven. So how do we get clean from sin?  We can’t wash the sin off without help.  God makes a way to have clean hearts!

RED:   Now we have RED! What’s the red colour mean?   Red means the blood of Jesus.  It’s the only way our hearts can be made clean.  What we mean by that is that Jesus had to shed his blood and die on the cross to make up for our sins.  God loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus to earth.  He was not like you and me. He never sinned.  He’s also God like Father is.  So Jesus took our place by dying for us.  We don’t have to be locked out of heaven.  All the wrong things we do can be forgiven.  We can spend time loving God.  And Jesus became alive again after three days.  So after Jesus took our sin, something *amazing* happened.

WHITE:   Now we have WHITE!   Now our hearts can be clean!  Our hearts can be even cleaner than this white page.  We just need to say to God:  Sorry, I’ve sinned.  Thank you for dying for me, and ask him please to come into my life.  Keep me away from sin and help me to live for you.  If we pray these things and we really mean it, our hearts will be clean. (1 John 1:9) 

PURPLE:  Now we have PURPLE! Let’s pretend it’s dark purple.  Purple is a royal colour. When we accept Jesus in our hearts, we become royalty.  We are now princes and princesses. We are "King's Kids."  It’s true!  We become children of God.  We can call God our Pappa.  Some of us already do this.  But it takes time to learn how to be royal.    It means that we obey God and he changes our hearts to be better. 

BLUE:  Now we have BLUE! This is a form of blue.  Blue is like the sky, but it’s also the colour of the water if this pool behind us is full. Blue is for baptism.  Baptism shows others that you are ready to follow Jesus. It means that you want to follow him for the rest of your life.  If we are baptized in water, we leave our old life behind in the water. ​When you are baptized, you leave your old life behind you.
 

 GREEN:  Now we have GREEN!  What does the Green colour mean?   Green is the colour of many things that grow – like grass, trees, and plants. Since you have asked Jesus to be in your life, you can grow close to him. 
Green also means NEW LIFE. Jesus gives you new life, and he gives you peace. He gives you love.  And he gives you joy. You can grow in your friendship with God, like a plant grows in a garden.   How can you grow?   By Talking to God (prayer) Reading the Bible, obeying him and so many other ways.

And here’s our last colour – YELLOW!  Yellow is the colour of faithfulness.  It could be gold, but we’ve already started with gold.  If we keep faithful to Jesus, we are given crowns in heaven.  The crowns are filled with special jewels that God makes from what the things we experience in our lives.  When we live well for him, we have many jewels.
 
But even right now, Jesus gives us a crown.  That crown is in knowing who you are. It is in knowing that you are his child.  You can’t earn it. But he gives it.  I’m going to pray for us now.
 
Dear Lord,
We are sorry for all we have done wrong. We are sorry we sometimes forget how good you are.   Thank you that you came and died in our place.   We give you our lives again.  We give you our hearts. Please come and fill us with your love. Help us never be lonely again.  Help us to grow in you like the colours of Auntie Laurie-Ann’s story.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

We'll have to see what we do next.  I'm also teaching through kids colouring my prophetic worship drawings.  More on that another time.
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Blessings, Laurie-Ann