Why God Doesn't Get Rid of Satan?

 "The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD." Job 1:12

       While the children of Israel were on the way from Egypt to the land of Canaan they came one day to a valley, where there were a great many poisonous snakes. Many of the people were bitten and died.
       If one of the boys was out playing, all at once he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Then it began to swell and before long he was dead. If one of the girls went to the spring to get some water for her mother, when she stooped over to dip up the water she felt a prick in her wrist, and saw a snake wriggling away in the grass, and knew then that she did not have very long to live. If one of the men went out to get some wood for the fire, the first thing he knew he would be bitten. These things were happening all the time, and there was no cure for the bite of these serpents. So the people went to Moses and asked him to do something, and Moses prayed to the Lord.
       God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and fasten it to the top of a long pole and set the pole up in the middle of the camp where every one could see it. If any one was bitten by a snake he was to look at that serpent on the pole, and he would not die.
       That seems like a strange thing for God to do, now doesn't it? Why didn't God just kill the snakes and be done with them? It seems as though that would have been the very best way to save the people. But no, God left those serpents there to teach the people several things. First He wanted them to be watchful. If you have ever been out in the woods where you are afraid of snakes, you know how very carefully you walk. You never put your foot down unless you know where you are putting it. Those snakes made you watchful.
       And He wanted to teach them to look up. That is why He put that serpent on the pole, that the people might not forget to look up to Him when they were in need or trouble.
       But now you say to me, "What has all this to do with Satan?" It has a great deal to do with him. Satan is said to be a serpent, and when we are thinking of him we are thinking of a serpent.
       Sometimes we ask this same question about him, ''Why does God let Satan live?"
A boy said to me once, "Why doesn't God just kill old Satan and be done with him? What good is he anyway?''
       Well, God lets Satan live for the same reason that He let those serpents live, that were biting and troubling the children of Israel in the wilderness.
       He wants to teach us to be watchful, to be careful of every step that we take and every word we speak, and every thought that we think. When people believe that Satan isn't around anywhere they become careless. God lets him live to make us better and stronger boys and girls and men and women.
       And He lets him live that we may look up to Him when we are in trouble. You know when people have no troubles they are very likely to forget about God. But when they are tempted and troubled then they think about Him and pray to Him. And God wants us to come to Him.
       God is going to attend to Satan sometime, but I am glad that He didn't do it before. He makes us plenty of trouble, but if we resist him he makes us stronger and better Christians.
       There is a story of a Frenchman who was shut up in the great prison of the Bastile many years ago. They put him into a lonely dungeon into which the light came just a little while each day through a tiny window high up in the wall. He never saw anyone, or heard a voice, and became very sad and depressed, with nothing to think about or to do. One day he saw a little plant beginning to sprout up between the stones of the cell. He watched that plant. There was nothing else for him to think about. As it grew day after day he learned to love it very much. He did not know what kind of a plant it was, whether it was a weed or a flower. He said to himself, ''I am going to watch that plant, and if it turns out to be an ugly weed then I will know that I am never going to get out of this prison alive. But if it is a lovely flower I will know that I am going to be released."
       One night he lay down to sleep and when he awoke in the morning there was a delicate fragrance in the cell. He jumped up from the straw on which he was lying, and went and looked, and there was a lovely little flower on the plant. When he saw it he called it ''mignonette," which means " little darling." Sure enough, a little while after they came and released him and he went away to his home again. And people who did not know about him used to wonder why he had the mignonette so much on the table in his home.
       Now God is watching every one of us to see just how we are enduring the temptations of Satan, whether we are going to turn out just weeds, or beautiful flowers that will bless and help the world. N. S. Hutchison.

"Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain
thine integrity? Curse God and die." Job 2:9 (KJV)

Owning Up

  "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." James 5:16

       One of the most beautiful stories that was ever told is the parable of the Prodigal Son. You all know the story. There was a young man who went away from home and did wrong. After a while he was sorry and came back and said to his father, ''Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son." That little speech that he made to his father was about the hardest thing he was called upon to do. Nobody likes to own up when he has done wrong.
       Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, once called on a boy in the freshman class to stand up and read in the schoolroom. The boy stood up, holding his book in his left hand. He told him to put the book in his right hand. The boy still held it in his left hand and Professor Blackie became angry and commanded him harshly to lay the book down and take it in the other hand. Just then the boy turned around and he saw that there was nothing but an empty sleeve on the right side. Dr. Blackie came down from the desk and going over to the boy he put his arm around him and said, "I am very sorry, my boy. I didn't know.'' And then he went back to his place and apologized to the class for his mistake. That was one thing about this great man that made the boys all love him. He was always ready to own up when he had made a blunder.
       Our text tells us to confess our faults one to another. If you have done wrong to some one else, to your father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or one of your friends, be manly or womanly enough to go and own up. That is the best and quickest way to make it right.
       I know a boy who lost his mother. After her death he was very sad. He said, "I did many things that I ought not to have done, and I always thought that some day I would go and tell mother that I was sorry, and now she is gone and I cannot."
       Most of the quarrels and troubles that separate people are brought about because there is someone who will not own up, when he knows that he is in the wrong.
       There was a man who accused his neighbor of taking something that belonged to him. They had a bitter quarrel and a lawsuit and plenty of trouble all around. One day while looking over some papers in his desk he found the one he had thought was stolen. His neighbor had not robbed him. It was all a mistake. He ought to have gone at once and confessed, but he was too proud to own up like a man and the quarrel went on for years.
        The bravest boys and girls are those who are not afraid to own up even when they know that they will have to suffer for it. Someone told me of a boy who had cheated in an examination. He handed in an almost perfect paper, and on commencement day was called up to receive the prize. He stepped up and said, ''Sir, I didn't earn it. I cheated. The prize belongs to someone else." That boy did wrong to cheat, but he was a brave boy to own up and take the punishment. That confession was worth more to him than the prize that he lost.
       Boys and girls, do not be afraid or ashamed to own up when you have done a wrong or dishonorable act. That is the first thing to make it right and to make yourselves right. "Confess your faults one to another." S. N. Hutchison

Kids talk about cheating: Why Kids Cheat (and why they shouldn't)

Sand

"...that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Genesis 22:17

       In " The Pilgrim's Progress " we are told about the Hill Difficulty. It was a high, hard hill which every one had to climb, if he would make the most of his life. Of course there are some people who do not care whether they ever do any better or are any better. They are satisfied to stay at the bottom all their lives, but for the boy or girl who is seeking the best things, life is like the climbing of a hill that is steep and rough.
       There are two things that we all need if we are ever to reach the top. One is sand. When you hear some one say that a certain boy has plenty of "sand," you know what he means, but perhaps you do not know just where that expression came from.
       One of the greatest powers of which we know is that of the waves along the seashore. Half-way between Cape Henry and Virginia Beach there lies the wreck of a great ship, one hundred and fifty feet long. It was lifted by the waves and thrown high up on the beach. There is almost nothing that can stand before the power of the waves. If they make a bulkhead of piles or stone or concrete, it will last a few years and will then be undermined and washed away. Men have never found anything that can long hold the waves back. But God has made a bulkhead that the sea cannot pass. It is the sand. The sand can stand against the waves and it is the only thing we know that can.
       Sand in a boy or girl is the courage and power to stand up before things that are hard. It is the ability to say ''no" when temptation comes along, and to mean it. It is the power to take some hard work and stick to it and hold on till it is finished.
       You see someday a street-car starting up a long grade. Before the car begins to climb, the conductor takes a look at the sand box. He will not start up the hill unless there is plenty of sand in that box. Without sand the car will slip back before it reaches the top.
       Some boys never can play football. They have the weight, and the strength, and the speed, but they haven't the sand. And there are some people who never get anywhere in life. They have good bodies and plenty of brains and opportunity. But they lack sand. Now you are all starting out to climb the hill of life before you. Never forget that you must have sand.
       And there is something else that we need. Oftentimes we need help. We cannot do our work alone.
       There was a little boy who was trying to lift a heavy stone. He could not budge it. Just then his father came along and watched him. At last he said to the boy, "Are you using all your strength?" "Yes'' answered the boy, ''I am using all of it." "No," said his father, "you are not using all of it." So the little fellow tried again, this time harder than ever, and he moved the stone a little, but still he could not lift it. His father said again to him, ''You are not using all of your strength." The boy said, "Yes, I am. Father." "No," said the father, "you haven't asked me to help yet." The boy had forgotten that his father's strength was his strength too, and that he could ask for it, and have it if he needed it. In the same way let us remember that God's strength is our strength, and that we can have that strength to help us if we need it. S. N. Hutchison

"I can do hard things" song by SEL Song for Kids

Color the Angels Announcing the Birth of Jesus

Description of The Coloring Page: shepherds staff, praying shepherds, sheep, angels in the air, announcing the birth of The Savior, halos, wings, landscape, choir of angels, heavenly experience,

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Counting the stars...

"He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name." Psalm 147:4

       Do you think you could do that? Did you ever try to count the stars ? I have. When I was a boy in Canada, where the stars twinkle and shine so clearly, we used to watch for the first star, and the first one who saw it would say:

Star light, star bright,
First star I've seen to-night?

       Then we would see who could count the stars as they appeared. One, two, four, five, seven, eight, ten, twenty, fifty, eighty, and in a little while we all would be lost, both in arithmetic and in wonder.
       They call a man who watches and studies the stars an astronomer, and the astronomers have tried to count the stars, and partly by counting, and partly by guessing they tell us there must be between 2,000 and 3,000 millions of stars and each one is different, for one star differeth from another star in glory.
       We cannot count the stars, but God can. He counts them all and names them, for He made them and the stars are not little tiny sparks of fire, but great wonderful worlds. The great sun that lights and warms our world is just a star, and a little star. Every star we see in the sky is a sun, hundreds of times bigger than our sun. It is because they are so far away that they look so tiny and so small. Some of the stars in the Milky Way are a hundred thousand trillion miles away. Think of a hundred thousand trillion miles. Try and write out a hundred thousand trillion. You put down the figure 1 then you write 100, then 100,000, then 100,000,000, then you write 100,000,000,000, then you write a hundred thousand trillion like this, 100,000,000,000,000,000; and that is the distance some of the stars in the Milky Way are from our sun.
       The light that travels from some of these faraway stars takes millions of years to travel to our earth, and light travels fast, 186,000 miles a second. No wonder little ones like to look up into the sky on a clear cool night and say:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is set,
And the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

       Stars, just like boys and girls, are different. Each has its own way, and its own light. There are white stars, and yellow stars, and red stars. You have seen a white hot iron, and you know that when it begins to cool it gets yellow and then it gets red, and then it gets black. That is the way with stars, and perhaps the hottest stars are white. I do not know, but I like to think that just as God counts the stars and names them so he calls every boy and girl by name and cares for each one. We live in a big world but God is greater than sun and moon and stars.
       The Bible calls Jesus a star. It gives Him a star's name. It calls him "the bright and morning star." The morning star leads the world into the light of the new day and so Jesus leads us. The sailor is guided over the trackless sea by the stars. The traveler over the desert picks his path by the help of some star, so we too find our way to God by keeping our eyes on Jesus.
       There is a story of a young girl who had lost her way. She was lost not in the forest, or on the sea, but right in her own home. She had lost the way to peace, to happiness, and to a quiet heart. One night she had a dream. She was in a deep, deep pit, and there were no steps, no rope, nor ladder. She gave herself up for lost and then falling on her knees and looking up she saw a piece of blue sky and one star. When she saw the star she began to rise. It seemed so strange that she said, "Who is lifting me?" and looking down she found herself at the bottom. Again she saw the star and began to rise, but looked again to see who was lifting her and found herself at the bottom. A third time she fixed her eyes on the shining star, and kept looking until  she found herself lifted out of the deep pit, and she was safe. Then she awoke and said, "I see it all now. I am not to look at myself, but at Jesus, the bright and morning star."
       When Sir Harry Lauder was in America he was walking with a father and a little boy down one of the streets of New York. It was in the days of the great war, when service flags with a star were hung in the windows. The little lad loved to point them out. "Look, father," he would say, "there's a home that has given a son to the war." "Look, father, there's another star." "Look, father, there are two stars." Then the lad, looking up at the Evening Star that had appeared in the sky, said, "And look, father, God too must have given a son, for there is a star in His window." Yes, God so loved the world that He gave Jesus. Kerr

See The Star - Christmas Worship Song

A man who forgot his own name . . .

        The other day the newspapers were full of the strangest story I think I ever heard. It was the story of a man who forgot his own name, and forgot his friends and his home and his loved ones and wandered away farther and farther, day after day, and didn't know that he was lost and didn't know where he was going. He was not a poor, good-for-nothing man either, but was a man whom everybody in the city knew, a lawyer and a judge. He wandered far away into the country, living on little or nothing, begging for work, refusing to sit at the table with other people, and satisfied to eat just like a common, ordinary tramp (wanderer). At last he found work, very humble work, and was satisfied.
       All this time his wife and friends were worrying about him and thought he must be dead. But he had one friend who refused to think he was dead, and who searched for him day and night. At last he discovered traces of him, and one morning visited the factory where the lost man was sitting at a table making pearl buttons out of clam shells. Without waiting a moment, he went up to him and called him by his right name, and immediately the lost man recognized his friend, and knew where he was and remembered about his home. You can imagine how strange he felt, and how quickly he went with his friend, and how glad he was to get back to his own home and to his dear family.
       Somewhere in the Bible I have read a story something like this newspaper story. It is about a young man who left home one day, and never said where he was going, or what he was going to do, or when he would come back. He was rich and had beautiful clothes and many friends, but his money was soon spent and his good clothes soon became ragged, and the only work he could find was with a stranger who sent him out into the fields to feed the pigs. One day when he was in the field all alone, hungry and thirsty, he thought he heard some one call his name. He looked up and down and behind him and all around, but could see no one. He was sure he heard some one call his name, and the story says, " He came to himself," just like the man who was making the pearl buttons. Then he knew where he was, and without waiting to say good-bye he hurried home, and sure enough, his father was standing at the gate waiting and watching for him.
       You remember it was Jesus who told that story, and He told it to us so that we would understand that when we forget God and run away from Him we forget our own true name and run away from our best Friend. Hugh Kerr

Coloring Pages of The Prodigal Son:

• Color the lost son...
• Color the Prodigal Son

The long, long, long road trip for humanity...

Coloring page of Joel 2:28 and poppies...

Description of The Coloring Page: poppies, flowers, floral frame, scripture from Joel 2:28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

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Color the costume of a Hebrew priest...

Description of The Coloring Page: wood block print, costume of a Hebrew priest, tassels, gems in the breast plate, city and sea behind, landscape

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Coloring page of Hosea 1:7

Description of The Coloring Page: Easter lily frame, scripture from Hosea 1:7 "Yet I will show love to the house of Judah, and I will save them - not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD, their God." scripture coloring for Easter or Lent

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The Story of Eager Heart: A Christmas Story

"Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers,
for by this some have
entertained angels with-
out knowing it."
Hebrews 13:2

        Away back in the olden days before they had cheap shows and theaters with their bright lights and doubtful pictures, where for a penny or two an hour's ofttimes questionable entertainment may be had, the plain people who loved to see shows and act plays and at the same time arrange for entertainments that would help boys and girls and men and women to be better than they were, used to make up what they called miracle plays and mystery plays. The difference between a miracle play and a mystery play was this, that a miracle play always had to do with some saint whom the people liked to remember, while the mystery play was always about the Lord Jesus Himself. One of the greatest of the mystery plays is what is called the Passion Play, pictures of which doubtless you have all seen.

       One of these mystery plays was about  Eager-Heart, and it is about Eager-Heart that I want to tell you. Don't you think that is a pretty name? Do you think it was the name of a man or a woman, or a boy or a girl, or a horse or a dog or - well, what? Shall I tell you? Eager-Heart was the name of a beautiful woman. She had a little home far away in Germany. Just a little cottage home in a little village, but a sweet and happy home nevertheless. Well, it happened that the people of that village all expected the Great King to pass through their town on a certain night and every one was on the lookout for Him. When the wonderful night came Eager-Heart had her little home ready as if expecting the King for her guest. The lamp was lighted and the food was ready, and the bed was all prepared with beautiful, white, clean linen. While she was waiting some one came to the door and her heart beat fast, for she thought that perhaps the King had arrived and that He had come to her humble home. She opened the door quickly, but was so disappointed, for there at the door stood a poor, tired, cold woodman with his wife and his little shivering boy. They asked to be taken in and kept over the night. But Eager-Heart said, "Oh, not to-night, not to-night. I am expecting a friend, a dear friend, to-night ; come to-morrow night and next night, and next night too, but not to-night." Then the woodman, with a look of disappointment, said, " That is what they all say. No one will let us stay to-night. Every one is expecting a guest to-night, and there is no place for us." Eager-Heart was about to turn away, when she saw the face of the little child lifted to hers. It was the most beautiful face she had ever seen, and the next moment the three weary travelers were in her quiet, warm home and the little child was lying in the bed that had been made for the King. Then Eager-Heart, having made them comfortable, went out into the streets. She was so disappointed. She had had a dream that the King might perhaps be her guest that night, and now it could never, never be. But if she could not have the King in her own home she would go out to meet Him, and so, with her lamp in her hand, she went out into the streets and there she met the shepherds and the wise men searching for the King, and the Christmas star was leading them through the streets and a crowd of people were anxiously following. So Eager-Heart followed with the gathering crowd, and the star led them from street to street and from house to house until at last it led them back to the door of Eager-Heart's own home. "Not here, not here," said Eager-Heart; "it cannot be here; this is my own little humble home." But the wise men and the shepherds said that it must be that the King was in that home for the star stood low above the cottage, and so Eager-Heart opened the door and what a sight that was which she saw! The little home was all ablaze with light, for there in her own home was the Holy Family and on the snow-white bed was the infant King. She fell at His feet and worshiped and wondered. How surprised she was, and how glad she was, that she had opened her home to the poor, tired, weary travelers. I feel quite sure that you all understand the story and know what it means. I am half afraid to try to tell you what it means. But I will say this : Jesus often comes to us without telling us who He is. He wants to know if we are kind and sweet and loving to others, to the poor and to the old and to little children, and He tells us that when we are kind to others it is just the same as if we were kind to Him. Sometimes, too, when we have beautiful thoughts and see beautiful sights and hear beautiful things so that they make us wish to be beautiful in our own lives, I think it is Jesus who has come into our hearts. What a mistake it would be for us not to know Him and not let Him in. Let us all be like Eager-Heart and let Him in. Hugh Kerr

The foxes found rest
And the birds their nest,
In the shade of the forest tree
But Thy couch was the sod,
O Thou Son of God,
In the deserts of Galilee;
O come to ray heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

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Geometric shapes in stained glass to color...

Description of The Coloring Page: patterns and shapes in stained glass window, rose window, round window, geometry

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Color The Tree of Life

Description of The Coloring Page: tree of life and tree of knowledge, (mentioned in first and last books of the Bible) fruits, in the garden of Eden, roots, scripture from John 17:3 "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Revelations

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