If we don't teach our children to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to.
GOD IS HOLY (Day 12)

Because GOD IS HOLY, only He can make my heart clean.

Preparation: Take a glass of pure water and set it in front of you. Talk about what makes the water pure ( bad stuff is filtered out so only the good stuff is left). Compare and contrast this with God's purity. For example, God is totally clean and pure; there's nothing bad in Him. He doesn't need to be "filtered."

Next, add something you think is very foul into the water and stir it up. Ask, "Would you be willing to drink this nasty, polluted water? Why not?" The tiniest bit of something foul destroys the whole glass of water.

The tiniest bit of sin would destroy Gods holiness; He would not be pure. God cannot be in a relationship with someone who has been stained or "made dirty" with sin and remain pure and clean. In order to be in a relationship with God, we must be made clean.

It is important for us to remember that even what we may consider "just a little sin" still makes our clean heart dirty, in eyes of Holy God. And here's the bad news - we cannot clean ourselves.

Read the Bible Memory Verse below.

BIBLE MEMORY VERSE
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.. (Revelation 4:8)
Have you ever tasted water that wasn't clean, or milk that had turned sour? It doesn't taste very good, does it? Do you know why it tastes bad? It is not pure. Let's say that God is like that pure glass of water: Perfect and Clean with nothing bad or rotten in Him whatsoever.

If we had a glass of water to show what we are like, would it be perfect, clean, and pure? No. It would be dark and clouded and filthy because our hearts are dirty and sinful. Would you want to drink a glass of water like that?

Sin is bad stuff! Do you know what "sin" is? Sin is anything we do, say or even think that isn't totally good and right. It's like saying "No!" to God. Fighting, lying, arguing, cheating, disobeying, and mean thoughts are all examples of sin.

If we were to pour even a drop of dirty, filthy, rotten water from our glass into God's pure, clean glass, the dirty water would make the pure water dirty. It wouldn't be perfectly clean anymore.

Because God is Perfect and Clean He cannot allow us to make Him dirty with our sin. That means we are all separated from God because of our sin.

Read Romans 6:23.
  • What is the consequence for just one sin (death).
  • Since we all sin, that's a big problem for us!
  • Our bodies will all die someday, but even worse, our relationship with God is dead right now.

Fortunately, God made a way to solve the sin problem we all have: Read Romans 5:8.
  • God not only tells us of His great love for us, He showed us.
  • How did God show His great love for us? (by sending Jesus to die for us)

WHY DOES THIS MATTER:
Because God is Holy, He cannot--will not--allow sin in His presence. The Bible tells us that God is pure and cannot stand the sight of evil:

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.
(Habakkuk 1:13)

He cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked:

For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
neither shall evil dwell with thee. (Psalms 5:4)

We need a Savior to make our dirty hearts clean!

TAKING ACTION:
God is Holy. We are not. But God made a way for us to be friends with Him! You can tell God right now you are sorry for your sin. Thank Him that He paid for the consequences of your sin by dying in your place.

To illustrate: Play tug of war over a mud pit in your back yard or fill some buckets with mud and have a mud fight. The object of course is to get filthy dirty. (If a mud fight is not an option then do something that allows them to get dirty. You can even make some mud in a bowl and trade off putting mud on each other. This could be done indoors). When finished, hose off, and go inside for some milk and cookies. Discuss: What did it feel like to be so dirty? Would you like to be that dirty all the time? What did it feel like to be clean again?

( In the next part of this devotion, we will talk more about what we need to do to let God make our dirty hearts clean.)

adapted from Discover God 4 Kids
A Sample Prayer to Conclude Your Time
Dear God, You are to be praised forever and ever. Yours is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on the Earth is yours. With You in control, we have nothing to fear. Help us to trust You with every detail of our lives. We adore You and thank You for being a great God, filling our lives with Your purpose. Amen.