The questions are transcribed below just as the children wrote them.
Q. Why is God so big?
A. The Bible teaches there is nowhere you can go where God is not there (Psalm 139:7-10). God is a spirit (John 4:24), and He can be all over the universe everywhere at once. God is so big because He is everywhere.
Q. How far is forever?
A. Forever is a long way! Forever is also a long time! It is too big to describe, but it is like going on a journey in which you never get to the destination!
Q. What does life mean?
A. We are alive so that we can enjoy living! God gave us life so that we could enjoy happiness, peace, and love! The Bible says God "provides us with everything for our enjoyment"(1 Timothy 6:17). God loves to see us happy! And what makes us happy? When we say thank-you to God for everything and praise Him, when we love our fellow human beings and care for them, when we follow Jesus Christ with all our heart and help others to follow Jesus, too, and when we are creative and work hard whilst respecting all God's creation - space, the earth, plants, and animals.
Q. Is Heaven real? If so what does it look like?
A. Jesus said heaven is real. He taught us to pray to God like this:"Our Father in heaven, may your holy name be honoured" (Matthew 6:9). Jesus also taught that children have guardian angels in heaven: "See that you don't despise any of these littles ones. Their angels in heaven, I tell you, are always in the presence of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 18:10)
Heaven is a hard place to describe, because it is a spiritual place. It is not a physical place like earth. However it must be very beautiful, because God is there in an even more real way than on earth. We do know that it is a place where there is no more death, no more grief or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). The best symbolic descriptions we have of what heaven is like can be found in the Bible in the book of Revelation chapter 4, chapter 19:1-10, and chapters 21 & 22.
Q. When are we going to raise money and have our disco or theme park?
A. On the last day of Term 2 your school organized an Out of Uniform day with a gold coin donation for children wishing to take part. Praise God, you were able to collect $125, which will go to Christian Blind Mission International to help provide surgery for a child with 'knock knees' so she can grow up to walk properly. Good on you, PNE!!!!
Q. God how?
A. The Bible says that God creates by speaking. He just has to say the word, and it is done. Wow! In the beginning, God said: 'Let there be light' and there was light! (Genesis 1:3) It is written: "For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm."(Psalm 33:9) When God speaks, He also sends His Spirit to actively be involved in the creating process. (Psalm 104:30).
Q. How do I get possessed by the devil?
A. First, the Bible teaches that you can be possessed by demons or the devil (Matthew 8:28; John 6:70,71). You can become captive by the devil to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25,26) in a number of ways. The most common way is by being disobedient to God's will and standards (Ephesians 2:1,2). If you choose to be involved in witchcraft, sorcery, casting spells, ouija boards, seances, and the occult (all things that God hates - see Deuteronomy 18:10-12), you also open yourself up to demonic possession. If your parents have been involved in the occult, demon-possession can also "pass on" to you (cf Exodus 20:5).
However praise God that Jesus has the power to cast out the devils if a person is possessed (Matthew 8:28-34).
Q. Why do people like junk food so much?
A. Junk food often has either lots of sugar, lots of specially made tasty flavouring, or lots of animal fat products. All these make your taste buds salivate and give you cravings to eat more, even if you're body doesn't really need it!
Have you ever noticed that when you eat purely natural food (like apples, bananas, oranges, vegetables), your mouth doesn't have that "I want more" feeling?
Q. What happens when i die? Do you turn to a ghost when you die?
A. When you die, your body is either buried or burnt (cremated), but your spirit lives on. Jesus taught that if you are a person who has faith in God and you love Jesus, your spirit goes to a heavenly paradise (Luke 16:22; 23:43), but if you haven't trusted God, you go to "Hades", the place of the wicked dead, where you are in great torment (Luke 16:23). So, you are sort of like a "ghost", but not on this earth.
At the end of time, when Jesus comes back again, there will be a great resurrection of the dead, where all people will appear before God on Judgement Day. All believers in Jesus will then go to heaven forever, and unbelievers are cast into hell forever. (You can read about this clearly in Revelation 20:11 - 21:8).
Q. Why does god make rules?
A. This is a very interesting question. Technically, God does not make rules. He only tells us His laws! What's the difference?
Consider for example the Law of Gravity. Scientists didn't make this law, they just "discovered the formula" that usually works all the time to describe why it is that an apple falls off a tree and hits the ground, or to describe why it is that certain objects weigh more than others. The Law of Gravity existed long before scientists "discovered it". It is a part of the way things are.
So, too, with God. The Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses are actually a minimal subset of "the way things really are". If we keep these 10 commandments, we won't hurt ourselves!!
God told us what the 10 commandments are because we so easily forget or don't want to listen to what we know is the right way to live! Deep down we know that stealing is wrong, for example, but sometimes it has to be told us to help us do what is right!
And in the end, doing what is right can be summarised into just 3 things:
1. Love God first above everything.
2. Love and care for your fellow human beings just like you would care for yourself.
3. Show mercy and forgive just like Jesus modeled to us.