Nine Marks of a Healthy Church - Softcover

Did you know that . . .

FROGS drink through their skin? Instead of swallowing water with their mouths, frogs absorb moisture through their skin. Frogs can also take in oxygen through their skin, which helps them breathe better in the water.

FROGS eat with their eyes closed? The eyes help the frog swallow by lowering into its head and pushing the food down its throat.

FROGS can jump 20 times their own length? That’s like a human jumping past four school buses in one leap!

FROGS have sticky tongues? Frogs don’t use their hands to catch food . . . they just stick out their tongues! Flies, mosquitoes, and other yummy bugs stick to the tip and get pulled into the frog’s mouth for dinner.

SOME FROGS wear camouflage? Stripes and spots help frogs blend into their natural surroundings. Some frogs can even change color depending on their location or the weather.

FROGS recycle? Frogs shed their skin about once a week. Then they eat the old skin to reuse the nutrients stored inside.

FROGS can live to be 40 years old? Most frogs live from 4 to 15 years.

A FROG wasn’t always a frog? Every frog starts as a tiny egg that hatches into a tadpole. A tadpole has a round head and a tail and lives in the water like a fish. The tadpole eats a lot as its body changes and grows new parts. After three to four months, the tadpole has four legs and no tail and can live on land—it has become a frog!

AWESOME!

Did you know that you can become a new creature, too? You may not have a tail and live in the water, but God can give you a new life. Do you sometimes do things that make you feel bad inside? Maybe you were mean to someone at school or told a lie to your parents. God calls those bad things sin. Everyone is born knowing how to sin, and everyone who sins must be punished. But God, who loves us, doesn’t want us to sin. He wants us to be like Him—loving, kind, and good. Just as a tadpole changes into a frog, God can help you become more like Him. God sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to be a human, just like us, except Jesus never sinned. Even so, He chose to die so that He could pay the death penalty for our sins. Three days after He died, God raised Him back to life again!

Do you want to have a clean, new life? Then just believe in what Jesus did for you. Tell God that you are sorry for your sins and thank Him for sending Jesus to save you. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God will change you on the inside to make you a totally new creature—just like a tadpole changes into a frog. To do this, you can pray something like this:

Dear God, I am sorry for the bad things I do. Thank You for sending Jesus to pay the penalty for my sins. Please change me on the inside and help keep me from sin so I can live a clean, new life for You. Amen.

If you have just prayed to ask God to change you, write your name and address on the lines below and send it to us. We will send you a free booklet to help you grow in your new life with Christ.

Mark Dever (PhD, Cambridge University) is senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and pastor of 9Marks Ministries. Dever has authored over a dozen books and speaks at conferences nationwide.