Years ago, I believe I shared this pictorial presentation of the gospel message. I have used it literally for decades to teach about the plan of salvation to persons with intellectual and other disabilities. I draw the picture on the whiteboard and then go through it with our group.
-First
picture of sad face shows that we are all sinners, we all do bad things. We are
NOT right with God.
Romans
3:10-12 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous – not even one. No one is
truly
wise;
no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one
does
good,
not a single one.”
-Picture
of cross – but Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
Romans
3:22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
-Smiling
face and gift – If we place our faith in Jesus we are forgiven. Our forgiveness
is a free
gift.
Romans
6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life
through
Christ
Jesus our Lord.
I
will sometimes say at this point, “You know, if we work real hard and try to do
what is right, then God will give us a pay check of forgiveness and life with
Him in heaven, right?” They have come the expect this joke and will respond,
“No Jeff, it is not a paycheck it is a free gift.” Which I will affirm. “Yes!
It is a free gift we get if we believe in Jesus.”
-Picture
of the dove – God then gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us. The dove is based upon Jesus' baptism where the spirit descended on him in the form of a dove. Because of my picture, I also always get the comment that we receive the "holy chicken" which is always good for a laugh!
Romans
5:5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God
loves
us,
because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans
8:26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
-Picture
of the house – Someday we will be with the Lord in Heaven because of our faith.
John
14:1-3 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
There is
more
than enough room in my father’s home. If there were not so, would I have told
you that I
am
going to prepare a place for you.
2
Corinthians 5:8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from
these earthly
bodies,
for then we will be at home with the Lord.
I
always ask our group, “What will you say when you go to the place that Jesus
has prepared for
you?”
They respond, “I am home!”
You
might ask if people in your group believe this. If it is for the first time,
you can pray with
them.
We have actually used this picture as a way that people can explain their faith
such that
they can be baptized and join the church.
Hope this helps!
McNair
Posts
5 comments:
C.Orozco
I enjoyed reading this blog post. It opened my view about how a simple drawing can be used to teach the word of god and share its meaning with those who have a wide array of disabilities and how we can view individuals with disabilities to teach them self-worth and life meaning. Salvation can be discussed in many different ways, such as who deserves salvation, is it earned or do we all naturally achieve it at the end of our lives. The unknown variables that can be discussed often overwhelm individuals with disabilities because it can have them feeling lost and uncertain where they fit in the grand scheme of life. That is why the drawing presented is a genius way to teach salvation to those with a variety of disabilities. The drawings are easy to understand and can help someone visually attach a gospel verse to such drawings and thus becoming relatable. Moving forward I will seek to look for meaning in simple acts or artistry that the world presents to help those with disabilities navigate life easier, but more importantly to give them the power of self-worth and understatement of the holy gospel.
This blog post was very educational and I loved the visual aspect provided. This post exemplified how no one is righteous and no one deserves salvation, salvation is received through believing in the Lord. This concept is comforting for myself and those with disabilities because it shows that salvation is offered to all of God's creation, not just those who are deemed worthy by society. I enjoyed the part of the post that said, "-Smiling face and gift – If we place our faith in Jesus we are forgiven. Our forgiveness is a free
gift." The drawing made the concept of salvation and forgiveness easier to understand and helps those with disabilities understand the complex topic of salvation and faith. In the future when working with children who have disabilities, I will rely more on visual additives in order to simplify and condense complex topics such as religion.
This blog post was truly insightful as it reminded me of the different ways in which we may educate those with disabilities. Too often, people mistakenly assume that individuals with intellectual or other disabilities are incapable of communication; that there is no way to reach them and therefore, we should not even bother with trying to expose them to complex ideas. This however, could not be further from the truth. The picture utilized in this blog post is a wonderful representation that may aid one’s understanding of salvation. In other words, this post illustrates the power of imagery in its ability to convey a message, particularly to those who struggle with comprehending abstract concepts. By using visual supports, those with disabilities are provided the opportunity to experience their religion in a way that caters to their unique and specialized needs. By using dialogue to accompany these images, those with disabilities are able to better process the novel ideas being presented to them. Overall, this blog post signifies that all persons, regardless of whether or not they possess a disability, are capable of learning and understanding new information. It is up to us to inspire our students’ learning, and to explore the different ways in which we may better serve and teach those with disabilities.
As the axiom goes, there is beauty in simplicity. I think that it is telling that the essence of the gospel message can be summarized in six pictures and their ideas. Sure, there is a whole lot more regarding salvation that can be talked about--Paul's letter to the Romans is great for exploring this topic more in-depth--but in conveying the message to persons with disabilities, less is more.
As someone mentioned in class, it is exciting to know that persons with disabilities have such wonderful senses of humor! From their getting a joke about whether salvation is earned or a gift, to the. "holy chicken", I think it confirms my belief that persons with disabilties are, deep down, not much different from everyone else--and that comes from the truth that all of us are created in the image of God.
Comment 1: As you've said, this set of six drawings can explain the gospel to just about anyone, not simply persons with disabilities. Even I would appreciate something simple like this--partially because I myself am on the autism spectrum, partially because I found myself falling away from Roman Catholicism
Comment 2: These drawings had better be on T-shirts and displayed on the Internet, haha!
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