Bible Stories for the Young
Green triangles are narrated and fully illustrated and will have simple animation added along the way. Yellow triangles have narration, but the illustrations aren't done yet. Videos with red triangles are planned. New and updated videos will be added very often.
To download, right-click the download button above and select "Save Link As" or "Download Linked File"
Times were tough. Jesus’ followers were being persecuted, and Peter was put in prison in Rome, where he knew he was likely to be killed.
Remember how Jesus warned about false teachers and fake prophets. Well, now, at this time in the story, Paul, Peter, John, and Jude all sent letters to God’s Family, giving more warning about pretenders and liars.
Fake teachers were saying, “It’s been a long time and Jesus hasn’t come back yet, so He isn’t coming back at all. That means there’s no reason to live a godly life. Everyone should just go back to living however they want.” (Blech!)
As you might imagine, Peter (and the others) had something to say about that...
In Peter’s second letter, he reminded them again to grow, grow, grow... because by grace, the power of Jesus the Anointed has given all those who are His everything they need to be able to live a godly life. Because when we’re born again, we take part in His very nature, becoming sharers of His DNA!
Peter said, “Because you have these blessings... to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; and to your knowledge, add self-control; to your self-control, add patience; to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful in Christ. But anyone who does not have these things is blind.”
When Jesus washes someone clean, they are made perfect in His Daddy’s eyes. Anyone washed in the blood of Jesus gets Jesus’ 100% on the final test day. That is a done deal. But, because we also want to know Him and make Him smile, we start a journey into Knowing Him more and becoming more and more like Him in character. Every day we take step, step, steps toward growing in Christ. Letting Him make a beautiful garden in our hearts.
While our journey on this earth can be a struggle or painful sometimes, for those who are really in relationship with Christ, it isn’t really “hard.” Because once you are dead to yourself and alive to Christ, when you turn toward His way instead of a selfish way, or when you love someone more than you love yourself... something happens inside. And it’s not a prideful religious “feeling good about yourself” because “yay for me, I did a good thing instead of a bad thing.”
No, instead, it is like something beautiful grows inside, and your affection for Him is stirred, kinda like you feel when you get or give someone a hug.
So even if painful things happen or if we struggle with sin, when He lives inside and we turn to Him, something beautiful blooms, and that painful thing just becomes a beautiful story to tell, that helps someone else learn to love and trust Jesus.
Let’s say two people choose to do or not do the same thing. Maybe two people both choose to not look at something yucky on their computer, or TV, or phone. The still-only-flesh person might feel: “I did a good thing or a hard thing, so I feel good about myself.” But a born-again-with-a-whole-new-supernatural-life-inside person feels a flower grow and bloom as their relationship with their Creator God is stirred up and responded to, because something in their *relationship* with Christ grows when they choose His way... and something will shrivel if they choose to ignore or hurt Him.
They want those flowers in the garden of their heart, not thorns and thistles and shriveling because that relationship with Christ is AWESOME and Lovely and the only thing that matters to them. That’s why I want you to come to Know Him, so that He can come live inside and have the joy of making a beautiful garden of your heart.
Because Jesus came not only to wash us clean, but to also make flowers bloom in what was once a dark, barren desert. So, talk to Him, get to know Him, and let Him grow a beautiful garden in your heart.
“When we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling you a make-believe story. We saw the greatness of Jesus with our own eyes. On the mountain, we heard the voice of God, the Greatest Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love, and I am very pleased with him.’
Long ago, there were false prophets, just as there are some false teachers now. They secretly teach things that are wrong. Many will follow their evil ways and say evil things about the way of truth. Those false teachers are looters (that means they only want your money), so they will use you by telling you lies. Their judgment is coming.
God didn’t spare the angels that sinned. And God didn’t spare the evil people in Noah’s time or in Sodom and Gomorrah. He did rescue Noah and Lot, so the Lord knows how to rescue the godly while punishing the ungodly, especially those who give in to their fleshly cravings and who hate that someone has the right and responsibility to tell them what to do.
They lead people into the trap of sin. They promise “freedom,” but they aren’t free. They are slaves to temporary things. People are slaves to anything that controls them.
People are made free by knowing Christ. But if they go back to letting evil things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before. That is like the saying: “A dog goes back to lick up its vomit,” and, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud.”
People will make fun of us, gaining energy by the motor of their flesh and all its wants. They’ll say, “Jesus said He would come back? Where is He then? Every day seems just the same to me.”
They’ll say that, but the world was once destroyed by water, and you can be sure that fire is coming next.
Remember that Time isn’t anything to God. To Him, a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day. He’s not “slow” concerning His promise. He is being PATIENT with you, because he doesn’t want for anyone to be lost, but for everyone to have time to turn around and come His Way, to change.
But the day of the Lord will come when you don’t expect it, and everything will melt away.
So with that in mind, what kind of person should you be? How do you think you should live? What about living in holiness and godliness, looking forward to that day, and speeding up its coming? Because, according to His promise, we are waiting for a new heaven and earth where righteousness truly lives.
Friends, since you are waiting for this to happen, do your best to be at peace with God without sin or fault. And grow, grow, grow in Christ. Glory to Him now and forever!”
And these are the last words that we have from Peter. According to other history books, Peter was taken from the Roman prison and killed on an upside-down cross.