Dear Reader, This book is for you and for your children (or your grandchild or the neighborhood kid or your student or any kid you happen to see walking down the street). I am not copyrighting this book. I want you to print it, post it, share it, tweet it, pin it and give it away to anyone you know who has a kid (or has ever met a kid). If you want to tell them where you got it, just point them to www.keithferrin.com/identitymessages. If you want to let them know exactly where it came from, you can say The content of this ebook first appeared on pages 46-47 of Keith Ferrin s book Like Ice Cream: The Scoop on Helping the Next Generation Fall in Love with God s Word. But you don t have to. Seriously. Copy and paste it. Add to it. In fact, if you do add to it, send the additions my way. In a few years, I think it would be cool if the title was 372 Identity Message Your Kids Need to Know. Don t you? If you decide to share it online (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc.), would you do me a favor? Could you use either @KeithFerrin or #IdentityMessages so I can reply, retweet, re-share, and keep the ball rolling? Thanks. One last note: As you speak, text, write, and share these identity message with your kids, please remember this: They re also for you. Alongside,
1. You are a child of God. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (I John 3:1) 2. You may participate in the divine nature. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4) 3. You have a mighty God who is for you not against you. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) 4. You have been crucified with Christ and you no longer live, but Christ lives in you. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) 5. You have access to the throne of God where you can receive mercy and find grace. Let us then approach God s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) 6. You have been raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realm. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6)
7. You are part of God s family. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11) 8. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3) 9. You have everything you need for life and godliness. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3) 10. You have been bought with a price. You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (I Corinthians 6:20) 11. You were called to be free. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. (Galatians 5:13) 12. You have been ransomed by the Son of God. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28) 13. You are not condemned. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
14. You have been forgiven. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:43) 15. You have become the righteousness of God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:21) 16. You are God s workmanship His poem His masterpiece. For we are God s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10, NLT) 17. You have been set free from the law of sin. Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) 18. You have been made alive with Christ. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5) 19. You have been given the authority of Christ. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. (Luke 10:19) 20. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14)
21. You are dead to sin and alive to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11) 22. You were chosen by God before the creation of the world. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. (Ephesians 1:4, NLT) 23. You are destined for glorious freedom. The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21) 24. You are a citizen of Heaven. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20) 25. You are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37) 26. You have been baptized with Christ and are now clothed with Christ. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27) 27. You have been brought from death to life. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. (Romans 6:13)
28. You have been given the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13) 29. You have been redeemed and have the full rights of sons. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. (Galatians 4:4-5, NLT) 30. You are protected by the powerful name of Jesus. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. (John 17:11) 31. You have the power of the Holy Spirit. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8, NLT) 32. You have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with your weaknesses. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) 33. You have the Holy Spirit interceding for you right now. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. (Romans 8:26)
34. Your Lord is near. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5) 35. You are known. O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about m. (Psalm 139:1, NLT) 36. You cannot be separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39) 37. You are a work in progress and you will be completed. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6) 38. You were loved by Jesus before you loved Him. We love each other because he loved us first. (I John 4:19, NLT) 39. You are not alone. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
40. You have the full armor of God... the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness the shoes of the gospel of peace the shield of faith the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit the Word of God. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17) 41. You have God s angels sent to serve you. Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14) 42. Your needs will be met according to God s glorious riches in Christ Jesus. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19, NLT) 43. You have a High Priest who always lives to intercede for you. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
44. You have a God who has gone before you. You are my strength, I watch for you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely. God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me. (Psalm 59:10) 45. You have a God who hears you. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (I John 5:14) 46. You cannot be snatched from God s hand. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father s hand. (John 10:28-29) 47. God is for you. Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. (Psalm 56:9) 48. You are Jesus joy. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) 49. You are loved. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Thanks for reading. If you d like to connect, here are a few places you ll find me: Blog: www.keithferrin.com Email: keith@keithferrin.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/keithferrin Twitter: www.twitter.com/keithferrin Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/keithferrin Google+: https://plus.google.com/+keithferrin Podcast: www.keithferrin.com/biblepodcast OR search Keith Ferrin on itunes May your kids and you! live fully into who God has made you to be. May your identity be shaped by the One who made you, loves you, died for you, rose for you, redeemed you, and restores you. Alongside,
Copyright Information: Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture marked NLT taken from the New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.