Saturday, October 31, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Saturday, October 10, 2015
October 11: Jesus Restores God's Place
Read "Jesus Restores God's Place," part 16 of The Big Picture Story Bible.
For this lesson we focus on how God did not go back on his promises to Abraham after the Old Testament.
Review God's promises to Abraham: 1. Abraham's family would become a great nation, 2. God would give His people a special place, and 3. God will bring His blessings to other people on the earth.
Ask kiddos if Abraham's family became a great nation {Yes! In fact, their country, Israel, is still a country today! They've had lots of struggles due to their disobedience (sometimes even getting their "country" privilege taken away {When Jesus was born, the area was ruled by the Roman Empire}, but they were, and still are, a great nation.}
Ask students if God gave His people a special place {Yes! He gave them the land of Israel, and even though it was overtaken many times by many other rulers, it was still there waiting for them to obey and make better choices.}
Before Jesus came, God's special place was a land called Israel. Abraham's descendants lived there and God's word was followed for many years in this place. At the end of the Old Testament, however, we read a lot about disobedience. Solomon, and those after him, did not make good choices for God, and they were punished by losing their land. In some wars they were kicked off it, in other wars they were held as slaves, when Jesus came along they had to pay heavy taxes to Caesar Augustus, who was the ruler of the Roman Empire, a huge kingdom that had overtaken Israel. Jesus came to change that.
A lot of people thought that Jesus would come as a superhero, ready to fight the Romans and take back the land that the Israelites felt was theirs. God had another plan, though. Many people were surprised- and didn't believe- that God's Forever King came to earth as a baby. As Jesus grew up and preached His message, a lot of people didn't understand. They were still pretending to obey God, but making bad choices and sinning in secret. And sometimes it wasn't even a secret. The day Jesus went into the temple and saw people selling sacrifices for much more money than they should have, he went berserk!
He told His followers, and the people standing nearby, that the stone temple wasn't God's special place anymore. Instead, HE was God's special place. That sounds crazy, right? How can a person be a place!?
Many people were confused, so Jesus explained it like this: His body was now God's Holy Temple, and instead of people sacrificing animals to get the blood they needed to pay for their sins, Jesus would use HIS blood. Of course He hadn't died on the cross yet, so nobody knew what He was talking about.
Jesus told everyone that HE was the new place people should go to to worship. Instead of visiting a temple, we can pray through Jesus. Instead of a temple being so important, from now on the church is anyone who gets together to glorify God. Our bodies are kind of like a temple, too. Jesus is in our hearts and it's our job to keep our temple clean. Not just healthy-clean and physically-clean, but spiritually-clean as well.
For our activity, I chose one student to trace on bulletin board paper. We then took turns writing inside the body outline ways that we can take care of our bodies to worship Jesus. Ideas include eating healthy, not getting tattoos or piercings, not saying bad words or having mean thoughts in our heads, smiling instead of frowning, etc. I really had the kiddos think hard before they added to our word collage, and I think it gave them a better idea of how we can worship God when we're not necessarily at church or praying. I also didn't sway them one way or another (like over the tattoos, since some kids said they didn't see it as sinful), I let them go with what they felt comfortable saying.
For this lesson we focus on how God did not go back on his promises to Abraham after the Old Testament.
Review God's promises to Abraham: 1. Abraham's family would become a great nation, 2. God would give His people a special place, and 3. God will bring His blessings to other people on the earth.
Ask kiddos if Abraham's family became a great nation {Yes! In fact, their country, Israel, is still a country today! They've had lots of struggles due to their disobedience (sometimes even getting their "country" privilege taken away {When Jesus was born, the area was ruled by the Roman Empire}, but they were, and still are, a great nation.}
Ask students if God gave His people a special place {Yes! He gave them the land of Israel, and even though it was overtaken many times by many other rulers, it was still there waiting for them to obey and make better choices.}
Before Jesus came, God's special place was a land called Israel. Abraham's descendants lived there and God's word was followed for many years in this place. At the end of the Old Testament, however, we read a lot about disobedience. Solomon, and those after him, did not make good choices for God, and they were punished by losing their land. In some wars they were kicked off it, in other wars they were held as slaves, when Jesus came along they had to pay heavy taxes to Caesar Augustus, who was the ruler of the Roman Empire, a huge kingdom that had overtaken Israel. Jesus came to change that.
A lot of people thought that Jesus would come as a superhero, ready to fight the Romans and take back the land that the Israelites felt was theirs. God had another plan, though. Many people were surprised- and didn't believe- that God's Forever King came to earth as a baby. As Jesus grew up and preached His message, a lot of people didn't understand. They were still pretending to obey God, but making bad choices and sinning in secret. And sometimes it wasn't even a secret. The day Jesus went into the temple and saw people selling sacrifices for much more money than they should have, he went berserk!
He told His followers, and the people standing nearby, that the stone temple wasn't God's special place anymore. Instead, HE was God's special place. That sounds crazy, right? How can a person be a place!?
Many people were confused, so Jesus explained it like this: His body was now God's Holy Temple, and instead of people sacrificing animals to get the blood they needed to pay for their sins, Jesus would use HIS blood. Of course He hadn't died on the cross yet, so nobody knew what He was talking about.
Jesus told everyone that HE was the new place people should go to to worship. Instead of visiting a temple, we can pray through Jesus. Instead of a temple being so important, from now on the church is anyone who gets together to glorify God. Our bodies are kind of like a temple, too. Jesus is in our hearts and it's our job to keep our temple clean. Not just healthy-clean and physically-clean, but spiritually-clean as well.
For our activity, I chose one student to trace on bulletin board paper. We then took turns writing inside the body outline ways that we can take care of our bodies to worship Jesus. Ideas include eating healthy, not getting tattoos or piercings, not saying bad words or having mean thoughts in our heads, smiling instead of frowning, etc. I really had the kiddos think hard before they added to our word collage, and I think it gave them a better idea of how we can worship God when we're not necessarily at church or praying. I also didn't sway them one way or another (like over the tattoos, since some kids said they didn't see it as sinful), I let them go with what they felt comfortable saying.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
October 4: God's New People are Called
Read "God's New People are Called," part 15 of The Big Picture Story Bible.
Give each child a coffee filter and blue marker. Show examples, and have them decorate their coffee filter anyway they want- zigzags, stripes, polka-dots, etc. Then place a paper towel under and gently spritz with water.
{I use these bottles for all of our water needs, but I noticed they're discontinued.}
As the filters are drying {We swapped out for dry paper towels and it only took about 15 minutes} each kiddo chose a bird feather and eyeball to glue on a dove pattern (I drew it by hand so I don't have a copy, basically a big circle for the body, a small circle for the head, add a beak and a rectangle tail.)
Then glue the bird onto the coffee filter and have students retell the story of the dove landing on Jesus after John baptized Him to tell everyone that Jesus was, indeed, His Son. Remind everyone that just like Jesus had followers back then, we are His followers, too!
Give each child a coffee filter and blue marker. Show examples, and have them decorate their coffee filter anyway they want- zigzags, stripes, polka-dots, etc. Then place a paper towel under and gently spritz with water.
{I use these bottles for all of our water needs, but I noticed they're discontinued.}
As the filters are drying {We swapped out for dry paper towels and it only took about 15 minutes} each kiddo chose a bird feather and eyeball to glue on a dove pattern (I drew it by hand so I don't have a copy, basically a big circle for the body, a small circle for the head, add a beak and a rectangle tail.)
Then glue the bird onto the coffee filter and have students retell the story of the dove landing on Jesus after John baptized Him to tell everyone that Jesus was, indeed, His Son. Remind everyone that just like Jesus had followers back then, we are His followers, too!
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