January 3: Put God FIRST!

For the first week of January, I used this idea to remind my students to put God first in the new year.

What is a New Year's Resolution? (a goal you give yourself, something to do or not do in the new year, a change you make at the beginning of the year)

What are some New Year's Resolutions that people make? (getting healthy, giving up soda, losing weight, getting organized)

Since we're human, we're always going to make mistakes and we will always need a Savior. As Christians, though, we recognize that it's our job to make better choices and constantly grow and learn.

Our Bible story today comes from Luke, chapter 18. A rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked Him how to get into heaven. The man said he followed the 10 commandments, he was a good person, so what else did he need to do!?!? Jesus told Him to give away all of his possessions and then He would be ready.

The man was disappointed. He really loved his stuff and didn't want to get rid of anything He owned to follow Jesus.

Does Jesus want us to sell all of our belongings to follow him? Probably not. After all, if we gave up our houses, where would we live? If your parents gave away their cars, how would they get to work? If you gave away your clothes, what would you wear to school? Jesus was not saying that it's not okay to own stuff. He was telling the rich man that he needed to put God before his stuff. It was okay to love his pets, but he must love God more.

The Bible tells us the man left disappointed, and we don't know if he ever put God first or not. I hope he did. I hope he realized that putting God before everything else is the best way to live.

A great New Year's Resolution to make is to put God first. If you put God before everything else, then God promises us that everything else will fall into place. Will our lives be perfect? No, but with God at the front we will be able to overcome difficulties in our lives much easier, and we'll be able to make better decisions, too.

To help us remember to put God first, hand out a half-sheet of paper (cut the long-way) to each person. This is our giant #1. Make a list of things that you love, but remember, who should be first? {That's right, God!} After you have 4-5 items on your list of things you love, you can decorate the rest of your 1 to remind you that even though we love our pets, we love our video games, and we love our parents, we love God most of all. After all, Jesus is the one who died for our sins. He is our Savior and through Him we'll live forever in eternity.

March 15: The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-27, Mark 10:17-30)

March 15: The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-27, Mark 10:17-30)

            A man asked Jesus, “What must I do to go to Heaven?” Jesus told him, “You know the 10 commandments.” The man answered, “Yes, I have followed them since I was a boy.” Jesus said, “You still need to do one more thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor. Then you will have treasure in Heaven. Come and follow me.” The man became very sad, because he was rich.

            Jesus looked at him and said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The man asked, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Is it impossible to be rich and still go to heaven? What was the young man supposed to do with all of his wealth? How do you think God feels when we turn to money instead of to Him to provide for us? If Jesus loved the man, why was He so hard on him? Why do you think Jesus told the man to give away the money to the poor instead of telling him to give it to the church?

This story kind of reminds me of Zacchaeus. Remember him from a few weeks ago? He was selfish and took more money than he was supposed to as a tax collector. I think the difference in this story is that when Jesus told Zacchaeus that he needed to ask for forgiveness for his sins, Zacchaeus immediately did that! He felt very sorry that he stole money and said he would donate half of his possessions to the poor and give back four times the amount of money he took from the people in Jericho. 

This story ends a little differently, though. Did the rich man ruler apologize for being selfish? Did he ask Jesus to forgive him for putting money above his love for God? No, it says the man became very sad, because he was rich. This man didn't want to give up everything He had for Jesus. 

I think when we are young it is easy to give our life to Jesus. We know that He will always take care of us and we want to make Him happy. Unfortunately, as people get older sometimes they forget to put God first. This man wasn't old, but he was old enough to have a lot of money. His money made him forget how much God loved him and how we can trust God to take care of all of our needs. 

For this activity, the kids each had a strip of non-glossy poster board. Using pencils, we first drew a bird at the top of our page. Then we drew long legs. Along the leg part, with a black crayon, we wrote "God Will Meet Your Needs." Older kids added "Phillipians 4:19" at the bottom. Then the kids traced their bird with old crayons, pressing down pretty hard. Then we painted the bird a cool color (blue, purple, green) and the background a warm color (red, orange, yellow). 

The idea for this project came from this awesome blog about Dali style artwork.