advent

Advent-Day 4-Noah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back!

This month we are learning about God, God’s Jesus and His earthly family.

 

The next person in Jesus’ family tree is Noah.

For our complete lesson on Noah see here. (this story below will be a more abbreviated version)

After Adam and Eve had sinned, they had to be apart from God. Well everybody after them sinned too. And finally God was so sad with everyone disobeying Him that He said everyone and everything would be washed away in a big storm…everyone EXCEPT a man named Noah and his family (because they tried to love and obey God.) (Gen 6:9-22, 7:17-24, 8) They were also to save a mommy and a daddy of every kind of animal.

God spoke to Noah and told him to build a boat, called an ark. Noah and his family and the animals would all be on the boat during the big storm. Noah obeyed God and trusted Him. And God was faithful (that means He kept His promise) and the rain came down for 40 days and 40 nights. And everyone and everything was washed away. After the flood, God promised to never again destroy the earth with water and as a sign of His promise, He put a (do you remember?) a rainbow in the sky! God kept His promise to destroy everything and His promise to save Noah, his family and the animals on the ark. God is always faithful to keep His promises to us. (Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 36:5)

 

Now when we think about the story of when Jesus was born, we can think again about God’s faithfulness. (Luke 1) After God put a baby (baby Jesus) in Mary’s tummy an angel came and spoke to her. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. God is very happy with you, Mary, and He has chosen you to be baby Jesus’ mommy!”

Mary was surprised and confused, but she said, “Ok. I am God’s servant. I believe. Let it be so.” Mary knew she could trust God.

Bible story: Noah

Attribute of God: Faithfulness

Jesus’ birth story: Mary accepts God’s gift

Craft:

For the 1st side of our ornament today we made a rainbow and filled it in with tissue paper.

Our text reads: Noah obeyed God. God is faithful. Gen 6:9-22, 7:17-24, 8

Deut 7:9, Psalm 36:5

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The other side of our ornament is a purple circle with a cut out of Mary bowing and then we gave her a face.

Our text reads: Mary obeys God with a happy heart. Luke 1

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Then again, we taped a string on one half and then glued them together to make our ornament.

(Our ornaments on our “family Christmas tree”…on the left is the Bible story side and on the right is all the Jesus’ birth story sides).

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

 

 

2018 update: This year we changed the Mary form to a glittery heart and we opted for do-a-dots instead of tissue paper for the rainbow.

Advent-Day 3-Fall of Man

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. This month we are celebrating Jesus’ birth with an advent countdown where we learn about God, baby Jesus and His family.

So after God created the heavens and the earth, He made man. A man named Adam and He gave him a wife named Eve. (For the complete story and lesson see here).

Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit He told them not to. (Gen 3:1-19) That was the first sin (bad choice/disobeying God). When they sinned, there was a consequence. Because God is perfect and their choice was not, they could no longer stay with God and live forever. From then on, all people would make bad choices and sin, and be apart from God. We all NEED someone who can take the consequence for us, so we can be right with God again.

God sent Jesus to be our salvation, the One who would save us from our sins. Sin came into the world from one man (Adam) and sin would be taken care of by another man (God’s son Jesus). (Romans 5:12-19)

 

When it was time to send Jesus to earth, God put a baby in Mary’s tummy. Mary was going to get married soon to a man named Joseph, but they weren’t married yet. When she told him she had a baby in her belly he was VERY surprised. “You can’t have a baby in your belly? We aren’t married yet?!” He thought maybe Mary had been sneaky and married someone else and had a baby with them! He was ready to walk away and not get married. Joseph and Mary would have been separated forever just like our sin separates us from God. (It’s a good thing that’s not the end of the story!)

 

Bible story: Fall of man

Attribute of God: Savior

Birth Story: Joseph Questions

Craft:

For our ornament today, we will start with Bible side. We cut out a black circle and a white circle from construction paper. Then we cut the white paper in half and glued it on the black (so our circle was half black/half white). Then we cut out 2 halves of trees, one black, one white and glued them on the opposite color 1/2 circle. (So black on white and white on black)

Our text reads: Fall of man Gen 3:1-19, Rom 5:12-19

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For the other side, we cut out another white circle and a question mark.

Our text reads: Joseph questioned, “How can this be?” Luke 1 (BUT it SHOULD be Matthew 1)

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Advent Day 2-Creation

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello all!

Today is Day 2.

This month we are learning about God, Jesus and His family.

 

The first thing was God. God was. He always was. And then, He created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 66:2, Nehemiah 9:6). God made everything! People, plants, animals, the stars, everything. He is a Creator. A creator is somebody who makes things. Do you like to create things? God LOVES to create things. His favorite thing He ever created was us, people. (Gen 1:26, 1 Peter 1:12). God loves us so so so so much! (John 3:16)

The first part of Jesus’ birth story begins the same way. God made baby Jesus and put Him in his mommy’s tummy. (Luke 1) Jesus is God’s son and God made Jesus for a special reason. (To later die for the sins of all people which we will discuss more as the advent calendar continues). God created the heavens, the earth, and a very special baby who is God’s Holy, perfect son, but He was also a regular baby boy. (Hebrews 2:14-17)

Bible story: creation

Attribute of God: Creator

Part of Jesus’ story: Jesus was created in His mommy’s tummy

Craft: (as a preface, I like to have my kids do as much of the craft as possible, so they will all look very hand-made and unprofessional)

We made our first ornament today. This ornament is two-sided (as they each will be). To make side one, we cut out a circle from blue construction paper and then ripped up pieces of green paper and glued them on to make an earth.

Ours reads: Day 2: God created the heavens and the earth. Gen 1:1, Neh 9:6

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For the other side, we cut out a similar-sized circle from pink construction paper and then a pear shaped baby and gave him a face (who unfortunately sort of resembles the Planters peanut guy–oops). And then we put little baby Jesus into the pink tummy.

This side reads: God created a baby in Mary’s tummy. Luke 2

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Lastly, we taped a piece of string onto the back of the blue circle, then glued the two circles together to make an “ornament” to tape to our tree.

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Thanks for joining us. We’ll have more tomorrow. Love to you all!

 

 

 

2018 update: This year we have four kids, so we are making two ornaments each day. We will hang both, one with the old testament story side out and the other with the nativity story facing out. You can have each child make one front and back, or have all your kids work together on one, or split them like we did. Whatever works for your family…just be sure to leave yourself enough room on your tree to fit all of them!