genesis

Advent-Day 7-Jacob’s new name

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Hi all!

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

So after Abraham, he had a son named Isaac, and Isaac had a son named Jacob. Jacob didn’t always make great choices, he struggled with God, but God had BIG PLANS for Jacob. (Full lesson found here and in Genesis 35:9-15). One day, God came to Jacob and He gave Jacob a new name, “Israel.” God said, “Like I promised to Abraham and Isaac, I will give you and your family this land. You will be My chosen people. Your kids and their kids and their kids will all be MY people.” All of God’s promises would come true through Jacob and his family (and eventually Jesus would be part of that family too). God made Jacob “new.” God changed Jacob from what he had been, into something new and great.

God does that for us too! He makes all things new! (Rom 6:4, 1 Pe 1:3) We are sinners (people who make bad choices and disobey God) but GOD gave us Jesus to die for us, so when God looks at us now, He sees His son Jesus instead. We are new and clean and perfect because Jesus took our consequences for us.

(Luke 1) Now, Mary was pregnant with baby Jesus and she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah were very old and didn’t have any children. And they REALLY REALLY wanted to have a baby. One day, Zechariah went into the temple to pray to God and an angel came and told him that Elizabeth would have a baby!! But not just any baby, a baby named John (who would be Jesus’ cousin) and he would get everybody for Jesus! He would tell all the people “Get ready! Jesus, the Messiah is coming soon!” God had big plans for Jacob/Israel and for John too! God took Elizabeth who couldn’t have a baby and He made a brand new baby. God can do ANYTHING! And He makes all things new! God’s angel said John would get the people’s hearts ready for Jesus to change them. He would get all the people ready to listen and love God.

When Mary had baby Jesus still in her tummy and Elizabeth had baby John in her tummy, Mary went to visit Elizabeth and as soon as they said hello, baby John started dancing and moving all over the place! Even as a tiny, tiny baby he knew that baby Jesus was God and that this was really exciting! He knew this baby would change everything, God makes all things new…Jacob’s heart and OURS too! Isn’t it great to think of all the things God can do?! He controls all things and change them into anything He wants. He even takes our yucky hearts and makes them beautiful for him.

Bible story: Jacob’s new name

Attribute of God: He makes all things new

Jesus’ birth story: baby John leaps for joy

Craft:

Side one of our ornament is a hammer on a red circle, because God rebuilds us and makes all things new.

Our text reads: Jacob gets a new name. God makes all things new. Gen 35:9-15, Rom 6:4, 1 Peter 1:3

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Side two is a dancing baby on a blue circle

Our text reads:

Baby John leaped for joy, Elizabeth and Zechariah would have a baby! Luke 1

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Advent-Day 6-Sacrificial Lamb

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome all.

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

Yesterday we learned that Abram followed when God told him to GO! Well Abram obeyed and after he and his wife were very very old, finally God gave them a baby boy. (Found in the Bible in Genesis 22, and our complete lesson can be found here). One day, God asked Abram (now called Abraham) to give his son back to God. It made Abraham very sad to have to give his boy back to God, but he obeyed. When it was time, an angel came and said, “No! God has provided another way! Look!” And there was a ram (a daddy sheep). People used to give sacrifices (big gifts) to God like sheep. This time God had asked for Abraham’s son, but after Abraham obeyed, God provided a ram instead. “You did not keep your only son from me, and for that you will be blessed.” God provided another way.

The Bible tells us Jesus is like that ram. He is OUR sacrificial lamb. God sent HIS only son Jesus to come to earth to die for our sins (our bad choices that disobey God). Jesus would die for us, like a sheep, and God would then forgive us for all the bad things we do, so we don’t have to apart from God forever for our sins. (John 3:16, John 1:29, Rev 5:12)

When God put the baby in Mary’s tummy, an angel told her that she would have a baby boy and his name would be Jesus (which means “God saves.”) The very name of Jesus tells us He came to save us, to come in our place, and be the sheep of sacrifice, just like God gave a sheep in place of Abraham’s son. (Luke 1)

Bible story: Abraham’s sacrifice

Attribute of God: Sacrificial lamb

Jesus’ birth story: Jesus is given His name

Craft: for side one of our ornament today, I sketched a sheep shape and the kids glued pom pons on and gave him a face.

Our text reads: God provided a ram, like Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. Gen 22:1-19, John 1:29

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Side two I outlined the name and let the kids color in Jesus’ name.

Our text reads: His name will be Jesus, Son of the Most High, the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Luke 1, Rev 5:12

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We taped a string in the middle and glued the two sides together and then hung it on our “tree.”

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Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Advent-Day 5-Abram

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Hi all.

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

The next person in Jesus’ family tree that we will learn about is Abram. (For complete lesson on Abram, see here).

From Genesis 12:1-7, after Noah got off the ark, his kids had kids and they had kids and they had kids and eventually there was a man named Abram who loved God. He was already a very old man when one day God told him to GO! Abram didn’t know where he was going, only that God said He would show him the way. So because Abram trusted God, he packed up his things and his wife and he went. He traveled around and around, living in his tent, waiting for God’s instructions. He didn’t have to know what the plan was, because he trusted God who knows everything!

God is omniscient (that means He knows EVERYTHING). Psalm 147:4-5, Isaiah 46:9-10. When things don’t make sense or seem confusing, we can trust that God is in control and that He knows what is going on. He has the answers.

Well, when baby Jesus was in Mary’s tummy…Joseph (who was going to marry Mary) was VERY unsure. He didn’t know how a baby got in Mary’s tummy because they weren’t married yet?! God knew Joseph was unsure and while he slept God sent an angel to talk to Joseph. The angel said, “Don’t worry Joseph. It is ok. God has chosen Mary to be the mommy of baby Jesus. And you will be his daddy. You will take care of him and love him. This is from God.”

Joseph trusted in God too, and even though he was very surprised, after that, he trusted that God was in control. Matthew 1

Bible story: Abram

Attribute of God: all-knowing

Jesus’ birth story: the angel reassures Joseph

Craft:

Side one of our ornament today is a tent (we drew a triangle basically and cut it out and then glued it to our background circle).

Our text reads: Abram trusted the all-knowing God. Gen 12:1-7, Is 46:9-10, Psalm 147:4-5

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For the other side we drew Joseph’s praying hands as he looked to God for the answers. We cut those out and glued them to our background circle.

Our text reads: The angel came to Joseph to tell him not to worry. Matthew 1

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Then as usual, we taped a string on one side, and glued the circles together to form our two-sided ornament.

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Advent-Day 4-Noah

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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

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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.

Ephraim and Manasseh

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Hello again friends.

Today is our last story in Genesis and it’s from Genesis 48.

Joseph was growing older and his daddy Jacob was VERY old and getting sick. He was about to die, so Joseph went to visit him. Joseph took two of his sons, Manasseh (the older boy) and Ephraim (the younger boy) to see their grandpa.

Jacob gave both boys a special blessing and said “they will be like my children and get the promises of God, just like my other sons.”

Then Joseph had the boys kneel down in front of Jacob/Israel and he put Manasseh, the older one, on the right side and Ephraim, the younger one, on the left side and Jacob/Israel said he would give them special blessings. BUT, he crossed his hands and started to bless the younger brother.

Joseph said, “oh no, dad! THIS is the first boy who SHOULD get the blessing!”

But Israel/Jacob said “No. They will both be blessed, but the younger brother will be greater than the older. And they will inherit the promised land just like my other sons.”

Jacob blessed all his sons and said they would be 12 great tribes. They would each get part of the land God promised them. Then Jacob died. Joseph promised his brothers it would be ok. They all stayed in Egypt a long time, but knew one day their people would return to the land God promised them.

God has been working all along to show us that He doesn’t always pick the “best” or “most important” people. God reaches out to everyone who will have Him. Jesus would come from a whole line of people who were “less than” but He would be great. There is nothing too small or too weak for God. There is no bad choice too big for God to handle. There is no person small or bad enough that God’s love can not overcome it.

God also keeps His promises. He has a big plan for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. Jesus would come from Judah’s (one of Jacob’s kids) families. And tomorrow we’ll start learning about Moses (a man from the tribe of Levi, another one of Jacob’s sons).

For our craft, we traced the kids’ arms and hands. Then we drew two heads and glued their hands criss-cross on the heads.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Joseph (Part 2)

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Hi again, friends!

Today we will continue the story of Joseph found in Genesis 39-45.

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So Joseph’s brothers had sold him and he ended up in Egypt, working for Potiphar (the king’s top guard). Joseph was a good worker, but sad to be far away from his home.

Potiphar’s wife fell in love with Joseph and tried to get him to love her too, but he said “that would be wrong! You’re married to Potiphar!” That made her mad, so she lied and said Joseph did bad things and he was thrown in jail.

Later, two of the king’s helpers were put in jail and they each had dreams. God helped Joseph understand the dreams. He told the 1st one that he would be free from jail in 3 days, but the other one’s dream meant he would be killed in 3 days.

Both of those came true. Joseph asked the 1st man to remember him when he got out and to tell the king good things so he could get out too, but the man forgot to say anything for TWO YEARS!

One day, two years later, the king had a dream and none of his helpers could figure out what it meant. That’s when the king’s helper remembered Joseph, so the king called for Joseph and told him his dream.

Joseph said, “I can’t tell you the meaning of your dream, but God can!”

So the king said, “I had two dreams. In the first one, there were 7 healthy, fat cows and then 7 skinny, sick cows and the skinny, sick cows ate up the fat, healthy cows. In my second dream, there were 7 big, wonderful stalks of wheat, and then 7 yucky, thin heads of wheat and the yucky wheat ate up the good wheat.”

Joseph replied, “Your dreams both mean that there will be 7 years of good food and then 7 years of famine (or no food, usually because there’s no rain.) You should find someone very responsible and put them in charge of saving up food, so when the bad years come, you’ll have leftovers and no one will be hungry.”

Well the king liked this idea very much, so he put Joseph in charge of saving up the food…in fact he put Joseph as 2nd in command over all of Egypt.

After 7 years, the famine came, and Joseph helped give all the people the food they would need.

People even came from all over to ask for food. And do you know who came? Joseph’s brothers.

They didn’t know Joseph was in charge in Egypt, they just came looking for food, and they didn’t even recognize Joseph when they saw him! But Joseph knew who they were!

Joseph had to know how they felt now, so he gave them some tests. The brothers showed Joseph that they were very sorry for what they had done to him.

He couldn’t stand it any more. Finally, he told them who he was and they SO were surprised and scared! Joseph was in charge of all of Egypt. He could have them killed! But instead, he forgave them!

The brothers went him, got Jacob the daddy and they all moved to Egypt to be with Joseph. God told them it was ok to move to Egypt, and that He would bring them back home someday.

The brothers had meant bad things for Joseph, but God turned them into good. He was sold and put in jail, but God used all of that to do great things. And everyone in Egypt learned about God because of Joseph.

You can be sure God has great plans for you too!

We didn’t do a craft today, because we watched the veggie tales “Ballad of Little Joe.”

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Joseph (Part 1)

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Hello again!

Today we’ll begin following Joseph. (This month of July we’ll be learning stories from Genesis and Exodus in the Bible.)

This story comes from Genesis 37.

So Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and Jacob had….a LOT of kids, just like God had promised. One of Jacob’s sons was named Joseph. Jacob liked Joseph the most.

He even gave Joseph a fancy coat. It was REALLY special and Joseph’s brothers were jealous! (Which means they were angry and really wanted one too!) And they were mean to Joseph because of it.

One day, Joseph told his brothers he had had a dream. He said, “We all had stalks of wheat growing, but mine was standing tall and all of your wheat was bending over, bowing to my wheat.”

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“What do you mean!?” the brothers asked madly. “Do you think you’ll be king over us?! That we would EVER bow down to YOU, our LITTLE brother?! No way!”

Then, Jacob had another dream. “This time, the sun and moon and stars were bowing down to me.”

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The brothers did not like this one.bit. “You think all of us and EVEN mom and dad will bow down to you!?” Even Jacob the daddy thought this idea was crazy.

Later, the brothers were working in the fields and Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. They were so jealous of Joseph and so angry that he thought HE could be king over them, that they decided they would kill him.

Reuben, the oldest brother said, “That’s a terrible choice! We can’t do that?!”

So they decided not to kill Joseph, but to throw him down a well (and Reuben decided HE would go back later and rescue Joseph.) So Reuben went back to work and the other brothers took Joseph’s coat and threw him in the well….but then, they took him out and instead decided to sell Joseph to some people passing through on their way to Egypt.

“Why should we just leave him when we could make some money from selling him?!” they said.

When Reuben went back to save Joseph from the well, he was very sad to find out the brothers had instead sold Joseph!

Then, they did something REALLY sneaky and they put some blood on Joseph’s coat and took it back to Jacob the daddy so he though Joseph was really dead. And he was very sad.

When the people who bought Joseph got to Egypt, THEY sold Joseph and he started working for the king’s top guard.

That’s where our story will end for today, but it’s not the end of the story for Joseph. Things look yucky now…Joseph is working in a different country, his brothers lied to the daddy and the big brother and daddy are very very sad. And Joseph was probably working very hard and he was probably very sad too to be so far from home. BUT, even though the brothers had planned bad things for Joseph, God had GOOD things in store. God ALWAYS has a plan and HE watches over His people.

For our craft, we made fancy coats. We just did colors and glued confetti on paper cut outs of coats, but you could also make a coat out of a paper grocery bag or some felt and decorate a WEARABLE coat.

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We will learn more about Joseph tomorrow. Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Jacob Meets Esau/Wrestles with God

~ hebidsthemcome ~ 1 Comment

Hello again, friends!

Today’s story comes from Genesis 32 and 33.

So Jacob was running from Esau because he snuck away the blessing and the birthright (all the stuff and honor that was SUPPOSED to go to Esau). Esau was mad and wanted to kill Jacob, so he ran away. He was away a LONG time.

He got married and had a LOT of kids (just like God had promised.)

Eventually, God told him it was time to go back and he knew he would see his brother again. He sent a lot of gifts ahead to his brother…money and animals…and servants to say “Jacob is really sorry and he will serve you if you will just forgive him.”

Jacob prayed to God and asked Him to help him because he was scared of Esau. Jacob knew he could talk to God and God would help him. Even if we make a bad choice, we can know that God will always be there to listen to us and that He loves us.

While he was waiting to hear back from Esau, he laid down and that night a man (In Hosea it says an angel, but in these verses it implies God Himself, possibly Jesus, came as a man) came and wrestled with Jacob. They wrestled and fought and eventually, God said “Stop wrestling!” But Jacob said, “Not until you bless me!” So God touched Jacob and gave him a big owie in his hip.

Sometimes we wrestle with God when we are sad or don’t understand His plans. We can argue with Him, but God is always in control. Still, Jacob would not leave until he had answers from God. So God said, “Your blessing is a new name. You will now be called “Israel” which means “he struggles with God.” You can struggled with men and with God and have overcome.” (Overcome means to triumph or defeat! To win!)

When we have hard times with other people or when we struggle with our faith or understanding of God, He will help us through those times. With God on our side, we will ALWAYS overcome.

Then it was morning and Jacob saw Esau coming. He was scared. But Esau ran up to him and hugged him!?! Can you imagine how SURPRISED Jacob was?!

God had been working with Jacob, but He had also cared for Esau and had been working to give him a forgiving and happy heart.

Esau told Jacob to keep his presents, and that he was forgiven.

Jacob was so happy he set up an altar (a place to worship God.)

We made story wheels to go along with this story. We took paper plates and drew 5 lines to separate them into 5 different sections. In the first section (purple in the picture below) we drew Jacob and a lot of his kids.

The second section we drew the present Jacob sent to Esau.

In the third part, we wrote Jacob’s new name: Israel

In the fourth part, we drew a happy Esau and Jacob/Israel, hugging and happy to be back together.

In the fifth section, we drew Jacob/Israel making his tent and altar to God.

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Then, took another paper plate and cut one fifth of the plate out. You can attach the two plates together with a little bracket or a pipe cleaner. Then you can spin the top plate around as you tell the story.

Thanks for joining us. Tomorrow we’ll begin learning about Joseph. Love to you all!

Jacob’s Dream

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Hi friends.

Today’s story is from Genesis 28.

(this image was found on missionbibleclass.org)
(this image was found on missionbibleclass.org)

After Jacob had run away, he settled down one night to sleep and had nothing, so he used a rock as a pillow.

Jacob was alone. And running for his life. This was a very hard and sad time for Jacob. He had been sneaky, and even though he was given his father’s blessing from God, he still had not made very good choices and now he was having some bad consequences.

As he slept on the ouchy pillow, he had a dream. He saw some stairs. The bottom of the stairs was on earth and the top of the stairs was in heaven. Angels were going up and down the stairs, going from earth back to heaven and from heaven down to earth.

(God is always near us. He is working on earth and is always close to us. Jacob saw stairs going to up to heaven to connect us to God, but now we have Jesus who we can talk to and his spirit helps us. Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. We can trust in him and know that He is caring for us and that He loves us.)

Jacob was still dreaming and he heard God from the top of the stairs and God said, “I am God. I promised your grandpa Abraham, and your dad Isaac and now you that you will get to keep this land. This is your promised land. You will have SO MANY children and grandchildren and great grandchildren…more than all the sand by the ocean. And everyone on earth will be blessed by you” (because Jesus would come from their family later on.)

God said, “I will watch over you and take care of you. I will bring you back here. I will keep my promises.”

When Jacob woke up, he gave God an offering and promised to always give back to God part of everything God had given him. (Today, we give part of our money, time and things back to God by giving to others and supporting our church, our pastors and missionaries…people who go all over the world to tell people about Jesus.)

God’s promises continued and we know God ALWAYS keeps His promises. From Adam to Noah to Abraham, all the way to Jesus, we see God’s promise and Him taking care of His people.

We found this video posted by Kids Bible.

Our kids were not into a craft today, but we found several ideas to make stairs from pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks. You could also have pretzel sticks and make a ladder or stairs and have little paper angels go up and down and discuss that we can go from earth to heaven by believing in Jesus and trusting Him. (Then you get to nom on the pretzels!)

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!