Jesus’ life

The Unmerciful Servant

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Hello all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today is another parable (a story meant to teach something).

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 18:21-35.

One day Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive someone who is mean to me? Seven times?”

Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (He was saying a LOT!)

Then He told this story to help Peter understand, “There was once king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. There was one man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. The man was not able to pay, and the king ordered that all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

But the man fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’  The king master took pity on him, forgave the debt and let him go. ‘I will forget all the money you owe me.’

But when that man went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him just a little bit of money. He grabbed him and yelled, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into jail until he could pay back the debt.  When the other servants saw what had happened, they were angry and went and told the king everything that had happened.

Then the king called the man in. ‘You wicked man,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ Then the king sent the man to jail too, because he had not forgiven the servant.

This is how God has forgiven us and you are to forgive those who hurt you too.”

 

The first man owed a LOT of money but the king said, “I will have mercy on you and forget what you owe me.” Mercy means saving someone from a consequence they deserve. The man SHOULD have had to go to jail and sell everything to pay back the king. But instead, the king said, “I will forgive the debt and forget all about it.” Thats just like God. We owe God everything…and we can NEVER repay Him for loving us. We can never make up for our bad choices that disobey Him (sins). BUT, He is the Good King and when we ask Him to, He forgives us and forgets what we owe Him. Isn’t that wonderful?! We should have to be apart from God forever because of our sins. We owe Him everything. But He shows us mercy and says, “I will forget all you owe.”

But then…sometimes if someone hurts us, we are not as quick to forgive. Just like the servant who owed the man just a little money…he grabbed him and yelled “GIVE ME MY MONEY!” Sometimes when someone is mean to us we want to grab them and yell at them. “You hurt me! You owe me!” BUT, God says, we should remember how much He has forgiven us and that will help us show forgiveness to others. The man did NOT show forgiveness and he ended up in jail too! We need to forgive others like God has forgiven us. We can forgive the hurtful things people do to us because God has forgiven EVERY bad thing we’ve ever done.

 

For our craft today, we drew out the story as we told it (and afterward I made a copy since we have two kids), then cut the story into 6 pieces, mixed them up and glued them in the correct order on another piece of paper.

 

(Youtube does have a LOT of videos of this one…but I couldn’t find one I especially wanted to highlight. Feel free to go poking around though!)

Thanks for joining us! We’ll have two more lessons and then we’ll begin our Easter countdown!

Shine Your Light

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Hi again! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. (And in a few days we’ll begin our Easter series for the year.)

Today’s lesson can be found in Matthew 5:14-16.

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For today’s lesson I started by turning off all the lights, getting a flashlight, and saying “Isn’t it dark in here?! Some light would help! Let’s use this flashlight!” Then I turned it on and quickly hid it under a bowl. “Isn’t that better?”

“NOOOOOO!” yelled the kids.

“Of course not! You can’t hide a light under a bowl?! You have to SHINE it all around the room, like this!”

Jesus was teaching the people as part of his “sermon on the mount” and He said, “You are the light of the world. Just like a town built high on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Jesus said We are the light of the world! What does THAT mean? A lot of times in the Bible, God is called the light. All good things are light. But badness, sadness and being away from God is like darkness.

So if we love Him, then we can be a light to other people. We can SHINE with God’s goodness and love and show other people who may be making bad choices or who are far away from God, we can show them God’s LIGHT–His goodness and love.

He said ,”Like a city high on a hill (which everyone can see) or a bright light (which everyone can see), the choices YOU make can be seen by a lot of people.” So make sure you are making good choices…choices that bring other people closer to God. When people see how we love then they will be able to understand God’s love! We can show God’s love to other people! We don’t keep God’s love for us, or our love for Him a secret!? We share His love with other people! How can YOU share God’s love with other people? How can you shine for God?

Of course a great song to go with today’s story is This Little Light of Mine (this version is from Cedarmont Kids).

This video is a reggae version of these verses by ScriptureRelease.

This video from Hillsong Kids is called Light of the World.

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

The Prodigal Son

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is another parable (a story meant to teach us something).

This story is form Luke 15:11-32.

This is the story of the prodigal son. Prodigal means to spend money wastefully and extravagantly.

Jesus was teaching the people one day about how much God loves us. He told the people this parable.

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’” (When a father would die, he would leave money and land to his children, but this younger brother didn’t want to wait until the father died. He demanded his money NOW!)

“Not long after that, the boy got together all he had and went far away to a place where he quickly spent all his money. He made bad friends and bad choices and he wasted his money on silly things. After a while he was completely out of money and had no food, so he went and got a job in the fields feeding pigs. He was so hungry he even wanted to eat what the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything! When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against you. I know I am no longer worthy to be called your son; but please make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.”

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was SO happy to see him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him! The boy said to him, ‘Father, I have done a bad thing and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”

“Meanwhile, the older brother was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother has come home,’ he replied, ‘and your father has made a feast of all the best food because he has him back safe and sound.’

“The older brother became angry and said to his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been working hard for you and I have never disobeyed your orders. But you never threw ME a party!”

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

 

Jesus told the people this story to show them what God is like. Sometimes WE act like the younger brother. We want to live life our own way and do our thing. But when we decide we don’t need God, that can get us into big trouble. We DO need God to take care of us. The young man realized he made some bad choices and he felt so sorry he decided he wasn’t good enough to be the man’s son anymore…but MAYBE he could just work as a servant, at least then he would have food to eat! This is like when we are sorry for OUR bad choices and we humble ourselves before God and ask Him to please forgive us.

And does God say, “Ok. You messed up big time, but I guess you can serve me?” No! He RUNS to us! God is so SO happy when we tell Him we need Him. He is SO happy when someone comes to Him and asks Him to forgive them. We are supposed to die forever for our bad choices, but when we come to God and He saves us, we then get forever life with Him! THAT is a good reason to celebrate! We are lost without God, but found again when we give our hearts and lives to Him.

And what about the older brother? He said “You never threw me a party!” And the daddy said, “But you could have one anytime! Every blessing I have I share with you!” And when we are God’s children, He says He will share His blessings with us. It makes God very happy to share all His creation with us. God is a good father to us. He cares for us, loves us, saves us, and shares everything He has made with us. And He also celebrates SO much when someone decides they want Him in their hearts!

 

For our craft today we made circle stories. For this we used 2 paper plates and a pipe cleaner (but if you have one of the gold bracket things, that would work well too!)

We cut the plates to be two circles and on one plate we drew two lines dividing the circles into 4 parts. We drew each part of the story in the 4 sections.

Section 1 we drew the boy taking a bag of money

Our text reads “The boy took his money and left home”

 

Section 2 we drew the boy, some angry friends and some money/dollar signs

Our text reads “He made bad friends and spent all his money”

 

Section 3 we drew a pig

Our text reads “He had to live with pigs”

 

Section 4 we drew the very happy daddy

Our text reads “He went home and said ‘sorry’ and his daddy was SO happy! He forgave him like God loves and forgives us.

 

Then we took the other circle and cut 1/4 of it away (so it looks like pacman). We wrote on the top “The Prodigal Son, Luke 15, A story about God’s love and forgiveness”

 

Then we poked a hole in the middle of each circle and ran a pipe cleaner through it smushing up the ends. Now the top will spin around to reveal the story. IMG_2712

 

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This video is from the Beginner’s Bible (it’s longer than most at about 26 minutes, but very thorough).

This is a really cute video of a social media retelling (appropriate for older kids who can read) posted by  TMCYouthChannel.

And here is Prodigal by Casting Crowns posted by Mckayla Henderson.

 

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

The Lost Sheep

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Welcome! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is another parable (a story meant to teach us something).

The verses for today’s lesson can be found in the Bible in Luke 15:1-7 and John 10:1-16.

One day the Pharisees and some other people who didn’t like Jesus were complaining about Him eating with sinners and bad people, so Jesus told them a story.

A lot of people back then took care of sheep, so everyone who heard this story would know that a shepherd works hard to take care of his sheep. He gives them food and water and protects them from coyotes or wolves…even if he gets hurt or dies while fighting them off. A good shepherd loves his sheep and knows them all.

“Once there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep whom He loved and he lost one of them. He left the ninety-nine other sheep in the open country and went after the lost sheep until he found it! And when he found it, he joyfully put it on his shoulders and took the little sheep home. Then he called his friends and neighbors together and said, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who asks God to forgive them, than over ninety-nine people who do not need to repent.”

Jesus also said in the book of John, “A good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought his sheep out, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as my Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Jesus was saying that He takes care of us and is even willing to die for us (and He did! on the cross for our sins!) He knows us by name and if we are really His, we will know Him and listen to Him. And how do we know what Jesus says? How do we know His voice? By praying and reading His words to us from the Bible! He gave us the Bible as His voice.

Jesus then told the Pharisees and others, “I have other sheep that are not with me yet. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Jesus was saying there are more people who need to learn about Him! And when they learn and accept Jesus into THEIR hearts, it’s like one big family, and He promises to take care of all of us! We can help tell others and bring them to God!

Jesus is our good shepherd. He takes care of us, He keeps our hearts safe from Satan who tries to keep us away from God. He provides what we need and He loves us and knows us by name. He even died to save us from being apart from God forever! He leads us and tells us what we should do in the Bible. We can listen to His words, follow Him and trust Him. He IS a good, good shepherd.

For our craft today we made little sheep out of paper plates. We used a black circle of construction paper and two u-shaped pieces of black construction paper; some googly eyes, a pom pom nose and cotton balls.

Our text reads: Jesus the good shepherd, Luke 15, John 10

This is a video of the Parable of the Lost sheep posted by Sabbath School.

This video is called the Baa Baa song posted by Sibling Harmony.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Treasures in Heaven

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Hi all! Welcome back! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s lesson is from Matthew 6:19-24. This is also from Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

Jesus told the people, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where things die, break and are destroyed. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Don’t focus on having the most money or the best THINGS because things break. Instead, think about what’s REALLY important, like loving God, loving other people and telling other people about God!

He said “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What you think is the most important thing is what you will give your attention to. If you think money or toys are really important, then you’ll spend all your time trying to get money or toys. BUT, if you think God and telling others about Him is what’s really important, then that is where your heart will be and you’ll spend your time loving God and others.

Jesus warned the people, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus said, you have to pick. You can’t love your things and love God. Which one will be more important to you? The things of this earth that will break and be gone when you die? Or God and loving others? Then when you die, you’ll be with God forever, and maybe, if you’ve told someone else about God, they’ll get to be with you in heaven forever too! Isn’t that a REAL treasure!?

This video by Titus Ting is a musical version of these verses.

This is the song by Burlap and Cashmere.

 

For our craft today we made treasure chests from a rectangle and a 1/2 circle piece of brown construction paper. We drew on some lines and a lock and then glued on bits of confetti and gold and silver paper. (You could also draw money, or find gold trinkets at your local craft store, money scrapbook paper or even use play money from the dollar store.)

Our text reads: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matt 6:20-21

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

The Good Samaritan

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. (Later in the month we will cover His death and resurrection.)

Today’s story is a well known tale found in Matthew 22, Mark 12 and Luke 10.

Some of the people really loved Jesus and loved listening to Him teach. But some of the people were jealous of Jesus, or scared that He might try to be more powerful than them, so they would try to trick Him. One day they said, “The Bible says, ‘Love your neighbor,’ but WHO counts as my neighbor?”

Jesus answered by telling them this story.

“A man was traveling one day when he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, hurt him and went away, leaving him almost dead. A priest was going down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. Soon another important man came to the place and saw him, but he also passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. (Remember the people in Israel and the people in Samaria did not like each other, they were supposed to be enemies.) He went to him and bandaged his wounds. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to a hotel and took care of him. The next day he took out some money and gave it to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will give you the money for any extra costs you may have taking care of this man.’

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who took care of him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

 

So who did Jesus say is our neighbor? Only the people who live next to us? Only the people we like? Only the people like us?

No…everyone…anyone who needs our help. Jesus said no matter how important you think you are, you can always help someone else. Who can you love? You can love the people in your class at school. You can give money or clothes to people who need them. You can share food with people who are hungry. How does your family show love to neighbors?

We drew pictures to illustrate today’s story.

 

Veggie tales has a cute video of this story.

And for a little nostalgia, this video is from the McGee and Me series posted by David Hill.

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

 

The story of the farmer and his seeds

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is a parable, a story meant to teach something.

This story can be found in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8.

Jesus was teaching one day and told the people this parable (story). There was once a farmer who went to plant some seeds. Some of the seeds fell along the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocks, where there was not much good soil. Those seeds sprang up quickly, but when the sun came up, the plants were burnt, and they withered… they could not really grow there. Other seeds fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so those seeds could not continue to grow. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—many many many stalks of good wheat grew there.”

But Jesus wasn’t just teaching the people how to be good farmers. He was telling them a story about God and about us. He then explained to the people what the story meant.

He said,”The seeds that fell on the road and were eaten by the birds are like when someone hears the words of the Bible and does not understand it. Then Satan comes and tries to keep those people away from God. The seeds that fell on the rocky soil and couldn’t grow are like the people who hear God’s words and obey them for a little bit, but then give up. The seeds that fell in the weeds and couldn’t grow are like people who are more worried about money and their troubles than trusting in God. But the seeds that fell in the good soil and grew and grew are like the people who hear God’s words, obey them and tell others about God.”

Let’s ask God to help us be good seeds in good soil so we can grow! We can listen to God’s words and ask Him to help us understand (we can ask our mom and dad, our grandparents, our pastor or other grown ups for help too if we don’t understand something in the Bible.) We can also pray and ask God to help us obey His words and tell others about Him.

 

For our craft today we made a book of the story.

We started by taking 4 pieces of paper. (You can use any color you want). We made green our biggest/last piece so we took a regular 8.5 x 11 piece of construction paper and folded it in half. Then we took a yellow piece, folded it in half and cut about an inch off the bottom. Then we took a brown piece, folded it and cut about 2 inches off. Then we took a blue piece, folded it in half and cut about 3 inches off.

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When stacked they look like this

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For each page, we open up the paper and the illustration goes on top half and words on the bottom half.

Page 1: We drew a road, glued on some seeds (we used various beans we had. You could use beans, actual seeds, rice, glitter, or just draw the seeds on). Then we added some birds.

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Page 2: We drew the rocky soil and glued on a few seeds.

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Page 3: For our thorns we drew some sticks with pokers on the sides and glued on some seeds.

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Page 4: On this page we glued on a lot of seeds and drew good brown soil, and tall yellow and green grasses and wheat.

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Then we stapled the pieces together to form our book:

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Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

The Beatitudes

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the thing Jesus taught.

Today’s lesson can be found in Matthew 5. (In full disclosure, much of the verbiage used today is from “Jesus Calling Bible Storybook” by Sarah Young. I don’t get any kickback for mentioning that, but it’s a great resource we use often…very nice pictures by Carolina Farias and simple versions of Bible stories.

 

So one day Jesus was teaching and this particular speech is called His “sermon on the mount.” There are a lot of things Jesus taught the people that day; today we’ll just be talking about one of the things, called the beatitudes.

WHAT are beatitudes? The first part of the word “be-a-tus” means happy or blessed!

Jesus was teaching the people 8 reasons they could feel happy and blessed!

Jesus said, “Those who say, ‘I am a sinner,’ will be part of God’s family.

Those who are sorry for their bad choices will be comforted by God.

Those who obey God will live forever with Him.

Those who want to do the right thing, God will help them do it.

Those who forgive others will be forgiven by God.

Those who ask God to live in their hearts will see Him.

Those who help others find peace with God will be called His children.

Those who tell others about God, even if people are mean to them, are part of God’s family.”

 

This video features the Beatitudes song by Brook Hills music performed by Jess Chamblee.

This video posted by Outside da box is probably better geared towards older elementary/middle school students, but gets the point across nicely.

 

For our craft today we made a bouquet of blessings. We used various geometric shaped pieces of card stock and construction paper and just glued them together to make any shape flower we wanted. (Each child and I made a set of 8, so our bouquet features 24 flowers). I wrote one beatitude on each flower (so 3 of each). Then we taped a straw to the back of each one (you could also use pipe cleaners).

 

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Now we have a lovely bouquet of blessings on our table to remind us of God’s goodness!

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

Do Not Worry

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s story is from Matthew 6:25-34.

Jesus was teaching the people one day and He said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about what you will wear. There are more important things in life than wearing fancy clothes or eating special food.

Look at the birds in the air; they don’t grow food, or have money to buy food, but God feeds them (with berries, nuts and worms). And YOU are much more important than birds.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not have to make clothes…but God makes them look beautiful. Grass grows and then in winter, it’s gone…God makes sure even the grass and flower which are so small and gone so fast look so pretty. You can trust that He will take care of your clothes too.

People who don’t believe in God are always trying to find the prettiest clothes or the fanciest food, or the newest best thing… But I tell you, seek God first and His ways, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow. Nobody makes his life any better or longer by worrying. Follow God and trust Him.”

We don’t have to worry…when we do worry, we can pray and talk to God about it. We can remember that God loves us and promises to take care of us. He takes care of ALL things, and we can be sure if He takes care of even the smallest tiniest things, that He will certainly take care of us.

 

For our craft today we cut out pictures of birds and flowers and glued them onto our paper.

Our text reads: God takes care of the flowers and the birds, and He will take care of me! Matthew 6:25-34

 

This video has a cute illustrated version of the verses covered today. It was posted by QuizWorx.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

The wise and foolish builders

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 7:24-27 and Luke 6:46-49.

Jesus said, “Everyone who hears My words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the rain came down, the water rose, and the winds blew against that house; but it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does NOT obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. When the rain came down, the water rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

When you build a house, it has to be on strong ground…if you build it on sand, then when it rains, the sand will wash away and the house will fall over. But Jesus wasn’t telling the people how to build a real house. He was saying, “If you believe in Me and obey My words, then your whole life will be strong. And when bad, scary or hard things happen, you can remember My words, and obey them and you will be able to get through any hard time.” If you put your trust in other things, like pretend gods, or your stuff, then when bad things happen, you won’t really have any help. Your things can’t help you through a hard time. Only God is truth and He never changes. We can trust in Him. THAT is like building our lives on a strong rock. When hard times come or bad things happen, we won’t have to make bad choices because we can remember that God loves us and He will help us.

We illustrated this today by using a baking pan and two lego houses. We put one house on a cup (this was the rocks), and we made a pile of sugar (you could also use salt or sand if you have it). Then we took a full water bottle and dumped it into the pan. The house on the rock stayed, but the house on the sand washed away.

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Then we made a paper craft, one for each part of the story. (We used glitter for the sand)

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This video posted by ThroughTheWaters is a song called “The wise man built his house upon the rocks.”

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!