Jesus’ life

Jesus anointed

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey all. Our story today is form Luke 7:36-50.

Remember the pharisees? They were the most religious people. They knew all the words in the Bible (but they weren’t very good at OBEYING GOD, but still they thought they were better than everyone else because they knew SO MUCH.)

One of the pharisees invited Jesus (and some others) to his house for dinner, and Jesus went.

While they were there a woman came. Everyone there knew she didn’t usually make good choices so they were all surprised to see her. But she was SOOO excited to see Jesus! She brought smelly good perfume and put it on Jesus’ feet. Back then people wore sandals all the time so their feet were pretty dirty…but she didn’t care. She was so excited to see Jesus, she even started crying! And she dried her tears with her hair and kissed his feet!

The pharisee said, “Why do you let her do this?! If you knew what a bad person she is, you wouldn’t let her touch you!”

But Jesus said, “Since I got here, you haven’t poured perfume on Me, or kissed Me, or cried over your happiness to be with Me. But SHE has. Her love for Me is great. And because she loves Me, I will forgive her sins. Your sins are forgiven, you may go in peace.”

All the people were confused by this. Only God can forgive people for their sins…who IS this guy???

Jesus was showing them that loving Him is much more important than knowing all the right things. When we love God, we are happy to learn more about Him. We want to be WITH Him, and worship Him. Just knowing ABOUT God, is not the same as KNOWING God. You can know God better by praying and talking to Him.

 

For our craft today we traced our feet on construction paper and then drew tears on the feet. We put on some lipstick and kissed the feet and then we sprayed some “perfume” on the feet.

Our text reads: Luke 7-Jesus forgave the woman who loved Him. She anointed Him with perfume, tears and kisses.

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Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Jesus calls Matthew

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Hello again! Today’s story can be found in Matthew 9: 9-12 and Luke 5: 27-31.

 

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Jesus was just starting to teach the people and do some pretty amazing miracles. More people were hearing about Him and choosing to follow Him.

One day, He was walking past the tax booth and saw a tax collector named Matthew. Most people didn’t like the tax collectors. Many times they tried to take more than they were supposed to and they weren’t nice about it. They were not thought of as “nice guys.”

*The best way I could describe this to my kids is the sheriff in Robin Hood. He takes everyone’s money and he’s a jerk about it. Everyone is kind of afraid of him.

But Jesus stopped and asked the man to follow Him and he did! Matthew was so excited that Jesus would notice him that he had a big dinner for Jesus and all his friends. The Bible says Matthew’s friends weren’t the best kind of people either…but Jesus was happy to have dinner with them.

The pharisees  were the most religious guys who tried to follow every single law perfectly and thought they were SO much better than everyone else. (But they didn’t really love like God wanted them to. They would say they followed the law, but God’s most important law is to love God and love others and they weren’t very good at that part.) They were amazed that Jesus would EAT with “these people”?

“What are you doing?!” they asked.

Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. These people have sick hearts and they need Me…they need God. I came to love and save EVERYONE, ANYONE who will believe in Me.”

Isn’t it wonderful to know that no matter what Jesus will love us?

We can also be sure to love those around us…even people who don’t always make great choices. Maybe ESPECIALLY we should love and take care of the people who don’t make very good choices…because it is those people who need God the most.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Jesus calls His first disciples

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Hi all!

Today’s story is from Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 5:1-11.

Jesus was now a grown up. He had been baptized by John and tempted in the desert and now He was just starting to teach the people all about God. One day, Jesus was teaching a crowd of people near a lake. He saw two empty boats and the fisherman cleaning up from their day. He got in one of the boats and asked the fisherman (named Simon Peter) to sail the boat out a bit so He could teach the people and then they could all see and hear Him (they were all crowding Him before.)

When He was done teaching, He told the fishermen to sail further out and put their nets into the water.

“Eh, we already tried. There’s no fish today!” Simon said. “But…I guess since YOU’RE asking…I’ll try it..one more time.” (Simon Peter trusted Jesus!)

And guess what happened when he put his fishing net in the water? LOTS of fish! There were so many fish, Simon and his brother Andrew called their friends, James and John, out in their boat and they filled up both boats so full of fish the boats started to sink!

Simon fell down in front of Jesus and said, “I’m so sorry! You were right! I am a sinful man.”

But Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid…I’m not going to yell at you. But now, follow me and I will make you fishers of men!”

(Where they going to catch people in a net?? No…they were going to tell people about God and “catch their hearts.” They used to catch fish all day, and now when they followed Jesus, they would be getting people to follow God.)
These were Jesus’ first disciples. A disciple is someone who follows a leader and learns from them. They would also help Jesus on His journeys–telling people about God and God would even let them do some pretty amazing things which we’ll learn about later.

Did Jesus pick big important kings to be His helpers? He picked regular fisherman. He didn’t pick the fanciest, richest or strongest people. He picked regular people…just like you and me, to be His followers. (Of course God does WANT rich, strong, fancy people and kings to follow Him….but Jesus was showing that you don’t have to be anyone famous to love and obey Him.)

For our craft today we made fish from construction paper, a googly eye and some tissue paper.

Our text reads: “I will make you fishers of men. Luke 5:10”

 

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Jesus is tempted

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Hi all! Today’s story is from Matthew 4. (Also touched on in Mark 1 and Luke 4)

After Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit led Him to the desert and He fasted for 40 days. (That means He didn’t eat any food. Instead of eating, He prayed and talked with God. You can imagine that after 40 days He was HUNGRY!!!)

**Side note: Do you remember what God’s helpers are called? (The angels.) Who made the angels? (God did!) So who do you think is more powerful, the angels or God? (God is!) But just like people, God lets the angels choose if they will love and obey Him. Some of them choose not to and these bad angels are called demons. Their leader is named Satan (or the devil). He wants people to NOT love God. And he thinks HE is better and more powerful than God. (But we know he’s NOT!)

So…Satan came to visit Jesus in the desert to try to trick Him and get Him to stop following God’s rules.

Matthew 4 tells us 3 different things Satan did to try to trick Jesus. First, he knew Jesus was very hungry, so he said, “Why don’t you take some of the stones around here and turn them into bread? If you’re REALLY God’s son…You could do that!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘food and bread are good for people, but God is MORE important.’ I choose God.”

Then Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple (the church) and said, “If You’re REALLY God’s son, then jump all the way down and let His angels catch you!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘You are NOT supposed to try to trick God!'”

Lastly, Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and they looked over all the kingdoms of the world. Satan said, “If You will bow down and worship ME, I will give You all of this! You can have all the kingdoms and all the people!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘worship only HIM!'”

(Every time Satan tried to trick Jesus, Jesus used God’s words to fight Him. We can use the Bible verses we know too when people try to get us to stop following God. Sometimes we can even THINK things that are untrue, like “i’m not pretty enough or good enough.” But then we can remember that the Bible says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made! And God loves me!”)

Satan tried to get Jesus to do things His own way, instead of God’s way, but Jesus remembered God’s words and followed Him.

After that, Satan left Jesus alone and God sent some of His angels to help Jesus (probably to get Him some food and take Him back home.)

 

For our craft today we made a little book.

The front says “Jesus was tempted. Matthew 4”

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Page 1: Satan said, “turn the stones to bread”

(You could use clipart from the internet, but i like child-produced art, so i let them draw stones and bread how they could).

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Page 2: Jesus said, “No! People need food, but they need God more!”IMG_1316

Page 3: Satan said, “Jump! and let the angels save you!”

(This is how we drew the temple– a box, with big columns, a triangle roof and Jesus standing at the top.)
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Page 4: Jesus said, “No! Do not try to trick God!”IMG_1318

Page 5: Satan said, “worship me and i’ll give all the kingdoms to you”

(we drew a castle)

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Page 6: Jesus said, “No! We are supposed to worship ONLY God”

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Jesus is baptized

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Hi all! Today’s story is from Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1.

John was Jesus’ cousin. Do you remember how he jumped in his mommy’s tummy when he was still a growing baby when Mary came to visit? The angel told John’s parents he would lead the way for the Messiah.

John and Jesus were now grownups. John wandered all around telling everyone that the Messiah was coming! He also told them to repent of their sins (that means tell God every wrong thing they’d done, AND ask God to forgive them.) Then, he would baptize them. That means he would lower them into some water (usually a lake or river) and then bring them right back up. The going under was a way to show they were leaving their sins behind, and coming out of the water new and forgiven by God.

Going in and out of the water is NOT what made God forgive the people. It was just a sign to show others that they had asked God to forgive them.

One day, Jesus came to John and asked to be baptized.

“But Jesus!? YOU are the Messiah! You’ve never done anything wrong! I should be baptized by YOU!” (Remember Jesus is God’s son, so He’s perfect and CAN’T sin (make bad choices.))

But Jesus said, “This is the right thing to do.” Jesus wanted to be baptized by John to:

  1. Show the people He was one of them.
  2. He was also setting an example for us. When we love God and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, then He asks us to be baptized…to show everyone the decision we’ve made to follow Him. (1 Peter 3:21, Col 2:12, Acts 2:38-41, Mark 16:16)
  3. Also, Jesus was about the show people who He REALLY was.

John agreed and baptized Jesus. When Jesus came up out of the water, the Bible says, the sky opened and the spirit of God came down as a dove and landed on Jesus. Then everyone heard God say, “This is My son, who I love. I am pleased with Him.”

 

**God is 3 people in one. This is called the trinity. There is God the Father in heaven; Jesus, God’s son; and the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit. When Jesus was baptized, God showed Himself to the people in all 3 ways…with Jesus, His Spirit and in His voice. (The trinity can be confusing to think about…even for grownups. The nice thing is…we will fully never understand God and His ways…and that’s OK! HE does…and we know we can trust Him. These things might make more sense as you get bigger…but you can now know God has 3 parts…the Father, the Son and the Spirit.)

Jesus showed the people who He really was–God’s son. John told everyone THIS was the Messiah and with His baptism, Jesus showed us about dying to sin and coming up with new life with God (just like He would die on the cross and rise again.)

 

For our craft today, we started with a popsicle stick and a string about 4x the length of the popsicle stick. (In the photo below the string is tied but DON’T tie it yet.)

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Tape the string lengthwise to the popsicle stick. Then  you can draw a face on the top of the stick and add whatever kind of “clothing” you want. (We opted for triangle construction paper).  That will make your “Jesus popsicle stick on a string.”

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Next we found some cardboard and cut it to match a sheet of construction paper and glued blue construction paper to the cardboard. (You can make it any size you’d like as long is it’s bigger than the popsicle stick).

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We cut out a dove shape and cut up and glued some feathers on our dove and glued the dove onto our blue construction paper.

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Then we cut two holes big enough for “popsicle stick Jesus” to fit through. They are about 1 popsicle stick length apart. (A grownup should do this part!)

Then we ran our string through the holes and tied it together. This makes a loop through the holes so “popsicle stick Jesus” can go into the water, around the back and back out of the water.

Lastly we added our text: Jesus was baptized. “This is My son. I am pleased with him.” Luke 3:22IMG_1267

Above is our completed project. The kids had a lot of fun putting Jesus into the water and pulling Him back out.

 

**Update:

THIS VIDEO of today’s story is from Saddleback Kids.

THIS is a more in-depth version from Crossroads Kids’ Club.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Go!

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Go and make disciples!

Matthew 28

After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples (His followers) and others for 40 days. Then, it was time for Him to go home. Where is home for Jesus? In heaven, with God.

He gathered the disciples and told them He was going back to heaven, to help God prepare a place for us…so that when we die, if we love God and believe Jesus died for us, then we can live in heaven forever.

Next, He told the disciples that they had an important job to do. They were to Go! to the whole world and tell them about Jesus and His love for us.

Then He rose up up up into the clouds and went back to heaven.

Activity: For our craft, we made a world. Now…my kids are 3, so their worlds look nothing like the actual earth :0) Then, we cut out pictures of people from magazines and glued them on the earth and wrote the verse for the week. “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

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You could use a map or trace the countries for your child to cut out if you want your world to look more precise. (Our kids had fun just ripping and cutting the green pieces of earth.) And yes…my son added mickey and minnie to his “all the nations”

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This is the last story of Jesus’ life. I will have a few posts next week about our favorite toddler/preschool Bible verses and tips for studying the Bible with young kids. Then, in May, we’ll be studying the Bible stories AFTER Jesus’ life.

Cast Your Nets

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Before i delve into the story, i’d just like to say thank you for your patience while we went on vacation…it was a great time and now we’re excited to get back to business as usual and i’m excited to continue sharing with you all.

Cast Your Nets

John 21

After Jesus had risen from the dead, some of the disciples were out on their boat, catching some fish. They tried all night…but they caught nothing.

In the morning, Jesus came to the edge of the sea and yelled to them “Haven’t you caught anything yet?”

When they yelled back “NO?!” Jesus told them to try the other side of the boat. What?! Why would THAT work? They’d been trying all night!? But they listened and threw their nets to the other side of the boat, and when they did…they caught a LOT of fish.

John (one the disciples) said, “it’s Jesus!” and Peter jumped in the water and swam right over to Jesus–still in his clothes! It seems silly…but he was SO happy to see Jesus! (and i can just imagine the big smile on Jesus’ face as He watched Peter swim to Him).

They all had a big breakfast of fish and bread together and Jesus talked with Peter and told him to take care of the people. Peter (and the other disciples) were to tell people about Jesus and to take care of them.

Even though they had been fishing all night and it seemed impossible…with God, ALL things are possible, and they were able to catch a LOT of fish.

And Jesus loves when we love Him. I’m sure it made Him very happy to see Peter so excited to see Him. And just like Peter, we can be excited to see Jesus and talk to Him and to tell others about Him.

Activities: we didn’t do a craft for this one, we acted out the story instead. (my kids especially enjoyed jumping out of the boat in their clothes and swimming to Jesus).

We also had a snack of goldfish crackers in baggies (like the nets).

Later this week, we’ll be discussing the great commission and Jesus’ ascension back to heaven and then there will be a few introductory posts about studying the Bible with toddlers and some of my favorite toddler Bible verses. Feel free to comment or share your ideas! Thanks all.