When God lets us choose…

May 5, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! Today’s lesson comes from Romans 14. (Also covered in 1 Corinthians 8, 10, and Colossians 2)

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Do you remember last time we talked about worshipping God with our whole lives? Some of the things God tells us to do He is very clear about. Can you think of anything God says NOT to do? (Lie, steal, murder). Can you think of anything God says TO do? (Love one another, tell others about Him, pray and talk to Him).

But sometimes God lets us choose. He doesn’t tell us what kind of job to get when we’re a grown up, or what kinds of games to play. He doesn’t say we can only wear certain colors…He lets us choose those things.

Do you know sometimes grown ups in church fuss over what kind of songs to sing to God or what they should wear to church? And in Paul’s day lots of people fought over what kind of food was ok to eat. But Paul reminded the people of Rome to not argue about things like that. He said, “Loving God is not a matter of what you eat or drink, it’s about being right with God, and having peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, anyone who serves Jesus in this way makes God happy. So let’s try to do things that help everyone get along and know God better. All food is ok to eat, but it is better not to eat or drink (or to do anything else) that will cause your friend to make a choice they think is bad….then they will be sinning against God. If it bothers your friend, try not to do it. If you know your friend doesn’t like something and you do it anyway…that’s not very loving.” He also said some things you can talk to God about and He will help you know if it’s a good choice or bad choice for you. (You can and SHOULD always read the Bible to see what God has to say).

So sometimes God is very clear about what He wants. But sometimes He gives us choices. Before we make a choice we should always

Read God’s word (the Bible) and pray to see what God has to say about it (this can be hard because sometimes our friends don’t make choices that God wants them to. But we can make good choices even if our friends don’t. God will always help you make the right choice if you ask for help!)
Make sure it won’t cause anyone else to make a bad choice
Make sure it’s a choice that shows God love and helps others
If a friend makes a different choice that still shows God love and helps others, then we don’t need to fuss about. (If your friend is making choices that make God sad or hurt other people, then you can help remind them how to make good choices or find a grown up to help).

We can make good choices if we think about loving God and loving others.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Worship through love

May 3, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back! Today’s lesson is from Romans 12.

Have you ever heard the word “worship?”

Worship means to show honor or love for something. We worship God. We want to show that He is the greatest and that we love Him and will obey Him. We give Him our hearts, our time, our things, we make our choices based on what He tells us.

Some people think worship means singing to God…and that’s ONE way to worship God (and it’s a wonderful way!) but it’s not the only way!

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he tells them LOTS of ways to worship God. He said we can worship God with our whole bodies…with everything we do. Every day we can worship God.

Here are some of the way we show God we love Him, respect Him and think He’s the best!

Everyday, Paul says, you can choose to not think you’re better than anyone else. Remember everyone who loves God has things they are good at and everyone can help others know God. So don’t think you’re better than anyone else…everyone just needs to do the best job they can loving God and loving other people.

Then he says, stay away from bad things and always stay near what is good. Take care of other people. Be excited about God! Be joyful (kind of like happy) because you know God loves you and has great plans for you! Be patient and trust in God when hard or sad things happen. Always, always pray and talk to God. Share everything you have with anyone who needs it.

You can also worship by being nice to people even when they aren’t nice to you. Be happy for your friends when they are happy, but if they are sad, be sad with them. Don’t fight or fuss with each other, try to get along. And don’t only hang out with people like you. Anyone can be your friend.

And one more time he reminds us to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. That means if someone is being mean, you don’t be mean back, love them!

Loving God by singing, dancing, and praying are great ways to worship Him. But it is also worship when we love others, share with them and are nice even when people aren’t nice to us. That’s worship too!

How do YOU like to worship God?

Isn’t it great that all the ways Paul shows us to worship God are things KIDS can do too!? Yay!

For today’s craft we took a piece of construction paper and painted some lines from the center. Then when it dried, we cut out and glued on a heart and our text reads: We worship God by loving others. Romans 12

This song by Casting Crowns relates to today’s lesson.

Thanks for joining us again, love to you all!

All have sinned…

April 26, 2016April 26, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all, today’s lesson is from the first 4 chapters of Romans.

Paul wrote a lot of letters. He wrote some while he was traveling and some while he was in jail. One of the letters he wrote was to the people of a big city called Rome. These people were called Romans and the book of the Bible named after his letter to them is also called Romans.

Paul starts this letter by talking to the Jewish people. If you remember a long long time ago a man named Abraham believed God and obeyed Him. And even though Abraham and his wife didn’t have any kids, they believed God when He said Abraham would be the father of many many countries and many people. God chose Abraham and Abraham loved God right back. God did give Abraham a son and his family became God’s people. Abraham had a son named Isaac and Isaac had a son named Jacob and Jacob had 12 sons who became the leaders of the 12 tribes (big family groups) of Israel. (The people of one tribe, Judah became known as Jews.)

Paul wanted the people to know that God had chosen the people of Israel to give His laws to and He made a promise to always be with them. They would sacrifice (kill) special kinds of animals when they sinned and God would forgive them. BUT Jesus came and sacrificed HIMSELF and from then on, anyone who believes in Jesus would be right with God and forgiven for their sins (bad choices against God).

The Jewish people didn’t always like hearing that God was for EVERYONE. They thought they were special! God’s chosen people, remember?? But Paul said, ANYONE who believes and obeys God is like one of Abraham’s children. God didn’t choose Abraham and his family because of the great things they did, but because they believed. So anyone who believes like Abraham and obeys God will also be forgiven and be one of God’s people.

Paul said “all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No one is perfect… We all sin (make bad choices) and that sin keeps us from God. Have you seen the movie Brave? Merida shoots her bow and arrows at the target. When we try to follow God we are like the arrow, but sometimes we miss the bullseye (the middle of the target). When we mess up and sin, we fall short and miss what God wants us to do. That also means we miss out on God. Our sin keeps us from God, BUT Jesus gave us something we don’t deserve. He died for us so when we believe in Him, when God sees us, He sees us as right on target. Righteous….right with Him. Paul said there’s nothing we can do to EARN God’s love or to EARN a place in heaven. God loved us enough to give His son in our place. And not just the Israelites, but ALL people because EVERYONE sins and needs the gift Jesus gave us when He died on the cross and took the consequences for our sin.

For our craft today we made targets out of paper plates and construction paper. We folded our red piece of paper in half and drew three rings on it like this.

We cut out each ring and glued the smallest and biggest onto our plate. Then we cut out and glued on an arrow and wrote the paraphrase of our verse:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but are made right with God for free, as a gracious gift, because of Jesus’ sacrifice.” Romans 3:23-25

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Growing Together

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all, today’s story comes from Acts 18.

Paul was traveling all around teaching people about Jesus and next he went to a city called Corinth. There he met a man named Aquila and his wife Priscilla. They were tent makers and so was Paul so he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath (church day) he talked in the synagogue (like a church) teaching everyone about Jesus.

His friends Silas and Timothy had been teaching other places but they came to help and then Paul stopped working on tents and spent all his time preaching, telling everyone Jesus was the Messiah. Some of the Jews (God’s chosen people) didn’t like hearing that God loves EVERYONE and that He sent Jesus to die for EVERYONE! They thought it should only be for them! So they kicked Paul out of the synagogue.

But God told Paul to stay and keep teaching and lots of people came to know about Jesus.

Paul stayed on in Corinth a long time then he left and took a boat to Syria; Priscilla and Aquila went with him. Paul kept traveling, but Priscilla and Aquila stayed in a place called Ephesus.

There they met a Jew named Apollos. He knew a lot of the Bible and loved teaching people about God. But he hadn’t learned a lot about Jesus yet. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him teach, they invited him to their house and taught him even more about Jesus and God’s plan to save everyone.

Apollos then began going around and helping OTHER people know more about Jesus and he traveled a long way and was very good at teaching and helping people know God.

I think this is a fun story because Silas and Timothy helped Paul so he could teach Priscilla and Aquila, they taught Apollos and he taught lots of other people!

In a book of the Bible called 2 Peter (written by Peter, Jesus’ disciple and friend), he says “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The Bible talks a lot about growing. You can grow older, bigger, and stronger. You can also get to know people more and grow a friendship. The Bible tells us to grow in how much we know about God. We can also grow in how much we trust Him and how much we worship Him and serve Him (the things we do to show other people His love.)

Paul wrote a letter to the people of Colossia. In Colossians 3:16 he says, “Let God’s words live in your heart, teach and admonish (that means help each other when you make bad choices) one another with all wisdom, and sing psalms and songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

It’s important to grow in how much we know God and how we serve Him…but we can’t do it alone. We need parents, teachers, pastors, worship leaders…anyone who knows God can help someone else know Him better. Even you! Even though you may be small now, you can still help tell other people the things you know about God! Just like Apollos still had things to learn, you probably do too! (And let’s be honest, adults do too!) But you can help sing songs to God and tell other people about Jesus. We can all help each other grow just like Paul, Silas, Timothy, Aquila, Priscilla and Apollos did!

The Church works together

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Welcome back! Today’s lesson is a New Testament story AND part of our lessons on living a Godly life. The text for this can be found in Acts 6:1-7 and Romans 12:3-8.

In the days after Jesus went back to heaven and the people who loved Him had received the Holy Spirit in their hearts, lots of people were hearing about and deciding to follow Jesus. Back then, the church took care of any one who needed help. So the grandmas who were all alone, kids without parents, or people who couldn’t work…anyone who didn’t have food or clothes, the church would make sure they got what they needed. BUT, everyone was so busy telling new people about Jesus that some of the people weren’t getting the food they needed! So the disciples got together and said, “We can’t stop telling people about Jesus!? But we also have to make sure we are SHOWING God’s love by taking care of everyone! So…let’s choose seven men who are full of the God’s Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of making sure everyone has the food they need and we will give our attention to prayer and teaching God’s word.”

Everyone thought that was a great idea, so they chose a man named Stephen, and 6 others. (Most of them were Israelites, but one was not. Before, you had to be an Israelite to be one of God’s chosen people, but Jesus came for EVERYONE. Now ANYONE who believes in Jesus and wants Him as their Savior and Lord can be one of His chosen children. So this man was also included as one of the seven.)

So the word of God spread. The seven men made sure everyone had the food they needed and others told people about Jesus. They all worked together to spread God’s word and His love.

In the book of Romans, God says everyone who loves Him is like one body working together. Do your eyes do the same thing as your nose? Do your fingers do the same thing as your heart? Can you hear with your toes? No! You need all the different parts of your body to do what they are supposed to do! And the church is the same way! All of us who love God work together to share His love! Some of us can be like His mouth and teach people about Him. Some of us can be like hands and help other people. Some of us can be like feet, traveling around to the far-away places of the Earth to make sure everyone knows about God. Some of us can be like ears…we can listen to other people when they are sad. There are lots of way to show God’s love! And we can all work together, like the people in the early church to make sure everyone knows God and His love.

Even kids can and SHOULD help in the church! You can help your mom and dad at home, you can help in your Sunday school class by being a good listener and helping your teacher and you can tell your friends about Jesus too! You can pray for your friends and family…no matter how big, or how small you are…you are never too small to serve God!

This is last year’s lesson on being the body of Christ.

For today’s craft we cut out people shapes and on each one we wrote a way we can serve in the church. (If you were doing this with a larger Sunday school class you could have each child decorate their cut out like themselves and then hook them all together in a banner.) We stapled ours around a paper plate and the center text says: We can ALL work together to tell people about Jesus and show them His love. Acts 6 and Romans 12

THIS is a really silly video of today’s story posted by JWKidsJacobsWell.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Thomas Doubts

March 30, 2016March 30, 2016 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back! Today’s story can be found in John 20:24-29.

After Jesus rose alive from the tomb, He appeared to many people and He appeared to His disciples, but one of them, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came. They told Thomas that they had seen Jesus and that He was ALIVE!

But Thomas said, “No! I don’t believe it! Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were I will not believe.” (Remember when Jesus died on the cross they put nails in His hands and nailed Him to the cross. He would now have holes there where the nails were.)

A week later His disciples were in a house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” The doors were locked but Jesus still got in! Remember: God can do anything! Jesus is part of God, God’s son. He can do anything, even get through locked doors!

Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “It IS you, Jesus! My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We know Jesus now lives in Heaven with God, so we will probably not see Him while we live here, before we die. BUT, we still believe! Jesus said it’s a wonderful thing for someone who hasn’t even seen Him to believe in Him. We can trust His words. That is called Faith. In Hebrews 11:1 of the Bible it says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see.” We can not see Jesus, but we KNOW Him and we love Him. We are sure of our hope of living in heaven with Him. Thomas didn’t believe until he saw Jesus…and do you know lots of people today still don’t believe in Jesus because they can’t see Him?

If trusting in God without seeing Him seems hard sometimes, you can always pray and talk to God and ask Him to help you have faith, and believe.

For our craft today, we traced our hands and used a pen to make a small hole in the hands, then used our scissors to make it a bit bigger. Our text reads:

“Blessed are those who haven’t seen Me and still believe.” John 20:29

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Make a Joyful Noise!

June 29, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again friends.

Our last topic for this month is praising God! Our verses are Colossians 3:16, Psalm 100, Romans 12:1, and John 4:24.

The Bible tells us to teach and encourage one another through our songs and poems. We can worship God with grateful hearts for ALL He has done for us. Worshipping God is not just singing though. You can worship Him in your heart, with music, with your kind words and by making good choices.

You can sing or play an instrument, write poems or stories, create art or dance…there are so many ways to praise God.

When we pray, we talk to God. Praise is just thankful prayer…telling God how wonderful He is and how muh we love Him.

There is a whole book of the Bible calls Psalms and it is songs people wrote for God.

Do you have a favorite song about God?

Take some time as a family to praise God together. If your kids are old enough, maybe you could write a song together.

All for today, join us in July as we begin journeying through the Bible again, starting in Genesis. Love to you all!

Nothing Can Separate Us!

June 28, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi friends!

Today’s lesson comes from Romans 8:(31-35) 38-39.

Who loves you the most?

The Bible says that God loves us SO much that there is NOTHING that can keep Him from loving us. There are still consequences for our choices, but He will always love us and want us to know Him no.matter.what.

God even gave us His own son Jesus…so we can be sure that there is nothing He won’t do for us. This Bible verse in Romans 8 says “that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Isn’t that GREAT NEWS!?

We made a craft to remind us of God’s love for us.

We drew ourselves and cut them out. Then we made crosses with long arms and hearts on the end. Then we glued ourselves to the front of the cross and the arms can reach around and give us a big hug. (I will be honest…this was a bit over my 3 year olds heads. They kept asking why THEY were on the cross. So i reminded them that THEY weren’t on the cross. The cross is a picture of Jesus and how much He loves us. Jesus was the cross and He was giving them a big hug because He loves them so so much.)

Our person and the cross. The kids have 4 angles to cut out, then we used the longer pieces to extend the arms of the cross.

We also found this song from Citizen Way.

Thanks for joining us today. We have one day left in this month’s lessons on Living a Godly Life. Then we’ll be starting back at creation in July. Love to you all!

Listen to Authority

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi friends.

Today’s lesson comes from Romans 13 and Ephesians 6:1.

Who are the people in charge of you? (mom and dad? grandma? someone else?) What about at school? What about at church or other activities (gymnastics, soccer etc).

The Bible tells us that God puts people in charge of us to help take care of us and to guide us. And we need to respect them and obey them.

The people who love you the most (your mom and dad) make rules for you because they want you to be safe and they want to help you grow into a great person!

The Bible tells us to listen and give honor to our President, our teachers, our mom and dad. Ephesians 6:1 says “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

(If you have little ones, this is good time to stop and talk about how you can obey…or to review some of the rules of your house. You might even make a family rule list if you haven’t.)

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If you have older kids, you can also discuss about when NOT to obey an adult. If a grown up ever asks you to do something you know is wrong or that would make God sad…then you don’t have to obey. Like Daniel’s friends who would’t bow down to the idol. Even though they had a negative consequence for disobeying…they honored God and that is the most important thing…AND He turned that into something GREAT for His glory. Also, the disciples healed people on the Sabbath and the leaders didn’t like it, but Jesus said they had to obey God above man.

(This can also turn into a spin off of discussing tricky people and “stranger danger” if you haven’t yet discussed those issues with your kids, or as a reminder if you have.)

It’s important to obey the people we know love us and know God has put in our lives to help us grow, but if a grown up ever asks you to do something you are not sure about or know is wrong, then find your mom or dad, or ask another grown up for help.

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Veggie tales has a story called Pistachio (like Pinocchio) about obeying. I couldn’t find the whole episode available online. But you could certainly rent it from amazon or netflix.

Also there is this song by Steve Green.

All for today. We have two lessons left and then we’ll be starting over in Genesis in July. Thanks! Love to you all!

Overcome Evil with Good

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello friends.

Today’s lesson comes from 1 Peter 3:9 and Romans 12:17-21.

What do you do if someone is mean to you? Should you be mean back to them? What if they say bad words? Should you shout or say something even worse back to them?

No…the Bible tells us we can overcome bad things, by doing good. Paul and Peter both wrote about this saying “don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with the good.”

Have you ever heard anyone say “two wrongs don’t make a right?” That means, if you do something mean because someone else did something mean, it won’t fix anything. The only way to fix a problem, is to step up and do the right thing…even if other people aren’t making good choices.

In Romans it says, if our enemies are hungry, we should feed them. If they are thirsty, we should give them something to drink. We can be loving even if other people aren’t loving towards us.

Is that hard to do sometimes? Yes…i think so. But when we follow God’s word, it makes us more like Him and makes Him happy. The people making bad choices might even feel a little happy and may start making good choices. But…the Bible says we don’t have to worry about their choices..we have to only worry about making good choices that honor God and one great way to do that is to overcome evil with good.

For our craft today, we took a paper plate and drew an angry face on one side, and a happy face on the other side. We wrote “Don’t be overcome by evil” on the angry side, “but overcome evil with good” on the happy side. Then our kids took turns being the angry guy and the “good choices” guy.