luke

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!

The Golden Rule

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Hi all! Welcome to March! This month we will be learning about the things Jesus taught us and later in the month, Easter.

 

Today’s story comes from Luke 6: 27-36. (Also found in Matthew 7)

Jesus was teaching one day and He told the people something very important. He said “Love your enemies, and be nice to people, even if they are not nice to you. If someone is mean to you, pray for them. If someone hurts you, don’t hurt them back. If anyone asks you for something and you have it, then give it to them.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

This is called the “golden rule.”

Jesus said “It’s easy to love people who are nice to you…everybody can do that!?  But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Merciful means forgiving or compassionate).

God always forgives us and gives us good things…even if we make bad choices and sin, He still forgives us and still loves us. And that’s how we should be with other people. If they are mean to us or hurt us, we can pray for them and forgive them.

We can treat people the way we want to be treated. Does that mean if you are nice, everyone else will be too?

No…probably not. Sometimes even if you are very very nice, other people will still make bad choices. But that’s when we remember ALL that God has given us and done for us and how much He loves us…then we can show that same kind of love to other people.

For our craft today we made hats to wear around to help memorize our verse of the day.

We cut a circle out of paper plates and wrote the verse on a heart which we taped to the hat. (If you have a pipe cleaner you should probably tape that on the back of the heart and onto the hat. We didn’t and it made out hearts very floppy).

Our text reads: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31

 

This video is from Steve Green’s “Hide ’em in your heart Vol 1.”

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

Ten Lepers Healed

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus performed. A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen because God can do ANYTHING!

Our story for today comes from Luke 17:11-19.

One day as Jesus was traveling, ten men with leprosy heard Jesus was coming. Remember that’s where your skin is really yucky and ouchy. The people with leprosy had to live away from everyone else so they wouldn’t get other people sick. They couldn’t see their family or friends. IF they got better, they had to go the temple (the church) and show the priests who would decide if they were better and could come back or not.

So ten men with leprosy met Jesus on the road. They stood back from Him and yelled, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When He saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” (They were still sick, but Jesus had a plan!) They obeyed Jesus and as they went, they were cleaned…as they walked with each step, their skin got better and better.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God. This man was a Samaritan (he was not an Israelite, one of God’s “chosen people.” But he was still so thankful and he believed in God’s power.) “Woohoo! I’m better! I’m better! Praise God!” he cried!

He fell down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine? Has no one else returned to give praise to God except this man? He’s not even an Israelite!” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Jesus came not just for the Israelites, but for ALL people. Jesus came to love and heal and save the hearts of EVERYONE. Isn’t it funny that the people who were SUPPOSED to be some of God’s “chosen people” did not even say thank you?

Sometimes we can take God for granted. That means even though we know God does amazing things and loves us so so so so much, we forget or we get used to how wonderful God is and we stop say “thank you!” We know God loves us and that He takes care of us. It’s important to give thanks to God for all He is, for all He has done for us and for all He gives us.

For our activity today, we made a list of lots of things we are thankful for.

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What are YOU thankful for today? How has God been good to you?

We found this video from the Bibletoons series posted by Dan Huffman. (It’s a really cute stick figure retelling of the story.)

This video is a lego version of the story posted by PowerSurgeKids.

And lastly, this video from Sabbath School is a really great, thorough overview of the story.

 

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

 

 

Jesus heals on the Sabbath

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus performed. A  miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen, because God can do anything!

Today’s story comes from the Bible in Luke 13:10-17

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When God created the world, He took 6 days to make everything, and then on the 7th day, He rested. He didn’t work…He just enjoyed what He had made. This was an example to us. God wants us to set some time apart to just enjoy what He has made. He knows our bodies get tired and need a break. So one day a week we take a break and just enjoy what God has made and spend time with Him. Usually where we live, this happens on Sunday. We don’t go to school or work, we go to church to be with God and we rest.

In Jesus’ day this day (called the Sabbath) happened on Saturday. The people were to rest.

Well, one Sabbath day Jesus was teaching (like your pastor does at your church on Sunday) and there was a woman there who had been crippled for a VERY long time. That meant her back was all hunched over and she couldn’t move very well. When Jesus saw her, He said, “Woman! You are all better!” He put His hands on her and right away, she was able to straighten her back, stand up and she was all better!

The leaders of the church (the Pharisees and some others), were very upset that Jesus had done this on the resting day. “You should only do work on the other 6 days. God said so!” they grumbled.

But Jesus answered. “Are you kidding me?! Don’t you still feed your animals on the Sabbath? You give them water? Isn’t it MUCH MORE important that this woman should be made better?!”

Another day when Jesus had made a man better on the Sabbath (Luke 6) He told the people, “I am Lord of the Sabbath and people are much more important than animals! It is ok to help people and do good on the Sabbath.”

The leaders were ashamed. They were trying to get Jesus in trouble by pointing out that He was not following the law but no matter how hard the leaders tried to trick Jesus, they never could (because who can ever trick God?!)

But Jesus was saying, it’s good to have a day of rest. God knows we need rest. But it’s more important to follow God’s heart, which is to help others…even if that happens on the Sabbath.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

 

Jesus heals a demon-possessed man

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus did! A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen…but God makes it happen because God can do ANYTHING!

Today’s story comes from Luke 8: 26-39.

Jesus and His disciples sailed to a new place and when Jesus got off the boat and onto the land, a man came towards him. This man had a demon living in his heart. Do you remember that the angels are God’s helpers and they love and worship Him? Well…some of the angels decided NOT to follow God, and they are called demons.

When we love God and ask Him to be our leader and we believe that He died for our sins, then He gives us His spirit to live in our hearts. If we do not have God’s spirit in our hearts, sometimes other things can be in control of us…like a bad angel, a demon. This man had a bad demon living in his heart, making him do terrible things. He was angry and did dangerous things and the people in the town tried to tie him down and chain him up, but he always broke away and he was finally living in a cave, naked and alone.

Jesus told the demon to come out of the man. When he saw Jesus, he yelled and fell down in front of Jesus’ feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” (Because the demons are angels, they KNOW God, and they know He is much more powerful than they are. They even know Jesus! And that He’s God’s son and that He has God’s power too! So this demon was very scared of what Jesus might do to Him.)

Jesus said, “What is you name?”

And the man said “Legion” which means a lot…because a LOT of different bad demons had taken over the man’s heart.

The demons begged Jesus over and over not to send them to hell. A large group of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he said ok. So the demons came out of the man, and went into the pigs. Then all the pigs ran into the lake and died.

The people in charge of the pigs went and told everyone what had happened and then they all came to Jesus and found the man sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed in clothes and acting perfectly normal and they were afraid. They didn’t know WHAT kind of person could tell demons what to do?! They were scared of how powerful Jesus was and they asked Him to leave!

The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Jesus, but Jesus said, “Go back home and tell everyone how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him!

There are still bad angels who try to do bad things and keep people away from God, but when we love God and He lives in our hearts, then nothing can stand against us. (Romans 8:31-39, James 2:19, Col 2:15, Col 1:13, Phil 2:5-11)

 

There is NOTHING that God does not control. EVERY single thing that has ever been or will ever be is under God’s command. There is NOTHING God can not do.

 

For our craft today, we drew the man and Jesus and added a lake and some pigs to help remember this story and Jesus’ power over ALL things.

Our text reads: Jesus healed the demon-possessed man. Luke 8:26-39.

 

We found this song posted by Group’s Easy VBS Media.

Also, there is God of Angel Armies by Chris Tomlin.

 

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

A paralytic man healed

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story can be found in Matt 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5 of the Bible.

This is one of the miracles Jesus did. A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen, because God can do anything!

Jesus was very popular by now and one evening, He was teaching in a house and lots of sick people were coming to listen and so He could make them better.

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There was one man who couldn’t walk at all. His friends brought him on a bed…and tried to get in the house. “Excuse us…excuse me…can we get him to Jesus please? Excuse us!”

“There’s no room. You’ll never fit!”

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So the man’s friends came up with a new idea. They climbed up to the roof and lowered the man’s bed down into Jesus. What a surprise that must have been?!

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Do you know what Jesus said? He said, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Sins? They had come so their friend could walk again!

Some Pharisees were there too. If you remember, the Pharisees were some leaders in the church and they thought they were SOOOOO much better than everyone else…but they actually weren’t very good at loving people like they were supposed to. They knew LOTS ABOUT God, but they didn’t really love Him.

So they were thinking, “Sins? Only God can forgive sins (the bad things we do). Does this guy think He’s God?”

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Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that I have the power to forgive sins!” Then He said to the man, “Ok, get up, take your bed and go home.”

Right away, the man got up and he could walk! He was praising God all the way home!

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The friends KNEW Jesus could help the man, but they just thought He would heal his legs. Jesus really came to earth though to save our hearts. He can do ANYTHING (since He’s God’s son), so He could heal the man’s legs. But, MORE importantly, He could forgive any bad choices the man had ever made.

 

We found this video posted by RodTheNey. (The characters are a bit funky looking, but it does tell the story well.)

There is also this video posted by Sabbath School that emphasizes helping one another.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

 

Jesus feeds the 5000

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus did! A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen because God can do ANYTHING!

 

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6.

By now, Jesus was pretty popular and lots of people wanted to come listen to Him teach. One day, over 5000 people came to listen to Him. (Thats a LOT of people!) Jesus taught them all day about God, from breakfast until dinner time and by then, the people were HUNGRY!

The disciples (Jesus’ helpers) came to Jesus and said, “Um…you should probably let the people go home now…they’re pretty hungry.”

But Jesus said, “Find something for them to eat.”

“But Jesus?!” they answered. “We don’t have enough food for ALL these people?! And we can’t just buy food?! Do you know how much money it would take to buy food for ALL these people!?”

Andrew, one of the disciples said, “Jesus? We found a boy with some food. It’s only 2 small fish and 5 rolls of bread…but how we can share that with so many people?”

Jesus told all the people to sit down. He prayed to God and thanked Him for the food. Then He started taking the bread and fish, and He broke them into pieces and started handing them out to the disciples to give to the people. And the pieces kept coming…and coming…and coming…and soon EVERYONE had eaten! It was a miracle, Jesus made the food keep coming until everyone had enough AND they went and got the leftovers and they had 12 basketfuls left over!

**(12 is a common Biblical number, [e.g. the 12 tribes, the 12 disciples], and is often described as one of the “perfect” numbers of the Bible symbolizing completeness. The number 12 is often used when God’s power and authority are on display.)

Andrew knew Jesus could take care of the people’s hunger and WE know that Jesus will take care of our needs too. (1 Peter 5:7, Matt 6:25-34, Heb 4:16, Phil 4:6-8).

Jesus took care of the people and He will take care of us too!

For our craft today, we used do-a-dot markers to make a lot of faces, then we drew eyes, noses and mouths on the people. We cut out a basket from brown construction paper and glued pieces of yellow paper (bread) and goldfish crackers to the basket.

Our text reads: Jesus feeds the 5000. Mt 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, John 6

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Jesus calms the storm

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus performed! A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 8, Mark 4 and Luke 8.

 

Jesus and His disciples had had a busy day. There were a LOT of people who wanted to listen to Jesus teach. At the end of the day, He was very tired and said maybe they should all get in a boat and sail across to the other side of the lake for some peace and quiet.

Remember, several of Jesus’ disciples were fisherman, so they knew a LOT about sailing a boat. So they all got in, and soon Jesus fell asleep.

Before long, a big storm came. There was thunder and lightning and the boat was rocking and rocking and the waves were so big, they were crashing all over the boat. The disciples were even scared by the big storm and one of them woke Jesus up and said “Save us! Save us! We’re going to drown!”

Jesus got up, and said to the wind and waves, “STOP! Be still!” and do you know what happened?! The lightning stopped, the thunder stopped, the rain stopped, and the water was still again.

“Why were you so afraid?” Jesus asked the disciples. “Didn’t you believe I would keep you safe?”

The disciples’ mouths all hung open…”who IS this guy?!” they wondered. “Even the storm and water obey Him?! Wow!” (Even though the disciples loved Jesus and believed what He said, they didn’t REALLY understand His power as God’s son. They were always amazed by the things He would do. Sometimes even though we know God can do ANYTHING, it’s still pretty amazing when He does cool things!)

We know we can trust God too. When we feel scared, we can pray and ask Jesus to help us too!

For our craft today we took a piece of dark blue construction paper for the background. Then we ripped some light blue and black construction paper and glued it in layers on the bottom 1/2 of the page to be the waves.

We cut out a black cloud, a yellow lightning bolt and a brown boat and added those to our pictures.

Our text reads: Jesus calmed the storm. Matt 8, Mark 4, Luke 8IMG_1863IMG_1864

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

The soldier’s faith

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus did. A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen, because God can do ANYTHING!

Our story today is from Luke 7 and Matthew 8.

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Jesus was traveling around teaching people about God and doing amazing things. He came to a town called Capernaum and in that town, there lived a centurion (a soldier). He had a servant who was very very sick and about to die. The solider loved his servant and wanted him to get better. He knew Jesus could do it…but he was too nervous to ask, so he sent some of the leaders of the town to ask Jesus.

“Jesus, this soldier is a good man, a hard worker…he even helped build the church here! Will you please come and help his servant?”

Jesus agreed and they started towards the soldier’s house. The soldier knew Jesus was really important and he felt bad for using Jesus’ time. He came out of his house and said, “I don’t really deserve to have you visit me. I know you are great…and I’m just a regular guy. But I believe if you just SAY that my servant will be better…then I know he will be.”

Jesus was very impressed by the soldier’s belief and He said, “Everyone….listen to this man! His faith is great! Go home and your servant will be all better.” The man knew Jesus could just say the words and the servant would be better. He went back to his house and his servant WAS all better! He was humble (which means He knew Jesus was greater than him) and he believed that Jesus could do it.

Just one chapter before in Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Jesus heals a leper

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

This month we are studying the miracles of Jesus. Today’s story can be found in Luke 5 and Matthew 8.

Jesus was traveling around teaching and performing miracles. (Remember what a miracle is? A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but GOD makes it happen!)

One day as Jesus was walking, a man with leprosy came and fell down on the ground in front of Jesus. Leprosy is a kind of sickness in your skin. It was very ouchy, very GROSS, and many times very contagious (easy to make other people sick too!) People who had leprosy had to leave their family and friends and live outside the city (so they didn’t get anyone else’s skin sick.) If they thought they got all better, they could come back to the temple and the priest would say if they were all better or not. If they were, the priest would give an offering (like a special present) to God and then the person would be allowed to come live back in the city.

Well, this man fell before Jesus and said, “If you want to, I know you can make me all better.”

Know what Jesus said? He said, “I DO want to!” (It makes Jesus very happy when people believe in Him. I think the man’s faith made Jesus very happy.) Then He touched the man. A lot of people were probably surprised that Jesus touched the man since his skin was so sick and he could get Jesus sick too! But it didn’t make Jesus sick…instead…when Jesus touched the man, his leprosy went away right away…he was all better!!

Jesus told the man to go see the priests and give God the offerings he was supposed to…but He told the man to not tell anybody what had happened. (Because Jesus wasn’t ready for ALL the people who would come see Him when they heard about the cool stuff He could do.) But you know what? That man was SOOOO excited and thankful that Jesus helped him, that he couldn’t help it. He told LOTS of people what Jesus had done! And the people who had been watching told lots of people too! Everyone was so excited about Jesus being nice to the man and healing him.

When God does amazing in our lives, we should tell other people too! What an amazing God we serve. Our God can do ANYTHING!

For our craft today, we drew a face and then used do-a-dots (circle markers…but you could really use anything you wanted) to dot half of the man’s face. The other half we left clean. So 1/2 looks leprous and 1/2 looks clean.

Our text reads: Jesus healed a leper. Luke 5, Matt 8

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!