luke

Transfiguration/Jesus shows His glory

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9.

This is the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. That’s a BIG word, isn’t it?! It means Jesus’ figure transformed. His body changed.

 

Jesus and some of His disciples (Peter, James, and John) went out to a mountain one day and He asked them to pray for Him. Then He went further up the mountain and all of a sudden He was BRIGHT WHITE! The brightest white they had ever seen! He was glowing like a flash of lightning! Then, the disciples saw Elijah and Moses with Him and they were all talking together about what Jesus was about to do in Jersulam. (die on the cross for our sins)

**(Moses represents the law by which all people know they are sinners and need a Savior; and Elijah represents the prophets who told about a Messiah who would come. These two men show that the entire old testament is true and pointing to Jesus as that chosen Messiah/Savior.)

Peter said, “Let us make some shelters for you all!” (He was excited and wanted them to stay).

But then a big cloud came and the disciples got scared. God said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him.” The disciples fell down and covered their faces…but then Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid…get up.” And when they peeked open their eyes…it was only Jesus. (Elijah, Moses and the cloud were all gone). Just regular human Jesus.

 

The disciples had seen Jesus as God’s son…shining in His glory. They heard God’s voice, they saw the law and the prophets…all three pointing to Jesus. Jesus changed His appearance from a regular man, to that of the Son of God to show His disciples (and us) that He IS the chosen one of God, sent to save us.

 

 

We did two activities today. First, we took a piece of black paper and folded in the sides. Then we cut out a basic shape–three men on a hill.

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Then we glued a piece of white tissue paper to the back

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Then we turned it around, and drew faces on the white tissue paper, turned off all the lights and used a flashlight from behind to illuminate the three men.

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Our next project was to cut out the 3 men and a cloud and glue them together. Then we added glitter all over.

 

Our text reads: Jesus shows His glory! Matt 17, Mark 9, Luke 9

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Zacchaeus

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey all.

This month we are learning stories from Jesus’ life. The next two months will be His teachings and miracles. As always, these stories are intended for the 3-8 year old range, but can be adapted/expanded as needed.

Today’s story is from Luke 19.

This story is about a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus lived in Jericho and Jesus was traveling around teaching the people about God. He came to Jericho and by now a lot of people knew about Jesus and wanted to see Him. Zacchaeus did too. He was a tax collector (and do you remember from our story about Matthew how the people felt about tax collectors? It wasn’t good.)

Now Zacchaeus was a very short man, and he tried and tried to see Jesus, but couldn’t see over the crowd, so he decided to climb up into a big sycamore tree so he could see Jesus.

Well, when Jesus came by, He looked into the tree and said, “Zacchaeus, get down…I’m going to come to your house.”

Zacchaeus was very excited about this! He hurried from the tree and took Jesus to his house. The people all said, “Jesus is going to go to THIS guy’s house? He is NOT a nice guy…why would Jesus eat and hang out with HIM?!”

But Jesus reminded them that He came to “seek and save the lost.” Jesus WANTED to be with the people who needed Him most. Zacchaeus promised to do the right thing and share everything he had with other people. When Jesus showed Zacchaeus that He loved him, Zacchaeus responded just the way God wants us to. When we realize how much God loves us, we can serve God and be loving to other people.

For our craft today, we cut out rectangles from brown construction paper, a cloud shape out of green paper and made a tree, then cut out a triangle and circle to be Zacchaeus then the kids drew on a face. Our text reads: Luke 19, Zacchaeus finds Jesus!

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Let the children come

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Luke 18.

Jesus was going around teaching and lots of people would bring their babies and children to see Jesus so He could touch them, heal them or bless them. Lots of children would surround Jesus and the big important leaders would say “No no, go away…don’t bother Jesus.”

But Jesus said, “No! Let the children come to me! The kingdom of God belongs to them!”

Sometimes grown ups forget what’s really important. Remember yesterday how Martha was too busy to spend time with Jesus? But He said THAT’s the most important thing? Sometimes kids are better than grown ups at remembering what’s really important. These children wanted to BE with Jesus! And the grown ups thought Jesus was too busy and important. But Jesus is NEVER too busy for us… even kids! And just because you’re small doesn’t mean God is too big for you. He loves you. He has big plans for you. And you don’t have to be a grown up to love God or do BIG things for Him.

Sometimes it’s hard for grown ups to slow down and trust God with all their hearts…you can help remind them that God made us, He loves us, He died for us and He is always with us.

You may be small, but you can have a BIG love for God. He has a BIG love for you!

For our craft today we cut out some arms and glued on some pictures of kids (we cut out of magazines…you could also glue YOUR child’s picture on). Our text reads: “Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me!’ Matt 19, Mark 10, Luke 18”

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Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Mary and Martha

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back!

This month we are covering stories about Jesus’ life. (The following months will be His teachings and His miracles).

Today’s story comes from the book of Luke, chapter 10:38-42.

Jesus was traveling around and teaching all the people. In one town, a woman named Martha opened her home to Him (and He probably had a group of people with Him too.) Have you ever had company at your house? You have to clean and get snacks and your mom probably goes a little bit crazy making sure everything looks just right. Well, Martha was very busy making sure everything looked good and that everyone had what they needed.

Martha had a sister named Mary. (Not Jesus’ mommy, a DIFFERENT Mary.) And she sat by Jesus and listened to all He had to say.

This made Martha angry. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

But Jesus surprised her. He said, “you are worried and upset about a lot of things…but there’s really only ONE important thing…and that’s Me. Mary has chosen better, and I won’t take that away from her.”

Jesus told Martha that she was too worried and too busy and that really HE is the only important thing. Spending time with Jesus was MUCH more important than being busy and making things perfect.

Sometimes we get busy too. We worry and try to make everything just right. But God tells us to “Be still. And KNOW God.” We can spend time with Jesus by reading our Bible and praying…talking to Him.

We need to make sure we aren’t too busy for God. Being with Him is the MOST important thing. How about if you take some time RIGHT NOW to pray and talk to God.

**for older kids and grownups…sometimes we get too busy doing “church stuff” or even helping in projects and doing GOOD that we forget about God or others. We are so busy doing GOOD things, that we miss out on the BEST thing, loving God and His people. Spend TIME with the people you love, the people GOD loves and God Himself.

 

We drew pictures today to help us remember the story. (Jesus in the middle, Mary at His feet and angry Martha.) Our text reads:

 

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

 

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

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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 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!

Jesus in the temple

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again!

This month we are learning about Jesus’ life (next 2 months will be His miracles and His teaching.)

The Bible doesn’t say much about Jesus when He was growing up, but there is one story which can be found in Luke 2.

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Every year, all the Israelites would travel to Jerusalem to the temple (the one big church for God.) They would celebrate Passover (when they remembered God leading the people out of Egypt and the angel of God PASSED OVER the houses of the people who obeyed God.)

At your church, you may go to a sunday school class while mom and dad go to “big church” or “grown up church” or the main sanctuary.

Well when Jesus was 12 years old, Mary and Joseph told Him He was big enough to go “big church” with them and celebrate the Passover.

Joseph, Mary and Jesus traveled from their home with their whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins…probably a LOT of people on this trip). So when it was time to go home, Mary and Joseph assumed Jesus was with them. (And they were probably looking after Jesus’ smaller brothers and sisters). So no one noticed that Jesus WASN’T with them.

Not long after they headed home, Mary looked around and said, “Where’s Jesus?”

They looked, but couldn’t find Him. So they went back to Jerusalem and 3 days later!!! they found Him in the temple.

Jesus was talking with the leaders and they were very impressed with how much He knew about God and how well He knew God’s heart. (We know that’s because He’s God’s son! But they didn’t know that yet.)

When Mary found Jesus she said, “What do you think you’re doing?! We;ve been so worried?!”

And Jesus answered, “Didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?”

Jesus called the temple His FATHER’S house. (It is God’s house and Jesus is His son.) Mary was confused and told Jesus it was time to go.

The Bible says Mary thought about all these things on the way home…about how it was Jesus’ Father’s house and how He had to be there. Jesus DID need to be in the temple listening and even teaching others about God, but He also knew the importance of obeying His mom.

The next stories about Jesus’ life are after He’s a grown up. And we’ll learn more about that tomorrow.

 

**Update:

This year we made a craft. We cut out a basic “temple” shape and also a square of a different color paper. We drew Jesus on the square and glued it to a big piece of paper. Then we cut out the temple shape and starting from the middle of the bottom, cut a letter T into the paper. This created two flaps to be doors. We then glued the temple over the square so we could open the temple doors and find Jesus.

THIS VIDEO from Saddleback kids tells today’s story.

THIS is another video posted by Teaching Kids about Jesus that tells this Bible story.

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

 

Jesus grew!

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back!

Today’s story is from Luke 2:52.

Do you know what the Bible says about Jesus when He was a kid?

 

Not much. :0)

 

After He was a baby, the Bible doesn’t say much about Jesus until He is 12 and then nothing again until He is a grownup.

I think that’s because there’s nothing too extraordinary to tell. Jesus was a regular kid, just like you! He played with His brothers and sisters. He helped His mom and wrestled with His dad. He went to school, He did His chores, He had friends. He ate dinner, learned to use the potty, and spoke silly baby gibberish until He learned how to talk.

Jesus was God’s son, but He was also a regular kid, just like you!

The Bible DOES tell us in Luke 2:52 that “Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and men.”

That means Jesus learned things, He got bigger and taller, and He made good choices that made God happy and people started to respect Him. As you grow up, YOU will learn things, and YOU will get bigger and stronger, and if you listen to your mom and dad, YOU will make good choices and learn to love God.

Jesus came for a very very special reason, but He was also a regular boy!

For our craft today, we made a growing Jesus. We cut out a circle head, triangle body and some little feet and rectangle arms. We glued the head on top of the triangle and the arms on the sides and the feet on the widest part of the triangle. We folded up the triangle like a fan. Then, the kids could scrunch Him up, and stretch Him out to see Him grow. Lastly, we wrote out Luke 2:52 at the bottom.

 

 

There is also this video of a song from Steve Green. (It’s a little old school, but still a great song to help kids remember our story/verse from today)

 

**Alternate craft: This year we did a similar but new craft where we cut out Jesus’ head and body and gave him stretchy arms and legs.

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We also found THIS VIDEO from Saddleback kids.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!