Advent-Day 4-Noah

December 4, 2015December 5, 2018 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back!

This month we are learning about God, God’s Jesus and His earthly family.

The next person in Jesus’ family tree is Noah.

For our complete lesson on Noah see here. (this story below will be a more abbreviated version)

After Adam and Eve had sinned, they had to be apart from God. Well everybody after them sinned too. And finally God was so sad with everyone disobeying Him that He said everyone and everything would be washed away in a big storm…everyone EXCEPT a man named Noah and his family (because they tried to love and obey God.) (Gen 6:9-22, 7:17-24, 8) They were also to save a mommy and a daddy of every kind of animal.

God spoke to Noah and told him to build a boat, called an ark. Noah and his family and the animals would all be on the boat during the big storm. Noah obeyed God and trusted Him. And God was faithful (that means He kept His promise) and the rain came down for 40 days and 40 nights. And everyone and everything was washed away. After the flood, God promised to never again destroy the earth with water and as a sign of His promise, He put a (do you remember?) a rainbow in the sky! God kept His promise to destroy everything and His promise to save Noah, his family and the animals on the ark. God is always faithful to keep His promises to us. (Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 36:5)

Now when we think about the story of when Jesus was born, we can think again about God’s faithfulness. (Luke 1) After God put a baby (baby Jesus) in Mary’s tummy an angel came and spoke to her. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. God is very happy with you, Mary, and He has chosen you to be baby Jesus’ mommy!”

Mary was surprised and confused, but she said, “Ok. I am God’s servant. I believe. Let it be so.” Mary knew she could trust God.

Bible story: Noah

Attribute of God: Faithfulness

Jesus’ birth story: Mary accepts God’s gift

Craft:

For the 1st side of our ornament today we made a rainbow and filled it in with tissue paper.

Our text reads: Noah obeyed God. God is faithful. Gen 6:9-22, 7:17-24, 8

Deut 7:9, Psalm 36:5

The other side of our ornament is a purple circle with a cut out of Mary bowing and then we gave her a face.

Our text reads: Mary obeys God with a happy heart. Luke 1

Then again, we taped a string on one half and then glued them together to make our ornament.

(Our ornaments on our “family Christmas tree”…on the left is the Bible story side and on the right is all the Jesus’ birth story sides).

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

2018 update: This year we changed the Mary form to a glittery heart and we opted for do-a-dots instead of tissue paper for the rainbow.

Advent-Day 3-Fall of Man

December 2, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. This month we are celebrating Jesus’ birth with an advent countdown where we learn about God, baby Jesus and His family.

So after God created the heavens and the earth, He made man. A man named Adam and He gave him a wife named Eve. (For the complete story and lesson see here).

Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit He told them not to. (Gen 3:1-19) That was the first sin (bad choice/disobeying God). When they sinned, there was a consequence. Because God is perfect and their choice was not, they could no longer stay with God and live forever. From then on, all people would make bad choices and sin, and be apart from God. We all NEED someone who can take the consequence for us, so we can be right with God again.

God sent Jesus to be our salvation, the One who would save us from our sins. Sin came into the world from one man (Adam) and sin would be taken care of by another man (God’s son Jesus). (Romans 5:12-19)

When it was time to send Jesus to earth, God put a baby in Mary’s tummy. Mary was going to get married soon to a man named Joseph, but they weren’t married yet. When she told him she had a baby in her belly he was VERY surprised. “You can’t have a baby in your belly? We aren’t married yet?!” He thought maybe Mary had been sneaky and married someone else and had a baby with them! He was ready to walk away and not get married. Joseph and Mary would have been separated forever just like our sin separates us from God. (It’s a good thing that’s not the end of the story!)

Bible story: Fall of man

Attribute of God: Savior

Birth Story: Joseph Questions

Craft:

For our ornament today, we will start with Bible side. We cut out a black circle and a white circle from construction paper. Then we cut the white paper in half and glued it on the black (so our circle was half black/half white). Then we cut out 2 halves of trees, one black, one white and glued them on the opposite color 1/2 circle. (So black on white and white on black)

Our text reads: Fall of man Gen 3:1-19, Rom 5:12-19

For the other side, we cut out another white circle and a question mark.

Our text reads: Joseph questioned, “How can this be?” Luke 1 (BUT it SHOULD be Matthew 1)

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Advent Day 2-Creation

December 2, 2015December 5, 2018 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello all!

Today is Day 2.

This month we are learning about God, Jesus and His family.

The first thing was God. God was. He always was. And then, He created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 66:2, Nehemiah 9:6). God made everything! People, plants, animals, the stars, everything. He is a Creator. A creator is somebody who makes things. Do you like to create things? God LOVES to create things. His favorite thing He ever created was us, people. (Gen 1:26, 1 Peter 1:12). God loves us so so so so much! (John 3:16)

The first part of Jesus’ birth story begins the same way. God made baby Jesus and put Him in his mommy’s tummy. (Luke 1) Jesus is God’s son and God made Jesus for a special reason. (To later die for the sins of all people which we will discuss more as the advent calendar continues). God created the heavens, the earth, and a very special baby who is God’s Holy, perfect son, but He was also a regular baby boy. (Hebrews 2:14-17)

Bible story: creation

Attribute of God: Creator

Part of Jesus’ story: Jesus was created in His mommy’s tummy

Craft: (as a preface, I like to have my kids do as much of the craft as possible, so they will all look very hand-made and unprofessional)

We made our first ornament today. This ornament is two-sided (as they each will be). To make side one, we cut out a circle from blue construction paper and then ripped up pieces of green paper and glued them on to make an earth.

Ours reads: Day 2: God created the heavens and the earth. Gen 1:1, Neh 9:6

For the other side, we cut out a similar-sized circle from pink construction paper and then a pear shaped baby and gave him a face (who unfortunately sort of resembles the Planters peanut guy–oops). And then we put little baby Jesus into the pink tummy.

This side reads: God created a baby in Mary’s tummy. Luke 2

Lastly, we taped a piece of string onto the back of the blue circle, then glued the two circles together to make an “ornament” to tape to our tree.

Thanks for joining us. We’ll have more tomorrow. Love to you all!

2018 update: This year we have four kids, so we are making two ornaments each day. We will hang both, one with the old testament story side out and the other with the nativity story facing out. You can have each child make one front and back, or have all your kids work together on one, or split them like we did. Whatever works for your family…just be sure to leave yourself enough room on your tree to fit all of them!

Advent Day 1-Tree

December 1, 2015December 5, 2018 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Welcome to the official launch of this year’s advent calendar. (Each day will be a small devotion to share with your kids that includes a Bible story, a part of Jesus’ birth story, an attribute of God, and a craft.)

This month we will be studying about Jesus and His family. We will learn about some of the people that came before Jesus, but also, did you know that WE are part of Jesus’ family too?! The Bible says that if we love God and obey Him, then we are God’s children! (2 Corinthians 6:18) God is our Father!

And that makes Jesus our brother! Jesus said anyone who loves God and obeys Him is Jesus’ brother! (Matthew 12:48-50).

So sometimes when people talk about families, they say families are like a tree. The parents are the roots and then they have kids (like branches) and then those people have kids (more branches) and then THEY have kids (even more branches!) (Isaiah 11 talks about Jesus’ family and how He would be part of a family tree).

So this month, while we talk about God and baby Jesus and His family, we will make ornaments for a family Christmas tree.

Part of Jesus’ story: Jesus had an earthly family…parents and grandparents before Him

Attribute of God: God is Jesus’ Father and ours too if we love and obey Him

Craft: Today, I took 4 pieces of regular construction paper and drew 3 lines on each. Then the kids cut on the lines (to make strips of paper). We taped the strips together and assembled them to make a tree.

(If you don’t want to make whole tree to hang on your wall, you can just use your family’s regular Christmas tree as an example and put your ornament each day on that.)

Then we made the stump from brown construction paper and taped that on also.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

2018 update: This year because our kids are bigger we added Isaiah 11 to the trunk of the tree.

Advent 2015

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back, all! As we are entering the month of December, we are preparing to begin our month of advent, or eagerly awaiting the Lord. Of course now He is here! So we will review this month the stories of the old testament, our need for a savior, the attributes of God and of course, the story of His earthly birth.

Each day will have an old testament story, an attribute of God and a snippet of the birth story that all correlate, along with a craft/ornament. We will assemble all of our ornaments onto one big tree. I will post our study each day, but below is the general outline. I hope you’ll join us this month. (This year will look a bit different, but i will include a couple of pictures from last year’s advent calendar of Bible stories we made.)

You can download a printable excel version here:

advent

Or PDF

advent

Looking forward to December. Love to you all!

Psalms of Thanksgiving

November 17, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Today we are talking about the book of Psalms. A Psalm (sawlm) is a song.

There is a whole book of the Bible just of songs! Most of them were written by King David (David and Goliath, King of Israel), but some were written by other people.

Mostly the songs are either asking God for help, or thanking God for all He’s done for us.

Did you know you can sing songs to God when you are sad or happy? Even when you are mad or confused!

In America, we have a holiday called Thanksgiving coming up, and it’s where we spend the whole day being thankful for all God has given us. ‘

There are MANY psalms about being thankful to God.

One that is really good for kids is Psalm 100.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.”

For the month of November, we collected some sticks from our yard and each day we write on a leaf something we are thankful for. Then we tape them to the sticks so by the end of the month, we have a very full thankful tree. (So it’s currently about 1/2 full). *side note, young kids may need a bit of direction like “what is your favorite food? favorite animal? favorite place to go?” (or else each day they will say they are thankful for the carpet, and the ceiling, or they will say mommy every single day…not that that’s so bad hehe)

Also for Psalm 100 we used some toy instruments and made music for God. This week we made some homemade microphones. Taking a plastic cup, I cut a strip of white paper and taped it around the cup so the kids could decorate it how they wanted. Then we wrote “Make a joyful noise to the Lord” on the cup. Next, I used some scissors and stabbed a hole in the bottom of the cup and the kids could sing through the hole and the cup acted as a megaphone.

Lastly, could your family make up a song of thanks to God? You can use the “abcs” tune or anything you want, and just thank God for all He’s given and done for you!

Thanks for joining us today. 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!

Up up up!

June 18, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again!

Today’s lesson comes from Romans 14 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

One of the things God had Paul write to the Romans was to “stop fussing!” Does you mom ever tell you that?

The Bible tells us some things HAVE to be a certain way. God said “believe this or do exactly this!” but sometimes God says “that’s up to you.”

In Paul’s letter, the people were arguing about who loved God more because some people said “I eat whatever I want, God said so!” And other people said “I only eat THIS food and that makes God happier than what YOU eat!” Paul said “stop it! God doesn’t care WHAT you eat…He cares about what’s in your heart!”

Sometimes even today different Christians argue about what to wear to church, or what kind of music to sing to God. God says those are some of the things that are up to us. If we are dressing and singing to praise Him, then that makes Him happy!

Instead of fighting…we need to encourage each other and build each other up! We can use nice words and kind actions to help other people grow closer to God.

Remember that God wants us all to work together like one big body? We can’t do that if we’re fussing over all the small things. When God says “do it THIS way” then we need to obey. But if God doesn’t say exactly how He wants it done, then we can all do things a little differently…as long as we have hearts that are trying to make God happy.

We didn’t do a craft today…but I did find this song:

Thanks! Love to you all!

True Beauty

June 16, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello friends.

Today we will be learning about true beauty (what makes us beautiful). Who do you think is beautiful? What makes them beautiful?

The disciple Peter wrote a letter and one of the thing he said (1 Peter 3:3-4) is that what makes us beautiful isn’t what we wear, how we do our hair or if we wear jewelry. What really makes us beautiful is having a gentle and quiet spirit. A heart filled with love. It’s ok to dress handsomely, or wear jewelry or makeup if you want…but REAL beauty comes from WHO you are, not HOW you look.

In 1 Samuel 16, God told Samuel not to look at peoples’ outward appearance…because what God really looks at is what is in someone’s heart. People always care what other people look like. God says that doesn’t matter. What matters is what is in a person’s heart.

What makes someone’s heart beautiful? Someone who is loving and giving and joyful. Do you know anyone with a beautiful heart? With a gentle and kind spirit?

For our craft today I drew each of my kids and then they drew a big heart and we decorated the heart with beautiful confetti to remember it’s what in our hearts that makes us beautiful.

Thanks for for joining us today, love to you all!

Servanthood

June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello. Today’s lesson about living a Godly life is all about servant hood. A servant is someone who takes care of another person. They work for that person.

The Bible tells us in the book of Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus came not as a very important puffed up famous person…but as a servant…to do what God wanted and to help others. He even obeyed God and served us to the point of death on the cross.

We should also be willing to obey God and serve others. The world does not need more important famous people…it needs people like Jesus who will serve and help others.

Jesus told a lesson in Luke 14. He said, when you go to a party, don’t pick the most important seat…because the person in charge might tell you you don’t belong there…instead…you should be humble. Then they might ask you to move to an important seat. Being humble means knowing you are not the most important. Being humble also means serving others and putting their needs before yours.

When we humble ourselves (or think of what other people are feeling or might need) then we are acting like God.

In Matthew 20, Jesus said “the first will be last and the last will be first.” That means whoever thinks he is very important, when he gets to heaven with God will be the least. And whoever is humble here and serving others…when he gets to heaven, he will be honored by God.

We told the story of the party using some of our toys. And we took turns sitting in what we called “the most important seat.” Then we took turns having the characters instead ask “how can I help you? How can I help you?”

What are some ways you can think about other people? How can you serve others?