God Whispers To Elijah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is from 1 Kings 19.

After Elijah showed everyone God’s power (chapter 17/18), with the fire on the altar, the people were sorry for worshipping pretend gods (idols). BUT, the wicked queen, Queen Jezebel was NOT sorry. In fact, she was angry! She wanted to kill Elijah!

Elijah ran away and was ready to die! But God sent an angel to give Elijah food and then he felt better. He hid in a cave and God talked to him.

“What are you doing here?” God asked him. (God already knows why Elijah is hiding, but He likes to know what we are thinking, He likes when we talk to Him.

Elijah said, “I have been really good at telling the people your words. I have tried really hard to get rid of all the pretend gods…but the people who don’t like you are trying to kill me!”

God told Elijah to go stand outside the cave, because He was going to come by.

Now God is BIG! He can do ANYTHING! Elijah probably thought God was going to be big and bright and powerful! And soon, a great BIG wind came by (probably like a tornado) and it messed up all the rocks around the cave…but God was not there.

Then there was big earthquake…surely THIS was God, but no.

Then there was a fire! (Remember when God talked to Moses in the fiery bush?) But God was not in the fire this time.

After all those big, crazy things…there was a gentle wind and God whispered to Elijah.

He told Elijah to go back and pick a new king for Israel and to find a man named Elisha who would be Elijah’s helper and the next prophet. (Elisha could learn from Elijah how to be a good prophet and tell the people what God wanted them to know.)

Sometimes when we talk to God, He uses BIG things to show us how big and mighty He is. Sometimes, when we pray…if we are quiet, He will whisper to our hearts. Even though God is bigger than everything, and He can do ANYTHING, He is also close to us. He knows us, He loves us and He is close, living right in your heart if you ask Him to.

We practiced whispering silly things to each other today and talked about how God talks to us and that He loves when we talk to Him. IMG_8612

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Elijah Reminds the People to Follow God

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is from 1 Kings 17-18.

Recap: After Solomon, Rehoboam was made king over Israel, but only the people from one tribe (family), the tribe of Judah stayed loyal to Rehoboam. The rest of Israel followed Jeroboam. But nobody really obeyed God. They worshipped pretend gods and statues called idols, especially one they called Baal. There were more kings after Rehoboam and Jeroboam, but pretty much all of them were terrible and disobeyed God.

A few kings later, one of the kings of Israel was named Ahab. Ahab was especially bad. He and Queen Jezebel did terrible things. They even killed people who worshipped the real God. God was VERY unhappy that the people were disobeying and worshipping other pretend gods. Because the people had been disobeyed God so much, he made it not rain for 3 YEARS. Do you know what happens to food if it doesn’t rain? The food can’t grow. Food needs dirt and sunshine and water to grow. Without water, the people would have no food. But that was the bad consequence for their choice to disobey God.

But God had a prophet named Elijah. A prophet is someone who tells people what God wants them to know. God speaks to the prophet and the prophet talks to the people. Sometimes it’s good news, sometimes it’s bad news, sometimes it’s about something that will happen later.

Elijah was a prophet. The king had been chasing Elijah to kill him (since he was someone who worshipped the real God.) Elijah came to Ahab the king and said, “Bring the people of Israel and meet me at mount carmel.” When the people came, Elijah said, “God says ‘STOP IT!’ If you believe God is real, follow Him…if these pretend gods are real, follow them!”

The people didn’t know what to say.

So Elijah said, “Let’s have a contest. We will each get a pile of wood and put a dead animal on it as a present to our gods. We won’t set it on fire though. I will pray to my God and you will pray to Baal and your other gods and we’ll see who answers and gives us fire.”

The people liked this idea. So they got two piles of wood and they sacrificed (killed) two bulls and they put them on the  wood. (This was how they used to make offerings or gifts to God to show Him they love Him or to ask Him to forgive them if they did something wrong…when Jesus died on the cross for us, He became the biggest offering ever and we don’t have to do that anymore because Jesus did that once and for all for us.)

Elijah told the people to call to their pretend gods. They said, “Baal! Baal! Baaaaaaaaaaaal! Answer us! Please?! Baaaaaaaaal!” They did this ALL. MORNING. Elijah said, “Maybe he’s just sleeping? Yell louder!”

Of course it didn’t work! They just had pretend gods, statues and made up things….statues can’t make fire. Pretend gods can’t really hear us.

Then it was Elijah’s turn.  He added 12 big rocks to his pile (one for each tribe/family in Israel) and then he told them to put water all over everything. Do you know what water does to fire? (My kids said it “melts it”). Water puts OUT fire. But to prove that God can do ANYTHING, even make fire on water, Elijah told them 3 times to put water on everything. Then he prayed to God. “Let everybody here know that YOU are God of Israel. Answer me so these people will KNOW that YOU are God and so they will come back and worship you.”

Do you know what happened next? FIRE! Big FIRE came and burned up EVERYTHING, even the rocks and all the water! NOTHING is too hard for God.

The people were surprised and they suddenly knew all the bad choices they had been making. They felt so scared and so sorry. Then, the clouds started to come, and finally after 3 years of no rain, it started to rain again. Because the people realized who the REAL God is and realized what terrible things they had done and were sorry, God let it rain again. He ended their bad consequence.

For our activity today, we went outside and gathered a pile of sticks. We pretended the people were calling to Baal and the idols…no fire. Then we poured “water” (actually isopropyl alcohol, but looks like water) onto the pile three times. Then we pretended to be Elijah praying to the real God (and with a lighter), lit the pile on fire.

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Thanks for joining us today, Love to you all!

Israel Divided

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again!

Today we are continuing the stories of Israel’s history through the old testament. Today’s story comes from 1 Kings 12.

So King Solomon had done some great things for God, but also made some bad choices, and worshipped other pretend gods and set up statues and places to worship those pretend gods. God told him that because he had done this, that Israel would have bad consequences.

Solomon got old and died and his son Rehoboam became king over Israel.

The people of Israel had to work really hard when Solomon was king. They went to Rehoboam and said, “Please don’t make us work that hard! Can things be a little bit easier now?”

Rehoboam didn’t know what to say, so he told the people to come back in 3 days and he would think about it.

So he went to the old, smart leaders and said “What should i tell the people?”

The leaders responded, “Yes, if you are nice to them, they will love you forever and they will do good work for you.”

The Rehoboam asked his friends, “What should i do?”

They were young and not as smart and they said “No man, show them who’s boss! Make them work REALLY hard to prove YOU a powerful king.”

Well, Rehoboam liked the sound of that, so when the people came back he told them they would have to work TWICE as hard! The people were very angry. And just like God had said, that only one tribe (big family) would stay with Rehoboam and the rest would leave, that’s just what happened. The tribe of Judah stayed with  Rehoboam and the rest of Israel followed a new king, Jeroboam.

The people fought and fought. Rehoboam’s people and Jeroboam’s people fought a lot and God’s people were not living the life He had wanted for them. This promised land was supposed to be a great place where all God’s people could live together with him and worship Him at the temple. But Jeroboam decided the temple was too far so he built other places for the people to worship, and Rehoboam did too. God was not happy that the people were fighting and not listening to Him and soon they would have even more bad consequences.

Isn’t it crazy how the people could see all God had done for them and they still didn’t always obey Him? We do that sometimes too. We know God loves us and takes good care of us, and we don’t always obey Him. God promises to forgive us when we ask Him to, but there are still consequences for our choices.

Next time, we’ll see what else happens to Israel as a divided kingdom. Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Solomon Part 2

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! For lack of a better title, today we’ll be learning about King Solomon, part 2.

This is taken from 1 Kings 4-11.

King Solomon as you remember asked God for one thing: wisdom. So he could understand things and make good choices and be a good leader for Israel (God’s people).

God was happy with Solomon’s choice and He gave him great wisdom. The people were so impressed with all the things Solomon knew that many many people came to visit him and they brought lots of money and presents to Solomon.

Solomon built a big fancy palace (like a castle) for himself. He also built a house for God (called a temple). God told them exactly how to build it and it took TWENTY years to finish. Just like the big tent (tabernacle) God’s spirit had lived in, in the desert; this temple had a front part and a special back part where God’s spirit lived. The ark of covenant (the special box with the 10 commandments) was placed in the back special part and only the leader priest could go there once a year. Everybody else worshipped God in the front part of the temple. (Later, when Jesus died, all of the temple would be opened to EVERYONE!)

Solomon asked God to listen to the people if they made a mistake. He asked God to forgive them and bless them. God said He would. Now when we pray, the Bible says Jesus sits with God and He talks to God and asks God to forgive us and bless us. Jesus is our helper and friend.

God told Solomon that as long as he obeyed God, that Israel would do well and that someone from Solomon’s family would always be king.

But Solomon, like all people, made mistakes sometimes. Solomon had a lot of wives. And a lot of his wives worshipped other “gods” like statues or pictures of other pretend gods. Solomon let them worship these pretend gods and he even built some statues and some small places for them to worship. God was not happy. God is the only REAL God and Solomon and the other people should ONLY worship Him.

God told Solomon because he had disobeyed that Israel was in trouble. A small part of the country and some of the people would be ok, but most of it was going to be taken away.

When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king and we will learn more about what happens next tomorrow.

Solomon did some great things. He built a very fancy and strong house for God. He was very wise and gave Israel a lot of money and built a big palace. But he also made some bad choices and disobeyed God. And there were some bad consequences because he disobeyed.

For our craft today, we drew the palace, the temple and the idols to help us remember Solomon’s story.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

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King Solomon’s Wisdom

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! We took a break last week to move! Now we’re back.

Today’s story comes from 1 Kings 3. I did not do a craft today with the kids, but i did use some of our toys to tell this story (works better with some visuals i think).

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King David was getting old and almost ready to die. He told his son Solomon that he would be the next king. King David told Solomon to always obey God and do the right thing.

Some of Solomon’s brothers wanted to be king instead and even tried to fight him, but God made Solomon king.

Solomon tried to honor God and do the right thing. One night, while he was sleeping, God came to him in a dream and said, “If you could ask me for anything, what would you want?”

(If YOU could have ANYTHING what would YOU want?)

Do you know what Solomon said? He said he wanted wisdom. Wisdom is being able to understand things and make really good choices. A good king has to be wise to be a good leader for his people. He has to know how to help them and how to help them settle their fights when they are fussing.

God was so happy that Solomon had asked for wisdom and not something like money or a lot of toys. So God said, yes, Solomon WOULD be wise.

The people were so impressed with everything Solomon knew and how he could figure things out and help people.

One day, there were two mommies. They each had a new baby and they lived in the same house. When they went to bed, one of the babies died. That mommy went over to the other mommy and she switched the babies! So in the morning, the other mommy said, “oh no! my baby is dead! wait….this isn’t my baby? THAT one is my baby!”

But the first mommy said, “No! This is MY baby!”

They argued and argued and finally came to king Solomon who listened to their story. He had an idea. He called for a soldier with a sword to come. He told the soldier to cut the baby in half and give each mommy part of the baby. The real mommy could not, would not let them cut her baby into two pieces so she said, “NO! The other mommy can have him, just don’t hurt him!”

Solomon knew that THAT was the real mommy. A real mommy would never let anyone hurt her baby.

God was so pleased that Solomon wanted to do a good job and be a good king. The Bible tells us that when we ask God to help us make good choices, He will! He listens when we talk to Him and He wants us to help us do the right thing.

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

David and Bathsheba

~ hebidsthemcome ~ 1 Comment

Welcome friends!

Today’s story comes from 2 Samuel 11-12. I told today’s story using a handful of cotton balls and Barbies (a girl, 3 boys and 2 babies). You can use Barbies or any kind of creature you have at your house. But i think this story is best told with some visual aids as there are a lot of characters.

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Up until now, the Bible shows king David (male character 1) making some great choices. God chose him to be the new king over Israel. He was brave and strong and a man who loved God.

But even people who love God make mistakes sometimes…even BIG ones.

One time, David sent his fighting men out, but he stayed at his palace.

One evening he looked out and saw a woman (the girl character) taking a bath and he thought she was SO pretty. He sent someone to tell her to come to the palace. David’s servants told him she was married to a man named Uriah (male character 2), who was out fighting.

So the woman, Bathsheba went to meet David (because you DON’T tell the king NO) and he decided he liked her so much he wanted to marry her. This is not a good thing, because she was already married. So David told Joab, his top leader, to send Uriah out to fight in the very front (so the enemies would be able to kill him and then David could marry Bathsheba.) This was a terrible choice!? HE was TRYING to get Uriah to die so he could take his wife!

Uriah was a good soldier so he obeyed and went out to fight in front and he did die. Bathsheba was very sad because she loved her husband…and after a little while king David sent for Bathsheba to come be his wife and live at the palace with him.

God was NOT happy with David’s bad choice. And he was about to give David a very bad consequence.

God sent Nathan (male character 3), the priest (a worker in God’s church who spoke the words of God to His people) to tell David that God was not happy with him. It was probably scary to go before the king and tell him he was WRONG, but Nathan knew it was more important to tell his friend what God had to say than to be scared of what his friend might say.

Nathan came to David and told him a story. There were two men in a city. One had a LOT of money and a LOT of sheep (a big handful of cotton balls). The other man had just one sheep (one cotton ball). One day, a visitor came to town and was hungry. The rich man took the poor man’s one little sheep and killed it and cooked it and gave it to the hungry visitor. Now the rich man still had ALL his sheep and the poor man had NOTHING.

David did not like this story. “Who did such a terrible thing?! He must PAY for that sheep! How dare he!”

Nathan said, “YOU did that! You are the king! You could marry ANY woman in the whole kingdom, and you chose to take the wife of a good man and to have him killed. Now YOU must pay for your bad choice. God gave you everything! He chose you, He has protected you, helped you in battle. He has always been there for you, and now you have disobeyed and killed someone and taken his wife. You WILL have bad consequences for your bad choices.”

Now Bathsheba had a baby growing in her belly (baby character 1). It was going to be David’s son. But because David had done a very very bad thing, the baby died as his bad consequence. David said he was so so sorry and asked God to please forgive him. David was very sad, but he knew God was in charge.

Later, David and Bathsheba had another baby boy (baby character 2). They names him Solomon. He would grow up to be king after his father, David and he would be the one to build God a real temple (church).

We know that all people sin sometimes (that means disobey God). All of us, and every person in the Bible (except for Jesus) makes some good choices and some bad choices. If we ask God to forgive us, He ALWAYS will. He won’t stay mad at us and He will help us do better next time. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have bad consequences for our choices (like a punishment). David was called a “man after God’s heart” because even when he did make bad choices, he still knew God was in charge and that he could turn to God to help him and love him. When we sin, we can know that God will forgive us if we ask Him to, that He will help us do better next time (sometimes by letting us have a bad consequence) and that He will always love us.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

David and Mephibosheth

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all, welcome!

Today’s story comes from 2 Samuel 9.

When David became king after Saul died, most people thought he would kill the rest of Saul’s family (so everyone would KNOW HE was the real king).

But David remembered His promise to Saul’s son, Jonathan. David and Jonathan had been best friends and they had promised to always take care of each other and each others’ families.

So when David became king, he asked if there was anyone left from Saul and Jonathan’s family. And there was!

There was a man named Mephibosheth. (Meh-fib-oh-sheh-th). Mephibosheth had an accident when he was little and his legs were hurt and he couldn’t walk. When he came to David, he was probably pretty scared, but David took him in and welcomed him.

He said Mephibosheth could keep all of Saul’s land (instead of the king taking it). He also said his own servants would take care of the land for Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth would eat with the king and be like someone from David’s own family.

David didn’t always make good choices, but this was a very good choice. He took care of someone who needed help, he remembered his promises and he was kind and generous (which means giving good things). All of these things make God happy. We can also take share our things and take care of others. That way we can show God’s love to those around us.

For our craft we cut out David and Mephibosheth (in retrospect I would not have made king David green as he now resembles the Statue of Liberty :0P) then we used popsicle sticks for crutches for Mephibosheth.

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Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

David, Israel’s Shepherd

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Welcome back! Today’s story will cover several chapters from 1 Samuel 29-2 Samuel 7 as we move into the next part of Israel’s history. This is a brief overview intended for small kids aged 2-7ish.

God had appointed King Saul as the first king over His people Israel. (They didn’t want God to be their only king and begged and whined for a king, and God was nice to them and gave them a king.) But, King Saul did not always make great choices and God was sad He ever made Saul king. God chose David (from David and Goliath) to replace Saul as king…but David respected Saul and didn’t become king until after king Saul died several years later.

David was best friends with Saul’s son Jonathan. They fought together and won many times and had promised to always take care of each other and each others’ families.

Saul was jealous of David and tried to kill him several times, but David was nice to Saul even though he was being mean, and eventually Saul left David alone. Because Saul disobeyed God, one day when he and his sons went to fight their enemies, Jonathan died and Saul died.

Some of the people thought David would be happy that Saul was dead. But he was not. He cried and cried for his friend Jonathan and for Saul, the first king of Israel.

The people of the tribe (big family) of Judah were ready to make David their king…but the rest of Israel was not.

The rest of Israel and the fighters from Judah ended up fighting and David’s men won. So then all the people of Israel made David their king. He moved to the city of Jerusalem and had a big palace (like a castle).

David had the ark of the covenant (a holy box where God’s spirit lived) brought to Jerusalem. When David and his men brought the ark in, they were dancing and laughing and rejoicing! They were SO happy to have a place to bring the most special things of God!

But David was still sad because God’s house had been a tent. All the time God had led His people from Egypt, through the wilderness and now in the promised land, the only church they had was a big tent. David said, “Why should i get a big fancy palace when God has a tent?”

God was pleased that David wanted to make him a real tabernacle (church). But God said that David’s son, not David would be the one to make it. God reminded David how He had chosen him when he was only a young shepherd, taking care of the sheep, to fight the Philistines and to be king. Now David would be like shepherd to the people of Israel…watching over them, caring for them and protecting them, just like a shepherd does for his sheep.

God also promised that David’s family would be kings and that someone great would come from David’s family. Do you know who that is?

It’s Jesus. Many years later, Jesus would be born, as part of David’s family and He would be the forever king of our hearts. He would be the Good Shepherd, the one who saves us, loves us and cares for us.

Our craft today is making sheep. You can use a paper plate or cut out a sheep shape from construction paper. Then glue eyes and cotton balls on fluff.

(I couldn't get our photos to load tonight, so i did borrow this one from a google image search)
(I couldn’t get our photos to load tonight, so i did borrow this one from a google image search)

David was Israel’s shepherd, like Jesus is our shepherd!

Thanks for joining us today, love to you all!

David Spares Saul’s Life

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Hi all. Today’s story is from 1 Samuel 21-27.

Review: last time we learned about king Saul being angry and jealous because the people liked David more than him. He started to chase David and tried to kill him.

David ran away and his with some of his helpers in a big cave. One day, Saul and his army came and they slept in that same cave…but David was hiding in the back.

He snuck up on Saul and cut off a piece of his coat. Then he felt bad because he knew he shouldn’t be mean to other people, even if they are mean to you. He showed Saul what he had done.

Saul was surprised. “I have been trying to kill you and you could have killed me because I didn’t see you! But you didn’t…thank you! I won’t chase after you any more.”

But…Saul didn’t keep his promise very long. Again he became very jealous and angry with David and chased after him.

One night Saul and his men were sleeping and David and one his best fighters snuck into the camp. David’s friend said “look! Saul is asleep! You should let me kill him!”

But David said no. Instead, he took Saul’s spear and his jug of water and they snuck out.

The next day David called to Saul and showed him the things he had taken. Again Saul was surprised that David had spared his life.

“Why are you chasing me?!” David said. “Have I done anything wrong?”

Saul answered, “No. You are right and you are a better man than me because you were good to me even though I was mean to you. Surely God WILL make you a great king!”

And God did. As David grew, he became more famous and respected and because he had treated Saul the way God wanted him to (with respect and kindness), God made David into a great king.

The Bible tells us in Romans 12:17, 21 “Do not repay evil with evil…do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

and in 1 Peter 3:9, “Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult, but with blessings.”

For our craft today, we cut out a piece of fabric, and a water jug. We also made a spear from a straw and part of a paper towel tube. We glued these to our paper as a reminder of David’s good choice, to be nice to others even when they are not nice to you.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

David and Jonathan

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Hello all!

Today’s story is from 1 Samuel 18-21.

David and Jonathan

So David had been chosen by God to replace Saul as king one day. He had also defeated the giant Goliath and so defeated the whole Philistine army by the power of God.

The people were so amazed by what David had done that they started to like David more than king Saul and that made Saul jealous and angry! He wanted the people to like HIM best!

King Saul had a son named Jonathan. Jonathan and David became best friends and whenever there was a fight, they would fight together and because they followed God, He would help them win. Then the people liked David even more.

Sometimes when king Saul was feeling sad or was bored, he would have David come and play some music for him. David loved to write and sing songs.

One day while David was playing for Saul, king Saul got so mad thinking about how much the people liked David that he threw his spear (kind of like a really big arrow) at David to kill him. But he missed.

He then decided to just keep sending David to fight (hoping he would die while fighting), but God always helped David win.

When David came back from defeating all of Israel’s enemies, Saul again tried to throw his spear and kill David, but David once again escaped.

That night he ran away. Saul sent some of his men to find David, but he was gone. David found Jonathan and said, “Why is your dad trying to kill me? Have I done anything wrong?”

“No! And I promise to help you!” said Jonathan.

David and Jonathan promised to always be best friends and help each other’s families.

David asked Jonathan to help him.

“The king has asked me to join him at a feast tomorrow. I will not be there. I will be hiding in this field. When he asks where I am, you can tell him I had to go somewhere else. If he’s ok with it, then everything is ok. If he is angry, then I’ll know he’s really trying to kill me.”

When Jonathan went to the feast and king Saul asked where David was, he was very very angry!

Jonathan ran to field with a small boy. He shot three arrows into the field and told the boy to go! go! go! far into the field to go get the arrows. This was a sign to David that HE needed to go! far away because king Saul was planning to kill David.

Jonathan ran out into the field to David and they said goodbye. They were both very sad that David had to go for now, but they promised again to always be friends and take care of each other.

This is not the end of the story for David, but it’s where we’ll end for today. Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!