1 kings

King Solomon Disobeys

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Hello again! Today’s story is from 1 Kings 11.

choices

For all of King Solomon’s wisdom and good decision-making, he had a big problem. He LOVED the ladies. And he didn’t just love one lady…he got married a whole bunch of times, which God said you’re not supposed to do. The ladies he married also didn’t love the One True God, they worshipped other pretend gods.

After a while, one said, “Solomon, hunny…please build a statue of my god!” And he did. Then another said “What about me?! Please build a place for me to worship MY god.” And he did. He built places for them to worship their pretend gods and he even worshipped them too sometimes. His heart was not faithful to God like King David’s had been. And God was NOT happy. 

So the Lord said to him, “Since you have disobeyed my rules and not been faithful to Me, I am going to tear this kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But because of how much your father David loved and served Me, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.  And even then, I will not take away the entire kingdom; I will let him be king of one tribe.”

King Solomon’s choices were going to affect a lot of other people. When we make decisions, we need to think about how it might help or hurt others. Especially people in power…like kings, presidents, moms and dad, teachers, pastors…the things you do and say don’t just have good or bad consequences for you, they can help or hurt others. When we try to follow God’s laws and live a life of love (because of how much He loves us), then our choices will have good consequences for others. But Solomon wasn’t thinking about that. He was only thinking about what HE wanted…not what God wanted and not about what might happen to other people.

The funniest part is that King Solomon wrote a whole chapter of the Bible about this exact thing. Proverbs 29 talks all about how children’s actions affect their parents and how parents affect their children. How bosses and kings and neighbors all affect the people around them. But in the end, Solomon did not follow his own advice. He chose to live the way HE wanted, not the way God wanted…and the people of Israel would soon pay a big price for his poor choices.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  Colossians 3:17 (ESV)

 

Thanks for joining us again, love to you all.

 

The Queen of Sheba

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Hello again!

 

sheba

Today’s story can be found in 1 Kings 10.

The Queen of Sheba heard about how famous Solomon was and she heard about his relationship with God, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great caravan—camels carrying expensive spices, LOTS of gold, and precious jewels—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When she saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, all the food on his table, how many servants he had, and all the burnt offerings he made at the temple for God, she was overwhelmed.

She said to the king, “The reports I heard in my country about you are true! But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. And your wisdom and wealth have far exceeded what I heard! How happy your people must be! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. 

She was so impressed, she gave King Solomon lots of presents including gold, spices, and jewels. King Solomon also gave the queen of Sheba lots of gifts and then she left and returned to her own country.

 

The Queen of Sheba had heard of how different Solomon was. He knew God well and had asked God for wisdom. Even from very far away, the Queen had heard about this. When we follow God and love others the way He loves us, it will make an impression on others. People will say “that boy or girl is different and i want to know why!” Then we can be ready (1 Peter 3:15) to explain why we give so much, love so deeply, are patient, humble, kind or just different. She was so intrigued about the things of God BECAUSE of the life Solomon lived. At the end of their time together, she wanted to give gifts to Solomon and he gave some to her too. When people see us living different, God-filled lives, they will want to be a part of that too! And we can continue to show them God’s love and share His riches (like joy, peace, patience, gentleness etc) with them.

 

 

Thanks for joining us again!

Elijah/Elisha

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Hello all! So yesterday and today at our house we did the stories of God whispering to Elijah  and Elisha and the chariots of fire.

For the Elijah story we found:

THIS VIDEO from Gracelink posted by SabbathSchool.

THIS VIDEO is a song posted by Linda Harper. (Not professional quality or anything, but simple lyrics and motions that any church or home could adapt to help kids remember to listen to God’s voice.)

THIS VIDEO  is another summary of today’s lesson from Sunnyside Church.

 

For the Elisha story we found:

THIS VIDEO by ShareFaithSolutions which is a recap of today’s story.

Thanks for reading through the Bible with us this year! Love to you all!

Elijah and the big fire

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Hello all! Welcome back! Today’s story is 1 Kings 18. Last year’s story and activity can be found HERE.

Elijah was a prophet (someone who talks to God and then tells the people what God wants them to know.) Ahab was the big BAD, MEAN King. Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, made really bad choices and they got the people in Israel to make bad choices too! They all started worshipping a pretend god instead of the REAL God. Ahab even killed a lot of the other prophets and the consequence for not worshipping God had been no rain for years! The plants, animals and even people were dying because there was no water.

So Elijah said “Let’s have a contest. We will each give a sacrifice to our God, and we’ll set it up on some rocks and sticks ready for a fire. But WE won’t make a fire. We will pray and ask each of our gods to make a fire FOR us. The God that gives a real fire, is the real God. Ok?”

The people agreed. The pretend god’s people went first. They set up an altar (place to sacrifice an animal) with rocks and sticks and then they called out to their pretend god for fire from morning until lunch time. “Please send fire! Pleeeeeease? Pretty please??”

“What’s the matter?” Elijah asked. “Is your god busy? Is he asleep? Maybe he went on vacation? Just yell louder and THEN maybe he will answer you.” So the people did. They yelled louder and louder until dinner time! But no one answered. (Because a pretend god can NOT answer!)

Then Elijah said, “Ok. My turn.” He got twelve big rocks (one for each of the big families of Israel) and some wood and then had the people pour water on it all! Do you know what water does to fire? It puts it out! There couldn’t be a fire where there was so much water……right? Well THREE times they poured water on everything so it was all soaking wet!

Then Elijah prayed to God, “God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that YOU are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things like YOU told me to. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and so that you will turn their hearts back to you again.”

Then WHOOOOOOOSH!  A big, HUMUNGOUS fire came and burnt up the sacrifice, the woods, the rocks, the water, EVERYTHING! All the people were SOOOOO surprised! They fell down and said “WOW! It IS the real God!” They were sorry they had disobeyed God and worshipped other pretend gods. Now they remembered who the REAL God was and is.

And just like that….Elijah told one of his helpers to go look at the sea…7 times the helper went back and forth from the sea….and then he saw it….RAIN CLOUDS! Now that the people had come back to God, He sent rain for them.

Let us NEVER forget who the REAL God is and let’s only love and worship HIM forever!

For our craft today, we drew Elijah, glued on some toothpicks and then took pipettes and some paint.  (We had to water the paint down just a touch–a tablespoon or so–so it would suck up the pipette easier). Then we sucked the paint into the pipettes and squirted it back onto the paper to look like fire.

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Thanks for joining us again, love to you all!

Elijah and the widow

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Hello all! Today’s story is from 1 Kings 17.

If you remember, Israel was now divided into two parts-the family of Judah and the rest of Israel…they each had a king. Israel’s new king was named Ahab. And he was a STINKER! The Bible says he was worse than every king before him! He even worshipped pretend gods.

Now there was a prophet named Elijah…a prophet is someone who talks to God and then tells the people what God wants them to know. Elijah told the king that because he was making such bad choices, that there would be consequences. The consequence would be that there would be no rain for several years. (If there’s no rain, then no plants can grow and if no plants can grow, then the animals have nothing to eat and nothing to drink and they die, and if there is no water, plants or animals, then the people have nothing to eat or drink and every person could die!) This is called a drought.

Then God told Elijah to go to a river and he drank water from the river and the birds brought him food. But just like God had said…it stopped raining and the river dried up. Elijah was getting very thirsty and very hungry.

So God told Elijah to go to a town and find a widow (that means a lady whose husband died.) Elijah found her and asked her for some water and some bread.

But she answered, “I promise to God, I don’t have any bread—I only have a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home to build a fire and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” (After they used up this last bit of food she had, they would have no more food and would probably starve.)

But Elijah told her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. This is what God says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

The woman TRUSTED God and she went home and made some bread for Elijah and the jug never ran out of oil and the jar never ran out of flour until it rained again years later…just like God said!

This is a miracle…something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God can make it happen–something ONLY God can do.

Because the woman trusted God and OBEYED Him, He took care of her and her son and always made sure they had enough.

God promises us in lots of places in the Bible that He will take care of us too! (Matt 6:31-32, 7:11, Phil 4:19, Luke 12:24, Job 38:41, Genesis 9:3, Psalm 34:10, 36:6, 81:10, 84:11-12, 146:7, 107:9)

 

For today’s craft we drew the jug of oil and a container for flour. Then we tried something new: we painted on the jug with actual oil and glued and sprinkled on actual flour. (Disclaimer: these don’t really show up very well when they dry..but they do smell good. So it’s more for the experience than the end result.) You could also make some simple bread using flour and oil like THIS RECIPE.

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Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Solomon’s Wisdom

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Hi all! So this week we did the story of David and Bathsheba (and used last year’s lesson) found HERE.

And for today’s story we did King Solomon’s wisdom. Story found HERE and in 1 Kings 3.

For our craft today we took an oval of orange construction paper, and cut out a yellow crown and a white thought bubble. Then we decorated King Solomon’s face and wrote the word “wisdom” in the thought bubble.

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THIS is a cute kids’ song posted by CelestinoZ.

And THIS is an overview from jellytelly, from their 5 minute family devotional series.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

 

Advent-Day 17-Elijah

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Welcome all.

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

The next person we will learn about is Elijah. He was a prophet of God. That means he talked to God and told the people what God wanted them to know. This story can be found in 1 Kings 18:17-39, and our complete lesson can be found here. (Below is an abbreviated version)

Elijah was a prophet of God to the people of Israel. Some of the people worshipped pretend gods though, instead of the One True God. They made statues out of wood and rock and prayed to them instead of God. Elijah said, “Let’s have a contest…we’ll each pray to our gods, and whichever one can make a fire, that’s the REAL God.”

It seemed like a good idea to the people, so they got two piles of rocks and sticks ready to make a fire and the people prayed to the pretend gods, “Please send fire! ……Please!….. FIRE!……Please???” But there was nothing. They tried ALL.DAY. but of course there was no fire, because the statues weren’t really god.

Then it was Elijah’s turn. He told the people to make the rocks and sticks REALLY wet (so it would be EVEN HARDER for a fire to start.) Then he prayed to God and said, “Please show everyone that YOU are the real God. Please send fire.” And WHOOSH!!!! A big BIG fire came and burned up the sticks, the water and the rocks!

Then everyone KNEW that Elijah’s God was real and was with them. And they worshipped the Real God.

 

God is always with us. Even when we can’t see Him. He was with Elijah and He is with us now. The Bible calls God, Immanuel, God with us. (Is 7:14, Psalm 46).

When Jesus came to be born as a baby, He was a tiny baby boy…but He was still God’s son. He was God with us. And He grew up and died on the cross for us and now, if we love Him and wish for Him to be OUR God, then He gives us His spirit and He lives in our hearts and stays with us always. (2 Cor. 13:5, Eph 3:17).

 

Bible Story: Elijah

Attribute of God: Immanuel, God with us

Jesus’ birth story: Jesus came to be with us

Craft:

For side one of our ornament today, we ripped up some black construction paper to be the rocks and glued on orangey-yellow tissue paper to be the fire.

Our text reads: Day 17, Elijah and the fire of God. 1 Kings 18:17-39

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For side two of our ornament, we traced and cut out our hands and glued them together.

Our text reads: Immanuel, God is with us! Is 7:14, Luke 2IMG_0473

Our current tree (Bible story side and Jesus’ birth story side)

 

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

 

God Whispers To Elijah

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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

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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

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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.