ezra

Advent-Day 22-Worship Restored/Gifts for Jesus

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Welcome again!

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

Yesterday we talked about the Israelite’s coming back to the promised land after being in exile and fixing everything. (Found in the Bible in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). They fixed their houses, the walls that kept the cities safe and the temple (the church.) But also, a lot of very important things that they used to worship God had been taken. They got those things back and the people listened to their leaders and decided once again, they would follow God. They started really worshipping Him again in the church.

Do you know what worship is? It’s when we show God how much we love Him! We can sing, or pray…even showing love to other people is a way to worship God.

God is worthy of our worship. 1 Chronicles 16:25 says, “For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods.” (The whole chapter is a great read about God’s worthiness).

How do YOU worship God?

 

When baby Jesus was born, some wise men from far away traveled a long time to visit baby Jesus. And they brought presents to give to Him. The Bible doesn’t say how many men came, but they did bring three gifts-gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Frankincense is a spice an myrrh is oil–both of these were usually presented to kings.) They brought baby Jesus some of the best things they had and it makes God happy when we give Him our best too!

These men came to adore Jesus and to give their gifts to the new King. We can use the things God has given us (like money, and our talents–singing, dancing, being a good friend) to worship God. He is worthy of our worship!

 

Bible story: worship returns to the temple

Attribute of God: WORTHY of our praise

Jesus’ birth story: the wise men bring gifts

Craft:

Side one of our ornament today is a temple. (You can make it as accurate or elaborate as you’d like…ours turned out rather simple today…just a gold church with “God” written on it.)

Our text reads: The people worship God. He is worthy of our praise! Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chron 16:25IMG_0626

Side two of our ornament is some gifts for baby Jesus. We used some scraps of wrapping paper and drew bows on top. (Again, you could use the mini bows, or make them however you want).

Our text reads: The wise men brought baby Jesus gifts. Matt 2.

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

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Advent-Day 21-Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel/Wisemen

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. Welcome back!

We are up to day 21 of our advent calendar, learning about God, God’s son Jesus and Jesus’ earthly family.

Today and tomorrow’s Bible stories go hand in hand. These can be found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the old testament of the Bible. Our complete lessons for Ezra and Nehemiah can be found here and here. (Below is a shortened version of these accounts).

After King David and some kings after him, the Israelites kept on disobeying God, so He let other people come and take over the promised land and the Israelites had to go live in different places (like Esther in Persia and Daniel in Babylon). The Israelites were finally allowed to go back to the land God had given them after 70 years.

Some of the people who helped go back and start rebuild were named Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was one of the leaders of the Israelites (and a great great great great (lot of greats) grandpa to Jesus!)

When Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel got back to the promised land, it was a mess! The temple (the church) had been broken and the walls that kept the city safe were a mess! These men helped lead the Israelites to fix the walls and the temple. (We’ll learn more about this tomorrow). They helped *restore* Israel.

Some people tried to stop them from fixing everything, but God kept them safe. He is the ruler of all things and nobody can stop God’s plans!

Israel was rebuilt…the temple and the walls by the Israelites.

But what Israel (and all of us) really needed was for their HEARTS to be restored. They and we, all make bad choices and sin, but God is the Ruler of all things remember. Nothing can stop His plans…and He had a GREAT plan to save us from the consequences our sins.

When Jesus came as a little baby, He was God’s son, perfect and able to fix the people’s sinful hearts. (Eph 2:8, Col 1:20)

Now there were some wise men from a far away place who had read all the things people had said about this new baby King and they were anxious to meet Him! (Matt 2) They followed that big star in the sky until they found Him. They remembered that in Micah 5 of the Bible, it says, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rules of Judah; for out of you will come a Ruler who will be the Shepherd of my people Israel.” They followed the star to Bethlehem to meet the new Ruler, the new Shepherd.

The wise men traveled and waited a long time (just like the Israelites had to travel a long time to the promised land and then wait a long time to restore it.) They were excited to see the new King. But this King had come to restore not the land, but our hearts.

 

Bible story: Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel

Attribute of God: Ruler of all, Restorer of our hearts

Jesus’ birth story: the wise men seek Him

Craft:

For side one of our ornament today, we took a block and dipped it in red paint and made a brick wall. (This works better with a sponge..but we were out of sponges today…so we made do.)

Our text reads: Nehemiah, Ezra and Zerubbabel help restore Israel. Ezra/NehemiahIMG_0620

For side two of our ornament, we cut out some basic people shapes and opted to decorate them with tissue paper today. (You could make them look any way you like.) We added a star to the top to lead the way (you could just draw it on, or use glitter if you don’t have a star shape.)

Our text reads: The wise men seek Jesus who will restore Israel’s hearts. Matt 2, Micah 5

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Thanks for joining us today. Just a few more days to complete our advent calendar. I hope these mini lessons have helped you and your children remember all of God’s goodness to us, before Jesus and through the events of His birth.

More tomorrow! Love to you all!

Ezra

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome all!

Today’s story is from the book of Ezra.

The Israelites had all been taken captive out of the promised land. King Cyrus of Persia had taken over Babylon and God softened his heart so he decided the Israelites could return home. They went back in three groups. The first group went back and two of the priests, Zerubabbel and Jeshua, and their helpers started to rebuild the temple (God’s house and church). The people worked hard, but their enemies who lived near them kept trying to stop them.

Sometimes when we are doing something that will make God very happy, Satan and his helpers will get people to try to stop us. But we know we should ALWAYS do what makes God happy.

The people had a big celebration and remembered when God had saved His people and led them out of Egypt a long long time ago to the promised land (called Passover). The priests started serving again and even though lots of people tried to stop the Israelites from coming back and rebuilding the temple, God made sure they could get the work done. He even had the kings return the things from the temple that were stolen when the Israelites had to leave. God took the people from the land, and GOD helped them return. He always had a plan for His people and He brought them back home.

But they started to forget some of God’s rules, and a few years later, a priest named Ezra brought some more of the people back to Jerusalem (the capital city of the Israelites). Ezra prayed to God to keep him and the people safe as they traveled. God kept them safe and when Ezra got back to the promised land he reminded the people of all of God’s laws. They had just been in exile for disobeying God and Ezra reminded them of all the words of God so this time they could obey Him. Ezra helped the people understand that a temple for God is nice…but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t do what He says.

You can go to church every week, read your Bible and pray…but if you don’t DO what God says to do, then it doesn’t really matter. Ezra reminded all the people that God looks at our hearts and cares if we obey Him. Building a fancy church is nice, but obeying God is MORE important.

For our craft today, we made hammers to symbolize the rebuilding.

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We also found this video posted by Jelly Telly that gives an overview of the book of Ezra.

Thanks for joining us today, next time we’ll learn about Nehemiah! Love to you all!