Faith

The day the sun stood still

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Hello again! Today we continue in Joshua. Today’s story is from Joshua 10. Last year’s lesson and craft can be found HERE.

As the Israelites (God’s people) were moving into the promised land God was giving them, it was a pretty big place and there were a lot of cities already there. So Joshua and God’s people had to fight a lot of people to get that land. (You may ask why God would have them defeat people for THAT land instead of giving them some place where no one lived? Why all the fighting? Well…God DID give them that land a looooooong time ago. Remember way back when, when God first promised that land to Abraham? Then Isaac and Jacob? That had always been the plan–for God’s people to live there. But now that other people had taken that land, Israel had to take it back.)

Whenever they obeyed God, they would win. If they didn’t obey God, they wouldn’t win. Well, they had taken a lot of cities and made peace with several kings. (They were going to work together). One of those places with Gibeon. Gibeon and Israel were on a team now. But the king of a different city was scared! He said…”Those other people are working WITH the Israelites!” So he called 4 of the other nearby kings and said, “Maybe if we all work together…we can defeat those guys AND the Israelites!”

So the king of Gibeon asked Joshua and Israel to come help! The 5 kings all joined together to defeat Joshua, but God said, “Don’t be afraid. I will make sure you win.” So Joshua and the Israelites went ahead and they surprised the kings and other armies. It took a long time to defeat all those guys, so Joshua said, “Sun! Stand still!” (Because you can’t fight very well in the dark).

And do you know what happened?! The sun STOOD. STILL. It took FAITH (Joshua TRUSTED in God’s power) to ask God to make the sun stand still. And we know God CAN make the sun stand still because God can do…ANYTHING!

The sun stayed in the sky almost a whole extra day, until Israel had defeated all those other guys.

Joshua and his men defeated a LOT of people as they took over the promised land–because GOD fought with them. When God is for us who can stand against us? (Romans 8:31)

God doesn’t always do the things we ask…if you go outside and ask the sun to stop…it probably won’t. But that doesn’t mean God isn’t fighting for you. God has big plans for you, and just like He parted the waters for Moses, or made the sun stand still for Joshua, or even sent His own son to die for my sins and your sins, God will do GREAT things in your life if you trust Him and obey Him.

For our craft today, we made suns. We used paper plates and cut some triangles out of yellow and orange paper and attached the triangles with tape to be the sun’s rays. Then we decorated them. We used stamps and stickers today but you could use anything you want. Then we acted out the story using our suns.

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Eating a snack is an important part of the process 

 

THIS is a cartoon of today’s story posted by SharefaithSolutions.

THIS is another video posted by Kids Bible.

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Job

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Hello again! Before we delve into Exodus, we’re going to add in Job. (Looks like j-ah-b, pronounced like j-oh-b)

There’s an entire book of the Bible for Job, today will just be an overview. Job is about trusting God even through hardships and about God’s sovereignty and faithfulness despite our feelings.

**There is a book called “The Gospel According to Job” by Mike Mason which is a WONDERFUL commentary/devotional which really helps break down the book of Job and I personally found it especially helpful during our years battling infertility.**

Ok, onto the story…

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Job was a man a long long time ago that loved God. He prayed to God, he served God. God had given Job many nice things…a loving wife, 10 children, lots of servants, a big big house, lots of money  and sooooooo many animals.

One day Satan (who used to be one God’s angels but instead became God’s enemy) said to God, “You know…the only reason Job loves you is because you give him so much stuff. If you took all those great things away…I bet he wouldn’t love you anymore.”

“Fine,” God said. “You can take away any of his things…but don’t hurt Job.”

So Satan took away Job’s servants, all his camels and sheep and donkeys and even his children.

Did Job stop loving God? No. Job said, “God gives me things and God can take them away. But I will always praise Him.”

This made Satan angry and again he went to God and said, “Well…if you let me hurt HIM, THEN he won’t love you anymore!”

“Try it, ” answered God.

So Job became sick and his skin was all yucky and very ouchy. But did he stop loving God? No. He STILL worshipped God. Even his wife said, “You should just die! This is too much!” But Job never stopped trusting God. (And even though it seemed like God didn’t care…He still loved Job very VERY much.)

Job had lost EVERYTHING…can you imagine losing all your toys and your house? And even being sick too?

Then Job’s friends came to help him feel better. But they didn’t really help. Instead they said “WOW! You must have been REALLY bad for God to do this to you! What did you do?!”

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Job said.

“Well God MUST be mad at you. Or maybe you don’t really understand God!” said the friends. ( But THEY didn’t understand what God was doing.)

Job started to wonder if his friends were right…WAS God just mad at him? DOES God care about me?

Then God answered Job from a whirlwind (like a tornado). God said, “Who questions Me? I am God. I have made everything! Every star, every wave in the sea…I am the giver of life…I know where all the stars are…can YOU make lightning? Can YOU  know the farthest parts of space or the deepest parts of the ocean?? I AM God.”

Job stopped. He answered God…”I am nothing. How can I answer you? I will not say anything else.” Job remembered that God is in charge and that it’s ok if we don’t understand God’s plan. God knows. And if we know how much He loves us, then it is easy to trust Him. We know God has good plans for us (Jer 29:11) and that He acts in love towards us. So even if we don’t understand what God does, we can trust in WHO HE IS.

Then God yelled at the 3 friends and made them say sorry. They realized they did NOT know God well.

After that, God gave Job back everything he had lost AND MORE! Job didn’t know God would reward him and give him everything back, but he trusted God anyway. So because of his faithfulness, God gave Job even MORE sheep and camels and cows and donkeys. He had even more money and 10 more children. He lived  a long happy life after that.

 

Sometimes confusing or sad things happen and we think God has forgotten about us. Or maybe we even think God is being mean to us. Maybe we think God is being mean because we have done something bad. Maybe we did do something bad…and we can ask God to forgive us. But sometimes…we won’t know why a sad or scary thing is happening. But we can know that God loves us, wants good things for us, wants to help us be more like Him and that we can always trust Him. And sometimes what we think is good for us is NOT what God knows is good for us. We have to trust HIM. Remember, He made all things and knows all things…we can trust Him.

This song  is from the “what’s in the Bible” series.

This is the story of Job from “The Brick Testament” –a cute website that tells Bible stories using Legos.

 

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Abraham’s Children

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Hello again! As we wrap up the book of Genesis, I decided to add this related (but not chronological) lesson. We did do the story of Ephraim and Manasseh yesterday but didn’t change it from LAST YEAR’S LESSON.

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Today’s lesson is based on what I heard at church today and I thought it summed up Genesis so well it needed to be added here. This is from Romans 4. See also HERE.

So this month we read about God creating the heavens and the earth. We read about Adam, the first man, and Noah and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We read about how much God loved His creation….but the people did not always love God. A lot of people disobeyed and didn’t trust God.

But not everyone felt that way. Abraham DID trust God and God made a special promise to Abraham…that he would be the father of many many people. As many as the stars in the sky, as many as the sand on the beach. That’s a lot of people! And Abraham BELIEVED God. He had faith. And not only did he BELIEVE God, he OBEYED God too. When God told Abraham to move, he moved. When He told him to give back his son Isaac, he did. Abraham showed that he had faith in God. God loved Abraham and made a special promise to him…not because he was a great person, or because he always did the right thing…but because he TRUSTED God and when God told him to do something…he did it. He had faith.  (Rom 4:9-13)

Abraham did have children, and those children had children and we know Jacob had a LOT of children and those guys had a LOT LOT LOT of children…and all those people would become Israel. The people of Israel thought THEY were God’s special people because they came from Abraham. BUT…in the book of Romans, God tells us that ANYONE who BELIEVES and OBEYS God is a son of Abraham, a part of Abraham’s family. (Rom 4:16-17, 24-25)

If YOU love AND obey God, then YOU are one of Abraham’s children too. Abraham’s family did get pretty big…but that also includes all the people who choose God and love and obey Him.

When we love and obey God, we get adopted into God’s family. He adds us into the family. We don’t have to be born in Israel to be one of Abraham’s children…to be one of God’s children. We just need to trust God, love Him and obey Him. And some of the people IN Israel choose not to love and obey God…the Bible says they are NOT Abraham’s children. They are NOT God’s children. The real children of Abraham and the real children of God are those that have faith in Him. (Galatians 3:7)

So when we read the Bible, we aren’t just reading about THOSE people a long time ago…it’s about God’s story. His plan for ALL of us. God would send His son Jesus through Abraham’s family…but anyone and everyone who believes in God becomes His child and becomes part of Abraham’s family too. One of the stars in the sky.

We will start the next part of God’s story tomorrow, in the book of Exodus. And as we read through Exodus, let’s remember that WE are also God’s children…like the Israelites…their story is our story.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

God provides another way

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Hi all. Today’s lesson is from Genesis 21 and 22. Last year’s lessons can be found HERE and HERE.

Abraham and Sarah were very old but God had promised them many many children! And Sarah did have a baby boy, and she named him Isaac which means “he laughs.” Sarah had laughed when the angels told her she would have a baby and now she knew everyone else would laugh too when they heard someone SO old had had a baby!

Sarah and Abraham LOVED Isaac. He was their very favorite thing in the whole world …they loved nothing more…except for God. God said that Abraham would have as many children and grandchildren and great children as all the stars in the sky…and they would come from Isaac.

One day God asked Abraham to give Isaac back to Him. Isaac would have to die and live in heaven with God, away from Abraham. How do you think that made Abraham feel?

Sad? Scared? Confused?

Do you think Abraham obeyed?

He did. He trusted God. Even though it sounded like a CRAZY thing to do and even though Abraham loved Isaac so so so so much…he trusted God’s plan.

So Abraham took Isaac up a mountain and they were going to give Isaac to God as a sacrifice. A sacrifice is like a present of your best thing. Usually back when Abraham lived, people would kill and give God their best sheep. It was hard for them to give up their best sheep. That sheep would give them lots of money to buy the things they needed…but the people had to trust God most and give up their best to let GOD take care of them.

So instead of a sheep, Abraham was asked to give up HIS best….Isaac.

As they were walking Isaac said, “Dad…where is the sheep for the sacrifice?”

Abraham answered, “God will provide.”

When it came time to give Isaac back to God…God said, “Stop. You don’t have to give Isaac back to Me. I will provide another way.” And then they saw a ram (a boy sheep) and they sacrificed that to God.

God was very happy that Abraham was going to obey Him no matter what…even if it mean giving up his only son. God provided another way.

And do you know that WE are supposed to die forever for our bad choices and sin…but God has provided another way for us? God provided His own son, Jesus. Jesus is sometimes called “the Lamb of God” because HE became the sacrifice for us. (When He died on the cross and took our sin and punishment instead of us having to have the consequence of forever death.)

God has provided another way for us but He had not yet provided a way for Abraham and Isaac but Abraham still trusted Him. We can be sure that a God who loves us enough to send His own son to die in our place, is a God worth trusting and loving.

God’s plan is always best…even if it seems crazy at the time…we can ALWAYS trust Him and know that He loves us no matter what.

 

For our craft today we took paper plates (you could use plain paper) and we drew Abraham and Isaac. Then we glued on toothpicks to be the sacrificial altar (the place the sacrifice was made) and then we glued on a white pom pom to be the sheep.

Our text reads: God provides another way! Genesis 22

THIS is an old-school song by Don Moen called “God will make a way.”

THIS video is a recap from LC LifeKids.

Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

Abram Sets Out

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Hello again! Today’s story is from Genesis 11:27-12:9.

So 10 generations after Noah (Noah had a son, who had a son, who had a son, who had a son….10 times down the line), was born a man named Abram.

Abram had a wife named Sarai and a nephew (his brother’s son) named Lot. Abram and Sarai didn’t have any children yet but they really wanted to have a baby. We don’t know much else about Abram except that he was pretty old and that he followed God.

One day God spoke to Abram and said “Go! Leave your house, your country, the people you know and head out and later I will show you where you are going.”

Doesn’t that sound crazy? To just start moving but not even know WHERE you are going?

Then God gave Abram a promise, He said, ““I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” A blessing is like approval that helps you. That means people would like Abram and God would be good to him. Anyone who was good to Abram, God would be good to them. Anyone who was mean to Abram…God would not be nice to them. And everyone on earth would be blessed because of Abram.

So Abram obeyed. He went with his wife and his nephew and took their things and some of their helpers and they set out.

Abram didn’t know where he was going…but he knew WHO told him to go. He trusted God. Sometimes we might not understand what God is doing in our lives…but we know we can trust Him. We can always trust God that He has a good plan for us. It might not always be easy (and it wasn’t for Abram either)…but we know we can trust God no matter what.

For our story today we told the story using legos. (So…our caravan was a fire truck and a pumpkin carriage haha, but they enjoyed telling the story themselves).

Thanks for joining us! Come back tomorrow for more of Abram’s story! Love to you all!

Faith

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Hello again! Our lesson today is from Hebrews 11 and it’s about Faith.

(Our lesson and craft from last year can be found HERE).

In Hebrews 11 it says that “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we can not see.”

We hope that God will forgive our sins and give us forever life with Him. We can not see God or Jesus today. But, when we have FAITH, we KNOW God forgives us (because of Jesus) and we believe in Him even though we can not see God.

Sometimes it can seem scary or strange to believe something you can’t see, but in Hebrews, God reminds us of a lot of people who had faith and that God DID just what He said He would. We can trust and believe God.

He reminds us of Noah who built the big boat, called an ark, when God told him to and how he and his whole family were safe because they obeyed God.

He reminds us about Abraham, who left his home and followed God and believed God when God said he would have many many children even though he was already super old. (And he did have many many MANY children!)

There was Moses, who led God’s people away from the angry Pharaoh. And He prayed to God and God gave the people food.

And Joshua who led God’s people around the city of Jericho and they blew their trumpets and the walls fell down–those seem like silly instructions, but Joshua believed in God and obeyed and God provided for them and the walls DID fall down.

There are so so many more! Can you think of someone in the Bible who had faith in God? (Jonah, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, Esther, David, Daniel). You can read Hebrews 11 to see all the others listed too.

When we believe in God, even though we can’t see Him that’s called……Faith!

We can be SURE that God’s promises are true and that we can always always trust in Him, even if we can’t see Him with our eyes.

Is there a time in YOUR life when you had to trust God? Is there a time when believing in God was hard? (Ask your parents to answer too). What is your favorite promise of God’s to remember?

 

For our craft today, I had the kids pick their favorite story of faith and draw a picture of it. Then we added googly eyes (sine faith is about seeing God with ur hearts, not our eyes) to the main character and today’s verse.

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Joshua blowing his horn and Jericho falling down.

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Moses and his staff facing the angry Pharaoh.

 

Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

Thomas Doubts

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Welcome back! Today’s story can be found in John 20:24-29.

After Jesus rose alive from the tomb, He appeared to many people and He appeared to His disciples, but one of them, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came. They told Thomas that they had seen Jesus and that He was ALIVE!

But Thomas said, “No! I don’t believe it! Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were I will not believe.” (Remember when Jesus died on the cross they put nails in His hands and nailed Him to the cross. He would now have holes there where the nails were.)

A week later His disciples were in a house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” The doors were locked but Jesus still got in! Remember: God can do anything! Jesus is part of God, God’s son. He can do anything, even get through locked doors!

Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “It IS you, Jesus! My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We know Jesus now lives in Heaven with God, so we will probably not see Him while we live here, before we die. BUT, we still believe! Jesus said it’s a wonderful thing for someone who hasn’t even seen Him to believe in Him. We can trust His words. That is called Faith. In Hebrews 11:1 of the Bible it says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see.” We can not see Jesus, but we KNOW Him and we love Him. We are sure of our hope of living in heaven with Him. Thomas didn’t believe until he saw Jesus…and do you know lots of people today still don’t believe in Jesus because they can’t see Him?

If trusting in God without seeing Him seems hard sometimes, you can always pray and talk to God and ask Him to help you have faith, and believe.

 

For our craft today, we traced our hands and used a pen to make a small hole in the hands, then used our scissors to make it a bit bigger. Our text reads:

“Blessed are those who haven’t seen Me and still believe.” John 20:29

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Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

HE IS RISEN!

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Hi all!  We are doing our Easter lesson today! He is Risen!

This story can be found in the Bible in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20.

It was now Sunday morning. Jesus had died on the cross on Friday. The leaders who wanted Him dead were laughing and happy He was finally gone! The people who loved Jesus missed Him terribly and even though He had told them LOTS of times that He would die and be alive again 3 days later (Matt 17:22, Mark 8:31, John 2:19, Matt 12:39-40, Matt 16:21, John 10:17, 18, see also: Isaiah 53:5-12, Psalm 35:19, Psalm 69:4, Psalm 22:16, Zech 12:10, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 49:15) …they didn’t really understand and they were very sad AND they were scared the leaders would come after them next.

After Jesus died, the soldiers and leaders remembered Jesus saying He would live again and they set up guards in front of the tomb (kind of like a cave) where Jesus’ body was put after He died. They put a HUGE stone (bigger than your dad!) in front of the tomb…it would take a LOT of people to move it. They kept watch day and night because they thought the disciples would try to come take Jesus’ body and pretend He was alive. (They didn’t believe Jesus would REALLY live again!)

That Sunday morning, a few of the women who loved Jesus went to the tomb. They were going to put oil and spices on His body and pray. But, one of God’s angels came, rolled back the stone and sat on it. The guards were so scared they fainted!

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; HE HAS RISEN, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid but SO EXCITED, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my disciples; I will see them soon.”

This is THE story of the Bible. God is all powerful. He is perfect. He made all things and is in all things. He is stronger than anything, even death. God has the power over life and death. Our sin keeps us from God and we should die forever in hell away from God. But God sent His son Jesus to die in our place so we don’t have to. We know Jesus died and lived again and because He did that for us, when we die, we will live again in heaven if we believe He died for us and make Him king of our hearts.

Jesus dying AND living again shows God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. It proves that God has the power to raise us from the dead. It shows that those who believe in Christ will not remain dead, but will be resurrected unto forever life.

AMEN!

 

Today we made a diorama (or dino-rino as my kids called it). Basically a little theater and characters to tell the story.

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We used two pieces of green and 2 pieces of blue construction paper to make the grass and sky in our box. We cut out a sun and taped it to the ceiling with a string. We cut out a tomb and folded under the end to tape to the floor of our box. Then we crumpled up a piece of brown paper to be the stone. We also made a flat empty bed inside the tomb.

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The guards are guarding the tomb. (We drew them scared).

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The women are coming to visit the tomb.

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The angel is on the rock, inside the tomb is empty. The guards have passed out and the women are listening to the angel. Jesus is waiting to see them!

 

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all! Happy Easter!

Faith

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Hi friends.

Today we are talking about Faith. Do you know what Faith is? Faith is believing.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, it says that faith is believing what we hope for and being certain of what we can’t see. That means, we hope to live with God in heaven forever, so we believe in His promises and that He sent His son Jesus to die for us. And even though we can’t SEE God…we are sure He is there and that He loves us.

Did you know you can see God’s power when it thunders and lightnings? You can feel God’s love when your mommy or daddy give you hugs. You can see God’s beauty in the flowers, or pretty fall leaves. We know God takes care of us, because He gives us rain and water and food.

Even though Noah had never seen rain before, he believed God when God told him to build an ark because it would rain.

And little David who went to fight Goliath believed that God would help him and He did.

And Daniel’s friends believed in God and trusted Him when they were thrown into the fire, and He protected them.

The Bible is FULL of stories of people who believed God…people who had FAITH in God. (Just start in Hebrews 11 for examples!)

We can have faith in God, because God is FAITHFUL…He never changes, we can always count on Him.

For our craft today, i traced almond and circle shapes, then the kids cut them out and glued them to make eyes and we drew pupils and eyelashes/eyebrows and put Hebrews 11:1 as our verse.

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This is a sign language version of Hebrews 11:1: from Saddleback Kids

A catchy (and a bit cheesy…but my kids love it) song about faith: by Jeff Slaughter

And this one by Jeremy Camp

That’s all for today. We are nearing the end of our lessons on living a Godly life…just a few left. In July, we’ll be starting over in Genesis so if you want to complete the whole Bible with us, July is the time to start! Thanks, Love to you all!