Nehemiah

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!

Nehemiah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story comes from the book of Nehemiah.

Some of the exiled Israelites had returned to Judah and were rebuilding the temple, but many were still in Babylon and spread around away from the promised land. One, named Nehemiah was working for a king.

One day he went to the king and looked sad. The king said, “Nehemiah…why are you sad?”

“How can i be happy when i know my people are struggling and my city is a mess?! It’s all in ruins….”

“How can i help you?” asked the king.

“I would like to go back and help them rebuild,” Nehemiah responded.

The king told Nehemiah he would miss him, but it would be ok if he went.

When Nehemiah got back, the city was a mess. The people were poor and sad, and the city was all burned down. Now, back then, each city had its own big big big walls around to keep it safe from other bad guys…but the walls around Jerusalem (the main city in Judah), were all destroyed.

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Nehemiah encouraged the people to begin rebuilding the walls and they all got to work. Everybody worked on the part right by his or her house and together they got a lot done.

But…some of the nearby bad guy neighbors didn’t want the people to fix the walls and they tried to get them to stop. “You think you can actually rebuild this whole thing?! You think this city will be great again?!”

But that didn’t stop Nehemiah and the other Israelites…they kept on working.

Even when the other guys came up with a plan to attack the city…Nehemiah prayed and then told half of the people to stand guard, ready to fight and the other half to keep working.

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The people fixed the gates (the big doors) into the city and each family worked by their house to finish the whole wall. Nehemiah and the people prayed to God to help them and to keep them safe from their enemies…and finally they finished it. Their enemies were NOT happy, but the people came together and sang songs and praised God for helping them.

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All the people worked together and they were able to complete the work. They didn’t even have to go far! We can all work together to do great things for God too and we don’t have to go far either! We can love and take care of the people close to us. We can help keep our church clean, we can help  mom and dad take care of the house, we can help a friend who is sad, or maybe help a neighbor. God can use all of us just by loving and serving the people God gave to us in our school, our neighborhood and our family.

Who is close to you that you can show God’s love to today?

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!