Overcome Evil with Good

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello friends.

Today’s lesson comes from 1 Peter 3:9 and Romans 12:17-21.

What do you do if someone is mean to you? Should you be mean back to them? What if they say bad words? Should you shout or say something even worse back to them?

No…the Bible tells us we can overcome bad things, by doing good. Paul and Peter both wrote about this saying “don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with the good.”

Have you ever heard anyone say “two wrongs don’t make a right?” That means, if you do something mean because someone else did something mean, it won’t fix anything. The only way to fix a problem, is to step up and do the right thing…even if other people aren’t making good choices.

In Romans it says, if our enemies are hungry, we should feed them. If they are thirsty, we should give them something to drink. We can be loving even if other people aren’t loving towards us.

Is that hard to do sometimes? Yes…i think so. But when we follow God’s word, it makes us more like Him and makes Him happy. The people making bad choices might even feel a little happy and may start making good choices. But…the Bible says we don’t have to worry about their choices..we have to only worry about making good choices that honor God and one great way to do that is to overcome evil with good.

For our craft today, we took a paper plate and drew an angry face on one side, and a happy face on the other side. We wrote “Don’t be overcome by evil” on the angry side, “but overcome evil with good” on the happy side. Then our kids took turns being the angry guy and the “good choices” guy.

We also found this song by Steve Green.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Faith

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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.

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!

The B-I-B-L-E

June 20, 2015June 20, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi friends!

Today we will be learning about the Bible. Do you know what the Bible is?

The Bible is God’s book to us. God used different people over a long time to write down what He wanted us to know (Galatians 1:11) and then He used other people to put it altogether and even more people to write it in different languages so EVERYONE can know what God says.

The Bible is called the Word of God. (It’s His words to us). In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul says that the Bible is useful for teaching and training us and also helping us know right from wrong. (Psalm 119:9) Mostly, it reminds us of God’s power and love for us.

In Psalms, King David said that God’s word is like a lamp for our feet, or a light to show us which way to go. (You can turn off all the lights and follow a flash light around and talk about how the world can seem dark and confusing…but when we follow God’s word…it shows us which way to go…just like a flashlight.)

And every word in the Bible is true! (John 17:17, John 10:35, Psalm 19:7, Revelation 21:5) God tells us over and over again that His words are true. We know it’s true, because there are lots of things God said would happen that DID happen, and also, if we believe in Him, then we trust what He says.

And Jesus said in Matthew 4 that man can not live by bread alone…but on every word from God. That means we need God’s words in our heart JUST as much as we need food everyday. So it’s important to read God’s word often.

Can you sit down with your mom and dad and come up with a time to read the Bible each day–maybe bedtime? after lunch or supper? before school?

For smaller children, you can sing the B-I-B-L-E song.

And if you have kids a bit older, you could go into more detail like the Bible has two main parts, an old testament (everything before Jesus) and a new testament (everything after Jesus came). There are books that tell the stories of God’s people, books about prophecies (things that were going to happen and later did), and books about wisdom and songs. The new testament books are divided into telling about Jesus’ life, the early church, letters to the early church and one more book of prophecy (things that will still happen, but haven’t yet.)

**If you feel your child is old enough, you could start memorizing the books of the Bible. Also, if your child is old enough to read…do they have their own Bible yet that they can read?

All for today. Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

Prayer

June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again friends.

We are continuing our lessons on the teaching of the New Testament (also referred to as “living a Godly life”). Today we’ll be talking about prayer with verses from James 4, 1 John 5, and Matthew 6.

Do you know what prayer is? Prayer is talking to God. We can talk to God anytime we want and about anything! In our house, we pray before we eat…do you do that at your house too? It’s a good time to remember to talk to God. When else do you talk to God?

God wants to hear it all. In the Bible it says if we are sad, we should tell God. If we are happy, we should sing praises to Him. If we need something, or just want to tell Him something…He is always listening and He hears us.

God is alive today and wants to hear from us. God knows everything that will happen, but the Bible also says, that He listens to us and we can motivate His heart with our prayers.

We can come to God and we don’t have to be afraid or think He’s far away. God is right here. We can hear Him talk back to us too! Sometimes through the words in the Bible…sometimes through other people and sometimes in our hearts.

Jesus even told us HOW we can pray. He said don’t pray just because you’re supposed to, or to show other people you love God…pray because you really want to. And when you pray, you should first praise God, and remember that HE is in charge. Then we can talk to Him about things we need or are thinking about and can ask Him to forgive us for any bad choices we’ve made. We can ask God to protect us and to help us follow Him.

What kinds of things would you like to thank God for? Are there ways you want to ask for help?

For our craft, we traced our praying hands. On one hand, we wrote what we are thankful for. On the other hand, we wrote some things we wanted to ask God to help us with.

Also found these resources:

1. A “teach me to pray” hand: here

2. Free printable prayer cards from meetpenny.com: here

3. I have also seen the idea of writing prayers and praises on popsicle sticks, placing them all in a jar and then choosing a few to talk to God about at each prayer time.

Thanks for joining us today. We’ll have more soon! Love to you all!

Little Guys Can Do Big Things Too!

June 15, 2015June 5, 2020 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again. So…i may have ripped off the title from a veggie tales song…but it’s so appropriate for our lesson today! All this month we are talking about living a Godly life and today’s verse is 1 Timothy 4:12.

Paul wrote a letter and here he was talking to Timothy…one of Jesus’ followers. Timothy was a grown up, but still a pretty young grown up…not one of the big important leaders. Paul told him “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believes, in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

Do you know that God LOVES kids?! And when Jesus was here some kids came to see Him while He was talking and the disciples said “not now?! Jesus is talking!?” But Jesus said “no! Let the kids come to me!” God LOVES children and He knows YOU can do big things. God has BIG plans for you!

God used David when he was still young to fight Goliath! And He used Joseph, Samuel, Salome, Ruth and even Jesus when He was young!

This verse for Timothy is also for you! Did you know that even grown ups make mistakes sometimes? If you love God, you can be a good example for your friends and even for grown ups!

It says we can be a good example by what we say, by the choices we make, by how we love other people, by our faith in God and by our purity–which means having a clean mind and thinking about good things…and taking good care of and protecting our bodies.

No matter how big or little you are, God can use YOU.

For our craft today, i drew each of my kids. Then we circled and talked about the lips (for speech), the brain (for our choices), the heart (for love), the cross (for faith) and my kids said purity was like taking a bath…so we drew some bubbles and sparkles and they circled those.

Here are some songs for this lesson:

Here is our song for this lesson.

This one posted by seeds family worship.

And this one from NewSpring Church (which is quite catchy).

That’s all for today. We’ll have more soon! Thanks… Love to you all!

Servanthood

June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello. Today’s lesson about living a Godly life is all about servant hood. A servant is someone who takes care of another person. They work for that person.

The Bible tells us in the book of Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus came not as a very important puffed up famous person…but as a servant…to do what God wanted and to help others. He even obeyed God and served us to the point of death on the cross.

We should also be willing to obey God and serve others. The world does not need more important famous people…it needs people like Jesus who will serve and help others.

Jesus told a lesson in Luke 14. He said, when you go to a party, don’t pick the most important seat…because the person in charge might tell you you don’t belong there…instead…you should be humble. Then they might ask you to move to an important seat. Being humble means knowing you are not the most important. Being humble also means serving others and putting their needs before yours.

When we humble ourselves (or think of what other people are feeling or might need) then we are acting like God.

In Matthew 20, Jesus said “the first will be last and the last will be first.” That means whoever thinks he is very important, when he gets to heaven with God will be the least. And whoever is humble here and serving others…when he gets to heaven, he will be honored by God.

We told the story of the party using some of our toys. And we took turns sitting in what we called “the most important seat.” Then we took turns having the characters instead ask “how can I help you? How can I help you?”

What are some ways you can think about other people? How can you serve others?

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

The Armor of God

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

So last time we talked about God and His good angels, and about Satan and the angels that chose to follow him INSTEAD of God. Satan and the demons are always trying to keep us from God. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:10-18 that we can fight against their evil and lies and stay strong for God. We can put on some armor to protect ourselves.

Do you know what armor is? Soldiers and knights wear armor to keep themselves safe when they fight. We can practice everyday putting on “armor” to keep us safe and strong in God. It’s not real armor…it’s things we can do to keep our minds focused on God.

For this lesson, as we talked about each piece of armor, i “armed” my children and we dressed up in the armor of God. After the lesson, we drew a little guy and added armor to him (for something we could hang up as a visual reminder).

The Bible tells us that in order to stand strong in God, we can wear the belt of truth. We can memorize Bible verses so when someone says something like “God doesn’t really love us” you can say “Yes He does! John 3:16 says He loves us so much He gave up His own son in our place!” When you have the TRUTH of God’s word, satan’s lies can’t keep you from God.

Next, you can put on the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate is kind of like a vest that covers your heart. Our hearts are sinful, but when we trust Jesus, He makes us righteous (or RIGHT with God). Our hearts can not be turned from God if we wear HIS righteousness. We aren’t strong by anything WE’VE done…we stay strong in our hearts by remembering what HE has done for us.

Next, you can put on the shoes of the gospel of peace. God didn’t ever want to be apart from us. So He didn’t send His son Jesus to remind us of all our bad choices. He came to give us peace. To bring us back to Him. We can also be at peace with other people, knowing that God is in control.

We also need a shield…a big cover. The Bible says we have the shield of faith which will get rid of any arrows from the enemy. Satan and the evil things in this world will try to get to us. They will try to tell you God isn’t real, or God doesn’t love you. They will try to get you to make bad choices. But you can hold up your shield and say “NO! I have FAITH, i believe that God loves me and knows what is best for me. I follow HIM!” In James 4, the Bible says that if we resist satan, he will run away from us. When we choose God’s way…satan has to run away! (Remember…he’s afraid of God!)

We can wear a helmet of salvation. We know God saved us. A helmet protects our head, and our eyes (we see people with God’s love). It protects our ears (we choose to listen to good words, good music and Godly advice and teachings. We also choose to NOT listen to lies about ourselves or about God.) It protects our mouth (when we remember that we are God’s and He saved us, then the words we speak are words that praise God and make Him happy.)

The Bible says our weapon against evil is the sword of the Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts when we trust in Him. HE will fight for us. God Himself fights for us!! Isn’t it funny that the only weapon we have isn’t even anything WE do? We can’t win against satan…but God can…and He already has.

The Bible also reminds us to pray. To talk to God about everything…big or small, when we’re happy or sad. When we talk to someone, we feel close to them. When we focus on talking to God, there’s less time to think about bad things or make bad choices. We should always try to focus on God.

Thanks for reading today. Love to you all!

Heavenly Creatures

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

No…this is not Harry Potter’s magical creatures…but soon we’ll be learning about putting on the armor of God so today is an intro to that. But WHY would we need armor? We need armor to battle against the evil that tries to keep us from God.

Today we’ll be learning about spiritual beings like angels and the war between good and evil…between Satan and God who are fighting for our hearts.

We drew as I talked and ended up with the images above. You could do that, or just talk about it, or cut out some shapes of angels and put one talking point on each one.

***Disclaimer: I think I overloaded my kids on info…so I’ll TRY to keep it more brief here….if you REALLY want a VERY basic intro for very small children (or to review because today’s lesson is info heavy and kind of long) i’d stick to:

1. God has made helpers called angels

2. Some of them love God and help Him

3. Some of them choose to NOT love God

4. God (and the good angels) wants to love us and have us know God

5. The bad angels want to keep us from God, so they fight with God

6. But God will always win

7. We have a choice (just like the angels)… if we will love God or not

The slightly longer version follows:

First of all, do you know what an angel is? (my kids actually said “they fly and are shiny and talk to people!” I was surprised they knew that much…so see what your kids know or think and feel free to share in the comments!)

The Bible tells us a few things about angels.

1. Who they are:

Angels are creatures made by God (Colossians 1:16)

They are not people, but like people, they can make their own choices (Jude 1:6)

They don’t know everything and are under God’s command (1 Peter 1:12, Job 1, 1 Peter 3:22, Matt 24:36, 1 Kings 8:39)

There are tens of thousands of angels! (Hebrews 12:22, Daniel 7:10, Luke 2:13, Rev 5:11)

2. What they do

Angels serve God (Psalm 103:20)

-they worship and praise Him (Revelation 5:11-14, Nehemiah 9:6, Isaiah 6:1-4)

-some share His messages (like to Mary, Jesus’ mommy, to John in Revelation, and to the disciples at the empty tomb in John chapter 20)

-some help Gods people (like Jesus in the desert (Matt 4:11) or Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:22))

-sometimes they carry out a punishment from God (2 Kings 19:2-34, Psalm 78:49)

Angels also LOVE when someone decides to follow Jesus (Luke 15:10)

3. What they look like

Some of them have wings (cherubim and seraphim) (Exodus 25:20, Ezekiel 10, Isaiah 6:2)

Sometimes they look like people (Hebrews 13:2, Mark 16:5), sometimes they shine with God’s glory…like the halos you see in pictures (Luke 2:9), and sometimes they look very strange! (Ezekiel 1)

Angels are not for us to worship, they serve God just like us (Revelation 22:9, Colossians 2:18)

Demons

1. Who they are

Since angels have a choice, some of them decided NOT to follow God. Lucifer (Satan) was one of God’s best helper angels but he decided that HE wanted to be God ….but of course only GOD can be God. He said “I can be better than YOU!” and he got a bunch of other angels to go against God too. He has been trying to mess up God’s relationship with us ever since. He wants people to follow Him, not God. (Isaiah 14)

2. What they do

Satan and the demon angels are LIARS. (Genesis 3, Matt 4:6-11, Revelation 12:9-10, Matthew 13:19) They get people to believe God is bad and they change how people read the Bible or think of God, they also remind us of all the bad choices we’ve made (even after God has forgiven us!)…anything to keep us away from Him. (Job 1:9-11, Zechariah 3:1, Psalm 91:11-12, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Timothy 4:1)

When Satan first went away from God, he went to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and lied to them about the fruit they weren’t supposed to eat. He got them to sin and be separated from God, just like he tries to do with us… BUT as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God said “I will fix it! They should have to die for sinning, but I will send my son Jesus to die in their place, and if they accept that then they can be with me again!” (1 John 3:8, Hebrews 2:14) So when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was defeated. He can’t keep us from God if we want to be with God forever in heaven. (Colossians 2:13-15)

He and the demons still try to keep us from God, but in the end, God said he will punish Satan and the demons forever. (Matthew 25:41, 2 Peter 2:4, Revelation 20:7-10) They know God and are scared of Him because they KNOW He is better and more powerful than they are. (James 2:19, Mark 3:11)

God has promised us that He is greater than anything else in this world. (Romans 16:20) We only need to trust in Him. (James 4:7-10)

Tomorrow we’ll be learning about the armor of God, which is some ways we can fight against Satan’s lies and stay strong for God. Love to you all.

Taming the Tongue

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again!

As a reminder for the month of June we are studying the teachings of the New Testament in the Bible. These are things that Jesus’ disciples and followers wrote down after listening to God and He would tell them what to say. Some of these come from letters that they wrote to different people and churches.

So today we’ll be learning about “taming the tongue.”

What does that mean?! We use our tongues and our mouths to talk to people all day long. We can use our tongues to say nice things and encourage other people, or we can use our tongues to tell lies, or to be mean to other people. We have to learn to use our tongues in a way that makes God happy…that’s called “taming your tongue” or teaching it to be used for good.

In Proverbs (18:21) the Bible says that the tongue has the power of life or death. That means that with our words, we can bring hope and happiness to others, or we can make their hearts sad. We can use our words to tell other people about Jesus and that REALLY can bring new life!

In James 3 it reminds us that one tiny part of the boat can steer the whole thing! And one small spark or match can set a whole forest on fire. Just like that, our tongues can control everything we do and can affect a lot of other people too! When we control our tongues we stop before we yell. And we stop before we say something mean about somebody else. When we tame our tongue we ALWAYS thank God and tell others we love them.

James tells us that its impossible to always control our tongues. No one can do it perfectly!? But we should try!!

In the book called Colossians (4:6), Paul said “Let your conversation be full of grace and seasoned with salt.” Seasoned with salt??? Well, when you want to eat tasty food, sometimes your mom or dad can put some salt on it to make it taste good. Proverbs tell us that sweet words are yummy to our souls. When we speak to other people, we should use nice words, and gentleness.

Because, in Matthew (12:34) Jesus said “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” That means whatever is in your heart, is what you will say. If you have a happy heart that loves God, then you will use your tongue for good. If you have an angry heart, or you only think about what’s good for YOU, then your words will be yucky and NOT help other people.

Proverbs 21:23 says that whoever can control what he says, will keep himself out of trouble! And lastly, in the book of Ephesians (4:29), it says to let no yucky talk come out of your mount, but only say things that help other people and that praise God.

There are a LOT of verses about using nice words, aren’t there? That must mean God thinks it’s REALLY important!

What are some things you say that are NOT good?

What are some things you can say that will make other people feel happy?

*You can ask your child “What does mommy..or daddy..etc say that makes you feel happy? What does mommy say that makes you feel sad?” (If the answer is “no” you can remind them that it’s because you love them that you say no sometimes…to keep them safe or healthy. Then maybe share with your kids some of the things they say that make you happy or sad. Pray together to do a better job controlling your tongues.

For our craft, we drew a face and glued on a giant foam tongue.

We also found this music video which is pretty cute from Psalm 34:13

(posted by NewSpringChurch):

Watch it here!

That’s all for today. More soon. Love to you all!

Fruit of the Spirit

June 6, 2015June 5, 2020 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi there.

This month we are studying the teachings of the new testament (or, how to live a Godly life). Today’s lesson comes from Galatians 5:22-23.

Did you know that apples grow on trees? And bananas too! Lots of fruit grows on trees. One way you can tell if a fruit tree is healthy and strong is that will provide a LOT of GOOD fruit.

The Bible tells us that just like trees, there are some ways we can tell if someone is strong and living for God. These are called “fruits” of the Spirit (because God’s Spirit lives in us and helps us when we believe in Him.)

(We did our craft AS we covered each item) I drew a tree on each child’s paper and cut out the circles as i talked with them. Then they drew the illustration on each circle. (Bear in mind, my kids are 3…so some of these drawings may look a bit rudimentary. You could draw the outline and have your child color it in, or you could find some clip art if you wanted a more polished look.)

The first way people will know that we love God, is that we will be loving. The kids drew a heart on this circle. (We talked about love just the other day, so it was a great chance to go over again all the things that Love is! See 1 Corinthians 13)

The second way people will know we love and serve God is that we will be joyful. That means that we can be happy, even if something sad happens, because we know God cares for us and will help us. It’s ok to be sad. Even Jesus was sad sometimes, but even when you’re sad, you can know in your heart that God will always be there for you. For this one, we drew a smiley face.

The 3rd way we can show people that we love God, is that we will have peace. Do you know what that means? It means calm. We don’t have to worry about things that might happen, because God is taking care of us. We know we will live with Him forever and that He is always there for us. We drew a dove for this one (with *some* help from mom).

(You could also talk about the dove during Jesus baptism, how that was a sign of God sending His son in peace and not wrath towards humanity. Also, the dove with Noah…that God had been angry and washed all the sin away, but promised He would still find a way to be with us and that He loves us forever.)

The next “fruit” we will have in our lives is patience. That means waiting with a good attitude. It can be very hard to be patient. When you love God, though, and you know He has everything under control, it can be a little bit easier sometimes. For this one, we drew a clock.

We will also be kind. Kindness can be helping a friend, giving hugs or listening to them. There are SO many ways to show kindness to others. This time, we traced our “giving” hands. (We also remembered our lesson on giving from earlier in the week).

When we love God, we will make good choices. We try to do the right thing. Sometimes, when no one is looking, it can be easy to do the wrong thing, but if we really love God, we will try to always do what is right. For this one, we drew a crown.

People will also know we love Jesus by our faithfulness. Faithfulness means not giving up. Loyal. It can also mean trusting. We can be loyal to those we love and we can be loyal to God. We spend time talking to Him and reading the Bible. We can also trust Him forever and forever. And the Bible also says that God is faithful too. He is faithful and will love us forever. We drew a cross and remembered God’s faithfulness to us, even when we do bad things, He still loves us and sent His son Jesus to die in our place. THAT’S how committed He is to us.

When we love God, we will also show gentleness. (This was an easy one for our kiddos to understand). We drew a soft lamb.

The last way we can show people we have God in our lives, is by our self control. That means that we control our emotions and our choices. You can have self control by not yelling or hitting. You can show self control by not eating too much candy. You can show self control by being a good listener. What are some other ways we can show self-control?

For this last one, we drew some pieces of candy.

If your kids believe in God, you can talk with them about which ones they might struggle with. Being open and sharing what is hard for you can be a great tool for your kids too.

Altogether, our trees looked like this: