old testament

Psalm 23

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! Today’s psalm is about trusting God. This is very popular song and it tells us God is like a shepherd that takes care of us, His sheep.

This is a song that David wrote…and since HE was a shepherd…he knew a lot about what it takes to keep sheep healthy and safe.

shepherd-with-sheep-clip-art-p9sjih-clipart

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

For preschool understanding:

The Lord is like a shepherd, He takes care of everything I need.
He keeps me safe….like a shepherd has his sheep sleep in green pastures,
He shows me a good, peaceful way to live…like a shepherd leads his sheep by calm waters,
he refreshes my soul and makes my heart happy.
He guides me along the right paths and helps me make good choices, because that makes Him happy.
Even when sad or hard things happen, like walking through a dark, scary, valley,
I will not be afraid, for You, God, are with me;
your strength comforts me…like a shepherd’s big staff (stick) protects the sheep.

You give me everything I need AND MORE….like a whole feast of food and nothing can stop how good You are to me. 
You give me all the best things to comfort me, my cup overflows…I have more than enough.
Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will live close to the Lord in His house forever.

Like a shepherd that loves his sheep, God loves us and takes good care of us. He gives us everything we need AND more!

We did not do a craft today, but of course any kind of sheep craft would work.

I also found THIS super cute marshmallow sheep cupcake.

THIS VIDEO from Sami Cone teaches sign language along with the verses.

THIS VIDEO from zondervan retells the Jesus Storybook Bible version of Psalm 23.

And this cute video from spaz1amy is just a super cute recitation.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Psalm 100

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Hi all! Today’s Psalm is a song of thanksgiving–giving God thanks. Which works out nicely, because here in the US we are about to celebrate thanksgiving!

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

What are YOU thankful for? Because it is fall here and we are celebrating Thanksgiving, we decided to make thankfulness trees. We have done this before adding one new leaf day throughout the month…but for our craft today, we drew some trees and branches on paper and then took 5 leaves and wrote down some things we were thankful for and glued them to our tree. If you have a large sunday school class, you could make a felt tree to hang on the wall, or if you want, you could memorize Psalm 100 this month and start making your own thankfulness tree, adding one new leaf of something you’re thankful for each day to the tree. You can use real leaves, craft leaves, or even leaves cut from fabric or paper.

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Psalm 51

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Hey all! Welcome again!

This month we are learning about Psalms–a book of songs. We’ve already learned about songs that praise God and songs for when we are frustrated with God. Today’s song is a song to tell God I’m sorry.

King David had done a bad thing. He wanted to marry a lady but she was ALREADY married to someone else! So he sent her husband to war so he would die and then David could marry her. God was not happy that David wanted to kill her husband and the priest (church leader) named Nathan said “God is NOT happy with you. You sinned and disobeyed God’s words, David!”

David realized he had done a terrible thing and he wrote this song asking God to please forgive him and help him do better.

 

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

 

When we write this in simplified kid-version it reads like this:

Please don’t give me the consequences I deserve, O God,
 but because of  Your love;
and because of how much You care about me, 
wipe away the bad things I have done.

Wash away all my bad choices
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know what I have done wrong,
I think about it all the time.
Against You, God, have I sinned
and done what is evil in Your sight;
so You are right in whatever you decide to do with me.

I was sinful since I was a baby,
even when I was inside my mom’s belly.

If YOU cleanse me I will be clean;
 wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
It’s like my bones are crushed to pieces because of my sin….let my body celebrate again.
Hide your face from my sins
and wipe away all my bad choices.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and give me a right spirit within me.
Do not send me away from you, or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Bring back to me the happiness of You saving me,
 and help me always follow you.

Then I will teach other people who disobey You, Your ways,
so that lots of sinners will turn back to You.

Save me from the guilt of killing that guy, O God,
You who are God who saves me from my sins,
and my tongue  will sing of Your righteousness (all the perfect things you do and are).

Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will yell Your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
You do not take pleasure in gifts.
What I give you, O God, is a broken heart;
You, God, will not forget me.

May it please You to prosper us, your people,
to keep us safe and protect us.
Then you will be happy with the gifts we bring, when we bring them to You with hearts that love and obey You.

For today’s craft, we cut out and decorated hearts with verse 10 written on them. Then we learned THIS SONG.

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all.

Psalm 44

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! We are currently looking at some of the Psalms (songs). Most of these were written by David (David and Goliath, King David) but some were written by other people. If you remember from yesterday, we talked about how some of the songs are about praising God.

Today’s Psalm is about being frustrated. Do you ever get frustrated? Do you know God wants us to talk and maybe even sing, EVEN when we are frustrated? This Psalm is Psalm 44.

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1 We have heard it with our ears, O God;
    our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
    in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations
    and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
    and made our ancestors flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
    nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
    and the light of your face, for you loved them.

4 You are my King and my God,
    who decrees[c] victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
    through your name we trample our foes.
6 I put no trust in my bow,
    my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
    you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
    and we will praise your name forever.

9 But now you have rejected and humbled us;
    you no longer go out with our armies.
10 You made us retreat before the enemy,
    and our adversaries have plundered us.
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for a pittance,
    gaining nothing from their sale.

13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
    the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
    the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
    and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
    because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

17 All this came upon us,
    though we had not forgotten you;
    we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
    our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
    you covered us over with deep darkness.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
    since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
    and forget our misery and oppression?

25 We are brought down to the dust;
    our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
    rescue us because of your unfailing love.

Our cliff notes, child-directed version reads:

——————————————————————–

We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us
everything You did a long time ago. 

With Your hands You drove out the other nations and put our families in the promised land; You crushed the other people and made our ancestors grow and have everything they needed.

It was not by their swords that they won the land, nor did their strength bring them victory; it was Your power and Your strength, for You loved them.

You are my King and my God, who gives victories for Israel. With Your power, you we push back our enemies, through your help, we defeat our enemies.

It’s not my bow and arrow or my sword that gives me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame.

We say all day how wonderul God’s power is and we will praise your name forever.

***until now there has not been frustrated complaining…even when we’re frustrated or don’t understand what God is doing or why sad things are happening, it’s important to always remember to thank God for everything He has done for us and how much He loves us**

But now you have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go out to help fight with our armies. You made us run away from our enemies, and the other guys have taken all our things.

You gave us up to be eaten like sheep and have scattered us among the nations…made us leave the promised land. You sold your people for a pennies, gaining nothing from their sale. You have made us a disappointment to our neighbors, a joke to those around us. The people call us names and shake their heads in disappointment at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the mean things said by those who hate me, because the other guys are bent on getting even.

All this happened, even though we had not forgotten you; we never betrayed your covenant. Our hearts had not turned yucky; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us like putting us in a lion’s den; you covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the to praise Your name, or worshipped a pretend god, You would have found out, because You knows the secrets of the heart? But for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep about to killed and eaten.

Wake up, Lord! Why are You sleeping? Do not forget us forever. Why do you hide your face
 and forget our sadness and the bad things that are happening to us? We are brought down to the dust, about to die.

Rise up and help us; rescue us because of Your unfailing love.

———————————————————————

The people who wrote this song first praised God for the wonderful things He had done for His people–leading them to the promised land and helping them defeat their enemies. But then they complained because bad things were happening. They said, “we didn’t disobey You, God, or worship other pretend gods…so WHY aren’t You helping us anymore? Why are you mad at us? We know You really do love us, so PLEASE come help us!”

Did you know that just because you love and obey God doesn’t mean only good things will happen to you? Sometimes even if you love and obey God, sad and scary things might happen. We can always remember how much God loves us and that He fights for us! And it’s ok to tell God when we are sad or scared or frustrated. Just like when you are sad or hurt and you call for your mom or dad to come help, God is the same way. When we are scared or hurt, we can pray or sing to Him and He will help us and remind us how much He loves us.

THIS VIDEO is a musical version of today’s verses posted by The Living Psalms-Randy Gordon.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Psalm 8

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey all! Today (and for the next few days) we are talking about the book of Psalms. A Psalm (sawlm) is a song.

There is a whole book of the Bible just of songs! Most of them were written by King David (David and Goliath, King of Israel), but some were written by other people.

Mostly the songs are either asking God for help, or thanking God for all He’s done for us.

Did you know you can sing songs to God when you are sad or happy? Even when you are mad or confused! Some of the songs we sing in church today come from the book of Psalms!

There are different kinds of psalms–some tell God “thank you,” some ask God for help, some tell the story of God’s people, and some are just to tell God how wonderful He is…they tell about God!

Our first psalm we are going to read is Psalm 8. This is a song that praises God for being SO big and wonderful and also for loving US!

psalm-8-sun

 

NIV:

1 Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

And an easier read for kids, the Living Bible translation:

1 O Lord our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows the heavens. 2 You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!

praise

3 When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have made— 4 I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!

stars

5 And yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head.

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6 You have put him in charge of everything you made; everything is put under his authority: 7 all sheep and oxen, and wild animals too, 8 the birds and fish, and all the life in the sea. 

an

9 O Jehovah, our Lord, the majesty and glory of your name fills the earth.

jehovah

 

 

Isn’t it amazing that the GREAT BIG God who made EVERYTHING and is in charge of EVERYTHING loves us? He knows you and He loves you! Wow.

(We didn’t do a craft today,  but you could certainly illustrate these verses, or make a list of the ways God is amazing. Or maybe make an earth from a painted paper plate and write verse 1 on it.)

THIS VIDEO is a popular song based on these verses by Lincoln Brewster (posted by Bob Marshall).

THIS VIDEO is a kid’s version of the well-known hymn version of these verses posted by Kids Praise Kids.

THIS VIDEO posted by jwoelmer2 has these verses in Hebrew set to music…so you can hear how David or the Israelites *may* have sounded when THEY sang the song.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Isaiah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back! Today’s lesson is about another prophet named Isaiah. A prophet is someone who talks with God and then tells the people what God wants them to know.

Isaiah has a whole book of the Bible for the things God wanted the people of Israel to know.

In this book, God tells His people (the people living in Judah and the rest of Israel) that they have disobeyed Him. Do you remember what it’s called when we disobey God? That’s called sin. And God tells them there will be consequences for their sins. BUT, if they will obey God again, and love only Him, then He will forgive them (1: 18-31).

Isaiah spends a lot of his book reminding the people of all the ways they have disobeyed God and how if they don’t ask Him to forgive them that there will be sad consequences–they will be taken away from the promised land. (And they were!)

We all sin too and when we sin, we can no longer live in heaven with God. We get taken away from the “forever promised land” with God (heaven).

BUT, in this book, God was telling His people, “I have a plan.” Isaiah 12:2 says, “Behold, God is my salvation,  I will trust and not be afraid.” Isaiah told the people that GOD Himself would make a way to save His people and to forgive them. Do you know what that way is?

It’s Jesus! God would send His own son, Jesus to die on the cross for us take our consequences so we could be perfect in God’s eyes. (Isaiah 53)

Isaiah told the people about Jesus who would be coming. In chapter 9, he tells the people that a baby will be born “For to us a child is born (Jesus), to us a son is given (God’s OWN son!), and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor (like a teacher and helper), Mighty God, Everlasting Father (we are God’s children!), Prince of Peace.” Most of the people then didn’t understand what Isaiah was saying…but we know he was talking about Jesus and that we don’t have to be afraid of the consequences of our sins if we believe in Jesus and that He came to die for us–we can just be thankful! 

God let Isaiah see some of heaven. In chapter 6 he says. “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were creatures, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Holy means special and not like anyone or anything else.)

And at the end of Isaiah, God promises a GREAT future to those who trust in Him. In chapters 65 and 66, He says, “For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes. I will make new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create…I will take delight in my people; there will be no more weeping or crying.” He says all the people and animals will get along. Everyone will have enough food and not have to worry about anything! The people will be healthy and happy. They will worship God together forever. 

Isn’t it wonderful that even though WE disobey God, HE makes a way for us to be forgiven? There is nothing WE can do to get God to forgive us, it’s like a present He gives us, because He loves us. We just have to say “Yes! I want that present! Thank you, God!”

For our craft today we drew pictures of Isaiah’s vision of heaven and talked about how thankful we are for God sending His son Jesus to forgive our sins and all the things we are looking forward to about heaven.

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THIS VIDEO is a version of the song “I see the Lord” performed by Chris Falson.

THIS VIDEO is an overview of Isaiah by ShareFaithSolutions.

THIS VIDEO is from Saddleback Kids and focuses on the necessity of Jesus’ coming.

THIS VIDEO is from JellyTelly and is also a nice overview.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Amos/Hosea

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Welcome back all! Yesterday at our house, we did Jonah found HERE.

hosea

Today’s lesson is about two prophets. If you remember, a prophet is someone who talks to God and then tells the people what God wants them to know.

After King Solomon, God’s people (remember those 12 families?) they split up and wanted two different kings. So there was the family of Judah and then everyone else (called Israel). The kings of Judah sometimes obeyed God, but the kings of Israel did not. And the people in Israel were not obeying God very well either.

Two of the prophets (men God told to talk to His people) were named Amos and Hosea.

Amos was a man from Judah. It wasn’t his job to be a prophet….his job was to take care of trees. He was just a regular guy that God used to tell the people of Israel to “KNOCK IT OFF!” They were not being nice to the people who were poor or helpless. The people were not making good choices. (Amos 2:6-8, 3:10, 5:11-12, 8:4-6). Most of the people had a LOT of money and they thought they were HOT STUFF. They forgot God’s words about helping other people and showing God’s love…..they only loved themselves and spent all their time thinking about themselves and all their money buying things ONLY for themselves. So Amos was from Judah and when he came to tell the people to remember what God wanted them to do, they said, “He’s from Judah….he’s not one of us.” And they didn’t listen to him. God warned the people if they didn’t stop that there would be consequences. (And later there would be, when Israel gets taken over and the people have to LEAVE God’s promised land).

Hosea lived at the same time as Amos and he ALSO told the people to knock it off. But when HE talked to the people he also said if they would come back to God and obey Him, that God would forgive them and save them from the consequences. Even though God gives us consequences for our sins (our bad choices against Him), He will forgive us and always love us.

These prophets told the people to stop being mean to other people…stop thinking only about YOU. You can’t just pray and read the Bible…you have to DO what the Bible says…and that means loving other people. God tells His people in Hosea 6:6 that it is more important for us to KNOW Him and to SHOW His love to other people, than to go to church or do “church things” the right way.

The people of Israel did not listen though and they would be taken away from God’s promised land. But when they would later ask God to forgive them, He would.

When we mess up, God forgives us too, but we should also try to not only pray or read the Bible but DO what it says–to love others like God loves us.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

King Josiah

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Hi all! Welcome back! Yesterday we did the story of Israel’s Exile and Hezekiah’s Trust. Todays lesson is from 2 Kings 22-23. Last year’s story and craft can be found HERE.

God’s people had forgotten to obey Him. They disobeyed God and worshipped pretend gods called idols. They did what the wanted and didn’t take care of the temple (the church.) The church was falling apart because no one cared enough about God to fix it.

The kings of God’s people had mostly not been very good kings. They did not remember God’s words and did not care to obey Him. But then, a young boy named Josiah became king. His father had been king and now he would be the new king. Even though he was young, God was about to use him to do GREAT things.

Josiah obeyed God and tried to always do the right thing. As he got a bit, he had his helpers fix up the church. As they were fixing and cleaning, they found some old parts of the Bible. Josiah had his helpers read it to him and when he heard what it said, he cried and cried. Do you know why? Because the people were NOT doing what the Bible said and he felt so sorry to God. We don’t know what God wants us to do unless we read the Bible! When we know what His word says, then when we have decisions to make, we can know if it’s something that God would want us to do or not. But we can forget God’s words if we don’t read our Bible…so it’s important to read the Bible a lot…and reading with your mom or dad can help you understand it!

King Josiah called all the people together and told them the words of God. He and all the people made a new covenant (promise) to follow God and obey Him.

The people took down their pretend gods and did what was right.

You don’t have to be a big grown up to do the right thing. Josiah was a good example to all the people in Judah for how to love God…worshipping ONLY Him, helping keep the church nice, praying to God, and obeying Him.

In 1 Timothy 4:12 it says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Even little guys can do the right thing for God and sometimes you can even show grown ups how to love God.

For our craft today we wrote out 1 Timothy 4:12 and then drew pictures of each of the ways we can show other people how to love and obey God.

 

Speech: a face with a big, open mouth

Life: we traced our hands–loving God with our life means doing what He wants us to do

Love: a heart

Faith: a cross

Purity: a star–purity means perfect, nothing yucky in it–like a bright, shining star

 

We found THIS VIDEO from KidMo.

SabbathSchool has a two part video on today’s lesson found HERE and HERE.

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

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!