Paul

Lydia believes in Jesus

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HI all! Welcome back! Today’s story is from Acts 16.

Paul and his friends were traveling around telling people about Jesus. One day they decided to pray by a river. Some ladies were there and Paul began talking to them. One of the women was name Lydia. She sold fancy purple fabric and she loved God.

She didn’t know about Jesus yet though and when she heard Paul tech about Jesus, she believed right away! She loved God and knew Him and the Bible so well that right away she knew Jesus had to be the Savior the Bible talked about. She got baptized in the river and then invited the disciples into her home for dinner, sharing God’s love.

 

For our craft today we drew crosses and then glued all kinds of purple fabric inside. Our text reads: Lydia believes in Jesus.

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Paul and Barnabas

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Hi all! Today’s story is from Acts 13-15.

Paul (who used to be called Saul) and Barnabas (the disciples who had welcomed Saul after he stopped being mean to God’s people and started loving God) began to travel around and teach people about God.

Some people loved to hear about Jesus and a lot of people believed in Him. But some people did not. They met one sorcerer (like a witch) who would do sneaky magic and he worked for a very important leader. Paul and Barnabas taught this leader about Jesus but the sorcerer tried to tell the leader it wasn’t true. Jesus hadn’t REALLY died for our sins and lived again! But then Paul said, “How dare you life about God! From now on you will be blind and won’t be able to see!” And in that moment, God’s Holy Spirit made the man blind. Then the leader KNEW that Paul and Barnabas’ God was the REAL God.

As they traveled God helped them do lost of amazing miracles to prove to the people that Jesus WAS really God. We don’t see that as much today, because we have those examples in the Bible…but then the people were just starting to hear about Jesus and believe. Lots and lots of people believed, but many of the important leaders and rulers did not like them talking about Jesus and in some places they told them to go and never come back, and once the people even tried to kill Paul by throwing rocks at him (like they did to Stephen). But Paul did not die, he got up and kept right on teaching in the next city.

They spent most of their time teaching to Gentiles (the people who were not God’s chosen people of the old testament.) Remember when Jesus came, He said God was showing you before how He sets His people apart. They are special. But it’s not just one family of people…His message is for everyone. And He wants His people to be Holy (set apart…different from the world…trying to be like GOD), but they can come from ANY family! Anyone who believes in Jesus can be saved.

Some of the people were so amazed that Paul and Barnabas could make sick people better or do other amazing miracles that they said “YOU guys must be God too!” But they said, “No no…it’s just God’s POWER that helps us do these things. We are regular people like you! We are just doing what God helps us do!”

Isn’t it amazing how God can use just two guys to tell SO many people about Him?! You can tell other people about Jesus too! God has big plans for you too, no matter how small you may be. And we never have to be afraid to tell people about Jesus, because we know God is control and we can trust Him.

We’ll have more on Paul tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

God changes Saul’s heart

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Hi all! Welcome back! Today’s story is from Acts 9. (You can read our lesson/see our craft from last year HERE.)

 

If you remember from our last story about Stephen, when all the people were throwing rocks at Stephen to kill him (because he was teaching about Jesus), they all put down their coats by a man named Saul who was happy to see Stephen die.

Saul wanted to kill all of Jesus’ disciples. He went to the high priest and got permission to go to a city called Damascus where he could find any of Jesus’ followers and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he traveled to Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you being mean to me and my people?”

“Who are you?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting (being mean to),” He replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and then you will be told what to do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone?! What was going on!? Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him into Damascus. For three days he was blind (couldn’t see), and did not eat or drink anything.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. (This is not the same Ananias who tried to lie to God. Do you have any friends that have the same name? Well sometimes people in the Bible had the same name too. So this is a different Ananias.)

God said to him, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

God told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man named Saul…he is praying. In a dream he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Lord!” Ananias answered, “I have heard lots of bad things about this man and all the terrible things he has done to Your people in Jerusalem. Now he has come here with permission from the chief priests to arrest anyone who calls on your name!”

But God said to Ananias, “Go! I have chosen this man to tell EVERYONE about me…to the Israelites and even people who are not Israelites (gentiles).”

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. He put his hands on Saul, and said, “Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Immediately, Saul could see again. He got up and was baptized, then he ate some food.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. He started to preach in the churches that Jesus is the Son of God. All the people who heard him were SO surprised and said, “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

Whoa.

Isn’t this the same guy who was being SO mean in Jerusalem to those who love Jesus? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners?” They couldn’t believe it! Saul confused everyone living in Damascus by teaching and proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Soon the people in Damascus who didn’t like Jesus started to plan to kill Saul. (Isn’t it funny that Saul used to kill people who loved Jesus and now he was about to be killed for loving Jesus!?) But some of his friends helped him escape the city and he went back to Jerusalem.

The disciples there were all afraid of him, and didn’t believe that he really had a changed heart. But one them, named Barnabas, took Saul and brought him to the disciples. He told them how Saul had seen God and that Jesus had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had taught without any fear in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and began teaching in the name of Jesus. And he even got a new name, Paul.

Then the church grew and grew and lots of people came to know Jesus.

 

Isn’t it AMAZING that God can take someone so set against Him and change their heart? There is no one that God does not love and no one that God can not reach. If you can think of the grumpiest, grouchiest, worst person you know…remember that God loves even them and He wants them to know Him! And because God can do anything…He can change their heart. Why don’t you pray for that person right now that God would help change their heart.

God used Saul…an average person who didn’t even like Him. He changed Saul’s heart and used Saul to tell SO SO many people about Him and to share His love with other people. God’s love changes an angry heart to a loving heart.

 

For our craft today we started with a brown piece of construction paper and drew a basic man shape like this one:IMG_3521

Then we took 1/2 piece of black and 1/2 piece of white paper and folded them in half. (I tape them together when i need my kids to cut out two papers at once). Then I drew a heart and they cut it out.

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Next we cut a box out of the middle of the man’s tummy. To do this, we folded him in half and cut out a 1/2 box (big enough to fit the heart from step 2).

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Then we opened the paper up and turned it over the back. On the back we taped a string in between the two hearts and taped the string top and bottom to the man (as pictured below).

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(Above: Being silly)

Then we drew on a face and wrote on the white side of our heart “God changed Saul’s heart! Acts 9”

(You can now spin the heart from the black side to the white side as you remember that God can change an angry, sad heart to a heart full of His love.)

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This is a cute video version of the story posted by Teaching Kids About Jesus.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Stephen

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Hi again. Today’s story is form Acts 6 and 7.

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Stephen was one of the seven men chosen to help make sure everyone had enough food. He had God’s Holy Spirit in his heart and he did great wonders and miracles. Some people didn’t like him though and started arguing with him, trying to trick him. But they could not stand up against the words the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

So they secretly told some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak bad words about Moses and about God.”

They got everyone to believe Stephen was a bad guy, saying bad things about God. They took Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin (the court). They had fake witnesses, who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. We heard him say that this Jesus will destroy this place and change everything Moses told us.”

All who were sitting in the court looked at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Is what these people say true? Do you speak against Moses and against God?”

Stephen had God’s Spirit and he was filled with courage and and he answered. He told everyone the story from Abraham to King Solomon and reminded them that even though they had been given the law from Moses, they didn’t really follow it. They knew everything God wanted them to do, but they didn’t do it! He told them they were always mean to people who reminded them what God said and they were especially mean to people who talked about Jesus, they even killed Jesus. Do you think the leaders liked Stephen saying these things? (They WERE true…the people DIDN’T obey God and they WERE mean to people who talked about Jesus…but they didn’t like Stephen telling them they were wrong!)

*****Elongated version: Stephen replied: “Listen to me! Remember God told Abraham ‘Leave your country and your people and go to the land I will show you.’ So he left and God sent him to this land where you are now living. God promised him that he and his descendants (children and grandchildren and great grandchildren) would own this land, even though at that time Abraham had no children. God said: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be salves and be treated badly. But afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ Then Abraham became the father of Isaac and later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of twelve boys, the tribes of Israel.

Because 11 of the brothers were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace. Then a famine struck and our ancestors could not find food.  Joseph sent for his whole family and they all lived in Egypt together.

After that, the number of our people in Egypt was growing and growing. Then a new king came to power in Egypt.  He was mean to our people and killed all the baby boys. That’s when Moses was born. Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son so Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was very powerful.

When Moses was a grown up, God came to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert. Through the burning bush God said, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I have seen the way my people suffer in Egypt. I will send you to set them free. The people at first did not accept Moses, but God used him in amazing ways and he led them out of Egypt and performed miracles and signs in Egypt and in the wilderness. Moses was with God in the wilderness, he was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and God gave him words to pass on to us. But our people did not obey him. So God turned away from them for a while.

Our people were given the tabernacle and the ark which held God’s covenant law. (God’s promise to always be with them and love them.) Joshua led the people and they brought it with them when they took back this land. It stayed in the tabernacle until the time of King David, who wanted to build a real church for God, but it was Solomon who built a house for him.
You people! You always resist the Holy Spirit!  Was there ever a leader you weren’t mean to? Your ancestors (grandparents and great grandparents) even killed those who talked about the coming of the Righteous One, Jesus. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him! You have been given the law but have not obeyed it.”****
When the people in the court heard this, they were furious. They didn’t want Stephen to tell them the bad things they were doing. They covered their ears and, yelled at the top of their voices, then they all ran toward him, dragged him out of the city and started throwing rocks at him. They took off their coats and put them down in front of a man named Saul who was happy Stephen was being hurt.

While they were throwing rocks at him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, forgive them.” Then he died.

The people had so forgotten God’s words. They knew all about God, but they didn’t love Him and they didn’t love other people.

This seems like a very sad story, but God will use it for Good. One of the people that day would come to love God and do great things for Him. Sometimes when we tell people about God, they won’t want to hear it and that’s very sad. But we still need to try. We can still tell God’s story and we can show God’s love. Even though the people weren’t being nice to Stephen, he trusted God and he even asked God to forgive the people.

 

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Shipwreck!

~ hebidsthemcome ~ 2 Comments

From Acts 27

So, our friend Paul who was busy traveling and telling people about Jesus had AGAIN been arrested for talking about Him. The leaders took him from judge to judge to judge…to all the big leaders, but nobody really knew what to do with him?? Finally, it was decided he would go on a boat to Rome to see Caesar who would decide his final fate.

Paul joined over 200 other people on the boat but he warned them it was not a good time to sail a boat. The captain didn’t listen. Soon, there was TERRIBLE weather, lots of  storms and the boat rocked and rocked and creaked and rocked. The wind and rain were breaking the boat and the people were scared! They even had to hold the boat together with ropes!

Paul went and prayed and asked God to keep then safe. An angel came and told Paul no one would even get one little hair hurt as long as they trusted God and believed Paul. Paul rushed to tell them the good news.

Well the storms kept going and the people were scared and some of the guards were about to sneak away in a special rescue boat, but Paul reminded them they would only be safe if they obeyed God and stayed on the boat.

Soon, the boat got closer and closer to land and SMACK! The boat crashed near an island, but not one person was hurt. Everyone made it safely to the land.

Paul was able to show the people on the island of Malta some of Gods power. He was bitten by a snake and wasn’t hurt and he helped sick people be well. Then he told them all about Jesus.

Even though the shipwreck was scary, God had a big plan for Paul…God used Paul to show the soldiers and people on the boat that God is real and He cares for us. And He used Paul to tell the people on the island the good news about Jesus dying on the cross and living again for us!

Sometimes scary things may happen in our lives, but God wants to take care of us and He wants us to obey Him. He also has BIG plans for you and wants you to help others.

For our craft, we drew some water and sand (you could glue real sand to your paper). Then we drew some happy people (yay! we didn’t die!) and then cut out a boat. Finally, we glued some broken popsicle sticks and toothpicks for the broken wood.

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Next time we’ll learn about John and his vision then we’ll wrap up the New Testament stories and start with “living in God’s love” (the teachings of the New Testament) in June.

Love to you all!

Eutychus Saved

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

This story is from Acts 20:7-12.

Paul was traveling around telling everyone about Jesus. One day he was at a house talking to everyone there. The people were having communion (where we remember Jesus dying for us and living again). He planned to leave for a new city the next day so he stayed and talked really late. It was past bedtime, the sky was dark, the moon was out.

A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window upstairs listening to Paul. God’s word is not just for grown-ups…He loves when kids and teenagers listen to what He has to say. But poor Eutychus, he started to get very sleepy and fell out the window! He died from falling too far, but Paul wasn’t mad he fell asleep…he rushed down, laid on him, hugged him and by God’s power Eutychus was ok! Paul said “don’t worry! He’s alive!” The people took him home and were so happy he was ok.

Just as the people sat around and celebrated Jesus dying and living again, they celebrated this young man being able to live again by God’s power.

For our craft, we cut out the center of a paper to be our window. Then we drew sleepy Eutychus and taped a pipe cleaner to his back to the window so he could fall back out of the window and be lifted up again.

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We’ll have more stories in a few days. Love to you all.

Acts 18-Loving those that serve

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Our story today is presented a bit differently than what we’ve been covering. It comes from Acts 18 and is about Paul and some of his friends. For this story, I drew and added to our picture as the story was told. Here is our finished product: image

Paul (centered) was busy telling everyone about Jesus. Some people didn’t like that, but some people were happy and wanted to help. Two of those people were Aquila and his wife, Priscilla.

In our house, Daddy has to work make money so we can buy things like a house to live in and food to eat. Paul’s friends let him stay at THEIR house and shared their food with him so he could spend his time telling people about Jesus. They also met a man named Apollos, who loved God, but didn’t know the whole story of Jesus. So, Aquila and Priscilla brought him to their house and taught him everything they knew.

Some people tell their friends about Jesus at school or while they go to work. You can tell people about Jesus right where you live and play, just like Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollos.

Other people spend their time serving God and telling others about him…like Pastors or missionaries (who go to far away places to serve God). (If you support any missionaries, this is a good time to tell your kids about them..where they live and what they do.) Each week we give money to our church to help God’s house and to help the Pastor(s) be able to spend their time serving God. We also send money every month to the people we know who are missionaries around the world. This helps them be able to live and have a house and food.

Sometimes, God wants us to tell people about Him. Sometimes, He wants us to serve Him right where we are; and SOMETIMES, He wants us to help OTHER people who are serving Him.

The Bible tells us that everyone who loves God is in a family…and that we can all work together like all the parts of your body work together. Some people work far away, some work right here. Some people are like the mouth who tell people about Jesus and some people are the hands…giving and making things. There are LOTS of ways to serve God and to help other people who are serving Him. The Bible also tells us one way is not more important than another way. What are some ways YOU can help serve God? What are some ways you can be a helper to OTHER people who are serving God?

We are wrapping up in Acts–2 more stories, then we’ll focus on John’s vision, then we’ll be ready for June’s lessons. Thanks everyone. Love to you all!

Paul and Silas in Jail

~ hebidsthemcome ~ 1 Comment

Hello again! Our story today comes from Acts 16.

Paul and Silas were going around telling everyone about Jesus, and helping people who were sick. Some of the people didn’t like that, so they put Paul and Silas in jail and hooked chains on their arms and legs and said the guard had to keep VERY good watch over them. If they escaped, the guard would be in BIG trouble.

That night, Paul and Silas were singing songs to God. Even when things seemed hard and yucky, they trusted God and told the other people in jail about Him. About midnight (the middle of the night), an earthquake came and shook the whole place. The floors and walls shook. The chains that were keeping Paul and Silas in place fell off and the gates busted open. BUT…they stayed. The guard was VERY worried and said “oh no! The gates are open! The prisoners are gone! I will be in SO much trouble!”

But Paul said “Don’t worry! We are all right here!” The guard immediately asked them what he must do to be saved.

Paul answered “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

The guard took Paul and Silas back to his house and everyone there believed in Jesus that night.

Paul and Silas obeyed and stayed in the jail even when they could have escaped. That showed that they trusted God and that they cared for the guard. God loves everybody and wants everybody to know about Him and His son, Jesus. Paul and Silas could have run away and saved themselves, but instead they stayed and saved the guard and his whole family.

For our craft, we drew Paul, Silas and the guard and made a chain link. We drew the jail and the earthquake.

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We also found this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y24Ak7DJZFg

We’ll continue in Acts next time. Love to you all!