promise

Obadiah

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Hello again! Today we’ll be discussing the book of Obadiah.

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Obadiah was a prophet–that’s someone who talks to God and then tells the people what God wants them to know. Sometimes it’s good news, sometimes…it’s not.

The people of Israel (God’s people He chose to set apart to show as an example of His love) were made up of twelve tribes, or kind of like big families. Most of them had left and followed a different king and Israel split into two parts. Israel fought many wars and the people of most of the tribes of Israel were overtaken and had to move far away. The last family left was the family of Judah.

But even they eventually were captured by the Babylonians. The capital city of Jerusalem (where the temple was and where the king lived) were taken over too. The people who lived nearby were from a place called Edom. The people of Edom came and took all the people of Judah’s stuff–when the city got taken over they took their cows, their houses, their jewelry, their other animals, their toys and beds. The people of Judah ran away but some of the people from Edom would capture them and give them to the king of Babylon so he could put them in jail or even kill them.

This did NOT make God happy.

So Obadiah told the people God’s words. His message was short, but it has two parts. In the first part, he yells at the people of Edom for being mean to the people of Israel. He tells them they should NOT have taken the peoples’ things, they should not break and destroy their towns and that no matter how far they try to hide, God will find them and punish them for the things they did.

The second part of his message was to tell the people of Israel that even though things seemed terrible, that God still had a plan for them. God would bring them (at least some of them) back to Israel. God would restore their things and the land He promised to them. He would give that land back to them.

God is faithful. That means when He says something, He means it and He sticks by it. God promised that land to His people and He was going to make sure it stayed with them. We know if we make bad choices, that God sees those and wants us to make it right. And then sometimes we might face scary or hard times, but we can remember the promises of God: that He loves us, He has good plans for us, and He is in control.

 

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Joshua at Jericho

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Hey all! Today we begin the book of Joshua. Last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

This story is from Joshua 1-5 in the Bible.

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If you remember, the Israelites had been wandering around the desert for 40 years on their way to the land God had promised them. It shouldn’t have taken that long, but they had disobeyed and as a consequence weren’t allowed to go there for a loooong time. Moses, their leader, had gotten very old and died and now Joshua (one of the people who DIDN’T disobey God) was in charge.

And finally…it was TIME! Time to go into the promised land!

The Israelites were getting closer to Jericho. Jericho was a strong city surrounded by a HUGE wall. So Joshua sent two men to go check out the city. They met a woman in Jericho named Rahab who helped them. She hid them from the soldiers of Jericho and asked that they would keep her and her family safe when the Israelites take over Jericho. They agreed (and they did keep their promise!) The spies returned to Joshua and they said, “YES! God has given us this land! Let’s go!”

To get to Jericho, the Israelites had to cross a river. God dried it up for them so they could cross, and then once they were across, He let the waters flow again. (Just like how they left Egypt with the parting of the red sea, their journey ended with God parting the waters for them again!) If God asks you to do something, you can be sure He will help make a way–even if it seems like a crazy idea. But walking through water wasn’t God’s only crazy idea for His people.

They soon came to Jericho. The Israelites were supposed to take over this land, but they were scared about the big wall and the big people in the city. They talked about going back to Egypt, or finding a different way to go.

But Joshua reminded the people that God had led them here and He would help them. Joshua prayed (talked) to God and God sent an angel who told him what to do.

The angel told Joshua and the people of Israel to march around the city one time for 6 days. The priests (the guys in charge of the church) were to carry trumpets and then, on the 7th day, all the people would march around the city 7 times and the priests would blow the trumpets. Then everyone would shout really loudly and the walls would fall down.

Sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it? “Just walk and then yell and blow the trumpets? Doesn’t God want us to smash the wall? Or kick it? Or shoot cannon balls at it?”

No. God wanted the people to OBEY and TRUST Him. HE would knock the wall down.

So the Israelites obeyed. They marched around the city one time for 6 days and on the 7th day, they marched around 7 times. Then Joshua told the people “Shout! God has given us this land!” The people shouted, the trumpets blasted and the walls fell down. The Israelites ran in and took over the city, defeating all the people who lived there. (Saving Rahab and her family though)

GOD is the one who knocked down the wall. He was showing the people of Israel AND of Jericho that HE is God and we know God can do….ANYTHING! Nothing is too hard for God. No matter how hard something may seem, with God all things are possible. (Matt 19:26). When God has a plan, anything is possible. We only need to TRUST Him and OBEY Him.

We watched the Veggie Tales “Josh and the Big Wall” today.

THIS is another cute video of today’s story from Little Heroes Bible Stories posted by Gold Quill. And THIS is a little video about Rahab who helped the Israeli spies.

THIS is an acapella version of “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” posted by Keith Lancaster. THIS is the same song but by Cedarmont Kids.

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Abraham’s Children

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

God gives Jacob a dream

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Hi all! Welcome back! Today’s story is from Genesis 28 and last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

If you remember from last time, Jacob tricked his older brother Esau into giving him all his stuff AND his father’s special blessing. And his brother was MAAAADDDD! So mad he wanted to KILL Jacob. So Jacob ran away.

One night he laid down outside on a rock, fell sleep, and had a dream.

In his dream he saw some stairs. The bottom of the stairs was earth and the top of the stairs was in heaven. Angels were going up and down the stairs, going back and forth up and down the stairs to and from heaven.

Jacob saw stairs going to up to heaven to connect us to God, but now we have Jesus who we can talk to all the time. HE connects us to God. Jesus is like the stairs between heaven and earth. We can trust in Him and know that He is caring for us and that He loves us.

Jacob was still dreaming and he heard God from the top of the stairs say, “I am God. I promised your grandpa Abraham, and your dad Isaac and now YOU, that you will get to keep this land where you are sleeping. This is your promised land. You will have SO MANY children and grandchildren and great grandchildren…more than all the sand by the ocean. And everyone on earth will be blessed by you” (because Jesus would come from their family later on.) I will watch over you and take care of you. I will bring you back here. I will keep my promises.”

When Jacob woke up, he yelled “AH! I found God’s house! He lives HERE!” He gave God an offering (like a special present) and promised to always give back to God part of everything God had given him. Today, we give part of our money, time and things back to God by giving to others and supporting our church, our pastors and missionaries (people who go all over the world to tell people about Jesus.)

We know God ALWAYS keeps His promises. He kept His promises to Noah, Abraham, all the way down to Jesus and to US!

 

For our craft today we took black construction paper and some wavy brown paper. We glued the wavy brown to the bottom of the black and then used oil pastels (you could crayons or markers too) to draw a sleeping Jacob. Then we cut out a blue cloud shape–his dreaming bubble. (My kids recognized this from Daniel Tiger when he does his make believe.) In the dream cloud we drew some steps and angels going up and down. Our text reads: Jacob’s dream Genesis 28

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

God’s Promise to Abram

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Hi all! Today’s lesson is from Genesis 15 and 18. Last year’s lessons can be found HERE and HERE. (This is a much simpler version of our two stories from last year…so this may be better for smaller toddlers/preschoolers whereas last year could be better for slightly older preschoolers/kids.)

So Abram and Sarai were very very old and wanted to have children…but they thought they were too old. One day God told Abram he WOULD have many many children and grandchildren…as many as the stars in the sky!

Have you ever looked out at night time and tried to count all the stars? It’s a LOT!

Abram believed God and God gave him a new name: Abraham: which means “father to many.” He also gave Sarai a new name: Sarah. Sarai means quarrelsome…like fighting a lot. Sarah means princess.

Sarah laughed when she found out God’s plan. She couldn’t believe that SHE could have a baby being so old?! But NOTHING is too hard for God. You can be sure God DID keep His promise to Abraham and Sarah.

We can always trust God. He can do ANYTHING. Nothing is too hard for God.

For our craft today we cut sponges in star shapes. Then we dipped them in glue and stamped black pieces of paper with the glue and then added glitter to represent the stars in the sky.

Our text reads: Nothing is too hard for God! Genesis 18

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!