salvation

Psalm 51

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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.

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!

Believe and Confess

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! Today’s lesson is Romans 9 and 10.

This is another lesson from Paul’s letter to the Romans.

This time he wanted the people to remember that we are only given forever life in heaven because God loves us. We can’t do enough good things to earn our way there. If we could, then people would always say “look at all the good things I’VE done. God loves me MORE. But God doesn’t have favorites. He loves everyone and because He loves us, He gave us His son Jesus to die for us. THAT is why we are saved from our sins.

This is grace. When we are supposed to get bad consequences and we don’t it’s called mercy. But God does even better than that. He doesn’t just forgive our sins, He also calls us His children and says we will live forever in heaven with Him! That is grace. God gives us more than we could ever earn. The Bible says God is like a good Father who loves to give His children gifts. The best gift God gives us is eternal life in heaven with Him.

Paul said “Some of the Israelites don’t want God’s grace. They want to go to heaven because they follow all the rules. But nobody follows all the rules all the time, we all sin. We NEED God’s mercy and grace. And there’s nothing we can do make Him let us into heaven….it is a gracious gift from God to us.”

Romans 10:9 says all we have to do is accept God’s grace. “If you confess (say) with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Jesus already did all the work! Of course when we love Him, we WANT to do good things, to be like Him….but those good things are never good enough to forgive our sins…only Jesus can do that. We just need to believe and say “Yes, you ARE Lord, I believe.”

For our craft today we cut out little hearts, put on some lipstick and kissed them (confess with our mouths and believe with our hearts), then we wrote today’s memory verse.

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Thanks again for joining us, love to you all!

From Adam to Jesus

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Today’s lesson is from Romans 5.

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This is another part from Paul’s letter to the Romans.

The first people God ever made were named Adam and Eve…and they disobeyed God. They sinned. That’s when death entered the world and they couldn’t stay with God anymore. Adam started it all, but everyone sins, just like Adam did. But Paul reminds us that even though sin started with one person, forgiveness comes from one person too! Do you know who that is? It’s Jesus!

Our sin keeps us from God, but Jesus’ sacrifice (dying in our place) brings us back to God. He took our punishment (death). But He didn’t stay dead! God raised Him back to life! That’s what He does with us too! We should have to die for our sins, but because of Jesus, He forgives us and gives us eternal (forever) life with Him.

Paul said if someone was about to kill your best friend, you would stop them! But if someone was trying to kill a bad guy, would you stop them? Jesus did. Jesus didn’t die for us because we are good, He died for us even though we are bad and sin.

Verse 8 says, “God demonstrated (showed) His love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Sin came from one man (Adam) and is forgiven by one man (Jesus). God loves us even when we sin, and Jesus chose to die for us and forgives us, THAT is true love.

 

We did a craft today, but I don’t really like how it turned out…you win some, you lose some. The important thing is that our children hear the words of God.

Some of these New Testament stories may even be a bit advanced for their understanding. We try and pray for wisdom in how to teach these things to our kids, but sometimes Biblical concepts may still go over their heads. It’s not in vain though. Continual reading and learning of God’s word is a wonderful (and essential) habit to teach our kids. And you never know when they WILL understand these concepts so it’s never too early to teach them! Laying a strong foundation that you can build and build as they grow is never in vain. (Isaiah 55:8-11,  Proverbs 22:6, Deut 11:18-21, Romans 10:17)

 

Thanks for 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!

HE IS RISEN!

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!  We are doing our Easter lesson today! He is Risen!

This story can be found in the Bible in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20.

It was now Sunday morning. Jesus had died on the cross on Friday. The leaders who wanted Him dead were laughing and happy He was finally gone! The people who loved Jesus missed Him terribly and even though He had told them LOTS of times that He would die and be alive again 3 days later (Matt 17:22, Mark 8:31, John 2:19, Matt 12:39-40, Matt 16:21, John 10:17, 18, see also: Isaiah 53:5-12, Psalm 35:19, Psalm 69:4, Psalm 22:16, Zech 12:10, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 49:15) …they didn’t really understand and they were very sad AND they were scared the leaders would come after them next.

After Jesus died, the soldiers and leaders remembered Jesus saying He would live again and they set up guards in front of the tomb (kind of like a cave) where Jesus’ body was put after He died. They put a HUGE stone (bigger than your dad!) in front of the tomb…it would take a LOT of people to move it. They kept watch day and night because they thought the disciples would try to come take Jesus’ body and pretend He was alive. (They didn’t believe Jesus would REALLY live again!)

That Sunday morning, a few of the women who loved Jesus went to the tomb. They were going to put oil and spices on His body and pray. But, one of God’s angels came, rolled back the stone and sat on it. The guards were so scared they fainted!

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; HE HAS RISEN, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid but SO EXCITED, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my disciples; I will see them soon.”

This is THE story of the Bible. God is all powerful. He is perfect. He made all things and is in all things. He is stronger than anything, even death. God has the power over life and death. Our sin keeps us from God and we should die forever in hell away from God. But God sent His son Jesus to die in our place so we don’t have to. We know Jesus died and lived again and because He did that for us, when we die, we will live again in heaven if we believe He died for us and make Him king of our hearts.

Jesus dying AND living again shows God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. It proves that God has the power to raise us from the dead. It shows that those who believe in Christ will not remain dead, but will be resurrected unto forever life.

AMEN!

 

Today we made a diorama (or dino-rino as my kids called it). Basically a little theater and characters to tell the story.

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We used two pieces of green and 2 pieces of blue construction paper to make the grass and sky in our box. We cut out a sun and taped it to the ceiling with a string. We cut out a tomb and folded under the end to tape to the floor of our box. Then we crumpled up a piece of brown paper to be the stone. We also made a flat empty bed inside the tomb.

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The guards are guarding the tomb. (We drew them scared).

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The women are coming to visit the tomb.

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The angel is on the rock, inside the tomb is empty. The guards have passed out and the women are listening to the angel. Jesus is waiting to see them!

 

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all! Happy Easter!

Good Friday

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. We are continuing the story of Easter today. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.

Today is called Good Friday, though the story seems very very sad.

Jesus had been arrested because the leaders didn’t like how much the people liked Jesus. They were scared He would try to be more important than them. They took Him to the Israelite leaders and the Roman leaders and nobody could really decide what to do with Him.

Some of the leaders didn’t like that He said He was God’s son (even though He was.) Some of the leaders didn’t like how powerful He was (but remember, God can do ANYTHING!) Some of the leaders didn’t like how much the people loved Him (and how much HE loved them!!)

It was very confusing. Some of the leaders didn’t see any reason Jesus should die…but some of the others finally got the crowd all worked up and soon the people were yelling for Jesus to die.

(*parents of small children can edit this as needed) They hurt Him. They hit Him with sticks, they spit on Him, they took off His clothes and smacked Him with sharp thorny sticks. It was very very ouchy. But Jesus knew it had to happen. They made a crown from some thorns and put it on His head and laughed and laughed and said “HA! HERE’S YOUR ‘KING!'” They were making fun of Jesus. Finally, they got two big BIG pieces of wood and nailed and tied them together to make a cross. They made Jesus carry that big cross all through the streets. Some of the people in the streets (like the disciples and Jesus’ mom Mary) cried, because they loved Jesus, but most of the people were saying terrible things and were very mean to Him.

Finally, He went up a big hill and they put the cross in the ground standing up. Then they took nails and hammered through His hands into the wood (OUCH!) and they hammered His feet into the wood too. (OUCH!)

Some of the people laughed at Jesus and said, “If you are REALLY God’s son, you’d have enough power to get down off that cross!”

And that was true. Jesus DID have enough power to get off the cross. He could have asked for help from God, or for angels to help, or He could have just walked away, but He didn’t.

While He was on the cross, God put all our bad choices (sin) on Jesus. He felt all the pain and consequences for our choices. He did that so WE don’t have to. Jesus asked God to forgive us. You, your mom, your dad, your grandma, your cousins, His disciples, the Pharisees, “bad guys”…everyone. There were two other people who HAD made bad choices who were also dying on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of them laughed at Jesus, but the other asked Jesus to forgive him. And even though he was about to die, Jesus said, “Yes! I WILL forgive you. Today when you die, you will be with Me in heaven.” (It’s NEVER too late to choose Jesus!)

And the saddest part was, when He was taking our sin, God couldn’t even look at Him. (Because God is perfect, He can’t be around nasty sin…so He couldn’t be near Jesus) and that’s the worst thing…to be apart from God. God is all goodness and love so to apart from God is not feel any goodness, any love or any happiness. Our bad sin keeps us AWAY from God forever. But Jesus took that FOR US on the cross, so our sin doesn’t have to keep us away from God! We CAN live with Him in perfectness forever in heaven, because we are FORGIVEN by God…because Jesus took all that punishment, all those consequences FOR US. THAT is why it is GOOD Friday.

The sky got dark, there was thunder and lightning and an earthquake. God was mad. Do you know why? He was mad that Jesus was in so much pain. Do you know it makes your mom and dad very sad when you get hurt? And if they see someone hurt you it makes them mad. Because they love you! and they want everyone to be nice to you! When someone is mean to you, it makes them angry. God was angry that His son was so sad and in so much pain.

But an amazing thing happened. In the temple (the church) there was a big front room where everyone prayed. Then behind a GIANT curtain was a thing called the Ark of the Covenant (a special box where God’s Spirit was). When Jesus died, that curtain tore into 2 pieces, top to bottom and it was God saying “My Spirit will now live in EVERYONE who loves Me. Not just in the temple, but in everyone’s heart who loves Me and chooses Me.”

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said “It is finished.” Then He died.

He meant His work of taking our sins was finished. He took it all. Every bad thing you can ever think of, Jesus died for that. It is forgiven if we just ask and decide we want Jesus to be OUR King. (1 John 1:9, John 3:16-17, Isaiah 53:3-5, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 3:22-24, 1 Peter 2:24).

You can talk with your parents/grandparents/pastor about this story and what it means to you. Maybe you’re ready to say “Thank you Jesus for dying for me! Please forgive my sins and be my King.”

We made cardboard crosses today, but mostly the discussion was our focus.

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Thanks for joining us. Can’t wait for SUNDAY!! Happy Easter-love to you all!