Gods Great love For Us - Summed Up

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

                        We have learned a lot over the past year. Today will be our review of what we have learned this past year.

Bible Lesson

1.      God chose us as his special people. Before he created the world, he knew that he was going to create people. So he created a very special world for us here on earth.

The Book of Genesis tells us that at the start of the world, there was only darkness, water and wind. God took seven days to create our special world. On day 1 He created light (so that we can see the world around us.) On day 2 He created sky (air so that we can breath). Day 3 He created land, trees, grass, flowers, vegetables, fruits, grains and other plants (so that we can live and eat). Day 4 he created the sun, moon and stars (so that we can tell day from night). Day 5 He created fish and birds. Day 6 He created animals (for companionship) and then the world was ready and He created us.

2.      God loved us so much that he sent his son to the world to live with us and to save us from our sins.

After Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) sinned, the world was lost and forgot about God. But God did not give up on us. He loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to us. Jesus taught us about God’s love and then he gave his life for us by dying on the cross and taking the sin of the world with him.

In the Book of Matthew it says that Jesus stands at the door to our hearts and knocks. We need to ask him to come into our lives and fill every room in our heart.  We need to believe in Jesus. We need to believe that he died on the cross for our sins and that he rose again. Then we need to ask Jesus into our heart to forgive us for the bad things that we do. Once we ask Jesus into our hearts, we become God’s children. God becomes our Father, our Dad. And like our Dad’s here on earth, God wants us to talk to him, listen to him, and obey him.

3.      In the Book of Ephesians the Bible tells us that God adopted us as his children through Jesus Christ. Once we ask Jesus into our hearts and become a child of God, God gives us gifts just because he loves us. The main gift that he gives us is his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings you more gifts too. With God, it is like it is your birthday every day. God gives you the daily gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These gifts allow us to live a very rich and happy life. We will never feel alone or lonely because God is always with us.

4.      When we die, that will not be the end of us. Because we are God’s children, we will get to go to heaven. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for us. A mansion for each one of us in Heaven.

In the Book of Revelations we are told what heaven looks like: The mansions, really big houses, are made of pure gold. City walls are made of precious stones such as jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carnelian. Gates are made from pearls and streets are made of pure gold that looks like glass. There is a river that runs through the middle of the tree of life. There will be no need for sun or lamps because God will give us light. There will be no tears, no sickness, no dying.

We are so blessed to be God’s special people. And for all this, we should praise and worship him and follow the little that he asks us to do.

Crafts

1.      Kings Kid’s Crown

Materials: crown, rhinestones, glitter glue

Children make their special crowns to remind them that they are truly the King’s kids.

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

God's Great love For Us - Gift Of Heaven

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

A couple weeks ago we heard about the greatest thing that God ever did for us: Dying on the cross for our sins so that we can go to heaven.

Today we are going to learn more about the promise that Jesus made us. We are also going to learn more about heaven.

Our Bible lesson today is found in the book of Revelations.

Bible Lesson

Have you ever wondered about heaven?  Where is it?  What it's like?  Who lives there?  The Bible talks a bit about heaven and God has given us some hints about what it will be like.  However, a lot of it is still a mystery to us because God is still preparing a place for us.  At least that's what Jesus told his disciples before he went up to heaven. Revelations also tells us what will be in heaven.

He said he was preparing a place for us with many rooms or mansions.  It only took God 6 days to make earth. He is spending a lot more time making heaven.  Think of a beautiful waterfall, a huge mountain or even the prettiest flower you've ever seen. Heaven will be even more beautiful than that.

God can use whatever he wants to make heaven: gold, diamonds, precious stones and things we haven't even seen on earth.

We can talk more about what heaven is like later.  First we should talk about how we can get to heaven and what are some ways we can prepare to go there.  We don't need to pack anything. God tells us that we can't take anything from earth to heaven. This is because God will be giving us a new body and providing us with everything that we need.

We still haven't answered the question about how we get to heaven. In John 14 Jesus answers this question. he says, "I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me"

What Jesus was saying is that if you believe the Bible and believe that Jesus died and rose again for you, and you do his good works, He will bring you to Heaven.

For example Jesus says that by helping others by feeding them if they're hungry, visiting the sick, giving clothes to those who don't have much, and even by visiting people in jail or who have done things that are wrong.  When we do these things it's like we're doing it for Him. (Matthew 25:31-46)

By helping others now, God will give us a reward in heaven. (Matthew 5:12)  One of these rewards is a crown.  The Bible says that the Lord will reward each person a crown of righteousness when we get there.  Imagine your very own crown!

The best part of all is what heaven will be like. The Bible says that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and  there will be no more death, sadness, crying or pain.  Everything will be made new again!  You won't be able to get hurt anymore and there won't be any fighting or hitting or crying ever!  That sounds pretty neat.

It also says that there won't be a church there and there won't be any sun moon or stars because God will be there. He will give light to everything. There will be no nighttime and nothing bad will ever enter heaven.

Then there are two ways we can move to heaven.  The first way is if we die and the second way is when Jesus comes again while we're alive on earth.  The thought of death can be scary (for grown-ups too) BUT, if we keep reminding ourselves how great heaven is maybe it wouldn't have to be so scary.

That second way we can go to Heaven  is called the second coming.  When Jesus left the earth he promised his disciples that he would come again. We call this his second coming. Revelations says that he will come to earth with angels and the sound of trumpets. When he comes, everyone that believe will go back to heaven with him. What a wonderful promise to look forward to. 

Crafts

1.      Mansion in Heaven

Materials: birdhouse spray painted gold, glitter glue, rhinestones, tin foil, glue

Have the children put together the craft using glue

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

God Made Me Special Activity

                        What I am going to be when I grow up page.

                                    Children draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up.

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Helping others.

God's Great love For Us - The Holy Spirit

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

            Introduction to Bible Lesson

                        Each one of us is very special to God. Over the past weeks we have heard the                               God loves us. Today we are going to learn about the special gifts Jesus gave us                                    when he left the earth.

                        Today’s lesson can be found in Galatians 5: 22

Bible Lesson

The first gift that Jesus gave us was the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our life. The Holy Spirit brings us special gifts each day. These gifts are called fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is a little like real fruit because they are each special and different too.

It's really neat because when we ask Jesus to live in us his Spirit stays with us and He will give us some of this special fruit.  As we grow and learn more about Jesus, the Spirit will give us more and more fruit and become more Christ-like. 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  All of these fruits are good to have and the Spirit wants to give them to us.

God wants us to try to be good and have the fruit of the spirit in us.  We can try to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control but the Spirit will give us the kind of gifts he wants us to have.  It's hard to do it on our own; we need the Spirit to help us with each of these things.

Just in case you don't know what each of the fruit of the spirit means I'm going to try to explain them.   I think the easiest fruit of the spirit to explain is love.  Think of someone that loves you no matter what.  You can make mistakes and it doesn't matter what you look like, but they still love you.  God loves us too, no matter what; he even loves you more than your parents!  He can help us love others the way we should.

The next fruit is joy.  Joy is like being very, very happy, it’s being happy inside even when things aren't going great.  Again, we can try to be joyful but only God can give us the kind of happiness that makes us joyful, we can't just be joyful on our own. 

When we think of peace, we usually think of no more fighting or war.  That is right, but the peace of the spirit is a bit different.  This is the peace we get when we get to know God really well (by reading the Bible, praying, asking questions, etc).   If we have this peace we will feel calmness inside and know that all our sins are confessed and that God forgives us. 

Patience is the next one and I'm sure we know what this means.  Have you ever been told to have patience?  The patience God is talking about is for those little things like waiting to open your Christmas presents or being patient to go to the park.  But it also means to be patient for answers to prayer that might take years to be answered. 

Next is kindness and it should be easy although sometimes it's not.  Is it easy to be kind to someone who has been mean to you?  When God gives us this gift, its more than just being kind to others.  He might help us be kind to someone who really needs it and we're not even aware of it.  For example, maybe you feel like you should make a picture for your mom or call a grandparent.  God might be telling you to do that because they are having a bad day and that's exactly what they need to cheer them up.  Sometimes your kind deed to someone else is all they need to remember that someone special loves them.

Being good or goodness is the next fruit of the spirit.  Having the gift of goodness means God can depend on me to be honest, repent of my sins, and turn away from bad things. We also need to try to act this way towards others through our actions so they can see the fruit in us.  The only true goodness we have is the goodness of God living in us.

Faithfulness is next and this one might be a little trickier to understand.  Being faithful is keeping your promises, being a loyal friend even when times get tough, being trustworthy and doing the things you said you would do.  When I think of faithfulness I think of my grandma who prayed for me every single day of her life.  She was faithful in praying for me, which also meant that she prayed everyday.  

When I think of gentleness I think of holding a brand new baby.  For some reason we think they might break if we don't hold them so carefully.  The kind of gentleness God is talking about is similar to this.  No matter what situation comes up we are supposed to be gentle.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't stick up for ourselves, if someone is doing something you know is wrong you should still tell an adult or tell them to stop.  Just do it in a gentle way like Jesus would do it.

The last fruit is self-control and is a very important one, it means to be in control of what we say and do.  Without self control we can't do the things we should.  To be able to live the way God wants we have to be in control of the things we do.  Just like when a brother or sister bugs you so much you just want to hit them, we know that we have to control ourselves and not hit them.  We know we just can't do whatever we feel like sometimes because it’s not right and we'd be punished.

Just remember that with all these gifts we need help from God to be able to use the gifts properly.  We need to remember that God made us and he is perfect.  If you want the fruit of the spirit first you need to ask God to live in you, and then the more you get to know him the more fruit or gifts he will help you have.

(this Bible story explanation of the fruits of the spirit is used with permission from www.dltk-bible.com)

Crafts

1.      Fruit Craft

Materials: foam fruit shapes, pompoms, sequins, stickers, glitter glue,

Children decorate a foam fruit shape

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

 

God Made Me Activity

1.      How we can use the gifts God gives us to help others

Children color a chart to take home that helps them remember to use God’s special gifts.

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Using our gifts to help others.

God's Great love For us - The Easter Story

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

           

Introduction to Bible Lesson

                        Each one of us is very special to God. Over the past weeks we have heard the God loves us. Today We are going to hear about the greatest thing God has ever done for us.

Our Bible Lesson today is found in 4 books of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Bible Lesson

It was a sad day for all of Jesus’ disciples. They stood at the bottom of the cross and watched their friend Jesus die. They didn’t understand why it had to happen.

They believed he was the son of God. They remembered all the good things he had done like making blind people see and lame people walk. He made sick people well and he raised people from the dead. He was good and kind, following God’s commandments: loving both God and people. Why did he have to die?

Jesus had given his last breath after he asked God to forgive the people for crucifying him. One of the soldiers looked at Jesus and realized that he was the son of God.

Later that night, before the sun set, one of Jesus’s friends asked the governor if he could have the body of Jesus so that he could bury him. Pilate agreed and they carefully wrapped Jesus’s body in clean cloths and took him to a tomb to bury him. The governor thought that someone might try to steal the body of Jesus so that they could say that he rose again, so the governor had guards placed at the tomb and had a huge stone rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb.

Three days later Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women came to visit Jesus’s tomb. When they got to the tomb there was a huge earthquake because an angel descended from heaven, moved the stone and sat upon it. The guards were afraid and fell faint to the ground.

Then the angel spoke to the women and said: do not be afraid. I know you are here to see Jesus, but he is not here. He has been raised from the dead and is going to see you in Galilee. They ran quickly away from the tomb both a little scared and excited. Jesus met them in the garden, gave them a hug and told them to go tell the disciples. They went to the disciples and told them what had happened.

When they told the disciples, no one believed. Peter decided to take a look for himself. When he got to the tomb he found the cloths that had been wrapped around Jesus but the tomb was empty. He went home amazed at what had happened.

Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem and showed them his side and his hands. They believed him. They were so happy that they told everyone the good news. Jesus was alive!

He stayed with them a few more days teaching them and then he led them to Bethany, raised his hands and blessed them. As he blessed them he ascended into heaven and told them he was making a place for them in heaven. He also told them to go into the whole world and tell everyone about the gospel.

Crafts

1.      Easter Cross

Materials: foam cross, rhinestones, foam flower stickers, glue

Have the children put together the craft using glue

2.      Easter Eggs

Materials: small foam eggs, Easter stickers, crayons.

Have the children color the eggs and then put stickers on them.

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

           

Easter Activities

1.      Easter Movie

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Obeying our parents.

God's Special Love For Us - The Good Shepherd

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

Each one of us is very special to God. Last week we learned that God loves us so much.  We learned that we are like lost sheep and lost coins and that God will not stop calling us because he loves us.

Jesus says that he is the Good shepherd and that he takes care of his sheep. This means that he loves and takes care of you.

                       

Bible Lesson

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “If a man sneaks over the fence to get into a sheep pen, he probably is a thief. IF he calls the sheep, they won’t come to him because he is a stranger. His voice frightens them and they run away. But the real shepherd enters through the gate and when he calls his sheep, he uses their names and they know his voice.

I am the good shepherd. I know each of my sheep and they know me. I am also the gate. Those who come through me will be saved and have everything they need.

"Sometimes a man is hired to watch over the sheep," continued Jesus. "But this man does not own these sheep and he does not really care about them. He just -works to get paid. If a wolf comes in the middle of the night, the man runs away! And the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters the flock. The man doesn't even care–because they're not his sheep.

"But I am the good shepherd," said. Jesus. "And I lay down My life for My sheep.

"My Father loves Me, and I gladly lay down My life for My sheep. Even though He has told Me to do this, I do it because I want to. No man will take My life from Me. Instead, I give it freely.

"And after I lay down My life, My Father has given Me the power to take it back again."

This is so wonderful because we know that Jesus truly loves each and every one of us. He loves us so much that he was willing to give his life for us to protect us from hell and bring us to heaven.

Crafts

1.      Lamb Paper Plate Craft

Materials: paper plate, glue, foam cutouts, cotton balls

Have the children put together the craft using glue.

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

            Book  - “the good Samaritan”

God Made Me Special Activities

1.      Friendship Paper doll chain

Materials: precut paper doll chain, markers

Children color the paper doll chain while listening to the story

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Helping others.

God's Special love For Us - A lost Coin and A Lost Sheep

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

Each one of us is very special to God. We have learned that God gave us wonderful gifts – the world, Jesus, special abilities and families. God loves us so much. And He wants us to know that we are very, very special to him.

Today we are going to hear 2 stories about how special we are to God. Jesus told both of these stories to the people that were with him. Our stories today are both written in Luke 14.

Bible Lesson

Story 1 :

A woman was working in her house. As she was baking some bread she noticed that one of the beautiful silver coins on her necklace were gone. She saw only nine of the coins. The tenth one was missing.

She became upset and worried. These were very special coins given to her by her husband. One for every year they were married. She did not want to lose any of them as they meant a lot to her. She called her friends to see if they had seen it but they had not.

She turned on all of the lamps in her home and picked up her broom. Carefully she swept the floor, moving all of the furniture. There in between the couch and the wall she found the lost coin. Right away she was so happy and excited. 

She called all of her friends to let them know she had found her lost coin.

Story 2:

A shepherd was watching over his sheep. He had 100 of them and loved them all very much.  One night as he was putting them into their pen, he counted only 99 of them. He was missing one. He checked with his friends and neighbours but they had not seen it.

He was worried. He knew that a lost sheep would be in a lot of danger during the night. The sheep could fall off a steep cliff or it could get taken by wolves.

The shepherd left his 99 sheep and went looking for the one sheep that was lost. He searched and searched. Finally he found it caught in a bush. He picked it up and carried it home. Then he called his friends and neighbours to celebrate because he found the lost sheep that he was missing.

Jesus says that we are like the lost coin and the lost sheep. God loves us so much and we are so special to God.  God will keep calling us until we come to him and know that we are special to him.  Jesus says that when we decide to follow God and do what God asks of us, all of heaven rejoices.

Crafts

1.      Coin Necklace

Materials: string, large craft beads, 1 silver washer

Have children thread beads and washer onto the string. Tie the string to form a necklace.

2.      Sheep Magnet

Materials: cardboard sheep cutout, glue, cotton balls, google eye

Have children glue cotton balls onto sheep and glue the eye onto the sheep. Use double sided tape to put on magnet.

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

God Made Me Special Activities

1.      Ribbon Craft

Materials: 1 inch – 2 inch wide ribbon. Circles precut spelling the name of the child, crayons

Children color the circles with the letter on it. Then they glue the circles in order to the ribbon.

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Obeying our parents.

God's Special Love For Us - Story of the Progile Son

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

Each one of us is very special to God. We heard all about this wonderful world God created for us – Earth. We also heard about God’s wonderful gift he gave us – Jesus. We are learned about God’s great love for the people that obey him and that he gives us special abilities to do what he asks. Last class we heard about how God loves us and gives us families to take care of us.

Today we are going to hear another story about how family. We are also going to learn about how God’s love for us is a father’s love. This is a story that Jesus told to people when he was teaching about God’s love. It is found in Luke 15:11-32.

Bible Lesson

There was a boy who did not want to stay at home. He wanted to travel and see the world. He wanted to be very rich and have lots of friends and buy anything he ever wanted. The problem was that he lived with his dad and his brother. Everything around him belonged to his dad.

One day the boy went up to his dad and told him, “Dad, I want to go live on my own, be rich and have lots of things and lots of friends. I don’t want to wait until you die. Can I have half of everything you have right now? ”

This made the dad very sad because the boy already had everything he could ever want right at home. But, because his dad loved him so much, he gave the boy half of everything he had. Half of the sheep, half of the money, half of the house, half of everything.

The boy took it all and travelled far, far away to a different country. There he spent all his money on people who pretended to be his friends. When he ran out of money he sold everything he had just to keep partying with the people he was with. Before he knew it, he didn’t have any money and nothing left to sell. He was so poor, that he couldn’t even buy food for himself.  He had no food and his friends had all left him because he had no money.

He did the only thing that he could think of and went knocking door to door to try to find work. He finally found a job where he could feed the pigs. In payment he would get a place to sleep, but no one gave him any food.

The boy thought back to what it was like at his dad’s house. He missed his dad and he knew his dad would never let anyone go hungry. So he decided to go back to see his dad.

The dad had been missing his son for a long time. Every day, all day he would sit in front of his house to see if his young son was coming. Every day the dad went to bed very sad that his son did not come home.

One morning the dad was sitting outside of his house, looking down the road. While the boy was still far away from the house, the dad saw him. The dad got excited and jumped up. He ran down the long road to meet his son and gave him a big, big hug and kiss. He had missed him so much and was so glad his son was back home.

The boy started to cry. He was sorry for what he did to his dad and how he wasted his dad’s money. He asked his dad if he could work for him and be a servant. But his dad said to his servants, “Bring my best clothes for him, put rings on his fingers and put shoes on his feet. Make lots of food. We are going to have a big, big party. My son is home!” The dad forgave his son of everything he had did wrong.

The older son came home to find that everyone was celebrating. He got upset and asked his dad why his dad did not ever give a party for him. The dad told the older son that everything he had was his, but they need to celebrate that his brother had come home. They need to forgive his brother for the wrong things he did because that is what family does. Family is supposed to love each other no matter what. The brother understood and joined in celebration too.

God gave us the gift of family to show his love for us. Just like the dad in this story, God loves us no matter what we do. He is very, very happy when we remember him and talk to him in prayer. God always forgives us, even when we do things that are not so good. God loves us and that is why we call him our heavenly dad. God not only made our family, God is part of our family.

Crafts

1.      Pig Pen Craft

Materials: craft sticks cut in half, cardstock cutout of a pig and corncob and man, unpopped popcorn, brown construction paper sheet, glue

Have children create the scene.

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

Talk about forgiveness.

Say “Look at all these pencils. They all have an eraser for when they make mistakes.” Compare the pencils to people. Tell children that people have an eraser too. God is our eraser. When we ask forgiveness, He takes away our sins, just like the eraser wipes away the pencils' mistakes.

God has also given us the ability to forgive others. If other people hurt us, we need to forgive them just like God forgives us. Forgiveness is a gift that we give people when they hurt our feelings.  We can show forgiveness by giving the person who hurt us a hug or a smile.

God Made Me Special Activities

1.      I Can Forgive Craft

Materials: Paper, crayons

Have the children draw a picture of something that they can do to show a family member or a friend that they forgive them. The picture can be of a hug, a smile, a handshake or anything they come up with.

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Forgiveness to others