November 18, 2007

Three Visitors/Birth of Isaac

What We Talked About:
God had been keeping his promises to Abraham. But, Abraham was worried how God was going to keep one of his promises. You see, God had promised Abraham that He would make him into a great nation, but they had had no kids, and they were very old.

So, God decided to visit with Abraham, along with two angels. When Abraham saw him, he bowed down, and invited the three over for dinner. While they were eating dinner, Abraham's wife Sarah snuck over out of sight to listen in on the conversation.

After the meal, God said, "We'll be back in a year's time, and your wife Sarah will have a baby." Sarah laughed to herself when God said this. "How can an old lady like me have a baby?" she thought.

But God kept his promise. In less than a year, Sarah gave birth to a baby boy. He was named Isaac, which in their language, means 'laughter.'

What's the Big Deal?
1. God means what He says.

What We Did
1. We had two kids come up front to represent Abraham and Sarah. They stood in front of the chalkboard, and we drew cartoon thought bubbles above their heads. Then, throughout the story, we wrote things in the thought bubbles so we could see what Abraham and Sarah were thinking.
2. Use a tape recorder, we taped ourselves saying today's bible verse in a bunch of silly voices. Click the following link to download an mp3 of our recording. (mp3, 570k)

Our Memory Verse
2 Peter 3:9a - “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise.”

November 11, 2007

Sodom and Gomorrah

What We Talked About:
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were full of people who disobeyed God. They were so evil that God decided to destroy the cities. God told Abraham what He was going to do. Abraham was worried because his nephew Lot lived in Sodom and he didn't want Lot to be destroyed with the rest of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

"What if there are 50 people in the cities who obey you?" Abraham asked God, "will you destroy the city then?" God said, "If there are 50 people there who obey me, I won't destroy the cities." Abraham asked God the same thing again, but this time about 40 people. God agreed. Abraham kept asking God the same thing, with the number of people getting lower and lower. Finally, God agreed that if He could find even 10 people who obeyed him in Sodom and Gomorrah, He wouldn't destroy the cities." However, God sent angels to the cities and they were unable to find even 10 people who obeyed God.

The angels warned Abraham's nephew Lot to flee the city before the morning because God was going to destroy it. "Run now, and don't stop running until you reach the hills!" the angels said. So, Lot, his wife, and his two daughters fled the city of Sodom. But, as they were running, as fire began falling from the sky onto Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife looked back at the city. When she did, she was instantly turned into a pillar of salt.

What's the Big Deal?
1. God haaaaaaaaaates sin.

What We Did
1. We told the story with a chalk talk. We drew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. With the help of all our kids, we drew 50 stick people to represent the 50 people who obeyed God. As Abraham lowered his number of people, we erased stick people. We drew a salt shaker to represent when Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt.
2. We played a rhythm clapping game to learn our Bible verse.

Our Memory Verse
Romans 3:10 - “As it is written: there is no one righteous, not even one.”

November 4, 2007

Abram and Lot Split

What We Talked About:
Abram and Lot lived on the land God sent them to. But, as they began to gather more and more stuff, especially animals, things got really crowded. The people looking after Abram's animals began fighting with the people looking after Lot's animals. Abram knew something needed to be done.

He told Lot it would be a good idea if they split up and went separate ways, in order to have more room. "You pick one way to go," Abram said, "and I'll take my stuff and go the other way." Lot looked at the land around him. On one side was the city of Sodom. It was a beautiful place to live with plenty of water. But, the people of Sodom weren't very nice. On the other side was the land of Canaan. It was a good land, too, and it wasn't full of evil people like Sodom was.

In the end, Lot chose to move to Sodom. Abram packed up and moved to Canaan. When Abram settled there, God came to Abram and told him again about the things He had promised Abram. He also gave Abram a new name: Abraham, which means 'father of nations.'

What's the Big Deal?
1. Pick your friends, not your nose. Lot chose to live near an evil group of people, and in the upcoming stories, we'll find out what happened to him.

What We Did
1. We had three kids (Nigel, Brianna, and Bethany) come up front to play Abram, Sarah, and Lot. We make a large square out of carpet squares and made them stand on them to represent the land they lived on. We had a couple of kids come onto the 'land' to represent the animals they owned and the people who looked after their animals. When everybody was up there, it was pretty crowded!
2. We played a game of Twister to know what it feels like when things just feel too crowded.

Our Memory Verse
1 Corinthians 15:33 - “Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character.”