Week 5 To The Depths

Main Point: was "I Will Listen and do What the Bible Says!

Read the Bible Passage from James 1:19-25.

Our Bible Story was from 2nd Kings chapters 22 and 23. When we hear God's Word, we need to do what is says.

This weeks memory verse is found in 2 Timothy 3:16. This verse tells us that Gods Word will tell us things to change in our lives.

This is an activity called Mirror, Mirror. You can do this at home to reinforce the topics in our lesson. After the children go to bed, cover up all the mirrors in the house. In the morning, wake everyone up and tell them they have to get dressed without using any mirrors. After they have struggled for a while let them uncover the mirrors and finish getting ready. Tell the family that Gods word is the mirror for our lives and it is just as important that we look into God's word each morning to correct our lives as it is for us to look onto a mirror in the morning to correct our appearance.

This activity is called "Rule Book". Buy a new board game that

your family is unfamiliar with. Get everyone to play the game, but don't read the rules first, just make them up. Keep changing the rules until everyone starts to get frustrated. Then pull out the rule book then read it and play it properly. Explain that the Bible is the rule book for our lives and that we should read it and do what it says.

Week 4 To The Depths

November 9th 2008
This Sunday our main point was "I Will Use My Words To Help Others"


The Bible Passage we used was from James 3:2-12.

Our Memory verse was found in Psalms 19:14 "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."

This week start out by reading the Bible Story to your children and try to explain some of the parts of the verse that they may not understand. Have your children stick out their tongue to show just how small it really is.

Sugar Cookies:

Make a batch of sugar cookies. When you are sprinkling the sugar on the cookies, cover some of the cookies with salt instead of sugar. Call the famioy together an let each one of them taste one of the cookies.
Read James 3:12 "Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?" Remind everyone that our words should please God and help others. Using hurtful words can ruin things, like putting salt on cookies instead of sugar. We should use helpful words that sound good, like sugar on cookies tasts good.

Card Barrage:

Send a Barrage of cards to someone in your family knows to say helpful and encouraging words. Make the cards together as a family, or buy some cards from the store that do not have a pre-printed message on them. Each person in the family should take a card and write or draw a special, helpful,encouraging message on it.

To The Depths Week 3

I Will Do The Right Thing, Not Just talk About It!

Take some time this week to read the Bible passage to your children. We read
James 2: 14-20 and we also read Ruth chapters 1&2. These passages show us that saying the right thing is good, but doing the right thing is what counts.

This weeks main Bible verse was James 2:17, this verse tells us that what we do brings what we say to life.

Here is an activy that you can do with your family during your family devotional time. Give each family member a note card. Have each one write one thing they will do this week for the family or for someone else (you may have to help the younger members of the family come up with ideas). Then have write one thing that they know God wants them to do. Example: Pray Everyday, read me Bible, tell me friends about church. After everyone has written on the cards, put them in a place where everyone can see them, like the refrigerator, check each day to make sure everyone is following through.

Another activity you can use to make this point is to play a game of Simon Says, but add these minor changes in the rules. When you say "Simon Says..." the family only repeats what you say. But when you say "Simon..."(Example: "Simon jumps," "Simon claps his hands.") everyone will do it. Discuss the face that we need to do the right things and not just say them.

To The Depths Week 2

When Trouble Comes I Will Praise Him

Our Main Point this past Sunday was "When Trouble Comes I Will Praise God". Your Child learned that in difficult times they should praise God instead of "Grumbling".

Today's Bible story was biased on the James 1:24 and Acts 16: 16-40. You should try to read this with your child(ren) at the first of the week and then you can spend the week helping them understand the importance of praising God during trouble.

The memory verse we used was James 1:2.

Here is an idea to help your family understand this point, we'll call it the "Grumble Bucket". Set up two buckets in a predominate place in your house, like the kitchen. Label one bucket "Praises" and the other "Grumble". When someone "Grumbles" about something they have to put a small amount in the "Grumble" bucket. When a person praises God during a tough time the get a piece of candy out of the "Praise" bucket. At the end of the week, take the money out of the "Grumble" bucket and use it to replace the candy on the "Praise" bucket. Have fun teaching your children about the difference between "Grumbling" and "Praising" God during tough times.

To the Depths Week 1

October 12 we began a new series called To The Depths.

Today the "Main Point" of our lesson was, God loves everyone and so should I. Your child will remember this because we repeated this several times and we also have motions to reinforce this point.



Bible Story James 2:8-9 & Luke 10:30-35 Read this to see what God says about favoritism.

Bible Verse Galatians 5:14: This weeks Bible verse helps us understand how to avoid favoritism.

On the Road: While you are driving around this week make a game of looking for different cars on the road. Try to guess where they live or what type of job they have. Especially look for cars with the logo of another school thet you may be rivals with.The point of thie game is help your children understand that we sometimes judge people based on thier appearance. Tell your children: We made a decision about these cares baised on thier appearance and sometime we do the same thing with people.Remind your children that we should show Gods love to everyone no matter how they look on the outside.

Who is a Samaritan?
Have your child list his/her favorite people at school and how your child treats them. Then have your child list his/her least favorite people and how your child treats them. Point out to your child that Jews and Samaritans did not get along with each other.Even though Jews and Samaritans did not like each other the Samaritan helped the Jewish travler in many ways.
Show your child how you show Gods love to those in your life like the Samaritan and how they can be Samaritans to other in thier life.

Be a "Good Samaritan" this week.
Barry Saunders

On the Trail Lesson 7

Promises are special to children. Whether they make a promise or someone makes one to them there is always a choice involved. You can choose to believe the promise or not. It is the same with God’s promises, we choose to believe or not to believe.
Our goal this week was to teach your children that God promises them eternal life and it is their choice whether or not to accept it and believe it.
Our Bible story today was the story of Moses sending the twelve spies to go scout out Canaan, the land God had promised to give the Israelites. The spies came back and gave their report. They all agreed that the land was great but ten of the spies said that the people who lived in the land are too big and war-like to defeat. Two of the spies said that they should go possess the land. The Israelites didn’t
listen to the two spies and instead started complaining and weeping. They chose not to believe God’s promise about giving them the land. They even talked about killing Moses and choosing a new leader. The Israelites chose not to believe God’s promise. God was very angry with the Israelites and punished them by making them wander for 40years.
In today’s skit Tex scouted ahead to the area where the cattle drive will end. He brought back a great report but it turns out to get to the end they will have to pass through the badlands. Tex didn’t believe they could make it through so he planned out a new, longer route. Cookie encouraged Tex to believe the trail boss’s promise about getting them to the end safely. Tex finally agreed. Just like Tex,
we have a choice. We can either believe God’s promises or not. That includes the promise of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Our Bible story, skit and every activity in our small group time was geared toward teaching your children about God’s promise of eternal life and the choice they have to believe it or not.

On The Trail Lesson 5

On The Trail: The Exodus of Israel Lesson 5

This Sunday your child learned about the God giving Moses the 10 commandments. This passage can be found in Exodus 20. We emphasised that the 10 commandments can be summed up in our main point, Love God & Love Others. In Bible Stories By the Campfire we showed how God spoke to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai and how it was a dramatic event.
In our skit we saw how Tex had a rope that he had stolen and he was thought it was so good that he was worshiping the rope. He also tried to accuse his father for taking the rope. This was to show how the 10 Commandments apply to our lives each day.

Read over the 10 Commandments with your child this week and point out how they apply to our lives practically each day. When we Love God & Love Others we are putting the 10 Commandments into practice each and every day.

Barry <><