Abraham's Promised Son

Central Truth: God keeps his promises.

Scriptures: Genesis 15

God promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation and give that nation to his descendants. Abraham believed God and obeyed him. God told Abraham that his descendants will dwell in a land that is not theirs for 400 years, but they will come out of that land and return to Canaan.

With this lesson, the children also learned some of the cultural aspects of the time of Abraham who was a nomad who lived in tents. Using the templates I found online, we recreated a scene of Abraham and Sarah recieving their promised son with their nephew, Lot, celebrating with them.

Jesus Died for Our Sins

A fun day in Sunday school class.

For the last few weeks, the children continue their study of the bible using the bible activity book, Uncovering Bible Treasure by Dave Strehler. We started with a look at how God created the universe and how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, but God has made a way by sending his only son, Jesus. This week we returned to the story of Jesus's birth and how he died for our sin.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatever I command you." John 15:13-14

Christmas and the New Year

Throughout the month of December, the Tabernacle of Praise Children's Church studied the Christmas story. Each week we talked about different parts of the events that led up to the birth of Jesus, including the angels visiting the shepherds and the wise men who came in search of the Messiah. We finished our study of the Christmas story with a cute craft project I ordered from Oriental Trading Company. Every thing you needed came in the kit except for the glue. I suggest you have some Elmer's glue or wood glue on hand even though the description for the project says you do not need any. Above is a picture of a few of the projects done by the class. 

For the new year, we began our lessons using Uncovering Bible Treasure by Dave Strehler with the story of Creation. We learned how God created everything from nothing simply by speaking. After our lesson, we had time to show our excitement about the coming year by creating a short video using the FX Guru app on my iPhone.

Giving Thanks

Only one of the ten lepers returned to thank Jesus for his healing (picture from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: We should always give thanks to God for everything he does for us.

Scriptures: Luke 17:12-19

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, the children and I looked at what it means to be thankful by looking at the story of the ten lepers. In this story, there were ten men who were lepers and, when they heard that Jesus was in their village, they cried for him to heal them. Jesus commanded them to go to the priests to show themselves because it was tradition that anyone healed must go to the Temple and testify about their miracle. On their way to the see the priests, all ten were miraculously healed, but only one of them returned to Jesus to give thanks. When he gave thanks for his healing, Jesus blessed him even more.

To reinforce the idea of giving thanks, I found a fun activity book online that I downloaded and passed out copies to each of the children. It contained scriptures and activities that made the children think of all the things they are thankful for and how to thank God for them.

Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

The Good Samaritan (picture from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: Love your enemies and your neighbors as you love yourself.

Scriptures: Luke 10:25-35

Jesus was asked how to gain eternal life, and Jesus answers him with the story of the Good Samaritan. Along the road to Jericho, a Hebrew man was attacked by robbers and left for dead. As he laid wounded along the road, a priest came along and saw the man but continued on his way. Then a Levite passed by and did not stop to help the man. Finally, a Samaritan, an enemy of the Hebrews, saw the man and stopped to help. He bandaged the wound and paid for a room at an inn for the man's care. When we help others is when we love others as ourselves.

After our lesson, we played a board game I found online called Treasures in Heaven. Last Sunday, we colored the game board and the pieces and I glued it to the file folder. We played two rounds, Destinee winning every one of them. It was a fun game and will be played again. I especially loved all of the good deeds that the children came up with during the game.


This week's lesson comes from the book Children Sunday School Lessons: The Parables and Teachings of Jesus, Vol. 2 by Rev. Stephen R. Wilson.