God s s Command, God s Mission, God s s Promise

Transcription

1 1 Bible LIVE OLDER ELEMENTARY SAMPLE LESSON God s s Command, God s Mission, God s s Promise Enter the Bible Verse When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. Genesis 9:16 Bible Story Genesis 6 9 The story of Noah is often reduced to a lesson in animals marching, two by two, into the ark. Although a favorite from early childhood because of children s love for animals, the story holds much more meaning than simply saving pairs of animals from a flood. In response to humankind s decline into sin, God threatened to destroy every living creature. Noah alone resisted the evil and lived in righteousness, so to him God gave a command and a mission: Build a boat as long as one and a half football fields and three stories high, and help God start a new world. Did the flood actually happen? Did it cover the entire earth? Since two thirds of the earth s surface is water, there is more than enough water to cover the land. Every major culture tells a similar story of a flood. Even if not earth-wide, the remembered flood covered the entire world known to the storyteller and symbolically cleansed it of wickedness. Did the flood last forty days? The number forty is used in the Bible to represent fullness or to indicate the amount of time it took for something of significance to be accomplished. Not surprisingly, just as the Hebrew people used forty days to establish many celebrations, Christians use the number forty to calculate the Lenten season. The point is that a lot can happen over forty days. Another generation can come and go in forty years. A fortyday flood could bring unimaginable damage, and set Noah on his mission of rebuilding. Since humans were first aware of God, they have failed to respond to that awareness. Still, the Bible recalls many times when God overlooked their failings and offered forgiveness. We seem to forget that God is a loving God who yearns to be in personal relationship with us. From this pattern of forgetting and forgiving comes the story of a cleansing flood and a hope-filled rainbow God s promise of forgiveness and a new beginning. 30 BIBLEZONE LIVE

2 I can depend on God s promises. Scope the ZONE TIME SUPPLIES ZILLIES Zoom Into the Zone Get in the Zone 5 minutes page 173, CD player CD Whistle Blowers 15 minutes Reproducible 1C, pencils, permanent marker, basket whistles BibleZone Zoom Into the Bible 10 minutes Bibles bookmarks Enjoy the Story 15 minutes Reproducibles 1A and 1B, construction paper, string or yarn, CD player sailor hat, CD Out of the Boat 10 minutes animal names on slips of paper sailor hat Rainbow Bookmarks 10 minutes Reproducible 1B (bottom), crayons or markers, glue or tape, scissors, construction paper or other heavy paper none Water Experiment: Make It Rain 5 minutes glass, water, cooking oil, cutting, jar large enough to invert over glass none LifeZone Bible Verse Bowling 10 minutes Reproducible 1D, scissors transparent tape, inflatable bowling set Sing 5 minutes CD player CD Praise and Prayer 10 minutes Reproducible 1E, CD player CD, rainbow spinner Zillies are found in the BibleZone LIVE FUNspirational Kit. OLDER ELEMENTARY: SAMPLE LESSON 31

3 Zoom Into the Choose one or more activities to catch your children s interest. nametags (page 173) CD player CD Get in the Zone Have "Deep and Wide" (CD, Track 12) playing as the students enter the room. Greet each one with a happy smile. Say: Welcome to BibleZone Live! I m glad you are here. This is the fun place where we will get to know the Bible as our book! If the students do not know one another, give them nametags to wear (page 173). Review the words to "Deep and Wide" ("Deep and wide, deep and wide, there s a fountain flowing deep and wide"), and have the students sing with you. Sing again without the CD, replacing the word deep with a hum and a motion (spread hands apart vertically) the second time; deep and wide (spread hands horizontally) the third time; deep, wide, and flowing (wiggle fingers as hands move together, left to right) the fourth time; then sing all the words the fifth time through. Reproducible 1C basket pencils permanent marker whistles Whistle Blowers Place a basket with whistles in the center of the group. Pass out "Whistle Blowers" (Reproducible 1C) and pencils. Read the first two paragraphs aloud. Ask the students to circle the statement "" where they think it is appropriate to be a "whistle blower," and to circle the statement "" where they do not think it is appropriate to be one. Encourage them to work independently at this point. They can change their choices later, if they wish. Hand out the whistles, but tell the students that they will decide as a group when it is appropriate to use the whistles. Read each of the situations listed and discuss whether it fulfills the criteria for a whistle blower as listed in the first paragraph. If it does, on your signal all will blow their whistles one time. Say: In our story today there were no whistle blowers. All of the people except Noah were unfaithful to God. God gave Noah a command and a mission. Use a permanent marker to mark each student s initials on his or her whistle, and then collect the whistles to be used later in the quarter. 32 BIBLEZONE LIVE

4 Bible Choose one or more activities to immerse your children in the Bible story. Zoom Into the Bible Be certain that each student has a Bible. Ask the students to find the table of contents. Ask the following questions and give the information: 1. Looking at the table of contents, what two big divisions do you see in the Bible? (The Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, and the New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures were the ones Jesus knew as God s Word, and the New Testament tells of Jesus life and of those who followed him.) 2. The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament are collections made up of separate books. What is the first book in the Bible? (Genesis) 3. What does the word Genesis mean? (origin or beginning) 4. What does the Book of Genesis contain? (the earliest stories we know about the Hebrew people) 5. Find Genesis in your Bibles. What sort of labeling and numbers do you find among the printing? (Large and small numbers. The small numbers begin again after each large number or chapter. Some Bibles will have sections labeled.) 6. What do the numbers mean? (Chapters and verses. These numbers were added later to help us find particular verses more easily.) Bibles bookmarks Have the students turn to chapters six through nine. Say that this is where we find today s story. Have them find Genesis 9:16. Ask someone to read it out loud. If you have Bibles with several translations, explain that the Bible has been translated many times from the Hebrew and Greek languages in which it was originally written. Because words in one language don t always have an exact counterpart in another, every translator translates the words differently. Pass out the bookmarks and ask the students to place the bookmarks in their Bibles at Genesis 9:16 and set them aside. Enjoy the Story Make nametags ahead of time by cutting construction paper into squares and taping a piece of string or yarn to the top corners of each square so the children can wear the nametags around their necks. Write the name of one of the parts of the litany (Reproducibles 1A and 1B) on each nametag: Narrator, Noah, God, Person 1, Person 2, Person 3, and Person 4. Assign the parts to different students and give them the nametags. Tell the class that everyone will read the parts marked "All." Give the sailor hat to Noah. Be ready to play "The Flood (CD, Track 18). Say: We will read our BibleZone story as a litany today, so that everyone can take part. This is a "might-have-been" story. It includes some conversations that might have happened when God sent the flood. OLDER ELEMENTARY: SAMPLE LESSON Reproducibles 1A and 1B CD player construction paper string or yarn tape sailor hat CD 33

5 Bible Story God s Command, God s Mission, God s Promise (A Litany) by Delia Halverson Narrator: This story happened many, many years ago. People had become very cruel to one another. There was violence everywhere, and no one tried to make things right. There were no whistle blowers among the people no one to say, "Stop it!" Person 1: Why bother? The whole world is bad. Person 2: I might as well do what I please. Everyone else is. Narrator: Things had gotten so bad that only God could clean them up. God decided to send a flood to wash away all that was bad. God could only find one person living as God called people to live a man named Noah. All: Wickedness and evil were everywhere. God regretted having made humankind. God spoke to Noah. God: No one cares about anyone else. No one cares about doing what s right. I am going to wash away all that has been and begin all over again. Noah, gather good lumber and build yourself a boat. All: A boat? That s strange. Where will you sail it? There s no large body of water nearby! Noah: How big a boat, Lord? God: Build it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Make rooms in the boat, and put a roof on it with about 18 inches between the roof and the sides. Waterproof the whole boat with a coat of tar, inside and out. The boat will be three stories high and will have a door in one side. Noah: Wow! That s one big boat, Lord! All: A big boat, and a bigger fool! Noah: That may take several years. What will I do after I build the boat? God: There are many animals on the earth, and I don t want them all destroyed. Bring two of every kind, male and female, into the boat. Store up enough food for the animals and for yourself and your family. All: What a job! Can Noah do it? Narrator: Noah set about building the boat. The people watched him building the boat and teased and laughed at him. Person 1: Noah, what are you doing? Person 2: Looks like a boat, and there s no ocean nearby! Noah: God gave me a command, and I m just doing my job. Person 3: You re pretty stupid, Noah. Why waste your time on such a mission? Person 4: Are you sure it was God who told you that? All: Noah, Noah, Noah! What a fool, this Noah! Narrator: It took Noah a long time to build the boat, but he made sure it was done well. When the boat was finished, it was time to load up. God: Now fill the boat. Take your family into the boat and one pair of all the other animals. Also take seven pairs of birds with you. Noah: Wow! Sounds like a noisy place to me. But if that s what you want, Lord, I ll do it. God: You have seven days, Noah. Once the rain starts, it will last for forty days and nights. 34 BIBLEZONE LIVE Reproducible 1A Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press.

6 All: Two by two, Noah brought them in. Two by two by two! Narrator: As the rains began, Noah, his wife, their three sons, their families, and all of the animals went into the boat. The Lord shut them in. All: Slam! (Begin "The Flood" sound effects CD, Track 18.) Narrator: Drip, drop, splatter, sploosh! All: It rained, and it rained, and it rained. For forty days the heavens rained! Narrator: Finally the rain stopped. The wind began to blow and dry up the land. The water slowly went down. It took many days before the boat finally rested on solid ground. Noah: I will send out a raven to see if the water has gone down far enough. Narrator: The bird flew round and round, waiting for the water to dry up. Then Noah sent out a dove, but it returned, unable to find a place to land. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again, and this time it came back holding a green leaf from an olive tree. After seven more days Noah sent the dove out again, and this time it didn t come back. Noah: Now I know that the waters have gone down enough. God: You and your family may now leave the boat. Let all the animals out too. They can have babies and replace all the living creatures that were destroyed in the flood. All: Noah had done well. The earth would have life again. Narrator: Noah and his family left the boat, and all of the animals did too. Noah: God has saved us. We must build an altar and thank God. God: I like your altar, Noah. Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things that people do. They all have evil thoughts, but I will never destroy the whole earth again. Narrator: God made a covenant and put a rainbow in the sky as a reminder. God promised: God: As long as the earth remains, Boys: there will be planting and harvest; Girls: there will be cold and heat; Boys: there will be winter and summer; Girls: there will be day and night. Narrator: Noah knew that God would keep this promise, and we know that God continues to keep promises. All: God keeps the promises God has made. The rainbow is our reminder. God is a faithful God. After the story ask: What words describe Noah s feelings as everyone laughed at him? What words describe conditions inside the boat? What words describe Noah s feelings as the flood covered every living thing? What words describe the feelings of Noah and his family as God promised not to destroy the earth again with a flood? OLDER ELEMENTARY: SAMPLE LESSON Reproducible 1B Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press. 35

7 Whistle Blowers "Nobody likes a tattletale!" Were you told that when you were younger? Young children generally resort to "tattling" when they aren t getting their way. But there are times when someone or some group is doing something very wrong something that should be stopped. If we report the wrong, that person or group may turn against us. If we want to be accepted more than we want to stop the wrong, we are tempted to ignore what is happening. People who don t ignore the wrong but report those who are cheating or causing harm to the environment are called "whistle blowers." They blow the whistle to stop the harmful action. Deciding when it is appropriate to report someone or to be a whistle blower can be a tough decision. One test that we, as Christians, can use is to ask the following questions: Does this action physically harm anyone? Does this action emotionally harm anyone? Does this action harm property belonging to someone else? Does this action break some rule or law? What did Jesus do when faced with a similar situation? Look at the following and decide whether you should become a whistle blower if you were in that situation. Circle your choice. I see someone using spray paint to write words on the wall of a neighbor s house. My brother and the boy next door are wrestling in the grass, laughing and having a good time. There is nothing nearby that they can hurt themselves on. A fire breaks out in a vacant lot nearby, coming dangerously close to a house before neighbors are able to put it out. I saw some kids playing with matches on that property earlier. Although she was told to go straight home after school, I see my sister playing in a friend s yard, and she is already late and in trouble. I see someone cheating on a test at school. A boy who rides my bus has one foot shorter than the other and limps badly. Two bullies at his stop call him names every day, and he is often crying before the bus arrives. A friend tells me that a member of her family has been abusing her. She s afraid that she ll be taken away from her family, and makes me promise not to tell. My friend used a ballpoint pen to mark designs like tattoos on her arms. 36 Reproducible 1C Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press. BIBLEZONE LIVE

8 Bible Choose one or more activities to immerse your children in the Bible story. Out of the Boat Say: We heard how Noah saved animals from the flood. Here s a game to help us remember the story. I have animal names in the sailor hat. Draw an animal name. We will sit in a circle, and one person will wear the hat and be Noah. While we say, "As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat; winter and summer, day and night" (Genesis 8:22), Noah walks around the circle, deciding what animals to call. Then Noah will stand in the circle and quickly call two animals. Those animals change places, and Noah will try to sit in one of the chairs. Whoever is without a chair becomes Noah. If Noah calls, "Out of the boat," everyone must change. (Tell the children the animal names that are in the hat.) Rainbow Bookmarks Say: God gave a promise to Noah. We know that God keeps promises. Let s make bookmarks that you can take home to use to remind you of this. Have the students make bookmarks by coloring the bookmark (Reproducible 1B, bottom) and mounting it on construction paper or heavy paper. Water Experiment: Make It Rain Since this unit s theme is "By the Waters," a water experiment is included in each session. Do this one at the beginning of class to give it time to "work." If it hasn t worked before the close of the session, check on it next week. Say: We are going to create an atmosphere where we can make it rain. I need a volunteer to help me. (Have the volunteer put the cutting in the glass of water in sunlight or a warm place. Pour a layer of cooking oil on top of the water, being careful not to mix the oil and water. Invert the larger jar over the glass.) Say: Because there is oil on the water, the water that the plant needs must come from the leaves. The water is absorbed through the stem and is given off into the air through the leaves. The air becomes saturated with moisture and warmed by the sun, and small drops like fine rain form on the cooler sides of the glass jar. Isn t it amazing how God works? OLDER ELEMENTARY: SAMPLE LESSON animal names on slips of paper (for example, antelope, bat, camel, fox donkey, elephant, kangaroo, llama, monkey, newt, sheep, turkey, zebra) sailor hat Reproducible 1B (bottom) crayons or markers scissors construction or other heavy paper glue or tape none small glass water cooking oil cutting from a leafy plant jar large enough to invert over the glass and cutting none 37

9 Life Choose one or more activities to bring the Bible to life. Reproducible 1D scissors transparent tape inflatable bowling set CD player CD Bible Verse V Bowling Set up the bowling pins with sections of the Bible verse (Reproducible 1D) taped on them. Say: We ll all stand in front of the bowling pins and read the Bible verse. One person will use the ball to knock over a pin. We ll read the verse again, remembering the words on the missing pin. Another person will knock over another pin, and we ll read the verse again. When all the pins are knocked over, we will say the verse without anything in front of us. Sing Say: This song is one that we will use throughout the quarter. Our Bible stories all have to do with water in some way or other. The first verse has these words: "Take me to the water, take me to the water, take me to the water to be with God." Each week we will add a verse. Today our verse says, "I can depend, I can depend, I can depend on God s love." Play the song Take Me to the Water (CD, Track 13) and ask everyone to follow along. Play the song again and invite everyone to sing with you. Reproducible 1E CD player CD rainbow spinner Praise and Prayer Say: Let s close our eyes and imagine as we listen to The Flood sound effects (CD, Track 18). Think about what might have been happening in the ark. Pray: Thank you, God, for the story of Noah that reminds us that we can depend on your promises. Help me remember that you will help me in all the decisions I make, even when I must be a "whistle blower." Amen. Say: The Rainbow tells of times in our lives when we know that God is with us, as the rainbow reminds us. Let s form a line and pass the rainbow spinner down the line as we sing, twirling it as we pass it. Give each student a copy of the words (Reproducible 1E). Play the song (CD, Track 16) and have everyone listen. Play the song again; invite everyone to sing along. Give each student a copy of HomeZone to enjoy this week. 38 BIBLEZONE LIVE

10 Home For Students rainbow LuminariAs Make your own rainbow luminaria to help you remember that God keeps promises. The light of the luminaria can remind you how God s light shines on each of us, and the colors can remind you of the rainbow in the story of Noah. For each one you will need a white paper bag, sand, a small candle, and markers or crayons. 1. Decorate the outside of the bag with rainbow colors, using markers or crayons. 2. Turn down about an inch at the top of the bag to make the top more sturdy. 3. Fill the bottom of the sack with about two inches of sand. 4. Place the small candle in the center of the sand, being sure that it does not touch the bag. To make a safer candleholder, pour a small amount of melted wax into the bottom of a glass jar and stand the candle up in the soft wax in the center of the jar. Place the jar in the sand in the bottom of the bag. It is best if the candle does not extend far above the top of the jar. Memory Verse When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. Genesis 9:16 ThinkZone God s dependability can be seen everywhere. What are some things that show that God keeps promises? Think about the sunrise each day and the tides in the ocean. Rainbow Cookies Make a basic sugar cookie dough and roll it out. Cut only a dozen cookies at a time, so that the unbaked cookies won t dry out before they are painted. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet according to the recipe. Prepare egg-yolk paint from the recipe below. Using small paintbrushes, paint rainbows on the cookies. Bake as directed in the recipe, but be sure that they don t brown, in order to keep the colors clear. Egg-Yolk Paint: Blend 1 egg yolk with ½ tsp. water. Divide the mixture into small bowls or cups. Add enough different food coloring to each cup to make the color bright. If paint thickens, add a few drops of water. Alternative: Buy prepared cookies and tubes of various colors of icing. Design the rainbows on the cookies, using the icing tubes. I can depend on God s promises. Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press. OLDER ELEMENTARY: SAMPLE LESSON 39

11 When I see remember the rainbow the promise in the sky, that I have made I will to every always living creature. 40 BIBLEZONE LIVE Reproducible 1D Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press.

12 Song The Rainbow Chorus: When I see the rainbow I know that you will always take care of me. when I am afraid and alone I hear your voice speaking love to me. Verse 1: Lookin out into the dark and stormy world, so little hope; people drownin in their sorrows and their tears, so many tears; hurt from yesterday, concerns about tomorrow bring me down, till I look up through the clouds of doubt. Chorus Verse 2: God is searchin for someone to be the light set on a hill, will you be the one that God is lookin for to take a stand? If you re still unsure, desiring a promise, look no more when you turn your eyes up to the sky. Chorus Bridge: You can be the light when your heart is right. You can be the light in the darkest night; when your heart is right you can be the light that God s needing you to be. Chorus WORDS and MUSIC: Ron Sorbo 1999 Cokesbury OLDER ELEMENTARY: LESSON 1 Reproducible 1E Permission granted to photocopy for local church use Abingdon Press.