July 22, 2012 -- "Listening to Good Advice" - Moses and Jethro

This week we covered Lesson 7 from Bible Adventures, about Moses and his father-in-law Jethro, from Exodus, chapter 18.   Moses is leading the Israelites toward Mount Sinai, and while they are stopped at an encampment site, Jethro arrives at the location, bringing Moses’ wife and two sons with him so that they can be reunited.   The lesson covers an incident that follows Jethro’s arrival and welcome into the camp. Jethro sees the need for giving Moses some wise, fatherly advice.  

We began with lesson material from Sunday School that Clicks, a video clip from the movie “Big Daddy”.   After reviewing the clip before class, my reaction was “this is really stupid!”   When my wife Susan saw the clip, she added the word “gross” to our assessment of the scene from “Big Daddy” (which is a movie I had not previously heard of).   Big Daddy claimed he had “a whole new school of child-raising; you give the kid options, instead of orders.”   So, skipping school, having a plate of ketchup for lunch, wearing whatever clothes he wants to wear, learning to spit in a drooling manner and then sucking the drool back into his mouth, and ‘chilling-out all day’-- these were the options that Big Daddy’s son ‘Frankenstein’ had chosen in the video.  When asked about his choice for tomorrow, ‘Frankenstein’ said he wanted to go to school, but Big Daddy said he wanted to wait until the following Monday, and then he would enroll him in school.   That way they could chill-out for a long weekend, first.   

The class was able to see that the stupidity of this video was actually its teaching point.   Big Daddy was obviously not the man to go to -- for good advice.   The video was the complete opposite of our Lesson Focus, which is Our Families Can Help Us Solve Problems.  After making the point that their parents were not like Big Daddy, we turned our attention to Bible Adventures, where the lesson gave the details of Jethro’s advice to Moses, from Exodus 18.  Moses was still the great leader, the Man of God, who had “The Rod of God” which he had used several times, as the connecting point between the situation in the natural realm and the release of God’s power from the supernatural realm.   But Moses wasn’t perfect.  Another leader, Jethro, could see the difficulties that would come from Moses acting as the sole judge.   And in this situation, Moses the leader was willing and able to receive mentoring from his father-in-law.

If Moses could take advice from a family member, our students could see that they could do so, too.  I encouraged them to do so, and then transitioned to practice saying our memory verse from Proverbs 6: 20:

My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

Homework was not assigned this week; instead, we are going to go over the Scripture passages about God, using the faith steps handout,in class.. Then, we will be go over examples to show how to write a "reflection" -- a reader-response paragraph on one of those Scripture passages.  The students will then do their own reflection in class, for extra achievement points. 
The Memory Verse assigned this week is Proverbs 6: 20.   Each week for the rest of the Summer, we also are permitting students to say the previously assigned verse, Psalm 19: 1, using the NIV text:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.    -   Psalm 19:1 

July 15, 2012 "The Bible is God's Message for Me" -- Conclusion of Session 1

In the July 15th class, we completed study of the Summer session of "The Bible is God's Message for Me".   There were eight visitors in the class, so some extra time was spent reviewing both of the lessons taught already, on the topics "God"  and "Man".     Then we began discussing the Fall of Mankind into sin, and God's continuing love for Man, and God's promise of a Redeemer.

These points were emphasized in the review:

1.  We believe and teach Creation, not evolution.

2. God's pattern for Marriage was established at Creation -- Adam and Eve, husband and wife, and they would become parents, of all the human race. 

3.  God Almighty, whose Name is revealed in Scripture as Yahweh, is one God who has revealed that He exists in three functional representations, using the names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   The Church has adopted the terms "Trinity" and "Persons" to describe God, so we say that we believe in One God, who is a Trinity, with three co-equal Persons, completely unified and in-agreement with each other.

4.  Man was created as a being like God, different from and higher-in-order from the animals, with a Body, Soul, and Spirit; God then took from Himself some of His divine life and put it into Adam (and later, into Eve).  So man was now united with God by having His Life within himself/herself.  

5. We again made a brief review of The Five Commandments from Genesis 1:28.   Later in the lesson, there was also mention of The Ten Commandments, briefly.   Both of these topics will be revisited as the year progresses.

6. The review concluded with comments on 1 Corinthians 10:31, about honoring God in everything we do.

Then the class presentation of The Fall of Mankind began.     Eve did not have experience with lies, or with creatures that did not love and honor God like she did.   She was in fellowship with God, but she did not realize that the serpent was an enemy of God who was lying to her.   Instead of taking dominion over the serpent and rebuking it for the statement that God had lied to her, and was holding back something from her (which she and Adam had the right to do) she came into agreement with the serpent and she, and Adam, became sinners.

As God had said, when they ate that fruit, they died, because they had sinned.  The Life of God that had been put into them left, and their own human spirits were damaged.  The "Father of Lies", satan, had attacked and damaged their own human spirits with a spirit of deception and stirred up pride and self-assertiveness in them.   They now had what we call the sinful human nature.   Although their bodies lived-on, for over 900 years, before death, as children of God, they had died.   There was additional punishment for their sin, and satan took the dominion over the earth, which God had given to Adam and Eve.   But, God still loved them and promised them that He would send a Redeemer.    

The Redeemer is the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:8 and John 3:16 were Scriptures presented in class discussion about God's love and His plan for salvation, for everyone who will Come to Jesus.  

In the Fall session of lessons, Jesus and the plan of salvation are major topics of study.

The written Homework assignment was postponed, to next week.  We are continuing with the same Memory Verse, Psalm 19: 1, using the text from the New International version (NIV).

  

  

July 8, 2012 "The Bible is God's Message for Me" -- Session 1, continued

This week we continue the presentation of the extra Bible Curriculum Summer session materials for 5th graders.   Today the Lesson is "The Bible is God's Message for Me", finishing last week’s presentation on “God”, and continuing with this week’s material on “Man”.    The “Man” lesson covers creation, and the unique and special aspects of the creation of Man, made in the image of God.   We also covered Adam and Eve and God’s establishing of the Marriage relationship, “the 5 Commandments” overview, and began to introduce The Fall of Mankind as sin enters the world.  

These are the other key points made in the July 8^th class:

We repeated a point emphasized last week, “The spiritual realm is real.” 

We also repeated that we are teaching the Biblical viewpoint, Creation by God Almighty, and we oppose the atheist viewpoint, Naturalism and evolution of mankind from monkeys or fish.

Man, like God, is a being having three parts – body soul, and spirit.   The animals do not have the spirit, and they were not formed by a direct physical action of God, they came into existence just by the power of God’s spoken Word.   Man wasn’t spoken into existence; he was formed by a creative miracle of God, who started with topsoil that already had been created and produced the human body (like ours) including all the internal organs, nerves, and blood.   Then God took out from Himself part of His divine Life and put this Life into Adam (described in the Bible as “breathed into him”), and he came alive, made in the image of God.  

We began to cover teaching that addresses the question “What was man created for?”  Several of the topics to be presented in future classes will continue to address this question.  For today, our key verse was 1Corinthians 10: 31, “When you eat or drink, or do anything else, always do it to honor God.” [CEV]   We taught that man’s purpose was first, to Honor God.  Then, we discussed these other purposes, being in fellowship (a close relationship with God–friendship), following the 5 Commandments, and being holy.     We mentioned the Fall of Mankind as Adam and Eve sinned.    This is where the July 8^th class ended; we will begin from here next week.

Next week we will conclude the Summer Session, finishing the “Man” lesson, which will also transition into the Fall Session lessons, in September, on Sin, Salvation, and Jesus, our Savior.

Then the Winter Session will present the expanded teaching on the 5 Commandments, and begin the teaching on “The Kingdom of God”.   [Both the Fall and Winter sessions incorporate teaching from ‘On the Right Path’ into the lesson.]

Homework was assigned this week:  study the Scripture passages about God, using the faith steps handout. Students should read the handout; parents should be prepared to GIVE YOUR CHILD HELP studying this handout. Then, on July 15^th, there will be an extra-credit opportunity, to write a "reflection" -- a reader-response paragraph on one of those Scripture passages, for extra achievement points. 

The Memory Verse assigned this week is Psalm 19: 1, but using the CEV text, printed on the top of the July 1 ClassNotes (not the New King James Version).  This is the verse:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.    -   Psalm 19:1 

Helping Your Children to Be Young Disciples of Jesus

Thoughts About My Pre-Teen Students – Helping Them To Be Young Disciples of Jesus

By George Nielsen – July 4, 2012

Being a Young Disciple of Jesus is presented as a goal and the goal is restated, almost every week, to the 5^th graders that I teach on Sundays.

What am I actually expecting?   The list written below describes what I am trying to accomplish with my 5th grade students, over this next year.

Most people who set tangible goals know that the idea of goal-setting is to have goals that are meaningful, written, as specific as possible, and attainable.   The goals should motivate you or me, the goal setter, to work to achieve them, following action steps related to the goals.    My action step is primarily to carry out my teaching ministry on Sundays, which also includes prayer and encouragement for the kids, both inside and outside the classroom.

It is absolutely vital that the parents be involved in this, building on my one-hour-per-week of teaching.    All of the parents in this year’s class have been mailed a copy of the 5^th Grade Learning Objectives.  Parents should realize that their input into their children’s spiritual development is essential; telling them to “go to church” isn’t enough to meet our objectives.

Helping children be young disciples of Jesus involves the following:

• Increasing a student’s knowledge of God and the Christian story
• a student’s willingness to internalize or “own” their faith; we present this to the kids as “choosing to live their lives ‘On the Right Path’” (it is developmentally appropriate to give 5^th graders this freedom to choose, while still teaching them to make the right choice – “I Serve Jesus”)
• teaching a set of beliefs by which students interact with their world and make sense of things (developing a “Biblical Christian worldview”)
• starting the process of acceptance into and participation with their faith community; in other words, starting to get them outside the “bubble” of kids’ programming in the church, connecting with ‘big people’ and serving others through service projects (participating in the Impact discipleship group)
• the work of God’s Spirit, which may be mysterious, both to kids and to parents; but in spite of its newness to them, we still plant and water the seed, namely that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they have been and will continue to be imparted by the Spirit with special gifts; sometimes the gifts are only understandable through hindsight or reflection.

I have said this several times, and wrote about it often – that in 5^th grade, we teach the children that Christianity is “a Way of life.”     Young disciples of Jesus need to learn the more-Christ-like way of living.   This is a process that must ultimately be internally motivated, not dictated by a parent, teacher or youth worker (but we are important, as mentors!).   The result is not just Christian behavior.   It is following Christ out of their deepest, most thought-out convictions.    This does take time.  But we start the process in 5^th grade, by building on the nurturing in the faith from the student’s earlier years.  The key element is not the knowledge we present to the kids, as much as it is to develop their internal motivation.

One hazard to avoid is to attempt to reduce discipleship down to a simplistic monitoring of the children’s behavior.    As a teacher, I try to build a relationship, make and maintain a connection with the children.      Parents already have the relationship, but should really strive to build their connection with their children.    When you are connected, you are in a position to influence, not just to lecture.    The saying is true that “rules without relationship leads to rebellion.”   When parents keep-up a strong relational connection with their kids, they won’t have to lose their influence and surrender to the peer group or the Disney/MTV-driven social pressures their pre-teens will experience.

July 1, 2012 "The Bible is God's Message for Me" -- Session 1

This week we are beginning to present the Summer session of the extra Bible Curriculum materials for 5th graders.   Today, and continuing next week, the Lesson is "The Bible is God's Message for Me".   The Summer session includes an Overview, and presentation of the topics "God" and "Man".


During today's class, the announcement was made that we would be starting a 'Kid's Blog', separate from this blog.  The students will be the authors of the postings, unlike this blog which has teacher postings.  More information about this will be given, later this week,    The first posting will be a student's question,  asking what I meant by a statement I made while praying at the close of class on 6/10/12.    The prayer was about asking God to help a person with a health problem, and the question was about words I used -- "the Blood-covered Light".  I will then post a comment, giving my answer.


The Overview is given to introduce the idea that this big Book, the Holy Bible, does have a thematic unity, and this unity can be described by studying what the Bible says about 5 major topics.   The topics are God, Man, Sin, Salvation, and the Kingdom of God.   In addition, during the Overview, the point was made that all the stories in the Bible, that are woven together to make up The Story, are there for a purpose.  We can learn from the people we read about, both the good and the bad examples.     


The topic GOD is the crucial topic for this curriculum.   Because all or most of the students have been nurtured by their parents to believe in God, now as 5th graders the students need to be trained and prepared to understand what they have been raised to believe and to handle opposition to that belief.     So, in today's class, there was a forthright presentation of the other viewpoints: 

• the atheists, and their religion, which is called Naturalism.
• the people who say they don't believe in God, but actually mean that they don't care if there is a God or not, because they are in-charge of their own life and are not going to accept any idea of a God that they have to obey.   They are completely self-serving.
• a brief comment on the New Age/New Earth belief in god as a so-called cosmic force, and particularly the branch of this belief system that considers the forces of nature and "Mother Earth" as being their God.

Having given a description of those who oppose the Biblical Christian beliefs and worldview, the class presentation turned to the God of the Bible, named Yahweh, and to our Number One learning objective for the 5th grade.    This is a quote from the Class Notes sheet given to each student:  

The Spiritual world is real. God Almighty does exist; He dwells in heaven.  Holy angels, and God’s Holy Spirit, the devil and evil spirits all exist and are active in our world.  

The revelation of God Almighty, Yahweh, as a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was presented.

We will continue next week with 'God' and then present 'Man'.

No Homework was assigned this week..However, next week there will be a study assignment on Scripture passages about God, and the following week there will be an extra-credit opportunity, to write a "reflection" -- a reader-response paragraph on one of those Scripture passages, for extra achievement points. 

No Memory Verse was assigned this week.  However, next week the two extra verses for the Summer quarter will be assigned.  They are Psalm 121: 1-2, and Psalm 19: 1, both taken from the New King James Version.

 [Parents should note that every week the children are reminded that I have High Expectations for them, since they are now 5th graders.   One of those expectations is that they will work to achieve in this class.  One of the things I give them to work on is Writing assignments, so that they can practice expressing themselves clearly and correctly.  Parents need to help -- by assuring that the students do their homework and turn it in.  Most parents already check on their children's school homework.  Since you have enrolled your child in 5th grade Sunday School, do the same thing with their Sunday School homework, which is not usually very time-consuming, but still is important.]