Then today's class began with a brief review of last week’s lesson, ‘Life Boat - The Story of Noah and the Flood’, and the statement that the story continues this week, as Noah leaves the ark. The brief review covered the evil in the world, in Noah’s era of time, and God’s sending judgment on mankind, and the whole earth, through the Flood. This prompted more than a dozen questions from students on several issues, all connected to the judgment, and to the major theological topics that we have taught in the lessons from The Bible is God’s Message for Me (BGMM). Those topics were God, Man, Sin, Salvation, and Jesus our Savior. The answers given, and the discussion, included mentioning Creation, God’s declaration that His creation was “Very Good”, sin, Lucifer and the fallen angels, animals and the fact that many of them are now carnivorous, Jesus, and His birth and death on the Cross. Because this questions session lasted more than 30 minutes, it was necessary to break-off the discussion and immediately proceed with Lesson 8.
Lesson 8 from Bible Adventures studies Genesis, chapter 8 and 9. It covered Noah’s time on the Ark, and then leaving the Ark -- returning to the land, with his family and all the animals. Every living thing on the earth had been destroyed, except for Noah and all who were with him. The water remained and the earth stayed flooded for 150 days, but Noah, his family, and the animals remained safe in the Ark. After the Ark settled on the top of the Ararat Mountains, Noah had to continue to stay in the Ark until more than a year had passed, while the ground dried.
Sin grieves God. But, because of His mercy, God responds to the faith of His people. Noah had faith in God Almighty, and he obeyed God’s instructions. God was pleased with Noah’s faith and obedience, and He saved Noah and his family from being destroyed in the Flood.
Lesson 8 gives information about Noah sending out doves to see if the earth was dry, and then leaving the Ark, and the additional comment was made, that Noah worshiped God by building an altar and offering sacrifices. These were burnt offerings of all the clean animals and birds. God made a covenant with Noah, to never again destroy the earth through a flood, and He gave the sign of His covenant -- a rainbow in the sky. Covenant is a new word for most 5th graders; in today’s class, we did not go into detail about the definition of covenant, but relied on the comment made in Bible Adventures -- that it is “a solemn agreement or promise.”
Next, I read Romans 10: 9-10. This verse serves as the transition from studying God saving Noah and his family and the animals, to considering God’s promise to save people today. The explanation of these verses was given, remarking that there is now a New Covenant, based on what Jesus did on the Cross, and also commenting on the connection between this New Covenant and our practice of taking communion, the Lord’s Supper. We were now ready to conclude the lesson by completing page four of Bible Adventures, “The Sailing Ship GREAT SALVATION”. (Click HERE to see it.) The Memory Verse, Ephesians 2:8, and Mark 16:16, are Scripture passages on this page:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— (Ephesians 2:8)
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:16)
The students completed this worksheet and then turned it in. We will follow-up on the responses given by the students.
The Memory Verse assigned this week is Ephesians 2: 8. Jeremlah 29: 11. is the Emphasis Memory Verse -- for the month of October and it will be continued to November 11th. This verse can also be said for Achievement Points credit.
No comments:
Post a Comment