rcc.5gr Class Blog: 2013

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Summary of Lessons - September, 2013

Living in God’s Image

Summary of Lessons - September, 2013

By George Nielsen

Memory Verse:

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Lesson 1 -- September 1, 2013 “A Powerful God”

God’s Power and Love are shown in the glory and majesty of creation. (We briefly mentioned definitions of the words glory and majesty in class; these are new words to many 5th graders, so parents should go over the definitions with their child.)

Our Lesson Focus is for students that they recognize God’s power and love, as seen in creation.

Our Lesson Scripture is Genesis 1: 1--28 (NIV)

This lesson also provided for a brief review of material taught earlier in the summer:

that the Spirit of God is the third Person of the Trinity; God will reveal in Scripture that His Name is YHWH which we pronounce Yahweh, and that Yahweh is revealed as being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
we teach a literal Creation, by God, as described in Genesis Chapter One, and that the theories of the existence of the world and the origin of mankind, the big bang theory and evolution, are false.
we have emphasized Psalm 19:1, in July and August, and discussed how the stars, their patterns in the sky, and how this coordinates with the months of the year, all show the majesty of creation and are glorious examples of God’s power.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Fall 2013 - Changes for 5th Grade Lessons

We are now starting the Heartshaper - Preteen lessons - on 9/1/2013.

By George Nielsen

Beginning this month, we are now using the Heartshaper - Preteen curriculum, published by Standard Publishing. This replaces the Bible-in-Life/Bible Adventures curriculum we had used previously.

For the Students, they will notice that there are some changes:

There is usually going to be a hands-on activity every week, instead of just occasionally, but fewer videos of contemporary news reports used as illustrations, and fewer Christian music videos/movie clips.
One major change is that they will be looking up the Scripture passages we study, in their copy of the Holy Bible, much more often than in the past when the Scripture was preprinted in the Bible Adventures leaflet. All students will look-up and read passages from the Holy Bible every week.
The students have been told that there is now going to be one memory verse for the entire month, BUT the verse(s) in Heartshaper are longer and more difficult. We generally will break-up the verse into parts, and work on only part of the verse at the beginning of the month. Also I am awarding a greater number of Achievement Points for the Memory Verses and giving partial-credit to students who are trying and get part of the Verse recited correctly.

Also, in this Back-to-school season, I have taken the opportunity to remind the students that they are fifth graders -- they're not "little kids" any more! I expect them to behave in class and to do the work assigned in class.

These things have not changed:

Our Class Motto remains: "We SERVE Jesus"
Our Spiritual Growth goal continues to be that the students commit themselves to be "Young Disciples of Jesus", and apply themselves, studying the materials presented in class.
We also want to continue to encourage all students to read the Holy Bible on their own, following the reading program we have in fifth grade, where the assigned books are Luke, Acts of the Apostles, and Psalms 51, 23, and 24. Writing notes about what they have read is also an optional part of the reading program, and students who do that receive extra Achievement Points and their notes become their own personal Commentary on the the Bible books they have read.

For Parents and other readers of this 5th Grade Class Blog:

Our weekly Blog Post will be the "Faith and Family" devotional reading. Faith and Family has a section called "Power Source" which lists the month's Memory Verse. Parents are encouraged to help the students with their Scripture Memory work.
Our Blog Post covering a summary of the Lessons will be published for each Lesson Unit, which generally is one month of lessons.
We continue publishing "LORD, Bless My Child" prayer and devotional thoughts, monthly.

PARENTS should also please note that in every class, we have two times of Prayer - at about 9:30 AM and at the close of the lesson.

Prayer is a very important part of our lesson each week. We take Prayer REQUESTS from students at the close of the lesson and pray for each of the requests, individually. We finish the prayer by saying a Blessing over the students.

So, parents should be aware that we usually go past our scheduled dismissal time, since the students' prayers (usually 6 to 10 requests) involve some very intense, serious needs that are prayed for specifically, with faith-filled, expectant prayer. We don't intend to rush through the prayer-time, just to dismiss the class sooner. (And we don't take away from lesson time, to start the prayers earlier.)

Friday, August 9, 2013

August 4, 2013 "The Bible is God's Message for Me" -- Session 1 - continued

By: George Nielsen

This week we continue the presentation of the Summer session of extra Bible Curriculum materials for 5th graders. Today the Lesson is "The Bible is God's Message for Me" (BGMM), continuing last week’s presentation on “God”, and the Overview. The sixth graders were also attending this class, so the Overview was repeated for them, along with these other comments:

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.

Our prayer at the beginning of class was said by the teacher, and then followed by having a sixth grade student read a prayer that was prepared for the class, the BGMM Prayer. (Click on the word “Prayer” to link to a copy.) This prayer gives thanks to God for His Word, the Holy Bible, and asks for help - to live according to Godly values.

All the students from both grades received a copy of the BGMM Prayer, following along as it was spoken, and then reviewing the information on Values written below the prayer. Brief comments were made about each of the values listed, and also “The Golden Rule”. These are the Values:

TRUTH -- Not Lies;

LOVE -- Not Hate, or Anger/Holding Grudges;

MERCY -- Not Revenge;

JUSTICE -- Not Being Unfair, Not Stealing or Cheating;

HUMILITY (Being Humble) -- Not Boastful, Puffed-up, Prideful;

HONOR -- Not Disrespect;

HOLINESS (Being Dedicated to God) -- Not Deliberately Sinful, refusing to Obey God, Not Self-willed.

The GOLDEN RULE (Matthew 7: 12): “Do to others what you want them to do to you.”

After the prayer and comments, we viewed a Christian music video, where the song lyrics are a contemporary way of expressing the Lesson Focus for the BGMM material on God. The song is “God’s Not Dead (Like a Lion)” performed by The Newsboys. (Click on the title to link to the video, on YouTube. Parents should be aware that advertising pops-up on the YouTube site. In class, the computer screen was turned away from the students until after the “Bud Light” commercial was completed.) The brief discussion afterward concentrated on emphasizing “He’s living on the inside, roaring like a Lion”; God not only was alive, He is alive, and He’s active/powerful -- in our own individual lives.

After two 5th graders recited Memory Verses, the Overview was repeated, then we began to study more about the Thematic unity of the Holy Bible using the handout Talk About It -- “Is The Bible REALLY God’s Message for Me?” (Click Here to see a copy of the handout.)

This excerpt from the handout shows the main points of our study:

We open the Bible expecting to hear from God in a specific and personal way, that will speak to us. We should set aside any misunderstanding about the importance of the Holy Bible. It’s not just a religious storybook. Don’t think that the Bible is a book that is old and obsolete. The Bible is full of wisdom, and that wisdom is practical; you can use it now, in our modern world, to answer your questions.

Not only that, but our reading and study of the Holy Bible can serve as the connecting point for Holy Spirit to communicate to us. We must try hard to develop the habit of regular Bible reading and also taking time to study the Holy Bible for ourselves.

The Talk About It handout presented about three-fourths of a page of my assertions to emphasize the importance of reading and studying the Holy Bible. This was to directly challenge any sense of complacency or boredom the students may have, and to teach that they can expect to hear from God when they make the effort to connect with Him, through His Word.

Then, the handout switches its presentation format to Inquiry-based instruction -- by posing two questions: (1) my standard “clarity” question “Does this make sense to you?” and (2) the thought-provoking question “How will your Bible study be transformed -- knowing it is a living, dynamic text that will speak to you specifically?” (adapted from material published by Pastor Rick Warren). In this week’s class, there was sufficient time for my comments in response to the question. The sixth graders were assigned homework, to write answers to question 2 (to be turned-in next week). The older students are more proficient writers; next week the in-class discussion will allow the 5th graders to verbally express their answers.

We will finish Session 1 of BGMM next week, with more discussion of the Talk About It questions, and then present the topic 'Man'. We closed out our class by re-assigning the same Memory Verses (shown below). This was followed by our prayers. Parents should please also note that we are making a change to our BGMM teaching schedule, which is described below.

The Memory Verse re-assigned this week is 2 Timothy 3:16.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

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The Emphasis Memory Verse is Psalm 19: 1 (NIV).

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

The BGMM teaching schedule is being changed. The Fall Session is being moved to August, immediately after we complete the Summer Session. The (early) Fall Session will cover the topics Sin and Salvation / Jesus our Savior. The Winter session, normally held in January, is cancelled. The Spring Session will be held, in May, covering The Kingdom of God, for one lesson.

Beginning in September, we will also switch to new lessons using the Heartshaper curriculum, in place of Bible Adventures.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

LORD --- Bless My Child - August 4, 2013

This is a Devotional Thought and a Prayer for our children, along with a Bible verse or passage to reflect on.

The Devotional Thought is adapted from Lord Bless My Child, by William and Nancie Carmichael. The Prayer is written by George Nielsen.

(The publisher of the Carmichaels' book is Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. of Wheaton, IL.)

August 4, 2013

We found that when we tried consistently and lovingly to require obedience, our children did respond, although some of them were more headstrong at times than others. We had reasons we asked them to be obedient, and they had an important principle to learn: Actions have consequences.

We want our family life to be one that reflects Biblical principles of unity, peace, submission, and being in covenant.

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I pray for you, my child, that you will know the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, and that you would obey us, your parents, “All the way - Right away - and With a Joyful Heart”. Help us Lord, to just blossom, as a family living in covenant with Jesus, our Savior and Lord, and with each other. Help our child be a Young Disciple of Jesus, faithful and led by Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord.

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1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Ephesians 6. 1-3 NKJV)

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Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older, he will remain upon it. (Proverbs 22.6, The Living Bible)

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walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

(Ephesians 4: 1b -- 3 NKJV)

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Talk About It -- “Is The Bible REALLY God’s Message for Me?” - August 4, 2013

By George Nielsen

We can trust, and have full assurance -- no doubts -- that Jesus wants us to know the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Jesus is the Living Word. So we open the Bible expecting to hear from God in a specific and personal way, that will speak to us.

We should set aside any misunderstanding about the importance of the Holy Bible. It’s not just a religious storybook. Don’t think that the Bible is a book that is old and obsolete. The Bible is full of wisdom, and that wisdom is practical; you can use it now, in our modern world, to answer your questions.

In 5th grade, we have a program for reading and studying the Holy Bible, on your own, during the week. We are covering two New Testament books and three Psalms, beginning with the Gospel of Luke. (See note, below) WE ENCOURAGE ALL STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE, in the reading and also to try the written Bible studying that is part of this program, too.

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Does this make sense to you?

How will your Bible study be transformed -- knowing it is a living, dynamic text that will speak to you specifically?

1. 5th grade students who participate with their fathers, in Men’s Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) beginning this fall, can begin our program with the Gospel of Matthew, instead of Luke, and follow the BSF schedule for reading.

2. (This article is adapted from ideas and questions in: ‘Daily Hope – by Rick Warren’, 8/11/2012)

GOD --- His Name, His Attributes - "The Bible is God's Message for ME" - August 4, 2013

GOD

A ‘’Faith Steps for Young Disciples of Jesus’ Study Guide

The Holy Bible has many verses in it that describe what God is like. Some of the verses are reprinted below. We are using them as Key verses for study, to get a view of the “Big Picture” about God Almighty, the God of the Holy Bible, YHWH, which we pronounce “Yahweh”.

God’s Name – and How His Name is Translated into English

God’s name is used throughout the Old Testament, hundreds of times. In the Old Testament’s original language, Hebrew, His name is “ יהוה ”. These are the Hebrew letters Yod, Heh, Vav, and Heh, reading from right to left. When God’s name is transliterated into the English language, now reading from left to right, it is YHWH (pronounced “Yahweh”).

In the Holy Bible, the Name Yahweh begins appearing in the Book of Genesis. However, you have to go to the Book of Exodus to discover that Yahweh is a word that has a specific meaning. It means “I AM”, and is considered a forceful statement that “I exist and I am supreme.” In Exodus 3:14, God is speaking with Moses, saying:

14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

English translations of the Holy Bible that we use in class follow a translation protocol that has been accepted by most publishers. They use the words THE LORD, printed all-capitals with a slightly different printed- font for the letters, as the English translation of “ יהוה ” (Yahweh).

KEY VERSES for 5th Grade Students to study – about God.

God is Spirit – John 4.24 –

24“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (spoken by Jesus)

God is Everywhere – Ps. 139:7–12

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me;

12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

God is All-powerful (Omnipotent) - Genesis 18:14 – Exodus 6.2-3 – Isaiah 40:27–28

Genesis 17.1-2

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2“And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

Genesis 18.14

14“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Exodus 6. 2-3

2And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. 3“I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.

Isaiah 40:27-28

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

God is Eternal – Deuteronomy 33.27 – 1 Timothy 1.17

Deuteronomy 33.27

27 The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, ‘Destroy!’

1 Timothy 1.17

17Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

God is All-Knowing – Psalm 139. 1-6 -- Romans 11:33

Psalm 139. 1-6

1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

5 You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

Romans 11:33

33Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

God is Changeless (Immutable) – James 1.17, Ps 102. 25-27

James 1.17

17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Psalm 102. 25-27

25 Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

26 They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed.

27 But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.

God is Love – 1 John 4: 8-10, 16.

8He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

16And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

God is Righteous - Ezra 9.15 – Ps 145.17-18

Ezra 9.15

15“O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”

Ps 145.17-18

17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.

18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. [1]

[1] Scripture quotations are from: The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (electronic edition) Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Inc.