"The Kingdom of God"
By George Nielsen
This week we began the presentation of the Winter session of extra Bible Curriculum materials for 5th graders. Today the Lesson is "The Bible is God's Message for Me" (‘BGMM’) covering the major topic of The Kingdom of God. We also reviewed the introductory materials presented in the Fall about the ‘On the Right Path’ (‘OTRP’) lessons. This transition to OTRP lessons will be completed in the Winter session, when both BGMM and OTRP present lessons on the major topic of the Kingdom of God.
This class began with a very brief review of the lesson taught on 1/6/13, about Jesus as a 12 year-old boy and the incident described in Luke, Chapter 2, where Jesus spent three days in the Temple, after the Passover feast was over, listening to the teachers, asking and answering questions. The point of emphasis was on Jesus’ growth in wisdom and grace, and that He was an active learner. The review included mention of another Scripture passage from the lesson, Deuteronomy 6: 4-7, the opening verses of the confession of faith known as The Shema.
After the review, we took time to watch and listen to two Christian music videos, both of which relate to our BGMM and OTRP lessons -- ‘Children of God’ performed by Third Day, which is our 5th Grade Class theme song, and ‘God’s Not Dead (Roaring Like a Lion)’ a live performance video by The Newsboys. Links to these videos are provided at the end of this Blog post.
The BGMM lesson for today began by explaining the basic objective of BGMM, which is to see that there is a unified message presented by the Holy Bible which can be seen and understood through studying five major topics: God, Man, Sin, Salvation - through Jesus our Savior, and the Kingdom of God.
The first session of BGMM was taught on July 1st, 8th, and 15th. The topics covered in July were God, Man, and Sin, including the declaration that Creation is the truth and evolution is a lie (a point heavily emphasized on July 1 and July 8). The lesson on Sin also introduces the topic of Salvation. The second session of BGMM was taught on September 9th, 16th, and 23rd. The 9/9/12 class was devoted entirely to answering questions from the July lessons. Then the major topic of Salvation, and Jesus, our Savior, was taught. The OTRP Introduction, covered in session two, was taught on September 30 and October 7.
Our lesson about Jesus as a 12 year-old stated that He returned to Nazareth and was submitted to the authority of Mary and Joseph, and then began His ministry at age thirty. This leads to our presentation of the major topic: The Kingdom of God. The class handout titled “The Gospel of the Kingdom” was distributed. (Click HERE to link to a copy of the Handout.) Mark 1: 14-15 is the key verse:
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1: 14 – 15 (NKJV)
We discussed these verses and part of page one of the handout. These verses were also assigned as this week’s Memory Verses. The class was closed by practicing these Memory Verses, then our closing prayer.
The Memory Verse assignments are Mark 1: 14-15 (NKJV), and the Emphasis verse for this month, John 3: 16 (NIV).
Click on the Video titles to link to YouTube and view the videos from today’s class:
“Children of God” --- Third Day
“God’s Not Dead (Roaring Like a Lion)” --- The Newsboys
No comments:
Post a Comment