By George Nielsen
This week we covered the Lesson from Bible Adventures, “Once Will Do”, which starts with a description of King Hezekiah and the large amount of animal sacrifices he brought to the Temple, after it had been cleansed. The Bible passages studied were from 2 Chronicles, chapter 29. Next, the lesson presented two passages from Hebrews, chapter 10. (verses 10, and 21-22). These verses teach that we have been made holy by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, once for all (from v. 10), and that we should draw near to God, by faith, with a sincere heart (from v. 21-22).
In class we used a two-sided poster in presenting the lesson, with the animals being led to the priests at the altar of the Temple, on one side, and Jesus hanging on the Cross on the other side.
Our Lesson Focus is one spiritual truth that we emphasize, that the kids can take away from class as the application of what was taught, for them. We want them to understand the lesson content, to build Biblical literacy, and we also want the students to take away a truth-statement that will help them in achieving our major learning objectives for 5th grade.
Today’s Lesson Focus is: Through Jesus we can come to God.
The Commitment Learning Objective that they can take from this is to have the personal resolve to want to be a Young Disciple of Jesus. Adults that are reading this lesson summary should also note that this Lesson Focus is specifically contradicting the cliche that is popular in our culture - “there are many paths that lead to God.”
June 16th is Father’s Day. At the beginning of class, we asked the question - “what does the word ‘HONOR’ mean?” - and then discussed the responses from students, mentioning the 10 Commandments, and particularly Commandment 5 - “Honor your Father and Mother.” After class, the students were given a bag with a few chocolate chip cookies to give to their fathers, in honor of Father’s Day.
Father’s Day is also a time when we publish a Commentary by 5th grade teacher George Nielsen, addressed to fathers reading this summary:
Fathers -- BE Spiritual Leaders
Fathers hopefully already know how vital their role is in the family. On Father’s Day, I want to make comments to emphasize that the Dad’s role includes being a spiritual leader over their home and family. In Ephesians 6, the Holy Bible teaches:
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6: 10-11 (NKJV)
In a Christian home, you can expect that the wiles of the devil includes direct attacks by satan and evil forces against you and your home. As a Christian father, you can’t expect someone else to take over for you and be strong in the Lord in your home -- you have to be strong. If you can’t stand up to attacks by satan, maybe your family will stand in the gap, against satan, for you -- but, do you want to put them in that position? As the spiritual leader, you have to be able stand yourself.
Some men, who don’t have any children, may stumble along in their spiritual lives, growing older but still living as the so-called “wimpy-kid Christian”. The consequences of that will probably only affect them. But FATHERS directly impact the lives of their children, and a “wimpy-kid Christian” Dad is planting seeds of spiritual defeat in his children.
We make a substantial effort to teach your 5th grade, preteen kids NOT to be wimpy-kids; they can Come to Jesus, be sons and daughters of God, and heirs of the Kingdom -- overcomers in life and more than conquerors, not stopped by adverse circumstances.
37 Yet in all these things [“very bad things”] we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37 (NKJV)
So, we challenge our preteens not to be wimpy-kid Christians, but to take their spiritual lives seriously and be committed, practicing what we teach. We challenge them to do what is called service-learning, following our “Love Does” ministry theme, and also participating in the Impact discipleship group’s activities. If we are teaching your kids not to be wimpy-kids, there is no way that it is going to be acceptable for Dad to be one.
Finally, I have said before, and now am repeating, that I have a vested interest in the men of the church. I am a called teacher, pastor, and evangelist, now serving in a teaching ministry. My particular interest in having the men in the church be discipled as strong Christian men is because I teach boys in the church. My contact-time with my students is about one hour per week. The men who are involved in our boys’ lives the rest of the week can have a much greater influence than I do. Our boys can learn things from me, and they can learn from women teachers, but just learning about the Bible lessons isn't what we strive for. We have a Commitment Objective that our students be young disciples of Jesus. No matter who is the teacher, for our boys, if the men (in their lives) don’t “buy-into” what we teach them, then the boys won’t “buy-in” either.
Men have influence, by their example, on the girls too, but with the boys this influence is one of the most important ways they internalize what it means to be manly. That developmental milestone, what we commonly think of as “growing-up”, is something that boys as preteens and teens are interested in and are working on, at their own pace. Men are responsible for being there, as godly role models, to influence the boys to also be godly. Fathers are accountable for this with their own boys, and they also have opportunities to be a godly examples to other boys, particularly within our faith communities, the local church congregations.
Fathers, take to heart this command from God recorded in Ephesians 6: 4,
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (NKJV)
The Memory Verse assigned this week is Ephesians 3: 12.
12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
In today’s class, we introduced the 5th grade Special Bible Reading program that will start later in June and continue throughout the Sunday School year to May, 2014. The details will be published in the Parents Newsletter and also in a forthcoming Class Blog post. The 5th grade special Bible Reading program is focused on two New Testament books and three very theologically significant Psalms: the Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, Psalms 51, 23, and 24. It has both a reading component and a writing component. Students are permitted to receive help from parents on the written work.
Parents can contact the 5th grade teacher by email at rcc.5gr@gmail.com
You can read the class summaries and other information about our class by following our Class Blog at the address rcc5gr.blogspot.com
Weekly Blog posts will be made.
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