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.
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