Posts Tagged ‘church’

Sheep Craft

Saturday, October 12th, 2013

sheep-craft

This sheep craft is super easy to make, and you can use it to explain many concepts from the Bible. Jesus describes us as sheep, and so does David in the most famous Psalm 23. Christ is our Shepherd and takes care of us, even though we stubbornly wander away from Him. We are also led astray easily if we do not stay close to our Shepherd.

Jesus is also described as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He went as a Lamb to the slaughter according to Isaiah 53, and He did not open His mouth to defend Himself. He knew that He had to bear the penalty for our sin, because the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) The automatic result of sin is separation from God (true death). The only way that we can have a relationship with God is if our sin has been removed, and that is what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

For this craft, you will need the following supplies:

  • large white pompom
  • hot glue
  • black modeling clay
  • small google eyes
  • black pipe cleaner

Plug in the glue gun. Chop four small feet from the pipe cleaner. Mold a sheep head out of a small piece of black clay, squishing up the ears. Don’t make the head too big, or the sheep will want to stand on its head and do acrobatics because of top-heaviness.

Mash the two small google eyes into the clay. Hot glue the four legs on the bottom of the sheep, tilting the legs outward slightly to keep the sheep from falling over (which they often do in real life!) Then hot glue the head to the white pompom. This whole craft only takes 5 minutes, and it looks gorgeous!

Sign up below for a free printable e-book of this Bible crafts series!

If you enjoyed making this sheep craft, you will love Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible. You receive this 2-hour video for free when you sign up for the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has an enormous Bible section that you will love!

Lot’s Wife: Knock Over the Salt Doll

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

lot's-wife-salt-doll“Lot’s Wife: Knock Over the Salt Doll” is a new game I made up for my kids to internalize the story from Genesis 19. Lot and his family were living in Sodom, and every single person in the city was wicked. They surrounded Lot’s house and began breaking down the door to physically assault the people in Lot’s house.

Two angels struck the people from Sodom with blindness. The people from Sodom said that Lot was judging them, and they were hateful, even though they enjoyed injuring other people. This is why God was going to hail down fire and brimstone from heaven on them, destroying the entire city.

The angels grabbed Lot, his wife, and his two daughters, who ALL hesitated and didn’t want to leave. They were commanded to not look back. Lot’s wife didn’t care about obeying God. She turned her head back to the disgusting wickedness that she loved, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. This happened at the same time that fire rained down from heaven.

An easy craft to internalize this story is to dip a doll in glue, then dip her into salt. Now stand her up, and try to knock her down with a cardboard bolt of lightning. Go ahead and watch this short video to understand how to play the game “Lot’s Wife: Knock over the Salt Doll.”

Sign up below for a free printable e-book of this Bible crafts series!

If you enjoyed this Bible game, you will love Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible. You receive this 2-hour video for free when you sign up for the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has an enormous Bible section that you will love!

31 Days of Bible Crafts

Monday, September 30th, 2013

Bible-crafts

Here is an index for the 31 Days of Bible Crafts, to help parents teach their children the Word of God with joy. While describing how to do many of these crafts, I will be drawing spiritual significance from the project itself. I’ve chosen many symbols to represent spiritual truths.

These crafts begin in Genesis and go all the way through Revelation. Feel free to sign up at the bottom of this post for the printable version that includes color photos of each craft.

1. Bible Costume in Five Minutes
2. Garden of Eden Terrarium
3. Model of Noah’s Ark
4. Lego Tower of Babel
5. Lot’s Wife: Knock Over the Salt Doll
6. Sand and Stars: Abraham’s Descendants
7. Jacob’s Ladder
8. Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors
9. Ten Commandments Clay Craft
10. Tabernacle Model
11. Breastplate of High Priest
12. Sheep Craft
13. Hebrew Alphabet and Acrostic
14. Proverbs Puzzles
15. The Altar of Elijah
16. Ezekiel’s Scroll
17. Fiery Furnace Craft
18. Daniel and the Lion’s Den
19. Prophetic Statue from Daniel
20. Clay Oil Lamp Craft
21. Roman Coins Craft
22. Three Kings Craft
23. Homemade Nativity
24. A Farmer Sows Seeds
25. Crown of Thorns
26. Cross Mosaic
27. Resurrection Garden
28. Paul’s Jail Cell
29. Sword of the Spirit
30. Tree of Life
31. New Jerusalem Model

Sign up below for a free printable e-book of this Bible crafts series!

Find lots more hands-on activities for studying the Bible inside the Unit Study Treasure Vault!

The Gift of Evangelism

Sunday, August 18th, 2013

gift-of-evangelism

All believers are commanded to evangelize, or to lead other people to Christ, but there are some people with the gift of evangelism who seem to win souls wherever they are. They have a deep burden to fulfill the great commission to “make disciples.” Billy Graham, Chinese Brother Yun, Corrie Ten Boom, my own father, and a man from my church who recently went to be with the Lord are a few examples that come to mind.

My dad worked for Billy Graham before he became a missionary in Guatemala. Imagine the joy of easily leading people to Christ when they had already been convicted of their sin by Billy Graham. Droves of people would come down the aisle, ready to be saved, and my dad was one of the workers who prayed one-on-one with those people. He felt so much joy that he wanted to continue to do that for the rest of his life, he told me.

I recently read the sequel to The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the holocaust. God would call her to different cities where she didn’t even know a single person. She would walk out of the airport and look around, asking God who she was supposed to talk to. She ended up doing speaking engagements all over the world, leading people to Christ in the process. She confessed that it was wearisome to live life out of a suitcase, but she was scared of living outside the will of God because she needed to be connected to the Spirit of Christ. Being effective and useful for God’s kingdom gives so much joy that once you have experienced it, you never want to live without it.

Chinese Brother Yun (The Heavenly Man) was the same way. He was led all over China, spreading the gospel to anyone who would hear. He suffered great persecution as part of the underground church, and he was thrown into prison and beaten multiple times. But he had this huge desire to share the gospel with the lost, and he was a powerful modern-day evangelist. God has worked miracles around him, like setting him free from prison, blocking the guards from seeing him walk straight out of the prison. There is documentation to show that this happened. God is extraordinarily good to those who are wholeheartedly His.

Danny Acosta was a member of my church who recently went to be with the Lord. He was abruptly given three days to live. But he led ten prisoners to Christ during his life, as well as many other people. There is one woman from the street in particular that God has given me a deep love for, who was led to Christ by this man. She describes how he would boldly greet a hardened gang member as he walked down the street. She laughed at how much courage he had, because normal people thought his boldness was crazy. But the Spirit of the Lord rested upon this man, and the gang member awkwardly said thank you to this man’s greeting! My jaw dropped the first time I heard this man pray. He claimed promises from Scripture as he prayed, and his strong faith was not misplaced. Even though I never really knew him, I grieved when he passed away.