Posts Tagged ‘New Testament’

I & II Thessalonians Unit Study

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

Thessalonians-unit-study

We had a great time filming our I & II Thessalonians Unit Study. We re-enacted lots of skits, referred to a map of Thessalonica, and baked a cake to represent the Day of the Lord.

When looking at the overview for I & II Thessalonians, we saw that one of the main themes was the Day of the Lord. We filmed Jesus and an archangel up on a chair holding some clouds while the archangel blew the shofar, the Jewish trumpet. The dead in Christ rise first to meet the Lord in the air, so we had a black gravestone made out of black poster board. One of my sons floated up out of the gravestone to meet the Lord in the air. You see him in the clouds with Jesus and the archangel.

map-of-thessalonica

We looked at a map of where Thessalonica was located, which is in Macedonia north of Greece. I have a beautiful biblical map that a woman from my mom’s church gave her. It was created with markers on a large piece of felt. You can easily look in the back of your Bible to find a map of Paul’s missionary journeys, and you will find where the city is located.

be-patient-with-all-men

We acted out various skits to bring to life the topics discussed in these two letters from Paul to the Thessalonians:

  • If you don’t work, neither shall you eat. (Give bread to the one that is working, but don’t let the lazy person have any bread.)
  • While saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction comes. (Throw lots of couch pillows on an unsuspecting person.)
  • Admonish the unruly. (An out-of-control person gets scolded.)
  • Encourage the fainthearted. (When someone is sad, give them a hug.)
  • Help the weak. (Help an elderly man walk across the street.)
  • Be patient with all men. (Have a kid sit in a chair while people around him are being annoying. Have him sit patiently, as pictured above.)
  • Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks. (Act out each of these commands.)

rapture-cake

We also make a cake that represented the Day of the Lord. It is a cloud shape with white frosting. A trumpet shaped by chocolate frosting is on the top. This was the culminating activity for our I & II Thessalonians Unit Study.

If you enjoyed these activities, you will love the Bible section of the Unit Study Treasure Vault that includes unit studies for every book of the Bible!

LEGO New Jerusalem

Friday, November 6th, 2015

lego-new-jerusalem

When studying the book of Revelation with your kids, you can have them build a LEGO New Jerusalem. This will help them to visualize what it will be like. It is a city with square walls. So you will build a wall around the city, with three gates on each of the four sides.

A river runs through the city. The river flows from the throne of God. The Tree of Life is also along this river, and its leaves give healing to the nations. All of our tears will be wiped away, and there will be no more crying or pain.

new-jerusalem-top

If you look at the bottom LEGO base, you can picture each of the bumps as buildings in the city of God. These would be the mansions that Jesus mentions to His disciples:

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. -John 14:1-3 NASB

You can also choose to make larger buildings with individual LEGOs, making streets and neighborhoods. You have now completed your LEGO New Jerusalem.

If you would like to make drawings or crafts of the New Jerusalem, here are a few more activities you might enjoy:

Jesus Teaches the Multitudes (LEGO)

Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

Jesus-teaches-the-multitudes

When Jesus teaches the multitudes in Scripture, He often has to get into a boat on the water, so that the water can project His voice to thousands of people who gathered to hear Him. My daughter decided to make a scene of Jesus teaching the multitudes out of LEGOs.

She began with a green LEGO base, and she made water on one side (out of two different kinds of blue) and yellow sand on the other side (with yellow and orange LEGOs.) She gathered a crowd of LEGO people. Then she built a brown boat and had Jesus sit in the boat and teach the people.

jordan-river-legoMy kids made a map of the Jordan River and the different cities that Jesus visited during His teaching ministry. Jesus would go from town to town, healing the sick and casting out demons. People would gather in crowds to hear Him speak, because He said things that were unlike any other religious leader of the day. In fact, the religious leaders despised Jesus, and they were the ones who caused Him to be crucified.

You can make a LEGO Jordan River by starting with a couple of LEGO bases. Look at a Bible-time map of the Gospels, and you can easily get the shape. Use blue LEGOs for the water and black LEGOs for the dots indicating the cities where Jesus taught.

If you enjoyed this activity, you will love the Bible section of the Unit Study Treasure Vault, where there are hundreds of ideas for bringing every book of the Bible to life for children!

Colossians Activities for Kids

Monday, June 15th, 2015

put-on-Christ

Here are some fun Colossians activities you can do with your kids to internalize this book of the Bible. You will need card stock paper in various colors, string, a hole punch, scissors, and glue. You will also need a computer with a printer so that you can print out various words.

Are you ready?

Colossians Activity #1: Blindfold

Put a blindfold on a child and have him walk around in darkness. How did it feel? Ask: Did you bump into things? Were you disoriented? This is what happens when we walk in sin. It leads us astray and ends up hurting us. When you take off the blindfold, your eyes are full of light, and you can see where you are going. There is safety and peace when you walk in the light.

Colossians Activity #2: Deeds of the Flesh

Print out the deeds of the flesh, which include anger, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lying. Print them in bold letters from your computer, leaving plenty of space around each word so that you can cut them out and paste them to a piece of black card stock paper.

Punch two holes in the top of the paper, and tie string through each hole, making sure to leave enough space for a child’s head. The child can now wear the deeds of the flesh around his neck (see above illustration).

Now you can make another card stock sign of love. Cut out a heart from red card stock paper, and print out “love” from your computer. Glue the label to the heart. Hole punch two holes on the top of the heart, and the child can put off the deeds of the flesh and put on love.

love

You can also put on Christ after taking off the deeds of the flesh. Use your creativity to make a sign representing Christ. We used a yellow cross glued to black card stock paper. Once again, you will need to punch two holes and tie string to the holes so that the child can “put on Christ.”

Explain what it means to put on Christ. This means we are to yield to Christ and manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our lives rather than the deeds of the flesh.

Colossians Activity #3: Sing Hymns

We are to encourage each other with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, so go ahead and obey the verse by taking out some hymn books and singing your favorite hymns.

Colossians Activity #4: Cancelled Debt

Print out a sheet of paper with the title “Debt.” You can show negative money numbers listed on the paper. With a pen, mark “Cancelled” over the debt. You could also print the word “Cancelled” on another sheet of paper and glue it over the debt. I outlined the word “Cancelled” with black marker.

debt-cancelled

Talk about how our debts (our sins against God) have been nailed to the cross and cancelled because of what Christ did for us. You could have kids mention specific sins, and write “Cancelled” in another colored marker over those sins to represent that the sins are now gone because they have been forgiven if we have repented of them.

If you enjoyed these Colossians Activities for Kids, you will love the huge Bible section inside the Unit Study Treasure Vault!