Monday, January 25, 2010
School Scripture in 2010!
School Scripture will begin this year on Tuesday the 23rd of February, 2010. Stay tuned, more to follow!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Is God real? or Jesus calms the storm
If anyone has a question at scripture, they can write it down on a piece of paper, put it in the question box and we try to answer it. One of the questions we got recently asked if God was real.
You could say that this term is all about answering that question. Even though we can't see God, he shows that he's real in many different ways. First, the world is amazing, complicated and beautiful -- it suggests that someone very powerful is responsible for making it. Second, most of us have a conscience. Our conscience tells us when we're doing right or when we're doing wrong. It's as if God's perfect way of living is somehow already inside us. And third, God sent people all through history to teach people that God was real.
But often these ways aren't enough to show us God is real -- they get so easily confused and misunderstood. So God chose the best way. He came and lived with us on the earth for a while as a normal man. He went to parties, he told stories, he made friends and he taught us how to live. He died and came back to life to pay for the wrong things we've done.
Jesus also did lots of things while he was here to show us that he was God. Last week we saw that he calmed a storm. Jesus and his disciples went sailing on a big lake in Israel; suddenly the wind picked up and blew strongly, the waves were huge and were crashing down on the little boat. All Jesus' big tough fisherman friends were scared like little puppies. They thought they would die, so they woke up Jesus who was sleeping and pleaded with him to save them. Jesus asked them why they were afraid. And With a few words Jesus made the big, dark, stormy lake that was going to send them all to the bottom as calm as a glass of water on a kitchen bench. Didn't they know who he was?
You could say that this term is all about answering that question. Even though we can't see God, he shows that he's real in many different ways. First, the world is amazing, complicated and beautiful -- it suggests that someone very powerful is responsible for making it. Second, most of us have a conscience. Our conscience tells us when we're doing right or when we're doing wrong. It's as if God's perfect way of living is somehow already inside us. And third, God sent people all through history to teach people that God was real.
But often these ways aren't enough to show us God is real -- they get so easily confused and misunderstood. So God chose the best way. He came and lived with us on the earth for a while as a normal man. He went to parties, he told stories, he made friends and he taught us how to live. He died and came back to life to pay for the wrong things we've done.
Jesus also did lots of things while he was here to show us that he was God. Last week we saw that he calmed a storm. Jesus and his disciples went sailing on a big lake in Israel; suddenly the wind picked up and blew strongly, the waves were huge and were crashing down on the little boat. All Jesus' big tough fisherman friends were scared like little puppies. They thought they would die, so they woke up Jesus who was sleeping and pleaded with him to save them. Jesus asked them why they were afraid. And With a few words Jesus made the big, dark, stormy lake that was going to send them all to the bottom as calm as a glass of water on a kitchen bench. Didn't they know who he was?
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Evidence that Jesus had power over evil
So far this term we have looked at Jesus turning water into wine, kicking money changers out of the temple with a whip, and making friends with the kind of people your mum definitely wouldn't want you to bring home for dinner!
This week we looked at another dramatic story about Jesus. You can find it in the Bible in Luke chapter 8 and Mark chapter 5. It's a story about Jesus driving demons out of a possessed man and into a herd of pigs. It showed us that even evil spirits are afraid of Jesus' power and that no one is too broken for God to fix.
Stories like this don't paint pictures of a gentle Jesus meek and mild, but of a powerful man who knows what is right and isn't afraid to stand out from the crowd. They may not be the most popular of Bible stories, but if we want to look at what the whole Bible says about Jesus, they're just as important.
After Mr Pitcher told the story, we did the following quiz...
The Bible says that Jesus turned water into wine. This is evidence that
(a) God doesn't like parties
(b) Jesus likes wine
(c) Wine is made out of water
(d) Jesus has miraculous powers and his coming to earth is the best reason to celebrate ever!
Who is OLDER?!
(a) Mr Chew
(b) Mr Gross
(c) Mr Jones
(d) Brad Pitt
The Bible says that Jesus made friends with
(a) Criminals
(b) Fishermen
(c) Tax Collectors
(d) All of the above
Which Scripture teacher has an engineering degree
(a) Miss Prins
(b) Mr Jones
(c) Mr Pitcher
Who needs God?
(a) People who don't have much money
(b) People who are sick or lonely
(c) Everyone except celebrities
(d) You, me and everyone
Three days after Jesus died...
(a) His friends buried him
(b) God brought him back to life
(c) People lit candles at his funeral
What happened when Jesus found people buying and selling in God's temple?
(a) He bought a pigeon to take home for lunch
(b) He set up a stall to make some quick cash
(c) He was so mad that people were insulting God that he drove them out with a whip!
Why does Mr Chew keep eating chocolate in front of us?
(a) To teach us about evidence
(b) Because he likes to tease us
(c) Because he has a medical condition which means he needs to eat chocolate every hour
Jesus said he did not come into the world to heal the healthy but the sick. What does this mean?
(a) God likes sick people more than healthy people
(b) Jesus especially came to rescue sinful, suffering people who were crying out for help
(c) Jesus was born to be a doctor
This week we looked at another dramatic story about Jesus. You can find it in the Bible in Luke chapter 8 and Mark chapter 5. It's a story about Jesus driving demons out of a possessed man and into a herd of pigs. It showed us that even evil spirits are afraid of Jesus' power and that no one is too broken for God to fix.
Stories like this don't paint pictures of a gentle Jesus meek and mild, but of a powerful man who knows what is right and isn't afraid to stand out from the crowd. They may not be the most popular of Bible stories, but if we want to look at what the whole Bible says about Jesus, they're just as important.
After Mr Pitcher told the story, we did the following quiz...
The Bible says that Jesus turned water into wine. This is evidence that
(a) God doesn't like parties
(b) Jesus likes wine
(c) Wine is made out of water
(d) Jesus has miraculous powers and his coming to earth is the best reason to celebrate ever!
Who is OLDER?!
(a) Mr Chew
(b) Mr Gross
(c) Mr Jones
(d) Brad Pitt
The Bible says that Jesus made friends with
(a) Criminals
(b) Fishermen
(c) Tax Collectors
(d) All of the above
Which Scripture teacher has an engineering degree
(a) Miss Prins
(b) Mr Jones
(c) Mr Pitcher
Who needs God?
(a) People who don't have much money
(b) People who are sick or lonely
(c) Everyone except celebrities
(d) You, me and everyone
Three days after Jesus died...
(a) His friends buried him
(b) God brought him back to life
(c) People lit candles at his funeral
What happened when Jesus found people buying and selling in God's temple?
(a) He bought a pigeon to take home for lunch
(b) He set up a stall to make some quick cash
(c) He was so mad that people were insulting God that he drove them out with a whip!
Why does Mr Chew keep eating chocolate in front of us?
(a) To teach us about evidence
(b) Because he likes to tease us
(c) Because he has a medical condition which means he needs to eat chocolate every hour
Jesus said he did not come into the world to heal the healthy but the sick. What does this mean?
(a) God likes sick people more than healthy people
(b) Jesus especially came to rescue sinful, suffering people who were crying out for help
(c) Jesus was born to be a doctor
Monday, July 20, 2009
Jesus hangs out with bad people
As Mr Jones said; last week we saw that when Jesus came to earth, he came to fix bad and broken people -- not people who thought they were perfect. So that's why he spent time with those most people would normally try to avoid.
Here's some colouring-in from the stories we read.
-- Abbey
-- Issac (?)
And here are some quotes from some of the summaries we did about the story of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet.
Mary Magdalene was a sinful woman ... and no one liked her but when she met Jesus she wet his feet in perfume. He sorta gave her peace.
-- Hannah
... She met Jesus she wet his feet with her tears, she kissed his feet, she put perfume on his [feet] and wiped it with her hair. People thought ... Jesus shouldn't have let her do what she did.
-- Ashleigh
Mary Magdelene was a sinful women who had never had the courage to change her life. When she heard Jesus was in town ...
-- Isabel
Here's some colouring-in from the stories we read.
-- Abbey
-- Issac (?)
And here are some quotes from some of the summaries we did about the story of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet.
Mary Magdalene was a sinful woman ... and no one liked her but when she met Jesus she wet his feet in perfume. He sorta gave her peace.
-- Hannah
... She met Jesus she wet his feet with her tears, she kissed his feet, she put perfume on his [feet] and wiped it with her hair. People thought ... Jesus shouldn't have let her do what she did.
-- Ashleigh
Mary Magdelene was a sinful women who had never had the courage to change her life. When she heard Jesus was in town ...
-- Isabel
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Things that Albuera St Students are good at
Since I started helping out with school scripture, I have noticed that the kids at Albuera St are good at an awful lot of things:
The people on my table read about Zacchaeus, from Luke 19. I was impressed by how well we got to understand what Zacchaeus was like (pretty mean, sneaky and shifty), why we wouldn't want to hang out with someone like that, and so why it is so surprising that Jesus did. The change in Zacchaeus after he met Jesus was pretty impressive too.
I have really enjoyed helping out with School Scripture. I have to go away on business this week so I won't be there, but I'm looking forward to next week.
- running
- hopping
- popping balloons
- making stuff
- seeing through Mr Chews phony tricks
- understanding the Bible
The people on my table read about Zacchaeus, from Luke 19. I was impressed by how well we got to understand what Zacchaeus was like (pretty mean, sneaky and shifty), why we wouldn't want to hang out with someone like that, and so why it is so surprising that Jesus did. The change in Zacchaeus after he met Jesus was pretty impressive too.
I have really enjoyed helping out with School Scripture. I have to go away on business this week so I won't be there, but I'm looking forward to next week.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Jesus gets angry
Often people think of Jesus as a nice, easygoing friendly guy who wouldn't have a problem with anything. The Bible tells a different story; Jesus made people uncomfortable and criticised them for being hypocritical and religious. Sometimes Jesus got angry. What makes Jesus especially angry is when people don't treat God with respect. At Scripture last week we acted out the story of Jesus kicking all the shop-keepers and moneychangers out of the temple. He said they had turned God's house of prayer into a supermarket. He made a whip from ropes, shouted at people, turned over tables, and generally made a mess.
We talked about how people say that it doesn't matter how you worship God or what exactly you believe. But this story shows that there are right ways and wrong ways to treat God. In another part of the Bible Jesus says that no one can have a relationship with God except through him. So God cares about exactly how we worship him and exactly what we believe.
Because this term is all about the evidence for Jesus being God, we played a fingerprints game. As everyone came into Scripture, we took their fingerprints; later on we had to guess whose fingerprints belonged to whom.
Does anyone know who these fingerprints belong to?
We talked about how people say that it doesn't matter how you worship God or what exactly you believe. But this story shows that there are right ways and wrong ways to treat God. In another part of the Bible Jesus says that no one can have a relationship with God except through him. So God cares about exactly how we worship him and exactly what we believe.
Because this term is all about the evidence for Jesus being God, we played a fingerprints game. As everyone came into Scripture, we took their fingerprints; later on we had to guess whose fingerprints belonged to whom.
Does anyone know who these fingerprints belong to?
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Tuesday June 30 - Water into Wine
A lot of our evidence for what an amazing character God is comes from the life of his son Jesus. This week we saw that Jesus is the kind of guy you would definitely invite to a party!
We looked at the time that Jesus was at a party where the wine ran out (John 2:1-11). After his mother told him about this embarrassing disaster, Jesus asked the servants to fill some stone jars with water. When the main organiser of the party tasted it, it had turned into delicious wine. He called the bridegroom and said “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper wine later on. You have kept the good wine until now!”
After we heard the story, Mr Chew, who isn't quite the miracle worker that Jesus is, turned water into blackcurrant juice. It was pretty tasty, but we're almost certain it won't be something that is remembered and discussed for the next two weeks, let alone the next two thousand years.
We looked at the time that Jesus was at a party where the wine ran out (John 2:1-11). After his mother told him about this embarrassing disaster, Jesus asked the servants to fill some stone jars with water. When the main organiser of the party tasted it, it had turned into delicious wine. He called the bridegroom and said “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper wine later on. You have kept the good wine until now!”
After we heard the story, Mr Chew, who isn't quite the miracle worker that Jesus is, turned water into blackcurrant juice. It was pretty tasty, but we're almost certain it won't be something that is remembered and discussed for the next two weeks, let alone the next two thousand years.
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