Sobering Story

We reviewed several of our verses in opening time using matching games and awarded Patrick his cross pin for reading the assigned book. He said that his Daddy had read it to him. We had two new students, Ian and Jaden, who had visited our class once before Christmas.

In our classroom, I showed the children a little box and asked if anyone knew what was inside of it. I asked several children. First they said no, but then started to guess random items. Jaden said, "Jesus?" which was very sweet. Then I told them that I knew what was inside the box -- and asked them if they knew who else knew what was inside of it. They got the answer right away: "God!" Patrick added, "Because He saw you put it inside of there!"

This led right into one of our teaching points: God sees everything and knows everything, and you can't hide anything from God.

I told the story of how Achan had disobeyed God and had tried to hide his sin from Him and that God had given Israel defeat because of this. At one point in the story, the Lord talks directly to Joshua. Patrick asked: "How can God talk if he doesn't have a mouth?" This really shows how much he is thinking about this stuff. I told him that he was exactly right to ask that question: God is a spirit and doesn't have a mouth. But because He is God, He can still create a voice even without a mouth or vocal cords. He created the whole world out of nothing, so a voice would be easy for Him!

Then I repeated that the most common way that God talks to us today is through His Word in the Bible.

In this story, God points out the sin of Achan and the people stone him. This seems harsh, but Achan repented and we have every reason to believe that we will see him in heaven. Dying is not the worst thing. Not going to heaven is the worst thing. This was another teaching point: God punishes sin to lead man to repentance and to Him.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

We did not do any new verses this week, but reviewed all of our old ones with a game similar to musical chairs. The children marched around a row of chairs as I played our Verse Songs CD. Each chair was marked by a different colored piece of paper and when we were finished singing a verse, we all found a chair. I had a set of cards marked with the different colors, and then I would let a child choose one card. Whatever color was on that card was the "winner" and whoever was sitting on that color got to lead the marching for the next verse. This was a great way to review and get some exercise.

When we went back for our Closing Time, Jacob told Mr. Rein all about our story and did a very good job. Jaden asked that we pray for SarahClaire to get better. So we did -- and continue to!