Thursday, 16 January 2014

Teaching ‘Do I love the Word of God?’ Psalm 119:97-112



3-5s
Aim: That they would love listening to the Bible
Intro:
What do I love to hear most – have a series of story books and a Bible. Which do we love to have read to us most? [Could do sticking exercise at this point]

Teaching:
We love lots of things, but what do we love most? Do we love God and listening to Him most of all?

There is a song in the Bible written by someone who loved to listen to God and what He had to say. Let’s hear what he said,

Read 119:97-98, 103

The person who wrote this says that listening to God is so lovely and wonderful its like eating something really sweet like honey.

[Taste some honey] – does that taste lovely and sweet? Just as that tastes lovely, so hearing the true stories from the Bible should be lovely to us.

Why is the Bible so lovely?
Because God speaks to us through it
Its lovely when our Mummies and Daddies read us stories and speak to us. If Mummy stopped speaking to you, would that be lovely? Well, in these true stories in the Bible God speaks to us. And God is even more lovely than our Mummies and Daddies.

Because these true stories help us
Read 119:105 – Sometimes we get scared in the dark because we don’t know where to go and what to do. Well, the Bible is like torch – it shows us what we should do and how we should love God. [shine a torch around and make the room dark]

Because these true stories make us happy
Read 119:111 – When we love the Bible and hearing God speak to us then we see how great it is to do what God says. Do you love to do what God says?

So, there are lots of great stories which we love, and its lovely when Mummy and Daddy read stories to us. But do we love having Mummy and Daddy read us the true stories about Jesus? Do we love that most of all? They are the most important stories, the best stories, because that’s how we hear God speak to us; that’s how we get to know Him.

[Perhaps have some time reading their favourite stories from a children’s Bible.
Tell them about Beginning with God]

Activities:
  • Sticking stories we love – but sticking stories from the Bible in the middle
  • Make a mouth with a paper plate folded in two – put a red tongue in the middle. Stick ‘I love God’s Word’ on the top.



Songs:
  • The Best Book to Read is the Bible (from Colin Buchanan’s Follow the Saviour)
  • The Bible Alphabet (from J is for Jesus)
  • 2 Timothy 3:16 (from J is for Jesus)


5-11s

Aim: That they would love listening to and reading the Bible for themselves

Intro:
Bible Who Am I?
Books of the Bible relay race
Draw your sword

Teaching:
What are your favourite books? [Have some suggestions]
I used to love reading …

But the best book to read is the Bible. We’re going to look at the book of Psalms which is a book of songs in the Bible [get them to find it in the Bible]. And in today’s song, the person who wrote it says that they love the Bible more than anything else.

Read 119:97-104

This person loves the Bible, loves God’s Word. He says its like honey on his lips, sweet and lovely. [try some honey and talk about how sweet it is]

It’s a book that makes him wise, it’s a book that helps him to avoid doing wrong things, it’s a book that helps him to know God, the most wonderful person in the universe. So it is a wonderful book, the most wonderful book.

Do you love it like that?

Then the Psalmist says that God’s Word helps him to know what God wants him to do.

Read 119:105-112

When it gets dark it can be quite scary [make the room as dark as possible]. We can’t see which way to go and what to do. At those times we need a torch to help us see which way to go [produce torch].

This song is telling us that the Bible is like that, it tells us what God wants us to do when we aren’t sure and so it keeps us away from evil and sin and protects us. How wonderful it is.

[possibly play a quick game of ‘lighthouse’ at this point]

So, do you love the Bible? Do you love it more than all the other books and stories which you read and people read to you? Do you love to hear about the true stories of Jesus, about the wonderful things God has done for you and who He is?

This year why not spend time reading the Bible, listening to the stories of the Bible, loving what is in there?

Here are some ways you can do that: [introduce XTB, Table Talk, Long story short, some of the books in the library]

Table time:
Younger ones could spend time choosing their favourite stories from a children’s Bible
Older ones – do a page from an XTB

No comments:

Post a Comment