Free Bible School Materials: bible

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Fishing for Christ Visuals, Day Two

Here are the visuals for The Sign of Jonah. Some of them can also be used for the corresponding preschool lesson, Jonah: Obey God.

Fleeing to Tarshish

Storm

Lightening the Ship

Throwing Jonah Overboard

Big Fish

Nineveh

These visuals were contributed by Mary Beth Frey.

Fishing for Christ Visuals - Day 1

These are the visuals for The Fish with the Coin (and also for the corresponding Preschool lesson).

Peter and the Tax Man

Peter and Jesus

Peter Fishing

Peter Finding the Coin

Peter Paying the Tax

Eating Grain

Accused of Working

These visuals were contributed by Mary Beth Frey.

Beginning of the Church, Preschool Lesson

Friday:	Beginning of the Church
Story Passage:	Acts 16:9-15
Other Passages:	Acts 16:40, Philippians 1:1
Objective:	The church is made up of people.

Introduction: The Early Church

After Jesus left the world to go back up to Heaven, his followers went all around to many other places to tell people the good news about Jesus. They told how Jesus is God and how he came to earth to die for our sins so we could be forgiven.

One of Jesus' followers was Paul. He went on many trips. Sometimes he walked. Sometimes he went on a boat. But however he traveled and wherever he went, he told lots of people about Jesus.

Story: Philippi

One day Paul was in a city called Philippi. He went down by the river. There he found Lydia. She was a woman who sold purple cloth. She was by the river with some other people. The Bible says she worshiped God. But she had never heard of Jesus.

So Paul told Lydia and the others about Jesus, and God helped them to know it was true, and they believed. Lydia and other people in her family believed in Jesus and were baptized. Lydia and her family and friends told other people about Jesus too. After a while there were many people in their city who believed. They met at Lydia's house to learn more about God and to pray. They choose leaders to help. And so, they became one of the first churches.

Application: What Is the Church?

Did you know that a church is not a building? It's not. Our church has a building, where we can meet together, but a church is a group of people who believe in Jesus and get together to read the Bible and pray. They tell others about Jesus too. Lydia's church got together in her house. We have too many people in our church to go to someone's house, so we have a building; but the building is just a building. We are the church. God wants us to learn about him and tell others about him too.

Abraham's Faith (Preschool Lesson)

Thursday:	Abraham's Faith
Story Passage:	Genesis 15
Other Passages:
Objective:	We should have faith in God, just as Abraham did.

Introduction: Abraham

Has anyone here heard of Abraham before? Who was Abraham? Abraham lived in Bible times.

God ask Abraham to leave his home land and go to a new place that God would show him. He had never been there before. But he took off walking. God took him through several different places before he finally got where he was going.

Did you ever get in the car and go all sorts of places and not know where you would end up? Abraham wasn't worried. He trusted God, just like you probably trusted your parents when they took you places in the car.

Abraham finally came to the place we now call Israel. God promised Abraham that his family would live there. It would belong to them.

Story: Countless Offspring

One day, Abraham was complaining. He said, My wife, Sarah, and I don't have any children. When we die, all our land and all our stuff will go to my servant, Eliezer.

But God said, No. Eliezer will not get your land and all your stuff. You and Sarah will have a child.

Now Abraham and Sarah were already very old. Old people don't have babies. But then God showed Abraham all the stars in the sky. God said, Count them, if you can. There were too many to count. God told Abraham that someday his family would have as many people as all the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed God. Would you believe God if he told you that you would have that many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Abraham believed God.

One day Abraham and Sarah did have a baby. They had a little boy and they named him Isaac. After awhile, Abraham's family did get very, very big, just like God had promised.

Conclusion

We can always believe what God tells us in the Bible.

Noah and the Flood (Preschool Lesson)

Wednesday:	Noah and the Flood
Story Passage:	Genesis 6-9
Other Passages:	2^nd Peter 2:5
Objective:	God expects us to obey him. God takes care of those who love and obey him.

Introduction: Sinful World

After God made the world, people began disobeying God. They did not remember, or did not care, what God said. They were being very, very bad. God looked around and saw that people were thinking up bad stuff to do all the time. God was very sad. He was sorry he ever made people. The Bible says his heart was filled with pain. So God said, I will wipe men from the earth, men and animals and birds. I am sorry I ever made them!

Story: Noah and the Flood

BUT, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. That means that God was happy with Noah, because Noah obeyed God and did what was right.

God told Noah that he was going to get rid of all the bad people. he told Noah to build an ark. A BIG box. He told him exactly how big to make it. (450ft. long, which is 1½ times as long as a football field, by 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.) He told him to put a roof on top, a big door in the side, and to make three floors, like a basement, a main floor, and an upstairs. He told him what kind of wood to use, and he was to cover the wood, inside and out with tar so that it wouldn't leak. God also told Noah that he would send animals to put on the ark. Noah was to take his wife, his three sons, and their wives.

So Noah and his three sons began to build the ark. They made it just like God told Noah. They had to cut down trees, make boards, put it all together and cover it with tar. It was such a big boat that it was a BIG job. It took Noah and his sons 100 years to build it. While he was building it, Noah told other people about God. He told them they should obey God, but they would not listen.

When the ark was finished, God sent every kind of animal and bird. He sent a boy and a girl of each kind. God told Noah to get on the boat with his family and all the animals. They had to take food for themselves and for the animals too. It took a whole week to get everything on the ark.

Then God shut the door. Boom. After God shut the door it was too late for anyone else to get on. God had made a way for Noah and his family to be safe in the big storm because they obeyed God, but nobody else got on the boat: only Noah and his family.

After God shut the door, it began to rain, hard, and lots of water came up from inside the ground. It rained hard for 40 days and 40 nights. The whole world was covered with water, all the houses, all the trees, even the highest mountains were covered with water, but Noah and his family were safe because Noah obeyed God. Is it important to God that we obey him? YES! It's very important.

Noah and his family stayed on the ark for a long time. They had to take care of the animals by giving them food and cleaning up the messes they made. The earth was completely flooded for 150 days. Then God sent a wind to dry up the water. It took a long time, but finally it got dry enough that they could get off. They had been on the ark for a year. I bet they were glad to get off! Noah and his family thanked God for taking care of them.

Conclusion

When we remember Noah, we remember that God takes care of people who obey him. Sometimes there are troubles. Noah had to work hard to build the ark. It probably wasn't fun to have the flood. But God took care of them and he'll take care of us too.

Copyright © 2004—2012, Jill Eady and the Galion Grace Brethren Church. See licensing for information about rights and permissions. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Adam and Eve Sin (Preschool)

Tuesday:	Adam and Eve Sin
Story Passage:	Genesis 3
Other Passages:	Revelation 12:9
Objective:	Adam and Eve sinned. We all sin. Sin is when we disobey God.

Introduction: The Garden

When God made people, he put them in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. They were to be in charge of all the animals. There was lots of good food to eat in the garden, and every evening God came and talked to them.

Story: The Fall

But there was one rule. Only one. I bet at your house there are lots of rules. Don't play in the street. Obey your mom and dad. Don't be sassy. Don't hit your brother or sister. There are lots of other rules. Adam and Eve only had one rule. God said, "Don't eat from that tree in the middle of the garden, or you will die." That doesn't sound too hard to remember, does it? Just that one tree.

One day, a snake came and talked to Eve. It was really the Devil. He was being very bad and sneaky. He asked Eve, Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden? [That's not what God said, is it?] Eve answered, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say that we must not eat from that tree in the middle of the garden, or we will die.

The snake (who was really Satan, the devil) said, Oh, you won't die. God knows that when you eat from that tree, you will be like him, knowing good from evil. Eve thought about that. She looked at the fruit on that tree. It looked nice. It looked like it would taste good, and she wanted to be wise like God. So she ate some. And she gave some to Adam and he ate some too. And then they knew they had done wrong. They had disobeyed God.

That evening, when God came to talk to them, they hid. God called to Adam, Adam, where are you? (God knew where he was, didn't he?) Adam said, I heard you coming and I was afraid, so I hid.

God said, Why are you afraid? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from?

Adam said, Well, that woman you put here with me, she gave it to me, so I ate it. Do you ever blame someone else when you do wrong?

God said to Eve: What is this you have done?

Eve answered, Well, the snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.

God said to the snake, Because of what you have done, you will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.

Adam and Eve were punished too. Because they had disobeyed, they had to leave the beautiful garden and never go back. Now they would have to work harder to get their food. There would be weeds and ouchy thistles and things to get rid of, and someday they would die.

Application:

We need to be careful, because Satan, the devil, wants us to disobey God too. He can be very tricky. He doesn't come as a snake to talk to us. But he can trick us in other ways. So we need to be careful and remember to always obey God.

Creation (Preschool Lesson)

Monday:	Creation
Story Passage:	Genesis 1
Other Passages:	Ephesians 2:8-10, Col. 1:15-16, Romans 1:16-21, Romans 8:18-25, Acts 17:16-33
Objective:	God created the world and deserves our worship.

Introduction: Where Did it Come From?

Out in the back yard, there's a big tree. Was it always that big? How did it get to be that big? How long has it been there? What did it come from, before it was a big tree? It was a little tree, once, but what about before that? [A seed.] Where did the seed come from? [Another tree.] Well, where did that tree come from? Where did all the seeds, and all the trees, come from? [God created them.] The world hasn't always been here. There was a beginning. Let's go back to the beginning, and explore where things came from...

Story: Creation

God created the world. The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells us all about it. The Bible says that in the beginning, when nothing was around, God started by creating light and darkness. Did you know that there wasn't even light or darkness before God made it? He made it out of nothing, just by speaking. He can do that, because he's God. On day two, he made the sky and the ocean, and on the third day he made the dry land that we live on. Aren't you glad he made dirt for us to walk on? Do we just have dirt, though? No, we have that tree out back, and what else is in the dirt? [Accept answers – grass etc.] God didn't stop after dirt: he also made plants on day three: all the ones that we eat from, and all the ones that look pretty and smell beautiful, and the Bible says he made them all just for us.

God had already made the light and the darkness on day one, but now on day four he made the sun, the moon, and the stars, both to give us light, and so we can tell what time of day it is by looking at them. The sun and moon also make the seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring. He made the sun so that we would have light in the day and the moon so it wouldn't be quite so dark at night. Then on day five God was ready to put something in the sky and the oceans. They were empty until then. Do you know something that lives in the water? [Accept answers.] God made them. He also made birds to fly in the sky. Finally, on day six, God was ready to make something to live on the land: in the woods, and in the grass, and all over the land. What lives there? [Accept answers.] Animals! God made all the animals – and he also made people. The first person he made was a man, and God named him Adam. Later he made Eve, to be Adam's wife.

Conclusion:

Some people haven't read the Bible, and they try to decide how the world got here, and they come up with all kinds of ideas about that, some sillier than others. Aren't you glad that we know what God says? And God is the only one who was there, so he's the only one who really knows. Everybody else is just guessing, or making stuff up.

Elisha and the Shunammite

Friday:	Elisha and the Shunammite
Story Passage:	2^nd Kings 4:8-13
Other Passages:	[NEEDED]
Objective:	God is pleased when we help other people
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)

Introduction:

[Needed]

Story: Elisha and the Shunammite

Elisha was a prophet of God. (Show picture of Elisha walking to a town.) He traveled to lots of places telling people what God wanted them to know and to do. One day he went to a town called Shunem. (Show picture of lady's house.) A lady there invited him to stay at her house for a meal. So after that, whenever he was in Shunem, he would stop and eat with her and her husband.

One day the lady said to her husband, I know that this man who often comes here is a man of God. Let's make a small room up on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay here whenever he comes. (Show picture with added room on roof.) So that's what they did. They built a nice room for him on the top of their house. The next time Elisha came to town he had a nice surprise. (Show interior of the room.) The people were very kind to him, weren't they?

Application: Helping

We have been learning this week about "following the footsteps." That means to do what someone else did that was a good thing to do. The Shunammite woman and her husband built a special room for Elisha when he came to visit. Do you think God wants you to build a special room for Elisha? (NO) Well then, what can you do that they did? There are other ways to be kind and to be a helper. (Show pictures). Look at these boys. They are sharing their toys. Do you think God likes us to share? Here's a girl setting the table. She is helping her mom. That's a good thing to do, isn't it. What are some other ways you can be a helper? (Let kids come up with ideas, or suggest picking up toys, watching your baby brother, or whatever.) Another way to make God happy is just by being nice to people, any way that you can. We can all share and be nice helpers.

Invitation: Helping Others

Invite any children who want to be good helpers to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

Copyright © 2004—2010, Jill Eady and the Galion Grace Brethren Church. See licensing for information about rights and permissions. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Hannah Prays

Thursday:	Hannah Prays
Story Passage:	1^st Samuel 1
Other Passages:	Matthew 6:24-34, James 5:13-20, Luke 18:1-8, Philippians 4:6-7
Objective:	When we have problems, we should pray to God.
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)

Introduction: Hannah Wants Kids

Did you know that there is a woman in the Bible named Hannah? There is. Our lesson today is about her. Hannah was very sad. Even though she had been married a long time, she did not have any children. She wanted children very badly. She wanted to be a Mom.

Story: Hannah's Prayer

One day, when she was at the Temple (which was kind of like church) she began to cry because she was so sad. She was crying and praying to God. Eli, the priest (kind of like a pastor) saw her crying and wondered why she was crying.

She told him, I am very upset and am pouring out my soul to God. That means she was begging God for something. She was begging God to give her a baby, wasn't she?

Eli said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel give you what you have asked him for. When she got up and left, she wasn't crying anymore. She did not look sad. She had a big smile on her face.

The Point: God Answers Prayer

Does God answer prayer? Yes, if we ask for good things, he does. (He doesn't always say yes though, does he?)

Do you think God answered Hannah's prayer and gave her a baby? Yes! He did. She named her baby boy Samuel, which means, God heard me. Hannah said, There is no one like the Lord. He is a God who knows. Hannah was very thankful to the Lord for answering her prayer.

Epilogue: Samuel

Samuel grew up to be a very important man who served God. There are two books in the Bible about him.

Application: Prayer

When there is something you need, do you just wish for it, or do you remember to ask God? God doesn't always answer with a Yes, OK. If we just ask for candy and ice cream for every meal, do you think He would say Yes? Why not? God wants things that are good for us. We should ask carefully, but we know that God always hears us, and He will give us what we need.

Invitation: Prayer

Invite any children who want to learn to pray to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

The Bronze Snake

Wednesday:	Snakes in the Desert
Story Passage:	Numbers 21:4-9
Other Passages:	John 3 (especially v.14-15)
Objective:	We should look to Jesus to save us from our sin.
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)

Introduction: People are Whiners, Did You Know That?

Remember what we said Monday when the people wouldn't listen to Caleb and Joshua? They had to wander around in the dessert for 40 years.

They didn't like it. And even though God took care of them, they fussed. They fussed at Moses and they fussed at God. God got tired of their fussing, so he sent a punishment.

Story: Snakes in the Desert

God sent poisonous snakes to bite them. When someone got bit by one of these snakes, they got so sick that they died. So the people ran to Moses and begged for help. We're sorry! We were wrong. Pray to God and ask him to make the snakes go away. Moses did pray, but God didn't take the snakes away.

Instead, God told Moses what to do to keep the people from dying from the snake bites. He told Moses to make a metal snake and put it up high on a pole where everyone could see it. God said that if someone was bitten by a snake, they should look at the metal snake on the pole, and then they wouldn't die. And because God said it, it worked: when people who were bitten by the snakes looked at the metal snake, they didn't die. But the people who wouldn't look at it, did die. It was their choice.

Application: Trusting God

There was nothing magic about the metal snake. But the people had to trust God and obey Him. They had to believe that he could save them. Looking at the snake was how they showed God that they trusted Him and would obey Him.

Story: Nicodemus

Many years later, when Jesus was on earth, he told a man named Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. He needed to be saved from sin. But Nicodemus didn't understand. So Jesus told him, Just like when Moses lifted up the metal snake in the dessert and people were saved from snakebite, someday I will be up on a cross, so that people can believe and have their sins forgiven.

Application: Salvation

Just like the people who got bitten by the snake had to believe God and look at the snake to be well, we must believe that Jesus died for our sins and ask Him to forgive us.

Invitation: Salvation

Invite any children who want to be forgiven to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

Ezra Reads the Bible

Tuesday:	Ezra Reads the Bible
Story Passage:	Nehemiah 7-8
Other Passages:	James 1:22
Objective:	We should hear the Bible and obey it.
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)

Introduction: Ezra & Nehemiah

Ezra and Nehemiah were two men long ago who loved God. They were part of God's people, the Israelites. The Israelites had been away in another country for a long time. They had been slaves. While they were away, they had not been able to study the Bible. Now they were back in their own country. Nehemiah was their governor and Ezra was their priest (pastor). Ezra and Nehemiah knew that reading the Bible was important. They wanted the people to know what God said. And they wanted the people to DO what God said.

Story: Reading the Bible

Back then people didn't have their own Bibles. Many of them didn't know how to read. So a day was planned when Ezra would read the Bible to all the people. They built a big platform for him to stand on. He was up high so everyone could see and hear him. On that day, everyone came to hear Ezra read the Bible. Even the children who were old enough to understand came. Ezra read all morning. All the people stood very still and quiet so they could hear. It would be hard to stand still and quiet all morning, wouldn't it?

While Ezra read the Bible, the people started to cry. There were things in the Bible that that they didn't know about. They had not heard the Bible for many years. They were sad because they found out they had not been obeying God.

Ezra and Nehemiah told them to stop crying, because this was a GOOD day. They had heard the Bible now and could begin to obey God. So the rest of the day they ate and celebrated. They were glad to find out what God wanted them to do.

Application: Doing What the Bible Says

But even more important that finding out what God wanted, was for them to DO it. So the very next day, they began doing the things that God wanted them to do. We should listen to the Bible too. We want to learn what God wants us to do. Then we need to DO it.

The Bible says, Don't just listen to the Bible... Do what it says. This week at VBS, we are learning some of the things God wants us to do. Now we will be able to do what God wants. What did we learn yesterday? (We learned to trust God and obey Him.)

Invitation: Obedience to the Bible

Invite any children who want to learn to listen to what the Bible says and obey it to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

Caleb and Joshua Obey

Monday:	Caleb & Joshua Obey
Story Passage:	Numbers 13-14
Other Passages:
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)
Objective:	We should learn to trust and obey God.

Introduction: Following the Footsteps

This week we're going to be learning about some people in the Bible, whose footsteps we should follow. What does it mean to follow in somebody's footsteps? (Accept some answers). It means to do what they did, or be the kind of person they were. Today we are going to learn about Caleb and Joshua and how they obeyed God.

Story: Caleb & Joshua

God was leading his people, Israel, to a new place to live. Moses was their leader. Moses picked Caleb and Joshua and ten other men to go look around in the new land to see what it was like. They looked around for forty days. They looked at what kind of people lived there, what the cities were like, what the food growing there was like. Then they went back and told Moses. They told him that the land was very good. They showed him a big bunch of grapes that was so big that it took two men to carry it.

Caleb said, We should go take the land. He knew that God had said he was giving them the land. Caleb trusted God to help them get it. Caleb wanted to obey. Joshua did too. But the other ten men forgot to trust and obey God. The others told Moses and the people, The people there are stronger than we are. They are so big, they make us look like little grasshoppers. But Caleb and Joshua said, We should not be afraid of them. God is with us, we should obey God.

The people would not listen to Caleb and Joshua. God punished the people for not obeying. He made them walk around in the dessert for forty years. None of them ever got to go into the new land that God and promised them. except, Caleb and Joshua did get to go. They had trusted God and wanted to obey. I think they were sad that the others wouldn't obey.

Application: Obedience to God

Have you ever been playing with friends and they started doing something wrong? Maybe they started hitting or calling names. Or maybe they went across the street where they weren't allowed to go. If this ever happens, you can tell your friends to do what is right. But if they will not listen to you, and they disobey, you can still obey. God wants us to obey, doesn't he?

Invitation: Obedience

Invite any children who want to learn to obey God to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

The Beginning of the Church

Friday:	The Beginning of the Church
Story Passages:	Acts 1:1-11, Acts 2:22-24, 29-41
Other Passages:	Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:14-20, Luke 24:36-49, John 10:16, John 21:15-19
Objective:	The church was begun in order to witness for God in all parts of the earth.
Memory Verse:	Acts 2:32, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

Introduction: Where did the Church Come From?

Has there always been a church? If you had been in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve, was there a church there? What about if you were on the ark, with Noah and his family? Was there a church then? Did Abraham go to church? Abraham worshiped God, but he didn't have a church. Where did the church come from?

Story: The Beginning of the Church

After Jesus was raised from the dead, and had been walking around for a few weeks, Jesus told his disciples, Don't leave Jerusalem yet, wait for the Holy Spirit. The disciples asked if Jesus was going to be king right now, in Israel. Jesus said, God the Father decides when that will be. You don't need to know that right now. But when the Holy Spirit comes, you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses all over the world. Soon after that, Jesus went up into the sky, toward heaven, and a cloud hid him from them. Two angels came and told the disciples that he would come back in the same way some day.

A few weeks later, the disciples were sitting in a house in Jerusalem, together, doing just what Jesus had told them to do, waiting for the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus had promised, he came. They said it looked like tongues of fire, and the power that they were promised came too! A crowd of believing Jews from all over the world were staying in the city of Jerusalem that day, because it was a holiday. They all heard the noise, and came to the house where the disciples were. And the disciples spoke to them, and they all understood in their own languages what was being said about Jesus. After this day, all of those people from all over the world were able to go home and start churches of believers, because they all heard the good news about Jesus from the disciples in Jerusalem that day. The disciples really were witnesses for all over the world, before they even left Jerusalem.

Transition: Waiting for the Spirit

Why do you suppose Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit? Jesus knew that when the holiday of Pentecost came, all those people would be there from all over the world. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem, because he wanted them to tell all of those people about Jesus. He wanted the people from all those different countries to all have churches, so they could worship God, learn about Jesus, and be witnesses to their own people. Jesus knew that the best missionaries of all are the people who live there.

The Point: Witnesses in the Church

How do you suppose churches came to [your town]? Somebody came here, who knew about Jesus, and when they came, guess what? They told people about Jesus, right here where they lived. The people who believed got together to pray, to study the Bible, and to worship God, and they invited friends, and pretty soon there was a church. What's a church? Is it a building? (No.) A church might have a building, but what is a church? A church is a group of people, people who believe in Jesus, and tell other people about Him. Are you part of a church? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you tell other people about him?

Invitation: Church Membership

[Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss how to belong to the church.]

The Beginning of the Promise

Thursday:	The Beginning of the Promise
Story Passage:	Genesis 15
Other Passages:	Romans 4:3-16, Genesis 3:15, 9:8-17, 12:2-3, 15:1-21, 17:15-22, 28:10-15; Isaiah 9:1-7, Isaiah 53; Malachi 3:1, 3:16-4:6
Objective:	We should have faith like Abraham.
Memory Verse:	Hebrews 11:6, Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Introduction: Abraham

Has anyone here heard of Abraham before? Who was Abraham? Abraham lived in the Bible times. It talks about him in the book of Genesis. God called Abraham to leave his home land and go to the place God would show him. Abraham took off walking, and he didn't know the place where he was going. God took him through several different places before he finally got where he was going. Did you ever get in the car and go all sorts of places and not know where you would end up? Abraham wasn't worried, though, because he trusted God, just like you probably trusted your parents when they took you places in the car. Abraham finally came to the land we now call Israel, and God promised Abraham that his children, his offspring, would live in that land, that it would be theirs.

Story: The Promise

One evening, Abraham was whining. He said, My wife and I don't have any children, and when we die, all of our stuff will go to our servant, Eliezer. But God said, Eliezer is not your heir. You will have a child. Abraham and Sarah were old, and old people don't usually have kids. But God showed Abraham the stars in the sky, and said, Count them, if you can. That's how your offspring will be. Now, there are a lot of stars, but Abraham believed God. Would you believe God, if he told you that you would have that many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Abraham believed. Abraham did have a son – two sons, in fact, but the son God promised him was named Isaac.

God had already promised Abraham that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed through him. Now he had promised him children, and later he promised Abraham more things. God also promised Abraham's grandson, Jacob, that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed through him and his offspring. What was God talking about?

Transition: The Woman's Seed

Who remembers what we talked about on Tuesday? What did Adam and Eve do? Were they supposed to eat from that tree? When they did, God told them some things. One of the things he told them was about their offspring. He said to the serpent, The woman's offspring will crush your head. Now, hundreds of years later, he's telling Abraham and his grandson Jacob that their offspring will bless the whole world. God was talking about the same person. Who do you suppose he was talking about, who would crush Satan and bless the whole world?

Application: Faith

God was talking about Jesus. Jesus was descended from Jacob, from Abraham, and from Eve. How did Jesus bless the whole world? By dying? Yes, by dying. How did Jesus' dying bless the world? He gave the whole world the chance to have their sins paid. He gave us the gift of life, eternal life, a chance to live forever in heaven with God, if we have faith in what Jesus has done for us. Abraham had faith in what God was going to do for him. God said what he would do, and Abraham believed it, and it was counted as righteousness. We have to have faith in what God already did for us, and it will be counted as righteousness for us. Then we can live with God forever in heaven.

Invitation: Salvation

[Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

The Beginning of Salvation

Wednesday:	The Beginning of Salvation
Story Passage:	Genesis 6-9 (especially 6:13, 6:22, 7:18-8:1, 8:21-22)
Other Passages:	Matthew 24:36-42, 1^st Peter 3:18-22, Genesis 3:15, Romans 6:23, Hebrews 9:26-28, 2^nd Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Objective:	Sin brings a penalty. Jesus paid our penalty so that we can be saved.
Memory Verse:	1^st Corinthians 15:22, For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Introduction: Review

Who remembers what we talked about yesterday? We talked about how Adam sinned, and now all people are sinful, and how you can't live forever, unless someone pays for that sin. What is sin? Sin is anything you do or think that displeases God. In the Bible, there's a true story about a man named Noah, who lived a long time ago.

Story: The Flood

God gave Noah a special job to do, because all the people were sinning so much. God was tired of their sin, fed up, and he decided to judge the world, and start over again with Noah and his family. The Bible says that Noah was a righteous man; he loved God very much, but his neighbors didn't!

God told Noah, build an ark – a box. He told him how big to make it, and what to make it out of. The ark was going to be a boat, because God was going to send a flood. The ark had to be really big, so it took Noah and his three sons a long time to make it. Now they didn't live by a lake, and it hadn't ever rained, so Noah looked kind of funny to his neighbors, building that great big box in his yard, out of wood. He would tell his neighbors why he was building it, but do you think they listened? They didn't care about God. When the time came to get on the ark, do you suppose any of them got on with him? Only his wife, and his sons, and their wives. Nobody else believed that a flood was really coming.

God sent all the animals, at least two of every kind (seven of some kinds), and they all got on the Ark, with Noah and his family. Then God shut the door, and it rained. And rained. And rained. Do you remember on Monday, when we learned that there was water up above the sky? Is it there today? No. There are little bits of water in the sky, called clouds, but it's not very much. Before the flood, there was a lot of water, an ocean of water, up above the sky, and now it all came raining down, for forty days. Remember how we said the land was all in one big piece. Now it broke up, and water that had been under the ground came up, in fountains, and helped the rainwater to cover the land. Even the highest mountains were flooded, and nobody that was outside the ark could live, except fish.

Transition: The Ark as a Type of Christ

The Ark saved Noah, and his family, and the animals that were with them, from the flood. The flood was God's judgment against the world, for sin, but the Ark, which God told Noah how to build, was the way that they could be saved from that judgment, and live. It's a good thing Noah believed God, and did what he said, because if he hadn't, we wouldn't be here!

The Point: Substitutionary Atonement

Yesterday, we talked about sin, and how all of us sin, and somebody has to pay for it. The only way we can live, is if somebody will save us from God's judgment, by paying for the sin. God always makes a way for us to live. The ark was the way God made for Noah and his family, and anybody else who would get on it, to live through the flood. Jesus, who paid for our sin on the cross, is the way God has made for us, so that we can live with him, in heaven, forever.

Invitation: Salvation

Now I suppose that after it started raining, some of Noah's neighbors might have decided that they wanted on the ark after all, but it was too late; God had already shut the door. There will come a day when it's too late for you to accept Jesus. Don't wait until it's too late. The Bible says that now is the time of salvation.

[Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

The Beginning of Sin

Tuesday:	The Beginning of Sin
Story Passage:	Genesis 3
Other Passages:	Romans 3:9-26, Hebrews 9:23-28, Revelation 12:9, Isaiah 64:6
Objective:	We are sinful and require salvation.
Memory Verse:	Romans 3:22, This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Introduction: Rules

When you go to school, does your teacher have rules? What rules do you have? [Accept some examples from the children.] Can you follow all of those rules all the time every day? Do you ever talk without raising your hand? Have you ever forgotten your homework? When you miss one of the rules, and don't follow it, what happens? You're not perfect. You messed up. We all do it, sometimes. Now, your teacher doesn't always notice, and if your teacher does notice, you might not get into very much trouble, depending on what rule you broke, and whether the teacher thinks you did it on purpose. But the rule is there, and you still broke it.

Story: The Fall into Sin

When God placed the man and the woman in the Garden of Eden, how many rules did he give them? He just gave them one: don't eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. It was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and he told Adam, If you eat from that tree, you will die.

So what do you suppose Adam and Eve did? They had a little help. There was a serpent. The serpent was very crafty. (It wasn't a regular snake, like we have today. The Bible says that this serpent was really Satan.) Now he knew just what to do, to get Adam to misbehave. He went straight to Eve. Satan figured that if Eve gave Adam the fruit, he'd eat it. So he went to Eve, and he tricked her.

Did God really say, that if you eat from any of the trees in the garden, you'll die?, he asked her. Was that what God said? Eve knew the answer: We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say not to eat fruit from this tree, or we'll die. Then the serpent lied to Eve: You will not die.

So Eve looked at the fruit, and it looked good. The serpent told her, that if she ate the fruit, she would be like God, knowing good and evil. Was that true? Sort of. It's true that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they knew good and evil. They already knew good; now, they knew evil as well, because they'd just done evil. Were they like God? Not really.

So the serpent lied, and Eve ate the fruit, and she gave it to Adam, and he ate it too. That was the first sin, and the Bible tells us that now all of us are sinful, because the sin comes down to us from Adam. There's a penalty for that sin. God threw Adam and Eve out of the garden, and took away the Tree of Life, so they could not live forever, because they disobeyed. So they died. Before they died, they had children, and that's why we're here.

The Point: We Need Salvation

How do you live forever? Do people today live forever, usually? No. We all die. We all die, because we all sin, because Adam and Eve sinned. To live forever, we'd have to pay for that sin, or someone would have to pay for us. Can you pay for your own sin, by being good? The Bible says that you could never be good enough, that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags to God, because we're sinful. If we can't be good enough to pay our own penalty for our own sin, how can it be paid? Someone else has to pay it for us. Who could do that? Can your mom and dad pay your penalty for you? No! They aren't good enough, either. They can't pay their own penalty, just like you can't. Only Jesus could pay your penalty.

Invitation: Salvation

Jesus died to pay for your sin. If you want Jesus to pay for your sin, all you have to do is ask. [Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

The Beginning of Creation

Monday:	The Beginning of Creation
Story Passages:	Genesis 1, Acts 17:16-33
Other Passages:	Ephesians 2:8-10, Colossians 1:15-16, Romans 1:16-21, Romans 8:18-25
Objective:	God created the world and deserves our worship.
Memory Verse:	Acts 17:24, The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
Visuals:	Available here

Introduction: Where did it come from?

Out in the back yard, there's a big tree. Was it always that big? How did it get to be that big? How long has it been there? What did it come from, before it was a big tree? It was a little tree, once, but what about before that? [A seed.] Where did the seed come from? [Another tree.] Well, where did that tree come from? Where did all the seeds, and all the trees, come from originally? [God created them.] The world hasn't always been here. There was a beginning. Let's go back to the beginning, and explore where things came from...

Story: Paul in Athens

The apostle Paul was waiting in Athens for his two friends, Timothy and Silas, to come meet him. While he was there waiting, he got into a discussion with some of the people of the city, about religion. Paul was telling them about Jesus, and how he died for them and raised from the dead, but these people didn't know Jesus. They didn't know God at all! They had a lot of idols (false gods), but they did not know the true God, the creator.

Paul said he would tell them about the God they did not know. They were interested in this, because they had an altar set up just for a god they might not know. So Paul told them about the God who created the world and everything in it, the heaven and the earth. He said that this God does not live in temples built by human hands, and is not served by human hands, because he doesn't need anything, because God is the one who gives everyone life, breath, and everything else. Then he told them that God had sent Jesus and raised him from the dead, to prove that he is the God who will judge everyone. When the men heard this, some of them laughed, but others believed, including a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris.

Transition: Creation

Paul told them that God created the world. How did he know that? Where did he find that out? How did God create the world?

The book of Genesis tells us all about it. Paul had studied the Old Testament (the part of the Bible that was already written back then), including Genesis, so he knew about creation. The Bible says that in the beginning, when nothing was around, not even light or darkness, God created the heavens and the earth. They were pretty plain at first, but in six days God created all the details: light and darkness, the water and the sky, plants, the sun, moon, and stars, birds and fish, animals, and finally people. Then God rested on the seventh day, because his work of creation was done. When the world was first made, all the land was in one place. There weren't different continents like now, and the water was in two places: up above the sky, and down below in one big ocean. There were four rivers that flowed out of a special Garden, called Eden, where God put the man and the woman he had created. All the animals that have ever lived were born from animals that God created in those first six days, and all the people are from Adam and Eve, the first man and woman.

Application: Worship the Creator

Since God made the whole world, don't you think that he deserves your respect? We honor God and worship him, because he's God, and because he made us, and made the world, and gave us everything. The Bible tells us, in Ephesians 2, that he made us so that we could worship him, by doing the things he has planned for us to do. Isn't it great to have such a great God we can worship?

Invitation: Commitment to God

Wouldn't you like to promise God that you will worship him, and do the things the he has planned for you to do? [Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

The Finish Line: Heaven

Friday:	The Finish Line: Heaven
Story Passage:	Revelation 1:1-20
Other Passages:	2^nd Timothy 4:7-8, John 14:1-14, Revelation 21:1-22:6
Objective:	Rewards in heaven await believers who finish the race.
Memory Verse:	2^nd Timothy 4:7-8, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day...

Introduction: Crown of Righteousness

Who remembers what out theme is for this week? (Running the Race.) [Read 2^nd Timothy 4:7-8.] When is this crown of righteousness going to be awarded? (On that day.) After we have finished the race. What race are we running? (The race of life for God.) So after we finish the race, where will be go to be awarded that crown of righteousness? (Heaven.) Who would like to know about what heaven is like?

Story: The Revelation

When the Apostle John was very old, he was exiled to the island of Patmos. That means he wasn't allowed to leave. He says, that it was because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus that he was exiled on the island. He had been teaching about Jesus, and they stuck him on Patmos to get rid of him. But God had a plan for him while he was there. On the Lord's day, a loud voice, like a trumpet, told him to write down what he saw on a scroll and send it to the churches. The voice that was talking to him was Jesus, and Jesus was about to show John things that would happen in the future, including heaven.

When Jesus showed John heaven, he showed him a holy city coming down out of the sky from God. The voice of God said that in heaven God will live with men, and they will be his people, and he will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Everything will be new.

Then John saw the place where the people who love Jesus will go: the city will shine with the glory of God. It has a great high wall, and it is decorated with precious stones: sapphire, emerald, topaz, and others. There are twelve gates, three on each side, and each gate is made of a giant pearl. The city is going to be huge, bigger than Ohio, so big it would take an entire day and night to drive across it at 60 miles/hour without stopping. The great street of the city is of pure gold, clear like glass. It doesn't need a temple or a church, because God himself lives there. It doesn't need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God is the light. The gates will always be open, because it will never be night: just like you don't lock your house up in the daytime, the city won't need to be closed up, because it will always be day. A river of clear water flows from the throne of God down the middle of the great street of the city, and the tree of life (from the garden of Eden) grows beside the river.

Invitation: Getting to Heaven

Who gets to go to heaven? Do people who don't believe in Jesus get to go? (No.) The only people who get to enter heaven are the ones whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Everyone else goes to the fiery lake of burning sulfer to be alone without God (or anyone else) forever. So, who gets to go to heaven? Whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life?

The people who love Jesus, who look forward to his coming, the people who live for Jesus, who run the race of life for him, those are the people whose name is written in the book of life, and those are the people who will go to heaven to be with Jesus forever. If you would like to find out how to get your name written in the book of life, stay after the lesson and talk with the teacher or [one of these other counsellors] about how to make Jesus your Lord and Savior.

Running the Race: Focus on What Matters

Thursday:	Running the Race: Focus on What Matters
Story Passage:	Matthew 19:16-30
Other Passages:	Hebrews 12:1-3, Philippians 3:8, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30
Objective:	We need to be dedicated to God, not to other things.
Memory Verse:	Matthew 19:29, And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Introduction: Marathon

Who knows what a Marathon is? (A very long race: twenty-six miles long.) That's as far as from here to the mall in Ontario and back. If you were running that race, would you want to carry lots of things with you? A backpack? Shopping bags? Library books? You'd finish the race better if you left those things behind, because those things aren't important for your race.

In the race of life, there are some things that aren't important, things we can leave behind, so that we can do our best job running for Jesus.

Story: The Rich Young Man

In the book of Matthew, a young man came to ask Jesus a question. The young man was very rich. He had great wealth, and it was important to him. He probably would have had servants and a lot of stuff. The question he came to ask Jesus was, What do I have to do to get eternal life?

Now, he wasn't asking Jesus how to be saved. He was asking what he needed to do. He didn't understand that it's not anything you do that saves you; it's what you believe, and what's important to you. But he had a problem: his money was more important to him. So Jesus told him, Go, sell your stuff, and give the money to poor people, and come and follow me. Jesus knew that he needed to make God more important in his life than money. What do you suppose the young man did?

He went away, sad, because he couldn't do it. His money was too important to him, and he couldn't give it up, even for eternal life.

Transition: Things That Entangle

The rich young man's money had him trapped. He was trying to run the race, and he wanted to win the prize, but he was carrying all that stuff, and he wasn't getting where he needed to go. The rich young man needed to understand that he couldn't take all that stuff with him. The problem wasn't that he had money; the problem was that he couldn't make God more important, because he didn't just have the money. The money had him. He was living his life for the wrong things.

Application: What Matters for Eternity

Today, a lot of people want to follow God, but they have things in their life that slow them down on their race and keep them from getting to the goal. Some people really like sports, and that's fine, but if you never get to church because you're always playing sports, then you've made sports more important than God, and that's wrong. Some people really like computer games, and computer games aren't bad (at least, most computer games aren't bad), but if you're too busy playing computer games to share Jesus with your friends or go to church or read your Bible, then the computer games are more important to you than God. They're weighing you down, holding you back, keeping you from running your race.

The Bible says in Hebrews 12 that we need to throw off those things that hold us back and get in the way, throw them off, so that we can run the race set out for us. It says we should fix our eyes on Jesus, because he's like the finish line, and when the race seems to be getting long, if you think about Jesus, it'll help you to make it to the end.

Invitation: Throw it Off

If any of you are asking the same question as the rich young man – you want to know how to get into the race, to get the prize of eternal life and spend forever in heaven with God, you can stay after the lesson and talk to the teacher or [one of these other counsellors] about it.

Running the Race: God's Word

Wednesday:	Running the Race: God's Word
Story Passages:	2^nd Kings 22-23, 2^nd Chronicles 34
Other Passages:	1^st Corinthians 9:23-27, 1^st Timothy 4:7-10, 2^nd Timothy 3:16-4:8
Objective:	The Bible is God's word; we should study it and apply it to our lives.
Memory Verse:	1^st Thessalonians 2:13, When you received the word of God... you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

Introduction: The Bible

How many of you have a Bible? [Show of hands.] How many of you at least know where you can find a Bible? [Show of hands.] How many of you know someone who has a Bible? [Show of hands.] Would you believe, that there was a time in Israel when nobody could find a Bible?

Story: Josiah and the Book

There was a King in Israel named Josiah. Josiah's father, the king before him, was a bad man, and the people had not been worshipping God. They were worshipping pretend gods, idols. When Josiah was king, he changed that. Josiah wanted to bring the people back to God. He spent a lot of money – his own money, and money that he collected from the people – getting the temple fixed up, so that they could worship God.

While the temple was being fixed up, a man named Hilkiah found a book in the temple. It was probably pretty dirty. It had been lost for a long time. He sent it to King Josiah. Do you know what book it was? It was the book of the law, the first five books of the Bible. Who can name the first five books of the Bible? [Let the children answer.] Those are the books written down by Moses, and those are the books that had been lost, and they found them when they cleaned up the temple.

Josiah was excited, but when they read the books, Josiah was upset. Why do you suppose Josiah was upset? He was upset, because the people had not been following what was written in the Bible books that they found. While the books were lost, the people had forgotten what they said. Josiah wanted to get the people to follow God, but he had a big job, because they'd forgotten everything, because they weren't reading God's word.

One of the things Josiah had to do was to get rid of all the idols and pretend gods. They were everywhere in Israel, and the Bible said that the people must only worship God, so Josiah had to get rid of all the evil idols. He did a good job, and God said that Josiah was a good king.

Transition: Training

Josiah had to do hard work, to retrain the people to follow God. They had to read the book of God's word that they found and study it, so that they would know what to do. We are supposed to study God's word too, to know what we are supposed to do. 1^st Corinthians 9:25 says that everyone who runs in a race goes into strict training. Racers can't eat just any food they want to eat. They have to eat healthy food, so that their bodies can run fast. They can't sit around and watch television all day, because they have to keep their body exercised. We have training too, for the race of life.

Application: God's Word

Studying the word of God is like eating healthy food: it prepares you to run a good race. Just like runners wouldn't eat cookies all the time, we can't waste all of our time on whatever we want – playing video games, going to the mall, ... those things are okay, but we have to keep some time set aside to study the Bible, to train, so that we can run a good race. You can't win the prize if you're not in good shape.

Invitation: Winning the Prize

[Invite the children to stay after the lesson to learn how to win the prize.]

Free Bible School Materials

Complete Themes

Almost Complete

Bits and Pieces

General Information

What's New

Fishing for Christ Visuals, Day Two

Fishing for Christ Visuals - Day 1

Beginning of the Church, Preschool Lesson

Abraham's Faith (Preschool Lesson)

Noah and the Flood (Preschool Lesson)

Adam and Eve Sin (Preschool)

Creation (Preschool Lesson)

Elisha and the Shunammite

Hannah Prays

The Bronze Snake

Ezra Reads the Bible

Caleb and Joshua Obey

The Beginning of the Church

The Beginning of the Promise

The Beginning of Salvation

The Beginning of Sin

The Beginning of Creation

The Finish Line: Heaven

Running the Race: Focus on What Matters

Running the Race: God's Word