Description of The Coloring Page: Orthodox, child Jesus, scroll in his hand, throne
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Description of The Coloring Page:scripture, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10 (NKJV), stone castle tower, medieval,
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Description of The Coloring Page: The apostle or disciple Paul holds his sword in one hand and the Bible in his other hand. He stand in front of a curtain that is drawn open; his face determined.
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Description of The Coloring Page: Jesus blessing the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, Feeding the multitudes from just one lunch belonging to a small generous boy. Miracle, figure of Jesus with blessing hand
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Description of The Coloring Page: staff of Moses, God parts the waters, Yam Suph, Isrealite slaves run from Egyptian army, story from the Book of Exodus
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Description of The Coloring Page:Two proud beasts, camels, wait to travel afar... city far away, traveling to see baby Jesus, harness, star in the sky, rolling hills, desert travel
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One of the first lessons that we learn after we begin to talk is to pray. Mr. Gladstone, one of the greatest men of all time, lived to be almost ninety years old, and he said that he had never gone to bed at night without kneeling down and praying that little prayer that his mother had taught him when he was a baby:
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take."
When we pray we talk to God. Where is God? Some one says, "God is in heaven." Yes, but He is here too. God is everywhere. He is in this room, and He is in your home, and along the street, and just everywhere. But some boy or girl says to me, ''How do I know that He is here? I cannot see Him." No, of course you cannot see Him. There are plenty of things that you are not able to see. You cannot see the wind that rattles the shutters and pulls up your kite. You cannot see the electricity that makes the cars go along the streets. God is a Spirit, and a spirit cannot be seen. When you pray, you need not be afraid that He will not hear, for He is always here by us when we speak. He is so close to us that He can hear the softest whispered-prayer that we ever utter.
If I were to ask every boy in this house to tell me what is the strongest thing in the whole world, probably each boy would tell me something different. One boy would say that an elephant is the strongest. Another would tell me that it is one of the big engines that haul those long trains of loaded cars across the Virginia mountains, and another boy might say that the mightiest thing in the whole world is one of those great battle-ships out there in Hampton Roads.
But there is something that is mightier than any of these. It is prayer.
If the big front door of this church were locked and you were to try to come in you could not open it. You might push and pull and get all your friends to help you, but you would not be able to move it. Just then a little girl comes down the street and says, " I can open that door." You say to her, "What, you open that door? You haven't half as much strength as I have, and we all of us together cannot open it." But the little girl takes a small piece of steel about as large as one of her fingers and puts it in the lock and gives it a little turn, and the door is open. That tiny key in the little girl's hand has done more than all of you together.
Prayer is the little key that unlocks the treasure house, where God keeps the good things that He has for those who love Him.
Those who have that key and use it receive wonderful things from God. Long ago in the land of Israel there was a great drought. There had been no rain for several years, and there was no water to drink. The Prophet Elijah went up to the top of a hill and prayed to God to send some rain. Then he sent his servant to see if there were any clouds in the sky. The servant came back and said that there was not one. But Elijah kept on praying, and after he had prayed seven times the servant came and told him that there was a cloud coming up, and very soon the rain began to fall.
That prayer of Elijah's had done more than all the power of the king could do. It had brought the rain. This is a key that every boy and girl can have and use if they will.
I know a man who came home late one night, and when he tried to open the door he found that he had lost the key. He tried to get into the house, but everything was fastened tight and he had to go back to the hotel for the night.
There are many people who cannot get into the treasure house of God's heart. They have lost the key. They have forgotten to pray. Whatever you do be sure not to lose the key. S. N. Hutchinson
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." James 4:3 ESV
God does not always give us what we ask in our prayers. If He did, it would not be well for us.
There was a young man in prison in New York a year or two ago for committing a great crime. I met an old man who had known that young man all his life. He said, "The trouble with that boy was that his father spoiled him. He gave him everything that he wanted. If the father had been a little wiser, the boy would not have been ruined."
Your fathers and mothers do not give you everything that you ask for. If they did, it would be a bad thing for you. And God deals in the same way with us. If He were to grant us everything that we ask, it would harm instead of help us.
Very often we ask Him to do something for us that we ought to do for ourselves.
When I was in school once in a while one of the boys would come to a problem that was very hard. After looking at it for a moment he would take it to his teacher and ask him to work it for him. The teacher would say to him, ''Now, my boy, it is not going to do you any good if I work this problem. You go back and see if you can solve it yourself."
That boy had been sent to school that his mind might grow strong by working hard problems and doing hard things. So his teacher did not do what he asked, but made him work it for himself. He wanted his teacher to do something for him that he ought to have done for himself.
If you ever pray to God asking Him to do something for you and He does not do it, ask yourself if it is not a problem that He wants you to work for yourself. We ought never to trouble God with things that we can do for ourselves.
Then sometimes boys and girls pray for clear weather. They are going on an excursion, perhaps, the next day, and they are afraid that it will rain, so they ask God to give them a clear, bright day. The next morning when they wake up the first sound that they hear is the rain coming down on the roof. They are disappointed, and they think that God has not heard their prayer. But God has a very large family to take care of, and He has to think about all His people. Out in the country there are thousands of farmers who have planted their fields and they are praying for rain to come and make the crops grow. If God were to answer your prayer and send sunshine every day there would be no rain and the farmers would have no fruit or grain, and there would be nothing to eat. God has to think of all His children, and if He sends you rain when you ask for sunshine, just think of all the blessings that the rain brings to the earth, the grain, and the fruit and the flowers.
I read once in a book of a parson who was asked by the people to pray to God for rain. Before he prayed, he thought he would find out what day would be the most convenient for the people to have it rain. Well, the women did not want it to rain on Monday, for that was wash-day, and Tuesday the market people wanted clear weather. Wednesday the farmers were going to cut their hay and Thursday they were planning to gather it in; Friday and Saturday it was something else, and of course the other ministers did not want it to rain Sunday. There was no day that suited everyone. So the parson went and asked the Lord to send the rain whenever He thought best, and that is the way He sends it.
Sometimes we are very selfish in our prayers. There was a boy who wanted a quarter very much to buy something that he needed, and he had no way of getting it, so he prayed that he might find a quarter. That seems like a harmless prayer, but it isn't so harmless as we think. If he were to find a quarter some one else would have first to lose it.
He was asking God to take the money out of the pocket of someone else, and put it into his. We must be sure that our prayers, if they were granted, do not make someone else suffer. If they do, God may not answer them.
We will all pray many times when God does not answer, and the reason is not that He does not hear us, but that we are asking for something that is not right, or is not best. Hutchinson
"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me..." John 5:39
You have all seen the building with the name ''Library " across the front. Perhaps the first time you saw that name you asked some one what a library is. You were told that a library is a collection of books. The Bible is a library. There are sixty-six books in it, and they are books of many different kinds. Some are history and some are biography; there are books of poetry and the letters of great men. You can find them all in this wonderful collection, which we call the Bible.
Some boy or girl says, " I have tried to read the Bible, and I cannot understand it, and I do not care to read anything that I cannot understand." But that is just because you have not looked in the right place in the Bible.
If you were to go to the City Library to get a book to read, you would not go to the room where the grown-up people get their books. You would go into the children's room where they have children's books, and you would ask for something that you can understand. The Bible is like that library. There are books there for men and women, and there are books for children. When you go into a library you do not take up the first book you come to and try to read that. If you do, of course you get one that you cannot understand. You ask some one who knows to tell you what to read. That is what you ought to do when you read your Bible. Ask your father or mother or teacher to show you where to find a book in the Bible that will interest you. Ask for the story of Joseph, or Samuel, or David, or Esther, or the child Jesus. If you will do this you will find that there is no other library in the whole world that has so many splendid stories in it for children as the Bible.
There are parts of the Bible that every boy and girl ought to know by heart. We all ought to be able to repeat by heart the Twenty-third Psalm, and the One Hundred and Third, the first part of the fifth chapter of Matthew, and Paul's chapter on love, the thirteenth of First Corinthians.
There are two things we should remember about the Bible. It was given to us to show us where to go. David once said, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a guide unto my path." Did you ever go walking in the country, where there are no bright streetlights? You tried to walk in the path but you could not see where you were going. First you bumped into a tree, and next stumbled into the gutter, till you said to yourself, "I must have a light." So you went back and lighted a lantern and started
out again. Now you have no trouble, for the lantern makes the path light for you. That is what David meant when he spoke of the Bible as a light for our feet. It shows us plainly where to go, and the reason boys and girls run into difficulties, and stumble and fall so often is because they have not taken the Light for their feet.
But there is still something else about this Bible. Paul said to Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." That means that the Bible will change our lives and make them like the life of Jesus.
Dr. Moffat, the great missionary to Africa, told the story of a shepherd boy who had become a Christian. He had been a very bad boy, but he learned to read the New Testament, and it made him gentle and kind and thoughtful of others.
One day he came to Dr. Moffat in great trouble, telling him that his big dog had found a piece of the New Testament and had eaten it. Dr. Moffat told him that it did not make any difference, that he would give him another Testament. But that did not seem to make the boy feel any better. "It is the dog that I care about," he said.
"Oh," said the missionary, "if your dog can crunch a big bone in his teeth, it will not hurt him to eat a little piece of paper."
''That isn't it," said the boy. "I was once a bad boy. If I had an enemy I hated him, and everything in me wanted to kill him. Then you gave me the Bible, and I read about Jesus, and I began to love my enemies, and now my big dog has got the Bible in him, and he will be loving the lions and letting them help themselves to the sheep."
That boy thought that because the Bible had changed him it would change his dog too.
It will not change dogs, but it will make boys and girls every day more like Jesus. Hutchinson
"As every man wisheth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7 (GNV)
The Native Americans of this country have a very pretty legend about the leaves and
the birds. They say that long, long ago when the Great Spirit was busy
making the earth beautiful, that everywhere he stepped, there the trees
and the plants and the flowers began to grow at once. The leaves of the
trees were very happy and sang songs all the day. But one morning the
wind came along and told the leaves that very soon they would fall from
the trees to the ground and would wither and die and be forgotten.
This
made the leaves very sad and they forgot for a little to sing. But by
and by, when they thought how happy it made the old tree to hear them,
they began to sing again and forgot all about what the wind had said.
But
sure enough one day in the Fall it became very cold. The wind blew and
the leaves began to loosen their hold on the tree, and to fall to the
ground. The tree had to give them up one by one till there was not a
single leaf left on the sad old tree.
As they lay
there, the Great Spirit came walking along that way. He saw the
beautiful, many colored leaves on the ground, and thought to himself, "What a pity to let those lovely things go to waste.'' So he determined
to make them live again. He gave to each leaf a pair of wings and taught
them to fly, and they became the birds. The red oak leaves became the
robin-redbreasts, and the yellow willow leaves became the yellow birds,
and the brown leaves became the sparrows and the swallows. What a flock
of them there were! And they flew off up into the trees again. The trees
had had to give them up, but they got them all back, and they were so much more beautiful than they were before.
Now
let me tell you what this legend teaches. It means that no one ever
gives up anything for God that He does not give him back something ever
so much better and more beautiful.
Once while Jesus
was here, there was a great host of very hungry people out in the
wilderness who had had nothing to eat all day. There were no stores
where they could buy, and they were too far away to go home.
Jesus
called the disciples and asked them to feed the people, but the
disciples had nothing to give them. Then the Lord commanded them to go
and see what they could find in the crowd. After a little they came back
and told Him that there was a small boy there who had five biscuits
and two small fish. The little boy's mother had given him some lunch
that morning when he came away from home, and he had not eaten it yet.
And that was all that they could find in that crowd of thousands of
people.
Jesus called the lad to Him and asked if he would give Him his lunch. The little boy
didn't want to at first. He was hungry himself, but the children all
loved Jesus and so he gave it to Him. And then what do you think that
Jesus did? He took that little boy's basket of lunch and He made it
more and more till there was enough to feed all those thousands of
hungry people. When they had all had enough, He called the little boy to
Him and gave him back what was left. There were twelve big baskets
full. There was so much that he couldn't carry it all. He had to ask
some of his friends to come and help him. He had given the Lord a
little, and the Lord had given him more than he could carry.
When
he went home that night and showed his mother all that Jesus had given
him, I am sure that he was very glad that he had been willing to give up
something for Jesus. Just think what that boy would have missed and
what those thousands of people would have missed if he had been selfish
and unwilling to let Jesus use what he had.
A good man
once said, ''I have lived many years and have had many experiences.
There has been much joy in my life and there has been a little sadness
with it too. But I have never made a single sacrifice for God which He
has not repaid many times."
Jesus never forgets a
sacrifice that has been made for Him. He remembers and gives back to the
boy or girl who has made it something far better than that which has
been given up. Hutchison
Share The Scriptures: Jeremiah 5:26 and Job 18:8-10 Object Used: An ordinary mouse trap.
Teach The Lesson: My dear young friends: You may think that possibly there was a time when wicked men did not desire to destroy others, as is so often the case in this day; but hundreds of years ago, God said, "Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people. They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. They set deadly traps to catch people." Jeremiah 5:26 NET Bible
I suppose you have all seen traps. There are a great many different kinds. Some are very dangerous, and yet you cannot see the danger until you are caught, or until you see some other person who has been caught in the trap. Now here is a trap. (show mouse trap) I suppose that you have all seen such traps as this, and possibly have them in your own homes, to catch the little mice which destroy your food, and often times do great injury.
Now, this trap does not look dangerous to the unsuspecting mouse. The little wire, which is to be drawn up by a strong spring to choke the mouse to death, is concealed, and he does not know that there is a wire there at all. He simply smells the piece of cheese. This tempts his appetite, and, as he is fond of cheese, he desires to obtain it, and so he attempts to crawl in through this small hole to get the cheese, but the moment he nibbles at the cheese, it disturbs the little catch which holds the spring, and when it is too late to escape, the little mouse finds that he has been caught. Then he does not think of the cheese, but struggles to get loose and escape out of the trap. But all of his struggles are in vain, and after a few moments he is choked to death. Then the man, or the housewife comes, takes the little mouse out of the trap, and with the same piece of cheese the trap is again set for another unsuspecting mouse. So people go on, day after day, catching one mouse after another, with the same trap and with the same bait.
Now, there are traps which evil people set for boys and girls, and men and women. Such as magazines illustrating naked people or books about treating others like toys instead of human beings with feelings and dignity; we call these bad publications pornography. To the innocent, the unthinking and the unsuspecting child these things may not appear very dangerous, but they are very deadly in their effects, and they result in the destruction and misery of thousands upon thousands of people every year. There are also the places of business where men and women go to see such things in person and to purchase the services of those who are equally desperate and addicted. Places which are made attractive only to catch people, to rob them of their money, and of their self-control, and of their reason, and of their homes, and of all good things that God has set aside for our families, sometimes these bad people cause others to loose even more than things and families but also their faith in God as well. Our faith is very precious dear children; it is more valuable than any amount of money or things we could possibly collect.
Then there is the theater that shows x-rated films, the kind that even older children are not allowed to see. Good mother's and father's never take children to these movies because these show scenes of things that condition people to think in wrong ways. These kinds of movies deaden the moral sense, pollute the mind and lead people away from the ministry of Jesus. These films are made to rob the individual person of virtue, and of integrity, and of faith in God.
Then there liquids, foods and drugs which are dangerous for young people and for older people too. Things like --- tobacco, and cigars, and beer. When we use these things in just a small amount as some responsible big people do, they will not hurt us. But when we are very young, we can not determine this for ourselves and even a very small amount of alcohol or smoking can hurt a child. This is why it is illegal for little folks to smoke or drink. Sometimes even big people can not control how much of these things they should take into their bodies and these mistakes lead to killing others while they are driving and to abusing their family members. How many people they hurt and sometimes kill, all in the name of fun.
People who sell things like alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs set traps which are meant to take our money. In each of these products exist a chemical that can possibly rob each of us of health and strength if we are not careful about using them correctly. No small, young boy or girl who uses tobacco (cigarettes) in any form can ever be strong like the children who do not use tobacco. Some children begin smoking cigarettes, and then go on to smoke cigars, and then follow with drinking alcohol, and so on. Step by step, they go on down the road of many addictions. Grown up people called this "substance abuse."
Those boys or girls who have gone fishing on a calm, beautiful summer day, and have looked down through the water, have often seen the fish as they gathered around the hook, and then watched them as they nibbled at the bait. First they come up very shyly, and barely touch the bait with their nose. Then they come again, and possibly just bite a small trifle -- barely taste of it. Then, again and again they nibble at the hook, until finally they open their mouth's wide to get a large bite only to discover that they have swallowed the hook. Then it doesn't matter how much they flounder about, and struggle to get away, it is too late, it is impossible for them to escape. They are pulled into the boat or upon the bank, and a few hours later are on the stove, being cooked for some hungry fisherman.
Just so evil people and/or Satan are always looking for those whom they can tempt with things that other people seem to enjoy freely without anything bad happening to them. And step by step they sometimes convince very young children to do the things that their parents warn them against. These people seem to think that in their individual case, the results will be very different, but the results are almost always exactly the same. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is a common problem with many grown up people and even more deadly for a little child.
You will notice that this mouse trap has four different places where mice can be caught, and is it not strange that when one mouse enters on this side, and is caught, and is lying there dead, that another live mouse should come along, and see the same trap and desire the same thing, and walk right in to the same danger, and the same sure death? You would think that when he saw that the other mouse had been caught, and had lost his life, that he would turn away. But instead of that, he smells the cheese, walks right into the trap, and is caught, and within a few moments is as dead as his neighbor.
So we can see others who have been hurt by abusing drugs, alcohol, tobacco and sex; these abuses have paved the way for their destruction, going on step by step. We see people all around us who have squandered all their money and lost all their friends, and been forsaken by their own parents, their wives, and their children; who have become outcasts, and for whom no one longer has any respect. We see these things daily, and yet some of us still go on in the same way, beginning our own addictive pleasures going, step by step, until we end up hopelessly lost and sometimes dead. These people are like the little mice that get tempted by the scent of the cheese and wish to eat. Do not be like the foolish mouse, which sees its dead companion in the trap, and then walks up unthinkingly and pokes his head into the same inevitable death and destruction; but remember that there is evil in a world where the enemies of God wait to destroy you, just the same as many have been destroyed before you.
In the book of Job it says, "A rope is hidden for him on the ground and a trap for him lies on the path." (18:10) "and in the 8th verse of the same book and chapter it says, "For he has been thrown into a net by his feet and he wanders into a mesh." Satan and those people who follow him have laid traps and snares all along your path through life. We will need to be very, very cautious not to believe that we are not capable of falling into traps like others.
Remember this text for this morning, which says, "Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people. They lie in
wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. They set deadly traps to catch
people." Jeremiah 5:26 (original text, Pastor Sylvanus Stall D. D.)
Questions for Discussion Afterwards:
What does God say about our own weaknesses?
What is a trap? Describe the traps set for mice and fish.
What are some of the traps set by evil people and/or Satan?
Can we avoid traps with God's help?
How will God help us to avoid traps?
How can we know the difference between drugs that help people and drugs that hurt people?
What does God say about respecting your body?
How does God expect us to respect someone else's body?
What does it mean to be 'addicted'?
Extend The Lesson by Showing This Film:
"Kiwi tastes a golden nugget. It's delicious." Script, direction, animation: Andreas Hykade
Animation, artwork: Angela Steffen, Music, sound design: Heiko Maile, Postproduction: Ralf Bohde
Production management: Bianca Just, Funding: FFA Berlin, Production:Thomas Meyer-Hermann,
Studio FILM BILDER 2014
