Notes From My Bible Class

Yesterday in our class we learned about Paul's second letter to Timothy, which was probably the last letter that Paul wrote. I thought it was important to share the historical context in which this letter was written. So we reviewed what the Roman empire was all about and I told them about Nero, the Roman emperor who was in power during the time that 2 Timothy was written. I was able to show them an actual coin (from Pete's collection), very similar to the one pictured above, and they were impressed at seeing something that old! We learned about how Nero falsely accused the Christians of setting the "Great Fire of Rome" that occured in 64 A.D. We talked about the persecution of the Christians that happened after that, and some of the horrible mistreatment that the Christians endured. We learned that Paul was put in prison for a second time in Rome, although we don't know if it had anything to do with the fire or not. And we learned that Paul knew that he would soon be executed for his faith in God. We looked at the encouragement that Paul gave Timothy to stand strong when faced with tough times and talked about how what that means to us today (specifically how that applies to a 4th-5th grader). We discussed the fact that although we as Christians here in America are not threatened with persecution because of our faith, there are many places in the world that are. I shared with them some specific instances of places where this is happening. Finally, we talked about how anything not of God will fail (Nero, the Roman empire, etc), but anything from God will stand forever (the church, the Bible, Christians).

Notes From My Bible Class

Yesterday we looked at Paul's letter to Titus. We learned who Titus was, where Titus was, and why Paul wrote this letter to him. As I was reading thru Titus in preparation for this lesson, the phrase doing what is good kept jumping out at me. I found it 5 times (see if you can find all 5). So, we had a little activity to see how we can use the things we have to do what is good. I had the kids pick an item from this bag and then tell what is something good they could do with it. A few of the items - a dish towel, a children's book, kleenex, breath mints, a dollar bill, an ink pen. They came up with lots of good ideas!

Throughout the week, I found myself thinking a lot about the whole concept of doing what is good and reading related scriptures. There are too many to list here, but the ones that really stood out to me were: Matthew 5:13-16; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Galatians 6:7-10; Ephesians 2:10; 1 Timothy 2:9 (pertaining specifically to women); 1 Timothy 6:17-21. I was struck with how we are to be intentional in doing good works. Some of the phrases mentioned in Titus are being eager to do what is good, be ready to do whatever is good, being devoted to doing what is good. It's not just something extra we do; it's not optional. God planned for us to do good works in order that people will see who He is. This has caused me to look more closely at how I spend my time; am I chasing after earthly pleasures (things that may be "good", but are not lasting) for myself, or am I helping meet the needs of God's people, which would result in "an overflowing of many expressions of thanks to God?"

Notes From My Bible Class

Here is our class yesterday, acting out a scene from a skit we did. We're continuing our study on Paul's letters and yesterday our lesson was on 1 Timothy 3-4. We learned who Timothy was and why Paul wrote him this letter. Our "verse to remember" was 4:12: Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Our skit was about how we can influence anyone, no matter how old or young we are. These kids seemed to easily grasp this concept; they came up with several practical ways they can be good examples to their siblings and friends. This lesson was a good reminder to me that people around me do notice my words and my actions.

Notes From My Bible Class

We had a great class yesterday, with almost all of the kids there. (We missed you, Shayla!) The kids are into the routine of coming in to the classroom and taking their binders off the shelf, without me telling them to. I love their eagerness! In the front pocket of their binders, there is an envelope with their "Books of the Bible" cards. We've been studying the letters that Paul wrote; so far we've looked at Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and yesterday our lesson was on Philippians. They get a new card with each letter/book that has a small picture and the theme of the book on it. The theme for Philippians is "Follow Jesus in everything. After some background information on this letter, we looked at verses that emphasize the theme (2:5, 3:17, 4:9). We talked about having the same attitude as Jesus and following the examples of others who follow Jesus. I taught them a song that was new to all of them, called Lord My Desire. The song is about being like Jesus and I taught it to them by singing a line and then they repeated it after me. (Do you get it? They were "following" me!) Next, we played a game that involved following footsteps around the classroom and saying our memory verse for this lesson. Then we reviewed our previous memory verses by playing some other games. The photo above shows our theme verse from Ephesians. I wrote the word "alive" on the board and then they took turns writing the words that come before and after, until the verse was complete. Every one of the kids participated with much enthusiasm! It was a day of fun and games, while learning of God's love for them.

Notes From My Bible Class

I know you can't really read what's written in this photo. It's a page from my Sunday school notebook. It's a simple little diagram with a question at the top: "Where do you want to live?" The chart shows a contrast between the two places the "dominion of darkness" or the "kingdom of light". This is the concept I was trying to get across to the 4th-5th graders in my class yesterday. We were taking a look at the letter to the Ephesian Christians. So far in our class, we have learned about three letters that Paul wrote when he was a prisoner in Rome - Philemon, Colossians, and now Ephesians.

We first saw how Paul reminded the Christians in the first three chapters of the blessings that come from being a child of God. We talked about how God is our rich and powerful Father who wants to adopt all of us. We saw how Paul mentioned "God's riches" five times, just in the first 3 chapters! Plus he mentions our "inheritance" several times as well. We talked about the concept of "grace"; how God saves us simply because of his love for us, NOT because of anything we do. We can't earn our salvation and we don't deserve it - God has given it to us anyway. But it's OUR choice. If we want to live in the kingdom of light, we must say "yes" to God. We have to choose to accept him as our Father and live as his child.

Then we looked at chapters 4-6. This is where Paul gives us instructions on how to live in the kingdom of light. We should imitate God and love others, just as he loves us. We looked at Paul's instructions on how we should treat the people around us. And we talked about how Satan tries to get us to come over to his side in the "dominion of darkness". But we can put on the "full armor of God" and protect ourselves from his schemes.

Honestly, I don't know how much these kids were able to grasp this lesson. But at least these seeds of truth have been planted and hopefully one day, each of them will make their decision to live in the kingdom of light. As I have studied from the book of Ephesians over the past couple of weeks, I have been reminded of what being a Christian is really about. I forget sometimes that I am a child of the King! It's true - we live in a dark world. But we belong to the King and we can choose to walk in his light.

(Related passages - Colossians 1:12-14, 1 Peter 2:9-10, 1 John 1:5-7, 5:19-20)

A Little Break

Just wanted to let you know that I've decided to take a little bit of a break from my regular blogging. For now I still plan to continue posting Notes From My Sunday School Class on Mondays. But that's all. I've got a couple of areas in my life that I need to be giving some more attention. Hope all of you are enjoying a beautiful autumn!

Pumpkin Pancakes

I don't want to alarm anyone, but have you heard about the pumpkin shortage?I would think that might be an exaggeration, but I've already experienced it! Last week I needed to buy a can of pumpkin to make some pumpkin bread and I had to go to three stores before I could find it. And the store where I finally found it only had a few cans left. I just bought the one can I needed because I thought, "no big deal, they'll have more later". A couple of days later, the hostess of a baby shower I went to told me she was having a hard time finding pumpkin and a grocery store employee told her that Libby's was behind production. She finally found pumpkin at a gas station/market! Well, when she told me about all of this, I was thinking of all the great pumpkin recipes I enjoy during this time of year and was starting to panic just a little bit. I mean, there really is no substitute for pumpkin (no, sweet potatoes are not the same). Well, I don't know how much truth there is to the pumpkin shortage rumor, but when I saw pumpkin on the shelves at Wal-Mart a couple of days ago, I quickly grabbed the cans you see above. (I admit I felt guilty and I hope no one saw me.) If any of my friends are reading this and you find yourself desperately in need of a can of pumpkin, let me know. We'll make some kind of deal, okay?

Well, I've got a month's worth of delicious pumpkin recipes to share and I'll start with this one for pumpkin pancakes. I remember enjoying some at IHOP last fall and thought it would be worth trying to make some on my own. I recently bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix and I wondered if I could somehow just add some pumpkin to the batter. So I "googled" it and found this recipe. It worked great and I suppose would work for any brand of mix.

• 1 1/2 c. pancake mix
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil
• 3/4 c. pumpkin
• 1 c. water

Prepare just as you would plain pancakes. I added chopped pecans to the batter too. I found these even more delicious than the ones I ate last year at IHOP. (Plus, it was nice to be eating them in the comfort of my own kitchen and wearing my pajamas.)