Isaac Gives His Blessing (GN 27)

You thought the story of Esau and Jacob and the soup was crazy... wait till you hear this one!

So Isaac,(Jacob and Esau's father) was getting very old. He couldn't even see anymore. He knew that he had better give his son his blessing before he died. The blessing put one son in charge of everything after the father died. The blessing was a big deal!

"Esau!" Isaac called.

"I'm here father."

"Take your bow and go into the fields. Bring back something and cook it up just the way I like it!" I'm getting old and I want to give you my blessing before I die." Isaac said.

Isaac's wife Rebekah was listening at the door.

Rebekah called to her other son Jacob. "I overheard your father tell Esau to hunt some food, cook it and bring it to him, and he will give him his blessing! Hurry Jacob! Run out to the barn, grab a nice fat goat, and I will cook it just the way your father likes it. Then you can bring him his favorite meal and he'll give YOU his blessing!"

The funny thing was that God had already told Rebekah that Jacob was going to be in charge of everything! She lied and cheated to make something happen that God was already planning to do! Do you think that was right? She didn't trust God. She trusted her own lies and tricks more.

The Bible says that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Have you ever put yourself first instead of waiting for God? The Bible says to give and you will receive. Have you ever kept something for yourself because you didn't trust God enough?

"It's not going to work mother!" Jacob said. "Esau is hairy! I am smooth skinned! For sure my father will want to hug me during the blessing and know that I tricked him! My father will curse me.... not bless me!"

"Just do as I say!" Replied Jacob's mother. "I'll take the curse if my plan doesn't work!" With that, Jacob ran out to the barn. He brought back a nice fat goat and Rebekah cooked it up just the way Isaac liked it!

Rebekah had already laid out Esau's clothes for Jacob to wear. After getting dressed, Jacob's mother took the goat's skin and wrapped it over Jacob's arms and hands so that he would feel hairy like Esau.

...........see if you can come up with something funny that Jacob is saying to his mother.............

Jacob took the meal to his father. "I'm back father and I've done just as you asked me. " Jacob handed his father the food.

"How did you hunt it and cook it so fast my son?" Isaac asked.

"With the Lord's help." Jacob quickly responded.

"Come closer so I can smell you and touch you my son." Isaac said. "You sound just like Jacob!

"Ah but you ARE Esau... you smell and feel like Esau." Isaac ate the food and gave his blessing to Jacob, who he thought was Esau! The blessing is in Genesis 27:28-29.

As soon as he got the blessing, Jacob took off. A few minutes later Esau showed up with some food. "Here is your favorite meal just as you had asked father." Easu said with a smile. He couldn't wait for the blessing and handed Isaac the bowl.

"What is going on? I just gave Esau the blessing. who are you?" Isaac asked

"I AM Esau, your oldest son, father."

Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. "Your brother tricked me into giving him my blessing!"

"Bless me too father." Esau begged. "There must be some blessing left over!"

"No, I'm sorry son. I made Jacob ruler over all, including you and your servants. There is nothing else." Isaac said.

"Please father! Anything! Something!" Esau was crying like a baby.

"There is nothing I can do, you will serve your brother." Isaac said as Esau lowered his head and left with tears in his eyes.

The twins- Jacob and Esau Genesis 25

When Isaac grew up, he married Rebekah. One day Rebekah told Isaac that she was going to have twins. She knew this because God told her so. God told her that her two sons would become two nations. He also told her that the older son would serve the younger..... which was not the usual way in Rebekah's time.

When the time came for Rebekah to give birth, she did have twins, just like God said. The first baby was very hairy and the second was not. The funny thing was that the second baby was holding the heel of the first baby when they were born!

Here is a coloring page for you. Click on picture and print.

God made us all different. You are not exactly the same as your brother or sister. How did God make you different? Why does God make us different? Because we all have a different purpose. We all have a special job that God has planned for us to help Him build His kingdom.(Eph.2:10)

Isaac and Rebekah named the twins Esau (which means hairy) and Jacob ( which means heel).

The twins grew up and Esau became a strong hunter. Jacob was a quiet stay at home kinda guy. He liked to cook with his mom.

One day Esau came back from a day of hunting. He smelled something delicious. Jacob was cooking up some of his famous Red Stew. " Give me some of that stew my brother!" Esau said

Jacob replied, "If you trade me your birth right, you can have all the stew."

Even though they were twins, Esau was born first, right before Jacob, so he got all the special favors, rights, blessings and inheritance. This is called the birth right.

Are you a twin? or the oldest in your family? or do you like to cook? do you love the outdoors?

Esau thought to himself, "I am starving to death, what good is the birthright if I'm dead!" So he traded his birthright to Jacob for a big bowl of red stew.

Have you ever done something without really thinking, and then regretted it later?

The Bible says that we should wait on the Lord.(Isaiah 30:18) Pray and ask God for guidance. (Psalm 27:11) We don't have to have everything we want right away. If we learn to be patient and persevere it builds our character.(Rom.5:3-4)

Abraham Passes the Test (GN22)

Sometimes God asks us to do hard things. God asked Abraham to do a very hard thing.

"Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son, Isaac, to me on a mountain that I will show you." God said.

Wow! God will never ask us to hurt anyone. He may ask us to give up a favorite toy or do things that we don'y want to do, but He won't ask us to hurt anyone... ever.

The next morning, Abraham took his son, Isaac and a few servants and headed toward the mountain.

Remember how long Abraham waited for a son? 100 years! He must have been brokenhearted as they walked up the mountain. But Abraham trusted God. He trusted that God would keep His promise. Remember that God promised Abraham that he would have lots and lots of grandkids and great grandkids and great, great grandkids. (more than the stars in the sky) Abraham didn't know what God had planned, but he knew that he should obey God.

About halfway up the mountain, Abraham told his servants to stay there until he and Isaac came back. A little farther up the , Isaac asked Abraham, "We have the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

"God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice." Abraham answered. He kept remembering God's promise.

When they got to the top of the mountain, Abraham tied Isaac to the alter and raised a knife above him. "Stop! Do not harm the boy!" a voice said. It was God. "Now I know that you trust me and believe me." God said. "I will bless you!"

Just then Abraham saw a ram caught in a thorn bush. God had provided a sacrifice! Abraham named that place: God Will Provide.

God wants us to realize how hard it must have been for Abraham to sacrifice his son so that we can appreciate how hard it was for God to sacrifice His son, Jesus for us.

God provided the ram in the thorn bush to save Isaac. Jesus is the lamb (with a crown of thorns) to save us! God has PROVIDED!

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed! (Gn 19)

"I am Going to send fire down from the sky and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!" God told Abraham.

"Please, God." Abraham pleaded . " My nephew Lot is a good man. He and his family are living in Sodom. I ask you to spare the city."

"There is just too much evil there. I cannot spare the city. But I will save Lot and his family." God answered.

The next evening, God sent a couple of angels to the city of Sodom. They found Lot sitting at the gate of the city. Lot saw the men/angels and knew they were special. "Come home with me for the night. I will give you a hot meal and a bed." Lot said. At first the men said no, but Lot insisted and they agreed.

"You have to get you family together and leave this evil city." One of the angels told Lot after they had gone back to Lot's house. Lot's wife and his two daughters were there and heard as the angel continued. " Sodom is an evil city and is has been marked for destruction by God himself. If you have any other family members, like sons or son-in-laws..... let them know!"

Lot's wife said, " Be careful and hurry back." as Lot ran off to tell his sons-in-law about what God had in store for the city of Sodom. When Lot returned home he told his wife and daughters that he couldn't convince the sons-in-laws to leave Sodom because they thought he was joking.

One of the angels shouted, "OK, well it's time to get going!" But Lot and his wife started to look around at everything they had. Lot was rich and they would be leaving a lot of stuff behind.

" I can't believe it! You guys are worried about what you are leaving behind! If we don't leave right now...." The angel said as they grabbed Lot and his wife by the arm."... you will be burned up with all your stuff! Just start running toward the mountains and whatever you do, don't stop and don't look back!" The angels had to pull Lot and his family out of the house.

"There is a small city named Zoar." Lot told the angels. " The mountains are quite far and it would be hard to live there. Can't we just go as far as Zoar and stop there?"

"OK." said the angel, " Zoar will be spared and you can start a new life there. But get there quickly, because as soon as you get to Zoar, fire will fall from the sky and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!"

Lot, his wife and two daughters ran a fast as they could, remembering not to stop and not to look back. As soon as they reached the city gates of Zoar, Lot and his family could see the sky brightening and they knew that fire was falling from the sky behind them. Lot and his two daughters continued to head into the city and not look back, but Lot's wife stopped and looked behind her. and she became a pillar of salt!

Abraham got up early the next morning and stood on top of a hill. He looked down toward Sodom and saw very thick smoke coming from where the city once was. He knew that his nephew was safe, because God promised to spare him and God always keeps his promises.

Wow! What a story! We can learn a few things from Abraham, Lot and Lot's wife.

1. Abraham was asking God to spare his nephew's life. We can talk to God! Isn't that amazing that we can talk to the same God that Abraham talked to. The same God that created the earth!

It's called PRAYER. When we are praying, we are talking to God. When we are talking to God, we are praying. We can pray for other people. God wants us to pray for others.

2. Lot's son-in-laws didn't believe Lot. Why? Probably because Lot had not told the truth all the time. We have to be careful not to lie. Because then people won't believe us when we tell them the truth.

3. Lot and his wife almost didn't get out in time because they were looking at everything that they were leaving behind. Because we are in God's family now, we can't live the same way that we did before.

4. Lot's wife looked back and she became salt. She looked back with her eyes and her heart. This word looked means "longed for". She wanted what she left behind. If we keep looking back at what we can't do or can't have now that we are Christians... we will miss what God want for us and what purpose He has for our lives.

TRY THIS: Put a penny on the floor at the base of a wall. Now you to the opposite side of the room. Start walking toward the penny, but look at something on the wall behind you. ( a picture of a clock etc...) Now try to pick up the penny while you are still looking backwards. How did you do?

Abram becomes Abraham

Remember last time... God told Abraham to look at the stars. God promised that Abraham would have more descendants than the stars. Beginning with a son. Well... twenty years later God reminds Abraham of that promise. Imagine waiting twenty years! But this time God told Abraham that it would happen in a year. I'm sure Abraham felt much better, but he laughed because he was now 99 years old. "You mean I will have a son when I am 100 years old?" asked Abraham.

"Yes!" said God, "and from now on your name will not be Abram... it will be Abraham." The first 99 years of his life.... Abraham's real name was Abram. (Which means honored father) Now God changed it to Abraham (which means father of many).

Later that day, Abraham was Looking out his tent and he saw 3 men walking along. He ran out to them and offered them dinner. When they said yes, Abraham ran back and asked Sarah (his wife) to throw together something good to eat for their 3 guests. Abraham brought them out some food and ate with them under a tree.

"Where is your wife Sarah?" One of the men asked.

"She's in our tent." Abraham replied.

"We will be back at this time next year, and by the time we return, Sarah will have had a son."

Sarah was listening to the men from the inside of her tent. She laughed when the men said that she will have a son. The men heard her and told her that she shouldn't laugh because nothing is too hard for God. They were right. Sarah had a son the next year. Abraham and Sarah named him Isaac, just as God told them to.( Isaac means, laughs)

Sometime we have to wait . It is hard to wait. It seems like the more we want something.... the longer the wait. Have you ever counted down the days till Christmas? It seems like forever! When God makes a promise, He always keeps it.... but sometimes it is not right away... and we have to wait.

Before the men left that day, they were wondering wether or not to tell Abraham some disturbing news. They decided to tell him.

"The city where your nephew Lot is living will be destroyed because it is too wicked.

After the men left, Abraham prayed. " God please spare the city because not everyone in that city is evil."

God said that if there were 10 good men in the city, He would not destroy it. But there were not even ten good men.

The name of the city was Sodom and next week we will see if Lot and his family get out of the city before it is destroyed

Abraham believes God

After God confused the language of the men building the Tower of Babel, the people moved to different lands. Hundreds of years later, God talked to a man named Abram. (God changed his name to Abraham .. we'll find out why later)
So God told Abraham to gather up his family and all his belongings and go. He didn't tell Abraham where he was going, He just said to head east. So right away, Abraham took his wife, his nephew Lot, his servants (Abraham was pretty rich) and all his stuff. Wow! Abraham really obeyed God! It was probably pretty hard leaving the place where his father had made a home for them. Abraham was 75 years old when he left his home. He followed God for hundreds of miles to a place called Canaan. When they arrived, God told Abraham, "See all this land, I will give it to you and your children and their children." But Abraham didn't have any children. But he didn't question God, instead he built an alter to thank God for all the blessing in his life.

Abraham couldn't stay in the land however. It hadn't rained for a while and it was hard to find food. So Abraham took his family and all his belongings to a place a couple of hundred miles away along the Nile river where there was plenty of food. When food became a little easier to find back in Canaan, Abraham took his family again and headed back toward the land that God has promised.

So let's see. God tells Abraham to leave is comfortable home and travel for months to a place where there is no food. So Abraham has to travel for a few more months to a place where there is food.... then he has to travel for a few more months back to the place that God promised to Abraham's kids... and he doesn't even have any kid's. On top of that, Abraham is about 80 years old! If I was Abraham, I'd be thinking " God... are you sure?"

We are so blessed that we get to see the whole story in the Bible. We know that God ALWAYS knows what He's doing. He ALWAYS keeps His promises and He's ALWAYS good and he ALWAYS will be good.

Ok back to the story. Remember that Abraham took his nephew Lot along with him. Abraham took him along because Lot's father, Haran, had died and Abraham had taken care of Lot as he was growing up. Well Lot was a man now, and as Lot and Abraham headed back to the promised land, they realized that they had to go their separate ways. It was too hard to travel together since both men were very rich and had a many cattle and sheep. Abraham gave Lot a choice and Lot decided to go toward the best looking land, so Abraham headed in the other direction.

Sometimes the best looking things are not really the best. That's why we should pray about our choices. We see the outside but God sees the whole picture. He knows best. As it turned out, the land that Lot chose was full of a lot of evil men. Also there was a war going on there and Lot was taken prisoner. Abraham was living peacefully with his wife Sarah when he heard about what happened to Lot. Abraham got 318 of his men together and they rescued Lot and all the other people that were taken prisoner. Abraham gave God all the credit and the king praised God. We should always give God the credit. That's called glorifying God and then other people may realize what great things that God does and give Him the credit too.

So Abraham went back home. He was living just outside of the land that God promised. There were people living in the land at the time. Finally Abraham asked God. "Remember when you said that this land would be my children's and their children's? Were you saying that I am going to have children? Or did you mean my servant's children?"

God answered Abraham by taking him outside. "Look up at the stars Abraham." God said. " If you could count every star, it still would not be as many as your own descendants." Abraham believed God and because he believed, Abraham was now in God's family.

We can learn a lot about trusting God, following God and believing God from Abraham. The Bible is God's word. First we have to trust what He says in His word. Second we have to do what He says in His word. That's what following is all about. Finally God want's us to believe that he sent His son Jesus to die for our sins so that we can spend eternity in heaven with Him. When we believe Him, we become part of God's family... just like Abraham.

Next time we will find out how long Abraham had to wait for a son and why God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

The Tower of Babel (Gn11)

This is a story about putting ourselves before God. When we do that, we are prideful. Pride is the root of a lot of bad things. We will se a couple of them in this story.

After Noah and his family finally came out of the ark. (Remember the flood?) Noah built an alter to God. Noah thanked God and worshipped Him. Then God told Noah to "be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth." So what does that mean? God wanted Noah to have a great big family, so that his children would have great big families. Then God wanted them to move into all different parts of the world. The world is a big place and God wanted everyone to spread out and not stay in one place. We have to remember what God told Noah, because it is important in the tower of Babel story.

A few hundred years after the flood, there were a lot of people on the earth again. Noah had obeyed God and had a lot of children and they had a lot too. Many moved east to the other side of the river (not too far away) and found some nice flat land. Flat land was great for building. The people said "Come let us build a city with a giant tower that reaches all the way up to heaven. We will make a name for ourselves here and we won't end up being scattered around the world." (Gn11:4) God was looking down and knew what the people were planning. He knew that they were not building a tower for Him, but for themselves. God also knew that if they built the tower, the people would not fill the earth (spread out through the whole earth) like he told Noah, because they would stay near the tower.

God had a plan. His plan is funny if you think about it. God confused their language so that they couldn't understand each other!(vs.7) Imagine trying to build something and you can't understand your boss or the other workers. If one of the other workers asks you to pass a medium sized brick, but to you it sounds like blah blah blah blah blah, you wouldn't know what to do. Construction on the Tower of Babel had to stop because no one could understand each other. Babel means confused. They were confused all right! Did you ever hear anyone babbling about something. Not making any sense. I have.

So God scattered the people throughout the earth.(vs8) They didn't obey God, so He had to do something to make His plan work. I think God was pretty easy on these guys. He didn't hurt them. They deserved a lot worse. When God doesn't give us what we deserve, it's called mercy. God had mercy on the people building the tower. Has God ever had mercy on you?

Sometimes we put things before God. Things like our toys or games, our friends, or our allowance. Imagine if all of a sudden you spoke a different language than everyone else. You could't play games with your friends, or you could't understand your teachers or your parents. God may not confuse us like he did to the people in this story, but He does try to get our attention in different ways if we are too prideful or disobedient. Have you ever lost a favorite toy. Maybe it was more important than God. God says that if we put him first, He'll make sure about everything else that we need. (Mt6:31)

God gave us talents, when we draw a beautiful picture, write a wonderful story of play terrific music, we have to be careful not to be prideful about what we have done, but instead about what God has done through us. That is called glorifying God. He likes that. (Ps86:12)

Noah is saved.... and God's promise Gn 8&9

In the last few weeks, we got to know a little about Noah. Noah and his family were the only people on earth that knew God and loved God. When God told Noah to build a huge boat and gather all the animals inside, he obeyed. When the flood lasted a long time and then Noah and his family had to wait for God to let them out of the boat, we saw that Noah was patient.Here is a coloring page for you. Thanks to RaisingOurKids.com

We can be like Noah if we love God, obey God and wait for God. There is one more important thing that we can learn from Noah.... and that is to believe God. The Bible says that Noah was

righteous because he believed God. What does that mean? It means that Noah was going to heaven when he died. We will see Noah in heaven some day. Won't that be so cool! We could ask him about the flood and all the animals. What would you ask Noah? God didn't say that Noah was going to heaven because he built the ark. God didn't say that Noah was going to heaven because he was patient. God said that Noah was going to heaven because he believed Him.

A few weeks ago, we talked about believing God. We believe that Jesus is His son. That He died for our sins and that we would follow Him. We believed God and that's why we are going to heaven some day. If God said all we have to do is run around the block to get to heaven... some people can't walk. If God said it would only cost a penny to get to heaven... some people don't even have a penny. God wants everyone to know him and be in heaven with Him. Believing is something that everyone can do and Jesus made it possible.

After Noah and his family finally got off the ark, Noah wanted to thank God for saving him and his family, so Noah built an alter to God and prayed to Him. We should thank God for sending Jesus to save us. God was pleased with Noah. He blessed Noah and his family and He promised Noah that he would never again flood the earth. Do you remember what God put in the sky as a sign to Noah about this promise? Right.... a rainbow! Have you ever seen a rainbow. Aren't they wonderful?!

The Flood

Last time we saw how Noah obeyed God by building an Ark. (a really big boat) Did you know that God gave Noah exact instructions about building the ark? He told him what kind of wood to use, how big to make it, where to put the windows and how to make it waterproof. Did your dad ever have to follow the instructions to put something together? Like a bicycle or a swing set? If he followed the instructions, it made putting it together a lot easier. God gives us instructions for our life. It's called the BIBLE! Because He wants our lives to be blessed.

This week we find that Noah has finished building the ark. (It only took him 100 years!) Do you think Noah ever thought it would never be finished? The Bible says that after he finished building the ark, Noah took his whole family into the ark and then God sent the animals in two by two. (Gn 7:6-9)

God shut Noah and his family in the boat with the animals. They were waiting for the rain to start. First day, no rain. Second day, no rain. Third day no rain! Do you think Noah was wondering if he heard God right? Finally on the seventh day it began to rain. (Gn 7:10)

It rained for forty days! When the rain finally stopped, the water was 20 feet above the highest mountain! Have you ever seen a mountain? Imagine a flood higher than that! The water didn't go down right away either. It took 5 months for the water to go down enough to see the tops of the mountains. Do you think that God could have flooded the earth in one day and dried it up the next? He sure could have. Remember we learned that God created the water in one day, then the land the next. Nothing is impossible with God.. (Lk 1:37)

Finally the ark came to rest at the top of a mountain called Mount Arafat. Noah, his family and all the animals stayed in the boat for three more months as the water kept going down. (so far they have been in the boat for over nine months, thats more than one full school year.)

After another forty days, Noah let a dove go. The dove flew away and then came back. Noah was hoping it would bring some kind of proof that the land was drying up, but the dove had nothing in its beak. The next week Noah sent it out again. This time the dove brought back an olive branch. I bet Noah and his family were celebrating! They knew that they would soon be stepping on solid ground. Noah knew that he had to wait for God to say that it was OK. So they waited and waited and waited. Finally 2 months later, God said it was OK for them to come out. God opened the hatch and Noah and his family and all the animals came out. I bet they were so happy to see the ground!

Noah and His family were in that boat for more than a year. They showed patience over and over again. They waited seven days for the rain to begin. They waited for the rain to stop. They waited for the ground to dry and then they waited for God's OK to come out.

The Bible tells us that we should wait for God. (Is 30:18) Why? Because God sees all things. He knows what will happen in the future. So by waiting for Him, we are showing that we trust Him. Being patient is not easy. We always want everything right away.

I remember one time, my mom had baked a cake. She took it out of the oven and put it on top of the stove to cool. I started to take a piece and my mom said to wait. When she left the room, I hurried up and took a piece and shoved it quickly into my mouth before she came back. It was so hot! I burned my mouth. I was screaming and crying. My mom came in. " Couldn't you even wait for it to cool down?" She was just trying to protect me. She knows what is best for me. I couldn't eat anything for two days, my mouth was so sore. By that time, the cake was all gone.

God tells us in the Bible to be patient. (Jas 5:7) He knows what is best for us.

2 turtles for the ark

you can feed these turtles and lead them into the ark

Click your mouse to feed them or drag it to lead them.

Noah Builds an Ark Genesis 6

Have you ever seen a rainbow? I love rainbows. Noah and his family were the first people to ever see a rainbow. God made a promise to Noah and to us and he put the rainbow in the sky as His signature. For the next couple weeks we are going to join Noah and his family on an amazing adventure and find out about the promise of God.

God was very upset because all men on the earth had turned away from Him. All except one man named Noah and his family. Noah loved God and he showed God how much he loved Him by obeying Him. It's hard to obey God when everyone around you is not. Have you ever done the right thing when all your friends were doing the wrong thing? Good for you. God sees what we do and he is pleased when we choose to do the right thing. I like to make God smile.

God wanted to clean up the world by removing all the bad people, but He wanted to reward Noah and his family for their obedience and love. God had a plan, but it required a lot of hard work by Noah and his family.

One day God said to Noah, "I am going to wipe the earth clean of all the evil men, so make an ark for yourself and your family because I am going to flood the earth." God gave Noah instructions for building the boat and Noah followed them exactly. If Noah was lazy and didn't make the ark exactly as God had said, it would have sunk or flipped over. If we only obey God sometimes or in some things, we are really not obeying Him. What if Noah said that he'll do it later?

God told Noah to make the ark so big, because Noah was going to keep 2 of every kind of animal in the boat during the flood. Imagine being on a boat with elephants and zebras and snakes and raccoons and monkeys! Noah had a wife and three sons. His son's were married.

So there was a total of 8 people to take care of all those animals. That must have been a lot of work!

Noah believed God and began building the ark right away. Noah didn't live anywhere near water, so all his neighbors would tease him. They thought he was crazy. Sometimes when we do the right thing when no one else is, people tease us and call us names, but God calls us His children. Remember how we talked about how God gave us the ability to make choices? Noah chose God's way and so should we. Noah believed God and so should we.

Here are a few interesting facts.

1. The ark was as long as 1 1/2 football fields and a tall as a 4 story building!

2. It took Noah 100 years to build the ark!

3. It rained for 40 days but Noah had to wait for the ground to dry, so he was in the ark for one year and 10 days!

4. Noah was 600 years old when it started to rain.

5. It had never rained before the flood.

6. The ark was big enough to hold 45,000 animals!

Here is a modern ship the same size as Noah's Ark!

Next week Noah fills up the ark with animals and God fills the earth with water.

Congrats to our 3 winners!

In the past 3 weeks , I selected 3 random comment makers on this blog to receive Mr. BibleHead t-shirts. Let me introduce them : Kelly has 3 boys. She has a blog about her three sons. It is called God Bless My Boys. Give her a visit here. Brian is has 2 sons. You can check out his inspiring blog here. Krista is a mom to 2 boys also. Her blog is called Krista Hamrick Illustration. She has a lot of wonderful and inspiring artwork. Check it out here. Thanks to everyone who commented the last few weeks. Don't worry there will be more give-aways. This past give-away of 3 t-shirts was in celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. I picked 3, because Jesus rose on the 3rd day! This week we will be on board with Noah, his family and thousands of animals. So stop on by for an amazing adventure! (in Genesis chapter 6&7)

Happy Easter!

Sunday is Easter, so I thought we'd take a break from the book of Genesis and talk about Easter. It's fun to think about bunnies and to get an Easter basket full of goodies on Easter, but let me tell you the real meaning of Easter.

The story of Easter can be found in the book of Matthew 26:20through Matthew 28:20. Remember we talked about how Adam and Eve had to leave the wonderful Garden of Eden because they sinned. Then the last two weeks, we talked about God's wonderful plan and how Jesus took our punishment so that we could live forever with Him. Well Easter is the finishing touch of God's great plan. Jesus died on Good Friday, then on Easter Sunday, He rose from the dead!

You may be wondering "what does that have to do with me?" The answer is everything! Easter is a time for more celebration than Christmas! When Jesus was born on Christmas, it was just the beginning of God's plan. When Jesus rose from the grave on Easter, God's plan to allow us into heaven was complete.

Jesus was the first to rise from the dead and lead the way to heaven so that we could too. Jesus died for our sins so that we could be forgiven, But if He didn't rise we would stay dead forever. We would have no way of getting into heaven.

Let's say that you went to the animal shelter and picked out a dog. Your dad paid for the shots and license. Now the dog was yours. You brought the dog home and while you were still in the driveway, the dog jumped out of the car and ran up to the front door of the house. He couldn't open the door by himself and get into his new home. You had to open the door first and let him in.

Just like the dog, Jesus paid a price for us. We are His. He saved us. But it wasn't until He rose from the dead that we were able to go through the gates of heaven. Heaven will be our home forever. Do you see that the whole Bible is about Jesus and His love for us. All the way back to Adam and Eve..... God had a plan.

Next week we are going to climb aboard Noah's ark! Genesis chapter 6 Happy Easter!

Choosing God

.....and we have a winner!!! Congratulations to Kelly! She has 3 boys ... I wonder how she will choose who gets the shirt. Don't fret tho... We have 2 more weeks of give-aways. A random comment maker on this weeks blog will win a Mr. BibleHead shirt next week. The deadline is April 1st.

Last week we found out about God's wonderful plan and how he wants us to join Him in heaven forever. Remember the A,B,Cs? Admit....Believe....and Confess. Some of you may have been thinking about that. You may have want to let God know that you are ready to be in His family. Here is a short prayer. You don't have to say it word for word. But you must believe it in your heart. God loves you. Just talk to Him. Tell Him:

Dear God,

I admit that I do the wrong thing sometimes, and I'm sorry,

I believe that Jesus is your son and that He came to earth and died for my sins.

From now on, I will follow Jesus because I want to be more like Him.

Thank you God .

If you prayed that prayer and meant it in your heart, that means you joined God's family!

Jesus is now preparing a special place for you in heaven!

The Holy Spirit is now living inside you!

And the angels are singing and celebrating!

You made a great CHOICE!

Today we are going to talk about why God created us with the ability to choose sin.

Remember that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God? Have you ever chose to do something that you knew was not right? We all have. Adam and Eve sinned and were removed from the Garden of Eden. Now everyone that is born, thinks more about themselves than they do about God. So why didn't God just make us so that we couldn't sin?

God could have made us like robots. We could be programmed to always obey and tell Him that we love Him evey 20 minutes. But God wants us to choose to love Him.

If you had a toy that said "I love you." when you pressed it's stomache. Would that make you feel as good as when your mom or grandma hugs you and says "I love you"? Do you think your toy would be happy when you tell it "I love you too." When we tell God we love Him, it makes Him happy. We can choose tell God we love Him when we pray and we can show God that we love Him by obeying Him. God says that we should love Him and love others, when we do , we are obeying Him and showing Him that we love Him. God tells us He loves us through the Bible, and through people. Every time someone tells you that they love you, it's also God telling you that He loves you.

Every time you do something, you are making a choice. Remember that God gave you that ability. If you are in God's family, you can ask the Holy Spirit who is living inside you to help you make the right choices.

Here is a coloring page for you.

Next week we are going to talk about Easter. Easter is a day for celebrating! Then in two weeks we will be back in the first book of the Bible, Genisis and the story of Noah and the ark.

God's wonderful plan & Mr BibleHead giveaway

Whoo Hoo! Today begins the first Mr. BibleHead give-away! I will be giving this nifty Mr.BibleHead t-shirt to one lucky person who leaves a comment after this week's post. The deadline is Thurday, March 24. Kids please ask your parents or guardian if it's OK. There will also be give-aways for the next 2 weeks.

I hope you liked the story about Stanley the Snake in the Garden of Eden. Remember 2 weeks ago we talked about how Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden. They were so sad because it was a wonderful place. God would walk and talk with Adam and Eve. God was sad too. Because Adam and Eve sinned, we can't be with God either.

But God has a plan . He wants us all to join him in heaven! (2Pt3:9) Heaven is a perfect place. We can't go there because we are not perfect. Jesus is perfect. He was very happy in heaven. God asked Him to give up everything so that we could be allowed to go to heaven. Here is God's wonderful plan:

Jesus came to earth as a baby. That's when we celebrate Christmas. Jesus' birthday. He lived a perfect life.(Heb4:15) He never disobeyed his mom and dad, or never lied or stole. When he was 30 years old, Jesus started teaching people about God. He healed some people so that they would know God, but His main purpose was to be punished. Why do you think He came to earth to be punished? God is so good that he can't let anyone get away with sin. He has to punish someone. Jesus came to take our place. He was punished so that we don't have to be.

Have you ever been punished for disobeying? What if you lied, and your mom said to go to your room while the rest of the family went to a movie and out for ice cream. As you were walking upstairs to your room, your dad says "Wait, I'll go sit in your room. You go to the movie and out for ice cream." God loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus to take our place so that we could spend forever in heaven! (Jn3:16)

So why doesn't everyone get to go to heaven? Because God gave us a choice. He created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose, and they made a bad choice. (Next week we will talk about why we can choose right or wrong and why God made us like that) We can choose the gift of heaven that God is offering us, by believing that Jesus took our punishment. We know that we deserve to be punished.(Rm3:10) We understand that Jesus took our punishment. We are so grateful to Jesus that we want to obey Him from now on.

Here is a fun way to remember. A B C !

(A)dmit that you have sinned.

(B)elieve that Jesus is God's son and that he died for you.

(C)onfess that you will follow and obey Jesus. (Rm10:9)

When we do this from our hearts and really mean it, God says that you are guaranteed a place in heaven when you die. The Bible also says that every time someone is saved (ABC), the angels throw a big party in heaven. (Lk10:15)

Stanley the Snake in the Garden of Eden

The Good Little Snake

by Judy Andrews

Everything was just fine for Stanley the snake in the Garden of Eden. He was a harmless little snake and just wanted to play with all the other animal children. He liked playing with the lambs, the muskrats, the raccoons and the turtles. In the Garden of Eden none of the animals were enemies so they all played together all day long. That is how it will be in heaven too.

Stanley loved foot races with Billy the Buffalo. Oh, I forgot to tell you that snakes had legs and feet in the Garden of Eden. Well, everything was peaceful and fun and loving in the garden....

... until one day, all of a sudden, the garden became very dark. The animals scurried about trying to figure out what was going wrong.

"What is it?" Stanley pleaded with his best friend Morris the Muskrat.

"Something is wrong in the garden." Morris cried out.

"We should find Adam. He will know what to do. " Stanley said trying to calm his friend.

"That's just the problem." Morris yelled as they ran. "Adam and Eve caused the trouble!"

They joined all the animals that were rushing to the center of the garden where the great tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood. They stopped at the ridge that surrounded the center of the garden where God always walked and talked with Adam and Eve. They looked over the ridge and there stood God, majestic and awesome as always. Adam stood before him and Eve

was on her knees crying! Nobody ever saw anyone crying in the garden before, because there was no sadness or pain in the perfect garden. Then in the distant, Stanley and the others spotted a very strange beast. It was a snake, but not a sweet snake like Stanley and all his snake family and snake friends. This beastly snake was puffed up. He was swelled up like he was full of bad things. He was snorting and hissing like he had been very angry since the beginning of time.

"Do you know that snake Stanley?" Doris the Dove asked as she landed on Stanley's head.

"No." said Stanley. "He isn't like any snake I ever saw. He isn't sweet and full of love like all the snakes I know."
"That's because he's not really a snake." A voice came from behind. Everyone turned and saw Henrietta the Hummingbird darting above everyone. "A few of us hummingbirds went down there. That is no snake Stanley! That is God's enemy.... Satan! He has just done a terrible thing!"

Suddenly there was a great earthquake and everyone was tossed around like dolls. Stanley was screaming as he tried to stay close to his friends, but it was no use. Things were falling all around him. Poor Stanley couldn't even tell what was up or what was down. The earth shook for what seemed like days..... then all of a sudden it was still. Stanley was in some weeds as he stared up at the sky. Suddenly Henrietta the Hummingbird appeared. "You OK Stanley?"

"Yes I think so Henrietta." Stanley said as he rolled over. Then he noticed something terrible. His legs were gone! " Hey! No I'm not OK! Somebody stole my legs!"

"They weren't stolen Stanley." The little bird explained. "God punished the evil snake because he brought sin into the garden.

"Well that's not my fault!" Stanley complained. "Why should I have to suffer because someone else did wrong."

"Everyone is suffering, Stanley." Henrietta continued. "Look around you. We are no longer in the garden. No one can go back there. The earth, the animals and the people are fallen because Adam and Eve did the one thing that God told them not to do."

"What could they have done that was so bad?" Stanley asked. They kept the garden nice. Adam named us all, and they played with us every day."

"Remember God told them that they only had one rule and that was not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?"

"Oh no, they didn't." Stanley gasped.

"Yes they did."Henrietta quickly replied." Now they are cursed and we are cursed."

Stanley tried to crawl without his legs. He wanted to show Adam and Eve what they had done to him. He struggled but finally mad it over to where the two were standing.

"Look at me." Stanley said to them. "My beautiful legs are gone! I look stupid like this! Now what are we going to do? Is there any hope for us?" Finally after a few moments, Adam turned and looked into Stanley's eyes. Adam smiled and touched Stanley's head. There was hope and love in Adam's eyes.

"I know you are sad. We all are Stanley." Adam said to the little snake. "But God will not leave us to perish. He loves us too much for that. Before we were punished, God gave us a promise. He said that someday His Son would come to earth and make it all like it was before. He will defeat the evil snake Satan. He will defeat death and He will make everything perfect again."

"He will?" Stanley asked with happy tears in his eyes. "Maybe then I will get my legs back."

Don't worry Stanley. " Eve said as she picked him up. Stanley wrapped himself around her arm. "You look so cute like this. "We will take care of each other until Jesus comes and makes everything right."

Eve put Stanley down on the ground and he gave her a hug as he coiled around her leg. Stanley was still a little sad, but now he had a Savior to look forward to. He had hope for the future. Besides if Eve thought he was cute without legs, he thought he might get used to it... for a while.

The end.

I hope you liked the story this week. I have a real treat for you next week. We are going to have 3 weeks of give aways leading up to Easter. Some really cool stuff! Next week we are going to find out what God's plan is. And how He will let us back into the garden.

The Fall of man. (Gn3)

Last week we found out that God had placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. When God first made Adam and put him in the garden, He was walking around with Adam giving him a tour of the whole place. When God and Adam got to the center of the garden, God pointed out a certain tree. He told Adam that he could eat the fruit from all the other trees in the garden, but not this one. The tree even had a name. It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

"If you eat the fruit from this tree." God said. " You will die." (Gn 2:11)

One day Adam and Eve were strolling through the Garden of Eden. Eve heard a voice and she looked down and realized that a snake was talking to her. "Did God say that you can eat any fruit from any tree in the garden?" the snake asked.

"Any tree except for that one that is in the very middle of the garden," Eve answered.

The snake then said,"God just doesn't want you to be smart like him, if you eat the fruit from that tree, you'll be as smart as God." The snake must have been leading Adam and Eve to the center of the garden as they were talking, because as they got closer to the tree, Eve saw that the fruit looked delicious. She thought for a moment about how cool it would be to be as smart as God. (She didn't know that the snake was lying to her in order to trick her) Then she plucked a piece of fruit from it's branch and took a bite. Adam, who was standing right beside her took a bite too!

Right away, they felt strange. They never noticed before that they were naked. So they grabbed the first fig leaf they could find and covered themselves. Just then Adam heard God walking through the garden and calling out to him. "Adam , where are you?"

Adam and his wife, Eve hid behind some trees because they knew that they had disobeyed God.

What do you think they were feeling? Maybe guilty... or scared....or sad? Did you ever do something that you knew you were not supposed to?

How were you feeling afterwards? God wants us to feel bad when we do something wrong. That's how he made us. That is called our conscience. But God doesn't want us walking around feeling bad all the time. So what can we do? We can say that we are sorry to whoever we disobeyed and to God. Then we can decide to obey next time.

The snake was really the devil disguised as a snake! He is very tricky. We don't have talking snakes trying to trick us every day, but we do have the devil whispering in our ear. God didn't tell us not to eat certain fruit, but he does talk to us through the Bible. The more we learn about what God is telling us through the Bible, the more we will know what to do when the devil whispers in our ear.

So, back to Adam and Eve. God knew where they were and He knew what they had done. God asked Adam what he had done. Adam blamed it on Eve and Eve blamed it on the snake. God doesn't like when we blame others. That means that we are not sorry.

God had to make Adam and Eve leave the amazing garden that he had made just for them. In the garden, Adam and Eve would have lived forever. But now they were going to die someday, just as God had told them. This was called the fall of man. But God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had a plan to bring Adam and Eve and all of us back to the garden someday. In two weeks we will talk about that plan. Next week I will tell you a story about a good snake named Stanley that lived in the Garden of Eden. I think you'll like it.

the Garden of Eden

But first let's look back at our awesome God and His creation. God created the earth, then He created the animals. Then on the sixth day.... God created Adam. Remember we found out that Adam named the animals. We made up a pretend animal, and some of you came up with some great names for it. Here are a few: Becky came up with chipunny :o) Andrew came up with stoink :o) and Debby's granddaughter Faith came up with flopus :o) Great names!!! Then after God made Adam, He made Eve.

Before we get to the Garden of Eden, here are a couple more eye-popping facts.#1. When God created the world and all things.... Jesus was with Him! The Bible says that Jesus was there in the beginning and all things were made by Him and for Him! (John1:3) #2. Before God created the earth, He already had planned on making you! It's true! God is an amazing planner. Have you ever planned your day. Like first going to school, then playing with friends, then eating dinner, then doing homework. Well God not only planned out one day.... He planned from the beginning of the world till the end and you are part of His plan! He made you on purpose.(Eph1:4)Next time you look in the mirror, Say, "I am part of God's plan!"

#3. God walked and Talked with Adam and Eve in the garden. They were friends! That's so cool! Next week we'll find out what happened to that friendship.

OK, Let's go to the garden! The Garden of Eden was where God placed Adam and Eve to live. He loved them so much that He wanted them to live in a wonderful place. The word Eden means "pleasant" or "comfortable". Let's pretend we are going on vacation to the Garden of Eden. It will be fun.

That's right, in the Garden of Eden, there were no tears, no pain or no hunger. Adam worked in the garden, but he never got tired. All the animals were like pets. If you could have any animal in the whole world as a pet..... what would you like? An elephant to ride or a giraffe to climb or a monkey to play with? I think that I would like a kangaroo to go for a ride in his pouch!

Well it's time to leave the Garden of Eden. Next week we'll see why we don't live in the garden. Here is a puzzle for you. Just follow the secret code and color the picture! What is it?

In the beginning

For the last 2 weeks we talked about how God created man. (Adam and Eve). But before God made man, He had to make the world for man to live on. So today we step back one chapter in the Bible to Genesis 1. Do you know what the first three words of the Bible are? I'll give you a hint: Look at the title of this week's blog. Yep "In the beginning". It says that in the beginning God created heaven and earth. So that means God was already there at the beginning, because God always was and He always will be. Does anyone know what "created" means? It means to make something that wasn't there before

So that means that before God "created" the earth... there was no earth. God made Adam and Eve on the sixth day. That means God worked for five days creating everything just right for them. God's creation is so amazing! He made the flowers and the mountains and the birds and the stars. He picked out the perfect colors for everything. God is the greatest artist! Imagine if He made the sky dark green and the trees pink! Next time you look out your window and thank God for this wonderful world!

God gave us the ability to create things too. Not as awesome as Him of course. Here are some examples of how we create things. Painting pictures. Writing stories. Building buildings. Cooking. Making music and many many more. Did you ever play with legos? or draw a picture? You were creating something. Let's create something! How about a sun catcher! Here's how.

Trace this picture of the earth onto wax paper and color it. Then cut out the wax paper earth. Ask your parent or an adult to help you. Take a paperclip and poke it through the top of the earth and tie a string to it. There, you created a sun catcher! Hang it in the widow and when the sun shines through it, you will se the colors glow.

Here is a fun way to remember how God created the world. God l.o.v.e.s. man. God was there in the beginning. He created man on the sixth day. The five days in between God and man spell "loves".

On the first day God said "let there be Light." On day two God created the Oceans.(lakes and land) Then he made the Vegetables (trees and plants). The Elephants (animals). And the Stars (sun and moon). Then He made man.

Here is a coloring page with the five days of creation. You can cut them out after you color them and try to put them in order. Have a blessed week!!!

God's gift to Adam

When Adam finished naming all the animals, he was so tired, he fell asleep. That must have been a lot of work. God looked at Adam and said "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper for him". So God made sure that Adam was in a very deep sleep. God opened up Adam's side and took out one of Adam's ribs. From that rib, God created a woman.When God made Adam, He scooped up some dirt and formed him. Then God breathed into Adam's nose and he came to life! Imagine if you made something out of clay and breathed on it and it came alive. God is so amazing!! But when God made Eve, He used Adam's rib.
I wonder if God was excited to give Adam such a special gift. God probably smiled as he waited for Adam to open his eyes. Did you ever tell someone to close their eyes and then had a surprise for them when they opened their eyes? Here is something fun to do. On a piece of paper , draw a heart and write I love you in the heart like this.

If you can't spell or write yet, just make a heart.Tell your mom or dad or grandparent to close their eyes. Then , with some Scotch tape, tape it to the front of your shirt. Tell them to count to 5 and open their eyes.

Did you feel that joy and excitement while they were counting? That's probably how God felt while he was waiting for Adam to open his eyes. God loved Adam and that's why He gave him Eve. God loves us, that's why He gave us Jesus. In the book of John, in the new testament of the Bible, it says that God loved us so much that He gave us His only son, Jesus.(John 3:16) The Bible also says that every good and perfect gift comes from God.(James1:17) So that means that everything we have, is because God gave it to us. What is your favorite thing in the whole wide world? God gave it to you! God wants us to be like Him. He wants us to give to others. We have a lot of things to give like we can give someone some help. We can give someone love. we can give someone some nice words. When we give, we are doing something that God does.
Here is a fun page for you. It is a coloring page of Adam and Eve. But there are 10 hidden animals in the leaves. Can you find them?

Here is a list of animals to help you. 1.elephant 2.fox 3.butterfly 4.snake 5.giraffe 6.cat 7.mouse 8.cow 9.pig 10.owl