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This web-site is for everyone interested in learning more about the Bible.
This section helps Sunday school teachers find new ways of teaching familiar materials. Our goal is to augment lessons you may already have in your Sunday school curriculum.
In February, we are practicing Jesus’ commandment to love as he loved (that is the last memory verse from January). While that might sound difficult, we can look to his interactions with others, his teachings and healings to discover how Jesus loved; and then it’s our turn to practice loving.
The entire Activities section is divided into Memory Work, Activities, and Discussion Questions. You can go to any of these sections and select what best works for your pupils.
You can now download all three sections for ease in using these materials for teaching. |
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MEMORY WORK |
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Teachers and Parents
It is so important to encourage our little ones as well as ourselves to memorize Bible verses and stories – to become so familiar with the passage or story that its timeless relevance appears to us more and more clearly with every retelling. A major difference was evident between Sunday school pupils required to tell the story versus those who gave nodding recognition to the same story. We can not overlook the significance of memorizing a verse or story.
Consider sharing with your Sunday school pupils and parents ways to help little ones learn the verse and understand the impact of the message on their lives.
- Write out or type this week’s Bible verse on a card and place it on a mirror the child uses each day.
- Place the verse for the week in his/her lunch box.
- Ask the child to recite the verse before or after grace at the dinner meal.
- Practice as a family at dinner, going around the table with each one saying a word until the verse is complete.
- Put the verse to music. Create your own tune for each Bible verse. Create pictures to help remember the verse.
- Write it in a Bible verse notebook as many times as you can.
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Bible Verses
Work with your child and your students to learn each verse. Then, discuss the meaning of the verse and how it can be applied to everyday lives. On Sundays during class, riding in the car, or at dinner, it's fun to share stories of how the children have used the verse in their lives that week.
We provide memorization verses for each week. You can add your own.
February 3
(KJV) Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- What law is fulfilled when we love?
- Why is it important to love ourselves?
- How can we love our neighbors if we can’t love ourselves?
February 10
(KJV) Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
- What does it mean “owe no man any thing”?
- How does living love fulfill the law?
- Where do we start to live that kind of love?
February 17
(NKJV) I Cor. 13:3 though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
- Why is love so important?
- Have you ever given” to the poor without really thinking about those in need?
- What’s the difference between giving money to the poor and actually fixing them a meal?
- What was Jesus teaching his disciples when he fed the 5000?
February 24
(KJV) I John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
- Why are children so important?
- Why are children so often overlooked as being good problem solvers?
- Where did you learn to love?
- How are you expressing love?
- To whom are you giving your love?
March 2
(KJV) John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- Who is speaking?
- To whom?
- For what was the speaker preparing them?
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Bible Stories
This month we are looking at how to follow Jesus’ commandment to love as he loved. As you read or retell these stories, ask your pupils what they learn about Jesus’ love. How can we individually love the way Jesus loved? A close friend wrote a book about the gifts we give one another. He regularly asked his wife, “How can I love you more?” He was amazed that she always had an answer. Let’s teach our children to ask God, “How can I love you more?” and to explain to them how to be patient to hear the response and then willing to obey.
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ACTIVITIES |
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Bible Overview covers the third part of the book of Revelation.
Make A Difference helps us to stop gossip.
Teen Time Question and Answer helps deal with gossip.
Kids Korner offers puzzles, games, and stories about loving the way Jesus loved.
Parenting with the Bible is focused on handling fights. |
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This month, we are practicing Jesus’ commandment to love as he loved.
Exercise: Interview Jesus
Give every member of the class an opportunity to be Jesus or you can pretend to be Jesus. Let the class ask “Jesus” questions about his life and how he loved. Help the individual playing Jesus respond to the questions if he/she doesn’t have an answer. Read a number of stories about Jesus, his healings and teachings.
Help pupils formulate questions. Example:
- How did you feel when you saw a man being lowered through the roof of the house?
- What did you pray before you fed the 5000?
- Why is it important to love ourselves?
- How do we love our neighbors?
- Did you love everyone?
- Give some examples of how you loved.
- Did you ever get tired of healing people?
- How did you know that Zacchaeus was worth redeeming?
- What lessons do you want us to learn?
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Exercise: Moral and Ethical Choices. Help your students take the following quiz and discuss the results.
Living the Love of the Master
Jesus’ behavior and his parables help us learn how to treat one another morally and ethically. After reading Jesus’ words from Matthew, how would you handle the following challenges? There are some answers listed. Discuss each one and then add your own.
Matt 5:43,44 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
- A girl at school has been telling lies about you. What do you do?
- Get some friends together and start your own lies about her.
- Tell your teacher.
- Invite her over to bake cookies and get to know her better.
- Your best friend copied your homework and you got blamed for cheating. What do you do?
- Since you can no longer trust him, don’t be friends any longer.
- You take the blame and let your friend off the hook.
- You forgive your friend and ask him to tell the teacher the truth.
- Someone stole your new iPhone and you know who it is. What do you do?
- Call the police.
- You get your toughest friends together and go and teach him a lesson.
- Talk to him and offer him your older mp3 player.
- You just became a member of a new group at school. To be initiated, you need to shoplift an itunes gift card.
- You tell the principal.
- You go ahead and do it because you want to be part of the group.
- You explain to them that you can’t break the law to be a member of their group.
- Kids at school make fun of you for believing in God.
- Don’t ever tell anyone again that you believe in God.
- Find something about them to tease and taunt them.
- Ask them why they don’t believe in God and be willing to be a witness for God.
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Exercise: Spiritual goals for 2008
Help your pupils prepare a grid for accomplishment of their goals. For example:
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Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Pray daily |
X |
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| Put God 1st |
M |
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| Read a Bible story (nightly) |
M |
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| Be more loving |
X |
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X = accomplished
M = most of the time
Or whatever code. Make the chart for each child so the child can keep track of his or her progress. There is nothing wrong with missing the mark, we just keep working at it, we don’t give up. |
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Exercise:
Read the Bible through in a year or a couple of years. See how they are working on this goal. Make a point to talk with the parents and explain the goal of reading Bible stories.
With younger classes, take one of the toddler or pre-school Bibles we use in Kids Korner. Ask the parents to read at least one story (or more) a week to their children. Discuss this story in class each Sunday. With older children, use an Adventure Bible or Hurlbut’s Kid’s Bible. Give specific reading assignments for each week. For teens, use Eugene Peterson’s The Message or a translation of their liking. The important thing is to begin this wonderful journey. Don’t let getting behind keep you from finishing this goal. There are rich rewards for completing this assignment. If it takes two or three years to accomplish, stay with it. Look at Bible Overview for different ways to read through the Bible.
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Exercise: How to love
List all the stories where Jesus expressed love.
- Name the people who received his love.
- What did Jesus do that showed he was loving?
- Put together a “how to” sheet on following Jesus’ loving example.
- For example: Jesus fed the 5000. Who received his love?
- All the 5000 men, plus women and children.
- What did Jesus do that was loving?
- He noticed the people were hungry and since it was late, he fed them. He met their needs without a huge supply of food. He prayed.
- What do we learn from Jesus?
- He recognized the needs of others and met them. He prayed.
Now it’s your turn. |
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS |
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Four Friends Bring their Friend to Jesus Read Luke 5:17-32 Through the Roof; Why Four Men Tore Up the Roof of a Crowded House
- What is unusual about this story?
- Describe the love the friends expressed.
- Would you go to any lengths to help a friend receive healing?
- What kind of faith did the paralytic’s friends have?
- How difficult was it to get him up to the roof? [Archaeologists have unearthed Peter’s house where this healing may have taken place. The homes had stone stairs built into the side of the house for easy access to the roof. In the evenings, families would sit and talk in the cool of the night.]
- Did Jesus get upset about the hole in the roof?
- What did Jesus tell the man?
- Why is forgiveness of sin so important to this man’s healing? [Since they believed any physical problem was the result of sin, there may have been tremendous fear that he couldn’t be healed and guilt that he needed God’s forgiveness to survive. Jesus just cut through that red-tape and relieved him not only of his anxiety but his paralysis.]
- Why were the Jewish authorities upset?
- Why is forgiveness important in any healing?
- What role does love have in healing?
- If we are to love as Jesus loved, what do we learn from this healing about loving the way Jesus loved?
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Parable of the good Samaritan Read Luke 10:25-37 A Good Neighbor; The Good Samaritan
- Who challenged Jesus?
- What are the two great commandments?
- How do we know Jesus loved God?
- How do we know Jesus loved his neighbor as himself?
- How does Jesus define "neighbor”?
- Who is our neighbor?
- Is the Good Samaritan another way of showing how Jesus loved?
- What kind of story does Jesus tell the lawyer? (parable)
- Look at the characters in the story: the priest, the Levite, the Samaritan, the man who was beaten.
- Who might these people be today?
- What if the injured person were someone from a different ethnic group than yours? Would you stop to help?
- Why do you think the two Jews walked away from him?
- Describe the Samaritan.
- Why was it so unusual for him to stop and tend to the man's wounds?
- What if the injured man was from Israel? The United States?
- And what if the Samaritan was a Palestinian? Iraqi?
- Would you expect him to stop and help?
- What did the lawyer learn from this parable?
- What lessons did you learn from this parable?
- How can we all express more compassion and care for one another?
- Does loving your neighbor as yourself help explain how Jesus loved?
- Why is it important for us to be willing to help others?
- How does God see each of us?
- How can we work to see each other the way God sees us?
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Feeding the 5000 Read Mark 6:32-44 A Big Picnic; The Feast Beside the Sea, and What Followed It
- Why did the disciples tell Jesus to send the people away?
- Why didn’t they want to feed the crowd?
- Do you ever think you don’t have enough to share?
- What is so impressive about feeding that many people?
- What amount is 200 pennyworth of bread? [300 pennyworth was about a year’s salary]
- What does Jesus ask?
- What does Jesus tell the disciples to do?
- Why do you think they were put into groups of hundreds and fifties?
- What did Jesus do with the bread?
- How many baskets were filled with leftovers?
- What does this story teach you about Jesus’ ability to love?
- How would you love as Jesus loved?
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Jesus Loves Little Children Read Luke 18:15-17 The Children; Children Come to Jesus
- Why did Jesus’ disciples want to send the children away?
- Do you ever think of any group of people as a bother to you?
- What does Jesus’ life teach us about being around people?
- Who did Jesus love?
- Why did Jesus love little children?
- What is so special about little children?
- List ten qualities of childlikeness that we should all express.
- Do you love to be around younger siblings?
- Why or why not?
- What does Jesus’ example teach us about loving others?
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Zacchaeus Read Luke 19:1-10 A Small Man; Zacchaeus
- Describe Zaccheus’ appearance. His character.
- Why didn’t people like him?
- Are their groups of people in our society today that we don’t like because of their job, or skin color, or religion, or politics?
- What does Jesus’ example teach us to do?
- What did Jesus ask him to do?
- What did he tell Jesus?
- What does this story tell us about our lives?
- How have you learned to love as Jesus loved?
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