UNIT 1: God cares for us and teaches us

LEARNING AIMS

After completing this unit, you must know the following:

That God loves you. That God cares for you. You do not need to worry, just trust in God. God looks after nature. We should only love God. We should obey God. God still performs miracles today.

INTRODUCTION The most important things we must know and learn in life are the things that God teaches us. Nothing is more important than God: not school work, money, sport, or playtime or work. In the Bible we learn how God has worked with people through the ages and how God also work with us in this way every day.

We must learn everything that God wants us to do. We learn these things in the Bible. God talks to us through the Bible. He uses the Bible to teach us. The Bible is the most important book you must read and learn from. We get important values by studying the Bible.

You are never too young to start studying the Bible. Read your Bible on a daily basis. In this way God teaches you and you get to know Him and love Him.

LESSON 1: God is the most important

Scripture: Psalm 5

Focus: Psalm 5:9

Make thy way straight before my face.

This Psalm, especially verse 9, asks the Lord to help us to live in the right way, the way He asks of us. It isn’t always easy to live in the right way. We do wrong every day. It is not that we want to, but it is our sinful nature.

God knows that we are sinners and therefore He is prepared to forgive us if we have true remorse for our sins. We must also ask God to help us to not be sinful again.

Later you had to learn to read and write. In the same way you learn how to live in the right way: Your parents teach you to say: “thank you” and “please”; it is good manners. To live in obedience to the Lord, is faith.

During the course of the following year the Lord will teach us how to live in the right way.

Psalm 5 was written by David. Here he asks God to listen to him and to teach him how to live in the right way. David was also a sinner, just like us. Yet God loved David very much. We must always remember that God loves us very much, even if we do sin. We must also, like David, long for God’s presence.

We can ask for God’s will in our lives and pray for wisdom and leadership. It is important to only focus on God in our lives. God must have the most important place in our lives. Nobody and nothing else must be placed before God in your life. If there are things that are more important than God, that object or person is an idol.

PRAYER:

Our Father, thank you that I can know that You love me. Thank you that I can learn to live in the right way. Help me to do Your will. This year, bless my family and me, in everything we do. Help us to be obedient to You.

Amen.

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5. ACTIVITY 1

Make a list of five ways God cares for you and your family every day. Also draw a picture to describe every item you write down.

LESSON 2: God is our Father and we are His children

Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14

Focus: Ephesians 1:5

Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Your parents take care of you. They buy you clothes and see to it that you sleep in warm beds and that you have enough food to eat. They give you everything you need because they love you.

We also have another father: the Lord. He sees to it that we are safe. He gives us a father and mother to take care of us. He loves us very much; we are His children. That is why we call Him ‘Father’ when we speak to Him.

When we read the scripture we can see that God has chosen us as His children. When Jesus died on the cross, we became part of God’s Kingdom. Therefore we are children of our Lord, the King. We must praise God for this. It is only through his grace that we can be His children. We do not deserve it, but God loves us so much that we wants us to be His children and live with Him one day in His House.

PRAYER

Lord, today I want to express my gratitude to You and I want to praise You, our Father and the Father of our Lord, Jesus. It is so wonderful to know that You knew, even before the world was made, that You would make me, give me faith and bless me. By the blood of Jesus, our Lord, I am Your child and under Your grace I live. Lord I bless, praise and thank You.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 2:

Draw a colourful picture of your family below.

LESSON 3: God takes care of us

Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34

Focus: Matthew 6:32

... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

One of the most important lessons we have to learn is not to worry. Worrying does not change circumstances. The Lord knows what we need and He knows what troubles we have in our lives. Nothing is a secret to God.

It is good to plan and to ask the Lord for help. Trust in the Lord and ask Him to help you. Therefore prayer is important because we talk to God through it and we let Him know of our worries and desires.

In the scripture we read that God looks after nature so well and therefore we can ask ourselves why God does not take care of us even better. God gives us what we need every day. Unfortunately a lot of people think that God’s care means that we receive a lot of money and objects. God takes care of us on a deeper level. He gives us inner strength and faith.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, help me not to worry about things. Help me to remember that You take care of everything; the plants, animals and all the people. Please take care of my family and me, by giving us Your love, peace and mercy.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 3:

It is not good to worry about things. It can physically make you sick. Write down what you think the EMOTIONAL and PHYSICAL consequences are if you worry too much.

LESSON 4: We must obey God

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-16

Focus: 1 Peter 1:14

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.

The Lord is Holy. If we say that something is holy, it is something in which we fully believe. It is something you feel strongly about. We must feel like this about God. We must also live our lives holy. We must strive to not do the wrong things. The best example we can follow is Jesus. Jesus loved everyone very much and never gave in to evil. We should try to live like this.

As children of God we must live our lives completely devoted to God. We must make good decisions in life and always ask God to help us. We must pray to God to lead us in our decision-making and change our thoughts to only focus on the plan that God has for our lives.

If you give your life to God, you change your life. You do not do the wrong things of the past anymore. You strive to do the right things and to become more like God.

PRAYER:

Lord, You are holy, Make me holy, so that I can live in the right way and glorify You in this way.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 4: In the Bible we often read words that we do not know the meaning of. Look for the meanings in a dictionary of definition and fill in the meanings below.

Obedient: ___________________________

Holy: _________________________________

Mercy:________________________________

Advent:____________________________

Desires: _____________________________

LESSON 5: The law of God

Scripture: 1 John 2:28-3:10 and Exodus 20

Focus: 1 John 3:2

Beloved, now are we the sons of God.

God is our Father. We became His children by the offer of Jesus, when He died on the cross for the redemption of our sins. Now we know that a wonderful future awaits us at the Lord’s side. Until then we can call the Lord 'our Father' and try not to commit sin. Do not commit sin. God asks us to not sin anymore. God shows us His love by calling us His children. If we read the scripture thoroughly, we can see how much God condemns sin. God calls sinners “lawless”.

The Lord gives us certain guidelines to live by. The guidelines are called “The Ten Commandments” and are given in the Old Testament in Exodus 20. Jesus have briefly summarised in the New Testament as follows:

 Love the Lord, your God.  Love your fellow man.

If we do these two things, we will follow God’s law. If you love God and no other gods, and you love your fellow man, you will not lie, steal, desire or murder. God gives us His unconditional love and faithfulness and all God asks of us, is obedience.

PRAYER:

Lord, help me to love You. Help me to love Daddy and Mummy. Help me to love other people. Show me how I can mirror Your love.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 5:

Read Exodus 20 and write down The Ten Commandments below. You can also draw pictures if you want to.

LESSON 6: We must love our fellow man

Scripture: 1 John 5:1-5

Focus: 1 John 5:1

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

God is our Father. That makes us part of His family. All the other people that also believe in God as their Father, are our brothers and sisters. This means that we are never alone and that God is always with us and fellow-believers are also part of our lives. Towards other believers we have to behave in the same way we behave towards our own families. This is what God expects of us.

This is part of The Ten Commandments – that we must love our neighbours like we love ourselves. We can however ask: Who is our neighbours?

Your neighbours are any people that cross your path and needs your help. We read of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Jesus tells us this parable to explain how our love to our neighbours should be.

The Samaritans and the Jews were enemies in Biblical times, they hated each other. Yet the Samaritan did not think of himself for one moment. He helped the wounded man and made arrangements for him to stay at the inn where he would be taken care of. He did not care if the man was the same culture or race as he was. He helped unconditionally.

This is how God expects us to treat other people. Without judgement or doubt. We must do to others as we want them to do to us.

PRAYER:

Thank you Lord, for a big family. Thank you that we can all be Your children. Help me to be an example of Your love.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 6:

Write down as many things possible that you can do for other people to show God’s love to them.

LESSON 7: God helps us in need

Scripture: Isaiah 63:7-16

Focus: Isaiah 63:16

... Thou, O Lord, art our Father ...

The Prophet (the messenger of God) tries to encourage the people. Although it is not going well with them at that moment, he reminds them of all the wonderful things the Lord has already done for them. Then he also talks to the Lord to remind Him that He is their Father and Saviour, in other words the only One that can help them in this very difficult time.

In troubled times we forget how well God takes care of us. We are entrapped in our own hardship and we forget to put our trust in God. God has given us signs through the ages that he stands by His children in difficult circumstances.

Isaiah takes us to the time of Moses and how God lead His people through the desert and how He took care of them. Yet the people still grumbled. Are we not like this as well? We complained about everything when all we really have to do is to trust in God. If you go through difficult times, remember to turn to God. Give your problems to Him and keep on praying. God will offer a solution.

PRAYER:

Thank you Lord that You care for me. Today, especially help and protect Daddy, please. Please let Daddy have peace in his heart. Thank you for Daddy and Mummy that love You and that also teach me to love You. Today, help me to be obedient.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 7:

Describe any bad situation you went through. Describe how you solved the problem. Also describe how your faith helped you during the difficult time.

LESSON 8: The Psalms

Scripture: Psalm 2

Focus: Psalm 2:7

The Lord hath said unto me; thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.

The Psalms are poems. A lot of people think that the psalms were written by king David. There were, however, many other writers (poets):  Psalm 42 – 49 is a poem by the sons of Korah.  Psalm 50 ,73, 74 – Asaph  Psalm 72 – Solomon  Psalm 89 – Poem by Ethan  Psalm 90 – Prayer by Moses

As in English, poems (and Psalms) are written especially to describe emotions (this is what you feel like). The men who wrote the psalms in the Bible, wrote it in different situations and different times in their lives. They praise God and also cry to him.

In Psalm 2 the Lord said to the king of Israel the he was His son. Today, we are all God’s children through the blood of Jesus, our Lord. God gives us Eternal Life as our inheritance. Read Psalm 2 carefully.

PRAYER:

Write your own prayer in activity 8 (below) and pray.

ACTIVITY 8:

LESSON 9: Jesus teaches people to pray

Scripture: Matthew 6:5-18

Focus: Matthew 6:6

When you pray, go to the most quiet place you can find, behind a closed door in order to be alone with God.

Jesus warns us to not make our religion cheap by showing it for the wrong reasons. When you pray, it must preferably be in private and you must speak to God alone. Jesus uses the example of the Phariseers that prayed on street corners. Therefore it is about your attitude. Do you only do something so “important” people see it? Jesus also teaches us that when we do something good we would not make a big fuss about it.

Jesus teaches us how to pray. He teaches us that not a lot of words are needed. We do not need to pray in a bombastic way. Jesus gives us a guideline to use when we pray:  Hallow God’s name  Pray that His Will be done  Give us what we need every day  Forgive our sins  Help us to forgive  Protect us from evil

PRAYER:

Pray the Lord’s Prayer.

ACTIVITY 9:

Write down the Lord’s Prayer

LESSON 10: God always helps

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-6

Focus: 1 Kings 17:4

You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.

The Lord loves you and that is why He cares for You. He helps you when you are in trouble. In the Bible there are many stories that tell us how people trusted in the Lord and how they were saved. No soldier or fire-arm is stronger than the Lord. God is Almighty –that means that He can do anything! He is stronger than the strongest person or weapon. God can help. Any time. With anything. God uses Elijah to bring a message to king Ahab that there will be no rain and there will be a drought. We know that Ahab wasn’t a good king and Elijah went in fear of his life. The Lord ordered Elijah to flee to the Kerith Revine to live there. The Lord promised Elijah that He will take care of him.

The story is a good testimony of God’s love, promises and care. God will always take care of us and protect us from danger. Elijiah trusted in God and he went to live in the Revine. God used ravens to bring Elijah food. How great is our God!

PRAYER:

Lord, Your miracles are so great. For that we bless You. We bless You because You can use nature to help Your children. Open my eyes to all Your miracles.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 10: The Lord provided crows so that His prophet could eat. We read of many other birds in the Bible. In this “Bird riddle” see how many answers you can complete:

Across: 1) Are not two ____ sold for a farthing? (Matt 10:29) 2) Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the ____ shall dwell therein ... (Jer 50:39) 3) Who provideth for the ____ his food? (Job 38:41) 4) Our persecutors are swifter than the ____ of the heaven ... (Sam 4:19)

Down: 5) Like a ______ or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. (Isaiah 38:14) 6) Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as _______. (Matt 10:16)

7) ... for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a ____ in the mountains. (1 Sam 26:20) 8) Where the birds make their nests; as for the ____, the fir trees are her house. (Ps 104:17) 9) And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the _______, and the bat (Leviticus 11:19) 10) And there went forth a wind form the Lord and brought ____from the sea... (Num 11:31)

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LESSON 11: The story of Gideon

Scripture: Judges 7:2-15

Focus: Judges 7:7

With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.

The story of Gideon teaches us to trust in the Lord, even when it is difficult to keep believing. The most important lesson that we have to learn here, is this: God is greater than your doubt. Even when you think that the Lord can do nothing to help you, He knows that He can help and He gives signs to help you to keep your faith.. The Lord also gives signs to help people who are in doubt. Do you know who these people were? Look for the answer in Your Bible

The Lord gave him a sign so that other people would not kill him (He killed his brother): Genesis 4:15 The sign of the rainbow in the clouds was given to him: Genesis 9:13 The shadow moved 10 steps back as a sign to this king: Isaiah 38:7 Their sign was a little child wrapped in cloth that lay in a manger: Luke 2:12

The Israelites beg God to save them from the Midianites. They were very afraid of the Midianites that they fled to the mountains. Gideon was not brave at all. He hid in the winepress. But in verse 12 an angel of God appears to him and calls him a “brave man”.

God orders Gideon to free the Israelites. But Gideon has a lot of excuses. Gideon forgets that God can do anything. God ensures Gideon that He will be with him. Gideon still asks for a sign from God. In verses 20-40 we read about all the signs that God gave him.

God still gives us signs today. Our sins sometimes blind us so we do not see the signs. We must first open our hearts before we can see with our own eyes.

PRAYER:

Thank you Lord, that You know when disbelief and doubt take hold of my heart. Sometimes I forget that You are almighty and that You can do everything. Thank you for all the signs that You give so that people can keep believing in you. Help me to always believe in You. Bless my family and relatives today and every person that is afraid.

Amen.

ACTIVITY 11:

Write down all the signs that God gave to Gideon. Read Judges 6 carefully.

LESSON 12: Do you choose Jesus?

Scripture: Daniel 3:13-30

Focus: Daniel 3:17

... Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us ...

Religious persecution is when people are persecuted (captured, beaten, tortured and killed) because they believe in God and obey Him. When someone holds a fire-arm to your head and ask you to choose between your life and your faith in the Lord, what do you think your answer will be? In the story we read today, a few people had to make this decision. Do you choose Jesus?

King Nebuchadnezzar made a statue from gold. He ordered everyone in the kingdom to pray to the idol. If anyone refused, he would throw them into the blazing furnace. Daniel and his friends chose God.

They were then thrown into the furnace and were protected by God’s angel. Not one hair on their heads was burnt. When reading the story, how can we not choose God? God will protect us.

Also read Daniel 6 where God protected Daniel in the lion’s den. God is wonderful.

Even today many people are captured, tortured and killed because they believe in the Lord and share their faith (and Bibles) with other people. Especially in the Arabic countries where it is against the law to proclaim the Christian faith to other people, people are still captured and even killed.

In South Africa we do not know how it feels to flee for your life, because you believe in the Lord. (Do you remember that the French Huguenots came South Africa because of a religious war in France?)

The aim of the Muslim (Islam) religion is to take over the whole world. Many Muslims already serve in our government. Pray often that the Lord will help us to worship without fear.