A dream of heaven (day 59)

Well, we finish the Jesus Storybook Bible today. And summer is over for my kiddos :( I hope to still do Bible time with them after they get home from school. I will blog when we figure out what to do. If you have any ideas, that would be great.

The last story of John and the Revelation, begins on page 342 of the JSB. Sally Lloyd-Jones emphasizes all people and creatures bowing down to Jesus, and Satan being defeated. We talked about the fact that not everyone worships and submits to Jesus now, but in the end they will. To show this we lined up dominoes. When we tapped the end, they all fell. This is what we will all do when we see Jesus- worship him. Yippee.

the point? Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

A new way to see (day 58)

The story of Saul's conversion, from Acts 6-9, and 12-28, begins on page 334 of the Jesus Storybook Bible. To act out the story the kids wanted to use cars. We dialogued through the story, using a flashlight to be "the bright light." Von pointed out something (and we checked it in Acts 9.) I had not noticed that after Jesus asked "why are you persecuting me?" Saul replied, "LORD, who are you?" So Saul knew it was God, he just didn't know Jesus IS God. Pretty cool.

the point? Jesus changes people, Jesus is God

God sends help (day 57)

Pentecost, from Acts 1-5 and John 15, begins on page 326 of the Jesus Storybook Bible. We got out some lightweight scarves and waved them around to pretend they were the flames and the wind that God sent. The kiddos did some dancing, some dressing up, and some general silliness with the scarves. We talked about the fact that the Holy Spirit is with his children today (though not with flames) and gives them the help to do his work.

the point? God gives us a helper, the Holy Spirit

Going home (day 56)

Sally Lloyd-Jones shares the account of the ascension from Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 14 on page 318 of the JSB. This picture is from another time we did this story and the kids worked together to toss a balloon in the air, to represent Jesus going up back to heaven. Today, we only had tiny water balloons so we filled them with air and gave each of the kiddos their own. They tossed it up and tried to keep it in the air, counting how many bounces they use to keep the balloon from hitting the ground. Of course we talked about the fact that Jesus did not keep bouncing back down but went up until the disciples could no longer see him.

the point? Jesus promised to return for his children

God's wonderful surprise (day 55)

The resur-rection, from Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, is re-told on page 310 of the "Jesus Storybook Bible." As Von said, "now I don't have to be sad anymore." We did two different activities. For one, we sprinkled a thin layer of cornstarch in a cake pan (at least 1 cm deep.) Then we used a medicine dropper to gently drop colored water on the cornstarch. We said the water was Jesus. After carefully shaking the cake pan side to side while it is still on the counter, The water drops disappeared! Just as Jesus was gone from the tomb.

The other thing we tried was a recipe I got from idealstolife.com called resurrection rolls. However, I did not have the marshmallows called for so I used bite-size 3 musketeers bars. FYI, they don't disappear, but they are yummy :). Since my kiddos are used to things not working as planned when we experiment, they were fine with the explanation that "although the candy is still inside the roll, Jesus was not in the tomb." Process, not product :)

the point? Jesus is alive!

The sun stops shining (day 54)

The re-telling of the crucifixion, from Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19,begins on page 302 of the JSB. The kiddos gathered sticks from outside to make a cross (one long and one short one.) We used yarn to criss-cross the sticks together. Alyse made a small one for her bear, Von wanted a large cross. Then, we acted out the story. One person was Jesus carrying Von's large cross. We all walked into the closet and pretended to nail "Jesus" on the cross. After Jesus asked his father to forgive the people, and said "it is finished," we turned out the lights. I wiggled the kids and told them it was the earthquake. After the lights came back on we took "Jesus" off the cross and carried him to the tomb, covering him with pillows.

A dark night in the garden (day 53)

Sally Lloyd-Jones shares the story of the garden of Gethsemane, from Luke 22, Mark 14, and John 18 on page 294 of her Jesus Storybook Bible. Wow, lots of tears. Anyway, after such an emotional reading it was hard to think about playing a fun game. But of course the kids don't really want to do a "not fun" thing. So, we played chase where the person tagged gets put in jail. I periodically asked them questions such as, "but did Jesus run away when they came to put him in jail?" "If Jesus had run, would they have caught him?" Amazing.

the point? THANK YOU Jesus for coming, planning to die in our place