Walk with God

     

 "So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran." Genesis 12:4

      

      That was faith. Obedience proved it. Abram did not know where he was going; he had simply the call of God and a promise. But he asked no questions. He did not insist on knowing how his journey would come out, how profitable it would be, just what he would get in exchange for the land he was leaving and the sacrifice he was making. Quietly, without question or hesitation, he arose, cut the ties that bound him to his old home, and departed.

      

      That is the kind of faith all of us should have, whenever God gives us a call and a promise. Some people want to see where they are going before they will begin to follow Christ; but that is not walking by faith at all.

      We should not trouble ourselves to know where we are to be led, if only we know that God is leading us. His guidance is safe; and we should be willing to trust him, do precisely what he says, and go just where he leads, without asking any questions. Abraham's life is a picture of a true "walk with God."
- JR Miller

Sorrows are but incidents in life...

        "After the death of Moses the LORD's servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant. He said—Now that my servant Moses is dead—you must lead my people across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them." Joshua 1:1-2

          Sorrow came to you yesterday—and emptied your home. Your first impulse now is to give up and sit down in despair amid the wrecks of your hopes. But you dare not do it. You are in the line of battle, and the crisis is at hand. To falter a moment, would be to imperil some holy interest. Other lives would be harmed by your pausing. Holy interests would suffer—should your hands be folded. You must not linger even to indulge your grief. Sorrows are but incidents in life, and must not interrupt us. We must leave them behind, while we press on to the things that are before.

        Then God has so ordered, too, that in pressing on in duty—we shall find the truest, richest comfort for ourselves. Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the darkness deepens about us and creeps into our heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the tasks and duties to which God calls us—the light will come again and we shall grow stronger!

(JR Miller)

Jonah and the Whale

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

            Such words of wisdom from the Bible inspire me to teach Sunday School kids during my “single” days aside from the benefit I personally and spiritually gained from teaching.  I enjoyed teaching that I totally miss it when I stop to tend to my first born child.

            Then just recently I am challenge once again to teach and get involve in the ministry. We only have one Sunday school teacher in our mission church and I have to step in every time she is not able to teach. I never realize how I have missed teaching until I was once again in front of the children.

            More so I am challenge because I can see that there are a lot of things to be done in the children’s ministry. I am challenge when I saw that we lack lot of materials for activities and crafts. I am challenge that their classroom needed a makeover. And I am challenge to make a difference in the lives of these kids. I believe in a good foundation so it is but right to teach children the ways of God as young as they are.

I am grateful that brethren in our mother church are more than willing to give some materials for the Sunday school so we can have something to use. I also scoured some of my materials which I used and keep not so long ago (at this moment I thank God that I am quite such a hoarder) =) at least we have something to use and I don’t need to buy much.

            My journey once again as a Sunday school teacher began, this time it is more challenging and quite difficult because I have with me my one year old son as I taught. Just blessed that he is not so hard to handle during class time (though there are times =)

            Last Sunday I taught them about Jonah, his disobedience to God and him learning that Salvation is of the Lord. The kids are excited to learn, I can see that but they are more than excited during crafts/activity time. I can tell that they enjoy doing their crafts so much. Below is the picture of the craft they made to go along with the lesson on Jonah and the Whale.

            We made a boat and put some people on it. Use a popsicle stick to stand the sail. And write their memory verse on the sail. The kids then paste their boat on a piece of construction paper (some on bond paper), draw some waves and a whale. You can never tell how creative kids can be when it comes to arts and crafts, so just let them bring out their creativity. Some of them make a little Jonah in front of an open-mouthed whale as if ready to swallow.

            If you are wondering how we made the boat, check this out:

How to make a boat (paper folding)

            There goes our Sunday, how about you? If you are a Sunday school teacher too, you can use the crafts we had made. I forgot to take a picture of the crafts we made when we had our fruit of the spirit lesson. But I made the kids draw nine fruits of their choice, colored it and write the fruits of the spirit on each fruit they made. Never forget to tell them to write their memory verse on their crafts/activity so that they will not forget it. I made them bring home whatever crafts they made to show to their parents.

             If you used this craft, don't forget to leave a comment and maybe some pointers too=)

            Happy crafting! =) God Bless!