The Bible and Me Small Group Leader s Guide Timothy Club (P1-3) Year 2 Date: 18/19 April 2015 The Bible and Me: Lesson 1 of 5 What s the Bible All About? Series Overview God has given us the Bible for us to know Him, to know His ways, and for it to be a guide for us to live our lives until we see Him again. We want our GKidz children to embark on a lifelong journey of discovering more about God through reading His Word and living out His truth and commands day by day. Date Lesson Lesson Focus Family Devotion Focus 18/19 April Lesson 1 What s the Bible all about? Share about God s Word in our lives 25/26 April Lesson 2 Seeking God and His Ways Share about what you have learnt about God through reading the Bible 2/3 May Combined Service: 2 May (Sat) 5-7pm @ EXPO No GKidz this weekend 9/10 May Lesson 3 Reading the Bible and Doing Devotions / Mother s Day Start of 2-week devotion challenge 16/17 May Lesson 4 The Bible in my Life Continuation of devotion 23/24 May Lesson 5 Series Wrap Up / 1 st half 2015 Review challenge Make a plan for reading the Bible together regularly Memory Verse: Your Word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me. Psalm 119:105 (NIrV) LEADERS BRIEFING AND PREPARATION We are going to spend the next few weeks talking about God s Word, what it s all about, but also how it applies to our lives. It s a good time for us as leaders to reflect about a few things: How well do we know God s Word, and how well do we know God? Have we been consistently spending time reading God s Word? What has God been speaking and revealing about Himself to us? Have we been doing God s Word after hearing it? Has knowledge and revelation led to action? Let s spur each other on to go deeper into God s Word by sharing about what God has been speaking to us about through our daily devotions or reading during briefing time. Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 1
PLATFORM TEACHING (15 mins) Start by asking a few children to share about their favorite book. Share about your favorite book fiction or non-fiction (1 minute max) Platform teacher to say: Some of us really like to read, and books that are very popular are called bestsellers. We are going to start on a new series of lessons about the best selling book of all time. This book is no ordinary book over 5 billion copies have been sold and distributed, and at least one part of this book has been translated into more than 2,100 languages! Can anyone guess which book I m talking about? [Allow children to respond] Yes, that s right! I m talking about the Bible. (Slide) Why do we read books? We read books to know more about something, to discover new ideas and to apply principles in our daily lives. (Slide) For example, if I want to know more about animals, what they eat, and how to take care of them, then I would go to the library and read books about animals. (Slide) In the same way, we read the Bible to know about God, to learn godly principles through Bible characters, and to apply godly truths. Do you know that there are a lot of cool things about the Bible waiting to be discovered? (Slide) For example, do you know there is a book in the Bible where the name of God does not appear inside at all, but the letters YHWH God s Hebrew name are hidden in many places in the book? That s in the book of Esther. (Slide) Or that the Bible wrote about things about the Earth way before scientists figured them out? For example, the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 40:22 that God sits above the circle of the earth, but scientists only proved that the earth was round over a 1,000 years later! (Slide) Or in Amos 9:6 it says that God calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land the Lord is his name. This was years before scientists figured about the water cycle and clouds and rain. (Slide) Or, that things like the Passover where the Israelites were protected from a plague by the blood of a lamb, or the Tabernacle where God met with the Israelites, all point to Jesus who was born hundreds of years later? There is so much for us to learn and discover about God through the Bible! Over the next few weeks, we are going to discover more about the Bible, and how it applies in our daily lives. Today, we are going to learn about how many authors wrote the Bible, what s in it, and more! But first, let me say a prayer for everyone, that as we go on this adventure of discovery that God will reveal more of Himself to us. Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 2
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your Word and revealing who You are through what we read. I pray that each one of us will personally know Jesus Christ for ourselves as we spend the next few weeks reading Your Word. May our ears and eyes be open to You. In Jesus name I pray, amen! ACTIVITY #1 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? (15 mins) Broken Telephone Game: Have the group sit in a line. Whisper a message to the first person in the line. That person will whisper that message to the next person in the line. The message will be passed down until it reaches the last person in the line. The last person will then have to announce to the group the message that they heard. Message #1 My Bible is blue with orange and yellow stripes Message #2 My Auntie Mei Li has six beautiful Bibles in her bedroom. Message #3 I like to read my Bible before I go to sleep at night, after brushing my teeth Leader to say: Was it easy to pass the message from one end of the line to the other? It wasn t easy, some of the words got mixed up, and the wrong message reached the end. The Bible is different. Even though about 40 different people wrote the Bible over hundreds of years, the message of the Bible did not get mixed up, because everything in the Bible is God-breathed and inspired. The Holy Spirit guided these authors to write what God wanted to say to us. And although these 40 authors had different styles, and wrote in different languages, everything fits together in a way that makes sense. ACTIVITY #2 WHAT S IN THE BIBLE? (25 mins) Materials needed: Cards with the books of the Bible printed on them (GKidz to provide) Book unjumble Part #1 Distribute a few slips of paper to each child. Tell the children to work together to group the Old and New Testament books. Leader to say: Can you count how many books there are in the Old Testament? (Ans: 39) How many books are there in the New Testament? (Ans: 27) How many are there in total? (Ans: 66) Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 3
Book unjumble Part #2 Ask the children to arrange the books of the Bible in the order that they appear in the Bible. Ask the children to refer to the contents page of their Bible to know the order. Leader to say: Good job children! Do you notice that the cards that are the same colour are grouped together? The books of the Bible are arranged according to the same type! (Point out and explain about the different types of books, using the bullet points, no need to read out all the names of the books) Old Testament Books of Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (5) Tells us about the creation of the universe and what happened to the Jewish people from that time until Moses died. Includes God s laws, which show us about God s character. History books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (12) Tells us about the history of the Jewish people from after Moses died till when the Persian Empire ruled over them. Wisdom/Poetry books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (5) Includes songs written to God, wise sayings, writings about the meaning of life. Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel (5) Written by prophets that God sent to tell the people of Israel what would happen in the future. Called major because books by these prophets are longer. Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (12) Called minor because books by these prophets are shorter. New Testament Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (4) Four different books about what Jesus did when He was on earth, written to different people and so emphasize different things. History: Acts (1) Things that the apostles did after Jesus returned to heaven. Letters: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 4
Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude (21) Letters written by Paul and other apostles to different churches or people. Prophesy: Revelation (1) Written about events that will take place in the future, before and when Jesus returns to earth. REVIEW MEMORY VERSE (10 mins) Memory Verse: Your Word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me. Psalm 119:105 (NIrV) Read the memory verse together, together with the actions. Your Point upwards to the sky Word Pretend to read a book is like a lamp Bend your left arm in front of you. Place your right elbow on top of your hand and open your right hand like a light shining from a lamp. That shows me Put your hand above your eyes the way Put your two hands palms facing each other, about shoulder width apart, and push your hands forward. Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 5
It is like a light That guides me Right fingers grab left fingers and pull the left arm diagonally to the right away from you. References FAMILY DEVOTION FOCUS (5 mins) Give your children a worksheet to do at home with their parents (Appendix A). Tell them to bring back the worksheet back next week for GKidz. 1. Foundations Curriculum: Studying the Bible by Karyn Henley 2. Kids Sunday School Place Appendix A Copyright 2015 by GKidz, FCBC Page 6