We're excited to announce that starting next week- June 21st, the Preschool class will be meeting downstairs in the Wee Worship room (next to the Coffee Shop)! So, that means this is our last week for delivering bags to our Pre-K families. We love you, we miss you, and we're SO excited to see you on the 21st.
Love is a mystery, watch just a few minutes of any movie and you'll see that! BUT it doesn’t have to be. It shouldn’t surprise us that God has much to say about love in the Bible. Here's a little devo from this week's The Gospel Project site with Brian Dembowczyk!
The Source of Love
God is love (1 John 4:16). If we want to know love, then we must first come to know God. This is why the world struggles to understand and express love—because it is dabbling in its shadows rather than in the substance of its reality.
As we come to know the character of God more, we come to understand love more. But it is more than just an academic pursuit. The more we know God, the more we experience love too—the more cause we see to love our Creator.
This is why one of the best things you can do for your kids is to immerse them in the Scriptures, God’s revelation of Himself to us. Help them connect the dots to understand God and His plan to redeem people to Himself through Jesus. Love begins here—it must.
The Feeling of Love
As we spend time in the Word and come to know God more, our affections should be stirred deep within us. Feelings of love for our God who is so good. Feelings of gratitude and humility for what He has done through Christ. While our feelings may differ in intensity and type, we all should experience them when it comes to loving God.
But this is not the end, or goal, of love. Feelings are a gift but they are also a conduit to carry us on to one final aspect of love.
The Act of Love
Love does not culminate in feelings, but rather in actions. Knowing God leads to stirred affections which leads to obeying Him. All three parts are part of love. We cannot remove any of them and say we love God. We cannot love whom we do not know. We cannot love whom we are not drawn to. And we cannot love whom we do not seek to honor.
This is the heart behind the Ten Commandments. Before we can even get to what they are or how we obey them, we have to start with this basis of love—which is why God starts there:
Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. (Exodus 20:1-2 CSB)
Notice that God introduces the Ten Commandments by reminding His people who He is and what He has done. He is their God—a rescuing God. This reminder is designed for the people to see who He is (know Him), which should prompt stirred affections of gratitude, which will then carry over to receiving and obeying the laws He was about to share.
As we teach our kids about these commandments, let’s share them the way God did. Let’s first be sure to point our kids to the splendor of God so that their hearts are ready to hear these commands which they would want to obey—out of love.
Story Summary for this week: CLICK HERE
Connection to the promise: God is holy and separate from sin. His law shows us what He requires—perfect righteousness. Our sin separates us from God, but Jesus came to bring us back to God. Jesus is perfectly righteous. When we trust in Jesus, He takes away our sin and welcomes us into God’s family.
If you have a bible at your house, open to Exodus 19-20 and have a parent read it out loud to you! If you don't have one, that's okay! CLICK HERE.
And here is the Question from Kids:
Game Time: Moses, May I?
Chose one person to be Moses. They will stand at the front of the room with his back to the rest of the people. Take turns asking Moses for permission to take a certain number of steps in certain kinds of ways. EX: 5 baby steps, or 4 bunny hops, or 8 giant steps, etc. Moses may either gran permission or offer an alternative. EX "No, but you CAN take _____". The first child to reach Moses becomes Moses in the next round.
Remind kids- In a lot of ways it seems like Moses just told people what to do and bossed them around, but we know that God was telling Moses what to tell the Israelites. The instructions really came from God.
Craftivity: Tablet Magnets
First, color the tablet showing the 10 commandments.
To turn the tablet into a refrigerator magnet, glue on the Popsicle sticks and magnets.
Let it dry, before you hang it up!
A few other fun printables:
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