July 24, 2016 - Two Weeks Left

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

Well, It seems we have one more week together than we had planned.  So for the next two weeks we will be doing some fun things.  Also, it gives you all one more week to learn as many of the 4th quarter memory verses as you can to get last minute points!

We have so enjoyed being your teachers this year and watching you all grow and mature.  It is sad that soon you will be moving up to second grade with new teachers but we are so happy that you will continue to grow into men and women of God.  We are so proud of you and we are excited to see what God will do with your lives.  

Here is the list of verses for this quarter.  This is your last week to get points before we announce the winners and give the certificates and gift cards.  We are praying for you always.

July 17, 2016 - Naaman the Leper

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. (Psalm 30:2)

Have you ever accidentally touched something hot and pulled back to avoid getting burned?  Maybe you’ve changed your shoes because the ones you wore were too tight.  Perhaps you touched something sharp and stopped because it hurt.  God gave us the ability to feel things so we can avoid getting hurt. What would happen if you couldn’t feel anything?  Maybe you’d stand too close to a fire and get burned.  Maybe you wouldn’t realize you stepped on a nail.  There are all sorts of ways you could get injured if your body doesn’t warn you of the danger.  This is one of the things that can happen if get a terrible disease called leprosy. 

Long ago, in a country called Aram, there was a great warrior, a Captain named Naaman.  He was highly respected and brought great victory to Aram.  There was only one problem…  he had Leprosy!  Naaman and his wife had a little servant girl

who had come from Israel and one day she told them that there was a prophet in Israel named Elisha than could heal Naaman.  Naaman immediately went to the king with this information and the king sent him to Israel.  He also sent money, clothes, and other gifts along with a letter asking the King of Israel to heal Naaman.

When Naaman arrived before the King of Israel with the gifts and the letter, the King was baffled.  He said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?” (II Kings 5:7b)  The King knew that he couldn’t heal anyone but thought if he didn’t, the king of Aram might try to start a war with Israel.  He didn’t know what to do.  He was so upset that he tore his clothes!

Elisha, the prophet, heard that the King had torn his

clothes.  He knew that the King could not heal Naaman, but he could!  So Elisha sent his servant to see the King with the message, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” (II Kings 5:8b)

When Naaman, with all his men, arrived at Elisha’s house, Elisha didn’t even come out.  Instead he sent his servant, Gehazi, to tell Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River and he would be healed.  You would think

that this would make Naaman happy but instead he was furious!  “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.” Naaman said.  (II Kings 5:11)

So Naaman decided to ignore what Elisha had said and began to leave. However, one of Naaman’s servants said to him,”…if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be

cleansed’!” (II Kings 5:13)  Naaman realized that leaving without being healed simply because it wasn’t in the way that he expected was rather foolish.  So, Naaman turned around and headed for the Jordan River.  He washed

once…nothing.  Twice…still nothing.  Three times, four times, five and then six times, Naaman still wasn’t healed.  Naaman washed one last time and when he came out of the water his leprosy had been completely healed!

Naaman was so happy that he went back to Elisha’s house and offered him all sorts of gifts to show how grateful he was.  Elisha turned them all down and wouldn’t accept anything!  So Naaman had one final request.  He no longer wanted to serve or worship any god but the one true God that Elisha served.  However, his King worshipped other gods and it was Naaman’s job to go with the King to do this.  Naaman asked Elisha to ask for God’s forgiveness for this.  “Go in peace.”  Elisha said.

Elisha’s servant Gehazi thought that they should have

accepted something from Naaman.  He decided to run after Naaman and see if he could get something from him.  He made up a lie and convinced Naaman to give him some clothes and two talents of silver.  This angered God so much that

He gave Gehazi the leprosy that He’s cured Naaman of!  It never pays to disobey God, especially just because you are greedy.

July 10, 2016 - Elijah and the Ravens

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.

             So far we’ve learned that God kept His promise to Israel by bringing them into the Promised Land and enabling them to conquer it.  You would think that after all that, Israel would be faithful to God forever, right?  Well, unfortunately, that’s not what happened.  Over the years, Israel had many ups and downs.  They also had good kings and bad kings, mostly bad ones. 

The worst of all the kings that Israel had was King Ahab.  He even married someone as evil as himself, the evil Queen Jezebel.  They did many evil things but the worst was to lead Israel into worshipping another god…a FALSE GOD named Ba’al.  God decided that He wouldn’t tolerate this so he sent a prophet named Elijah to confront King Ahab. 

Elijah told King Ahab that, since he had sinned so badly against God, there wasn’t going to be any more rain until Elijah called for it.  This made King Ahab so angry that Elijah had to run for his life.  He went across

the Jordan all the way to the Brook Kerith.  There Elijah survived by drinking from the brook but he needed to get food somehow.  God Himself took care of Elijah by having ravens bring him bread and meat twice a day!  This went on for a long time and King Ahab was never able to find him. 

Everything was going well for Elijah but Israel was

suffering greatly.  There was no rain for plants to grow so there was no food for the animals.  This meant that the people didn’t have meat or vegetables to eat and everyone was starving!  Eventually the drought (long period with no rain) even affected Elijah when the brook he was drinking from dried up.  So God told Elijah to go to a city named Zarephath where He had commanded a widow to care for him. 

When Elijah arrived and found the widow, he realized that she was so poor that she couldn’t even take care of herself and her son, much less care for Elijah.  All she had was a little flour and a little oil which she was going to make for her son and herself as a last meal before death.  Elijah told her to do so but to first make him something to eat.  Miraculously, the flour and the oil lasted for a very long time without running out.  All three of them had enough to eat until the drought was over.  Eventually it was time for Elijah to go back and confront Ahab.

When Elijah arrived he told Ahab to gather all the false prophets of Ba’al, four hundred in all, together for a contest between his God and their false god.  They all met on Mount Carmel.  The prophets of Ba’al built an altar and two oxen were chosen to be sacrifices.  Elijah told the prophets of Ba’al to go first and even let

them have their choice of animal for a sacrifice.  There was one catch; nobody was allowed to light the altar.  That was Ba’al’s job.  The same went for Elijah.  This way, everyone could see which was the real God.  Elijah told the people, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” (I Kings 18:21) The contest was on!

All day long the prophets of Ba’al danced, shouted, and pleaded with Ba’al to come and light his altar.  They even cut themselves thinking that this would make Ba’al happy enough to come.  But nothing happened.  This went on so long that Elijah started teasing them saying, “Shout louder! Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”(I Kings 18:27)  Finally it was Elijah’s turn.

Elijah built an altar made of twelve stones, one for

each tribe of Israel.  Then he dug a trench around the altar and laid the sacrifice on it.  Then Elijah did something that sounded absurd!  He actually poured water on the altar!  Jug after jug he poured until the sacrifice, the wood, and the altar itself was soaked.  He even filled the trench surrounding the altar. In all, he poured twelve jugs of water over the altar.  Surely nothing was going to light this sacrifice on fire, right?

Then Elijah prayed;  “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob), let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.  Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (I Kings 18:36-37)

Then fire from Heaven came down and landed on Elijah’s altar.  The fire burned so hot that it burned up the sacrifice, the wood, and even the stones!  Even the water that was in the trench around the altar dried up.  As the people saw this, they fell down and cried, “The Lord, He is God!” 

Elijah then ordered all the prophets of Ba’al to be arrested and executed.  Afterwards, Elijah and his servant went off to pray for the rain to return.  Elijah sent his servant to go and look for any signs of rain but he saw nothing.  So Elijah prayed again and still nothing! Elijah prayed four more times but each time the

servant saw no signs of rain.  Finally, after Elijah prayed seven times, Elijah’s servant saw a small cloud only the size of a man’s hand.  Elijah knew this was what he had been waiting for.  That little cloud was only the beginning.  He went back and told King Ahab to start heading home or else get caught in the coming rain.  So Ahab got in his chariot and rode off.  God wasn’t done proving his power to King Ahab yet, though.

Elijah tucked his robe into his belt and took off running after the chariot.  God empowered Elijah so that he ran so fast that he outran King Ahab’s horses!  Imagine Ahab’s surprise! 

So what can we learn from all this?  Many things.  First, we should never let anyone lead us away from worshipping God or let anything in our lives take God’s place.  Also, sometimes even the greatest men, like Elijah, have to pray many times before God will give them the answer they seek.  But one of the major points of this story is that God will provide.  He provided for Elijah with the ravens and the brook. He also provided for Elijah, the widow, and her son with the flour and the oil.  And finally, God provided for Israel with rain once they turned back to Him.

July 3, 2016 - Joshua at Jericho

TONY & MICHELLE

MEMORY VERSE

Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, 

Deuteronomy 31:7b

Last time we talked about how God sometimes asks us to do things that are scary.  It takes a lot of faith to follow God in these times. We learned that when we don't have the faith to follow God even in the scary times, we can miss out on the wonderful things that God has planned for us.

Last week, we saw the Israelites were too scared to enter the promised land and were made by God to wander in the wilderness for forty years.  Only the two spies who had courage in their faith in God, Joshua and Caleb, survived and were able to come back to the promised land.

By this time, Moses was one hundred twenty years old and he knew that he would not live much longer.  He appointed Joshua to take his place as leader of the Israelites and lead the people into the Promised Land to conquer it.  The people all promised to follow Joshua just the way they had followed Moses.  After Moses died, it was time for Israel to take the land God had promised to them.

The Israelites came to the Jordan river and camped on the

other side from Canaan.  Joshua knew the first city they would come to was a great walled city named Jericho.  He sent two spies to go and check it out and report back to him.  So the two spies crossed the Jordan river and entered Jericho.  They stayed with a woman named Rahab and her family. 

Now the king of Jericho heard that there were two Israelite spies in the city and that they were staying with Rahab.  Knowing that the Israelites were a mighty people who had a Mighty God, the king wanted to get rid of these spies right away.  He shut the city gates so they couldn't escape and sent soldiers to arrest the spies.

 Luckily, Rahab heard about it in time and hid the two men on her roof.  When the soldiers came to her door, she said, "What men? Oh, you mean the two that were here earlier.  I didn't know they were spies.  They left a while ago, just before you

shut the city gates.  If you hurry you might be able to catch them."  In this way, Rahab was able to fool the soldiers into leaving.

Rahab then told the Israelite spies, "I know who you are and I know you are here to conquer Jericho.

 Everyone in the city has heard about you and what your God has done for you.  We are all so scared that it feels like our hearts are melting inside of us.  Since I just saved your life, I want you to promise me that, when you come, that you will spare me and my family."

The spies agreed and told her that she needed to hang a red cord our of her window so that the army would know which house was hers.  Then, since her house was on the city wall, she was able to let them out her window outside of the city walls so they could escape.  

The spies then went back and told Joshua all that had happened and he agreed to spare Rahab and her family.  

Now it was time to cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan.  Getting two spies across was one thing but getting millions of people across was quite another.  Upon

God's orders, Joshua gathered the people at the river bank and put the priests with the Ark of the Covenant in front.  He then had the priests with the Ark stand in the water.  Just as they did, God caused the water upstream to be

stopped up and the river ran dry.  So all the Israelites were able to walk across the riverbed safely.

Joshua had twelve men, one from each tribe, pick up a large stone from the riverbed and take it across to where they would camp

on the other side.  Once they were all across, the priests came up out of the riverbed and God once again released the water to flow normally.  Joshua then had the men stack the stones in the camp. He told them, "whenever your children ask you what this pile of stones means, tell them what great thing your God did for you

today."  

But how were they going to conquer Jericho when such a huge wall had been built around it?  Upon God's orders once again, Joshua gathered the people. He then had them walk around

the city  in silence while being led by seven priests blowing ram's horns.  Then they went back to camp.  The next day they did the same thing. Then again on the third day, the fourth day, as well as the fifth and sixth day.  The people inside the city couldn't figure out

what they were doing and started laughing at them.  But everything was going to change on the seventh day.

On the seventh day, Joshua had them walk around the city seven times.  Then, as the priests blew the horns, the Israelites shouted and God caused the walls to tumble to the ground.  The great wall that had protected the city was GONE!  The Israelites rushed in and conquered the city.  Everyone and everything, including the animals, were killed.  That is, except for Rahab and her family.  They were spared just as the spies had promised. (Eventually, Rahab married an Israelite and became the great-grandmother of King David.)

Afterwards, Joshua and his men burned Jericho to the

ground.  It had begun.  Israel was on its way to having the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so long ago.