May 21, 2017 - Elisha Heals Naaman

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 you 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.

There is no Cyber Point this week because Mrs. Michelle and Mr. Tony will be gone.  The Memory Verse from this week as well as the verse from last week will be accepted when we return next week.  3 points if you can tell us both of them!!

May 14, 2017 - Elisha's Room

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

Psalm 18:2a

As we learned, Elijah was a great prophet of God who did great things in God's name.  But all good things must come to an end.  God saw that it was nearing time for Elijah to leave this Earth so He decided that Elijah should begin to train his replacement.

God sent Elijah to find a man named Elisha.  He found Elisha plowing his fields. He went and threw his mantle over Elisha to symbolize calling Elisha to follow him.  Elisha knew that this meant leaving his life and all he had known.  So Elisha decided to slaughter his oxen, all 24 of them, burn the plows, and give the meat to his people.  He

then went and followed Elijah.

Elijah and Elisha were together for many years while Elisha was being trained.  Then it was time for Elijah to leave this Earth.  God had decided that Elijah should not have

to experience death so one day, while the two men were together, a chariot of fire came down between them to separate them.  Then a whirlwind came and took Elijah to Heaven, causing him to drop his mantle.  Elisha picked up the mantle and became Elijah's successor.  

Elisha, as the head of the prophets, did a lot of traveling doing God's will.  Many times this took through through a town called Shunem.  While he was there, a kind Shunemite couple would take him in and feed him. One day the wife had a great idea.  She

told her husband that they should build an extra room on

top of their house.  Elisha was so grateful that he wanted to do something kind in return so he asked his servant, Gehazi, what they needed.  

Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” (II Kings 4:14b) So Elisha told the Shunamite woman,  “At this season, about

this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” (II Kings 4:16a) The Shunamite woman thought that this was impossible and asked Elisha not to give her false hope.  However, she DID have a son just like Elisha had said.

When the child was older he would go out to work with his father in the field.  One day he had a terrible pain in his head and his father had the servants take him home to his mother.  She laid his head on her lap until noon when the boy died. There was only one thing the mother could think to do.  She left her son on Elisha's bed and set out to find him because he was not in town at that time.  

When she found Elisha she told him what had happened.

 Elisha and the Sunamite woman headed out for the house

but he sent Gehazi ahead with his staff saying, "...lay my staff on the face of the child." (II Kings 4:29c)  Gehazi did as he was told but nothing happened.  He ran back and told Elisha that the boy was still dead.

When Elisha arrived, he

went into the room and prayed over the boy.  He then stretched himself out over the body and it started getting warm.  So Elisha prayed again and stretched himself over the body once more and the boy sneezed seven times.  Seeing that the boy was alive once more, Elisha gave him back to his mother.  

It is easy to say that we need to trust God even though we don't always understand His ways.  It is much harder to have faith when times are hard and everything seems to be going wrong.  We need to remember that God loves us and is watching over us even when things look the darkest.  That is when we need to hold on to our faith and draw nearer to God.

May 7, 2017 - 3rd Quarter 2017 REVIEW

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

REVIEW WEEK!  NO LESSON! 

LEARN ALL THE VERSES FROM THIS PAST QUARTER TO GAIN MASSIVE POINTS TOWARD THE FINAL QUARTER OF THE YEAR!! 

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR THIRD QUARTER WINNERS!!!

April 30, 2017 - Elijah Defeats Ba'al

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

If you abide in Me, and My words abide

 in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:7

             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, but 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 worshiping 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 worshiping 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.