June 25, 2017 - Zacchaeus (puppet script)

    TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity 

than a rich man who is crooked in his ways. 

Proverbs 28:6

Zacchaeus Puppet Script

Teacher – And who do we have here? (Class turns around)

Zacchaeus – Hello everyone!

Teacher – And who are you?

Zacchaeus – My name is Zacchaeus. Have you ever heard of 
me?

 Class – Yes

Zacchaeus – Then you know that I was the biggest, toughest man in all of Jericho.

 Class – Noooooo

Zacchaeus – You don’t believe me? You’ve heard the song, haven’t you?

Class – Yes (Starts singing Zacchaeus song)

 Zacchaeus – NO, NO, NO, STOP!  I don’t like that song.

Teacher – Why don’t you like that song, Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus – It calls me a wee little man.  A wee little man!  It’s enough to hurt a guy’s feelings.

Teacher – We’re sorry we hurt your feelings, Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus – You don’t know how hard it is always being the short guy.  You get bullied, picked on, and you can never reach the stuff on the top shelf!  You also can’t do the tough jobs like most guy do so I had to take a different kind of job.

Teacher – What kind of Job do you have?

Zacchaeus – (Shamefully)  I’m a tax collector.

Teacher – What’s a tax collector?

Zacchaeus – Well, in my day, the Romans were in charge of all of Israel.  They made all the Jews in Israel pay money to Rome or Rome would get mad.  I worked for the Romans.  It was my job to go to my fellow Jews and collect all the money they owed to Rome.  The other Israelites said that since I worked for Rome, I was a traitor!  Nobody liked me. So, I figured since nobody liked me anyways, I would start to cheat the people. 

Teacher – What does it mean to cheat people?

Zacchaeus – Well, some people cheat others by using fake weights on a scale so they can charge them more.  Sometimes, I would just charge too many taxes, even if the people were poor.  Like, if Rome said they owed $5, I charged them $6 and kept the extra dollar myself.  I got very rich this way.

Teacher – Did the people know you cheated them?

Zacchaeus – Sometimes, but they couldn’t do anything about it.  If the people

refused to pay, I would send the Roman soldiers after them and make them pay.

Teacher – That’s awful!

Zacchaeus – I know but it worked really well until, one day, everything changed. I was out collecting taxes like 

       every other day, when I saw 
       a crowd start to gather in the streets.  I asked someone what was going on and he 
       said, “Jesus the Prophet is coming through Jericho today!” Now I had heard all about this Jesus fella.  Everybody had!  He went around teaching people things like to love each other, be kind to each other, and to treat everyone how you would want to be treated.  I had to admit, I wasn’t very good at any of that.

Teacher – So what happened next?

 

Zacchaeus – Well, I wanted to see this Jesus fella.  I wondered what a prophet looked like anyways.  So I tried to get through the people but no one would let me

through.  So I tried to crawl but all I could see was a bunch of ankles.  So I tried to jump but I couldn’t get high enough.  All I could see were the backs of people’s heads!  So I looked left.  Then I looked right.  And finally I saw the answer.  There was a sycamore fig tree right down the road with a branch perfect for sitting!  As you can see from the picture on the board, the trunk was low enough for a small guy like me to climb. 

(Teacher shows them the picture of the tree)

Teacher – Then what, Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus – So I quickly ran to the tree and climbed out on

the limb and sat down.  I could see all the way down the street from there!  Soon, I saw him.  Jesus was coming down the road with his disciples.  I heard they went everywhere with him. But then I saw something that almost made me fall off my branch!  I knew one of the Disciples!  He used to be a tax collector in Jerusalem!  His name was Matthew!  What in the world was a man like Jesus doing hanging out with a tax collector?  Did Jesus even know?

Teacher – I don’t know?  What did Jesus do then?

Zacchaeus – Well, he came down the street and was about to walk right past me when he suddenly stopped.  Then, for some

reason, he looked right up into my tree.  I didn’t know what was going on.  I thought maybe he saw a bird behind me or something.  But then he spoke.  He said, “Zacchaeus, come down here right away!  I am going to stay at your house today.”  My house???  I couldn’t believe it!  Jesus was going to stay at my house!  I was so excited that I climbed out of that tree as fast as I could and bowed down in front of him.  I said, “Of course, Rabbi (that means teacher).  You are very welcome at my house.”  

Teacher – What did the others think of Jesus going to your house?

Zacchaeus – They weren’t happy at all!  As I knelt there I could hear them talk.  They couldn’t believe that Jesus was

going to the house of such a filthy, stinking sinner!  I couldn’t blame them either.  I had treated them all so bad and unfairly that I didn’t deserve to have a man like Jesus come to my house.  Also, I knew Jesus had heard what they said and I was terribly embarrassed by how I had acted.  So, I decided right then and there that things were going to be different from now on!  I stood up and said, “Jesus, watch this.  Right now I am going to give half of all my money to the poor.  And anyone I have cheated, I am going to pay them back.  In fact, I am going to give them four times what I took from them!”  Jesus looked at me

and smiled.  Then He said so everyone could hear, “Today, salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house.  Just like all of you, he is an Israelite descended from Abraham and he needs Salvation like the rest of you.  That’s why God sent me.  I came to find the lost people and save them from their sin.”  I couldn’t believe it! Jesus had chosen to love even me; a short, filthy, stinking, cheating sinner!  I suppose if Jesus can love me for who I am, then the song about me isn’t so bad.  After all, not everyone has their own song.

                        (Everyone sings Zacchaeus is a Wee Little Man)

June 18, 2017 Samaritan Woman at the Well

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. 

John 4:24

Have you ever known a bully? Bullies are strange in that they often choose not to like someone for some silly reasons. Some of these include height, weight, skin color, clothing style, or they might be from another country.  There are many such silly reasons and none of them make much sense.  Do you think Jesus would dislike or mistreat someone for such a silly reason?  Let's find out!

Jesus and His apostles were traveling north from Jerusalem

to Galilee and had to go through a region called Samaria and stopped at a town called Sychar.  Most Jews didn't like the Samaritans. You see, the Jews believed that they were special in God's eyes (which in many ways they are) and that made them better than anyone else (which it didn't).  The Samaritans

were only part or half Jewish because their parents had married people from other countries.  Since they were less than full Jews, the Jews thought the Samaritans weren't as good as they were.  Most of the time they would take the long way around so they didn't have to go through Samaria!  But NOT JESUS....

Jesus and his apostles went right into Sychar and stopped at the town well just outside of town.  Jesus stayed there but sent the apostles into town to get supplies.  While He

waited, a Samaritan woman came to the well to get water.  "Can you get me a drink of water?" Jesus asked the woman.  "You, a Jew, are asking ME for a drink of water?"  She said, surprised that this man was even speaking to her.  She knew that Jews didn't eat, drink, or even share dishes with Samaritans.

"If you knew who I am, you would have asked ME for living

water." Jesus told her.

"How would you get this living water?  The well is deep and you have no way to get the water out!"  She said.

"Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but not with the water I give you."  Said Jesus.

This sounded great to the woman who didn't want to have to come out to this well every day just to get water.  When

she asked Jesus for the water, he told her to go and get her husband.

"I don't have a husband." She said to him.

"That's true." Jesus said. "You've had five husbands and you're not married to the man you have now."

Amazed that Jesus could know this, she realized He was a prophet.  She decided she had a question for him.  "You Jews say that we have to worship in Jerusalem but we

worship here on Mt. Gerizim like our ancestors did.  Which is right?"

"The Samaritans don't really understand what you worship. The day will come when everyone will worship in Spirit and Truth.  (This means that people will have a relationship with God [Spirit] and know and live by what the Bible says [Truth])."  Jesus said.

"One day the Messiah (or Christ) will come and explain it all to us."  She explained.

"I, the man who you're talking to, am He!"  Jesus exclaimed.

She was so shocked that she left her water pot and ran to tell everyone in town that the Messiah was waiting at the well!  They came out to see and Jesus talked to them.  Then they believed, not just because

the woman told them, but because they heard Him for themselves.  

Jesus did not give in to pressure from other Jews to dislike the Samaritans.  Instead, He showed them the same love He shows to everyone, the chance to know and accept Him.  If Jesus chose to love everyone, so should we.  We should not pretend that other people committing sin is okay, but we should love them anyways.  

June 11, 2017 - Jeremiah and the Potter

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

“…we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8b

When a potter makes a new pot, he patiently works and shapes it until he has it just right.  Sometimes, though, the clay doesn't behave right and so the pot doesn't come out like the potter would like.  When this happens, the potter must then smash the clay back into a lump and reshape it until it is perfect.  

We learned last time how King Manasseh learned a hard

lesson about how God feels when people worship idols.  You would think that the people of Judah would NEVER make that mistake again.  Unfortunately, when Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, was king, the people began worshiping idols like Ba'al AGAIN!  This greatly upset God.

God called his prophet Jeremiah and said, “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So Jeremiah went to the potter's house and saw him working the clay, smashing it,

and then working it again.  Then God said to Jeremiah,  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel....  Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds." (Jeremiah 18:6, 11b)

But God knew that the people would not turn from their evil ways and would follow their own plans from their own stubborn hearts.  So God told Jeremiah to buy one of the potter's pots and gather some of the elders and priests.  Jeremiah was to tell them that God says, "Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn

their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind... this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. (Jeremiah 19:4-5, 7a)

So after Jeremiah decreed God's curse on the people, he broke the pot in front of them and said,  "Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended.... Thus will I do to

this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants,...I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.” (Jeremiah 19:11a, 15b)

Just like God said, an army came from Babylon and conquered Judah and took many of it's people away.  But God did not forget about them.  God declared that they would be in captivity for seventy years but then would be able to return home.  Later, Jeremiah wrote them a letter saying to makes lives for themselves and work for the good of the city that they had to live in because they were going to be there a while.  However, God gave them this promise, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:10-13)

You see, God doesn't punish us just because He is angry.  He does it because we have disobeyed and God wants us to be better people and be closer to Him for He loves us.  

June 4, 2017 - King Manasseh's Idolatry

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Exodus 20:3

 What is an idol?  Technically, an idol is a statue that represents a false god that people worship.  However, in a broader sense, an idol can be anything that we hold more important or give more love to than God Himself.  We can make an idol out of money, sports figures, movies stars, video games, bands and singers, science, even the sun, moon, and stars.  Whatever we make an idol of, it is wrong and God doesn't like it one bit!

Judah (southern Israel) had a good king named Hezekiah who loved God and worshiped only Him.  When his son,

Manasseh, was only twelve years old, Hezekiah decided that it would be a good time to start training him to become king.  So for the next ten years, Judah had two king: Hezekiah and Manasseh.

When Hezekiah died, Manasseh became the only king.  He knew how to be a good

king and follow God because his father had taught him well.  However, Manasseh made a very bad decision to worship false gods.  He led Judah to serve the same false gods that the evil king Ahab and queen Jezebel had worshiped: Ba'al and Asherah.  He even had them worship the sun, moon, and stars! To make matters worse, they even worshiped idols and false gods in God's Temple in Jerusalem! 

By doing this, Manasseh had broken the first two of God's 
Ten Commandments: Do not worship other gods and do not

make any idols.  Manasseh's disobedience greatly angered God.  God decided that something drastic had to be done so He put it on the heart of the king of Assyria to attack and conquer Judah.

King Manasseh was captured

and led back to Assyria with a metal ring through his nose!  He had to walk all the way from Jerusalem to the evil city of Babylon! Manasseh was a prisoner there for twelve years!  In that time he learned that what he did was very wrong.  He prayed to God for forgiveness and help. Do you think that even God could forgive a man like Manasseh.

God loves to forgive those who are truly sorry and ask for it.  God doesn't just punish people because He is angry, He

wants to make them better people!  So God even forgave Manasseh.  Then He put it on the heart of the King of Assyria to let Manasseh go home and become king of Judah again!

When Manasseh got back on his throne, he changed his

evil ways.  He ordered that all the idols and false gods be destroyed and the Temple be cleaned of anything wrong.  He ordered that only God be worshiped in Judah and rededicated the Temple to God.

We are only supposed to worship God and never put anything or anyone before or above Him.  Sometimes we forget and begin to accidentally worship those things mentioned at the beginning.  Luckily for us, God loves to forgive.  That's why He sent His Son Jesus to pay for our sins. We have to tell God our sins, ask Him to forgive us, stop doing wrong, and start doing right.  Remember, if God is punishing you it's not just because He is angry at you or that He hates you.  God just wants to teach you to be a better person.  

REMEMBER, THE CYBER POINT AND MEMORY VERSE ARE WORTH DOUBLE POINTS THIS WEEK!!