Kids of the King, Arise!

By Kristy-Anne
Age 12, Winnipeg, Manitoba                                                                                                                  

Song based on Galatians 5:1                                                                  

It was for freedom
That Christ has set us free,
No longer to be subject
To the yoke of slavery
Now we’re rejoicing
In God’s Victory
Our hearts, responding to His love

Chorus:
Jesus, We celebrate Your Victory,
Jesus we revel in Your Love
Jesus, we rejoice, You’ve set us free
Jesus, Your death has brought us life.
 
His Spirit in us
Releases us from fear
The way to Him is open
With boldness we draw near
And in His presence, our problems disappear
Our hearts, responding to His love.

Lately in my personal devotions I have been learning about how God wants to set us free from the restraints of the world, so that we can come to Him and be safe in His arms. I had a picture impression a while ago, while I was praying, that was of a white sheet of plastic that was wrapped up in black electrical tape. Then in the picture a knife came along and cut the black tape off of the white plastic. I believe that this was saying that God will “cut” us free of the things that bind us if we call out to Him. Some of these things could be T.V., or fears, or things people have said or done to us that hurt us.
There is a play that I was once in that was about a puppet that God had created. This puppet got so caught up in doing what she wanted and ignoring God that she eventually gave her “controls” (her life) to the devil. The devil starts to torment her and too late the puppet realizes what she has done. Just before the devil plans to kill her she cries out JESUS! Immediately Jesus rushes in, and kicks the devils’ butt. Jesus then re-creates the puppet. At first she is very happy to be alive but then she remembers what she has done and starts crying.
Jesus comes once again to comfort her, and she gives her controls to Him, but she is still very sad, so Jesus comes and cuts her free from her controls. The last scene shows the puppet and Jesus hugging, the puppet free at last in Jesus arms.
I think God would like to tell the people in Canada, that if we let Him cut off everything that is holding us back from following Him, and let Him make us a new creation, we would find true freedom.

Dear God
I thank you for being willing to cut us free of the things of the world that keep us from you. I pray that you would give us the strength and courage to do what you want us to do. I thank you for being our Father, and for loving us.
In Jesus name I pray
Amen.

 The Kingdom of Heaven

(This curriculum written by Stephanie McIntyre of Val-D’Or Quebec, dovetails with the teaching on the Keys of the Kingdom day 1 and 2)

What is the Kingdom?
1. a mystery, a treasure
2. a piece of heaven on earth
3. the place where God is king

Focus: Skit: Have one child prepare this monologue beforehand.

Enter one character: (Adam)

I can’t believe I lost it…we lost it!  It was the best thing I’ve ever known.  And now – I think it might be gone forever!  (Distressed)  I’ll never see it again – my wonderful home, gone forever.  Oh, it’s all because I made a horrible mistake.  I broke the one rule the King gave us.  Only one – so you’d think it would be easy.  But no – my wife and I just had to know what He was keeping from us.  We thought we knew so much better than Him!  We thought we could do things our way, and it would be fine.  But look at me now…and look at this disgusting country!  People fighting, dying, even the animals can’t get along!  This world is a mess!  I’m a mess!  (Falls down and cries)

I remember how it used to be…                                                                                          
(Adam stands up, looks off into distance, and starts to describe his home)  I come from a place more beautiful than you can imagine.  Trees, rocks, rivers, flowers, you name it, we have it…uhh, had it.  The plants and trees were exquisite and they had the most delicious fruits!  I could eat huge apples and peaches so juicy that the juice would run down your chin. Carrots the size of your arm!  All the animals - kittens and rabbits and horses and lions even dinosaurs and kids, used to play together.  Nothing to be afraid of, either!  No death, no sickness, no fighting or killing or…anything.  We didn’t even know those things existed.  We would have lived forever like that…if only…

Oh, if only we had done what the King commanded!  We should have trusted Him.  He was – is – so good.  He designed the whole place – created it from scratch!  We used to talk together every evening – wow; I loved to hear Him talk!  And being with Him, you could just sense His goodness and His love.  Why didn’t we trust Him?  Why did we think we knew so much better?  Why did we break His one commandment?  Why?  Oh…it can never be the same! (Leaves sobbing)

Procedure:
(Teacher takes over)

Ask;
Who do you think this was? (Adam) 
What is he looking for/missing? (His home – the Garden of Eden) 
Why can’t he go back? (Because he disobeyed the King’s rule) 
What was the rule that God gave them? (Don’t eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil)                     Why did He give them this rule? (Because He loved them, and wanted to protect them from evil)

Ask; So what happened?  (Read Gen. 3:1-11) 
Ask: Who is the snake/serpent? (The “snake” was really a wicked angel who had once lived with God in heaven but had rebelled and had hidden himself inside the snake). 
What did he say to Eve? (Refer to day 2 in Keys of the Kingdom: April 18)

Ask;
What did Adam and Eve realize when they ate from the tree? (That they were naked) 
How did they feel? (Afraid)  (Refer to Gen. 3:7-8)  That’s right!  Both Adam and Eve were afraid.  They had never felt that way before. They picked leaves off of trees and covered themselves. They had been naked before but had never known it. They were so afraid, what would God say? Oh, they had better hide.

Ask;
Do you have a good hiding place you use when you play hide and seek?  What makes it a good hiding place? (Allow children to share) 
Do you think there would be some good hiding places in a garden full of trees?  (Probably)
Could they hide from God? (Of course not – He sees everything) 
(Refer to Day 2, of Keys of the Kingdom: April 18)
 
Ask;
Do you understand why Adam (in the skit) seemed so sad? 
Do you think everything is lost forever?  (No!!!) 

The good news is, the heavenly Father left His fingerprint in His creation so that people could still find Him. He left His fingerprint in their hearts that they would know when they did something wrong or right, and could choose to find Him, as He very much wanted to be found.

See the heavenly father still loved his children. He was very sad that they had sinned, but he promised that one day Jesus would come, his very own son, and He would bring the people back to God. God would not forget about them. Then they could hear God’s voice again and if they obeyed Him could bring a bit of heaven back to earth… That is what they waited for.  That is what we call “The Kingdom of God.”

Closure:

Ask;
Does that sound like something valuable?  Kind of like a treasure?  Do you think it’s worth searching for?  Tell children that we are going to go on a “treasure hunt” for the Kingdom of God – because He has left a way for us to find it!  There is hope for us – and hope for Adam, too!

So what happens when go from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light?
You die to your own way of doing things, and seeing things, and come back A WHOLE NEW PERSON.  A new creation God calls it. 

God has given us a really neat object lesson in nature, a butterfly. When he started out as a caterpiller he crawled on the ground and was sort of fuzzy and yucky, but after he became a butterfly he was beautiful, could fly around and was a totally new creature. That is like us, there is no acting like a butterfly one day and like a caterpillar the next day. You are either in or out.  A butterfly doesn’t’ turn around and become a caterpillar again.

(2Corinthians 5:17) For if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creature; the old things have passed away and the new things have come

Check out this site for a beautiful explination of Butterfly Metamorphosis

http://butterflybushes.com/monarch_metamorphosis.htm

Metamorphosis butterfly card
This simple project shows the caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly stages of a butterfly’s life.

 
Items needed:
• Light colored construction paper
• Crayons
• Scissors
1. Fold the paper in half. Draw a kidney-bean shape on the paper so that the side of the kidney bean without the indentation is against the fold.
2. Cut around the kidney bean shape, leaving the folded edge uncut. Unfold the paper.
3. With the paper unfolded, color it to make it look like a butterfly on one side.
4. Fold the paper on its original fold line with the butterfly design on the inside. On one of the exposed sides, draw a caterpillar. Remember that caterpillars have five simple eyes on each side of their head instead of one big eye!
5. Flip the card over so the remaining uncolored side is exposed. Make this side look like a chrysalis.
6. On the inside write the scripture:
(2 Corinthians 5:17) for if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away and the new things have come.

7. Display it someplace in your room and every time you look at it think about how you are a BRAND new creature in Christ.

              At different times we will be having kids share things that God has put on their hearts . The kids that share are from all over Canada/ and eventually I hope form other countries as well. Some entries will be recent and some from a few years ago when they responded to the question “What do you think God would want to say to the children in Canada at the start of the century.” If you would like to share something that God has been talking to you about, contact me in the comment section below and I will respond to you as to where to send your thoughts.

 DEVOTIONS BY KIDS FOR KIDS 

By Elishava 
Age 7, Calgary,                                                Alberta                                                                                                                      

I read in Psalm 140:6,7                                                         

“Lord you are my God. Lord, hear my cry for your favor. Lord and King, you save me because you are strong. You are like a shield that keeps me safe in the day of battle.

In my quiet time, I asked the Lord to speak to me about what I read.  I got a picture of a golden crown.  On the front there was a red diamond.  I think that the crown part means that Jesus is my King and I think that the diamond part was to remind me that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.  The red is like the red of His blood.

You know, Jesus can save me and protect me from anything - from any battle (like fights with my sisters or my parents, or when I lose my favorite toy) because he is the King and my Savior.  He is strong and can help me be kind even when I am having trouble.  He can help you too, no matter what battle you’re in.

Prayer: 

Thank you Jesus, that you are stronger than any battle, and that you died for us and that you are my Savior. Amen

Many, many years later Jesus came to earth as a baby, and what God had promised happened.  When Jesus was all grown up, the first thing that He said when He started His ministry was;

“REPENT for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  (Matt. 4:17)

Jesus was SO EXCITED and wanted to share right off the top that this is what He had come for - to bring man back to God and to what God had planned from the beginning. The Kingdom of heaven was at hand, not later when you die, but here!  Now!  Jesus taught and preached the gospel (good news) of the kingdom of God and demonstrated the authority of God’s kingdom over the kingdom of darkness.

So what was Jesus saying when He said “repent”?                                                        

‘Repent’ actually means to change the way you think.  Your eyes are opened to see the world in a new way or through KINGDOM GOGGLES - God’s point of view - about sin and also about how we can push back the kingdom of darkness. 

You look at how you have been living and doing things and decide you are going to change.  You obey and follow GOD’S way of doing things.  Being sorry you got caught for doing something wrong is not repentance and will not result in a change of attitude or behavior or way of seeing things.  It will only make you try not to get caught next time.  With true repentance you change your attitude and your behavior.   It doesn’t happen all at once but more and more each day as you listen and obey the nudges God puts in your heart .                                                                    

Bear tries to see things from another point of view

Now that is great but it still wouldn’t work to get into the Kingdom of heaven. You see for God’s kingdom to be able to rule, sin’s rule needed to be broken.  God is Holy and He cannot allow any kind of sin into His kingdom, otherwise it would be the seed that would lead to everything that is bad in the world now.  When sin came into the world one of the consequences was that only the death of a totally innocent person would break its power over us.  Jesus was the only one ever that was both God and man and completely innocent.  Jesus broke the power of sin over us when he gave Himself to us, and died in our place. This is called atonement. To go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light we need to go through the Lord Jesus, and to believe and accept what he did for us.

(Col 1:13 LB) says, “For He rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom, and brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son, who bought our freedom with His blood and forgave us all our sins.”

                     
Have you thanked Jesus for taking your place and breaking the power of sin over your life? 
Is there something in your life that you need to repent of? Remember, repentance means you are to change your way of thinking about something.  Why not do that right now? As you do, know that repentance brings you back into a right relationship with God.

Do you need to ask God to break the power of a particular sin off your life?  For example, you have a really hard time to tell the truth.  It is so much easier to lie especially if you did something else wrong and would get into trouble if you told the truth. But when Jesus died not only did He forgive you but he gives you the power to overcome sin, if you trust and obey Him.

Prayer:
I want to thank you for sending Jesus to break the power of sin over my life and drawing me back to God.  I want to ask you to forgive me and help me change my way of thinking about__________  I want to be a new creation that walks in the kingdom of light.

So what are the first two Keys of the Kingdom?  They are the keys that open the door.
Repentance and Atonement

To watch

The Movie                                    

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It is a good analogy of what we talked about today.

WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD OR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN?

Ok. lets take it apart.
A kingdom is where a King rules.  God’s kingdom is where God is King.  Simple.
The best news about the Kingdom is the KING HIMSELF!
A kingdom reflects the King, or is like the King.

From the very first time man was created God wanted that His Kingdom would be seen on earth as it was in heaven. He didn’t want us to have to wait till we got to heaven to be able to experience His kingdom.    
Remember before Adam and Eve sinned what it was like on earth, in the Garden of Eden? God used to come down and walk with Adam and Eve and when the wind blew softly it was just as if God whispered His love to them. There was no sickness, the animals all got along; the rabbits and kittens played right beside the lions. But the lions didn’t eat them. 

 No one was angry or afraid.  No-one died. The plants and trees were all beautiful and they had the most delicious fruits, huge apples and peaches so juicy that the juice would run down your chin. The carrots were the size of your arm!  God looked at it all and said it was good, VERY GOOD.  All of it.

But in the middle of the garden God told them that there was one tree that they were not allowed to touch. That really didn’t matter as there were so many others just as beautiful.
  
So what happened? Well one day Adam and Eve did something wrong, and something TERRIBLE happened. A snake came up to Eve with a sweet friendly voice and said to her,

“Are you not allowed to eat from any tree in the garden?”                                        

 “Oh yes” Eve answered, “We can eat from any tree, except this one, cause if we do we will die.” 
But the snake who was not friendly at all but a wicked angel who had once lived with God in heaven but had rebelled and had hidden himself inside the snake.  He said to Eve,

“That’s not true, you can pick that fruit too, cuz you won’t die, and you will only be just as wise as God.” 

Eve didn’t see the problem with that and believed the snake, picked the fruit, ate it, and then she gave some to Adam as well. As soon as she did the snake slithered away laughing. He saw that they were loved as God’s sons and daughters and had thought,

“If I can make them disobey than they will no longer be God’s children!”  HA!

So now they had sinned, they had been disobedient, and that made the wicked one so happy. That’s what happened.

Now both Adam and Eve were afraid, they had never felt that way before, and ran to hide. They picked leaves off of trees and covered themselves. They had been naked before but had never known it. They were so afraid, what would God say? Oh they had better hide.

But God saw Adam and Eve.  He knew what they had done.  He knows everything.  It used to be so wonderful when God came to talk with them, but not any more. They knew that they would be punished. Yes, they had to leave paradise and life would become very difficult.  They would be afraid and not get along and even the animals would fight and kill each other. Instead of a beautiful garden there would be weeds that would get in the way.  But the saddest of all was that they would no longer hear God’s voice clearly.  The close friendship that they had was broken.  Still the heavenly Father would leave His fingerprint in His creation so that people could still find Him.  He would leave His fingerprint in their hearts that they would know when they did something wrong or right, and could choose to find Him, as He very much wanted to be found.

See the heavenly father still loved his children. He was very sad that they had sinned, but HE PROMISED that One day Jesus would come , his very own son, and He would bring the people back to God.   God would not forget about them.  Then they could hear God’s voice again and if they obeyed Him could bring a bit of heaven back to earth…THAT is what they waited for. (Genesis 1-3)

 
What changed after Adam and Eve Sinned? 
 

The Kingdom of darkness entered the world. Adam and Eve were afraid. They could no longer hear God’s voice clearly. 

 Death and sickness, fighting and lying had entered the world.

 We are going on an adventure, a treasure hunt!  We are going to follow the clues, in the Bible to the mystery of the Kingdom of God.   

When Jesus lived on earth one of the things that He really liked to talk about was the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. He talked about it 117 times in the gospels or the first four books of the New Testament.  He wanted to let us know what His kingdom was all about and what it would look like if He was King on earth. So He gave us ALL SORTS of clues as to:
       -what He liked,
       -how to get into the kingdom,  
       -how to walk in kingdom power,
       -what the citizens of the kingdom were like,
       -how the king runs the kingdom,
       -and so on.

But because the Kingdom of heaven was so special it was something that people would have to work at to understand.  It is a bit like playing hide and seek.  Something that is very valuable is sometimes hidden. For example diamonds are found deep in the earth, but they are sure worth looking for!  Like you don’t wake up one morning and look out your bedroom window and tada…there on the lawn is a HUGE diamond. No you may see weeds, but diamonds and gold and stuff like that God wrapped up with dirt and hid deep in the ground.  He really wants you to find these hidden treasures, and the keys to His kingdom, but when you do find them He wants you to use them to unlock the mystery of the kingdom on earth.

Now the people that Jesus gathered together were just ordinary people, but because they believed and practised what He taught they turned their world upside down! This can be your story too, so put on your kingdom goggles and lets begin.

Did you notice two clues as to what the kingdom is like in what I just shared?
A treasure and a mystery

 PRAY

Pray that God would open your eyes in a whole new way to discover the treasures of heaven.