Lesson One: Art and Wisdom
Lesson Two: Peacemaker
Lesson Three: Persecution
Lesson Four: Week of April 13th-April 17th
Lesson Five: Week of April 20th-24th
Lesson Six: Week of April 27th-May 1st
Lesson Seven: Week of May 4th-May 8th
Lesson One
Students will learn to create art by converting words into symbols and pictures.
We are currently working on a character-building art project that your student can duplicate at home. Have your child/student select a meaningful Bible verse, character trait, or fruit of the spirit. Ask them to brain storm and draw several examples of what that verse represents. When they decide on their final example (most of them have at school), have them sketch the drawing and include the verse or key words. If you do not have access to water color paint or pastels, colored pencils will work fine!
Items needed: paper, colored pencils, water colors, paint brush, oil pastels
Lesson Two
Watch this video about a great peacemaker:
Character Building Assignment: Create a comic strip about being a peacemaker
Lesson Three
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10
Today’s Beatitude is a little different from the other
Beatitudes. You notice that it is the only one that
Jesus explains in a little more detail. All the
Beatitudes are in one sentence each. Except this one.
Verse ten gives us the one sentence Beatitude for today, but in verses 11-12 Jesus explains this last Beatitude in a little more depth. This tells us that
today’ s lesson is of course an important one, and one
that may be a little tougher than the others have
been. I don’t think that the concept of being
persecuted for righteousness sake is hard to
understand, but actually being persecuted because
you do the right thing can be very, very difficult.
So Jesus tells us the last Beatitude, and then tells it
to us again using slightly different words, so that we
can really stick this one into our minds.
We are persecuted when we are righteous. A few
weeks back, we learned that we are righteous when
we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and then we
do our best to follow him and be like him. What do
you think it means to persecuted? To be persecuted
means to be teased, harassed, or treated poorly
because of what you believe. At some point in our
lives every Christian will face persecution of some
sort. If you have never faced trouble for standing up
for what Jesus stands for, then chances are you can
do more to boldly follow Jesus. Proverbs 28:1 says
We need to be courageous, like lions, when it comes
to talking about Jesus and doing the things that Jesus would do.
Let’s brainstorm and make a list of things we can
do to follow Christ more boldly.
Send me an email with your information if you would
like. inst01344@gmail.com we will post our list next
week. I am eager to see your responses.
Lesson Four: April 13th-17th
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 1-12
Last week we discussed that persecution is a serious thing. Christians are suffering intense persecution all over our world. The Bible tells what we can do about that. Let us read Hebrews 13:3 “ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” When we remember those who are suffering because of their faith, we should pray for them. We should pray for those who are being persecuted. We should also pray for those who persecute us. Let us read Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you , love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This really is at the heart of what it really means to be a Christian. Followers of Jesus love God first, and love others. This is what God calls us to do. He does not tell us to love only the people we like or get along with. We are to love everyone, including the people who persecute and mistreat us.
Lord I pray that we would see others like you see them. Help us love others like you love. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Lesson Five: April 20th-April 24th
Matthew 5:10
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Last week we discussed how this verse must be so important to our Lord that he repeats it twice with more detail. When we stay focused on our reward, on heaven, it makes it easier to pray for the people who are mean to us. Remember that they are in need of Jesus. The Beatitudes have taught us how to have an attitude that focuses on others instead of ourselves. So when we are being persecuted for being righteous, we can remember to pray for our persecutors because we have learned how to have BEE attitudes.
We are poor in spirit and recognize our need for a savior. We mourn over our sins and meekly submit to the Lord. We begin to hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. God gives us the kingdom of heaven, he comforts us and tells us we’ll inherit the earth. And he fills us with his righteousness. After all the brokenness , we begin to grow in our ability to love others. We become merciful and pure in heart and peacemakers. When we begin to do these things we will be persecuted. That’s okay, because we gain the kingdom of heaven! God blesses us when we follow him, God gives us what we need, gives us his favor, when we follow him. He loves us and wants us to have a life full of him. The Beatitudes are what our attitudes are when we follow Jesus. So let’s follow Jesus with our BEE attitudes instead of our ME attitudes!