Christmas lesson 5~ Wise Men went to find Jesus /King Herod tries to kill Jesus

Mat.2

 God put a special star in the sky when Jesus was born. Some Wise Men who studied the stars saw it and knew that it was a sign the the king of the Jews had been born. So they packed up and traveled to Jerusalem to worship the new King.

When they got to Jerusalem they found that King Herod knew nothing about Jesus. So King Herod called all his priests and lawyers and asked if they knew. They told him of the prophecy that the prophet Micah had prophecies that he would be born in Bethlehem (Mi. 5:2).

King Herod told the Wise Men to go and find this King of the Jew and then tell him where is was.King Herod said this because he wanted to kill Jesus. The Wise men left King Herod and followed the star until it was standing over the house where Jesus was living. They went into the house where they saw Jesus and Mary his Mother. They fell down and worship Jesus giving him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. When they left the house, God told them not to go back and tell King Herod for he really didn't want to worship him , but to kill him. So the Wise Men took a different road back to their home.

Soon after the Wise Men had left, God sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream. In the dream, the angel told Joseph to to Egypt real fast with Jesus and His Mother, Mary and stay there until King Herod dies. He told him to this because King Herod wanted to kill Jesus. At once, Joseph obeyed God and they hurried to Egypt.

Soon afterward, King Herod figured out that the Wise men had left the country without telling him where Jesus was. This made him very angry. You see, King Herod didn't want to give his rule up to anyone including Jesus. So to prevent that, King Herod has the soldiers go and kill every child that was two years old and under in and around Bethlehem. He told them this for it had been about two years since the Wise Men had come looking for Jesus. The soldiers obeyed.

Later when King Herod had died, an angel of the Lord again went to Joseph and told him to go back for the king was dead. But Joseph feared King Herod's son who sat on his father's throne, so he took his family to Galilee in a city named Nazareth. And that is where Jesus grew up.

Christmas lesson 4~ Simeon prophetices over Jesus at his dedication

When Jesus was eight days old, Joseph and Mary told him to the temple to be dedicated to God. This was done to all boys who were the first baby boy born in a family.

 In the temple, there was an old man who had been waiting a very long time to see God's Savior. This man's name was Simeon. God told Simeon that the Savior was in the temple that day, and pointed Jesus out to him. Simeon came and held Jesus in his arms and thanked God for letting him live long enough to see Jesus. This amazed Joseph and Mary. Then Simeon spoke blessings over them and prophesied of what would happen in the future because of Jesus.

There was also an old lady Prophetess named Anna, who was there and heard and saw all that Simeon had said and done. She too told all around her about Jesus.

When Joseph and Mary had done all that they needed to do, they returned to their home  in Galilee where Jesus grew strong and wise. God also put his blessings upon Jesus.

Christmas lesson 3~ Jesus is born and shepherds came to see God's perfect lamb

Luke 2:1-20

About the time that Jesus was to be born, Augustus Caesar sent out a law that said that everyone was to go to their home towns to registered so that all the people could be counted. So Joseph and Mary traveled to his home town of Bethlehem. When they got there, they found that there was so many people there that all the Inns had rented out all their rooms. While they were looking for a room to rent, Mary showed signs that she was going to have baby Jesus. They went to a barn where animals were being kept and Mary had Jesus there. She wrapped Jesus in cloths and laid him in a manger. A manger is a box that dried grass is place to feed the animals from, so he had a soft bed to lay on.

Later that night, after Jesus was born, God the Father was so proud of His son that he wanted to tell someone about him. So he had the angels go to the shepherds that cared for the lambs that would be sacrificed in the temple, and tell them.

When the angel came to the shepherd, he had a bright light around him. This really scared them. So the angel told them not to be afraid, because he had only come to tell them the good news that would make all the people of the world happy. Then the angel told them about the birth of God's son & how they could know that it was him.

Then a large group of angels joined the angel and they all praised God and said, "Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace to the people who please him" (Luke 2:14). After the angels left them, the shepherds went  to Bethlehem and see God's son. When they had seen Jesus, on their way back to their flocks they told people that they had seen Jesus, God's little lamb. All who heard, wondered about what they were told.

But Mary just kept this secret in her heart.

Christmas lesson 2~ Mary's fiance, Joseph has to decide if he wants to obey God

Mat. 1:18-25

After Mary obeyed God's will and became pregnant with Jesus. She told her fiance, Joseph. Well, Joseph had a decision to make. Would he believe what Mary said about this baby being the son of God or not. Then there was the question as to if he should go ahead and marry Mary. While he thought on this, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and that it was God's will for him to marry Mary for indeed the baby that Mary was having was the son of God and the savior of the world. knowing that this was God's will he went ahead and obeyed God and legally married Mary.

Christmas lesson 1~The promise of Jesus coming to take our sins away

Genesis 3:12-15
Isaiah
Daniel
Luke 1:26-38


After Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God made a promise that He would some day send someone to take away the sin of all people (Gen. 3:12-15). It was a lot of years before god sent His savior. During those many year, God sent men to remind the people of his promise. We call these men, prophets. a couple of these prophets were Isaiah, and Daniel. You can read the books that they wrote that are named after them to see what they said.

Then came the time when God had everything lined up and was ready to send His savior into the world. God sent the angel Gabriel to a young lady named Mary to ask her to be a great part of God's plan. At first Mary was afraid when she saw Gabriel the angel. But he told her not to be afraid for God was pleased with her. Then he told her of God's plan of bringing God's son into the world by making her the Mother of God's son, and how this son would be the savior of the world. Once Mary understood what God was asking of her, she said, "Yes" (Luke 1:26-38).

I am sure God was very pleased that Mary was obedient to His will.

Welcome to the Christmas season a note from the author

Welcome to the Christmas season!

To help us all keep our minds on the real reason for CHRISTmas, I will post the Bible stories surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray that you will be blessed by it. I will post these until January 7, 2015, which is the feast of the three Kings.

Have a blessed CHRISTmas season!

Toni