06/09/2024
We have recently been studying about how the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah had split. We have learned about a time in the history of God’s people when almost no one chose to obey God.Ú The kingdom to the north was known as Israel, and most of the tribes were part of that kingdom. That’s the kingdom we have been focusing on for the last few weeks. We learned about Jonah, a prophet from Israel, whom God called to save Nineveh. Then we met Hosea, God used him as an example of how he loves us. He told Hosea to marry and love a woman named Gomer, but she didn’t love Hosea very well. Then through all of their disobedience, we saw that Israel had been taken captive. Now we are going to focus on the southern kingdom of Judah. God had promised a king from Judah would rule forever.
Today we learned about Isaiah, prophet to Judah. We learned that Isaiah told about the Messiah 700 years before Jesus was born. We talk often about how God loves us so very much. Today we looked at the holiness of God. We were reminded that God’s glory is powerful and even a little scary.  We should fear God in a respectful way.  We learned that God’s plan was to send Jesus to be the sacrificial lamb for our sins so that we could spend eternity in heaven when we accept him as our savior. 
Things to discuss at home.
- why do you think Jesus was willing to suffer for us? ……….. Guide your children to discuss the different parts of this answer. Jesus loves us, so he was willing to die for us. Jesus loves God, the father, so he wanted to obey God‘s plan to die for us. Jesus hates sin and wanted to eliminate it’s power over people. God deserves all the glory; and Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, perfectly glorified God
-  How can we show sacrificial love to others, like Jesus did? …….. Discuss with your children, different ways kids can sacrifice to help others, such as giving generously, loving those who are mean to us, telling others about Jesus even when it’s difficult or scary, or being kind to everyone.
