VBS Gold Rush week 1 -- Bold Claims of Jesus

Here is my talk for the 9:30 gathering.  I told them to come at 9:30 so they'd get there at 10:00.  I started with the hymn, "the Solid Rock."

John 6:48—I am the bread of life.

John 8:12—I am the light of the world.

John 8:58—Before Abraham was, I am.

John 14:6—I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:30—I and the Father are one.

In Exodus, Moses asked God what his name was.  He told Moses, “I Am.”  All these things that Jesus said in John are just five of many instances where Jesus declared that he is God.  In many of those instances, the Pharisees picked up stones to stone him because a mere man is not supposed to call himself God.  They knew what he was saying better than Jehovah’s Witnesses today or even many Christians.  Many Christians today emphasize Jesus as God’s Son, and that’s true, but Christ’s death on the cross and life on earth would not be a loving act of the Father had Christ only been his Son.  Isaiah 43 claims that God is our only Savior, and Exodus 20 commands us that we have no other gods except God.  Therefore, we have to believe that Jesus is God.  Nobody else could save us.

I wanted to close with this prayer by Arthur Bennet printed in the leader guide but I left it in the classroom:

"Thou Great I AM, Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being with whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.  A mighty God who, amidst the lapse of the worlds, and the revolutions of empires, feels no variableness but is glorious in immortality  May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives; that, while all creatures are broken reeds, empty cisterns, fading flowers, withering grass, He is the Rock of Ages, the fountain of Living Waters."

Here is my Sunday School lesson:

We did a skit in church where a gold miner gives Bibles and tracts to other miners but we were all reluctant to read them.  Here is my spiel after that before we went to crafts and did motions to the songs in lieu of recreation.

Those people sure seemed reluctant to read the Bible.  Do any of you hesitate to read the Bible during the week?  Do you read it at all?  Or is it just boring and irrelevant to you?

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.  Now, the Bible is the Word of God, and Christ is also the Word of God, therefore, the Bible is all of Christ’s words specifically to us.  Christ doesn’t walk on earth to day in flesh that we can touch, so God gave us the Bible to know specifically what he says and how we are to be saved from an eternity away from God.  You need to read the Bible during the week so that you can hear the words that give you eternal life.  If you reject the Bible, then you reject life.  The kids will come with me early today, so at this time, the kids can come with me to Children’s Church.

Overall, I think the day went well except I forgot to call the lady who was going to teach the lesson to the toddler.  She had a death in the family last week and was at a funeral and I totally forgot to call and remind her.  It was too late before I remembered.  I also should have gotten here a sympathy card.

Here's one last picture of me in my role as Sadie.  Note the price tag on the hat.