Day 6-Abraham-"Blessed to be a Blessing"

Read or tell the story of Abraham's promise Gen. 12:1-5; 15:1-6,vs.12-15.  Emphasize God's promis to give a home and a special son to Abraham and the fact that God kept His promise.

Read Gen. 12:1 15:5 to find out where Abraham was from and what God told him to do.
List the promises God gave Abraham in Gen. 12:2-3.

Did God keep his promise to give Abraham a son?  Gen. 21:1-7.
The fulfillment of the rest of the promise given in Gen. 15:5 took many more years.  Abraham didn't even live long enough to see the great nation come from Isaac.  But, God kept His promise to give him a son.

All God asked of Abraham was trust and obedience.  Even when Abraham failed to trust God, God remained faithful and kept His promise!  Abraham was great in God's eyes because of his faith.  Be encouraged friends if your faith sometimes falters/  God sees our unfaithfulness and forgives and forgets our failings and remains true to His promise!!

Day 5-Noah-Way of Escape

Read or tell the story of Noah and the arc. Gen. 6:5-10.   Emphasize that God planned a way for His children to be safe from the flood.  The flood was punishment for the world's sin.  How can we be saved from God's punishment for our sin? (Acts 16:31)

Meditation:  This powerful story, even down to  present day is a picture of God's judgment on sin.  We live in such a sinful world and we can be assured that God's love and care in the midst of this world is what brings us peace.  How important is it that our families be in the "arc" the place of safety that Christ provides!

A side note here.  Last year was the first year that I did this with my girls and I didn't think they were really paying attention, but tonight when I was sharing this story my oldest could tell me the story and knew exactly what the rainbow stood for.  Big :) I pray you have these moments too!

I have to give credit to Linda Lawrence and Sean who invited me to be a part of their Christian tradition of celebrating the birth of Christ through Advent.  At these precious parties I learned of The Jesse Tree and always knew I want to pass it on with my own family.  There is also another person who just wrote an ebook about the Jesse Tree that is really awesome.  http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/11/free-jesse-tree-advent-devotional-book/  The ornaments aren't as intricate as mine but they do the job!

Day 3 & 4

Because I am such a loser I forgot to post Day 3 yesterday.  Don't worry though cause you can always double up or do one on Sun if you get behind.

Day 3-Adam & Eve Disobedience Brings Death

 So the apple represents Adam & Eve-  Read or tell the story of disobedience emphasizing God's grief over their disobedience.  Talk about their punishment and God's love and forgiveness.  Gen 2:15-17; 3:1-19.  Some scriptures you can refer to are:  *John 14:15, Romans 5:12, 18, 19;  I Cor. 15:22.

Day 4-Cain & Abel God's Way or Our Way
This is an alter.  Read or tell the story from Gen. 4:1-16.  Emphasize that Cain was angry because God wouldn't let him do something his own way.  Abel wanted to obey God and Cain didn't like that so he killed him.  God had to punish Cain but He still love him.
You can ref. Heb. 9:22
*I John 3:7-20  This verse gives us the idea of what offering we can give that would be a Christmas gift for Jesus.


Hope you have a wonderful day!

The Jesse Tree

Well it is here.  December 1st and the first day for the Jesse Tree.  This is for me to share a small devotional each day (except for Sundays) of Dec about most of the people and or events that God used leading up to the birth of the Messiah.  This is the biblical version of an Advent calendar.  Everyday I will tell my children a bible story and hang an ornament from it.
This will be our second year doing it, although last year they got a little lost.  I will try and share each day what the ornament is and the story that you tell with it.

Day 1 is hanging a scroll with Isaiah 11:1-2 and explaining that Jesse was King David's father and Jesus came from that family.

       Day 2 is the earth-reading or telling the story of the creation of Adam & Eve.  Emphasizing that God made the earth as a beautiful gift for His children.  Read Gen 1:26-31.

I have much more on this if you are interested post a comment and I will give you the full version.