Archive for the ‘Bible’ Category

Tabernacle Diagram

Monday, January 27th, 2014

tabernacle-diagram

My kids drew a Tabernacle diagram, placing the pieces of furniture into the correct locations. One of my sons made a Minecraft Tabernacle, too!

For the Tabernacle diagram, we drew these pieces of furniture:

  • The Ark of the Covenant went inside the Holy of Holies.
  • The Table of the Presence was on the right, with bread on it.
  • The lamp stand was on the left.
  • The altar of incense was in front of the curtain that divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

You can make separate movable pieces out of paper if you want, but we just drew the diagram straight onto our notebooking page.
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My kids looked at the model of the Tabernacle that we made years ago, and they based their Tabernacle diagram off that model. The laver full of water was outside the Tabernacle, and the bronze altar was in front of it. The bronze altar was used for the sacrifices that were made to atone for sin.

The person offering the sacrifice would place their hands on the head of the sheep, and their sins would be transferred to the sheep, so that the sheep could die for the person’s sin. All sin results in death, and the penalty of sin is death. This substitutionary atonement was a picture of what Christ would do for us on the cross, when He died for our sins. He was the perfect Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.

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One of my sons wanted to make a three-dimensional model of the Tabernacle with Minecraft, so I let him. This was the result:

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For more fun Bible activities, join the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has a huge Bible section!

Drawing the Days of Creation

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

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I came across a fabulous tutorial from Answers in Genesis on drawing the days of creation. First you divide the paper into thirds, separating the three sections with a black permanent marker. Next we read the days of creation from Genesis 1. For each day, we drew what was created:

  • Day 1: Light and darkness
  • Day 2: Separating the waters from the clouds
  • Day 3: Plants and trees
  • Day 4: Sun, moon, and stars
  • Day 5: Birds and fish
  • Day 6: Animals and people
  • Day 7: God rested

Days 1 and 4 are drawn on the top part of the page, days 2 and 5 are drawn in the middle of the page, and days 3 and 6 are drawn on the bottom of the page. I was delighted to see how organized creation was, because days 1, 2, and 3 go from the top to the bottom of the page, creating a habitat for what was created in days 4, 5, and 6. I had never seen this done before, and my kids enjoyed drawing the days of creation this way.

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Sign up below for a free Bible crafts e-book!

For more awesome activities to teach your children the Bible, pick up Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible. Or you can get this workshop for free when you join the Vault, which has a huge hands-on Bible section!

Bible Reading Chart (Free PDF)

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

Bible-reading-chart

This free Bible reading chart can be helpful as you are reading through the Bible, to see how much progress you are making. I like visual ones that have boxes for each chapter, so that you can color in the boxes as you go. My husband created this chart to help you as you read through the Bible this year:

My husband and I are attending a small group Bible study from our church, and we are reading through the Bible. Even though my husband and I have read through the Bible many times, we’ve never read the entire Bible with each other as a couple before. It’s fun taking turns reading to each other and commenting on what we are reading. Simply reading the Bible can draw couples closer together spiritually, especially when you pray together as a couple. (Exception: the dry genealogies–you might want to play those on audio off your cell phone, so you don’t have to figure out how to say all those names! My husband sets his cell phone on the coffee table, and we listen to a free Bible app.)

Depending on what you are going through in your life, different things will pop out at you. Since I’ve been teaching about prayer this past year, every verse about prayer seems to pop out at me. I’m surprised by how many times fasting is connected to prayer, as I never noticed that before.

Other times I’ve been convicted of specific sins while reading the Bible. My eyes have been opened to all the verses about anger, and what results from it.

Reading through the entire Bible in one year will help you get a sweeping panorama of history and how God has worked throughout the ages, to give you a more complete picture of God.

New Jerusalem Model

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

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When you teach your children about heaven, why not build a beautiful New Jerusalem model? Read the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. (These are great chapters to read to believers who are about to die. I’ve seen these words help them to endure the passing over from death to life.)

The first item you will need is a square mirror. You can buy it at a craft supply store. This will be your base. Cut corrugated cardboard for the 4 walls, and spray paint them gold. (The walls are actually jasper, which can be a variety of colors, including a golden yellow.)

You can buy scrapbooking paper that shimmers like a pearl. Cut 12 gates out of this white pearl paper. (You can also use regular white paper.) There are 3 doors on each side of the city, and since each door is a pearl, they need to be slightly rounded at the edges.

For the throne, you can form a chair out of white self-hardening clay. Let it dry overnight. Then spray paint it gold.

For the city buildings, I used small wooden blocks from a craft store. I used wood glue to connect two blocks together for the taller buildings. I spray painted those gold.

For the river, I cut shimmering blue scrapbooking paper in a wavy line, the width of the throne. I lay that on top of the mirror. The streets of the city are pure gold–transparent–which is why I used a mirror.

I bought toy railroad trees, which I interspersed around the city, with the most important tree coming out of the river. This is the Tree of Life, whose leaves bring healing to the nations.

The video tutorial for this New Jerusalem model will be in the Unit Study Treasure Vault, where I have a gigantic Bible section. God has given me limitless creative ideas for how to teach the Word of God to children, and He prompted me to start the Unit Study Treasure Vault for homeschoolers. But anybody can join. It contains thousands of hands-on learning activities, and I add new exclusive videos every month!