It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything.
–Phillips Brooks
48 Hours
“I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contented condition, when suddenly a stab of pain threatens serious disease, or a newspaper headline threatens us all with destruction. “At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happiness look like broken toys. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys. “Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but 48 hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe the sword for a minute, and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over — I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness in the nearest flower bed. “And that is why tribulation cannot cease until God sees us remade.”
Source: From The Problem of Pain; quoted in Daily Walk, May 16/17, 1992
35,000 Feet
As I write this I’m at 35,000 feet. It’s 5:45 pm, Saturday. It should be 4:15. The airliner was an hour and half late. People are grumpy. Some are downright mad. Stewardesses are apologizing, promising extra booze to take off the edge. To complicate matters, a Japanese man across the aisle from me has a rather severe nosebleed and they’re trying to instruct the poor chap…but he doesn’t speak a work of English!
So now the meal is late. The lady on my left has a cold and makes an enormous sound when she sneezes (about every ninety seconds–I’ve timed her!) It’s something like a dying calf in a hail storm or a bull moose with one leg in a trap. Oh, one more thing. The sports film on golf just broke down and so did the nervous system of half the men on board. It’s a zoo!
It all started with the delay. ‘Mechanical trouble,’ they said. ‘Inexcusable,’ responded a couple of passengers. Frankly, I’d rather they fix it before we leave than decide to do something about it en route. But we Americans don’t like to wait. Delays are irritating. Aggravating. Nerve-jangling. With impatient predictability we are consistently–and I might add obnoxiously–demanding. We want what we want when we want it. Not one of us finds a delay easy to accept…
The ability to accept delay. Or disappointment. To smile back at setbacks and respond with a pleasant, understanding spirit. To cool it while others around you curse it. For a change, I refused to be hassled by today’s delay. I asked God to keep me calm and cheerful, relaxed and refreshed. Know what? He did. He *really* did! No pills. No booze. No hocus-pocus. Just relaxing in the power of Jesus.
I can’t promise you that others will understand. You see, I’ve got another problem now. Ever since takeoff I’ve been smiling at the stewardesses, hoping to encourage them. Just now I overheard one of them say to the other, ‘Watch that guy wearing glasses. I think he’s had too much to drink.”
Author: Charles R. Swindoll
Source: “Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life”
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
Top Turkey Artist
Materials
Sheet of paper and a tray or hard cover book for eack participant.
Activity
Everyone places a tray or large book on top their head with a piece of blank paper on it. Participant are to draw on the page resting on the top of their head, without looking, according to the instructions given.
Instructions might be
1. Draw a circle for the body of the Turkey.
2. Draw the turkey’s head and neck on top of the body.
3. Draw two feet for the turkey.
4. Add the turkey’s beak and waddle.
5, Add the Turkey’s Tail feathers
At the end of instructions, everyone removes the pictures from their heads. It can be very funny to see what they have drawn.
Scoring options:
2 points for every line that crosses
1 point if your turkey’s feet are touching the body
1 point if your turkey’s head is attached to the body.
1 point for feather that is ON the turkey.
Award the person with the greatest number of points the prize!
Holiday CollectionGames and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
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Tearable Turkey
Materials
Sheet of brown construction paper for each participant.
Activity
Participants must rip a sheet of construction paper into the shape of a turkey — behind their back. They are not allowed to look at their creation until it is complete. Hang the works of art up for everyone to judge. Give prizes for the best-looking turkeys.
Holiday CollectionGames and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
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Remembering Well
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday among all holidays. It’s special to me because it’s when I look back, reflect on the past year and give thanks. Also because it’s a time when God reminds me of my burning bush experience. Every year, I use Thanksgiving as a point in my spiritual journey to (a) re-define (b) re-align (c) rejuvenate myself in Christ.
Our memory is like a hard drive in a computer, events, experiences etc get logged into it. This year, God’s been asking me if the past year’s experiences are logged well or poorly. I don’t know about you but it’s harder to forget the bad things that happen to you. Somehow it gets replayed like a movie over and over. But God wants us to have those events that have wounded us to be logged into our memories without us feeling hurt.
The form of how it has been logged into our memory bank is important. As I sat to remember the past year to put down a thanksgiving list, He identified 3 things for me to recognize and practice so that my default system of remembering poorly will be transformed into – Remembering WELL.
Not Alone
When Christ died and rose again, He left us a helper so that we don’t need to walk on our own. ‘I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!’ John 14v16-17 (The Message)
We have the Holy Spirit! HIS ministry – to help us to remember well. Our experiences in life need to run by the Holy Spirit just like water gets filtered by a filtering system. When we do that, it gets logged into our memory bank correctly.
It doesn’t mean that we forget what has happened. It just means that we remember those events in a way that doesn’t hurt us.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Now I know why Paul says that we need to bring our thoughts into captive. ‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.’ 2 Corinthians 10v5 (NIV).
It’s not enough to say Holy Spirit come filter my thoughts. We have to make that pre-decision to literally bring our thoughts into captive. It’s not a one time thing, it’s something we have to do daily.
So if we don’t dwell on the things that hurt us, what do we dwell on? ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.’ Philippians 4v8-9 (NIV).
When we keep practicing, we get better and better at something. After a while, it becomes part of us.
Remembering the Cross
Jesus knew we’d forget, so He instituted communion and guess what He said… yep, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’
When we bring the events of our lives that may have caused us hurt to the cross, we’re not saying that God is going to erase our memory of that ever happening. Nope, it means that we are allowing the Holy Spirit to wash it with the blood of Christ and then log it into our memory bank. So that when we bring it to remembrance, we no longer feel the hurt.
Christ has set the example for us when He was crucified. He chose to not hate those who crucified Him, instead He forgave and loved them. We won’t be saved by grace if He didn’t.
Likewise, I pray that you will look back upon the past year and say ‘God I’m going remember the good and the bad in my life well. I’m going to surrender the bad events in my life to you so that you can wash it with your blood and return it to my memory bank for it to be lodged well. ‘
Happy Thanksgiving!
Charissa Ee
Christ’s Banquet Table
Imagine that you have been invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of the richest man in the world. You pull up a chair at a table two football fields long that’s piled high with so much turkey, dressing, potatoes, bread, carrot cake, pumpkin pie, mixed vegetables, milk, and anything else you can think of that the table is about to break under the load. Your host tells you to take your fill of anything you see.
Thank you very much,’ you say. ‘Might I please have half a cranberry?’
Your astonished friend nearly chokes on a candied yam and replies,
‘Please have all you would like. That’s why I invited you! You’re hungry, and here is everything you need to get full.’
‘Thank you so very much,’ you say. ‘Perhaps I will have a sip of water.’
Ridiculous, we say. Who would ever act like that? If it were us, we’d gobble up so much food they’d have to use a bulldozer to move us out.
Why is it, then, that when it comes to getting full spiritually, we settle for a half a cranberry?
Paul doesn’t want that for us, and in this passage he reminds us that in Christ we have all we need to be all that God wants us to be.
Not infrequently you’ll come across people who say either in word or deed that their lives are impoverished. Sometimes, remarkably, you’ll find a believer who for some reason is looking for something else.
He is not satisfied. She is not filled full.
Remember: The extent to which you need something else to fill you full is the extent to which you find Christ deficient. If you find Christ deficient, then you have found something in contradiction of Scripture, which says that in Christ all the fullness of Deity resides in bodily form.
We’ve got to decide, Is it true that in Christ we have all that we need?
You’ll find in the church today many people propagating all kinds of things that believers ‘need.’ Not infrequently these things that Christians ‘need’ have exceedingly tenuous connections to Christ, ‘in whom all
fullness dwells.’ As soon as someone tells you that you need this, that, and the other thing, ask yourself, Is this in any way diverting my attention from Christ? Is there any sense in which this is perverting the gospel of Christ, which tells me all fullness is in him? If I get into this
particular thing, will it in any way subvert the authority of Christ in my life?
Beware! Scripture declares that in Christ is all fullness, and if you are related to him, you have been given all fullness. We don’t need something super-added, extra-plus to Christ. What we need is to daily
discover all that we already have in him.
How much have you eaten off of Christ’s banquet table? How full are you?”
Source: Stuart Briscoe- “Secrets of Spiritual Stamina”
Holiday CollectionGames and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
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Sovereign Lord
BIBLE RAP by Nancy Minsky
Emphasize capital words in dark print.
Accentuate rhythm and recite to strong rap rhythm.
He SITS enTHRONED upon the CIRcle of the EARTH.
He’s BEEN in POWer since He GAVE life BIRTH.
The SOV ereign LORD He REIGNS in POWER,
AWAIT ing the DAY of His SU PER POWER.
The LORD is IN His holy TEM ple with MIRTH.
Be SIL ent be FORE Him ALL the EARTH.
He SITS enTHRONED upon the CIRcle of the EARTH.
He’s BEEN in POWer since He GAVE life BIRTH.
The SOV ereign LORD He REIGNS in POWER,
AWAIT ing the DAY of His SU PER POWER.
The LORD is IN His holy TEM ple with MIRTH.
Be SIL ent be FORE Him ALL the EARTH.
“The lord has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all.” Psalm 103:19
Know the Word!
Source:
© 2005 Nancy Minsky’s Christian Drama Anthology
© 2005 Nancy Minsky’s Christian Music Anthology
Minsky Ministries, P.O. Box 42118, Savannah GA 31409 USA
nancy@minsky.org www.musicaldrama.org
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
Top Ten Signs You’ve Eaten Too Much Thanksgiving Dinner
10. Hundreds of volunteers have started to stack sandbags around you.
9. Doctor tells you your weight would be perfect for a man 17 feet tall.
8. You are responsible for a slight but measurable shift in the earth’s axis.
7. Right this minute you’re laughing up pie on the carpet.
6. You decide to take a little nap and wake up in mid-July.
5. World’s fattest man sends you a telegram, warning you to “back off!”
4. CBS tells you to lose weight or else.
3. Getting off your couch requires help from the fire department.
2. Every escalator you step on immediately grinds to a halt.
1. You’re sweatin’ gravy.
Holiday CollectionGames and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
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Turkey Hunt
Materials
None
Activity
Play a classic game of “Hide and Seek,” but call it a turkey hunt.
1. One player covers his eyes and counts to a number while all the turkeys hide.
2. When he reaches the number, he uncovers his eyes and tries to find all the turkeys!
Variation
Only one turkey hides. When the first player is far away from the hidden turkey, everyone else makes quiet gobbling sounds. As he gets closer to the turkey’s hiding location, everyone makes louder gobbling sounds until the hunter finds the Turkey.
Holiday CollectionGames and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection