Somebody asked me if I'd post this. Mary Rice Hopkins (You Tube)
I haven't looked at all of them but some of you might have some fun with this!

I orginally learned this verse from the NAS. "Let us know...let us press on to know the Lord..." I was surprised to see the NIV "Let us acknowledge the Lord...let us press on to acknowledge the Lord..." Guess the NIRV wins with both though a little less poetic:

(Hosea 6:2-3 NIRV) ^"Let's recognize him as the Lord.
Let's keep trying to really know him.
You can be sure the sun will rise.
And you can be just as sure the Lord will appear.
He will come to renew us like the winter rains.
He will be like the spring rains that water the earth."

Jesus, teaching from a boat

Here's an image for you: Jesus teaching from a boat. Waves, wind. . . No mike! He had to talk loud. I guess He always had to talk loud. Did you ever teach from a boat? Did you ever teach outside without a mike?

It's kind of funny. When I think of the parable of the sower and the other stories he told there I don't think of Jesus telling some of those particular stories rocking in a boat on the waves in the sea of Galilee... do you?

crafts for the Gospel of John revisited

This next part is more for you than for kids... I was rethinking John for kids. "In the beginning was the Word..." Thinking about crafts for kids I realized that I usually think visual, maybe tactile. Thinking about games/activities I think movement - kinesthetic. Thinking about worship and music I think auditory (expressing what is true in me at the time and what is true about God despite what is true in me).

But Genesis opens with a spoken word - something auditory. That spoken word sets in motion the creation of the whole physical world as we know it. Jesus stilled the storm (changed the weather & his immediate environment) with a few spoken words. He cast out demons and changed a person's life with a spoken word. I'm not adept w/the Hebrew language or the Hebrew culture but I know they had spoken language and I know they had written language and I know that saying and writing God's name was not allowed or at least that's the way I understand it.

Jesus was/is the Living Word - a multi-sensory human being and God who is Spirit & Truth. He came & lived among us but we didn't control Him. We are, however, supposed to control our words...What does God say about His Word and what does God say about our words?

So how many different forms can "word" take? What does it mean to us as believers? God speaks and He creates. Our words bless, our words curse. They build up. They tear down. They start fires - good & bad.

When is a "word" something concrete? When is it abstract?

What can you do with kids & words? Readers? Non-readers? Speakers? Non-speakers? Hearing? Non-hearing? Seeing? Non-seeing? Think about it.

How do your senses affect what a word means to you? How about emotional memory and association? Play with it. What can you do with kids & words?

Word & light...We hear, touch, smell, taste in the dark but you can't see in the dark until your eyes adjust and even then we don't see the way we do when the lights come on.