Bible Club

For the next four weeks I've been entrusted with the privilege of teaching the Wednesday Bible Club lesson since Sharon who normally leads will be in Florida visiting her kids and grandkids.  Ever since she asked me if I'd be willing to take over most of October, I have been greatly looking forward to the chance.  I love teaching and this is right up my alley. 

Well, volunteering to teach and actually teaching are two different things.  When the weekend prior to the first lesson came and I had time to prepare, I hit the books. This lesson would need to be presented in Spanish and in English because each of the kids speak either of the two languages.  The lesson would need to be interactive or at least very engaging because many of those in the audience are orphans from Casa de Fe and they have a harder time with listening and staying focused.  And, the lesson would need to be about some pretty deep spiritual content because though the "Armor of God" sounds like a really neat boy-friendly topic, it actually represents something much more profound. 

The topic for this lesson comes from the book of Ephesians in the Bible, where the author Paul writes to his readers that every Christian should put on the full armor of God, including the Helmet of Salvation--this lesson's specific topic.  He doesn't really go into any great depth about what this is, but for this approximately 30 minute lesson, I have to.  I got out the Spanish/English dictionary, the bilingual Bible, and some Bible study materials in Spanish on the Armor of God.  Most importantly, I did lots of praying for wisdom.  And finally the Lord graciously provided the ideas for how to make this work. 

I contacted friends who would be there on the day of the lesson and asked them to join me in acting out the importance of the helmet of salvation.  I'm so grateful that they accepted because come lesson time, that made all the difference in the world.  Kyle played God on the throne.  Rick was Jesus.  Cory acted as Satan, the enemy.  And Asia (love her name!) represented the everyday Joe like us.  All the cast were given robes to wear, albeit too small (I had failed to see if they fit ahead of time; my bad--check out the picture below). 

We started with Asia and her need for God, just like us.  She, like the rest of us, has troubles and a huge need for guidance in her life.  She knew that she lacked a lot and could only find help and true salvation through a commitment to Christ.  Therefore, we demonstrated her accepting Christ as her Lord and Savior--accepting, believing, and confessing. When she did, Jesus (Rick) came and he told her that she should put on the full Armor of God.  He then handed her the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Boots of Readiness of the Gospel of Peace, the Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, and finally, the Helmet of Salvation.  We discussed that this helmet would act as a typical helmet in that it would protect our heads which contains our minds from any dangers that might befall us.  Yet this helmet would go beyond that as it would protect us from the lies that Satan (Cory) might try to tell us; lies like "God doesn't love you." "You're too big of a sinner."  "He won't forgive you."  and "He won't listen to you or answer your prayers."  The helmet of salvation is placed on our heads to remind us of the salvation that we have in Christ.

Then Asia walked through life (aka. across the stage) while Cory tried his best to hurl lies at her, telling her everything from "You're ugly," (which we laughed at since these two are married and Asia is absolutely beautiful) to "You can't do anything."  Jesus (Rick) instead spoke to God the Father (Kyle) seated on His throne on behalf of Asia telling Him of her salvation.  Asia just kept walking toward Jesus and God the Father in spite of Cory's words because her salvation was secure. 

The lesson seemed to keep everyone's attention; it's my prayer that it was more than just entertaining.  I pray that the kids really do understand that once they put on the full armor of God, they're protected from the enemy's lies. That's something I have to stand on myself.  I have to keep remembering that Satan cannot shake the Lord's grip on me.  I'm fully His and He's fully mine.  You too?

Today we go back to Bible Club and our next and final piece of armor is the Sword of the Spirit--my personal favorite.  If you see this blog in time, pray that at 4:00 today (Oct 16) the Spirit will do His amazing work.  Blessings, kim