Ripples
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after the family’s sheep.
Both armies set up their camps on hills on opposite sides of a valley. In the Philistine, army there was a giant. He was about 12 feet tall. That is about twice the height, plus a bit more, of most men today. His name was Goliath. Each day Goliath would walk down the hill from the Philistine camp and out on to the valley floor. He would then shout out to the Judah army saying, “I am the best soldier in the Philistine army. You choose your best soldier to fight me. If I win you will all become our slaves. If he wins then we will be your slaves.” He did this once a day for 40 days. Did anyone from Judah go out and fight Goliath? No, they were too scared. They thought that because he was bigger than they were, he would be better than they would. Would you have been scared? I would have been.
One day Jesse told David to leave the sheep and take some food to his brothers in the army. David got to the Judah army at the same time as Goliath came down and asked some one to fight him. David saw how scared all the soldiers and his brothers were of Goliath. David said that he would fight Goliath but everyone laughed at him. He then went to the King and said that he would go and fight Goliath. The King said that he would not be able to beat Goliath, but David told the King that he had fought lions and bears when they attacked his family’s sheep and had always beaten them. Then David said, “The Lord God has kept me safe from the claws of lions and bears and he will keep me safe from the giant Goliath.”
The King offered David his armour but David said that it would be too heavy for him. Instead, David went to a small stream and picked up five smooth stones and put them in a little leather bag he had with him. Once he had done that, David, with his staff, a slingshot, and five stones, went out to meet Goliath.
Goliath just laughed when he saw little David. He poked fun at him and called him names. David said to him, “I have God on my side and you should not insult him. Because you have, I will beat you because God will help me. With God’s help, no swords will hurt me.” Goliath then raised his sword and strode angrily towards David. David put a stone in his slingshot and threw it at Goliath. The stone hit Goliath in the head and he fell down dead. Once the Philistine army saw that their hero Goliath was dead, they got scared and ran away.
Did you know that it is the same with us today? David won because he had God on his side, and God is more powerful than the meanest and biggest giant. God does not need to use weapons, he uses normal every day things to help us win. You will not meet many mean giants but you will meet mean people. You will also have to do things that you think you are unable to do. Just remember, when those things do happen to you, say, “God, help me. I cannot do this by myself.” When God hears you say that, he will help you win, because he loves you and wants to give his love away to you and keep you safe.
Story 24 Redemption
Miriama climbed up onto her Grandfather’s lap.
“Poppa,” she said.
“Yes young lady,” answered her grandfather.
“What does redemption mean?”
“Goodness,” said her astonished grandfather. “That is a big word. Where did you hear it?”
“At Sunday School.”
“Ah,” said her grandfather. “At Sunday School. And what were you told about that big word?”
“Well,” said Miriama. “Mrs. Olds said that it meant Jesus died to redeem our sins. I don’t know what that means.”
“Yes it is a big grown-up type of word isn’t it,” agreed her grandfather. “Here is one way to look at it. It is not the only way though. You have been shopping at the supermarket with your Nana haven’t you?” Miriama nodded. “Well,” continued her grandfather. “When you got to the checkout area you will remember that you got a big long list of what you had bought.” Miriama nodded again. “On the other side of that list were some vouchers. You could take those vouchers and get some things for free or cheaper than normal.”
“I remember those,” shouted Miriama. “Nana got a free hot chocolate when she bought me a cheeseburger.”
“Well,” laughed her grandfather. “Your Nana got that cup of hot chocolate by redeeming the voucher on the back of that list. When Mrs. Olds said that Jesus died to redeem our sins, she meant that Jesus swapped himself for our sins. You could think of it this way. Instead of a list of groceries at the checkout, pretend that it was a list of your sins: the bad things you have done. The voucher on the back of the list is like the life of Jesus. God swaps your sins for the life of his son Jesus.”
“Oh,” said Miriama. “Poor Jesus.”
“Yes indeed,” agreed her grandfather. “But it is good news for us. Because he swapped his life for us, we are able to go to heaven. The voucher is Jesus’ life, and God swapped his son Jesus’ life for our sins because he loves us so very much.”
“I should say a prayer to God for doing that shouldn’t I,” said Miriama.
“I think that would be a great idea,” agreed her grandfather.
Story 25 End of the Year
Another year has almost ended and shortly school will be over for another year. It will be neat to be on holiday again. And, of course, you know whose birthday it is at Christmas don’t you? Yes, Jesus’. Every time you go to Church or Sunday school you hear about Jesus don’t you. Why do you think we always talk about Jesus?
Well, we talk about Jesus because there are many stories about him in the Bible. Those stories tell us about Jesus being born in a manger, a little bit about him growing up and then being baptised by his cousin John the Baptist when a dove came down on him and God said that Jesus was his son. Then there are stories about Jesus making a blind man able to see, making people walk who had not been able to, curing people who had terrible sicknesses and making dead people come back to life. There are also stories about him turning water into wine, getting a few loaves of bread and some fish and feeding thousands of people with them, walking on top of the water on a lake, and stopping the wind from blowing. Then there are the stories Jesus told about how to pray to God, how to love people and how to be good. So we hear about Jesus all the time because he is the person we need to copy. We need to be copycats of Jesus. If we could all be exactly like Jesus this world would be a lovely place wouldn’t it. Nobody would shout at us, nobody would hit us, nobody would steal, and nobody would be hungry. We would all be happy.
It is not like that though is it? Because we are Christians, we must try to be like Jesus, to be copycats. If you want to be an All Black, you will have to copy Tana Umaga. If you want to be an All White, you will have to copycat Wynton Rufer. If you want to be a boxer, you will have to copycat David Tua. If you want to be a Church Pastor, you will have to copycat your Pastor. If you want to be a Christian you will have to copycat Jesus, and that is why you always hear stories about Jesus while at Church. It is so that we can all be copycats and become as good as Jesus was, and still is, today. If we can do that, we will really see God and that is what the grownups want to do, and why they tell and listen to stories about Jesus and other people in the Bible. If the whole world copycatted Jesus, there would be Peace and no one would be afraid of anyone else. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
Story 26 Copy Cat
Some say, to be a Christian you have to copycat Jesus. When you do that, you will have some of the same problems that Jesus had over 2,000 years ago. I want to tell you about some things that happened to a friend of mine who wanted to copycat Jesus. His name is Sam, and he is about your age. Sam’s Mum and Dad are poor. They do not have a lot of money. They do have enough to survive but there is not enough for extras. At school, Sam has enough to eat for lunch and play lunch, but not enough to buy ice blocks, cakes or lollies. Many of the other children buy those things and Sam would like too. One day one of his friends went up to Sam and said, “Sam, I found this $5 note on the footpath outside the dairy. It will not be possible to find who lost it. Anyway, $5 is not much. It’ll let you buy some lollies and drinks though so here, you have it, it’s yours.”
A voice inside Sam’s head seemed to say, “Go
on Sam. This is what God wants. This is his way of helping. Take it.”
“No,” said Sam. “It’s not mine. God will help me but not by doing wrong. Taking that money would be stealing.”
Later on, Sam was sitting at school feeling very sad. He was fatter than many of the other children, and because he was not very good at playing games, they never picked him in their teams. As he sat there, an angel suddenly appeared and said to him, “Sam, I have been sent by God to help you. Just give me the word and I will make you better than any of these other kids at any game. I will make sure you win races and get prizes. Together we will really kick butt.”
Again, a voice inside Sam’s head seemed to say, “Go on Sam, this is what God wants. This is his way of helping you. Do it.”
“No,” said Sam. “It’s not right. God gave me this body. If he wanted me to win, he would have made me different. Obviously he wants me to be good at something else.”
Another time Sam wanted to ride his scooter down the street to play with his friends but his Mum and Dad said he was not to take it with him as the bigger boys would take it off him and break it. Sam was not happy about that and then one of his friends came up to him and said, “Hey, come with us. Those Sunday School