Mouse Musings

The Bible is God’s message to people. It is also a long continued story – of how God created the world, chose a special group of people, blessed (and punished) his special people, promised to send a Savior, sent Jesus into the world, and directed Jesus’ friends to go everywhere telling about him. Most importantly, the Bible tells how every person can have a personal relationship with God.

The Bible consists of 66 books, which were written by many different people under God’s leadership. These books are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament, with five divisions in each. Understanding what is contained in each division helps us see the progression of events in the Bible.

• Old Testament – Events occurring before Jesus came into the world
  • Law – God chose Abraham’s family as his special people. After they became slaves in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out and to give them his laws.
  • History – God’s people entered the land he had promised them. After they repeatedly disobeyed God, he allowed them to be taken to another country as slaves.
  • Poetry – These books contain songs and wise sayings written during the times recorded in the books of history.
  • Major Prophets – These men spoke God’s messages to the people during the reigns of the kings, the captivity, and the return home.
  • Minor Prophets – These men also spoke God’s messages to the people. These books are shorter than the books of the major prophets.
• New Testament – Events occurring during and after Jesus’ life
  • Gospels – Each of the four gospels tells how Jesus lived, died on the cross for our sins, came back to life, and went back to heaven.
  • History – The book of Acts tells what Jesus’ friends did after he went back to heaven.
  • Paul’s Letters – Paul wrote several letters to individuals and churches, teaching more about God.
  • General Letters – Several other people also wrote letters teaching about God.
  • Prophecy – The book of Revelation tells about heaven and future events.

Is it a good idea to memorize the names of the books of the Bible? This should be part of a larger learning experience – learning about the people, stories, and important verses in each book, along with which division the book is in and how it fits into the overall story told by the Bible.

Grade school is a good time to start learning about the structure of the Bible. In any Bible class the teacher can talk about where today’s story is located in the Bible and whether today’s Bible character lived before or after other Bible people that have been studied.

Bible Bingo introduces younger grade school students to the structure and divisions of the Bible, emphasizing the Old and New Testaments, the first and last books of the Bible, and the four gospels, which tell the story of Jesus.

When the Bible Book Cards collection is complete, it will include a card for every book of the Bible. The card will show how the book fits into the overall structure of the Bible, what the book is about (people, stories, and ideas), and the reference of a well-known verse in the book. The cards can be used to practice putting the books in order or to play “trivia” games about the books of the Bible.

In a future post I will talk about how to set up a Bible bookshelf as a physical and visual representation of the divisions and books of the Bible.

In the meantime, I would love to see some comments on my blog. How have you used Bible Bingo or the Bible Book Cards? What other ways have you helped people learn about the books of the Bible?

In Ephesians 6:11-17 Paul uses the word picture of the armor of God to teach us how to be prepared to fight against evil. This lesson lends itself to helping children visualize (and in this case, even wear) what is being discussed.

If you are doing a six-week unit with a different part of the armor each week, you can actually have the kids make and wear the featured piece of armor each time you meet. I will not go into details about the Bible lesson and discussion, but here are some ideas for making the armor.

• Belt (representing truth) – After discussing what we believe to be true, have the students write true statements (about God) on small pieces of paper.  Give each student a long piece of yarn to wear as a belt.  Before tying on the belt, attach the true statements to the belt using shorter pieces of yarn.
• Breastplate (representing righteousness) – Use a piece of yarn to hang a piece of construction paper around each student’s neck and in front of his/her chest.  Before putting on the breastplate, glue on a picture of Jesus and/or write the word “Righteousness.”  You also might want to add a verse or reference such as 1 Corinthians 1:30.
• Shoes (representing readiness to share the gospel of peace) – Talk about going to share the gospel and  how shoes are a symbol of going. Write verses that are used to share the gospel (such as John 3:16, Romans 6:23, etc.) on pieces of paper and tape them to the sides of the children’s shoes.
• Shield (representing faith) – Have each student make a shield from cardboard or paper, decorate it, and write the word “Faith” on it. Have pre-written on sheets of paper (multiple copies of each) words representing problems that the devil sends our way, such as anger, fear, and discouragement.  Let the kids make paper wads, hurl the problems at each other, and fend them off with the shield of faith.
• Helmet (representing salvation) – Talk about how a bicycle helmet, motorcycle helmet, or military helmet protects our life by preventing us from being badly injured or even killed.  God’s salvation gives us eternal life, which no one can take away from us.  Make a newspaper hat (you can find directions online) and write the word “Salvation” on it with a marker.
• Sword of the Spirit (representing the Word of God) – Have each student make a cardboard sword and write Bible verses all over it.

Grandma Mouse’s newest Bible game, the Armor of God Card Game, can be used to reinforce all of these ideas.  Each card shows a piece of the armor, its name, and its meaning, and the object of the game is to be the first to collect all 6 cards.

Grandma Mouse’s online Armor of God Game requires the player to match each item with each meaning and will provide a good review of the armor of God.

What ideas have you used for teaching about (or making) the armor of God?

I have several printable Bible games that I made while I was working with kids at church. I also made a couple of online Bible games while I was learning to make online games. Since it is always good to help people learn more about the Bible, I am happy to offer the games free to parents, teachers, and anyone else who would like to use them.

Free Bible Games from Grandma Mouse