Advent For The Family - December 13, 2012

Advent For the Family

December 13, 2012

It's Thursday!

Begin by lighting the same two candles as last evening.

Christmas Carol:

Silver Bells

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style.
In the air
There's a feeling
of Christmas.

Children laughing
People passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on ev'ry street corner you'll hear,

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing.
Soon it will be Christmas day.

Strings of street lights
Even stop lights
Blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush
Home with their treasures.

Hear the snow crunch.
See the kids bunch.
This is Santa's big scene.
And above all this bustle
You'll hear,

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, gear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day.

Bible Reading:

John 1
The Word Became Flesh
¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[¹^] it. ⁶There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

Activity: Little Stars Cut two stars out of different colored construction paper, one larger than the other. In the smaller star, cut a hole in the center large enough for the face of the photo to show through. Trim the photo to the correct size and glue the smaller star on top of the photo, then glue the smaller star on top of the larger star. This creates a border effect. Add a hole at the top, and tie a loop of ribbon to make a hanger. Children can help glue, decorate with glitter, etc.

Recipe Idea: Snowballs

3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour (7/8 cup)
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup finely ground pecans
1 cup 10x (Confectioners) sugar

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add nuts and vanilla. Blend in flour and mix well. Form dough into small balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes or until barely brown. Coat in 10x (or Confectioners) sugar.

Closing Prayer: The first 4 books of the New Testament are called the "Gospels." The word gospel means "Good News" which is exactly what Jesus represents to us as believers.

The 4 Gospels are:

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us all about the life of Jesus and his miracles, parables, and his words to His people.

John chose to focus his writings mostly on conversations and prayers of Jesus. He also wrote about the ministry of Jesus too but it was not his main focus.

Each book of the Gospel show us a different picture of Jesus.

Matthew shows us Jesus the King.
Mark shows us Jesus the Servant.
Luke shows us that Jesus is the Son of Man.
John shows us that Jesus is the Son of God.

John was one of the disciples of Jesus and he witnessed a large part of the life of Jesus. He wanted to share in his writings what he saw and to show that Jesus REALLY was the one and only Son of God and the promised Saviour.

Don't forget to close tonight with prayer!

End with a GIANT GROUP HUG!