Kids and Prophecy

Lately, I came across a super-interesting resource, which is a ten-lesson Sunday School series called "Messianic Prophecies for Children."   I got it at a Messianic website -- a really good one -- called Ariel Ministries [www.ariel.org]. 

Come to think of it -- it makes sense that a Messianic site might just have something on it about the promised Messiah, eh? 

Interestingly, the resource book is written and compiled by Ruth Wardell and Jackie Hager.  Ruth Wardell, some of you may recall, was a young worker in a Jewish ministry in Brooklyn, and was one who, I believe, led the then teen-aged Arnold Fruchtenbaum to saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  The rest is, as they say, history, for he has since become a treasured beacher of the Bible, and the ministry mentioned above seeks first, to evangelize Jewish people, and secondly, to disciple both Jews and Gentile believers. 

There is a host of free resources on the site mentioned above, and, in particular, and I've personally benefitted from them immensely.  The "Come and See" resource is multifaceted and has tests for each segment

I'll probably mention this on another post, for those who are looking for background material on 1 and 2 Kings, but there is a complete set of audio's on these books. 

Today's particular resource is not one of the free ones, but can be ordered over the Internet, and may be well worth the reasonable amount they charge.

Getting back to the "Messianic Prophecies for Children," a curriculum geared to the 10-to-13-year-old Sunday School student, what is included is a page for the teacher, an informational page for the student, and, as well, a full-page verse-of-the-week, probably used most often for memorization, and easily mountable on a bedroom wall to facilitate that process!  One visiting student told me he was going to mount his verse -- probably because he liked it intrinsically.

Anyway, as we were leaving the Old Testament curriculum that I'd been using in my class, and were about to start the New Testament, I realized that it would be highly appropriate to take the prophecies relating to the coming of Jesus before we got into Matthew or Luke's account -- it would be so much more meaningful to have the backdrop of Old Testament prophecy.  the minuI find it immensely strengthening to faith to look at promises that were one and two and more years in advance and to realize that these promises and clues and prophecies were kept in detail.

The nice thing about the cost is that you do not have to send for Student Books -- everything is in reproducible form in the one book, so it's just a visit to the photocopy machine, I think.

If you are looking for visuals, however, you will need to bring your own.  On a future post, I hope to share some good resource places for Bible visuals, especially those that are in coloring-page form.  I know you can find them, but perhaps it might save you some time.

Shortly after thinking about this, I began to work on the idea of a timeline -- but a pictorial one -- and I'll get back to this in a future post.

Just then, I saw the announcement of this resource, and sent for it -- more or less forthwith.  Just to give you an idea, I'll mention the ten headings, as follows:

1. Mystery of Messianic Prophecy
2. Birthplace of the Messiah
3. Lineage of the Messiah    (e.g.: Abraham, Judah, David)
4. Titles of the Messiah
5. Triumphal Entry of the Messiah
6. Death of the Messiah
7. Grave of the Messiah
8. Resurrection of the Messiah
9. Ascension of the Messiah
10. Reign of the Messiah

So, if you think this might be a great curriculum for a class that is 10 years old or older, and, indeed, it could be adapted for other ages, as well, then perhaps the link to look at might be at:

http://arielc.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AMC&Product_Code=brb-mpfc&Category_Code=

Just thought I would pass this along!