It Only Takes a Spark

You know the song: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going . . . ” (In fact, this time of year you may find yourself around the campfire singing it quite often!)

But it does take a spark! 

Just as the tiny mustard seed grows into a large plant, and a little bit of leaven raises a whole batch of bread, even a small word or act for Christ can grow into something big. Jesus will bless and multiply our efforts to work for Him—when we start!

“Every follower of Jesus has a work to do as a missionary for Christ in the family, in the neighborhood, in the town or city where he lives” (Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2, page 632).

Do you want to share your faith but are not sure what to do? Here are a few suggestions to get you started. Why not see how much you can accomplish in the next few months?

What Might Have Been

by Ellen White

I found myself at Battle Creek. We had gathered in the Tabernacle Church1 for a meeting of the General Conference.2 Prayer was offered, a hymn was sung, and prayer was again offered, with most earnest supplication being made to God. All could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Everyone present seemed sober and serious, and some were weeping out loud.

Those Juniors, Part 41: Master Crooked Ears

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Story-telling is one of the best ways to impress a lesson or point on others. There are many wholesome, true stories out there for all ages. When telling a story, there are certain things you must do: know your story, see it, adapt it, tell it, live it, feel it, and have a climax.

In closing this series, I want to give an illustration of the way stories are found in life, and built into things that charm and stimulate to better living. One day I was visiting the little Sabbath school at the village of Tha Kwe Kla, about twelve miles north of our Karen mission station. The bamboo schoolhouse was crowded with jungle folk, for the boys and girls had brought their mothers and fathers, their aunties and uncles, their grandpas and grandmas, till there was hardly room for another one. While we were singing the second hymn, I saw Thara John move over on the floor a little and say to a man who was coming up the bamboo ladder, “Come on, Uncle Crooked Ears, sit here near me.”

Immediately I smelled a story.

Those Juniors, Part 40: Story-Telling Stratagem, #4

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Story-telling is one of the best ways to impress a lesson or point on others. There are many wholesome, true stories out there for all ages. When telling a story, there are certain things you must do: know your story, see it, adapt it, tell it, live it, feel it, and have a climax.

Now let us come back to the story of Jochebed and her baby boy, and let us demonstrate the color that can be added to the picture by probable conversation.

In a few short verses, Exodus 2:1–10, is given to us the outline of one of the greatest stories in the world. The facts, which we may not add to or take from, are: A baby boy was born to Amram and Jochebed.

He was hidden for three months.

Jochebed made an ark of bulrushes.

She placed him in it and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.

Miriam was told to watch.

He was found by the princess.

Miriam called her mother for a nurse.

He was named Moses, and adopted by the princess.

Now let us mix our colors from life and its varied experiences, and see how we can make this outline pulsate with life.

Those Juniors, Part 39: Story-Telling Stratagem, #3

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Story-telling is one of the best ways to impress a lesson or point on others. There are many wholesome, true stories out there for all ages. When telling a story, there are certain things you must do: know your story, see it, adapt it, tell it, live it, feel it, and have a climax.

Live Your Story—You can only tell with the power of conviction those things you have experienced. As pity is hollow and shallow and unwanted, because it is formed of only empty words, and as sympathy comforts, cheers, and encourages, because it is spoken by one who understands from experience, so the teller of stories must live life. He must know children; he must know mothers and fathers and people. He must know how they live, how they talk, how they love, how they hope, how they pray. He must drink the cup of sorrow and must understand loneliness, as well as the thrill of joy. He must know what it means to ascend to the mountaintop and to descend into the valley. If he would tell of the love of God he must know the love of God. If he would tell of the saving power of Christ he must know the saving power of Christ.

On a certain occasion a number of people were enjoying a social evening in the parlor of a beautiful home. Among the guests were a very talented actor and a venerable old clergyman. As guest after guest added to the entertainment of the evening, someone turned to the actor and said, “Won’t you please recite something for us?”

Those Juniors, Part 38: Story-Telling Stratagem, #2

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Story-telling is one of the best ways to impress a lesson or point on others. There are many wholesome, true stories out there for all ages. When telling a story, there are certain things you must do: know your story, see it, adapt it, tell it, live it, feel it, and have a climax.

After you know your story, you must see it. Good storytellers do not memorize their stories. They build a picture of the story as they read it, and then simply tell what they see. This enables them to retell stories other people wrote in the first person—for of course it wouldn't do to recite a story written in the first person unless you were the actual writer!

Those Juniors, Part 37: Story-Telling Stratagem #1

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: The use of illustrations that appeal to hand, eye, and ear are effective tools for a teacher, and will implant in the students minds not only the application, but also the lesson itself, causing them to remember it, at times, for their entire lives.

Story Sources.—The great books of God—the Bible and nature—form a vast, unlimited field where stories can be found on every hand. Life itself, with the hundreds of interesting experiences with people and children, is another boundless source of story material. When you see the results of obedience, of forgiveness, of faithfulness, jot them down, put down the names and the place, and file them away. When you can say, “One day when I was visiting Myat Po, the head teacher of our Karen school, I saw his little boy Solomon, who was only three years old, try to get his father a drink of water from a waterpot that was too high for him to reach,” it carries much more power and weight than if you have to say, “I was reading one time of a little three-year-old boy somewhere who tried to get his father a drink of water,” etc. Cultivate eyes to see and ears to hear the beautiful stories and illustrations that are being lived about you every day.

Those Juniors, Part 36: Windows

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Without the correct steps, a teacher may miss a vital opportunity of applying the lesson to his students, and thus not fulfill the extent of the good he may do for the children in his care. God wants us to be “better men (and women).”

Of Jesus’ teaching we read, “Without a parable spake He not unto them,”1 and the reason is very evident. In His congregations were those who had eyes but did not see; and who had ears but did not hear. The ears of some were stopped with ignorance; the ears of others were stopped with bigotry. Jesus said, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”2

The inference is clear, whether their ears were closed from ignorance or by bigotry. The story was the most likely form of discourse to bring enlightenment to their hearts.

Illustrations are like windows in a house. They are not the house, but they let in the light so that we can see the beauty of the house. Illustrations are like the scaffolding used to build a cathedral. The scaffolding is not the cathedral, but by it the workmen are enabled to lift stone upon stone, block upon block, till at last you can take the scaffolding away, and the cathedral stands forever grand and glorious.

In the same way illustrations help to build truth that shall stand forever.

Those Juniors, Part 35: A Better Man

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: While teaching the lesson is important, more so is actually applying the lesson to your class. There are five steps to arriving at successful application.

To illustrate these five steps, let us take the lesson which is entitled “Abraham’s Visitors.” We have already decided to take “God’s great mercy” as the theme. Now let us see how this theme can be developed and applied.

Turning Time Wasters to Tools

by Cheyenne Reiswig

Yes, I'm a smartphone user, and this photo is evidence.
It was taken with my phone!

I don’t know about you, but when I read inspired statements like these, my conscience winces a bit:

“Our time belongs to God.”

“The value of time is beyond computation.”

“Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.”

“We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin.”

“Christ regarded every moment as precious.”1

I do try to be efficient with most of the hours in my day: the time I devote to work, study, cooking, etc. But what about the spare moments—the hours driving (or riding) in the car, the minutes between breakfast and going to work, my lunch break, and evening time when I’m waiting for family worship?

I’ll admit it: When I have unscheduled free time, too often I reach for my smartphone or my laptop. Either way, time gets frittered away as I check out the latest happenings in distant friends’ lives, watch humorous video clips, or read blogs.

Those Juniors, Part 34: The Art of Application

by Eric B. Hare

Last segment: Patterns of how to reach the juniors and keep their interest and get them excited about Sabbath school.

We have seen that the superiority of inductive teaching over deductive lies in the stimulation it gives to “thinking.” We have also noticed that the natural thinking process is an addition of percepts to make concepts, a comparison of concepts to form judgments, a weighing of judgments (which is reasoning) in order to form new judgments and conclusions.

Moreover we are instructed:

“Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator,—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought.”1

It will be the study of this chapter, therefore, to consider and illustrate a lesson outline which will be in harmony with these principles.

Those Juniors, Part 33: Powerful Patterns, #2

by Eric B. Hare

Last segment: Patterns of how to reach the juniors and keep their interest and get them excited about Sabbath school.

“Are You Telling Me?” Game 
Following the pattern of the very familiar “Are you telling me?” games, we write the questions for the lesson on cards or pieces of paper about 3 by 4 inches. The cards are turned face down in the center of the group on a table or a stool. The first boy draws a card. If he can answer it correctly, he keeps it. If not, he passes it to the next boy, who keeps it if he can answer it, or passes it on. If no one can answer it, the teacher answers it and places it at the bottom of the center pile so that the students have another chance at it.

This plan requires a great deal of preparation, but, used occasionally, it never fails to produce interest. Here is a sample of some questions on the lesson “Our Eden Home.”

Memory Text for January 11–17

Key Thought for Lesson 3, "Good Ground"
The work of character building is a cooperative effort between us and God.

Memory Text:
“The good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

Project: Memory
“Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun” (Psalm 19:4).

Those Juniors, Part 32: Powerful Patterns, #1

 

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: Streamlined questions will provoke more class discussion and interaction. Choose to ask questions that will stimulate your class to think. This week shows lots of really great examples!

Multiple Answers

Choose the best answer:

Jonathan loved David because—

a.                   David could play the harp so well.

b.                  David had killed Goliath and delivered Israel.

c.                   He knew David had been anointed to be the next king.

Only one answer may be correct; or all answers may be correct. The stimulation comes in the discussion.

Clues

Put your hand up when you recognize this person:

1.                  I am thinking of a little boy whose name means “beloved.”

2.                  He lived in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah.

Those Juniors, Part 31: Ask Questions!

 

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: There are three kinds of questions that can be asked—some are more beneficial than others when it comes to teaching. Ask your students questions that will make them think.

 

Streamlining the Socratic Method

Away back in 469 BC was born the famous Greek philosopher Socrates, and while Ezra and Nehemiah were busy rebuilding Jerusalem and its walls, this old gentleman walked the streets of Athens with a new idea. He did not claim to be teaching; he was professing ignorance. He accosted people in the market or in the street and asked them questions. He built his theory on the wide-spread belief of the reincarnation of the soul and believed that he was only drawing out knowledge stored away in some previous existence. He developed a technique of questioning which first showed up the ignorance of the pupil, then led him on to certainty in his conclusions. His method showed to the world the stimulating force there could be toward real thinking in “questions.”

We have already seen the superior strength there is in questions introduced by interrogative adverbs and pronouns. Let us go a step further and notice what a tremendous force there is in a “streamlined” question and how much more thinking it stimulates.

Those Juniors, Part 30: Six Honest Serving Men

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: A teacher’s voice should be cultured and clear. Voice culture should be taught to students, as well. You can put color and feeling into Bible verses, or anything else, by using expression in your tone of voice. It can be beneficial to omit pieces of a passage that will cause distraction in class.

We have already studied the deductive and inductive principles in teaching, and have noticed how the question method stimulates the thinking and discovery of inductive teaching. In this chapter we want to study the art of asking questions, for we recognize that some questions are weak stimulators and others are strong. In order to keep the principles of deduction and induction in mind, we will teach the first section on questions by the deductive method and the second section by the inductive.

Three Kinds of Questions (Example of Deduction)
There are three kinds of questions:

1. Rhetorical
2. Elliptical
3. Clear, direct, simple

Memory Text for December 28–January 3

Key Thought for Lesson 1, "Sowing the Seed"
God has placed the truths of salvation in objects He created. One important truth is that we can choose to plant seeds of goodness that will help us grow more like Jesus.

Memory Text:
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Project: Memory
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge” (Psalm 19:1, 2).

Memory Text for December 21–27

Key Thought for Lesson 13, "Branches of the Vine"
Abiding in Christ is the only way to be true Christians. We abide through prayer, Bible study, asking for the Holy Spirit, and absolute surrender to Christ.

Memory Text:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me” (John 15:4).

Project: Memory
Did you complete the memory project of learning Ephesians 6:1–18? Congratulations! We hope you've taken the chance this week to review.

Those Juniors, Part 29: The Echoes of Teaching

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: There is a great amount of difference between connotation and denotation. If these two concepts are clearly understood, the teacher will be able to help their students understand things better.

When Paul exhorted Timothy, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine,”1 I am inclined to think he included among other things, his words, his voice, and his manner of speaking, for Paul was very particular about being understood when he spoke. Writing to the Corinthians, he said, “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”2

You will agree that an unknown tongue need not be a foreign language. If the one who prays buries his face in his hands, if the secretary mumbles and mutters so that we cannot understand a single thought, that is without doubt an unknown tongue.

Those Juniors, Part 28: The Wreckage of Distorted Ideas

by Eric B. Hare

Last week: It is very easy to be misunderstood by our young people. These misunderstandings can be eliminated, however, by clear enunciation and accompanying gestures—things that will familiarize the child with what he is hearing. The teacher must be fit mentally, physically, and spiritually to accomplish his task.

Connotation is simply the meaning of a word in describing its qualities, while denotation tells the kind and gives it a name. It sounds simple enough, but there are two connotations, the universal and the particular, and that is where our difficulty comes in. The universal meaning of a word gives the qualities that are common to all of its kind; the particular connotation gives the qualities of the local species, the thing the child is acquainted with. And because the child’s world is small and limited, the teacher often fails to put the idea across.

Let us take, for example, the word “priest.”