12 January 2025
Bible readings for today
Liturgical colour: WHITE |
CollectE te Atua kaha rawa,
nāu i whakawahi a Īhu i tōna iriiringa me te Wairua Tapu, nāu i whakaatu i a ia, tāu Tama aroha; hōmai ki a mātou, kua iriiria nei i roto i tōna ingoa kia mahi katoa ai ki tāu e hiahia ai, kia kitea ai ngā hua pai, o ā mātou mahi; ko Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Ariki. Āmine. Almighty God, you anointed Jesus at his baptism with the Holy Spirit, and revealed him as your own beloved Son; grant that we who are baptised into his name may give our lives to your service, and be found worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
Bible Explore in 2025
We're excited to keep sharing ideas and resources to support the church across Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad. If you are creating material, writing prayers, coming up with fun games for kids... let us know! Email us at [email protected]
Jesus is Baptised by John (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)
John the Baptist anticipated a messiah who would be greater than himself. John is portrayed as the forerunner of Jesus who prepares the people for Jesus' ministry. John baptised Jesus and was beheaded by Herod.
Leaders input
Visio Lectio:
Visio Lectio is based on the practice of Visio Divina - the thoughtful contemplation of something visual that invites God to speak to us. A print design from Rev. Sarah West, Diocese of Auckland PNG Download Download w/ background Terms of Use |
Bible Project: The second in a five-part series on the Gospel of Luke. We watch Jesus launch his ministry of good news for the poor and how he brought together people from very diverse backgrounds to live together in peace.
Gospel Conversations: The GC team normally take a break over January, but a group got together to talk through some of the summer readings. No editing, no structure, so not perhaps something you'd use instead of a sermon (as we know some places do occasionally do). Instead we're inviting you to drop in on us as we chat about our reactions and thoughts about each of the Gospel readings as they come up.
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Bible stories with picturesWe stumbled across a great website with some John the Baptist lesson resources, with a John the Baptist story with illustrations, and group discussion questions
Download here ActivitiesWorksheet (Cartoon Church)
John the Baptist Games (Sermons 4 Kids) Baking Paper Craft (Jesus without Language) Story Boxes (Pretty or Practical) Colouring in sheet (Flame Creative) Fuzzy Felt (Flame Creative) 
Glitter bottlesWhat you need:
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Kids TalksEasy and interactive story and prayer for littles
The Baptism of Jesus: The second of a series of three sessions looking at three 'signs' or 'clues' of who Jesus is. Involves making a wall display pirate map. See also Part 1: Epiphany - Wise Men: and Part 3: The Wedding at Cana. Talk for younger kids Sit the children down and ask them if they know what baptism is, have they been to one etc? Do they know if they are baptised? Then read them the story from the Beginner’s bible of Jesus’ baptism. Talk about the symbol of water - it washes us clean, makes us feel fresh. Often people like to shower first thing in the morning so they are ready to start the new day! Jesus didn’t need to be baptised but he chose to start his work on earth by being baptised, it marked the start of his work of telling people about God his father and teaching them how to live as God wants us to. God was so happy with Jesus and all the good work he was doing that he said it aloud for everyone to hear! God is also pleased with you when you try hard to be kind to other people and love them and to remember all the things Jesus taught us. We will make a picture of Jesus’ baptism to help you remember! Talk for older kids Baptism! What is baptism? Why do we get baptised? What are some of the symbols? Get out the bibles and find and read the passage together, taking turns. Then talk about - do they think Jesus needed to be baptised? Why did he choose to be baptised? Why did God choose to speak out loud and send a dove? Talk about the symbols of baptism. Talk about how when you baptised the priest signs you with a cross on your forehead, like a secret sign of belonging to God. If you have been baptised then you will always have that invisible sign of God’s love on your forehead! If you haven’t been you might like to think about arranging to, just talk to the your church leader! Children's Talk You'll need: A bowl of water, hand soap, towel. Set these up on a table. When was the last time you got dirty? I mean really dirty! Maybe you were playing in the dirt or fixing a car or clearing out the attic. Can you think of what you were doing? Tell the person next to you. What did you do to get clean again? (allow a few answers). My hands are a bit dirty, so I'm going to wash them in this basin. Maybe you used soap and water or got in a shower or bath or jumped in the pool or used a hose. Those are all great ways to get clean on the outside. But what happens when we're dirty on the inside? What happens when we've lied or hurt someone or taken something that doesn't belong to us? Will washing in this basin help those things go away? No, not really. We can be spotless on the outside, but still be full of mess on the inside. When we're baptised, and when Jesus was baptised, it looks like a washing up on the outside, but it's more than that. Baptism is a way of showing that we want to be washed up and clean on the inside, too. When we're baptised, it's like saying that we're sorry for the bad things we've done and we want a new start. And God always forgives us. That makes a lot of sense for us, because we do bad things a lot. Sometimes we do them without knowing, sometimes we know that what we're doing is wrong. We need to be cleaned up on the inside. But Jesus never did anything wrong. He didn't need to be cleaned up or forgiven, but he still got baptised to show us how important it was. When God looked at Jesus, he sent his holy spirit, in the form of a dove down. Then God said that he loved Jesus very much and was really, really pleased with him! God is pleased with us, too, when we want to be clean on the inside and on the outside! Preschool Playdough MatFlame Creative have put together a printable Playdough mat, so that the youngest of our children can enjoy Jesus' Baptism too.
You can find it on their website! Play dough recipe
Reflective Colouring
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When You’re Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Isaiah 43:1-7)
Message TranslationYou may like to swap in the message version of this passage into the kids object talk, depending on the age of the children you are with.
When You’re Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Isaiah 43:1-7) But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end-- Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Saviour. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. “So don’t be afraid: I’m with you. I’ll round up all your scattered children, pull them in from east and west. I’ll send orders north and south: ‘Send them back. Return my sons from distant lands, my daughters from faraway places. I want them back, every last one who bears my name, every man, woman, and child Whom I created for my glory, yes, personally formed and made each one.’” |
Kids object talkYou will need: cups, oil, water jug, washing up liquid and teaspoons set up already on the table.
Explain that you are going to read a short bit from the bible that is like a poem – a poem that can help us today when times are difficult, even though it was written many many years ago! Give each child a cup and a teaspoon. Read out the first part of the reading: Long ago the Lord made a road through the sea, a path through the swirling waters. Pour in some water into the cups for each of them. Ask them to swirl their water around. The water is us or our lives and sometimes our lives feel like swirly waters – maybe even out of control! Can they think of something that they find hard to do or hard to put up with? (arguing with siblings, moving house, school, friends etc) Say, sometimes these worries or difficult times feel quite heavy on us, they weigh us down. Read out the next piece of bible verse He led a mighty army to destruction, an army of chariots and horses. Down they fell, never to rise, snuffed out like the flame of a lamp! Watch the oil as it hits your water. The oil is the tricky things in life we have to deal with. Keep your cup very still and watch the oil – it gradually rises and rests on top of 'us'. Like a heavy weight. Give your cup a gentle (!) stir to try and mix in the oil and water so that the tricky things (oil) isn't sitting just on top and watch for a moment – the oil just floats back up! The difficult things are still there!! What can we do for help when things are hard? We can ask for help. God has given us friends and family to ask and also, there is always God himself who we can turn to, and pray to. Show them the washing up liquid bottle. The washing up liquid represents God, lets see what happens when we add God to these heavy weights on top of us! Add a good squeeze of washing liquid and then mix in – needs to be a good amount and the two will mix and not change back. Which brings us to the end of the poem from Isaiah : But the Lord says, “Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! He can make things new, he can change things, he can do new things with us. Now your cup looks different! (Source: Suzy Allen) |
