1 A charge to keep I have,
a God to glorify,
a never-dying soul to save,
and fit it for the sky.

2 To serve the present age,
my calling to fulfill,
O may it all my pow’rs engage
to do my Master’s will!

3 Arm me with watchful care
as in Thy sight to live,
and now Thy servant, Lord, prepare
a strict account to give!

4 Help me to watch and pray,
and still on Thee rely,
O let me not my trust betray,
but press to realms on high.

Charles Wesley was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. 

Born: December 18, 1707, Epworth, United Kingdom

Died: March 29, 1788 (age 80 years), London, United Kingdom

by Sharla Guenther

In biblical times soldiers would wear very heavy armor.  In fact, when David went to fight the giant Goliath he couldn’t wear the armor because it was too heavy.  These days, soldiers don’t wear armor, but you might find it interesting to know that many Christians wear armor everyday and it would be a good idea if you did too.

How can you wear armor?  This armor is so neat; it’s like having special powers that are invisible!  When you imagine yourself putting on the armor of God each day it will help you against the devil as well as the things you shouldn’t do.  However, the only way this armor will work is if Jesus lives inside you.

The devil wants us to mess up and do things God doesn’t want us to do.  He might try to do that by getting you interested in violent video games, shows on TV or movies that show people doing things that are sinful and try to make them look like fun.  You might also be pressured by other kids to do things that we know God wouldn’t want us to do.

These are some of the ways that the devil tries to trick you into doing things you shouldn’t (this is called sin).  By putting on the armor of God, you will be able to stand up to these things and do what is right.  The armor will give you God’s help to fight against the bad in the world.

We are going to start with the Belt of Truth.  We need to put this on first to be truthful and remember the truth we know about God.  We can know the truth by reading the Bible, the Spirit telling us (giving us a conscience), or learning from other people who believe in God the same as us.

Next is the Breastplate of Righteousness.  If you play hockey you probably have something that protects the part between your neck and tummy.  This piece also protects your heart.  We can protect our heart by confessing any sin we have, or saying sorry to God for things we’ve done wrong.

Now we put on the Sandals of Peace.  First, we need to protect our feet and go where God would want us to go.  Our feet would get sore if we walked around with no shoes on, so we need to avoid places we know we shouldn’t go to keep our protective sandals on. Second, we need to be peaceful with others.  If there is someone you’re fighting with or if you’ve hurt someone’s feelings you need to go ask for their forgiveness, or forgive those who have wronged you.  Third, if you find things are a little hectic God is the peacemaker, and if you ask He can give you all the peace you need.

The next piece of armor you don’t have to wear; instead, you hold it.  It’s the Shield of Faith.  Just think of what you could do with a real shield.  If someone throws a snowball at you, you can lift the shield so it doesn’t hit you at all.  We can use the shield in the same way when bad things come our way like temptations or doubt.

Sometimes the devil will try to make us think that there isn’t a God, or that he doesn’t love us because we’ve done something wrong.  We need to hold up our shield and stop these thoughts when this happens and remember that God loves us no matter what.

The Helmet of Salvation is the next piece.  This is what we use to protect our minds.  Sometimes we need to remember that we’re God’s children and He loves us and will help us.  We also need to remember what we’ve read in the Bible and learned from our parents and church about God.  That will help us make the right decisions.

The next piece of armor that we hold is the Sword of the Spirit.  The sword is both the Bible and having the Spirit of God work in us.   We can cut anything off that isn’t good in our lives.  By remembering God’s word (the Bible) we will be able to tell what is good and what is bad.

Prayer is the last piece of armor.  This isn’t a particular piece of armor but kind of holds all our armor together.  By talking to God we can do amazing things.  Nothing is too big or impossible with prayer because God can do anything that He wants to.  That doesn’t mean that he will always answer the way we want him to, but he will answer the way He knows is best.

When we pray, we need to remember that we don’t always need to ask for things.  God also wants us to pray for others (for people that don’t know Him, for people we don’t like, for people that are sick, etc.).  He also wants us to thank Him for whatever we are thankful for (being good at something, family, friends, toys, etc.)  He blesses us with these things so we should thank Him.

A good way to help you remember the armor is to put it on each day when you get out of bed or before you go to school.  Pray that God will help you remember that the armor is there and what it’s used for so you can fight the bad with the good.

“Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another…Ten-thirty– and every other moment from the beginning of the world–is always Present for Him. If you like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.” ― a quote from C.S. Lewis

Minnie B. Lowry 1889

1 All around is bright and fair,
While we work for Jesus;
Joy and peace are everywhere,
While we work for Jesus.

Refrain:
Come, O come, this cheerful, happy day;
Come, O come, to Sunday School away.

2 Every face with pleasure beams,
While we work for Jesus;
Every heart with rapture teems,
While we work for Jesus. [Refrain]

3 Nearer seem the realms above,
While we work for Jesus;
Dearer seems our Saviour’s love,
While we work for Jesus. [Refrain]

by Leanne Guenther and Sharla Guenther

Today we are going to talk about angels.  Where have you heard of angels before?  What do you think they look like?  Hopefully by the end of today’s class you will know more about angels and why they are here to help us.

The most important thing to know about angels is that God made them.  He sends angels to help and deliver messages to us.  The word angel actually means God’s messenger.

Some of the angels in the Bible that sent messages are: the angels that announced Jesus birth, they were at the tomb to tell Mary and Martha that Jesus was alive, and the angel, Gabriel, that told Mary she would have a son.  There are many more places where angels gave messages but these stories you probably know the best.

Angels also protect us when we’re in trouble.  Remember Daniel in the Lion’s Den?  An angel came and shut the mouths of the lions.  What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  An angel was standing with them in the fiery furnace to keep them safe.

So you can see angels are important, but they’re not more important than God, they serve God.  Angels are actually like us in some ways.  Angels can chose to follow God or not.  Most of the angels chose to follow God and work for him and some of the angels went to work for the devil instead.

It’s good to know there is a devil, just because he sometimes tries to trick us into thinking that bad things are fun or good.  Keep in mind, God and his angels are much more powerful than the devil, after all the devil was an angel, but he began to think he was better than God.  So God sent him out of heaven.

Angels are also like us because they worship God, but they do this continually, that means they never stop.  In Revelation 4:8 (NIV) it says, “Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.  Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.'”

Another way angels are like us, is that they don’t know everything God knows.  The Bible says that not even the angels know when he is going to come and take us to heaven (Matt.24:36).

Angels are very different than us in some ways too.  They live in heaven with God so they certainly know more about God than we do, and just being in God’s presence probably gives them the special glow or brightness they seem to have.

Angels can be visible and invisible.  They were seen at Jesus tomb and in the sky to the shepherds, but they can be invisible too helping us when we don’t even know it.

The Bible also says that angels never die in Luke 20:36.  So you can see that angels are a little higher than us, but lower than God.  God is very strict in saying that we should not worship angels or see them as more important than him.  Remember that God made angels and He is the only one we should pray to, but its certainly okay to thank God for angels and to pray for them if you want.

You might wonder what angels look like.  Well, there is no clear answer to this.  When people saw angels in Bible times they were often afraid at first (imagine if you saw an angel all of a sudden).  I think its okay to imagine angels as friendly, beautiful creatures that help us.

Some people like to believe that we each have our own guardian angel, an angel that watches and takes care of us at all times.  While we do know that there are many angels, the Bible says there are, “thousand upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand” (Rev. 5:11, NIV).  The Bible doesn’t seem to say anywhere that we each have a guardian angel.  If you think about it, we don’t need a guardian angel, angels can’t be everywhere and know everything like God, and He is always with us.

There are also different ranks of angels, or they have different jobs.  Some of the angels talked about in the Bible are Michael an archangel which means the prince of angels, and  Gabriel is another angel named in the Bible and he was the angel that told Mary she would have a baby and to name him Jesus.

Angels also have been mentioned in different groups.  Some are called chief princes, cherubim or seraphim.  They all seem to be important to God and all seem to have specific duties that they do.

One of the best  things about angels is that whenever someone becomes a Christian they sing and rejoice, in other words they have a big party!  One day we can look forward to singing to God with the angels someday in heaven.

So you see, angels are important and they’re very real.  God uses them to give us messages, to help and encourage us, and they will announce his second coming.