A craft night can be a great way to present the gospel to ladies’ who aren’t interested in coming to regular church services. You can use stock photos for advertising and PowerPoint slides. I’ve given the notes I used for my devotional. Feel free to use any of the ideas given here.
Craft
Choose a variety of crafts that use stars to make Christmas ornaments. You can find some on my Pintrest board. https://nz.pinterest.com/debbrammer/christmas-star-craft-night/
Star Devotional
[Numbers indicate images I used for my PowerPoint slides. I used images available at places like ImageVine Christian Backgrounds and Church Media ( https://imagevine.com/ ) Words in quotes indicate word slides.]
- cloud stairway
Think about Jesus, God the Son, as he lived in heaven.
- All the angels loved and worshiped him.
- He was the King of Heaven.
- He showed his great power as he created the earth and kept it running.
- Before that he knew man’s sin and planned salvation.
At the right time he set aside his divine glory
- became a baby who had to learn and grow
- still was God in human form
- We could see what God is like
- took on a body that would experience sickness, pain and death.
- only as a human could he provide salvation.
- Mary, Joseph, Jesus in stable
came to earth in a way we wouldn’t expect
- born to a poor family
- not in a nice hospital or home
- the innkeepers were too busy with business and had no place for him
- one gave him leftovers—a stable
- shepherds on hillside
- first birth announcement was to shepherds
- shepherds with Jesus
the shepherds hurried to see him, thrilled to see him, told everyone they knew
- some people loved him,
- some were too busy, one man hated him
One group who came to see him
- are a mystery, don’t know much about them
- a number of myths and legends about the wise men
- 3 of them, names, rode camels
- give us an amazing story that we want to look at tonight
- wise men searching
Who were the wise men?
- “wise men from the east” gives us a clue
- Jews would have understood them as like advisors to Babylonian or Persian kings probably men like Daniel who had been trained in science, agriculture, maths, astronomy, and politics
- probably not Jews, but outsiders who knew some things from the OT
- Daniel lived in Babylon about 500 years earlier
- finger on map
- somehow God let them know that he would show them when Messiah (Christ) was born
- “Searched for Jesus
- Messiah
- Chosen One
- Savior-King”
Who was Messiah, the Christ?
- Chosen One who would be a Savior and a King
- Many OT places talk about him being a King of the Jews (Psalm 2)
- Psalm 2 also says he would be God’s own Son
- Isaiah 53 said he would be an innocent victim
- he would die to take the punishment for the sins of others
We don’t know how much of this they understood
- they were expecting him
- they may have known from Daniel’s prophecy that Messiah would come soon
- star
Somehow they knew when they saw a special star in the east, he would be born
as astronomers they knew the sky
- Babylonians first to predict eclipses accurately
- sky never changes
- sailors can chart course by them
- earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis, typhoons change the surface of the earth thousands of years ago people saw the same stars we see
new star, sudden and bright, was something supernatural
- “Followed the Star to Jesus”
- saw the star and began their journey
- looked for Jesus in Israel, finally went to Herod to find King of the Jews
- “Herod hated Jesus”
Herod was jealous and competitive
Didn’t know, asked the scribes
- “Scribes ignored Jesus”
priests knew from OT he’d be born in Bethlehem
didn’t bother to go to Bethlehem themselves
- “Wise Men worshiped Jesus”
Wise men had a very different reaction
- star over Bethlehem
wise men followed the star and found him in Bethlehem
followed God’s revelation to see who Jesus was
- God had revealed to them that star would be sign Messiah was born
- may have read OT prophecy
- priests knew from Micah 5:2 written 6-700 years earlier
- followed the star—God’s way of finding Jesus
People sometimes search for God in strange ways.
- Think about what God should be like and then decide he must be like that.
- Might have feelings at times in their lives and decide that is God.
- Our feeling and thinking can sometimes be wrong.
- God is different than we expect, can find out about him in his Word and his Son.
- wise men with Jesus
Wise men may have had incomplete understanding of who Messiah was and all Jesus would do.
- “Recognized Jesus”
But they knew he was the one they had been searching for for many years.
- “believed He was Messiah”
They believed he was the Chosen One, the Messiah that God had promised to send were overjoyed to see him
- “worshiped Him as God”
they bowed down and worshiped him
- honored him and gave him expensive presents
- “went away changed”
God told them in a dream to go home another way, not to go back to Herod.
- Herod could punish them, Baby Jesus could not
- They had searched for years, spent months traveling, worshiped, gave expensive presents.
- We don’t hear about them again, but an experience like this, with their response, would have changed them.
- Bible on Christmas tablecloth—”Search for God”
In the same way, we need to search for God.
- “Deut. 4:29”
God’s promise
God wants us to find him, reveals himself so we can know him
- “Follow God”
When we find out who God is, we need to follow him in salvation.
- It’s not enough to worship the Babe in the manger.
- We must believe in Christ of the cross.
- “Worship God”
We need to recognize who God is, believe in him, and give him our best.
- Herod hated Jesus.
- Scribes ignored Jesus.
- Innkeepers gave him leftovers.
- Wise men gave him their best.
*Marbles and floats or rocks in a jar.
- When we put God first, everything else that matters fits.
- “Wise Men (and women) still seek God.”
[*Choose something like marbles or rocks in which you have small ones and big ones. Fit as many in a jar as you can by putting the biggest ones in first. For the devotional put all the rocks on a table and ask a volunteer to see how many they can fit into the jar. If she starts with the smaller ones, many of the rocks won’t fit. Show how you can make them all fit. Point to the object lesson: When you put the most important things in life first, much of the rest will fit, and if some lesser important things don’t fit, it doesn’t matter. We need to put God first.]