God’s Fall Festivals – Part 4: Last Great Day

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Artist: Ava Mitchell—Plainview, NY

Have you ever had a “great” day?

Maybe your parents took your family to the beach where you got to play in the sand and the waves all day long before you finished off the afternoon with a large ice cream cone. Or perhaps you had a great day when you and some of your closest friends spent the day at an amusement park riding roller coasters and eating popcorn and funnel cakes. Whatever you may consider to have been a “great” day, nothing compares to how great the Last Great Day is going to be!  When God calls something great, there can be no mistake that it is certainly GREAT!

How it works:

This Study Guide is written for the purpose of helping parents teach their children vital Biblical topics in a focused, easy-to-follow format. Each section is not meant to be taught in one lesson, rather the topics are organized so parents can choose specific areas of focus and gear lessons toward the learning styles and ages of their children. Each topic is presented in a straightforward manner with accompanying verses for study. The main study should always come from the Scripture itself, while these lessons can act as a guide for reading passages from the Bible. Each lesson packet includes memory verses, questions for meaningful discussion, and activities (added at the end of the packet). Also, though some things may be labeled as Level 1, 2, or 3, the activities, questions, and scriptures for memorizing can be used to fit the needs and learning levels for children of all ages. Enjoy!

Fall-Festivals-Part-4-Last-Great-DayDownload

Fall Holy Days Coloring Pages

Prepare for Feast by printing out some of these GREAT coloring pages! All of the coloring pictures are selected submissions from our Fall Holy Days Art Contest.

What pictures are included?

  • “Lamb” – Artist: Maleewan Foster—Charlotte, NC
  • “It Won’t Be Long Now” – Artist: Lexi, Mitchell—Plainview, NY
  • “Girl on a Bridge” – Artist: Grace White—Morgantown, WV
  • “Bear and Baby” – Artist: Brandon Fall—SeaTac, WA
  • “The Living Water Sea” – Artist: Joseph Ross—Dubuque, IA
  • “Kingdom Creatures” – Artist: Amber Leonard— Charlotte, NC
  • “Jerusalem” – Artist: Susan Winnail—Tampa, FL
  • “The Last Great Day” – Artist: Ava Mitchell—Plainview, NY
Feast 2019 Coloring pagesDownload

All images displayed in this post were submitted by private artists who have granted all rights and permissions of use to Living Education for the purpose of education, and/or promotional publication, in accordance with the Fall Holy Days Art Contest Rules and Guidelines. Coloring Pages may be printed for personal use ONLY. All rights reserved.

God’s Fall Festivals – Part 3: Feast of Tabernacles

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Artist: Diego Villafaña – Santiago, Chile

Once Christ returns,

and Satan is put away, it will be time for the real celebration to begin! On God’s calendar, just a few days after Atonement, one of the most joyous and exciting times of the year begins: The Feast of Tabernacles!
Why do people get so excited about this Feast? Is it just a regular family vacation? Or is God giving us something much more exciting to look forward to than simply an eight-day family trip? Why did God include it in His plan to build a family? Keep reading!

How it works:

This Study Guide is written for the purpose of helping parents teach their children vital Biblical topics in a focused, easy-to-follow format. Each section is not meant to be taught in one lesson, rather the topics are organized so parents can choose specific areas of focus and gear lessons toward the learning styles and ages of their children. Each topic is presented in a straightforward manner with accompanying verses for study. The main study should always come from the Scripture itself, while these lessons can act as a guide for reading passages from the Bible. Each lesson packet includes memory verses, questions for meaningful discussion, and activities (added at the end of the packet). Also, though some things may be labeled as Level 1, 2, or 3, the activities, questions, and scriptures for memorizing can be used to fit the needs and learning levels for children of all ages. Enjoy!

Fall Festivals Children’s Lesson – Part 3 FOTDownload

God’s Fall Festivals – Part 2: Day of Atonement

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Photo: Susan Winnail – Tampa, Florida

After the Feast of Trumpets,

the next holy day we come to is what the Bible calls the Day of Atonement. Remember, the fall holy days represent important events or periods of time that have not happened yet, but will happen very soon in the future. Just as the Feast of Trumpets represents the return of Jesus Christ, the Day of Atonement pictures another very important event which will happen after Christ comes back to Earth. What big, exciting event does this special holy day picture?

Read on! 

How it works:

This Study Guide is written for the purpose of helping parents teach their children vital Biblical topics in a focused, easy-to-follow format. Each section is not meant to be taught in one lesson, rather the topics are organized so parents can choose specific areas of focus and gear lessons toward the learning styles and ages of their children. Each topic is presented in a straightforward manner with accompanying verses for study. The main study should always come from the Scripture itself, while these lessons can act as a guide for reading passages from the Bible. Each lesson packet includes memory verses, questions for meaningful discussion, and activities (added at the end of the packet). Also, though some things may be labeled as Level 1, 2, or 3, the activities, questions, and scriptures for memorizing can be used to fit the needs and learning levels for children of all ages. Enjoy!

Fall-Festivals-Part-2-AtonementDownload

Second Thoughts: Satan’s Trap for the Insecure

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Author: Thomas White | Editorial Staff, Living Church of God

Dr. Douglas Winnail’s recent assembly addressed that Satan uses worldly persecution to lure away those who aren’t unshakably grounded in the truth.

Scripture confirms this, and we all need to constantly guard against the anti-Christian nature of Satan’s world. But those of us who struggle with occasional or even frequent feelings of insecurity—who are just as harsh to ourselves as anyone in the world could ever be to us—may need to guard against something else, too.

While such individuals generally don’t like to talk about them, there are moments when being in the Church can make us uncomfortable. We don’t regret our calling—we’re grateful for it, truly. We know this is the right way, but we feel unworthy of walking it.

For those with frequent insecurity, this state of mind is too often the norm—pervasive and crushing. They look at their fellow firstfruits, and because most of our sins are committed in the dark quiet of our own private lives, everyone around them looks better at being good than they “know” they are.

What Tempts Us

Then comes a shock. You get out there—into college, the workforce, wherever—and you discover that people don’t hate you. Your beliefs that you feared would come across as insane to everyone are viewed as interesting by some. What you thought would be seen as self-righteousness is taken as respectability. People don’t think you’re bigoted or foolish, they think you’re fascinating. Intriguing. Good.

That’s truly hard to resist. Satan knows each of us better than we know ourselves, and in the case of those who feel they’ll never be as good as God wants them to be, the devil knows that they don’t particularly like themselves—but that they long to. He knows that, because they’re used to persecuting themselves, persecution from others may not so easily tempt them into leaving the Church.

But praise might.

Eventually, those with such insecurities eating at them may be offered an opportunity for something that will compromise God’s Way—perhaps by the very people who were praising them before. Assured by their human nature that it will make them into someone they, themselves, will finally be able to accept, the immediate, fascinating option is to bite into that fruit, because it looks and—temporarily—is delicious.

The other option doesn’t look quite so promising: resist, struggle, and go back to a Church filled with people they feel unworthy to be among. Pass the fruit up, and walk back into the daunting, lonely garden.

Our Father’s Promise

But if we allow ourselves to think deeply about our calling, God can lead us to a conclusion that becomes incredibly freeing.

As Mr. Richard Ames has often reminded us, Christ points out that none of us are truly good: “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17). In this life, we never will be fully “good.” We are on this earth to learn what “good” really means, because frankly, we haven’t a clue. If we did, we’d never consider anyone in the Church “better” than we are.

Those of us who tend to be insecure are in training to become what we most long to be: Worthwhile. Valuable. That’s the point of all this—to do our best, which isn’t much, and be rewarded with His best, His perfection. In his world, Satan offers us something that isn’t one billionth as rewarding, but is, as Yoda might say, “quicker, easier, more seductive.”

Our Father and His Son are the only Beings in existence who actually know what it is to be truly good, because it started with Them. Incredibly, they want to share it with us. The praise and esteem we must refuse now “are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). We simply have to finish the race without keeling over. As long as we do, no matter what we place, our Father will carry our gasping, aching remains to the reward. He’s promised to make us good, one day. Right now, we have to show Him that we trust Him to complete the good work He’s started in us.

Dr. Winnail’s assembly message was absolutely true. Being grounded in the truth can protect us from faltering under persecution—even when that persecution comes from ourselves.

Thomas White headshot

Thomas White was one of the onsite Living Education students for the 2018-2019 semesters. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree in English. Thomas currently works as an Editorial Assistant for the Living Church of God. According to his wife, he eats pizza in entirely the wrong way.