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Wild Truth Bible LessonsDares from Jesus 2: 12 More Wild Lessons with Truth and Dares for junior highers Copyright 2003 by Youth Specialties Youth Specialties Books, 300 S. Pierce St., El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49530.
Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Oestreicher, Mark.
Wild truth Bible lessons : dares from Jesus 2 : 12 more wild lessons with truth and dares for junior highers / by Mark Oestreicher.
ISBN-10: 0-310-25050-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25050-0 (pbk.)
1. Jesus ChristTeachingsStudy and teachingActivity programs. 2.
Christian education of teenagers. I. Title.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North America Edition). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Edited by Rick Marschall, Linda Bannan, and Lorna Hartman Illustrations by Krieg Barrie Design by Tom Gulotta Production assistance by Nicole Davis Printed in the United States of America
05 06 07 08 / VGM / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Pass out copies of the opening worksheet (Say What You Mean!) and pens or pencils to each kid. Explain that the sentences at the top of the page are superwordy versions of the common phrases at the bottom of the page. Have students work in small teams of two to three to match them by writing the number of the wordy version into the blank next to the corresponding common phrase.
Give them five minutes or so
(not too much timekeep them a bit rushed). Then call the group back together, and go through the questions one at a time. Read the wordy sentence
(if you can!), and have the students shout out their guesses of the correct translation. Then reveal the correct answer. Consider giving some sugar stimulant (a small candy bar or something) to the winning team or teams.
Here are the answers
'Caution: apple filling may be hot long after crust is cool.' 3
'If you're going out of the house, wear clean underwear.' 2
'Look both ways before crossing the street.' 4
'Wash your hands before you eat supper.' 1
Make a transition by asking these questions. Don't offer answers yourself or correct students' responses at this point. Just surface some ideas that you'll clarify later.
* What's the purpose of making promises?
Theoretically, it means your word can really be trusted on that item.
* If you tell your friend you'll do four things, but you attach a promise to one of them, what might that mean about the other three? Hey, no promises! Maybe it's true,
and maybe it's notmaybe you mean it, and maybe you don't.
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN!
* copies of 1.1 (Say What You Mean!) and pens or pencils for each student.
* Optional: a small candy prize for the winning team(s)
'Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your
'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.'
* Understand that this dare isn't about keeping promises, but being a person whose word can be counted on
* Consider what this looks like in the life of a young teen
* Rate their own current level of trustworthiness, and choose an application for this week Students Will-
From Wild Truth Bible LessonsDares from Jesus 2 by Mark Oestreicher. Permission to reproduce this page granted for use only in buyer's own youth group.
This page can be downloaded from the Web site for this book: www.Youth Specialties.com/store/downloads password: dares2
Copyright 2003 by Youth Specialties.
W I L D P A G E Each of these sentences is a wordy version of the common phrases below. Write the number of the wordy sentence next to its corresponding common phrase.
1. Proper removal of foreign organic materials from opposable digitals connected to the primary function base is required to the later planetary rotational consumption of vital nutrients while gathered in the familial tradition of voluntary communication.
2. Current and unsoiled fabric weavings worn for the biological cleanliness of certain potentially infectible areas, as well as the need for support and foundation of lesser seen,
though often favored bodily regions, is needed prior to the use of both manual and automatic means of transportation that carry individuals from a communally comfortable environment.
3. Mental and physical restraint applied to warning and non-pain-oriented precognitive thoughts must be strenuously applied at this time: pulverized contents of sweet, reddish, tree-born,
roundish foodstuffs could most likely, and often are, heated past acceptable pain levels, and will remain so for extended periods after the flour-based artificially sweetened containment vessel has become acceptable to human standards of pleasantness.
4. When self-transporting by means of lower appendages, exercise extreme caution by dualocular organs in both left and right directions; only then proceed to the opposite foundation of mechanical transportation-designated pathways.
___ Caution: apple filling may be hot long after crust is cool.
___ If you're going out of the house, wear clean underwear.
___ Look both ways before crossing the street.
___ Wash your hands before you eat supper.
Divide your students into larger teams (eight to 10),
depending on the size of your group. If you have a small groupsay six kids
then you'll have one group! Instruct the groups to turn in their Bibles (make sure each group has at least a couple Bibles) to today's dare, in Matthew 5:33-37.
You read it to them:
'Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all:
either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.
Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,'
and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.'
Now tell them they have five minutes to come up with a short play based on this passage. It doesn't have to be a literal interpretation of the passageit just needs to communicate the dare. (Note: you still haven't really explained the dare. That's okayyou'll unpack it more after the dramas.)
Give them at least five minutes for their creative work.
But at some point, round 'em back up and have each team present its drama. Make sure you heap praise on any micron-sized amount of effort, and that no one gets teased or ridiculed (zero tolerance, baby!).
Now lead a discussion on the dare with this line of questions
* Jesus wasn't talking about swearing, as in cursinghe was talking about making promises. Can someone give me an example of this kind of swearing? I swear to you that I'll return your money.
* But Jesus isn't really making a big deal about promisesit's not like he's saying, 'I dare you not to make promises.' So what do you think this dare is really about? (This might be a tough question. It may have been clarified by one of the dramasbut it may not have been.