Stories To Print

In the beginning, God made everything. God spoke and there was light. He made the sky. He separated the land and the sea and he put plants on the land. He arranged the world in the universe in a way that there is day and the night and there are different seasons. God made creatures to swim in the sea and birds to fly in the air and then he made animals to live on the land. Then God made people and the bible calls them Adam and Eve, which means ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’......(continued)

When God created the world and everything in it, all of it was good, just as God wanted it to be. But Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and rejected God as king. So God had sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and made sure they could not get back in......(continued)

We have been learning about Noah. Now, we are going to learn about someone in Noah’s family who lived a long time after Noah had died. This man was called Abraham; in fact Abraham was Noah’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson!.....(continued)

This is Jacob. His dad was Isaac and his grandad was Abraham. Jacob had 12 sons and a daughter. The boys were called Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun. Then there was a daughter called Dinah. The 11th son to be born was called Joseph and then came the youngest, Benjamin......(continued)

Joseph was a long way from home and a long way from his family, but God was still looking after him. Let's see what happened. The journey to Egypt was very long. How do you think Joseph felt? He must have felt very lonely and frightened. He didn't know what would happen next. Where would he be living? What job would he have to do? Would he ever see his family or his home again? He didn't know but he did know that God was with him......(continued)

Joseph had been working for a man called Potiphar but Potiphar’s wife had told lies about Joseph and he had been sent to prison. It had been two long, lonely years and Joseph was still in prison, wondering if he would ever get out. One morning, two of Pharaoh's guards came to the prison. They had come for Joseph - they took him out of the prison and put him in clean clothes. They said to Joseph, "You're off to see Pharaoh. He has been having some very strange dreams. Nobody has been able to tell him what the dreams mean"......(continued)

Joseph’s father and brothers lived in the land of Canaan where they were suffering from a terrible shortage of food. Joseph had 11 older brothers called Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun and a younger brother Benjamin. Joseph’s father was called Jacob. They were all very hungry and worried. Jacob gathered his sons around him and said, “I have heard that there is food to spare in Egypt. Go to Egypt and buy some or we will starve”......(continued)

Before we start learning about Moses, let’s look at what had been happening in history. A long time after Joseph lived, God’s people, the Israelites, were still living in Egypt and now there were lots and lots of them. A new Pharaoh was in charge of Egypt and he didn’t know how Joseph, an Israelite, had helped Egypt with their food problem years before......(continued)

This is Pharaoh. He was the most important man in Egypt. If Pharaoh told you to do something you did it! You did not dare disobey Pharaoh. Pharaoh was not only powerful, he knew he was powerful. He thought that there was no-one who was more powerful than him. He walked about like there was no-one who was more powerful than him......(continued)

God had promised that he would get his people out of slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh would not let the Israelites leave Egypt. He wanted to keep them there as his slaves. He had not listened to God. He would not listen to God. Moses and Aaron had delivered messages and Pharaoh had seen God’s warnings. God had sent nine warnings already – river water had become blood, there had been frogs, gnats, flies, a cattle disease, a skin infection, hailstones, locusts and complete darkness......(continued)

Moses had a special job to do. God spoke to Moses and he passed on what God said to the people. That is the work of a prophet and we will hear about other prophets later in the history of God’s people. Having set out from Egypt, the Israelites travelled for many years before they settled down in a particular place. God led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire at night......(continued)

Samuel was a prophet and like Moses all those years before him he passed on God’s words to God’s people. The Israelites had settled down in the land where they were now living and, over the years, God had given the Israelites people to lead them, like Moses and Joshua had done years before......(continued)

David was out in the fields looking after his dad’s sheep – it could be a dangerous job. Sometimes wolves would come and attack the sheep and he would have to use his sling and stones to protect them. Three of David’s big brothers were soldiers in King Saul’s army. One day, David’s dad, Jesse, called for David to speak to him......(continued)

We learned about Kings Saul and David and there were lots of kings that followed them. Some did pray to God and ask for help in leading the people but some liked to be powerful and important and forgot that it was God who was really powerful and not them. Some were really very bad and were not at all fair to the people they ruled over. One of the bad kings was called Ahab......(continued)

Some of the kings of the Israelites were very bad and very unfair. They did not love God and they did not love the people they led and they did not keep the Israelites safe. There was a very big and powerful ruler called Nebuchadnezzar – let’s call him King Neb. He ruled over a massive area of land called Babylon......(continued)

Many years had passed since our last story about the Israelites and the land that the Israelites lived in was now part of the Roman Empire. The land still had a king but the king had to do what the Roman Emperor wanted. One of these Emperors was Augustus and he liked to know who was living in his Empire – it helped him when he wanted to get more money to know how many people could pay tax......(continued)

Sometime after Jesus was born, God put a special star in the sky. Some wise men from a country far away in the east saw the star and knew it meant a very special king had been born. So they packed what they would need for a long journey, loaded it on to some strong camels and set out to find the king......(continued)

When Jesus was 12 years old, Mary and Joseph took him to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, when the Israelites remembered how God rescued them from Egypt. Do you know about that rescue? The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt and the king, Pharaoh, would not let them leave......(continued)

It was towards the end of a long day and Jesus’ disciples, his followers who travelled with him when he was teaching people about God, were all feeling pretty tired. Who were these friends? Well, there were 12 in particular:.....(continued)

There was a man called Jairus. He was a well-known man with an important job at the synagogue. The synagogue is the place where the Jewish people, the people in the land of Israel, went to learn about God. One day, his little girl became sick. She was very, very sick and Jairus was really worried about her......(continued)

Jesus travelled around a lot and, as he travelled, he taught the people who gathered around him. Many people became Jesus’s followers and they were called his disciples. Jesus had chosen twelve men from these disciples for a special purpose. Do you know any of their names?.....(continued)

People often asked Jesus questions. Sometimes they really wanted to hear his teaching and sometimes they wanted to try to trick him because they didn’t believe he was God’s son. One day, a religious teacher came to him and said, “What must I do if I want to live with God forever? I know that the bible says I must love God and love my neighbour as much as I love myself. But who is God telling me to love? Who is my neighbour?”.....(continued)

Sometimes Jesus told the people around him special stories to teach the crowd of people gathered around him. These stories are called parables. These stories with a meaning gave the people listening to Jesus something to really think about, long after the time they were first heard...and us, too, as we listen now. This is one of those parables......(continued)

Jesus travelled around the towns, villages and countryside. Lots of people saw the amazing things he did like healing people of illnesses and they also heard what he was teaching about his Father, God. Sometimes, he taught his small group of disciples – the 12 people he chose to do a special work – they are also called the apostles. Sometimes, he taught big crowds of people. Sometimes he had a special message for just one person......(continued)

Jesus and his apostles (his closest followers) shared a special meal. During the meal, Jesus said that he knew that one of his friends there would betray him – that means that he would not be a good friend but would become an enemy; he knew that it was Judas. When the meal was finished, they went out for a walk in an orchard of olive trees and Jesus went to be on his own to pray to his Father, God......(continued)

Jesus’s friends were very sad. Jesus had died and they had now buried his body in the cave. It felt like the end of everything BUT they had forgotten something very important. They had forgotten something Jesus had said. Jesus had said he wouldn’t stay dead! Jesus had said he would come back; he would rise from the dead three days after he died! That’s an amazing thing to say......(continued)

For about 40 days, that is nearly six weeks, Jesus had been seen by many people. He had met with his followers the disciples, he had eaten with them and he had talked to them about God's Kingdom. One time, he told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift his Father had promised, the gift of the Holy Spirit which would give them power......(continued)

This is Saul. Saul was a very, very angry man. He was angry because Christians were going round telling others the good news about Jesus. This made Saul cross because he didn’t believe Jesus was God’s Son. He didn’t love Jesus or think Jesus was alive. He didn’t like the people who loved Jesus. In fact, Saul was so angry he was doing a terrible thing......(continued)

Peter was one of Jesus’s apostles. He had travelled with Jesus and listened to his teaching and seen the miracles Jesus did. He had been very frightened when Jesus died but now he had changed. He had seen and spoken to Jesus afterwards when Jesus came to show his followers that he was alive again. And Peter had been given the special gift from God of the Holy Spirit to help him tell others about Jesus......(continued)