Aim to review the three blessings
Aim
* to review the three blessings
* to see signs in the world today that the Three Blessings are being realized
Materials
* Principle Level 4: Chapter 4 – The Consummation of Human History
* Logos of different organizations
* Bible passage – Acts 2:17,18
* memory cards
* Children’s worksheets
Lesson Outline
1. Signs of The Last Days
2. Signs of the First Blessing
3. Signs of the Second Blessing
4. Signs of the Third Blessing
5. Activities – worksheet, memory game
6. Review the lesson aim
7. Prayer
1) Signs of The Last Days
The goal of history is to establish God’s ideal world; a place of true love, peace and happiness. This can only begin when man fulfills the Three Blessings. The Last Days is the time just before the ideal world is established. If these are the Last Days today, we should see signs in the world that the Three Blessings are being realized. The Principle explains that this is happening.
1st Blessing – to restore our relationship with God and perfect our character
2nd Blessing – to restore our relationship with people and build an ideal family
3rd Blessing – to restore our relationship with creation and have dominion over the creation
2) Signs of the First Blessing
With each blessing show cards with symbols of different organizations. The first blessing God gave to Adam and Eve was the perfection of individual character. Today there are signs that our relationship to God is being restored to its original state.
1. First, people’s spiritual senses are being restored and communication with the spirit world is more and more common. Jesus said “In the last days . . . I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. -Acts 2:17
a) On TV there are mediums who pass on messages from spirits to their relatives on earth e.g. – James van Praagh, spiritual medium.
b) Books are written about near-death experiences, where people die, experience the sprit world and return to earth e.g. – Don Piper’s near-death experience
c) More and more movies have stories about the reality of the spirit world. eg. The Ghost Whisperer
d) Many ‘new age’ spiritual groups are appearing, inspired from spirit world.
e) Books and courses on spiritual growth, personal growth. e.g. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
2. Secondly, our true value as God’s children is being restored. The growth of democracy, human rights movements, racial equality, women’s rights and a desire for universal love, are all to do with restoring our true value.
e.g. Barak Obama is the first black President of the United States
3) Signs of the Second Blessing
God’s Second Blessing to man is to create ideal families. From ideal families we can create ideal societies, ideal nations and an ideal world. This would be one family under God, where all people live as brothers and sisters. This is moving closer as people from different races, nationalities, languages and cultures are mixing together as never before.
e.g. The United Nations, The European Union, The International Monetary Fund, The International Red Cross, The Olympic Games, The Universal Peace Federation
4) Signs of the Third Blessing
God’s third Blessing to man is to have dominion over the Creation, which is both internal and external.
Internal dominion means dominion through love. We can see this happening today through concern for the environmental, in helping endangered animals, recycling waste and cleaning up pollution. External dominion is through science and technology, which has rapidly grown over the last 100 years, bringing us to the verge of an ideal living environment.
e.g. Save the Rainforest, World Wildlife Fund, Recycling Waste, Progress of Scienec & Technology, mobile phones, computers, space travel
5) Activities
* Get children to put the cards under the correct blessing. Complete worksheet by cutting and pasting pictures under the correct blessing
* Memory game
6) Review the lesson aim
* to review the three blessings
* to see signs in the world today that the Three Blessings are being realized
7) End with a prayer
