Saturday, December 20, 2008

Bible Christmas Quiz

Tomorrow is the Sunday before Christmas. Adult services might run long. Do you have an extra activity planned in case you have too much time and not enough lesson? What about your bible story for tomorrow? How do you tell a story that your students have heard many times in a fresh appealing way?

Maybe your students don’t know that Christmas story as well as they think they do! Here is a Christmas quiz you can give them, With thanks to
Standard Publishing, I’m borrowing a quiz from the VBS Anytime series, “The Incredible Race” which is a wonderful curriculum. Test your Christmas knowledge then see how well your students do.

1. True or False: Mary rode on the back of a donkey to get to Bethlehem.

2. True or False: May gave birth the same night she and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem.

3. True or False: An innkeeper offered them the only accommodations he had left.

4. True or False: Jesus was born in a stable.

5. True or False: Being a perfect baby, Jesus never cried.

6. True or False: Angels appeared to the shepherds, announcing Christ’s birth and singing praises to God.

7. True or False: There were angels present at the manger scene.

8. True or False: A drummer boy accompanied the wise men to the manger.

9. True or False: There were three wise men.

10. True or False: Jesus was born on December 25th.

How well do you think you did? Guess what? All of the questions are false. Most of these assumptions have sprung from tradition but the Bible is silent on these details so therefore, we cannot assume that they are true. We just don’t know! Just because there were three gifts does not necessarily mean there were three Wise men. Donkeys were often used for pack animals. Ladies, can you imagine trying to mount a donkey while nine months pregnant? Songs and pictures of the manger scene are not gospel truth. While there might have been angels at the manger scene, the Bible never says there were. The Drummer Boy is just a song.

I love the one about the manger! Who says a manger has to have been in a stable. It could have been out in a field to provide food for the animals there. We can’t even assume that the straw in the manger was clean!

We do know this. Jesus was born in the lowest of situations and had visitors from the lowest socioeconomic status. What humility! It was enough for the Lord to take human form yet He chose to enter at the world’s lowest level too!

Thank you! Thank you Lord Jesus, for entering our world, born in poverty, death as a criminal. You loved us that much. Thank you!

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