Low Furness School

This morning Sarah and I went into Low Furness School to do an assembly based upon one of their chosen Christian Values - Respect.  As we had a story, plus a short bible reading as well as the explanation we decided to sing Inright Outright first (as it is a short quick song).  Then Sarah read a story which was a fictitious story about two priests in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem talking about Jesus after he had over turned the money changers tables, then went on to heal many people and children danced and play around in the Temple Courts.  The bible account is found in Matthew 21:12-16.  Sarah read the story which used the word respect many times over, the priests were not happy with what Jesus was doing in the Temple - talking to people about heaven, healing people, allowing children to praise God - they said he wasn't being respectful.  Then when they challenge him in a less than respectful way Jesus respectfully gives them an answer quoting from the scriptures - which doesn't help as the priest should know the scriptures anyway.  After the story I read out of the bible what it really says about the event.  Then Sarah asked the children who had shown more respect in the story she read to them.  I then pointed out that throughout the bible there are loads of examples of respect and in the book of Exodus we have the 10 Commandments. I displayed them on the screen then picked out 7 of them and explained what they mean they were - Do not worship any other gods, Do not misuse the name of God, Keep the Sabbath holy, Honour your father and mother, Do not murder, Do not steal and Do not lie.  I explained that three of them show respect to God and the other four respect for other people.  Following this we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord - as the children in the story had done just that in the Temple Courts.  Sarah closed the assembly with a prayer.