Week 993 · about 45 minutes
Mark 4
Mark 4 · Memory verse Mark 4:11
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Mark 4), the matching word search and answer key (Mark 4 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a small lamp
Hold a small lamp. Read Mark 4 in about four minutes, stopping at Mark 4:11: “He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Mark 4?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Mark 4 is a real chapter from the New Testament. It starts, “Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “He said to them, “Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand?” Mark 4 opens with these words: “Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down.…” The line to keep is Mark 4:11: “He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,” Carry the word “given” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Mark 4:11: “He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Mark 4? Then try this: Read “He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are…” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through Mark 4. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Mark 4:11. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Mark 4 and write Mark 4:11 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Mark 4:11
“He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Mark 4. Help us remember Mark 4:11 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.