Family Devotions and Discipleship in One Resource

Perfect solution for family devotions

Jim Burns relies on decades of curriculum and devotional writing to produce a fantastic resource for parents. Quality family time is a rare commodity in our fast-paced modern culture these days, but this book could really help slow life down in a fun way.
The layout of the book sets up the leader for great success. The Key Verse and Big Idea sections keep you on track while the Focus section is usually filled with a very provocative story or statement that is sure to generate a buzz around the kitchen table or classroom. The In The Word section is loaded with plenty of scripture and super creative ways to study those passages. I believe this would take all the worries even out of the newest rookie teachers or parents that may be new or shy as leaders of their families. Finally, the Reflect And Apply section drives home the main point with great exercises that I think separate this resource from others that I have seen and used in the past. I think this section above all others gave me the vision for this book that it would work well in adult Sunday school.
If you removed the words "for families" from the title, this book would be perfect for training new believers, discipling college or highschool students or even a Sunday School class. In fact, as I read and used the book with my own family I dreamed about how easily these 52 chapters would make a perfect year's worth of Sunday school lessons for a parents class. While the studies with all the creative exercises for starting conversations probably wouldn't work for children younger than first grade, the little ones in the audience could still benefit from hearing dad, mom, and older siblings interact with God's Word.
"What a creative way to think about that concept!" were the words that kept coming to my mind as I read this book. When you see God's Word come alive with such passion and uniqueness it gets you excited to share the concept with your family. What's not to get excited about topics covered in the book like prayer, basics of Christian living, theology, modern cultural issues like sex and drugs, and relationships.
With all this book offers, when you finished it in a year I think you would want to turn around and do it all over again since all the kids would be a year older and would have new insights and answers.

Family Devotions in a personal and unique style

Our family has kept a tradition for years of reading to our children devotional books or any quality classic for that matter. We have been through the Bible in various forms, Narnia, Little House on the Prairie and countless other books over the last 18 years. This devotional is different than all the others. One simple, yet profound twist in the writing style makes this one interesting and memorable. Instead of reading about God and Jesus this book has Jesus and God speaking to us directly. This is how the Bible should be read and understood. Its God's love letter about His Son to us. I absolutely love the personal nature of this first person style in concept, away. It speaks to the heart and takes very simple passages of Scripture that are overlooked due to familiarity and transforms them to touch our hearts. Even though written for 3rd to 6th graders I find myself captivated by what God has to say to me today.
Today's devotion, September 30th, entitled, I Already Know, is about God being with us and walking beside us to help since He has already lived in our future and knows exactly what we need from Him to live for Him. I took great comfort in this truth presented by this book in a very personal way. I think your family will too. I recommend this book with some precautions to you especially if you are just starting out with family devotions.
As with almost every modern book, sloppy theology has infiltrated this devotional as well. Its so subtle but is especially troublesome with a book that in many ways is most dangerous to write, a book in first person from God. The author has taken a much needed approach  to writing a devotional but a little more theological sobriety would have been nice. Here is the warning for readers and writers of theology. We are dealing with God, His very words to His church and His very character and name are on the chopping block of men's hearts. When I say, "Thus says the Lord!" I better be sure He really did say that. The devotion for October 4th dumped in some of that insidious man-centered theology commonly known as Arminianism. The author, speaking for God mind you, says: "But when you choose to become one of My followers, I come to live inside you." This is unfortunate because the Bible is clear over and over again that we don't choose God first, we don't seek God first, we are dead in sin until God chooses us first. Once we are born again then we are able to have faith, repent, trust and live for Him all as gifts from God. Our spiritual gifts and tools are not inherent from within but from without. (see 1 Cor. 1:30 as one simple example) To be more biblical the author should have said, "When I choose you..."
For this reason, I can only recommend this book for the discerning parent who can glean the junk food theology out of the book for their children.

Church + Home is the ideal combination for growing Christian faith

Mark Holmen of Faith@Home Ministry writes from personal experience as a Faith@Home dad and a Faith@Home pastor on how to build lifelong faith at home. The book is a very quick read filled with personal testimonies as well as other voices from all over the country. I think Mark gets it right when he encourages church leaders to weave home directed faith throughout the church programming instead of building another family program as a separate entity.
I'm just a bit uncomfortable with this self-proclaimed "Faith@Home movement" as it is described in this book and the general tenor of Holmen's ministry. Don't get me wrong, there is tremendous spiritual advantages as we as church leaders discuss and plan how to encourage families to bring glory to God at home. However, as I finished the book I was left with a few haunting reminders of how easy it is for the church in general to get caught up in systematic programming combined with sloppy theology thus detracting from Christ and clear vision of God's sovereign plan. All the events and steps in the Take It Home concepts are, I'm sorry to say, more programs. When you plan a regular event at the church it is a program. It very much has the feel of a silo, the very thing, I know Holmen wants to avoid. Here is the point: as a church gathers to worship Christ, preach and respond to a Gospel that no one ever outgrows, and studies in such a way to believe the Bible and live out the Bible, then you know from the Word that the Holy Spirit is behind the scenes orchestrating it all. I saw very little confidence in the work of Holy Spirit in this book as the driver of parents hearts to bring to bear the Word of God to fruitfulness. I saw hints of a man centered approach to salvation as all the pressure was placed upon the church leaders and the parents to bring faith to the home or another generation will be lost for Christ. I don't buy it. God uses His vessels certainly as He is a God of means but all the pressure is on Him to build His church.
The "movement" to build the Church was started at the cross and it includes every area of life and practice including the home. Its interesting to me that the New Testament constantly directs us to the Cross and to the Church. I think that the Bible writers were able to assume by God's inspiration that faith was going to be taken to the marketplace, the town, the countryside and the home. True God wrought conversion does that to a person. I think the main problem that Holmen exposes but never realizes is that faith is so often not at home because its not at the church or in the typical 'seeker' style entertainment driven church goer. Parents are not saved and that is why faith is not at home. The answer is the gospel, a true God centered gospel and not a Finney bootstrap false gospel.
Finally, all in all, I enjoyed the book as it was another reminder in my life to disciple my own children in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6. For this reason alone I give this book a thumbs up.

Is your God big enough?

How big is your God when times are tough, the mission impossible and the knees are weak? Big God is a new book by Britt Merrick on one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Hebrews 11. "We need a bigger picture of the supremacy of Christ, the glory of Christ and the mission of Christ, and our lives should be subsumed by and submitted to Him." pg. 219 When your heart is overwhelmed with the worst possible news about life and death you better know some Bible, you better know Jesus. The central message of this book and why its worth reading in Britt's own words: "What do you do as a Christian when the doctor tells you that your five-year-old has cancer? How do you deal with that? If you're a Christian, your mind goes to Jesus." pg. 18. This book helps you along that path by exploring nine key elements of faith from Hebrews chapter eleven.
Another book about God and faith seemed a bit of a stretch for me with all the thousands of titles written on the subject in the last decade alone, not to mention antiquity. Britt disarms those thoughts as soon as you read the introduction and sense that this man has been battle tested with Jesus, through the Scriptures, anchoring this man's soul in very rough seas. The easy to read and understand exposition of the great faith chapter, Hebrews 11 was very well done and laid out. I wish for scholarship sake that he would have been defined the origin of faith itself as coming from God Himself as a gift and actual result of regeneration. (Rom. 10:17, Eph. 2:8-10, Titus 3:3-8)
Regardless, I was moved closer to Christ and encouraged to press on with the Gospel message and that is the benchmark for a book worth reading and recommending. You will be impressed, as was I, by his very high view of the Scriptures, Christ and the glory of God. The Solas of the reformation ring true and bright with this one. Britt, thank you for your work on this. You can warm yourself by my theological fire anytime.
http://biggodthebook.com/
Note: I received a free copy of this book from Gospel Light / Regal Books with no expectations or endorsements required. I write these words under my own motivation and desires.

How to connect the family to the Bible and church

How in the world can the church effectively connect the Sunday school efforts, the Word of God, and the family together? Within the context of modern society this seems like an impossible task given all the activities and 'pulls' on the family. Sitting around the crackling fire all snuggled up with each other as dad gently draws on his pipe while turning the pages of Scripture in an engaging Bible devotion seems totally foreign today. Is it possible to capture that lost innocence and direct the same spirit of family time into modern constructs? Heaven help the home and the church if we can't or stop trying.
I want to share with you some ideas and some examples of how one Sunday school publisher is trying to establish the connections.

 As a dad, the biggest hurdle I face is motivation to remember to ask what my kids learned in Sunday school. If I do remember they usually don't remember what they learned. It could be that my question is just too big and too broad to help them focus. I'm looking forward to this solution: automatic, weekly emails that will be delivered to me early in the week so we can review Sunday school easily. I look forward to the simple reminder from myhomelight.com

Another issue we face is kids and their Bibles. Often we have struggled in this area because when they do take their bibles to class they are a different translation and different page numberings  making it tough for the teachers to get the kids to use their own bibles. Now with God's Story for Me Bible Storybook we have a great resource at home that matches story for story what is going on in Sunday School. No more guess work and the children actually use their bibles at home and in class.

"Give me something practical and easy!" is no doubt the battle cry of men. I need something really quick and visual that I can point to or ask about concerning the Sunday school lesson. The kids are doing these fun in class activity pages that end up coming home too. Its amazing to me how much the kids want to show off what they were doing in class. The level of recall as they point out the different parts and pieces of this resource is pretty impressive. Since I wasn't raised in Sunday school I think I'm learning too.

I remember the days of being in children's ministry and the difficulty of seeing take homes not being taken home. I think these Family Fun Time take homes have a great chance of making it home. The parenting articles are great. The retelling of the story in an interactive way is fun and it references what page to turn to in the God's Story for Me Bible which is a huge bonus.

Another area that I often forget about is the music. I know that kid's Sunday School is always filled with music. Everyone remembers the words to their favorite songs even from 30 years ago in high school. This music from Gospel Light makes it very family friendly. Its reproducible and now we can have a free copy of what they are using at the church for home use. Great idea and the songs are fun. Yes, I sing along in the minivan too.

Finally, I think its terrific that the second hour Children's Church is using a curriculum that actually matches story for story with the first hour Sunday School programming. I always found it difficult to try to help the kids keep up with too many stories in the morning. How many times have they been talking about a story only to get confused about the other story in the other class. "No son, Jesus did not walk out on the water to visit Noah in the ark!"

Nothing is perfect when it comes to raising kids and teaching them at church but I think Gospel Light is doing a pretty good job.The Bible. Pure and Simple. Sounds good to me.

NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible is quality worth reading for the coffee table

NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible is a Bible story book with so much more. 250 favorite Bible stories using the actual Bible text from the New King James version makes this book quite unique. These are not paraphrases or loosely translated retellings of the stories but the Bible divided into stories. With a fabulous old school cover this will look great in the family room or on the coffee table. While I would have liked to see an additional scripture index in the back I like the content, selection of stories and the arrangement. This will work very well for family devotions or anyone on your gift list that you would like to introduce to the bible without overwhelming them. I was a bit curious when I ordered the book if I was going to find value in another bible offering because aren't there enough Bibles of various kinds on the market already? Well, I was pleased with my copy and hope to use it in the mix of our family's story time selections.

I received this book free with the Nelson blogger program. Nelson in no way sways opinions from their bloggers.