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.

VBS: friend or foe!

VBS, Vacation Bible School. What thoughts do these words conjure up in our minds? I guess even a better question we need to ask of VBS is why? Why do we take the time, money and manpower to pull off the biggest children's programming of the year? Evangelism. A good plan coupled with a solid evangelism everyday curriculum is designed to introduce children, teens and adults to the word of God so they can have a relationship with Jesus. The gospel has to be packed into every lesson, every day. I know as well as you that many children may only show up at our churches for this one event and for maybe just a day or two at that. For those naysayer kids who proclaim, "I already know all that Jesus stuff and salvation stuff!" are the kids who don't have a 'heart clue' but only head knowledge. The gospel never gets old for true believers and is fresh and exciting to lost sinners who are being moved by God to repent and believe. (See Acts 16:14 for real proof of this.)

VBS is one of those 'everyone wins' programs. If I only had 10 kids in the church and 5 of them were my own, I would still put on a vbs, invite the community's kids and have a great time. Along with summer camps, VBS is one of those ongoing programs that brings back the fondest memories in us adults. Personally, I don't remember one Sunday school lesson from my youth but I remember camp and vbs and know that Christ was first introduced to me there in the mid 70s.
From my own ministry experience, VBS from Gospel Light has been very good to me and faithfully accomplished the 3 key things I look for in any curriculum: (in this order) 1. The gospel of Christ is clearly proclaimed. 2. The kids through all the elements are driven back to the scriptures as the only way to find Christ and that gospel. 3. Fun theme in all the elements that keep the kids coming back day after day so the first two can be accomplished.
Gospel Light always seems to accomplish that for me.

Ditching a tried and true program for other programming and re-allocating budgets may certainly be what you need to do or are being forced to do but, wow!, giving up a week to spend and be spent on creating incredible gospel memories in kid's lives is totally priceless. Implanted memories that last require two key elements that only camps, retreats and vbs supply: length of time and repetitive imprints. My week long camping adventures on rivers, mountains etc come back to my mind in almost perfect recall as opposed to a little weekend trip or overnighter. Don't give up on VBS unless you can replace it with something equal or greater in total memory recall ability!