Advent readings with children

I’ve tried to stress Advent season for our church this year, which may be a new thing for some folks. One question that may come up is how to observe this as a family – and with that, how do you include children?

One thing we have done this year is to use one of my favorite children’s books, “The Jesus Storybook Bible” at bedtime. I begin by asking the kids what season we are in, and then asking what we do during Advent. The answer, by the way, is that we prepare and watch for Jesus. Then we read a story from the Jesus storybook bible.

Anne found a great little resource to help with this on the blog of Adriel Booker, where she lays out a schedule matching a reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible with each day in December leading up to Christmas. She even has a pdf file you can open and print out (as we did).

If you have young children, or even if you don’t, the Jesus Storybook Bible is a terrific resource. It intentionally shows how the stories of scripture point towards Christ. The subtitle of the book is “Every story whispers his name,” and the power of this particular storybook bible is that it does this in a powerful way. This easily leads to a few simple questions you can have with your children in order to both teach and anticipate together the coming of Christ.

Sharing the Divine Life

The prayer for the week last week out of the Divine Hours is:
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Wesleyan movement focused on holiness in a way that really connected and affected people in their day. Holiness in the Wesleyan sense, is the idea that God’s sanctifying grace will work in the life and heart of the believer and continue to perfect them. In other words, God loves you as you are, but God loves you too much to leave you there. Holiness – the Wesleyan perspective is that we ought to expect something to happen in us, by the Holy Spirit, because of Christ, to the glory of God the Father.

There are a couple of articles that I have been meaning to link for a bit that have to do with discipleship. I’ve been thinking about what it means to make disciples in the church and what that implies in regards to our leadership (or more specifically my leadership). Are we focused on the depth of people’s relationships with Christ? What does that look like? How do we lead in that? The first article is in regards to leadership and it is titled “An Unspoiled View.” The second article is a brief interview on the blog “Church Marketing Sucks,” and I linked it specifically because it mentions counting “life change” in coming up with measurements by which to judge the effectiveness of the church. They are interesting reading.

One of my biggest desires is to be in the midst of something exciting that God is doing – and God’s restoration of the human dignity that He created is an exciting thing to see, every time I catch a glimpse of it.

If you’re tired of hearing my voice…

I’ve been wanting to post a link to a couple of sermons by a seminary friend of mine from Pennsylvania, Seth McPherson (pictured here, right side up).  The first sermon is one from awhile ago that deals with beauty and thinking about beauty from a Christian perspective.  He interviews the beauty editor for Seventeen Magazine, and it’s a pretty interesting message.

The second message is from two weeks ago, and the neat thing is that we both preached from the same text in 2 Kings – Elijah going up in the whirlwind.  We emphasized two different things and it was neat to hear Seth after I had studied the passage myself.  So, here is the link to that sermon.

Enjoy.  And if you do, remember that we are both Asbury Seminary trained and approved.  Oh, and I should mention – Seth has some awesome tatoos, but I couldn’t find pictures of them on his website.  So send him email if you’re interested…

Podcast update and some links

This week we had a guest speaker at Carson City UMC – Tammy McDonald from “Saved by God’s Grace” ministries.  Tammy gave her testimony on how she and her husband, Chuck, were called into missionary work in Kenya to care for orphans and build a church.  Tammy’s testimony was amazing and it was striking to hear her humanity in the midst of God’s calling.  Tammy and Chuck had retirement dreams of building up a nest egg and traveling the country together.  They were not a couple who refrained from giving.  They were generous.  But God had more in mind for them, and that “more” involved Kenya.  Read more about the McDonald’s on their website here.
Continue reading “Podcast update and some links”

In Memoriam

This past Monday Michael Spencer passed away.  He was 53.  I never met him, but often read his blog and even more often listened to his podcasts.  It feels strange to be mourning for someone I never met, but I feel pretty sad about the whole thing.  The way he wrote connected with me, and with many others (as it turns out).  I browse some blogs – but not many at all anymore.  However, Michael’s was one I paid attention to.

I guess the thing that strikes me the most is the senselessness of the loss.  I have seen this too often.  He was young.  He had a family.  He was contributing in a meaningful way by teaching and being a chaplain for a Baptist School in the Appalachian Mountains that served as a missionary outpost as much as anything.  His ministry was far from over as far as being fruitful and effective.  His writings on the internet made his blog one of the top Christian blogs out there, and it constantly provided insight, honesty, grace, and encouragement for many Christians who were struggling with how to live out their faith in a crazy world.  A couple of times I had an email written to him that I deleted.  It would sound too silly, I thought.  He probably gets too many of these things, I told myself.  I had just wanted to tell him thank you and encourage him in what he was doing, but I didn’t.  And now I wish I would have.

Here is one of the pieces that Michael wrote that stands out most in my memory.

Bible Reading plans

I had someone ask me about a Bible reading plan recently, and I’m always pleased when I get that question, because it means someone is seriously trying to get into Scripture.  There are many Bible reading plans online that can meet all sorts of needs, but I’ll point out just a few and give some thoughts I have in regards to what I’ve learned about reading the Bible.

First, Bible Gateway has several reading plans.  They are going to have one during Lent – I think you can get it by email, or check it daily online.  Here is the link, which will begin to give you readings on Wednesday.  This plan is to read the gospels during the season of Lent, so that may be a helpful thing for you.

Second, here is a 30 reading plan that covers the life of Jesus.  I have not used this plan, but in glancing over it, I think it provides a good guide to read about Jesus for 30 days.  This may be another thing you find helpful for Lent.  You can check it out here.

Third, there are all sorts of reading through the bible in a year plans if you do a search.

Some advice:

  • Many bible reading plans and great intentions get bogged down in Leviticus and Numbers. If you are reading through the Bible for the first time, it is wise to really get to know the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you read just one, I’d suggest John, but they will all work just fine.
  • If you want to read some of the more difficult sections of scripture (I would include Leviticus, Numbers, etc, but also the prophets), here are some suggestions. Read through them with someone else. Develop a reading schedule with them and meet to discuss it weekly. Another suggestion is to find a reading plan that breaks the bible up into 4 readings, New Testament, Old Testament, Psalm, Gospel – that way you are reading different things at once and some of the more difficult books are being read alongside others that are easier reading.
  • There is great value in choosing a particular section of scripture or book and reading that several times. We did this in studying Revelation. The book became more familiar in reading it often, and that allowed it to speak to us better. In seminary I spent a few months reading and rereading the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). I would read and think about 1 chapter per day. I found that to be tremendously shaping for me as the words and concepts could really sink in.
  • Try something, and if it doesn’t work try something else. Don’t give up. There is great value in reading scripture, so stick with it. It can be difficult, but that’s ok. You won’t understand everything. That’s ok. It’s difficult for me often. There are often things I don’t understand, especially at first. But that is where growth comes in.