Family Devotional Book

Mighty Acts of God by Starr Meade

I know I always appreciate getting good book recommendations for our kids.  So here is one that we are almost done with and have greatly enjoyed over the past several months.  This book is definitely more for the elementary age child, but one can never underestimate what younger ones have the capacity to learn and understand!  There are 90 stories in the book and are written from a strong reformed viewpoint.

Here is what the author has to say about her approach to writing this Children's Bible story book:

"In this storybook, the focus in each story is on God, not on the human characters in the story. The stories are not presented primarily as moral tales giving children role models to emulate, or as accounts of how God always meets people's needs (as do genies in fairy tales!). Instead, the book's goal is for children to rightly see the God of Scripture, as he presents himself in the Bible's narrative accounts. In this way, the book as a whole provides an overview of the character and attributes of God.

"Taken together, all the stories we read in Scripture of God's mighty acts relate the story of God's mightiest act: his work of redemption. When Satan's schemes and people's sin seemed sure to thwart his plans, God's purpose never faltered; he continued to perform one mighty act after another, all working together to accomplish the plan of redemption he had devised before he had created anything."

It is not uncommon to find Samuel drawing things that he is learning.  On Wednesdays at school they have religion class in the afternoon.  We have opted for Samuel not to participate and therefore, he gets put in another class to sit quietly and read or draw for the afternoon.  We could keep him home but then that would not go over well having Emma returning and not him and visa versa for Emma on Tuesdays. Anyway, Samuel will often come home with something Biblical that was on his mind.  One time he wrote out all the books of the Bible, and yesterday he came home with these drawings.  You can tell from his drawings that the New Testament stories are what we have been reading recently.  So precious.  Thought you would enjoy seeing these too.  We highly recommend this book!

Samuel - Age 9

Food and Jesus

A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community and Mission around the Table by Tim Chester.  I do not anticipate getting an author's comment on this post, but Jonathan has met the author and sat under his teaching last month at a conference.  We so appreciate Chester's perspective on ministry from a European perspective and would highly recommend any book he has written.

The basic premise of A Meal With Jesus is that sharing a meal is far more than just getting a bite to eat. By looking throughout the New Testament, Tim shows us example after example of meals that Jesus was involved in and how often the meal was the setting for something profound. That is true even today. Meals shared with others represent times of fellowship, gatherings of the church, community witness and of course opportunity for mission. As Chester walks us through Luke's Gospel account, we see meals as enacted grace, enacted hope, enacted promise, etc. 

This is not a book about "How we do it and why you should to" but instead "This is how Jesus did it and why He did it and we should all do likewise". 

This is an extremely convicting book that forces you to reevaluate hospitality in your home.  We ourselves have much growth to make in this area.  Hospitality is huge to our ministry and we can and should be doing more to gather people together around a meal.  No excuses, like lack of seating or feeling like the meal needs to be a huge production...I need to keep it simple, approachable (meaning not perfect with my list of high expectations), and see people as the focus, not the food or a clean home.  I appreciated the theological background that Chester gave and then of course some practical helps.

We are attempting to incorporate more meal sharing in our home and will soon endeavor to host a weekly meal for our church family (divided in 2 small groups) followed by a discussion time as we work through the Porterbrook material.  Trying to lead by example in this area for our church family.  And if you will be hearing our furlough presentation this summer, these themes of meals and hospitality will be a huge focus.  Looking forward to sharing with you more in person!

Easter Project

Here is a great little project for your little ones, that helps them focus on the coming celebration of our risen King.  This took all of ten minutes to assemble, including gathering needed items from the yard, and makes a great center piece.  The kids water it with a spray bottle a couple of times a day and hopefully in 3 weeks time we will have a lovely green covering like the one pictured above.

Instructions:
1. Use a tray base from a plant pot
2.  Place a can on the base and cover with potting soil
3.  Add pebbles for the pathway and large stone to cover tomb
4.  Sprikle grass seeds in dirt and cover with a light layer of top soil
5.  Create crosses out of sticks and insert in soil
6.  Keep the soil moist by watering with a spray bottle
7.  Watch, wait and anticipate his resurrection

Note: We have now replaced the potato "stone" with a real one we found on our walk to school today

Rollerblading

We have had spring weather all week, meaning it has been in the upper 60's, almost hitting 70°F.  And although, we are still 3 weeks away from springing forward we are definitely enjoying the longer hours of daylight, meaning the kids get some extra playtime in after school.

The kids have been all about rollerblading since our snow melted.  Emma picked up on it almost instantly and the boys are coming along.  They wanted me to post a video for their grandparents to see.  So here you go!