Good Friday Class Idea?

Something to consider doing together and with invitees for a class event on Good Friday, April 22. See link here and video below:

Secret Church Logo (Black Logo) from LifeWay Productions on Vimeo.

Leading Family Worship

From Desiring God blog here is link to audio of a talk by Joel Beeke at a recent conference, on leading worship in your homes with your family. Below are some of the useful ideas discussed in the talk. Good thoughts here for all of us who desire to do this but have never had this modeled for us or had an example to follow.

• Family worship is invaluable. For the last 17 years of my life, I can say that family worship is the most important thing I do. It is the highlight of my day.
• Our God is a family God. He is a Triune God. He has an inter-trinitarion relationship. He deals with families throughout the Old Testament and the New in the terms of Covenant and into Representative Headship.
• Family worship requires some preparation. Have your Bibles ready, and maybe an additional book — a devotional. Choose some Psalms and Hymns that are easy to sing.
• Don't make Family Worship too long and provoke your children. Maybe 10 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night.
• Maybe you lost your temper a few minutes ago and you are in no mood to do family worship. A.W. Pink says this is all the more reason to do family worship. Confess your sins immediately and move on in worship. Your family worship will even have more meaning to you that night.
• Lead your Family Worship with a firm fatherly hand and a soft penitent heart. Talk naturally yet reverentally with your children.
• Involve the whole family in the reading, as soon as your children can read. Even before they can read, give them a Bible. If you have 20 verses to read and you have 5 people in your family, each reader should take 4 verses.
• In your instruction be plain in meaning, pure in doctrine, relevant in application, and affectionate in manner.
• Be short in your prayers when your children are young: 3-5 minutes when your children are young, 7-8 minutes when your children are older. Be simple in your prayers without being shallow. Be direct in your prayers, naming your children by name and spread out their needs one by one before God.
• God often uses family worship and devotional life to save souls.
• Family worship helps to promote family harmony in sickness, sadness and death. It creates a context to speak about things. If you can speak about intimate, sacred and tender things, then you can speak about anything throughout the day.

Christianity: Unlike Religion

From Between Two Worlds blog:

“In a sermon Dick Lucas once preached, he recounted an imaginary conversation between an early Christian and her neighbor in Rome.

“Ah,” the neighbor says. “I hear you are religious! Great! Religion is a good thing. Where is your temple or holy place?”

“We don’t have a temple,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our temple.”

“No temple? But where do your priests work and do their ritual?”

“We don’t have priests to mediate the presence of God,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our priest.”

“No priests? But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God?”

“We don’t need a sacrifice,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our sacrifice.”

“What kind of religion is this?” sputters the pagan neighbor.

And the answer is, it’s no kind of religion at all.”
—Tim Keller, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, p. 48.