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.

Russian Orphan opportunity

Below is a video featuring the ministry opportunity Jeff mentioned in class last Sunday. Perhaps this is a near term possibility for our class to practice "Generous Justice", which is the title of Tim Keller's new book on the topic we are now discussing in class. I encourage you to take time to watch and pray how God would have us respond.

TEAR from Jeremy Watkins on Vimeo.

New Year's Questions

Here is a great list of questions from Donald Whitney to ask yourself as you enter 2011. Questions like these are simple but can be really useful to help focus our often cluttered minds, reveal blind spots in our life, and hear from the Lord on what He would have us do to grow spiritually and be in His will.

The first 10 are:

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Read the whole list here.

A Good Time to Hit REFRESH

The end of the year and beginning of a new year is oftentimes where we naturally think about what to change in the patterns, routines, and commitments in our lives as the calendar changes over. If you are in that place, or should be, I found this blog post had some useful nuggets. I liked his idea of this being a time to REFRESH. Read and apply some of these that you connect with.

I have already taken the suggestion to listen to this sermon by John Piper titled Running with the Witnesses. I downloaded this to my iPhone for one of my runs this week and was convicted, challenged, and encouraged by it. Highly recommended! I'd love to hear how it impacts those who listen to it. Takeaway line for me: "Does it Help Me Run?"

Wexford Carol...This is Beautiful

Thanks to Between Two Worlds blog for highlighting this beautiful carol performed by Allison Krauss, who sings like an angel.

The 12th century Wexford Carol:

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born

The night before that happy tide
The noble Virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town
But mark right well what came to pass
From every door repelled, alas
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox’s stall

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God’s angel did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear
Arise and go, the angels said
To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you’ll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born

With thankful heart and joyful mind
The shepherds went the babe to find
And as God’s angel had foretold
They did our Saviour Christ behold
Within a manger he was laid
And by his side a virgin maid
Attending on the Lord of Life
Who came on earth to end all strife

There were three wise men from afar
Directed by a glorious star
And on they wandered night and day
Until they came where Jesus lay
And when they came unto that place
Where our beloved Messiah lay
They humbly cast them at his feet
With gifts of gold and incense sweet.