Advent Devotionals

Here are some links to some free devotional material for Advent that might be useful for you and your family. These can provide a "track to run on" in helping your family focus on the coming of Jesus Christ amidst all of the busyness of the season. Enjoy!

Park Street Church Advent

Mark D. Roberts

Christ the King Advent Devotionals

Thoughts on being grateful

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I found this short article really spoke to me about the struggle I have being grateful for what I have been given, for the things that now seem "normal". Perhaps on Thanksgiving day it will speak to you to. Here's an excerpt:

Russell Moore:

“If I hear the word ‘Daddy’ again, I’m going to scream!”

I heard myself saying those words. And, in my defense, it was loud around here. I was trying to work on something, and all I could hear were feet pounding down the stairs with four boys competing with one another to tell me one thing after another. I just wanted five minutes of silence.

My vocal chords were still vibrating when an image hit my brain. It was the picture of me, on my face, praying for children. The house was certainly quiet then. And in those years of infertility and miscarriage and seemingly unanswered prayers, I would have given anything to hear steps on that staircase. I feared I would never hear the word “Daddy,” ever, directed to me. Come to think of it, I even wrote a book about the Christian cry of “Abba, Father.”

And now I was annoyed. Why? It wasn’t that I’d changed my mind about the blessing of children. It was that my family had become “normal” to me. In the absence of children, the blessing was forefront on my mind. But in their presence, they’d become expected, part of what I expected from my day-to-day existence. And that’s what’s so dangerous.

Gratitude is spiritual warfare. I’m convinced my turn of imagination that day was conviction of sin, a personal uprooting of my own idolatry by the Spirit of Christ. What I need to fear most is what seems normal to me.

Read the rest.

Daddy Christmas Tips

Here's a challenge to all the dads to be intentional with your family this Christmas.

Mark Driscoll:

1. Dad needs a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?
2. Dad needs to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt, bless, and serve?
3. Dad needs to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is you calendar ready for December?
4. Dad needs to not let the stress of the holidays, including money, cause him to be grumpy with Mom or the kids. Dad, how’s your joy?
5. Dad needs to make memories and not just give gifts. Dad, what special memories can you make this holiday season?
6. Dad needs to manage the extended family and friends during the holidays. Dad, who or what do you need to say “no” to?
7. Dad needs to schedule a big Christmas date with his daughter(s). Dad, what’s your big plan for the fancy Daddy-daughter date?
8. Dad needs to schedule guy time with his son(s). Dad, what are you and your son(s) going to do that is active, outdoors, and fun?
9. Dad needs to help get the house decorated. Dad, are you really a big help to Mom with getting things ready?
10. Dad needs to ensure there are some holiday smells and sounds. Dad, is Christmas music on the iPod, is the tree up, can you smell cookies and cider?

C.S. Lewis quote

Here is the C.S. Lewis quote I referred to in class this morning.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. "
- C. S. Lewis, from the The Weight of Glory

November 7 Class

On Sunday November 7 we will discuss Session 4 in the Gospel in Life study. Here is the description:

"SESSION 4: COMMUNITY – THE CONTEXT FOR CHANGE
In Session 4 we see that the church is “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). It is a new humanity, a new community of people under the Lordship of Christ. We need to create a great community because that is, according to Jesus in John 17, a crucial way to show the world that we are truly followers of Christ. In fact, we see that we will not know God, change deeply, or win the world apart from community."

Read the Home Study on pp. 56-72 in preparation for class. Hope to see everyone there!

Christians and Halloween

I found this blog post thought-provoking - I'm wondering what the class thinks after reading. Reply in the comments if you have a perspective.

Here is a brief section from the article that includes a question:

So I went to two or three others houses, got basically the same story. The dark houses where the Christians live. They were all at church having a harvest festival.

Why? Why would a Christian choose not to be at home on the night that 82 children walk up to your front door? What on earth would possess a Christian not to want to be there?

Read the whole post here.

October 31 Class: New Room #336

Just a reminder we will meet in our new room this Sunday, #336 right down the hall from our previous room.

We will plan to continue our lesson on Idolatry -see the description on the October 24 post below.

Hope to see everyone there!