A: Books, CDs, Classes! Q: What's new in Children's Ministry?

-Saturday, November 12 from 9:30-3pm
-Students in grades 3-12 invited with a parent.
-Lunch and snacks provided.
-RSVP to the Evite sent to your inbox.

Kids Community is off to a terrific start with Pilgrim's Progress!  The kids are journeying with Christian as he leaves the City of Destruction and travels to the Celestial City.

Parents, your child should be coming home with On the Go take-home page.  This is a great recap of what was learned, and includes a quick note to you each week!

For kids in grades 3-5, On the Go Plus is an activity sheet for kids to complete at home and bring back each Sunday.  This will begin training our kids in the spiritual discipline of reading God's word daily.

 Systematic Theology....for kids?

 Yes! This is an excellent resource to enjoy with your children while teaching them foundational truths of our faith in the reformed tradition.
 
The Ology - Ancient Truths Ever New is a book my daughter Eva and I have been working through.  Great for kids in elementary school, this book takes bite-sized pieces of deep concepts and makes them easier to grasp.  Endearing and interesting illustrations and concrete analogies are linked with excellent teaching.  Begins with Creation and ends with Christ's return, touching on every major doctrine of the Reformed Christian faith.

This book captivates a child's mind and gives "handles" to hold onto good doctrine.  It's well done!  Great for family devotions and or for bedtime reading a few times per week. 
The Ology-Ancient Truths Ever New hardcover 

Companion music CD is also available on Amazon.

Keith and Kristyn Getty's music 

We love what a gift it is for the church.  New CD and songbook with arrangements a bit more kid-friendly, while retaining the gospel-centered lyrics and rich harmonies.

Getty Kids Hymnal

Why needing Jesus looks a lot like needing each other

So, one thing we know is that we need Jesus.  I need Him; you need Him, amen and amen.  

I love it when we can agree!  Moving on...  

This week, I have been very aware of my need, not just for involvement but intervention, really.  Come, Lord Jesus!  "Softly and Tenderly," an old gospel song,  has been on repeat.  (Incidentally, this was penned by an Ohioan - O-H-I-O! - and was often heard on the lips of my precious, faith-filled great-grandma.  Audrey Assad has an incredible version! Google it.)

Back to this week.  Spiritual disciplines have been in place for me to meet with God in the morning:  

• Great coffee
• favorite pen and dull-ish pencil
• two journals these days -one for general spiritual recording; one dedicated to gratitude (so deep is my need to give thanks to the Lord, to remember he is good - received as a gift from a true friend!)
• The Big Ugly (my affectionate and irreverent name for my trusty black, white and orange ESV, packing-taped Bible.  Seriously, who designs a hardback Bible in stark orange, black and white? But it has notes from the last 10 years and I cannot trade up.)
• Kleenex.  Stuff happens when I meet with the Lord!  You, too? 

So, there I've been, meeting with God, knowing my need for Jesus.  Doing the right things.  And yet!  Not knowing abiding peace; struggling to get outside of my own head.  My "wisdom" clamoring for control.

I am writing this on Thursday and twice per month on Thursday morning, I meet with my friend Patti to talk and pray.  Do you even know the battle that exists in my heart and the plethora of excuses that rationalize canceling?  Oh my friends, we have an enemy! But greater is He that lives in me than he that lives in the world (1 John 4:4).  We meet and talk. I get to listen to her life and dump the contents of mine.  

Then comes the power.  This is how I know that needing Jesus looks a lot like needing each other:  I have been praying all week, alone.  While God by his Spirit meets me in private prayer, there is something further, something deeper that happens when I pray with a friend.  Walls crash down.  There is a deep sense of humility in praying with a trusted friend with vulnerability of need.  There is a deep sense of faith being strengthened when my friend prays for me. Today, in keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, she prayed in a way that my spirit desperately needed but could not identify or muster alone.  My fear, anger, pride all laid bare but simultaneously covered by the righteousness of Christ's life. My unsavory stuff was confessed but I didn't feel spiritually naked-  I felt cleansed.  
And because we serve an unbelievably gracious God, I could pray in power for my friend, because sin doesn't have the final say.  We are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).  

Final word:  We.  The Trinity is a "we" - one God in three Persons. As believers in Jesus Christ, we- individually- come together to form one family, one body, one Church.  Interconnected.  Like living stones being built up as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2). 

Friends, this is why needing Jesus looks a lot like needing each other. 
 

All That Is Within Me

It's time to begin, isn't it?

Time to start a new year with a bit of introspection. 

Where do you look?  Psalm 86:11 says, "[G]ive me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name" (NIV).  Look at your heart, your affections.  What thoughts dominate the landscape of your mind?  Do they line up with biblical truth or are they in contradiction?  What are you holding onto?  Is there a pursuit or passion that overshadows devotion to Christ?  Is there a sin keeping you away from fellowship and instead, in the shadows?

How do you know if you have a divided heart?  Here is a key identifier in my life:  A general sense of unrest.  Psalm 62:1 tells us that "My soul finds rest in God..." (NIV).  What about you?  Are there excuses that keep you from daily, personal worship of God?  Do you pray about this area of your life, but not that one?  Are you free to confess this struggle, but would not speak of that one?  Is there an addiction or vice which continues to overtake you? Nursing that "pet sin," muting His still, small voice with yours ("It's not that bad!")  - these divide our hearts. A divided heart does not seek God easily or fully.   A divided heart is not at rest. 

Yet, we were created for rest for our souls and Jesus promises it to the weary, with a condition:  "Come to me....you will find rest for your souls!" (Matthew 11:28-29.)  He gives the rest, but we have to "come."  So we have this promise with a condition and now also a command.  Look at Psalm 103:1:  "Bless the Lord, O my soul, ALL that is within me, bless his holy name."  We are commanded to bless the Lord with our whole beings.  Why? The deepest need of our hearts is to bless the Lord.  

But we fall so short, and though the struggle is real, we do not lose hope!  Sin's symptoms diagnose our great need for the Great Physician.  We rejoice that God is a relentless pursuer, that the Spirit is an ever-present counselor and convictor.  We rejoice and are humbled that our Jesus -merciful and faithful High Priest - sympathizes with our weaknesses, because he in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet was without sin!  (Hebrews 4:15, ESV.) Look at that - all of God delights in uniting our hearts to his; Father, Son, Holy Spirit works to accomplish this.   

There is hope for 2016.  Your heart and mine can proclaim with the psalmist, "All that is within me, bless His holy name!"  It will take work.  

It's time to begin. 

 

The Gift of Magnifying Glasses & God's Kindness

I was given a good gift this morning:  I had just enough alertness, just enough desire to ask God to help me see something from his Word. I have been lacking faith and giving in to fear. In fact, this seems to be a theme in my family - work fears, school fears, friend fears, future fears. We're dealing with some stuff!  So, the Captain Obvious in me sensed it was time to be open to the Lord.  A stellar cup of coffee (with real cream!), my Bible, journal, favorite pen,  mediocre pencil, and I was ready.

I pushed Advent devotionals aside and opened the Bible to Luke 1.  If you are curious about what happens when the Godhead, angelic and human beings converge, look no further than Luke 1.  If you, too, are struggling with fears, you will find encouragement here.  Instruction for next steps is here, too.  Two angelic visitations are must-reads this season:  Gabriel appears to Zechariah to prophesy the birth of John the Baptist, and then to Mary the birth of Jesus.  It's what the angel says and how the people respond (and why) that gives me pause.

First:  "Do not be afraid,"  Gabriel tells Zechariah and Mary (ESV).  As he gives them a command, he also calls them by name. This must have brought comfort- the God who sent him knows their name.  Further, as Gabriel commands them not to fear (when fear is the very natural human response), it is like he is pointing out a fork in the road and the choice inherent. Stay in fear and disbelief, or move on in faith which leads to transformation.  One road is less traveled by.  Often, when I am stuck in  fear-mode, I am unaware of it.  Angelic encounters are not my norm, so my Wonderful Counselor, the Holy Spirit, must point it out. This is one of his functions for believers: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth," (John 16:13). This is the tone it seems Gabriel uses for Zechariah and Mary.  They are frightened and need to be reassured of truth:  God knows them; they do not have to know fear. 

Second, these visited people do not merely listen to Gabriel; they ask questions!  God communicates with his people, and these encounters in Scripture are one way we see the relational nature of God.  Zechariah and Mary both have questions, and Gabriel answers.  Zechariah seems to push back in his questioning.  (I like Gabriel's over-riding response to this priest:  "I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you...!" Luke 1:19.)  Mary's question seems to be a request for details: "How can this be...?"  Zechariah is silenced.  Mary is given opportunity to respond in faith!

These holy encounters bring encouragement to me and they also give next steps!  Mary's faith has surpassed her fear.  How? She states what is true - "I am the Lord's servant."  She submits herself to God's will - "Let it be to me according to your word," (Luke 1:38). Then she takes it one crucial step further.

Mary hurries off to visit Elizabeth- her cousin and Zechariah's wife. The Holy Spirit has come upon them both, and they burst into praise of the Most High.  Mary's song is staggering.  She begins, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."  Consider that first phrase.  We exist to magnify or make much of something or someone.  Furthermore, what we make much of looms larger in our minds; our minds are key to our transformation ("Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," Romans 12:2).  Profoundly, Mary declares that her soul makes much of God!  She is living with a magnifying glass over God's goodness.  Truth transforms our minds; praise has shaped Mary's soul! 

Zechariah turns to praise, with time.  Outward praise was not possible for him as a first faith-response, though, as the angel silenced him for unbelief.  A few verses prior, we are told that Zechariah and Elizabeth "were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord" (v. 6).  This is not an ungodly man, but rather a God-fearing man who had forgotten to look to truth and perhaps looked to human reasoning.  And so he waits nine months in silence.  When the silence is lifted, much like Mary and Elizabeth, he was filled with the Holy Spirit  and "he spoke, blessing God" and he prophesied powerfully.

I am more like Zechariah than Mary.  I can quickly turn to magnifying human reason; I can push back with demands in questioning God's plan.  I can experience the consequences, too, because these actions equate to a prideful heart, not a humble one. 

Oh, to be like Mary - that our souls magnify the Lord! Resting in the knowledge that God knows us and goes before us with his good purposes.  Renewing our minds with truth and so be transformed.  Like Mary - whose magnifying glass on God's goodness resulted in a megaphone of praise.  

The good gift I received today?  The kindness of God leading me to repentance, which resulted in my heart praising Him (Romans 2:4).  He was so kind to answer my prayer to meet me.  He uncovered my fear, so that I could confess it.  God met me in my fear to move me to faith.  Finding my voice in Mary's: "My soul magnifies the Lord.  My spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

Christmas Prep :: "C'mon In!"

Into our hearts and homes,

Come Lord Jesus

“C’mon in!”  I love those friendly, beckoning words.  I had the sweetness of growing up just blocks from my maternal grandparents, and an open invitation to come.  I loved going to Papa’s and Grandma’s house!  When I would call ahead, they would be waiting at the door with warm hugs and smiles.  “C’mon in!  Are you hungry or thirsty?  Do you want some pop?  There’s candy in the dish!”  My grandparents were always ready and eager to welcome me (and my brother, cousins, and even friends).  They were always stocked up on that which drew us the most:  sweet treats, time, and attention.  In a word, it was love beckoning us to come.

We are in the season of Advent.  Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter.  One aspect I love about this season is that it is a set period of time with clearly defined borders!  There is an intensity to the Christmas season that could not be sustained year-round.  And so it presents a distinct opportunity for the believer or seeker.  For 25 or so days, we get to re-order our calendars, our homes, our hearts as we prepare for  Christmas.  Observing Advent with is an intentional way that we remind ourselves for what - or for whom - we prepare.

This Advent, I want to welcome Jesus into my days in the way that my grandparents welcomed me.  Is my heart eager?  Have I made room?   I am not Super-Christian; I need practical helps and resources.  Our favorite is the Advent wreath that makes the centerpiece of our kitchen table.  When our children were little, we lit the candles each night, dimmed the lights and enjoyed the elegant feel!  (Yes, even with toddlers!)  Then, we sang a Christmas carol to end our meal.  At some point, pre-teens deemed the singing awkward.  In came a family Advent devotional that we read during dinner.  (http://theccckids.blogspot.com/2015/12/advent-devotional-ideas-for-individuals.html has Advent devotional book ideas.)  The visual of the candles, the focus on Christ in the reading or singing - wow!  Powerful and effective heart recalibration all throughout December.  

God came near in the person of Christ.  Let it be said that we are people with ears to hear God beckoning us, “Come!”   

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart….”  (Hebrews 10:22)

Advent Devotional Ideas for Individuals and Families

                           

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Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 

What I like about this book targeted to families:                     

1)  It's comprehensive - providing a reading scripture, 

discussion starter-questions and then 

follow-up scripture verses for taking it deeper. 

2)  The daily readings seems applicable and accessible.  

This hits the sweet spot for a family like ours with

elementary, middle and high school kids. 

3) It's affordable.  $1.99 on a Kindle right now.  I went old-school and bought it hard-back for $9.99.

Good News of Great Joy 

What I like about this book targeted for adults

1)  It's John Piper.  It will not be Christmas Cotton Candy.                               

2)  Refer to number one.  Just kidding. It is

written at a level teens and tweens can grab hold of,

if they have the desire.  Some words will need adult

explanation or a handy dictionary.

3)  It's brief and yet very thought- provoking.

"Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight.  

It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior."

Prepare Him Room

What I like about this book targeted for young families:
with busy families in mind, and therefore contains three
devotional readings per week.  No falling behind or
reason to stress during the weeks with concerts and parties
that exceed bedtime or don't find us home for the dinner hour.
That's money well spent!

1)  The intentionality of the structure. See quote below.

2)  There is a beautifully, scored, powerfully written CD that
can be purchased in tandem.  I highly recommend it.  If the
book is geared towards children, then the CD is geared toward
adults = win, win.

3)  Comprehensively written by a man who has ministered to 
children and families in the church for decades and gets it.

"Prepare Him Room is divided into 4 sections each with 3 parts. 
Each section covers a week, offering 3 devotions per week. 
The layout for each week covers three main topics: 
1) God's Promise, 2) The Angel's Announcement, and 
3) The Fulfillment of God's Plan."

Drawback:  This is brand-new from a small publisher and will be at a higher price point.
Still, combined with the CD, I think it is money well spent.

December Scripture Writing Plan
 Here is what this blog-author has to say:

 "Writing scripture down each day is such a great way to really focus on God's word!
During this super crazy hectic time of year- this is one way to spend a few minutes each day focusing on what is truly important!"       

I can attest that one key way I hide God's word in my heart is by writing it out in my journal.  Reading is great, but writing forces me to slow down, copying it precisely. Read and re-read, meditate on it (which is basically just thinking intentionally and prayerfully) and then I pray about it.
                                                                                                          

Dads - Lead the way! A letter from your Pastor

Dads, 

Again this Thanksgiving, my family will base our expressions of thankfulness to the Lord on the five "L's" of our family motto: Love, Lord, Learn, Laugh and Leave.  I recommend this very practical way you can facilitate sharing and prayer around your table this year.  You can tailor this to the ages and stages of your family members.

Where to start?  I introduce our time by providing a card with the five L's written on it. Prompt with a question related to each word, and then give a few minutes to allow family members to jot their thoughts down. (Young children may enjoy drawing pictures instead.)  As people share aloud, I record their thoughts and emailed them to turn these thoughts into prayers for the coming year.

Laugh. Begin with lightheartedness:  "What made you laugh this past year?" (An embarrassing moment, a favorite TV show, a favorite sport's event.)

Love.  "What do you love more at the end of this year than you did at the beginning?" (Sleeping in, school, daily personal worship, unhurried family time). 

Learn.  "What life-lesson did God teach you this year? (Maybe a lesson related to one of the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.)

Leave.  "What did you leave behind this year? (Middle school, a sport or hobby you used to live for but now have outgrown, a friend who was not such a 'good' friend, etc.). 

 

Lord.  Taking it deeper:  "How have you grown in your love of Jesus this year?"  Or, "What did you leave behind in order to follow harder after Jesus this year?"

Men, this may seem risky!  You may need to lead in an area that does not come naturally for you. Listen, it will be worth it. Inevitably, the five L's not only promote personal sharing about the past year- they help give direction to our discussions and prayer for the coming year.  Regardless of a family's season of life, much of our human experiences relate to Love, Lord, Learn, Laugh and Leave.  Keeping notes over the coming years will provide a book of remembrance to God's faithfulness in each others lives as we prepare our children to "leave" our homes and establish new families where Christ is central.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Tim Kirk

PS - Ask family members to TURN OFF all electronic devices during sharing and prayer time!