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.