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The Benefits of Synced up Family Bible Reading

If you’ve read the blog before then you know that I write about my attempts at family worship. We sing, we read Bible stories, we act out Bible stories, we make up catechism songs, and probably other things. As the kids grow (and Courtney and I age) we change our tactics, so I thought about an update.

In 2018 we are trying something new (to us). With a little help from Replicate Ministries, the family and I have attacked a modified Bible reading plan that puts me, Courtney, and the older two boys reading the same passages and memorizing the same verses. This is a first for us, but it has (one month in to 2018) been incredibly beneficial. Allow me to explain the structure and the benefits: Continue reading “The Benefits of Synced up Family Bible Reading”

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Everything is Redeemable

Last year’s home renovation project was something I had never done before. Removing walls? Not in a million years. Working with carpenters? Plumbers? Sheetrock workers? Painters? Church members who had specific skills? Never done. I was in wayyyyyyyy over my head, and I still haven’t recovered.

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Over the past three weeks I worked on the bathroom pictured above. It was the one part of the house that hadn’t gotten any TLC since we bought it. I really think just about every other square inch of this place got something. But not this bathroom. (The picture above is the “after” picture, not the “before.”)

Well, before the thing got finished, something was bound to go wrong.  Continue reading “Everything is Redeemable”

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Podcast Episode 04—Family Devos

Last week Dale and I spent some time recording this podcast around how we try and lead our families in the hilarity of family devotionals. Two young dads making fools of ourselves and creating memories for our children that we are unsure they will look back on fondly or suppress. As of right now, I think I’d choose suppress. 🙂

If you are counting then you realize that I didn’t post Episode 03. That one is right here, where we tried to talk about religious liberty and modest bathing suits (Burkinis, specifically).

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What’s With Quiet Times?

Evangelical Christians teach the “Quiet Time” as an essential element to their faith. What is it, you ask? Well, it is a daily, intentional time to get away in quiet with God—read the Bible, pray, and meditate. Why should we do it? Simple, Mark 1:35 reads, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Thus, because of Mark 1:35, Jesus has a daily quiet time.

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Last night I tweeted out my thought that saying “Jesus had a quiet time” is anachronistic. Now, lest the boo birds come out to get me, I wanted to take a moment and better explain my reasoning.  Continue reading “What’s With Quiet Times?”

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The New Faith Family and the Will of God

“How do I do what this says?” lingers in every man, woman, and child who wants to honor God—every person who reads Mark 3:35 and really desires to be the person who does the will of God. Jesus, in normal fashion, is told his family is looking for him and then challenges the concept of who his true family is.

32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:32-35).

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Joseph Hellerman, pastor and professor, summarizes this passage well.

Jesus radically challenged His disciples to disavow primary loyalty to their natural families in order to join a new surrogate family of siblings He was establishing—the family of God. Relationships among God’s children were to take priority over blood family ties (Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family, 64).

Two questions come to me from this passage. First: What is the new relationship Jesus establishes? Second: How do we do the will of God? We’ll look at both, with specific attention to the second.

Continue reading “The New Faith Family and the Will of God”

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Marriage Truth From @TimKellerNYC

I don’t have to corner on marriage or happiness. Ten years of marriage gets me very little in life experience. Jesus is the one we all need. This new series—”When I Say ‘I Do'”—has been a joy to preach and plan for. And we have bee praying it bears fruit in our church.

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One person whose teaching on marriage has benefitted me greatly is Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian church in NYC. I compiled some of his best tweets on the subject for your reading pleasure . . . Continue reading “Marriage Truth From @TimKellerNYC”