Many parents have good intentions for daily times of family worship. But these good intentions often fail because of three main problems: an overly ambitious plan, the absence of a plan, or the perceived lack of spiritual benefit. This new resource will help families establish regular devotions through realistic aims, a clear plan and direction, and stimulating interaction with Scripture and prayer.

Exploring the Bible Together: A 52-Week Family Worship Plan covers key passages in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, providing a big-picture overview of the whole Bible over the course of a year. Fifty-two weekly “expeditions” are each divided into 6 days, with a small passage of Scripture, two questions, a brief application lesson, and a short prayer prompt. Artwork by illustrator Scotty Reifsnyder accompanies each page. In just a few minutes a day, families can explore the whole story of the Bible together.

Features:

• Covers key passages in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation
• Includes 52 weekly plans, each consisting of 6 daily readings with two interactive questions, one sentence of application, a brief prayer, space to fill in family prayer requests and needs, and a verse to memorize
• Offers instruction on how to conduct family worship using this guide
• Each day consists of an average of 5 verses to read and can be completed in 5 minutes or less
• Includes artwork by illustrator Scotty Reifsnyder, illustration and design instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, whose work has been featured by Time magazine, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more

Find out more here.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB). Listen to previous episodes here.

Do you ever feel useless? Do you ever feel worthless?  Do you write yourself off as a nobody. Maybe you compare yourself to others and decide:

• I have nothing
• I can do nothing
• I can give nothing
• I am nothing

I want to encourage you with the shepherds in Luke 2:15-20. Shepherds were very poor, very dirty, and very smelly. People looked down on them and avoided them. Yet God chose them as the first ones to hear and tell the news of Jesus’s birth. When the angels told them about Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem, they ran to the stable and found the manger where Jesus was lying.

THE SHEPHERDS AMAZED PEOPLE (17-18)

• They told people about Jesus
• The people were amazed and wondered

THE SHEPHERDS AMAZED MARY (19)

• Mary treasured the shepherd’s words
• Mary was amazed at the shepherd’s words

THE SHEPHERDS WERE AMAZED THEMSELVES (20)

• They heard and saw
• They praised and glorified

Don’t write off anyone as a nobody, especially not yourself, because God never writes off anybody as a nobody.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Pastor Bill Boekestein sent me this video of himself and his daughter chatting about Meeting with Jesus.: A Daily Bible Reading Plan for Kids.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB). Listen to previous episodes here.

We are surrounded by bad and sad news today. The Coronavirus hasn’t just killed many people, it’s also cost many people their jobs, it’s stopped school and church, and it’s upset the plans of many people. The result of all this bad and sad news?

• We get depressed
• We get worried
• We get hopeless

That’s why we have to surround ourselves with good news and we can do that using Luke 2:8-14. There we find shepherds watching their flock in a field near Bethlehem when an angel appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone all around them (8-9). Although they were initially afraid, the angel told them “Fear not, behold I bring you good news of great joy for all the people.”

• The good news gives great joy (10): Unlike most news, this makes us glad not sad.
• The good news is for great numbers (10): Not just good news for a few but for all people.
• The good news is a great king (11): This is no ordinary baby but the Savior of sinners, Christ the Lord.
• The good news is a great surprise (12): Instead of finding him in a palace, they would find him in a stable in a feeding trough, telling the shepherds this was a king for them as well as for the high and mighty.
• The good news starts a great choir (13-14): When this news was announced, the angels in heaven couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into song.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Here’s a remedy to the bad and sad news that’s surrounding us. The good news can give us joy, peace, and hope even in the middle of sad and bad news.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids (RHB). Listen to previous episodes here.

Some people rebel against their birthdays. They say:

• I was born at the wrong time
• I was born in the wrong place
• I was born to the wrong people
• I was born in the wrong circumstances

Have you ever thought or said that? Let’s look at Christ’s perfect birthday in Luke 2:1-7 to help us look at our own birthday in the right way.

GOD CHOSE CHRIST’S PERFECT BIRTHDAY

• Born on the right time (1-3): Time of national census that made Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem
• Born in the right place (4): Bethlehem was the place the prophet Micah predicted Jesus would be born (Micah 5:2)
• Born to the right people (4): Joseph was descended from David, fulfilling the OT prophecy that the Messiah would be a descendent of David (2 Samuel 7)
• Born in the right circumstances (5-7): Jesus was born in a feeding trough in a barn, sending a clear message that he would be rejected by the high and mighty but that he came for the poor and lowly.

GOD CHOSE YOUR PERFECT BIRTHDAY

• You were born at the right time
• You were born in the right place
• You were born to the right people
• You were born in the right circumstances

Praise God for Christ’s perfect birthday and for your perfect birthday.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Doctors encourage all of us to get regular health-check-ups, especially those of us who are older.  Despite the proven benefits of such regular check-ups many of us are very reluctant to get them.

Same goes for spiritual health check-ups. Yet, some of us are even more reluctant to get a spiritual health check-up than a physical check up.

Let me try to motivate you to undergo regular spiritual health check-ups with Dr Wisdom in Proverbs chapter 4.

For more, see my sermon notes here.