Here’s the video to show your kids at the end of Expedition Four of Exploring the Bible. If you want to bookmark a page where all the videos will eventually appear, you can find them on my blog, on YouTube, or the Facebook page for Exploring the Bible.

If you haven’t started your kids on the book yet, you can begin anytime and use it with any Bible version.

You can get it at RHB, Westminster Books, Crossway, or Amazon. Some of these retailers have good discounts for bulk purchases by churches and schools.

Blogs

New Research Confirms That Abortion Hurts Women
“The largely ignored findings run completely afoul of today’s narrative about how abortion is a benign, safe procedure that represents the pinnacle of female empowerment.”

Four Reasons to Think About Hell Every Day
“Hell is a real place. Currently, there are millions, if not billions, of people there burning in excruciating pain. They are real people. They lived on the same earth as us and now will be in hell for eternity. This truth should make you squeamish. It should make you uncomfortable, and suppressing this truth is not only foolish, but it is harmful for your soul. Here are four reasons not to ignore hell, but to think about it often.”

The Fear of the Lord
“The reality is that people don’t want to fear God because they don’t want God in their lives. Some professing Christians don’t fear Him because they don’t actually know the God of Scripture, while they presume upon His grace to save them.”

The Hard Job of Interpreting Job
“In order to help the reader work through many of these challenges, I want to recommend a few books, articles and sermon series to help us navigate the difficult terrain of this wonderfully complex portion of God’s word.”

A Psalmic Faith
“I found my Psalmic faith personally challenged last year when my father died suddenly. I was a daddy’s girl. Despite sharing the gospel with him many times, he rejected the claims of Christ. ”

Should You Quit?
“Some of you are wondering whether to quit your jobs. Some of you are wondering whether to quit ministries you have within your local church. Some of you are wondering whether to quit other aspects of your life that I don’t even know about. You’re discouraged and you’re ready to give up. Should you?”

Kindle Books

Unashamed: Healing Our Brokenness and Finding Freedom from Shame by Heather Davis Nelson $4.99.

Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer: In Our Homes, Communities, and Churches by Megan Hill $4.99.

Video

From Every Tribe and Language and Nation

“Imagine growing words as crops.” That’s the advice found on page five of Expressing Theology: A Guide to Writing Theology that Readers Want to Read. Why? Because the agriculture metaphor of farming captures two very important aspects of writing (and of using words in any teaching capacity).

1. Words, like crops, need to grow.

“A single word is like a seed, full of potential and possibility. Words need to be planted in the deep soil of human experience so they can send down roots that touch the basic needs of humanity, and bring forth shoots and stems that reach up for the dreams and visions of a better future.”

“But, like a farmer, the writer cannot just drop a seed into the ground and walk away. Words must be carefully nourished. They need to be pruned and shaped. Unnecessary words need to be weeded away. And like the farmer, the theologian needs to provide the right amounts of water, sunlight, and nutrients during the proper season of the year for seed to grow into award-winning, beautiful narratives.”

2. Words, like crops, need to feed.

“Farmed words need to foster hope in the light of feeding readers. We need to grow words with a purpose…Farming reflects the purpose writers of theology need to cultivate in their work. Farming isn’t about growing rows of corn and acres of potatoes and letting the crops rot in the field. We need to do something with the crops. We need to plant words with a purpose to feed the spiritually hungry, to bring people together around a table of fellowship, to nourish.”

Questions: What words are you nourishing? Are your words aimed at feeding others? What is the specific purpose of your words?

Blogs

New Harvard Research Says U.S. Christianity Is Growing Stronger
Here’s an encouraging report:

The percentage of Americans who attend church more than once a week, pray daily, and accept the Bible as wholly reliable and deeply instructive to their lives has remained absolutely, steel-bar constant for the last 50 years or more, right up to today. These authors describe this continuity as “patently persistent.”

Healing from the Trauma of Abortion
“One in four women will have an abortion by age 45. Women like me are hidden in our churches—your church—grappling with haunting cycles of shame and regret despite what we know to be true about sin, forgiveness, and grace. Here are three things I’ve learned in the midst of my struggle toward healing. I hope they offer a helpful perspective for those trying to minister to post-abortive women. And I hope they encourage those silently suffering. You’re not alone.”

Parents, Take Note of the Spiritual Practices Common to Kids Who Flourish As Adults
Fellow parents, the biggest factor in your kids staying in the church is Bible reading!

Children who regularly read the Bible while they were growing up were more likely to have a vibrant spiritual life once they became adults. This statistic doesn’t surprise me. God’s Word is powerful. The Bible lays out the great story of our world and helps us interpret our lives and make decisions within the framework of a biblical worldview. Bible reading is a constant reminder that we live as followers of God. Our King has spoken. He reigns over us. We want to walk in his ways.

Seven Thoughts on the Billy Graham / Mike Pence Rule – Tim Challies
Sanity as usual from Tim:

The long and short of it is that there is great freedom within the Christian life to hold or not to hold to the Billy Graham slash Mike Pence Rule. In this, as in so many other areas, “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).

The Battle for a Man’s Mind
“Every man must realize that of first importance in winning the spiritual battle of our lives involves framing his life according to biblical truth. Here are some suggested reminders to help a man frame his thinking (and his sons) in the battle for a renewed worldview:”

Disabled by Design: My Abundant Life Without Arms
“Blindness, deafness, amputation, and mental disability do not detract from any person’s worth. The church must be faithful to proclaim and defend that every unborn child, regardless of disability, has a right to life. Every unborn child can display the works of God.”

Seven reasons why church is difficult for those touched by mental illness
“In my experience, families in which a child or parent is being treated for a mental health condition are significantly less likely to regularly attend worship services or participate in small groups, Christian education, or service activities than their friends or neighbors. Given that one in five children and adults in the U.S. experience at least one mental health condition at any given time, their families represent a large population desperately in need of tangible expressions of the love of Christ and the spiritual benefits associated with active participation in the life of a local church.”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

The Pastor’s Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love by Gloria Furman $4.99.

Word-Filled Women’s Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church by Gloria Furman and‎ Kathleen Nielson $3.99.

Kept for Jesus: What the New Testament Really Teaches about Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Security by Sam Storms $2.99.

“Let’s face it; most theology is boring.”

Why am I reading a book that begins with that sentence?

Because I agree with it. Because I’m guilty of it. And because I want to do something about it in the one person I can influence. Me.

But if you’re also interested, and you “want to buck the trend of boring theology and help move talk about God back to the heart of everyday life,” then why don’t you pick up Expressing Theology: A Guide to Writing Theology that Readers Want to Read.

Remember, this isn’t a challenge just for authors, pastors, and academics. If you’re involved in teaching the Bible in any capacity, whether it’s in Sunday school, a Bible Study, or a small group, then you too can learn from this book about how to make your teaching more enjoyable and edifying.

Let’s start with the author’s stated aim in chapter one:

I want to spark a revolution that transforms how theologians from all walks of life and traditions express theology. I believe theology should be engaging, compelling, and beautiful.

So, what makes for “bad” theological writing? The authors identify three problems:

1. Poor writing skills

• Incorrect grammar, confusing sentence construction, common usage and punctuation mistakes.
• Wordy, fat sentences that are held together by weak verbs.
• Choppy repetitive sentence construction.
• Unclear, boring prose that commits to nothing.
• Writing that lacks personality and fails to draw the reader in through examples such as stories and illustrations (usually the result of writers trying to sound “academic” and in the process losing their personality and voice.

2. Shallow writing

• Words spewed on the page without purpose or direction, integration, or reflection.
• Summarizing multiple sources without ever reflecting on or discussing the material or trying to bring it together.

3. Fear

• Fear-based writers believe they have nothing worth adding to the conversation.
• They hide behind infinite strings of long dense quotes and Scripture verses with barely a sentence or two of their own thought between them.
• Scared of being thought of as stupid, they’re terrified of exposing their thought for public consumption.

Questions: What other problems have you come across in theological writing? Are any/all of these problems found in preaching?

Blogs

The Humble Leader
“Leadership is most dangerous when it ceases to be humbling, when success comes to the leader. When a leader starts to thrive, when the Lord grants success, or when things go better than planned, the leader can easily drift toward pride.”

A Gospel Prescription In Postpartum Depression
“Since then, I’ve suffered from postpartum depression two more times. Each time, I gained more clarity on the source of my help and the centrality of the gospel. I had to depend on the Lord to admit my physical need, ask my husband for help, to find wisdom in seeking a doctor’s opinion, and for evaluating and responding to the medical advice. The Spirit’s strengthening and enabling were essential in getting me the physical help I needed for my body and mind to heal.”

A feminist describes her abortion… and sadness
“Abortion has a human toll—not only in lives lost but also in mothers who have to live in the aftermath of a decision they weren’t fully convinced of in the first place. In their most vulnerable moment, mothers are counseled by abortion supporters and boyfriends and others to suppress their conscience and to make a choice for death. And then they often have to face the subsequent darkness alone. Not long ago, I sat with a 60-year old woman who shared with me through hot tears her heart-breaking abortion story. Decades later she still grieves what she did—the pain is very close to the surface.”

Why Has the Abortion Rate Declined?
“What then accounts for the declining abortion rate? There seems to be no clear answer. If we had to hazard a guess, though, we could say that it’s likely a combination of fewer teens having sex, increased contraceptive use, lower rates of unintended pregnancies, increased opposition to abortion by the young, and a greater willingness to have a child after an unintended pregnancy. While we may never know for sure what’s the cause, we can thank God for what appears to be a positive shift toward life.

R.C. Sproul’s Final Sermon: A Great Salvation
“Dr. R.C. Sproul (1939—2017) preached his final sermon on November 26, 2017, at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida. The title of the sermon was “A Great Salvation” from Hebrews 2:1-4. He concluded that sermon with these words: “I pray with all my heart that God will awaken each one of us today to the sweetness, the loveliness, the glory of the gospel declared by Christ.”"

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World $1.99.

And so to Bed…: A Biblical View of Sleep by Adrian Reynolds $2.99.