Here’s a good website that also provides excellent, Gospel focused email helps for families.

Solving a Child’s Big Spiritual Problem – Connected Families.

So many guys think that just because they say they love their wife, she should feel valued. The truth is, exercising creativity and showing your wife that you love her is when she really feels cherished. Demonstrating love for a spouse doesn’t have to be this elaborate all the time, but this was her 70th birthday. A simple note or lots of hugs are meaningful, but also using your noggin a little to show her that you know her and treasure her will go a long way to establishing an enduring marriage.

Try:

• putting notes in balloons for her to pop
• blindfolding her and taking her to a mysterious destination
• taking her on a romantic photo shoot
• making her a well-thought out card
• not waiting for her to get the babysitter arranged
• surprise her with a lunch date
• text her throughout the day
• read her poetry (Song of Songs anyone?)

How do you show your bride that you cherish her?

PURPOSE
The purpose of the book was clear: “the heart of family ministry is equipping families together for a life of Christian service to others beyond themselves, to turn themselves inside out in a calling larger than their own daily life together” (11). This helps families stay stuck to the church. The goal is “to focus your attention on ministry through families more than ministry to families” (11). While it is true that we do need to minister to families, there is a profound difference here I think. As families determine to put aside a victim mentality where the church and community must serve them, they can put on a mentality of service that ushers them into God’s grand narrative of restoring all people to himself. This gives me tingles!

STORIES
Stories communicate more than principles by themselves ever will. This book had good stories to move the reader to action. “The stories they have told have so much more meaning than if they had tried to distill the stories into some central truth that shapes their lives, such as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”…When Jesus was asked to teach, he told stories” (19). “Stories are particularly powerful in shaping our understanding of God, our world, and ourselves. The meaning of Bible stories is seldom transparent or unidimensional, and so they provide rich opportunity for community conversation, conflict, and deeper understanding over time. These stories invite us to wonder and explore, and then to struggle with how the stories connect with our own life stories. Stories communicate truths that cannot be captured by a proverb” (29-30). I don’t think the church has ever inspired anyone without good storytelling. Consider the example in Acts 6 and addressing the need for serving tables (30ff). Where do stories come from other than a life of faith? This starts with a deep down personal relationship with Jesus that moves us to serve.

Stories do not come when we hunker in our bunkers.

I think we’re called to strategically get into the crossfire. And this isn’t stupid faith, this is planned efforts to engage in a very real battle realizing there will be a personal cost to ourselves, perhaps even our lives (as well documented today by organizations such as VOM). Other stories include biographies, Brad and Lisa finding various means to serve (13ff), Schindler’s List (40-41), Heather and Jim playing with children at a playground (48ff), Susan and Mark selling their house to be closer to kids they could tutor (59-61), etc. These stories can move people to action. “These families were not motivated to serve because they thought they could meet the needs of the world. But they did see an opportunity to do something that would be genuinely helpful; the service they could provide made sense and might really help those they would serve” (58). People can become “restless, wanting faith to count for more” (62) or as Bill Hybels describes it, find your holy discontent and do something about it. When Wes Stafford asked,

What can move you to tears in ten seconds?

one of my answers is children whose parents can’t take care of them. I was building towers with my daughter and another girl 2 1/2 year old girl who’s fostering with us briefly right now. I could’ve balled right there. They were giggling and shrieking with laughter every time the tower fell. Then I thought how my Selah always has me for this, but this other little girl, as far as I know, may never know a strong affection from her parents. And then I think of God’s embrace on her life and I pray that somehow, God will help her to know that he’s always there for her.

INSIDE OUT CONGREGATIONS
I appreciated the breakdown of the final chapter for making this practical for congregations. 1) Look for catalysts. 2) The congregation helps determine the fit. 3) The congregation evaluates capacity. 4.) The congregation decides whether or not to commit to a given project/program. 5) Begin with good structures. Then Diana also shares insights for sustaining and developing and a very practical briefing/debriefing guide. Something as simple as “useless” donations (129) makes sense, but it needs to be said so people can think about that. There’s a good book that has impacted staff and members of our church that expands on this idea of serving people, while also being productive and not weakening. It’s called When Helping Hurts. I think it’s great when people just dive in and want to help and serve, but let’s also do it with careful thought as well so we are not debilitating the people we are hoping to help. Other benefits of serving she mentions are gift development, exposure to different kinds of people and perseverance through conflict.

Overall, this is a good book for moving families and churches into a life of service.

I’ve loved learning again about how the covenant traces all the way through the Old Testament. Reading from the beginning we see God’s story of grace revealing itself through every character chosen. From God initiating a SUBSTITUTE lamb for Adam and Eve, to Noah’s DELIVERANCE, to God CHOOSING Abraham, to God’s PROVISION through Joseph, to God’s demonstration of SOVEREIGN POWER with Egypt, to the elaborate plan for HOLINESS in Leviticus, to the GIFT of the promised land, we can see God laying out his plan to bring us back to him through a covenant that only he can keep. All goodness we receive is not because we earn it or deserve it, but because God is gracious. And we also see him including people in the process, rewarding those who love him and cursing those who oppose him. This incredible story God was writing always had in mind individuals who would get caught up in the work he was doing in the world. God’s glory is revealed in the lives of people.

I think the experience of the worksheets, while difficult, are a significant way to exercise the brain in new ways. God uses experiences like these to challenge and stretch. If it just becomes academic dialogue, it can be diffused of meaning, but when used to draw out new understandings of the texts so that a greater awe of God comes about, then these exercises really pop for me. Granted they are a bit tiring, but when embraced for the purpose, they are really eye-opening. Even this most recent worksheet outlining Joshua. Doing the work helped me really begin to see God’s gift shine throughout the book. His GIFT of undeserved GRACE.

Alter’s book is another experience that I think God has used for me. I come from a fairly conservative, Baptist background holding to some basic doctrines that really aren’t questioned much, just accepted. While I still hold to the inerrancy of Scripture, what that looks like, as questioned by Alter, may take a different spin. It does not shake my faith to consider that the author of a particular book of the Bible wasn’t on site with a recording device to 100% accurately quote a speaker. The authors quite likely took some liberties in how they wrote particular experiences, but the meanings as written and inspired by God hold together as truth. Perhaps a helpful example of this is when we speak with a friend and they speak back to us what we said for understanding. We agree that what they’ve said back to us is true even if it is not word-for-word.

So I think these experiences humble me. I don’t have to have all the answers to be moving in the right direction. I don’t have to be right in all my understandings. It’s ok to question and struggle along in my humanity, while holding on to my primal instincts and foundational principles that God loves me and I can love him back!

Wikipedia.org

He provides some provocative and helpful counter thoughts to our modern, Western and very systematic forms of interpreting the Bible. I think Alter elevates the value of reading the Bible for enjoyment of the art and also with regard to examining the style in which the authors wrote. He seems to be offering a very different approach to conventional biblical interpretation of narrative. He shows that many seem to have missed viewing the biblical narratives through an appreciation of it as an art-form. He notices that other great works of literature have received much more attention than the Bible on the literary styles. (p.95 of 1122) While he doesn’t want to devalue the theological and historical purposes for studying biblical narrative, he desires to elevate the value of studying it as literature.

If I have any concerns, regarding Alter’s approach, it would be his leaning towards describing biblical narrative with words such as fiction, allegory, parable and even fairy tale. I think he does this to spark conversation about the author’s writing style and use of imagination and not necessarily to discount the historical accuracy of the texts. He does say, “The biblical authors are of course constantly, urgently conscious of telling a story in order to reveal the imperative truth of God’s works in history and of Israel’s hopes and failings” (p.268 of 1122). I believe that the authors used creativity and freedom in their writings, which in no way minimizes their inspiration from God. Appreciating their writings as an elaborate art, pointing the reader to all kinds of ways that God is working in history and in that these understandings may not be immediately apparent increases their appeal to me. They are not merely a story to glean moral principles from or simply a historical account to remember.

One element I thought was valuable was his discussion of the account of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. It may seem to some as a random insertion of a random story. But perhaps it is a masterful plan to not only cause some suspense in the Joseph account, but to align with a common theme of how God is working through history to highlight a genealogy that points to Jesus. Even Judah can’t change God’s plan. As Alter writes, “[Judah] learning through his own obstreperous flesh that the divinely appointed process of election cannot be thwarted by human will or social convention” (p.82 of 1122). (Yes I had to look up the word “obstreperous,” which means unruly or uncontrollable).

So biblical narrative is much more than stories to recount and systematize, but is a legitimate art-form that can lead us to masterful insights that God has orchestrated.

(Note: the references use variable page numbers due to the use of an iBook).

There’s some good stuff on this link for those considering divorce. Some power is missing in it though. It’s the Gospel. The reason we stay together in marriage is because of Jesus. Jesus stuck it out for us. We can stick it out for him. When we give up hope, we also sacrifice our ultimate joy. Enduring all trouble for Jesus is worth it even though it may feel like a nightmare at the time.

Check out the link if you need some study-based motivation on how traumatic divorce really is, but also how beneficial it is when we stay together.

Consider your role in easing the suffering of so many (especially children) without clean water…in Jesus’ name.

Foreign Policy: Invisible Children responds « Invisible Children Blog.

You may have heard of Invisible Children or #kony2012 or Jason Russell by now. Before quickly blowing them off or becoming cynical to yet another crisis in the world consider what you have done to demonstrate God’s justice in the world.

Show compassion

Seek justice

Serve people

Stand up for the least of these.

Do these things even when it seems hopeless or when you’re not sure how to accomplish it. Sometimes you just have to try even when your strategy isn’t ironed out yet. The linked article discusses some of the work IC is up to and addresses some of the criticism.