How did your family meeting go? Were you effective in talking up the start of your family devotion time during the week? I pray the Holy Spirit has been working through your family’s hearts and preparing them for God’s Word in the weeks to come.
This week is launch week. You should have a specific day this week written on your family calendar for when you’re going to sit down as a family and begin learning about God. This is what you are going to need:
- A Bible - it would be great if any older children have their own to follow along in, but if not, don’t worry about it
- A timer, or someone who is able to keep up with the time without getting distracted from family worship
- Blank sheets of scrap paper and crayons if you have little ones
Here’s the formula that you’re going to carry out each day you have scheduled for devotions:
1. Pray first. Keep it short and sweet, especially if you’ve never prayed out loud with your family and you’re a little nervous. Say “Thank you God for this time we have together. We love you. Help us know you better. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen”, or something similar.
2. Start your timer, or your timekeeper. Fifteen minutes.
3. Explain to your child(ren) that you’re going to read from the first chapter of the Book of Mark, and that afterwards you’re going to ask questions about what you read (older kids) or have them color a picture about what they heard (younger kids). This gets the child primed for paying attention. After all, if there’s going to be a test at the end of it all he wants to pass the test, right?
4. Read from Mark chapter 1. Read with some feeling, if you can muster it. The part where Jesus drives out an evil spirit, use your best monster voice as the spirit taunts Jesus. Then, in a demanding voice, read Jesus’ command for the spirit to “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Note the exclamation points. Jesus wasn’t being gentle when he said this. This helps engage your child in the reading. Don’t be surprised if you hear your younger child reenacting the scenes that you help make stand out. That’s a good thing!
5. At the end of your reading, instruct your younger child to draw you a picture showing something he heard in the reading, then ask him to describe what is in his picture. For the older child, ask him to share some of what he heard you read. It’s okay to prompt him with suggestions (Mark 1 covers a lot of territory).
6. Ask if there are any questions or comments. Make any comments you may have. Wrap it up. If your devotion didn’t take fifteen minutes, that’s okay, but try to keep it within the timed parameter.
Keep it very simple. No notes, no extensive lesson plan, just read from the Bible and discuss. You’re on your way!
Homework: 1. Continue in prayer with your spouse
2. Continue talking it up throughout the coming week
3. Thank your family for helping you be obedient to God’s will.
2. Continue talking it up throughout the coming week
3. Thank your family for helping you be obedient to God’s will.
Related Articles:
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3 comments:
HELLO------------------>
~~~",,,((( I ))) AM THE---> ALPHA AND THE---> OMEGA,THE---> BEGINNING AND THE---> END.((( I )))WILL GIVE OF THE {{{[[[ FOUNTAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE ]]]}}}---->((( FREELY ))) TO HIM WHO THIRST,,,"(REVELATION;21:6)~~~
A
N
D
~~~",,,ALL AUTHORITY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO--->{{{[[[ ME ]]]}}} IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH,,,"(MATTHEW;28:18)~~~
May LORD Bless you.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Gani
Email:- mir.gani@gmail.com
Thank you for visiting, my friend from Kashmir. I ask all my readers to pray for your safety and God's strength in carrying out His work among a place that is predominantly muslim and hindu. God's blessings upon you and your family.
Thank you Dear Most respected Deb for your comments and for your labor of love which you have shown towards His Name.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREEDOM IN--->CHRIST!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
`Being made free from sin, ye became bond-servants of righteousness.
Being made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto sanctification.' --
Rom. 6:18,22
`But now we have been discharged from the law.' -- Rom. 7:6
`The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the
law of sin and of death.' -- Rom. 8:2
Freedom is counted in Scripture as one of the greatest privileges of
the child of God. There is nothing in history for which nations have
made great sacrifices except freedom. Slavery is the lowest condition
into which man can sink, for in it he can no longer dispose of
himself. Freedom is the deepest need of his nature.
To be free, then, is the condition in which anything can develop
itself according to the law of its nature, that is, according to its
disposition. Without freedom nothing can attain its destiny or become
what it ought to be. This is true alike of the animal and man, of the
corporeal and the spiritual. It was for this cause that God in Israel
chose the redemption out of the slavery of Egypt into the glorious
liberty of God's people, as the everlasting type of redemption out of
the slavery of sin into the liberty of the children of God. (Ex.
1:14; 4:23; 6:5; 20:2; Deut. 24:8) On this account, Jesus said on
earth: `If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' And
the Holy Scriptures teach us to stand fast in the freedom with which
Christ made us free. A right insight into this freedom opens up to us
one of the greatest glories of the life that the grace of God has
prepared for us. (John 8:32,36; Gal. 4:21,31; 5:1)
In the three passages, from the Epistle to the Romans, in which
sanctification is dealt with, a threefold freedom is spoken of. There
is freedom from sin in the sixth chapter, freedom from the law in the
seventh, freedom from the law of sin in the eighth.
There is freedom from sin (Rom. 6:7,18,22). Sin is represented as a
power that rules over man, under which he is brought and taken
captive, and that urges him as a slave to evil. (John 8:34; Rom.
7:14,23; 2 Pet. 2:19) By the death of Christ and in Christ of the
believer, who is one with Him, he is made entirely free from the
dominion of sin: it has no more power over him. If, then, he still
does sin, it is because he, not knowing his freedom by faith, permits
sin still to rule over him. But it by faith he fully accepts what the
word of God thus confirms, then sin has no power over him: he
overcomes it by the faith that he is made free from it. (Rom. 5:21;
6:12,14)
Then there is freedom from the law. This leads us deeper into the life
of grace than freedom from sin. According to Scripture, law and sin
always go together. `The strength of sin is the law:' The law does
nothing but make the offense greater. (Rom. 4:15; 5:13,20; 7:13; 1
Cor. 15:56) The law is the token of our sinfulness, cannot help us
against sin, but with its demand for perfect obedience gives us over
hopeless to the power of sin. The Christian who does not discern that
he is made free from the law will still always abide under sin. (Rom.
6:15; 7:5) Christ and the law cannot rule over us
together: in every endeavour to fulfill the law as believers, we are
taken captive by sin. (Rom. 7:5,23) The Christian must know that he is
entirely free from the law, from the you must that stands without us
and over us: then for the first time shall he know what it is to be
free from sin.
Then there is also freedom from the law of sin, actual liberation from
the power of sin in our members. What we have in Christ, freedom from
sin and from the law, is inwardly appropriated for us by the Spirit of
God. `The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from
the law of sin and of death.' The Holy Spirit in us takes the place of
the law over us.
`If ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.' Freeing from
the law is not anything external, but takes place according to the
measure the Spirit obtains dominion in us and leads us. `Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' According as the law of the
Spirit rules in us, we are made free from the law, from the law of
sin. We are then free to do what we, as God's children, would fain do,
free to serve God. (2 Cor. 3:17;
Gal. 5:18)
Free expresses a condition in which nothing hinders me from being what
I would be and ought to be. In other words, free is to be able to do
what I would. The power of sin over us, the power of the law against
us, the power of the law of sin in us, hinder us. But he that stands
in the freedom of the Holy Spirit, he that is then truly free, nothing
can prevent or hinder him from being what he would be and ought to be.
As it is the nature of a tree to grow upwards, and it also grows as it
is free from all hindrances, so a child of God then grows to what he
ought to be and shall be. And according as the Holy Spirit leads him
into this freedom, there springs up the joyful consciousness of his
strength for the life of faith. He joyfully shouts: `I can do all
things in Him that strengtheneth me.' `Thanks be unto God which always
leadeth us in triumph in Christ.'
Son of God, anointed with the Spirit to announce freedom to the
captives, make me also truly free. Let the Spirit of life in Thee, my
Lord, make me free from the law of sin and of death. I am Thy ransomed
one. O let me live as Thy freed one, who is hindered by nothing from
serving Thee. Amen.
1. The freedom of the Christian extends over his whole life. He
is free in relation to the institutions and teachings of men. `Ye were
bought with a price: become not bond-servants of men.' ( 1 Cor. 7:23;
Col. 2:20) He is free in relation to the world, and in the use of what
God gives: he has power to possess it or to dispense with it, to enjoy
it or to sacrifice it. (1 Cor. 8:8; 9:4,5)
2. This freedom is no lawlessness. We are free from sin and the
law to serve God in the Spirit. We are not under the law, but give
ourselves, with free choice and in love, to Him who loved. us. (Rom.
6:18; Gal. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:16) Not under the law, also not without law;
but in the law; a new, a higher law, `The law of the Spirit of life,'
`the law of liberty,' the law written in our hearts, is our rule and
measure. (1 Cor. 9:21; Jas. 1:15; 2:12) In this last passage the
translation ought to be: `bound by a law to Christ.' 3. This
freedom has its subsistence from the word and also in it: the more the
word abides in me, and the truth lives in me, the freer I become.
(John 8:31,32,36)
4. Freedom manifests itself in love. I am free from the law,
and from men, and from institutions, to be able now like Christ to
surrender myself for others. (Rom. 14:13,21; Ga. 5:13; 6:1).
---------
Your brother in Christ
Gani
Email:- mir.gani@gmail.com
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