Christians are Word people

A small quote from Jon Bloom from the Desiring God blog about the goodness of good books - especially the Best Book.

Lord… You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)

Christians are word people. We’re really into words because the Founder of Christianity is the Word (John 1:1). He came to earth to deliver a message in words. Those of us who have believed his words recognize them as the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). And we seek to speak these words to others so they too can have eternal life. We call these words the gospel.

Christians are also book people. We’re really into books because our Founder left us a book, a collection of the words he determined are most important for us to know and remember.

This means we’re not into books merely because they’re good for us — as in a good book is health food for the brain, though that’s true. We’re into books because words mean the difference between life and death. If books contain the right words, people may live — forever!

Twenty minutes

 

Letter writing it seems is a dying artform.  Lots of people say, "Oh no!  I don't write letters anymore.  I just send emails."  True at one level.  I can type much faster than I can write with pen and paper these days.  But it isn't true at another level, because how many of us actually correspond with others via email?  I send lots of emails - but they are mostly short, usually on one subject, written with the aim of getting something done.  I think I am keeping up with those who are beyond my immediate vicinity.  But actually, I'm not.  Because I rarely write a letter these days.  I think I have had two bursts of letter writing this year.  And I don't seem to get around to writing emails that would count as correspondence all that often.

This year, with my friends in Kiribati, I have been trying to keep in touch regularly.  Telephone calls haven't really been an option, although there have a been one or two lovely phone conversations.  I have written them two or three letters - and they do get there but it takes about three weeks.  Which is good, really.  But mostly I have been emailing.

Sometimes I hit a busy patch (or so I perceive it to be) and I don't email for a while.  But in recent months I have decided that I'm sure my friends would rather get a short email that not hear from us at all. It's the keeping in touch that counts. 

And so one day, in the midst of a busy patch, I had twenty minutes exactly.  I can't remember what it was that was happening on the otherside of the twenty minutes...time to collect the children from school, time to start preparations for tea...no matter.  I had twenty minutes.  Not the sort of twenty minutes that might be useful for a quick job inside utilising one or other packet of cleaning wipes or twenty minutes that could be gainfully employed with a quick stint of weeding the garden.  It was the sort of twenty minutes that would be spent quickly roaming around facebook and google reader.  But instead of taking a wander through the hallowed halls of the internet I opened up an email and started to write. 

As it turns out, you can write quite a lot in twenty minutes.  And so I have continued to do this.  Because as it also turns out, there are quite a lot of twenty minute slots to be found in the week if you look hard enough and want to find them.  If I am tired I write less because I make typing errors along the way.  If I have slept well I write more.  So I grab those twenty minute time slots and instead of frittering them away, I have been using them to write to my friends in Kiribati.  (Or occasionally to someone else...sorry if it wasn't to you.  I do owe a few people a twenty minute email.)  

And a week or two ago I even went above and beyond and used a couple of twenty minute slots to write short letters.  Yes.  Pen and paper. 

Do you have someone whose day would be made by receiving an email or a short letter?  Twenty minutes is surprisingly easy to grab at some stage in the week.  Then it is a bit like an exam.  When the clock says, "Your time starts now," you just have to get busy and start writing.  Have a go.  It will make someone smile and be such an encouragement to them.

Teaching kids about God - fun with minties and marshmallows

Teaching kids about God.  Photo by Cathy

Sometimes, if the term challenge is getting a bit tired or the class is getting a bit tired - and take it from me, children in their final year of primary school start getting a bit on the tired side about half way through term three - it is a good idea to throw in a bit of one-off fun just to wake everyone up and get them all back on board again. 

So one lesson last term I took in a big bowl of minties to my Scripture classes. 

Activity one - everyone got a mintie with strict instructions not to open it or eat it.  The kids had to balance their mintie on their head while I started the lesson.  If it fell off their head they were out of the game and it was a competition to see who could balance it for the longest.  When it had gone on for too long I got the final contenders standing, turning circles and doing star jumps until we had a winner. Everyone still had to keep their mintie wrapped and on the top of their desk.  All the winner got was the glory, which is a lesson in itself for some kids.

Activity two - reading the Bible passage for the day.  Three children came out the front to read.  Each child had to read two verses of the six verse passage while balancing a mintie on their head.  Then three more children had to read the same passage (two verses each) while balancing two minties on their head.  As the passage was about being kind to one another, they got to keep one mintie and give the other away to a friend.  Then three more children had to read the passage (two verses each) with an unwrapped mintie poised between their teeth.  Without dribbling.  Easy way to get the children to hear the passage three times without getting bored, although the third reading was less clear than the first two renderings... 

Activity three - two children up the front (a boy and a girl or one from each side of the classroom for a bit of competition) seeing how many times they could throw their mintie up in the air, clap and catch it in the space of 39 seconds (because there are 39 books in the Old Testament.)  This was helpful for giving the kids a break midway through the discussion about the passage.

Activity four - at the end of the lesson, as the grand reward, eat the mintie and do the old tearing the mintie wrapper competition to see who can get the longest strip.  In only a minute because time is short in a 30 minute lesson.

No book work done that lesson.  But lots of Bible reading and discussion.  And the children remembered the content of the lesson the following week.

Warning:  Minties are very chewy lollies.  I wouldn't use them in classes with young children who have mouths full of wobbly teeth.  And always get permission from the classroom teacher before doling out vast quantities of lollies. 

At about the same time my Sunday School class was also getting a bit tired so I brought along a big bag of marshmallows.  Marshmallows, because I have a couple of young children with lots of wobbly teeth in their mouths.  We spent some time practising memory verses with marshmallows balanced on our tongues.  You could do the "fluffy bunny" game by seeing how many marshmallows you can fit inside your cheeks and still speak/recite your memory verse but this seems such a scurrilous waste of marshmallows to me.

Then a little later on we switched out all the lights in the hall (evening a.k.a. 5pm church) and roasted marshmallows on satay sticks over tea light candles.  While we were sitting around our "campfire" we chatted about what we'd been learning during the term, about what it is like to be a Christian, about prayer and lots of other good things.  We reconnected as a group and it has been so much better ever since.

Moral of the story - sometimes you just have to pull out something out of the ordinary to shift things back to where they work best.  And it can take a surprisingly simple gesture to do so.

Teaching kids about God - another timed challenge

Teaching kids about God.

Photo by Cathy

Back here I presented a few timed challenges I have used in Scripture and Sunday School lessons.  The point of them is to inject some quick fun into a lesson - good for building relationships and for breaking up the teaching time so that kids can keep their concentration.

During third term I used this one for the first time...

...a ball tied to a cup with a piece of elastic.  This particular ball (if you can call it that) lights up on impact just to make it a little bit more fun.  The idea of the challenge is to count how many times you can catch the ball in the cup in a specified length of time.  In our case, we used the old 27 seconds (because that's how many books there are in the New Testament) and the record was an astonishing 18. 

I gave lots of reasons for using funny little challenges during teaching times with kids here.  Another reason is that something like this doesn't require a lot of equipment, which is especially excellent for Scripture teachers who are lugging of box of tricks from one classroom to another, trying to run 30 minute lessons with no turn around between classes.  In these instances it is very good to keep things simple.

WARNING:  Three of the classrooms I teach in had interactive whiteboards installed during the term.  It is important to position any participant of this activity well clear of low hanging data projectors (or ceiling fans or displays of artwork strung across the classroom).  Taking out the classroom data projector is very bad PR for a Scripture teacher.

A Grief Sanctified # 4

To what exercises of mind and heart (attitudes and actions) should the bereavement experience lead us?  Said the Puritans characteristically, these three:

1.  The exercise of thanksgiving for all that we valued and enjoyed in the person we have lost and, in the case of a believer, for the happiness to which we know he or she has now been promoted.

2.  The exercise of submission to God, as we resign to him the loved one he has taken from us, confess to him that we had no claim on the continuance of that loved one's earthly life, and consciously put ourselves in his hands for whatever future experiences he has in mind for us.

3.  The exercise of patience, which is a compound of endurance and hope, as we live through our bereavement on a daily basis.

Richard [Baxter], in his sadness at losing Margaret, transparently models all three in the Breviate.  Lewis, mourning the loss of Joy, does the same in A Grief Observed.

From the section "The Sanctifying of Grief" from A Grief Sanctified by JI Packer, pages 188-189.

A Grief Sanctified # 3

Of what truths particularly should the bereavement experience remind us?  Said the Puritans characteristically, the three that follow:

1. The reality of God's sovereignty - that we, like everyone else, are always in his hands, and neither bereavement nor anything else occurs apart from his overruling will.

2.  The reality of our own mortality - that we, like everyone else, are not in this world on a permanent basis and must sooner or later leave it for another mode of existence under other conditions.

3.  The reality of heaven and hell - that we leave this owrld for one or the other, and that we should use the time God gives us here to unsure that as saved sinners we shall go to heaven, rather than as unsaved sinners go to hell.

From the section "The Sanctifying of Grief" from A Grief Sanctified by JI Packer, page 188.

A Grief Sanctified # 2

All life, said the Puritans, must be managed in such a way that it is sanctified; that is, all activities must be performed, and all experiences received and responded to, in a way that honours God, benefits others as far as possible, and helps us forward in our knowledge and enjoyment of God here as we travel home to the glory of heaven hereafter.  Of the experiences to be sanctified, some are pleasant and some are painful.  The Puritan labels for the latter are "afflictions" and "crosses"; and bereavement, with the grief it brings, is one such.

How may an experience be sanctified?  By relating it to the truth of the gospel, so that we understand it in biblical and evangelical terms; by letting it remind us of truths we might otherwise forget, or not take seriously; and by disciplining our hearts to accept it in an appropriate way - with gratitude or self-humbling or whatever.

From the section "The Sanctifying of Grief" from A Grief Sanctified by JI Packer, pages 187-188.

A Grief Sanctified by JI Packer

I've just finished reading A Grief Sanctified by JI Packer.  It includes Richard Baxter's breviate - think A Grief Observed by CS Lewis but written 1681 - written soon after his wife Margaret died.  Richard Baxter reflects on Margaret's life and deep faith, her gift to him as his wife, her suffering and her death and then his own grief. 

JI Packer has taken Baxter's breviate and included it in the book A Grief Sanctified, with a few editorial changes and explanations. Either side of the breviate itself, Packer has drawn some of his own conclusions on the Puritan experience of life, marriage, death, suffering and grief. 

It's a fine read, with some sober reflections on the sometimes shallow nature of our modern take on life, marriage and death.  Which is not to say that the Puritan experience of life (and death) is where our stereotypical thoughts might possibly take us. You know, dressed in black and all very serious and upright.  Far from it.  Here were two people who loved one another to bits, loved life, loved God and lived lives full of joy, despite all sorts of attendant difficulties. Margaret and Richard Baxter understood sanctification - and they enjoyed some of the immediate benefits of it in their lives.

Over the next few days I am going to post a quote in three sections - JI Packer's summary of the puritan experience of the sanctification of grief.  That is, how the Puritans managed their grief with a view to bringing God all honour and glory, even the darkest of moments - a view that Packer endorses. 

Stuart Townend

Two and a half years ago I waxed lyrical about the CD set The Best Modern Hymns Album...Ever!  It has remained a constant favourite all that time.  It's a wonderful mix of old hymns with new tunes and recently written hymns. 

As it happens, it turns out that I haven't been
1. keeping up with what's new in church music, and
2. reading the fine print.
Because if I had done either 1 or 2 I would have noticed that many of the new hymns that have risen to the surface from these CDs and found their way onto my much hammered playlist are from the pen of Stuart Townend.

So if like me
1. you've been sitting under a rock and haven't been taking much notice of what's been happening in the musical world this last decade or two, or
2. you only buy a very small number of CDs each year,
then get to the shops and get yourself a Stuart Townend CD or two.  Or put some of his CDs on your Christmas list.  (Is it time to start talking about Christmas lists?)

I've been listening to this one a great deal lately...

and we like this one in our house too.

Beautiful words of truth set to brilliant music.  Stuart Townend's contributions to modern hymnody are completely sing-along-able and they encourage, fill with joy, nurture and teach with great richness.

Here's one from Creation Sings ("My Heart is Filled with Thankfulness") that had me doing a little jig while I was doing the vacuuming today.

Fortunately the footage of me doing a jig while vacuuming isn't available on YouTube!

Are you OK?

Today in Australia it was R U OK Day, described at the website as...

...a national day of action dedicated to inspiring all Australians to ask family, friends and colleagues, ‘Are you ok?’ By regularly reaching out to one another and having open and honest conversations, we can all help build a more connected community and reduce our country’s high suicide rate.

It's prime objective is suicide prevention - and it isn't just about encouraging people to check in with their friends and family just once a year - on the second Thursday in September.  It's about getting into the habit of checking in with one another on a regular basis because good communication can nip so many things, that might otherwise escalate, in the bud.  So not just suicide prevention, although that's where it started.  But learning how to keep our ears, eyes and hearts open and then taking the time to show some concern.

There are some obvious targets - people who are on our care for lists (and for those who pray, on our prayer lists as well) - people in great need whose loads are great and difficult.  But today I have been thinking about the people who often fall between the cracks as well.

New dads.
Those newly retired or new empty nesters - for some the transition is is unexpectedly difficult.
Parents of missionaries.
The primary carers of the elderly, the physically ill, the mentally ill, the addicted.
The spouse or children of the long term unemployed or of one suffering from long term depression.
Those whose jobs it is to constantly care - doctors, nurses, chaplains...
The givers.
The boss - it IS lonely at the top - or anyone in serious leadership.
Those who have suffered a bereavement more than twelve months ago and who "ought to be over it."

There are others I'm sure.  It is good and essential to be caring for the suffering.  And it is good to be alert to those not quite in the frontline of difficulty and suffering but one step removed.

Are you OK?
I hope so.

Reading the Bible in chronological order - discovery # 3

What are some things that come to mind immediately at the mention of David from the Bible?

The shepherd boy who took on Goliath.
A man after God's own heart.
Serving, fleeing from and honouring King Saul.
Psalms and music.
The friendship with Jonathan.
King David.
Countless battles.
Bathsheba.
Building a palace and putting in extensive plans for the temple.

I am just about at the end of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles and the Psalms in the chronological reading plan - the full sweep of David's life.  The narrative of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles is an exciting part of the Bible.  It's certainly one of the high points in the Old Testament.  It seems as though God's promises to Abraham way back in Genesis 12 are reaching their fulfillment.  And the Psalms are a glorious, personal reflection on life in all its highs and lows. 

But what happens when you interweave the events of David's life with his personal reflections upon those events?  Something quite wonderful.  To read those Psalms when David is crying out to God when he fears for his life, when he seems to have no support, when he knows he has mucked up, when he is hiding a cave, when he is about to go into a fierce battle - or to read those Psalms when David is giving joyful thanks to God for His faithfulness shown in David's life in personal or national victory and for the pure goodness of knowing, loving and serving God - to read those Psalms when David is overwhelmed and amazed that he should be king - to read all these Psalms alongside the actual action does something amazing.  It gives humanity to the events and context to the emotions.  And both become all the more powerful for it. 

Now I haven't done the reading to know this for sure, but I am guessing that we don't know the exact placement for all of the Psalms.  There are some that can be placed exactly, either from the small print or from the content.  But I'm not sure that we have the information to place all of them precisely.  As I said, that may be wrong...I haven't done the reading...so don't quote me on this point.  So I can't be sure of the 100% accuracy of the placement of the Psalms against events in the reading plan I am using.  However I know the plan won't have been constructed together lightly, and it has read very well to me. 

And as I have read through this section of readings I've come to the conclusion that this might be a great way to get into the Psalms with children.  They all love the action of the life of David but his psalms are a bit harder for children to engage with because some of the emotions expressed will be foreign to them (thankfully), the poetic form and language is unfamiliar and psalms do fall more at the abstract end of the spectrum. 

To that end, if you are interested in reading through the life of David alongside the Psalms, or having a go at it with your children, I have copied below just that section of the reading plan.  It's a list of 50 or so readings, which could be broken down further if you go chapter by chapter and psalm by psalm.  Don't be overwhelmed by the volume.  What is posted below represents an amazing adventure in Bible reading.
 

1 Sam 1‐3

1 Sam 4‐8

1 Sam 9‐12
1 Sam 13‐14
1 Sam 15‐17
1 Sam 18‐20, Ps 11, Ps 59
1 Sam 21‐24
Ps 7, Ps 27, Ps 31, Ps 34, Ps 52
Ps 56, Ps 120, Ps 140‐142
1 Sam 25‐27
Ps 17, Ps 35, Ps 54, Ps 63
1 Sam 28‐31, Ps 18
Ps 121, Ps 123‐125, Ps 128‐130
2 Sam 1‐4
Ps 6, Ps 8‐10, Ps 14, Ps 16, Ps 19, ps 21
1 Chr 1‐2
Ps 43‐45, Ps 49, Ps 84‐85, Ps 87
1 Chr 3‐5
Ps 73, Ps 77‐78
1 Chr 6
Ps 81, Ps 88, Ps 92‐93
1 Chr 7‐10
Ps 102‐104
2 Sam 5:1‐10, 1 Chr 11‐12
Ps 133
Ps 106‐107
2 Sam 5:11‐6:23, 1 Chr 13‐16
Ps 1‐2, Ps 15, Ps 22‐24, Ps 47, Ps 68
Ps 89, Ps 96, Ps 100, Ps 101, Ps 105, Ps 132
2 Sam 7, 1 Chr 17
Ps 25, Ps 29, Ps 33, Ps 36, Ps 39
2 Sam 8‐9, 1 Chr 18
Ps 50, Ps 53, Ps 60, Ps 75
2 Sam 10, 1 Chr 19, Ps 20
Ps 65‐67, Ps 69‐70
2 Sam 11‐12, 1 Chr 20
Ps 32, Ps 51, Ps 86, Ps 122
2 Sam 13‐15
Ps 3‐4, Ps 12‐13, Ps 28, Ps 55
2 Sam 16‐18
Ps 26, Ps 40, Ps 58, Ps 61‐62, Ps 64
2 Sam 19‐21
Ps 5, Ps 38, Ps 41‐42
2 Sam 22‐23, Ps 57
Ps 95, Ps 97‐99
2 Sam 24, 1 Chr 21‐22, Ps 30
Ps 108‐110
1 Chr 23‐25
Ps 131, Ps 138‐139, Ps 143‐145
1 Chr 26‐29, Ps 127
Ps 111‐118
1 Kgs 1‐2, Ps 37, Ps 71, Ps 94
Ps 119:1‐88
1 Kgs 3‐4, 2 Chr 1, Ps 72
Ps 119:89‐176

How To Really Love Your Teenager by Ross Campbell

I finished the last page of How To Really Love Your Child and then headed straight into the first page of How to Really Love Your Teenager.  This too is a very helpful book and one that I will be reading again. Up front, there were a couple of things that I didn't like so much about this one - a few too many anecdotes in this particular volume and occasional comment or idea that I didn't really agree with - but these are perhaps personal dislikes.

 

However there is lots to like.

 

Especially that Ross Campbell offers hope.  He seems to work with people of all ages but of all the possible age groups to choose from, I think he loves teenagers the best.  He adores them.  And he desperately, achingly wants teenagers and their parents to thrive together through these years.  This book is full of hope - and I think it is a realistic, attainable hope.

 

Early up in the book Campbell makes the comment that we ought not to regard teenagers as adults.  They are still in essence children, albeit children that are getting quite big and independent.  Which is not to say that they are not capable of great maturity.  In the face of their growing independence and capabilities it can be easy to regard teenagers as fully fledged, independent adults when in fact they still require their parents' love. This is a helpful principle to keep handy.  It's a bit like the warning I read when I was immersed in baby books...that when you stop breastfeeding a baby the amount of physical contact they receive - because the close contact of feeding has stopped and because they quickly become toddlers on the go - often decreases by more than 50%.  And more so with boys.  Yet they still thrive on lots of physical contact.  I was glad to be wised up to this advice ahead of time.  And I am glad to have been made aware of this not dissimilar trap with teenagers ahead of time.

 

How then to love your teenager?  In much the same way you love a child, according to Campbell.  Keeping their emotional tanks full with lots of positive eye contact, lots of appropriate physical contact and lots of focussed attention.  And focussed attention is the particularly big ticket item - the one where parents of teenagers get to put in the hard yards.  He is very clear that once our children are teenagers we don't get to lie back on the sofa with our cups of tea and read our books (or whatever your equivalent idea of blissful relaxation might be), with all that hard, physical toil of raising children behind us.  No...there are more hours to be genuinely and lovingly spent with our offspring, and in the teenage years they will likely be at times inconvenient to us - and how we respond when they need some time from us is important.

 

Beyond the principles common to both books, Campbell spends lots of time discussing teenager moodiness, anxiety, anger and general rollercoaster-ness.  He seems to get teenagers and I have found reading his insights useful.  There is a chapter on teenage depression - and with a good amount of time given to detailing the difference between normal teenage behaviour and behaviour that needs help from health professionals.  There is another chapter on how to move from parent control to self control.  And a chapter for parents about parental self-control. 

 

What I love about the Teenager book, as I have said, is that Campbell clearly adores teenagers and desperately wants parents to do well with them.  And he gives parents every hope that they can indeed navigate these years with great joy and success.  I think this book is realistic and I think it gives a good pattern for positive relationship.  He doesn’t ever suggest that it will be a walk in the park or suggest he is offering a foolproof programme. This is no "Supernanny for Teenagers." He offers guidelines, insight and hope.  Campbell also makes it clear that you can’t think things are ever too far gone for this to be of help as we all respond well to genuine, sincere, consistent love - sometimes quickly and sometimes with time.

 

I am no teenager expert.  As soon as a child walks out that final year primary school classroom door for the last time I have zero expertise.  Having read How To Really Love Your Teenager I feel forewarned and forearmed with a positive approach to the second decade of a child's life.  No doubt there are sqillions of other books around on this topic and squillions of other approaches too.  For now, to my untrained eyes, this one looks ok and like it might be a good launch pad. 

In a bit over a decade's time I will let you know how it all went.  Feel free to offer your view and your best advice along the way.

 

A gaping hole in my kids' education

When our boys were very small a lovely friend at church, whose children were well on their way to grown up, commented that our children would be very fortunate. They would grow up hearing the best stories ever - the stories from the Bible - and wouldn't have to worry about all those fairy tales.  With first baby in arms, I was fresh out of retirement from primary school teaching where my forte had been reading, writing and children's literature.  I smiled at my friend's comment and thought inwardly, "Yes, my children will hear lots and lots of Bible stories, that is for sure, but we will be reading widely from all sorts of good children's books and stories as well."

As it turns out, we didn't read many fairy stories.  We've read lots and lots and lots of books of all descriptions but the fairy stories seem to have passed us by.  Maybe because that comment has always stayed with me.  Maybe because most fairy story books are covered in princesses and fairies and pink...and our boys don't seem to do pink.  And so while we have been reading widely, the fairy tale classics haven't ever risen to the surface.

I realised this gap in their education when our nine year old came home from school a couple of weeks ago saying that he needed to write a puppet play based on a fairy tale and by the way, what happened in "Jack and the Beanstalk?"  So we sat down together and I started to tell the story, only to find that I was bit hazy on some of the finer details.  Did Jack just take a golden egg and then the goose or was there something else in between?  And what happened to that giant when Jack cut down the beanstalk at the end - did he scamper back up the top half of the beanstalk to his castle in the sky never to be seen again or did he come plummeting down into Jack's garden and meet a horrible end?  If the horrible end...what did they do with the body?

So off we went to the library looking for Jack and the Beanstalk and came home with 100 Classic Stories.  What a great book.  A blue border and not too many cute pink things on the cover - a good start. And inside it has all the stories I remember hearing as a child, stories I read at school, stories I read to children at school and one or two that I don't know.  We have been having all sorts of fun reading a couple of these every night before bed time and getting ourselves all caught up on the classics.

Turns out, by the way, the giant did come down with the beanstalk but they didn't mention how Jack and his mother dealt with a dead giant at the base of the beanstalk just outside their kitchen window.  Awkward.