Dispelling a rumour and crossing over to the dark side

There is a bit of a rumour going around that I'm a tea snob.  It's been circulating for years.  And I may or may not have contributed to it with...

...the oft regaled tales of the tea making ritual in my family home - warm the pot AND the cups (certainly no teabags there), take the pot TO the kettle otherwise the water won't be at maximum boiling point, DON'T stir the tea while it is brewing, milk first and tea second...

...insisting in days of old when friends said, "Let's go out for a coffee," on saying, "Yes, let's go out for a cup of tea," until several just got used to saying, "Let's go out for a cup of tea" even though most of them would be drinking coffee...

...continuing to say, when friends drop over, "Would you like a cup of tea?" and then remembering to offer coffee a bit further down the track. (I wonder how many people drink tea at our house purely out of politeness)...

...a year of putting funny little quotes about tea on Facebook as I worked my way through a quote-a-day-about-tea calendar a year or two ago...

But the truth is, I'm no tea snob.  It doesn't have to be teapot tea.  Teabag tea is fine.  OK.  Got that little one cleared up.  But there's more.

You see, I need to say that I recently crossed over to the dark side.  No, I haven't become a coffee drinker.   (Insert personal message here to my two dear tea drinking friends who have recently discovered coffee - I still love you, even if in one case I am still speechless!)

I crossed to an even darker place than that.

I now drink decaffeinated tea.  Decaffeinated. Teabag. Tea.

I used to wonder at the whole decaf thing.  If you are going to drink tea it may as well have the caffeine in it.  (And how do they decaffeinate it anyway??)  But I don't actually drink tea for the caffeine hit.  I drink tea to have a warm drink.  And alas, whereas once if I didn't fall asleep within three minutes of hitting the pillow I thought I had insomnia, in recent months sleep has been somewhat elusive.  So I decided to drink decaf tea during the evening to see if that made a difference.  And having got used to it, I find myself drinking it most of the time now when I'm at home. 

My sleep is good again.  The tea in its decaf rendering is fine.  And I'm not a tea snob.  Although I still prefer to drink it from a reasonably fine cup or mug.  Chunky cups just won't do.  That's all.

Best ever cheats' minestrone soup

It's a cheat because it only takes 30 minutes to make.  Best ever because it is the best ever.  I cook lots of this every winter.  Thought I should share it with you.

You will need:

Olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 or 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic
2 or 3 carrots, sliced
2 or 3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 red capsicum chopped
1/2 cauliflower, broken into small florets
700gm bottle of tomato passata
A big handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
250gm of dried pasta (shells or macaroni)
4 to 6 cups of chicken stock
440gm tin of drained red kidney beans
Salt and pepper
Fresh parmesan cheese

1.  Heat the oil in a pot and saute the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until soft.
2.  Throw in the carrots, celery, capsicum and cauli and saute for a couple of minutes to start the cooking process.
3.  Add the passata (a big tin of crushed tomatoes works as well), stock, basil and pasta and simmer until the pasta and veg are tender - about fifteen minutes.
4.  Add the kidney beans in the last five minutes - just long enough to heat them up really.  Season with salt and pepper as needed - will depend upon the stock.
5.  Seve with parmesan cheese and a bit more fresh basil.  No one will ever know it only took half an hour.

How many serves?  I figure that each cup of stock, along with all the other good things, equates to one adult serving.  This recipe doubles easily if you need a larger volume of soup and have a big cooking pot.

If you need to say that this recipe isn't vegetarian (does chicken stock help it to cross that line?) then frying some bacon or salami with the onion and garlic works well, adds nice saltiness and will cover that base.

And it freezes well.

Mid year Bible reading reboot

If you need to reboot your Bible reading here are a few ideas.  If you use take this Bible reading plan (my old friend) you could...

1.  Start from 1st January (on 1st July - and it is OK to do this...really it is) and use this plan to get you through the lion's share of Old Testament history, all of the Psalms and all of the New Testament.
2.  Start from 1st July and use this plan to get you through the tail end of Old Testament history and all of the wisdom literature and prophets, the Psalms and the New Testament.

Options one and two have you reading three or four chapters a day.

3.  Use either half (January to June or July to December) to get through one part of the Bible if working in three sections is too difficult.  Maybe Psalms or New Testament.
4.  Go here for other reading plans to start from the beginning or from the middle.

Having finished my tour of the prophets for now, I have decided to embark upon a slightly ambitious project of doing a read through of the Bible in chronological order.  Ambitious because I am going to try to get through it in six months which means double readings each day.  Ambitious because the second half of the year contains those particularly busy months of November and December.  And if I don't make it then that will be OK.  But I'm going to try. 

HEALTH WARNING:  If you are new to Bible reading or in a floundering patch, don't be overwhelmed by my overambitiousness.  Anyone who has read this blog for more than three minutes will know that I think reading the Bible is pretty important and pretty wonderful but I have floundered too.  Pick what works.  But pick something because it is a valuable and wonderful use of your time.

And if you don't need to reboot, then as you were.  Press on.  What are you reading at the moment and how do you plan your reading?

18 Words

When I first started reading 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know by JI Packer, you might remember that I came across this quote at the beginning of the introduction...

Keys open doors; keywords open minds, and through minds hearts. This book takes keywords from the Bible - terms, we may truly say, from God's own vocabulary - and spells out in a particular way some of the main thoughts linked with them. The goal is understanding, faith and wisdom.

18 Words covers some pretty lofty topics...

Revelation

Scripture

The Lord

The World

Sin

The Devil

Grace

The Mediator

Reconciliation

Faith

Justification

Regeneration

Election

Holiness and Sanctification

Mortification

Fellowship

Death

This list screams the word DOCTRINE (or THEOLOGY).  Until recent times I would have run a mile from a book like this.  I'm a practical person - I like the concrete rather than the conceptual.  The closest I have ever come to having a nervous breakdown was when I was preparing to sit the exam for the doctrine unit in the Moore College correspondence course.  So why would I or you or anyone read a book like this?

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1.  It is written in the same lovely style as Knowing God.  JI Packer writes so very well - clearly, cleanly and with an amazing economy of words.  But it certainly isn't stuffy or academic.  There are plenty of delightful moments like this one at the beginning of the chapter on holiness and sanctification...

The two English nouns in our title represent a single word-group in both Hebrew and Greek.  In English, we have no adjective from the verb 'sanctify', nor any verb from the adjective 'holy.' This, perhaps is not a very great tragedy; if the words 'sanct' and 'holify' existed, they would sound so ugly that nobody would want to use them...

2.  The chapters are short - an average of ten pages each, some shorter, some longer.  I always find short chapters a comfort when I am having to really concentrate.  Seems to make it more achievable.  And each chapter stands alone.

3.  These are important biblical themes.  And some of them are not easy to grasp.  But Packer provides a clear explanation with lots of examples and Bible references.  Granted they are summaries - Packer describes them as sketches - but they are a good start if you are grappling with (or want to grapple with) any of these topics.

4.  It isn't theology for theology's sake.  Packer is wonderfully pastoral.  This is a book of knowledge.  But it is abundantly clear that he doesn't want this knowledge to stick around in our heads only.  Chapter by chapter, he wants the knowledge to drop into our hearts and hands.  You can tell this just by reading the dedication...

 

For

Ruth, Naomi and Martin

with their father's prayers

that they will make their own

all that I have written here.

 

This is a book of applied theology.

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I enjoyed each of the chapters.  The one on "the mediator" was very interesting.  That chapter opens with these words...

The mediator is a familiar figure in modern industrial and international negotiations.  The pattern of events that calls for his services is increasingly common.  Things get tense; both sides feel there is no common ground for continuing the discussion; then one walks out - and at once a mediator has to be found to go to and fro between the estranged negotiators trying to bring them together again.  The mediator is thus...the man inthe middle.  He has links with both sides; he sympathises with both, and both trust him.  He serves the cause of justice, peace and goodwill.  His job is to represent each side to the other and find a basis for restoring their friendship.

The mediator Packer talks about is Jesus.  I know in my head that Jesus is our mediator but I don't think I'd thought about this in such stark terms before.  So that was interesting. 

The chapter on election was brilliant - a fairly long and measured introduction cutting through all the fear, arguments and misconceptions that abound around this topic, followed by the clearest and most uplifting, humbling explanation of election that I have ever read.  Packer tackled the chapter on the devil quite differently - straight in with both gloves on.  His writing was direct and frank.

This is a great book.  I am planning on reading it a few times - once a year for a few years to come (and you can check my reading list as the years unfold to see if I do and hold me accountable to this) - until some of these trickier subjects sit clearly and comfortably with me...and I don't feel like I have to run away from all things theological and scary!

Says JI Packer at the end of his introduction to 18 Words...

I hope that the following sketches of biblical themes (they are no more) will subserve the Spirit's double purpose of constantly leading us to love and adore the Christ of the Scriptures, and to amend our lives by their light. 

I think he achieves his aims.  This is a really good book.

Packed up and ready to go

How many Christians live their lives packed up and ready to go?  There is no mystery about it; common sense should tell us.  Be wholly committed to Christ's service  every day.  Don't touch sin with a barge-pole.  Keep short accounts with God.  Think of each hour as God's gift to you, to make the most and best of.  Plan your life, budgeting for seventy years (Ps. 90:10), and understanding that if your time proves shorter that will not be unfair deprivation but rapid promotion.  Never let the good, or the not-so-good, crowd out the best, and cheerfully forgo what is not the best for the sake of what is.  Live in the present; gratefully enjoy its pleasures and work through its pains with God, knowing that both the pleasures and the pains are steps on the journey home.  Open all your life to the Lord Jesus and spend time consciously in His company, basking in and responding to His love.  Say to yourself often that every day is one day nearer.  Remember that, as George Whitefield said, man is immortal till his work is done (though God alone defines the work), and get on with what you know to be God's task for you here and now. 

Said Paul: 'The time has come for me to be gone.  I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kep the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me, but all those who have longed for his Appearing.' (2 Timothy 4:6-8, JB)

Urged Peter: ' For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love...make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' (2 Peter 1:5-7, 10-11, NIV)

That's the way.

The very last page of 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know from the chapter called "Death" by my new friend JI Packer.  So very encouraging. 

The world according to God

In his chapter on "The World" in 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know, JI Packer considers the different ways we might regard the world - physical, geographical, racial, anthropological, sociological, cultural...and even personal (think "welcome to my world.")  And then there is the biblical view. 

The biblical idea of the world covers approximately the same area of meaning as our secular notions does.  It likewise denotes this earth with its cosmic environment, and men upon it, or sometimes mankind alone.  There are words both in Hebrew and Greek translated "world" in the English Bible, which mean simply "the habitable (or inhabited) earth."  Yet the standpoint from which the Bible speaks of "the world" is quite different from ours.  For in the Bible "world" is a theological word - a word, that is , which is defined in terms of God.  "The world" is always, and emphatically God's world - the order of things which He made, which He owns, and which He rules, despite all His creatures' efforts to cast off His sway.  The reference-point of the biblical idea of the word therefore, is not man, but God.  What we have to do now is to learn to think of the world God-centredly, as the Bible presents it - not always as it appears to human inspection, but as God sees it, and thinks of it.  For the thoughts of God about it are the measure of what it really is.

From 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know  by JI Packer chapter four, page 55-56.

A helpful reminder that the world doesn't revolve around us.

My everyday prayer from The Valley of Vision

O Thou Most High,
Creator of the ends of the earth,
Governor of the universe,
Judge of all men,
Head of the church,
Saviour of sinners;
           thy greatness is unsearchable,
           thy goodness infinite,
           thy compassions unfailing,
           thy providence boundless,
           thy mercies ever new.
We bless thee for the words of salvation.
How important, suitable, encouraging are the doctrines, promises, and invitations of the gospel of peace!
We are lost: but in it thou hast presented to us a full, free and eternal salvation;
           weak: but here we learn that help is found in One that is mighty,
           poor: but in him we discover unsearchable riches,
           blind: but we find he has treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
We thank thee for thy unspeakable gift.
Thy Son is our only refuge, foundation, hope, confidence;
We depend upon his death,
          rest in his righteousness,
          desire to bear his image;
May his glory fill our minds,
          his love reign in our affections,
          his cross inflame us with ardour.
Let us as Christians fill our various situations in life,
           escape the snares to which they expose us,
           discharge the duties that arrives from our circumstances,
           enjoy with moderation their advantages,
           improve with diligence their usefulness,
And may every place and company we are in be benefitted by us.
Amen

This is a prayer from The Valley of Vision.  I have blogged an excerpt from it once before but this is it in its entirety.  It's from the prayers at the back of the book - a series of set prayers for morning and evening.  This one is the prayer for the sixth morning of the week. 

But it is the prayer that I find myself praying almost every day, not just on the sixth morning of the week.  It provides me with a picture of the True God.  It shows me the true me.  It shows me what God has done for me in Jesus.  And it shows what is good for me to do, day by day, in light of all of these things.  Hour by hour, what I need to recall in this equation changes - and I find different parts of this prayer coming to mind, as circumstances warrant.

The other prayers for the rest of the week, morning and evening, are excellent too.  But for months now, this one has been my everyday prayer.

Book spine poetry: The Pilgrim's Progress

Jean has tagged me in a book spine poetry meme.  Ali had done some.  Here are some other examples.

And here's mine.  The top book is the title.

The Pilgrim's Progress

What am I doing here?
Please understand me,
Hard times.
Calm my anxious heart.
Stirrings of the soul,
Sometimes gladness,
Surprised by joy,
O love that will not let me go,
A fortunate life.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Now to tag some others.  Here are the rules.

• Create a book spine poem.
• Take a picture.
• Post it on your blog.
• Link back to this post.
• Tag another blogger, or two, or ten.

Tagging Matt, Rebecca, Ally, Jenny, Karen, Sharon, Amy, Sarah and Wendy.

And if there is anyone out there who doesn't have a blog but wants to have a go, feel free to send me your photo in an email and I will post it here for you.

Thus saith the Lord

I've been doing a group Bible study on prayer lately and one of the studies makes the point that prayer is talking to God, not listening to Him.  God doesn't speak to us in prayer.  We speak to Him.  I was talking to my husband about this, who cleverly observed that it can be quite easy to get the wrong impression about God speaking to us, personally and audibly, from the pages of the Old Testament.

You see, God spoke to Adam and Eve and Cain.
He spoke to Noah.
And Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He spoke to Moses.
And Joshua.
God spoke to  Gideon.
He spoke to Samuel and Nathan.
And to Elijah and Elisha.
And God spoke to all those prophets who have books of the Old Testament named after them.
There may be others. These are the ones I can recall off the top of my head.

And when you put all the things He said to that collection of people together, it accounts for a good part of the Old Testament.  Pages and pages and pages of God speaking personally and audibly.  That's a lot of God speaking.  But He only spoke to a small selection of people.  Count them up.  There aren't that many of them, for all the words of God recorded in the Bible.

It was the responsibility of this small group to pass on the message of His words to the multitudes.  God didn't speak to each and every Israelite camped out at Mt Sinai or to the wayward kings and commoners of Judah, Israel, Egypt or even Ninevah.  Just to a handful of people whose role it was to pass on the message. 

And then in the New Testament He spoke through one man.  Jesus.

This is not to say that God couldn't speak personally and audibly to someone if He chose to.  He is the Creator and sustainer of the universe.  But given the pattern set in the Bible, it seems fairly likely that He speaks to people now far less often than many might otherwise suggest.

I've never done the maths before (of how many God actually spoke to in the Bible) but it's pretty interesting - a small but important point to note.

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Hebrews 1:1,2

Reading through the Prophets

I've spent this year reading through the Prophets in my personal Bible reading time.  It has been fantastic to give them the freshness of summer light and energy rather than crashing into them during the cold and dark winter months and dying, as has happened year after year.  I worked through all of them over four months, with some help along the way from some online sermons, the occasional commentary and a little book called The Minor Prophets by Jack Lewis. 

I'm onto my second run through now, going a bit faster.  It hasn't been an exhaustive study.  My aim was to get some basic facility with them, so that when their names were mentioned the essentials would spring to mind, rather than being met with a black hole.  It has been Bible reading time well spent.  I am hoping to be finished the second run through by the end of June and then plan to do a dash through the whole Bible during the second half of the year.  (That may be being a little optimistic.  I'll let you know how I go.)  I'm liking this plan a lot and am thinking that I will do it again in future years - giving the first few months over to something specific (so maybe next year I will take on just Isaiah with a commentary or Job or...) and then going through the whole Bible after that. 

Here are some things I have noticed about the Prophets, from my first sweep through.

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At one level, they all basically say the same thing.  They're all messages from God through individual prophets to various nations, cities or kings to repent of their current godless practices and to turn and follow Him.  It is often presented, just as God first spoke to the Israelites through Moses in Deuteronomy, in terms of blessing and cursing. 

Sometimes the message is delivered in very black and white terms.  And on first glance it can seem quite harsh.  But while that message is being delivered, God has not drawn down on His sentence.  With abundant mercy, He is throwing out a lifeline.  At other times the words of the Prophets are heavy with God's compassion for His people.  He aches for them to turn back to Him.  It is tender reading.

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.  
Joel 2:13

We know, looking back in a purely historical sense, that God did bring down judgment on His people.  The Northern Kingdom was overtaken by Assyria and the residents of the Southern Kingdom were taken into exile by the Babylonians.  It is grim reading, as these events unfold.  And it is easy to wonder where God is in the lives of the innocent bystanders - in the lives of the humble Israelites who loved God while all those around them were serving false gods,  following their own way and receiving their due punishment.  It doesn't seem to fair to bring down such harsh judgement on the innocent.  But there are small passages here and there throughout the Prophets where God addresses this.  As humans, when the chips are down, we fear for our mortal lives and seek to avoid pain and hardship.  But God's purposes are much higher and are eternal.  There is an especially moving example of this in Isaiah.

The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil. 
Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.

Isaiah 57:1,2

The Day of the Lord is a common theme throughout the Prophets.  Interesting to note that some the Prophets talk about this day as one which will be glorious beyond imagining.  They almost turn themselves inside out trying to express the wonder of it all.  But others paint a more sober view, explaining in clear terms that it is a day to be feared.  It is a day which will bring judgment and great distress and for those who have ignored the call to follow God, it will not end well.

Another interesting thing I noted was that there is lots of evidence that God's people will be found amongst the Gentiles as well as the Jews.  Paul certainly draws attention to this in Romans 15.  I did find myself wondering, given the weight of the evidence, why there was so much shock about the place in the very early church when the Gospel made its first push out into the Gentiles.  Maybe they all hadn't read the Prophets.

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In God's good providence I was reading through the Prophets while being swept away with JI Packer's Knowing God.  And this section of the Bible certainly gives you the BIG PICTURE of God in all His holiness, right to judge, power, love and compassion.  I have been both humbled before Him (the fear of the Lord in its fullest sense) and strengthened in His grace, love and mercy.

Not easy.  But good and rich reading.

Jesus, keep me near the cross

I didn't have a chance to get near Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross in the lead up to Easter so I read it after Easter instead.  This book is wonderful in and out of season.  Here's a passage from near the end that taught me something and encouraged me to press on in keeping near the cross of Jesus.

Four of the last seven words [of Jesus on the cross] were from the Old Testament.  Only Jesus' direct  addresses to God on behalf of the soldiers, to the dying thief, and to his mother and beloved disciple were not.  This means that Jesus was filling his mind and strengthening his spirit not by trying to keep a stiff upper lip or look for a silver lining, as we might say, but by an act of deliberately remembering and consciously clinging to the great prophecies and promises of God.  If Jesus did that, don't you think you should do it too?  And not only when you come to die.

You need to fill your head with Scripture and think of your life in terms of the promises of Scripture now.  If you do not do it now, how will you ever find strength to do it when you come to die?  You must live Scripture, committing your spirit into the hands of God day by day if you are to yield your spirit into God's loving hands trustingly at the last.

From "The Heart of the Cross" by James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken (page 100) in Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross edited by Nancy Guthrie.

Teaching kids about God - get them to multitask

Picture by Cathy

A little while ago I came into possession of a document I wrote ten or more years ago called "The Top Twenty Teaching Tips for Children's Church Teachers."  I've just read over it and I'm interested to find that I would probably knock out five, maybe ten, of the tips I listed.  Amazing what a difference a decade will make.  And there is one tip - one that I would put close to the top these day - that isn't mentioned at all in the list.

Get the kids to multitask.

I teach a few Scripture classes each week at our local primary school.  In recent weeks I have had more bad lessons than good.  I take the upper primary classes and in my experience, things start getting difficult with these groups about three weeks before the end of term three - so it was a bit disconcerting when things started going downhill so early on in the year.  It could make for a very long and difficult year.  I decided I had to do something to turn things around.  And quickly.

So I did what I do in Sunday School.  I got them to multitask.

When I teach Sunday School and I need the children to listen for a long time (big story, complicated point to explain, it's a serious lesson and breaking up the talking with a game just won't work) I often bring out a big bowl of popcorn.  Children will listen for as long as you want to talk if they have something to eat.  (You do have to get over the fact that at least one child will eat as if they hadn't been fed for a whole week, but other than that and potential popcorn allergies, this strategy is foolproof.)  Other things that work include playdough or a small pile of Lego bricks with instructions to build a specific thing.

But popcorn, playdough and Lego don't work in a school classroom.  I tried popcorn once.  In small individual bags.  That story is probably best left right there... 

However the principle behind the popcorn still stands.  Something that keeps hands busy and distracts either the mind or the mouth will give the teacher enough time to tell the story/finish a sentence without having to discipline someone/get through five minutes of the lesson with a happy voice and a happy face in order to shift the previously unpleasant mood of the class/______________ (fill in the gap.)

So I went to dear old Google Images and typed in "Detailed Geometric Colouring Pages" and got something like this.

It wasn't this one exactly because every time I google these words I get a completely different set of pictures.  Which is good.  Endless possibilities.

Anyway, I printed one off, photocopied it and went to my lessons.  After a pretty good opening (a couple of rounds of our apple stacking challenge and then the story about how I thought I was going to be killed at the hands of two bikies one evening when I was about 20 and my car broke down in the middle of an intersection at night will hold most children...and yes, it did have something to do with the Scripture lesson I was teaching) it was time to get down to serious business and on cue, they started in on me. 

So I whipped out my pictures, gave the instruction that no two bits were to be coloured in the same colour and kept teaching.  They coloured.  They listened.  They answered questions - without calling out.  And when it was needed, they put their pictures aside to do five minutes of writing in their workbooks.  Because they knew what had happened in the Bible story and they were calm.  The colouring in picture had nothing to do with the lesson at all.  All it did was distract them from the task of winding me up for long enough to get the content of the lesson across.

Twenty years ago (oh my...) when I was a classroom teacher I would read from a novel to my class every day.  Either before lunch or just before the end of school.  And I would make sure they had cleared their desks completely before I started.  There was no fiddling with things, drawing while they were listening, nothing.  I wanted them to do nothing but listen and use their imaginations as I read.  And they did it.  Not because I was a tyrant about it.  They could just do it, with a little bit of training at the beginning of the year.  And that is why mulitasking didn't rate a mention on my Top Twenty List.  It wasn't needed and in my humble opinion, it just didn't help things along.

But I don't know if children would be able to do that now.  Sure, some can.  But not whole classrooms full of children.  Not without lots and lots of training - in concentration and respect.  And the 30 minute Scripture lesson is not the time of the week for that.  So instead, multitasking is a technique that keeps hands and minds out of mischief  and allows for the lesson to proceed.  It won't work every week.  And this won't work week after week.  But, thanks be to God, it worked this week for me.  We had a nice time together and that means that I stand a fair chance of having a good week with them next week as well.

 

Teaching Kids about God

I know there are a few people out there in blogosphere who either teach Sunday School or Scripture lessons so I thought I might start an occasional series offering some tips and tricks and the odd bit of content, that I have stumbled upon and found helpful.  I know I was deeply grateful and encouraged by Simone's blog at Easter time when she posted some children's talk ideas at the eleventh hour.  I was certainly struggling at the eleventh hour before Good Friday this year and was greatly encouraged by her post at that very moment. (Thanks Simone, if you are reading this!)

And I hope that as I share bits and pieces here and there (as I said, I am planning that this will be an occasional series rather than a "post after post" type arrangement) that someone out there, maybe struggling with their teaching, might be encouraged to press on.

What follows right now is a post on getting kids to multitask to get the ball rolling, inspired by a dramatic turn around in my Scripture classes this week.

And I need some help.  Anyone got an idea for a series title that captures the imagination a bit more than "Teaching Kids about God"?   It's alright, but I think we can do better.  And any ideas for a signature photo for this series?

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Update:  Here is the photo that will accompany these posts.  Thank you so much to Cathy.