CCC Gainesville | Blog
Sunday we will look at, among other words from Holy Scripture, Philippians 1:27-30. Contained there is the idea of our focus as Christians being upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A Don Carson quote caught me last week and has stuck with me:
What we must ask one another is this:
What is it in the Christian faith that excites you?
What consumes your time? What turns you on?
Today there are endless subgroups of confessing Christians who invest enormous quantities of time and energy in one issue or another:
abortion,
pornography,
home schooling,
women’s ordination (for or against),
economic justice,
a certain style of worship,
the defense of a particular Bible version,
AND MUCH MORE.
The list varies from country to country, but not a few countries have a full agenda of urgent, peripheral demands. Not for a moment am I suggesting we should not think about such matters or throw our weight behind some of them. But when such matters devour most of our time and passion, each of us must ask:
In what fashion am I confessing the centrality of the gospel? –D.Carson
Phil 1:19 Through your prayers, and the supply of the Spirit of Christ.
This verse has really been challenging and inspiring me this week.
Matthew Henry: “Whatever turns to our salvation is by the supply or the aids and assistance of the Spirit of Christ; and prayer is the appointed means of fetching in that supply.”
Summer is just around the corner. This morning as I packed my daughters lunch I sang out, “Only 7 more lunches to pack!” Many of you are preparing for long awaited vacations and time together as a family. Our family will be heading to the mountains in Tennessee to spend a week with grandparents and an aunt and uncle. We are planning other things to do as a family among them includes choosing the books we will read together. One of the books we are reading is Sally Lloys-Jones’ family devotional, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing.
This family devotional has 101 simple-yet profound thoughts on faith. It is perfect for bedtime, story time, reading in the car, at the dinner table, the breakfast table, in the park where ever. Each entry is short and yet filled with biblical truth. It can be a companion to the much loved Jesus Storybook Bible. Once again the author has joined up with the illustrator Jago to create a family devotional that is rich in word and image designed to do one thing: make the reader’s heart sing.
Quote from the foreword by Tim Keller:
Why has so little attention ever been given to the devotional lives of children? Of course we should be doing all the standard things: teaching them catechism, including them in family devotions, helping them to participate in worship. But encouraging a child to develop his or her own devotional life has been a missing piece that has direct effect on whether a child grows up with a balanced spiritual life or one that is dangerously one sided.
By that I mean that it is all too easy to concentrate on data-transmission to our children… Somehow, however, the experiential side of a relationship with God is often neglected, so that by the time children are teens, they are woefully lopsided-long on information, but short on experience of God’s presence… Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing may be the best, first introduction for children to have their own time with Jesus.
This book is available in both hardback and Kindle versions. I would love to recommend the hardback version so that it can be held by young children and the pages can be touched as they look though the beautiful images.
Enjoy your Summer!
I’m not sure where you all are in reading through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW) by CS Lewis*.
The scene where Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus is simply delightful. That he sees her as–in her essence–a human, a “Daughter of Eve” is so inspiring. And that he thinks “wardrobe” and “spare room” are geographical places is realistic, and funny.
*Reading Philippians a dozen times and LWW once are sorta the law of the Medes and Persians this summer.
Coming soon to CCC…
Journey to the Lamppost: A Narnia Adventure
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All children ages 3* to rising 5th graders are invited on our journey into Narnia! Join us as we play games, sing songs, create art, serve others and learn about Jesus and his amazing life.
*3 year olds require a parent or guardian to stay on property.
For more information or to register visit our VBS page on the church website.
