"Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness." (Proverbs 30:20) As wives we need to strengthen the bond with our husbands everyday. A slippery slope can take us away from our husbands very quickly. An adulterous woman can get to the point that her conscience is seared. It begins with a smile or a look and leads to a longing after someone else. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 5: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) Of course, the same could be true in the case of a woman looking at a man that way. This is the top of a slippery slope and one from which is very difficult to find your way clear! To avoid being in that situation, wives need to work diligently to be the couple we need to be to glorify God. He is the one that designed the family and gave us His blueprint for it. We can never study enough because on this earth we can always strive to be better!
0 Comments
This website has great curriculum for kids! I recently used a chart of the first 9 plagues out of one of these units. These are very well designed units! Great for homeschool or Bible class use.
Bible Class Curriculum "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalms 90:12) A schedule is something that I knew I needed for school, but we just never did. This past spring, I used a scribbled down schedule and found some benefits from it. But this fall, I began the school year with a schedule. It is not written down, but printed out in ink. It is in a protected sleeve, unchangeable. The kids know they cannot write on it and change it. Are we flexible with it? Yes, but the kids are less likely to argue and complain. The schedule is our law and we follow it. It is amazing the difference in our school days! The kids are finishing subjects by lunch and eager to be on 'track' by lunch. Previously, they had spent hours on one subject – to much vexation to their mother and teacher. Lack of a schedule did not work for us, but having one makes all the difference! We are even able to add in an additional Bible reading together. The kids and I read from Proverbs. Most days there is time in the schedule (when they are ahead of schedule) for me to say, “Take a break and read our chapter of Proverbs for the day.” They are happy and eager to comply. And let me just say that reading the Proverbs each day has really helped attitude and behavior – both in them and in me! There's so much in there for daily living. If you homeschool and don't use a schedule, I highly recommend that you make one up, print it out and stick to it! If you don't homeschool, schedule your time around school and you be amazed that you have time to study the Bible together – daily! Remember to be flexible – life happens. The other day something came up that was a good life lesson for the kids and only set their schedule off by ten minutes. Don't stress about it – the life lessons learned are much more important than book learning.
"When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches." Psalms 63:6
Is it too late to think about God and His Word? The Psalmist doesn't think so. Isn't it wonderful that we can think about God and His Word any time day or night. We can pray to Him and never worry about it being too late at night or too early in the morning. You don't have to worry about waking Him up, in fact, Jesus spent the night praying to His Father. I must admit that I have never done that. "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Luke 6:12 "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyedus into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:9-14 NKJV The above passage was quoted in the current book I'm studying for my personal daily study. I am always struck by this amazing list of benefits and have used this in Bible studies I have written. In this list, there are also some requirements for us in our daily lives. Here's a list of the benefits and requirements that I see in this passage: 1. Filled with knowledge. Isn't that a wonderful thing to be? Not just knowledge though, the writer says 'knowledge of His will.' His will is revealed to us and we can know it by studying. There's our requirement: study. 2. All wisdom and understanding. Proverbs tells us that wisdom is desired above all riches. How rich would we be with the wisdom that comes from God! Our requirement: to be prudent. In other words, use God's wisdom in our life. Solomon had great God-given wisdom, but it didn't do him any good in the latter part of his life. The king had married foreign wives and then allowed them to have altars to their gods. This caused the kingdom to fall. We need to apply the wisdom appropriately in our lives. 3. Walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all things (another version says). Here is a requirement that will reap benefits if we daily do this. 4. Being fruitful for every good work. This is both a requirement and a benefit! We must bear fruit for Him or we will be cut from the vine and cast into the fire. On the other hand, there is great pleasure in knowing that we have done as the Lord commanded us. We will know our reward will come from Him. 5. Increasing in the knowledge of God. The more we know of Him, the more we want to be like Him. Again our requirement is to study in order to increase. Our benefit is my next point. 6. Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power. Strengthened with His power!?! That is an amazing thought! Not only will we be made strong, but we will be with God's unlimited power! What will power we may have over temptation if we accept this benefit! 7. Patience and longsuffering with joy. I don't know about you, but patience and longsuffering is something that I am in short supply of. This benefit is definitely one I need! And to have it with joy as well is even more amazing! 8. Giving thanks to the Father. We have received these benefits, now what do we do? Our requirement: say thank you! We expect people to say thank you when we give a gift, why do we not thank our heavenly Father for the good things He gives us? 9. Qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light. Qualify means to have the qualities needed for a person to fill a position. We couldn't do this on our own, He made it so. Our requirement: to partake of the opportunity given! We have a choice, let us not throw it away by choosing the pleasures of this life over the next! 10. Delivered us from the power of darkness. The devil is powerful, yes, but God is more powerful. He has delivered us from being bound by the devil - only God could do that! 11. Conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The word 'conveyed' makes me think of riding in a bus or taxi. We are brought from one place to another. He has brought us out of the darkness and to the light. Our requirement: this is not a free ride. We must work in the kingdom! 12. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. What a benefit! We were unworthy; we could never be redeemed on our own power. But through the power of Christ's blood we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Our requirement: to come in contact with the blood to have that redemption and forgiveness. What other ones could you list? Challenge to you today: continue through the rest of this chapter and find many more benefits and requirements. Share some in the comments for discussion!
I just wanted to give you a short reminder today. We have all heard it before, children are listening, their little ears hear everything we say even when we don’t realize they’re listening. We know it’s true, but we still say things we should not. This truth was brought home to me just yesterday. It’s not that we said anything that we shouldn’t, but we realize just how soon those listening ears begin to listen. One of the things that we do each day is to read a section of Scripture so that we can read through the entire Bible in a year. We have three children: one is nine, one is six, and the youngest just turned a year old this month. We expect the older two to be listening to the Bible reading, and the youngest is always there, but we realize that she doesn’t understand everything we say.
Yesterday we were reading the Bible reading while we were riding in the car. My wife was reading from Lamentations. I didn’t even realize that our youngest daughter was awake because she often falls asleep when were riding in the car. She has been looking at the animal cards from apologetics press and when she sees the bear or the lion she growls. As my wife was reading the Bible reading she came across the word lion. As soon as she said "lion" little Julia growled. I can also recall many times when my son or daughter would ask me a question after a sermon about something I didn’t realize they had even heard. I thought they were coloring or drawing, but they were listening. When I was a teenager we didn’t have many children in the church where I grew up, and one of my friends was several years younger than me. He was using certain euphemisms that his father clearly did not approve of him using. One day after church his father was talking to my father about it, and his father said, "I just don’t know where he gets it." I had heard the father say those same words on many occasions. I boldly jumped into the conversation and told the father that his son had gotten it from him. He certainly wasn’t happy to hear that, and it probably wasn’t the best way for me to handle the situation. The fact of the matter is, however, that children often learn the things they say from their parents. Even as parents and adults we often hear our parents words coming out of our mouths. We need to be sure that the things we say are good and wholesome. Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 29:20 Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. Another mistake that we often make is talking about others and the problems that we have with them in front of our children. The things we may say that shouldn’t have been said or that should have been said to the person we had the problem with are often repeated by our children. Feelings can be hurt, and children can learn to gossip. Proverbs 25:9-12 Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another: (10) Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away. (11) A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. (12) As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Just in case you think this is a subject of little importance, take careful note of what Jesus said about our speech. Matthew 12:34-37 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (35) A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. (36) But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (37) For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. In continuing our theme, Church history, here is an article on another group which deviated from the truth.
Are Jehovah Witnesses True People of God? This site has been under construction and they recently unveiled it! World Video Bible School was begun 1986 by some kind-hearted individuals. I have met these folks personally and they are genuine Christians trying to spread the Gospel. WVBS offers a school for preachers, material for learning and teaching Bible classes and now has produced a full-length movie which is due out in September. One of their teaching materials is "Searching for Truth." This is a DVD with lessons for teaching the lost. Workbooks that accompany the DVD are also available. Check out this website for some wonderful material for learning the Word!
World Video Bible School I just found this great new website with some good things on it for kids. I plan on using the Kings Chart. We have been reading through the books of Kings and Chronicles and I really wished I had a visual chart on which kings were when and which kingdom. Well, they have one on this website! I hope they add more in the future! Check it out!
NTheBeginningGod.com - Kids In Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, he says, “The enemy of the best is not the worst, rather it is the good enough.” As a parent, we often ask ourselves, am I doing good enough? If you say that you are good enough, you need to be striving for better!
If growing as a Christian means daily Bible study and prayer, then growing as a parent would mean daily study and prayer as well. Of course the Bible should be our first source of knowledge for the parent, but there are other avenues of learning as well. Here are a few: 1) Books written by a successful Christian parent. Reading books by faithful members of the church is important. We once read a book written by a 'Christian' teaching false doctrine. We tried their method of child rearing only to find it was a total failure. Sticking to God's Word and books written by Christians committed to following the Bible is of utmost importance. One of my favorites is, “Your Mama Don't Dance,” by Glenn and Cindy Colley. 2) Audio and Video offered by faithful Christians. There are some wonderful videos out there provided by Christians dedicated to God's doctrine. One of my favorites is “Faith For Life,” by Brad Harrub. 3) Successful Christian parents. Do not be afraid to ask questions to elders or other Christians who have raised faithful children. One question I asked was, “How did you get your children to be so kind and loving to one another?” Sibling fighting and disagreements is a common issue in our home. 4) Besides these tools, I think a Christian's best (and sometimes little used) avenue is prayer. I'm often reminded of the story of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19:14 and Isaiah 37:14. Hezekiah received a letter from another country. He was in a quandary as to what to do in response to the letter. So, the first thing he did after reading the letter was to take it to the temple, lay it out before God and petition the Almighty for answers. He received a direct answer from God. Of course, we would not, but there are at least 2 reasons I see for prayer being a wonderful course of action for the parent. One is that it calms our mind and helps us think of verses or bits of wisdom we have received from our study of Christian parenting. Many times the answer will present itself if we simply take a moment in prayer to calm our spirits. The second is that we receive blessings from utilizing the avenue of communication with our Creator. James says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8) When we ask in faith, we receive an answer – not always the answer we want, but God always answers the faithful Christian in one way or another. What are some of your favorite tools provided by faithful Christians? |