When I was in college I served with Young Life, a great inter-denominational ministry that worked with middle school and high school students to build relationships with them and show them the glorious gospel. One of the main truths of Young Life that I still completely believe and affirm and try to practice today is “It is a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.” Jesus is not boring. Why should we bore a kid, a teenager, or an adult with the wonderful news of Jesus?
I’ve been hearing about a new book that Crossway was putting out by one of my favorite authors, Kevin DeYoung entitled The Biggest Story. I opened up my mailbox today and there was a brown package from Crossway and I definitely knew it was going to be a great mail day. I read three chapters of it sitting in the parking lot of Wendy’s while the boys were eating their junior frostys and I read the rest of it in the gym locker room before working out. Yes, it was that good.
It was witty.
It was full of adventure – cliffhangers mind you.
It was truth.
It was concise.
It was displaying the gloriousness of the gospel.
The pictures are so well done and fit in well with what is in the secular market right now (journals, etc).
It is not a Bible – but tells the beautiful story of the Bible to school-aged kids in a way that won’t bore them.
This is not a Bible. Its not even a The Message type Bible. It is a story. A true story. It shapes the readers mind around one single figure: Jesus. Just like in the Jesus Storybook Bible where Jesus is the hero of every story – and the whole Bible points to Him. Same way here. Kevin, in his masterful, comical, somewhat sarcastic, pastoral, daddy way – he skillfully weaves the truth of Jesus, the reality of sin, the fallenness of the human race, and the relationship that God will remedy one day – all into a lovely books that you need to get when it comes out the end of this month.
Here is just one example of how you can use this (if you are a parent):
One of my greatest hopes for you (if you have a family) is that you will figure out what family devotions looks like for you. Right now, for us, we read part of a Bible book for toddlers and pray with our older son before going to bed. It literally takes 2 minutes. But, that will change as both of boys get older. If you have grade-school kids I think this would be a perfect book to read with them and talk about the implications and truth that it shares. I would also pair it with a Bible story, from the actual Bible. Crossway has a great children’s Bible that I just did a review on. I would take the time to read the chapter that you are covering that day in The Biggest Story and pick just one of the stories that it talks about and read that story out of the Bible. Then just ask your kids questions about that. Pray with them. Turn their hearts to their need of Jesus and the great gospel.
Two disclaimers about this book as I was reading it.
1. DeYoung says that Adam ate from the only tree. Well, of course he did. It caught me off guard that he didn’t say Eve ate it (which she did). I know he knows that. My only thought it that either he is stressing male leadership and that Adam sinned or the Adam being the head of the human race side of things. Either way, no biggie, just wanted to share.
2. Also, most books you’ll read, especially around Christmas time is that Jesus is the greatest gift. In The Biggest Story, DeYoung says that the Holy Spirit is best present of all time. He so strongly talks about the Trinity (yay!) and having read J D Greear’s book Jesus Continued I can see why he would say this.
All together, I would give this book to absolutely anyone. I can’t wait to read it with my children more and have them understand it. I want to get another copy of the book just to cut out the pictures and frame them. I want my home to be filled with more books like this – the books that point to the magnificent gospel!
Comfort food is the name of the game in the south. There is high class comfort food – then there is just down home casserole type comfort food. This is it. My mister has a great church cookbook from the church he attended when he was growing up.
Chicken and Dressing Casserole
Recipe Type: Casserole
Cuisine: Southern
Author: kcreatives
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4-6
Easy casserole comfort food for dinner any night of the week
As a wife and a mom (and basically as a human being), I experience many different emotions every single day.
Love.
Joy.
Irritability.
Fear.
Impatience.
Sadness.
Anger.
Bitterness.
Things are out of control.
Competitiveness.
And the list could go on, but you get the picture.
God created us as whole beings, therefore emotions themselves aren’t evil. But, they have been affected by the fall – when sin entered the picture long ago we have a different bent on emotions. But, the good news is we have been given something to help with our emotions.
We have been given the Bible, especially the book of Psalms. The Psalms to me is probably the most helpful book in the entire world when knowing how to deal with my emotions. One of my friends told me early this year that one of the best disciplines I could would be to journal through the psalms, praying through them, crying out to God using his very word to direct my thoughts. This practice has been so helpful in turning my thoughts and emotions back to God. This practice doesn’t necessarily have to go with hard times when our hearts are torn. But, it can help us specifically praise the One who deserves all the credit when things are going well in our lives.
Crossway recently came out with a Psalter that is amazing. My sweet husband just gifted it to me. He placed an order with random other household goods from amazon that he knew I would open. I found the psalter. I called him hoping I hadn’t ruined a surprise – he said no, just thought it would be a happy. It so was! I’d been wanting it forever! It is the perfect compact size to carry with me everywhere. It has thick pages perfect for people like me who like to write in their Bibles. And it is only the Psalms – which is perfect for reading and re-reading.
Another book has recently come out that has been helpful as I’ve started reading it. And this post has also been encouraging. IF you want a prayer journal that a wife can pray for her husband through certain books of the Bible, you can find one here on the blog for free that I wrote for the book of Nehemiah or the one I wrote for Ephesians.
One of the best parts about the psalms and the most instructive is how the writers deal with their emotions. They aren’t afraid to tell us what they are really feeling: doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, questioning, joy, praise, adoration, etc. But, even when they are struggling in their faith – they always come back to the understanding that God is in control. He is most glorious. He is in charge of all things. And that is why they praise. They know that every situation will be handled by the Great BIG GOD who is gently leading and guiding them through all things.
I never want to shy away from my emotions. I do want to run to my God who knows me and knows how all of it is going to turn out. And you don’t have to not share your emotions with others. Christians should not be a stoic people. (I mean, clearly, the Psalms is anything but stoic.) But, with our sharing, let us always return to the hope of Christ. May we always take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
There is a new type of book on the market now: an adult coloring book. I’m not talking about a rated R coloring book – I’m talking about a coloring book that will appeal to adults. Hobbies are so good and with the influx of binge watching tv shows on Netflix it makes us feel better if we are doing something as we watch them. Like we aren’t really being lazy. A friend of mine is putting together a coloring book that I can’t wait to get my hands on. Any time I can be creative – it is a good day.
That’s not the type of book I’m talking about. I’m talking about books with lots of words in them – books that will change your life? Your job? Your hobby? Your mind? Books that will enlighten you and make you laugh. Books that will challenge you and cause you to cry. These are the books that you need to be reading.
One such book is Packer on the Christian Lifeby Sam Storms – the latest in the series put out by Crossway Books. Not intended to be biographical mainly, these books only share a snippet on the persons actual life – but it is still informative, especially if you like biographies. But, more importantly this book, and this series, allows us to know where we’ve come from. Packer is one of the top 5 most influential evangelical theologians in the last 100 years. His books likeKnowing God and Evangelism and the Sovereignty of Godwould probably be his two most famous books. These two books have influenced thousands of readers and have influenced pastors that lead thousands every Sunday.
I love how Storms doesn’t shy away from any controversial theology that may have come across the mind of Packer or how he had to deal with heresy. Packer has always (yes, even now, as he is still alive) come back to the Word. I love how he stands firmly on Scripture. Yes, we will always differ with people on some theology, none of us are perfect. As a friend said yesterday, when we get to heaven all of it will be right according to God.
So why should we read books?
1. To engage our hearts, minds, and souls. If the books you are reading don’t do this in some way – pick a new book.
2. To learn from the past. This is why I love biographies so much, or series like this one by Crossway. I want to learn from people who have lived before me. I want to see the God they knew. I want to experience their world.
3. To impact the future. I think one of the greatest disciplines any leader can have is to read. One of the things I love about my pastor is that each Sunday night he gives away books. Maybe only one or two, but he wants to put good books in the hands of the people of his congregation, so they can do all three of these things I’ve just listed.
I don’t think I will be the first to tell you that life is often filled with hard and trying times. Is that a surprise to anyone? Often if we spend most of our time in the social media world and not in the real world we might get the sense that life is always gorgeous. But, it is filled with cloudy days, dead flowers, blow out diapers, and sometimes lots of tears.
And at times we might find ourselves completely helpless when it comes to some of the things that make our days darker: cancer, sickness, death, unemployment because of a downsize at the office, a broken marriage because of our spouse’s infidelity, a broken relationship because of lies and anger and gossip. Each day holds different things and its hard to always known what’s coming at us.
But, with the things that I can control – I want them to be pretty things. I don’t know what your pretty and life-giving things are. Will you fill me in? What are things that brighten your day and make you smile?
Here are my top ten pretty things – or things that are life-giving to me:
1. Flowers. Trader Joes is my perfect place right now to get live, fresh, pretty flowers. This week it was 9 white roses for 5$. I work it in to my food budget. It is well worth it.
3. Friends that breathe life into me. There are certain friends that my husband knows if he puts me around them for any period of time than I come back with my soul deeply encouraged. One of those is my mentor. One of those is my best friend. Some are sweet friends that live in other states. Not only do we like to do fun things together, but I love being a part of their lives, knowing and being known.
4. My boys smiles. I will be the first to tell you that parenting two toddlers is hard and tiring work. Often days I cry about something. But, when I’m kicking the ball with my younger son or reading a book with the older – or just holding their hands – or see their excitement as we get cookies at Publix – their smiles are contagious.
5. My husband. I’m learning marriage is not what I thought it would be. I thought I would hang out with my mister more. You know in the dating and engagement phase you spend much of your time together. Well, when you get married, for most people, it is different. My mister works a lot to provide for us, or we have engagements at church or photo shoots or errands to run that pull us apart. So, when we get to sit down and eat food together on the couch while watching West Wing – or walking around ATL or traveling to a beach somewhere together – that is definitely a pretty thing in my life.
6. Photos. One of my tag lines for my photography is “something worth remembering” that I stole from a paragraph in an Emily Freeman book. That’s why you want to take photos right – to remember that moment. I love looking at them. Some of our engagement session with a sweet friend are hanging on our wall right now and I remember that day 4 years ago this month like it was yesterday. There is definitely more intimacy in our marriage now – but we love remembering those days of awkwardly posing and being close to each other – and wouldn’t have it any other way.
7. Clean. This is tough for me, but my husband is rubbing off. Saturday night we spent about 90 minutes working on our downstairs: cleaning, decluttering, being together. I knew that would make him more happy than anything else – and that is one of the reasons it makes me happy and is a pretty thing.
8. Creativity. Any time I can be creative: whether its in the kitchen, behind the lens, or with a pen in my hand – its a pretty thing. It is refreshing to my soul.
9. Fitness: When I am in shape (or being healthy), my whole life looks better. My mom told my husband that before we got married. And he is seeing the reality of it as right now, after two babies and two moves, I’m finally back lower than the day we got married.
10. New scenery. Pretty things that God created – so much of the world I’ve not seen. Whenever I can explore something new and see something I’ve not seen – especially with my mister – oh, it is definitely a pretty thing. We absolutely love to explore together. I know we will enjoy involving our boys more as they get older, but right now that is still something we love to do mostly on our own.
