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Showing posts with label Sharpening Shares. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sharpening Shares. Show all posts
Sharpening Shares is a long-neglected series on the blog in which I share various Christian resources I have found spiritually edifying lately. These are some of our family's recent favorites!
Paul Washer's Studies In Proverbs Lessons - Paul Washer leads a proverbs Bible study for children and young adults and up through this podcast - there are 89 lessons covering the first four chapters of Proverbs (at least so far). These lessons are so thorough and offer so much wisdom to my kids - and me too! I would recommend this as especially helpful starting in 4th grade, but my younger kids listen in with some Bible verse coloring sheets. You can also watch video versions here, and I was excited to see that Paul Washer just recently started recording lessons again starting in Chapter 5!
Catechism Music from Brian Sauve - The kids and I have been working on memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism for years now (it's a marathon, not a sprint). We recently starting listening to Sauve's catechism songs on Spotify, and I like how easy these are to listen to - they'd even be nice to just play in the background around the house.
Chapel Library - I was recently made aware of Chapel Library, a ministry that will send you FREE Christian literature each month. You just sign up for an account, select which books or pamphlets you want them to send to you, and checkout for free! I tried them out last month and selected several tracts, some catechism booklets for my kids, and a few pamphlets from authors such as Charles Spurgeon, A. W. Pink, and J. C. Ryle. They have a whole lot more available to request and also a great free app where you can listen to audio versions of alot of the literature!
Loving The Lost Prayer Guide - A friend of mine from our church recently made me aware of this handy little booklet from the International Mission Board. This guide gives information and prayer prompts for 52 unreached people groups around the world. We use a curriculum that teaches world history and geography with an emphasis on praying for different countries around the world, and it's been a really meaningful part of our homeschool lessons. I love that this prayer guide is so compact and will hopefully help us continue that habit through the summer months! Also, I forgot to mention, you can order the booklet for free.
To Seek And To Save by Sinclair Ferguson - This is a devotional for the weeks leading up to Easter, and I am enjoying it - each day has reflections on Jesus's own travels toward Jerusalem leading up to His sacrifice on the cross for us. Ferguson pulls out great points of personal reflection, but I really appreciate how this devotional concentrates on pointing us to Jesus, not ourselves. I'm sure it'll make an appearance when I eventually write an April book roundup, as I'm on track to finish it by Easter Sunday! Bookmark it for next year.
Facing The Cross: A Homeschool Morning Time And Family Worship Guide For Holy Week - Since we are currently in Holy Week, let me remind you of this free guide to reflect on the cross and the Resurrection this week as a family! We haven't worked through this before, but I'm planning on using it with my kids this week.
It's time for another round of me sharing a bunch of Christian encouragement resources that I've been enjoying lately! I have come across so many good links that I've wanted to share the last few weeks, and then when I sit down to write this post, I forget half of them, so this list isn't particularly long, but it's still full of good stuff.
The G3 App - My mind has been on missions lately because of several things, not the least of which is that my cousin is looking to embark on a two-year foreign mission later this year. A couple months ago I noticed that G3 Ministries has an app where you can listen to years’ worth of conferences for free, and the 2019 conference about missions has been especially timely and encouraging for me over the past couple months! I especially liked this message from Paul Washer and a breakout message from Don Currin called "The Mission Of God At Home: Who Is My Neighbor?" (which I can't link because you can only get it in the app)!
Reformation Heritage Books - I just discovered Reformation Heritage Books a few weeks back, and I love this site! There are all kinds of Christian classics, missionary biographies, and Christian children's books for very affordable prices. I could browse on there for hours! I've ordered several books from them, and I just started John Paton's autobiography - it has already made me cry, so I know it's going to be a wonderful book. I heard an interview with the founder of Reformation Heritage Books shortly after I discovered it, and I love his story of being a kid who wanted to start a church library, and what that desire has grown into since then.
A Reminder On Catechizing - I really appreciated this article's reminder on not letting the world catechize your children. It echoed something Rachel Jankovic said in this (paid) webinar about how the world is catechizing our kids constantly, through shows, music, books, etc, and if we aren't actively catechizing our kids in the way they SHOULD go according to God's word, we aren't doing our job. I also appreciated the point that catechesis isn't just a formal endeavor, you are catechizing them by your own example - do you read your Bible daily? Spend time in prayer? Affirm examples of biblical masculinity and femininity? Present church as a wonderful gathering of believers that we GET to be a part of? All that is a also a subtle form of catechesis, and the children are watching.
I hope you all are having a good start to your weekend! I am getting ready to go once-a-month grocery shopping this morning, which always ends up being an all-day endeavor. I learned long ago not to attempt it with all five kids unless I was feeling particularly strong, but I do take one kid with me each time for a special day with mom, and now I can't imagine grocery shopping alone. It's so fun to get a little extra time with individual kids!
Happy Saturday!
I want to try something new on my blog, and attempt to share a few links every (or every-other?) Saturday or Sunday to things that I've found spiritually edifying during the previous week. I'm calling it "Sharpening Shares". Suggestions for a better name are welcome.
If I haven't mentioned it before, I experimented a bit with Instagram in January and February, and I have THOUGHTS - which will be shared later this week - but one thing I realized is that while Instagram is a convenient place to share quick articles, videos, etc., I don't actually want to share those things on there. I'm not convinced more people see shares on Instagram than on my blog, and I'd rather spend time in this space. Blogs are just friendlier, and I think those of you who read blogs are more likely to pause and find some value in a great article or sermon than all the people swiping right on Instagram stories anyway.
So here are a couple things that have been turning my eyes to Christ lately. If you check them out, I hope you find them challenging and encouraging too!
"Love Not The World" - This was a great sermon by Phil Johnson about avoiding worldliness, which he pointed out is actually a sin. I was really convicted to rethink some of my attitudes after listening to this, and this part stood out to me personally:
"But seriously, does anyone think it is a major problem across the spectrum of evangelical Christianity in America that we have too many people that are too heavenly-minded? With our faces buried in our cell phones, and our minds glued to whatever is trending on Twitter, and our televisions programmed to tevo whatever is on HBO while we watch Entertainment Tonight? A more fitting description of the average evangelical today is that he is so earthly-minded that he is of no good to either heaven or the church. And our constant fixation on every whim and novelty that is currently trending in the world is a dangerous and sinful pursuit. Fad-chasing is not and never has been a road that leads to Christ."
-Phil Johnson
Give it a listen.
Resurrection Letters Vol. 1 from Andrew Peterson - This is an old album now, but I've really appreciated the depth of the lyrics this week. I've been in an especially springy mood, despite the temperatures being in the negatives this week, and this music put me in the frame of mind for Resurrection Day!
Precepts Bible Studies - I already mentioned this in a different post, but let me take an opportunity to reiterate that I love this Bible study guide. I'm doing the Colossians one with my church, and I don't think I've ever dug into one book of the Bible so thoroughly. It guides you through the process step-by-step, with no fluff, and I'm learning a ton! I think I'll probably even buy a guide to go through on my own when we finish with this one.
Happy Sunday, friends!
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