by Sally Matheny
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| Couple Made a Wise Decision Before Engagement |
One time, I wrote a post encouraging young couples to seek godly counsel, or work through a Biblical workbook, before setting a wedding date.
Since my husband is a pastor, we have several copies of a Bible study workbook titled, Before You Say I Do, by Norman Wright. He uses this book when counseling young, engaged couples.
Much to our delight, several months before our daughter became engaged; she and her boyfriend, Samuel, asked if they could have a copy. Even though they both regularly talk to their pastors, they wanted to work through the workbook together while they were away at college. It took some finagling, but they squeezed the study in between their classes and work schedules.
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by Sally Matheny
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| Believe Book Review |
My husband and I recently finished reading with our eleven-year-old son the kids’ edition of Believe, edited by Randy Frazee. We read one of the thirty chapters each night. The first ten chapters are about key beliefs of the Christian life. The second ten chapters talk about key practices of the Christian life. And the final ten chapters contain the key virtues of the Christian life.
Each chapter begins by asking the reader a key question to ponder. It then presents a key idea and a key verse. Also, there is a Think About It section before the introduction. Then, actual scripture (NIV) from the Old and New Testaments, present the core truths, followed by three discussion questions.
We truly enjoyed reading this book together. It held my son’s attention with its short excerpts from the Bible. There are blue and white illustrations on almost every other page. The book isn't watered down or fluffed up! It was pure scripture, with a thought to ponder before reading, followed by three great discussion questions. These questions often generated further conversations with our son.
There are versions of this book for ages 4-8, 8-12 (which is the one we read), 13- 18, and one for adults. In a year or two, I’d love to get the teen version for our son. Several years ago, he made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. We aim to train, nurture and equip him for his journey. Believe is an ironclad tool that will enhance his understanding of the Sword of Truth and how to apply it.
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I get quite a few requests to review items on my blog - some jump out at me and some don't. This one, however, was one that I truly hoped I'd make it on the blog review team. The Apologetics Study Bible for Students is one I wish we'd had when my boys were younger. One of my sons has been deep into theology and apologetics since he could read - he just devoured anything on these topics and he would have thoroughly enjoyed this Bible as a reference tool he could sink his teeth into! The articles in the Bible (120 of them) are written by some of today's leading Christian thinkers and they deal with some of the big questions - Homosexuality, Yoga, New Age Movement, Cloning, Gambling, Scientology, Rape and Incest and more. The articles are thoughtful and well-written and give our teens some great topics to ponder. The Bible is created to be appealing to teens - both the design and layout. We also thought the Twisted Scripture articles were great! These are written to discuss topics that current religious movements use to twist Scripture and go against historic Christian teaching. This is another area where we want to strengthen our kids' faith in the world in which we live.
The other thing we loved about this Bible is the resource library of videos online. There are videos still yet to be added - but some there already as well that answer the tough questions in video format - you can stream them or download them OR even share to social media. I was excited with the quality of the videos and the topics they covered. http://www.apologeticsbible.com/video-archive/
Don't forget to enter the Confident Faith Sweepstakes while you are surfing - this is a great contest when you can win a Bible, mini apologetic library or even a trip! https://app.promo.eprize.com/confidentfaith/
ADDED BONUS - I was told I could give away a copy as well here on my blog! So - you get an entry for commenting below. AND leave a separate message for each social media platform you share this giveaway on and you will get additional entries. Winners will be chosen on August 7!
"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”
The Bible is just a BIG BOOK - that is a true statement. And sometimes to learn to grasp what is all in there for us, we need to take it in chunks. And that is exactly what this book, Route 66 by Krish Kandiah, has done. Kandiah has taken the Bible and broken it up so that you could feasibly take 8 weeks and get a group together and conquer the outline of the Bible. No, you wouldn't be reading the entire Bible in 8 weeks, but you are getting an overall feel for how it all fits together and what each book would have as its premise - how it all fits together. The book is extremely "read-able" - I would recommend it to the questioning, new Believer or to the person who has been a Believer for years - all will find new insights and ideas.
About the Author: Krish Kandiah is the Executive Director: Churches in Mission for the UK Evangelical Alliance. He is also an external examiner for Oak Hill College, an Associate Research Fellow at London School of Theology, and is part of the theme development group for Spring Harvest.
Dr. Kandiah previously held the position of Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, in addition to being Tutor for the Mission and Evangelism at Wycliffe Hall. He was also an Oxford University Theology faculty member.
Before becoming the pastor of a multi-cultural church in Harrow, Kandiah worked with students in the UK with Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, and in Albania with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He has wide experience in evangelism and cross cultural mission, and he is in demand around the world as a speaker and lecturer—though he is still a regular speaker at university missions and at Spring Harvest.
Dr. Kandiah and his wife, Miriam, have four elementary aged children and regularly take in foster babies. Kandiah has a keen interest in movies, photography, rock music, and Liverpool FC.
Here is what others have said about Route 66: "One cannot travel a new way without a map. The map tells us the road to take. Route 66 is a wonderful map into experiencing the God of Scripture." Darrell Bock, Dallas Theological Seminary
"With easy humour and constant insight, Krish Kandiah tells us what we need to do to get excited about the Bible again, and to allow it to change us."
Stephen R. Holmes, University of St Andrews
"Route 66 doesn't make the Bible come alive. It shows that the Bible is alive--with the voice of God. In an age when even believers are bewildered by the Bible, Krish Kandiah shows us how all the parts of this most extraordinary book fit together and how each part makes its own contribution. He does this without either dumbing it down or ignoring some of the hard questions."
Michael Jensen, Moore College, Australia
*I was sent a copy by the publisher for review purposes.
When I was asked to participate in the blog tour for the new DVD series, What's In the Bible?: Battle for the Promised Land - I had no idea what an advocate I would become. I have to just say right up front - ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS series! I have always thought Phil Vischer was marvelous (think Veggie Tales) but this new series, published by Tyndale, is loaded with content that I am so excited about. The series takes individual books of the Bible and teaches our kids history and contextual material that otherwise I am afraid would be lost to most children. We watched just one volume, vol. 4, Battle for the Promised Land, and that covered the books, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. We watched it once with our older kids and then with our younger daughter, age 6. What was amazing was that when we watched it with our teenage sons, we laughed at humor our six year old would not understand, but even our teens said they learned biblical things they had not known before. Then, we watched it with our six year old and she came away laughing at the humor that was definitely prevalent and also said she learned some new things as well. And the best part?? Even my very strong Bible-knowledge husband said he learned some things he hadn't known before either!! What a versatile and useful Bible teaching tool - that is what I love most about it.
Here is my interview with our six year old daughter:
Did you learn from it? YES!! I learned LOTS - I didn't know there were so many judges!
Did you find it funny? (Well, I wouldn't have had to ask her really - she was laughing OFTEN!!) YES!! It was very funny - especially the old ladies!
Would you want to watch more of these? YES! Can we go get one now??
Who was your favorite character? Michael made me laugh! He is funny.
My husband had this to say: (And he's the authority on this sort of thing with his seminary background!!)
I really enjoyed episode 4 of the What's in the Bible Series. It was the first time I had seen the series and I was very impressed. I appreciate the chronological approach to teaching the Bible. There are many advantages I see in this. So often we teach children the Bible in a shotgun approach. We jump from one story to another without connecting the dots. There is a greater story and flow to the scriptures and children need to see the plan of redemptive history as it unfolds.
I also appreciate the emphasis on teaching doctrine along the way. Explaining the "whys" to the stories helps children understand the deeper truths of scripture.
Another great technique is the use of repetition. Stories are told in one format and then often retold in another. T
I really enjoy joining Bible studies through my church, as it's a time for great learning AND fellowship with others that live for the same reasons I do. I do, however, also participate in Bible studies on my own, typically with a particular book I've found and I'll just work on it daily. It's my morning quiet time. A good cup of coffee, a devotional, my Bible and a Bible study book is my morning routine.
I recently had the chance to review a couple of Bible study books out of a new series by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose, which is really sparking the reason for this post. I was SO impressed by these books. First, a rather simple thing in the big picture, but their appearance was fabulously modern...the one book a bright pink, the other a deep orange, both nothing but the title and a vase of flowers on the front. So many books written about spirituality and religion and the Bible come off as stuffy and boring from just lack of a good cover designer!
The series is called "Fresh Life" and the books are each a "20-Minutes-a-Day study of different portions of the Bible. The two I've reviewed are Live Deeply: A Study in the Parables of Jesus and Live Relationally: Lessons from the Women of Genesis. I've, by no means, gotten all the way through each, but again, am very impressed as to what I've seen so far. Filled to the brim with scripture, Bible descriptions, and thought-provoking questions, as well as sidebars with more to learn about and encouraging prayers, a lot is placed into these daily studies, which I think truly results in the reader having to expand her mind to absorb what the Lord is bringing through the authors.
Each daily lesson is divided up into 5 different parts:
Lift up (prayer)
Look at (God's word)
Learn about (new insights)
Live out (application) and Listen to (quotes from other believers)
You can use these study books for a small group, or as I have, just for your own use. There are two other books in the series, Live Intimately: Lessons from the Upper Room and Live Fearlessly: A Study in the Book of Joshua.
To learn more about this great series, or to purchase, click on the book covers above to link to Amazon.
A few people from the Early Modern Studies Group at Harvard have created the Theatrum Catalogorum which collates “library catalogs from every major European country” The next version should countain North American catalogs as well. Of particular interest is the fact that these catalogs are not just linked, they are annotated somewhat. While most of these notes are jus tinformation for English speakers on how to search the catalogs, library geeks will enjoy some of the meta-commentary such as “Many early modern holdings probably lost in an eighteenth-century fire.” or “Don’t bother looking in 1930-1991 or 1992-present catalogs.” [thanks pk]
great giveaway, i would love to win for our Sunday School class
susansmoaks at gmail dot com