Tag: Family

“Athanasius (Christian Biographies for Young Readers)” by Simonetta Carr

~ Bob Hayton ~ 6 Comments

Athansius is one of the most important early Christian leaders, perhaps the only one with a Creed named after him. But like many Christian young people, I grew up without learning much about him at all.

Simonetta Carr hopes to remedy this problem through her latest addition to the “Christian Biographies for Young Readers” series from Reformation Heritage Books. In Athanasius, Carr gives young readers a vivid account of Athanasius’ life. Complete with beautiful illustrations from Matt Abraxas, the book also includes a timeline, maps and lots of background facts about the time period of Athanasius’ life.

Written for kids aged 7-12, this book will appeal to kids of a wide age-range. The story is set in the 300s AD in Alexandria, but Athanasius takes us from the deserts of Egypt, to Tyre, Rome, and Trier, Germany among other places. His life criss-crosses that of several emperors and he finds himself in and out of exile constantly. Athanasius is most remembered for his role in helping formulate the Nicene Creed and solidifying orthodox teaching on the Trinity, which is enshrined in the Athanasian Creed. His life also stands testament to the awful reality of persecution which so many Christians of ages past endured.

The book is arranged like a cross between a coffee-table book and a story book. The quality of the book will make it more suited for the mantle or special bookcase than a kids’ playroom. The art is beautiful and the story stays accessible for young readers. This book will serve well in Sunday Schools or homeschool classes and takes its place alongside other titles in this series, which includes John Calvin, John Owen and Augustine of Hippo. If you are looking for wholesome reading material for young readers, this volume and the entire series from Reformation Heritage deserves your consideration. I highly recommend this book.

For this book, you’ll really want to see this 16 page preview from Westminster Bookstore. It will enable you to get a better feel for the artwork and overall quality of the work.

You can pick up a copy of this book at the following online retailers: Westminster Bookstore, Amazon.com, or direct from Reformation Heritage.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Reformation Heritage Books for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Elyse Fitzpatrick on Parenting & the False Notion that Our Kids’ Salvation Depends on Us

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Another insightful excerpt from the new book, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson:

_____________________

Works righteousness is a deadly and false variation of godly obedience. Godly obedience is motivated by love for God and trust in his gracious plan and power. Works righteousness is motivated by unbelief; it is a reliance on our abilities and a desire to control outcomes. Works righteousness eventuates in penance: I’ll make it up to you by redoubling my efforts tomorrow! rather than repentance: Lord forgive me for my sin today. Thank you that you love me in spite of all my failures. In parenting, works righteousness will cause us to be both fearful and demanding. When we see our failures, we will be overcome with fear: I really blew it with my kids today. I’m so afraid that I’m going to ruin them! When we see their failures, we’ll be overly demanding: I’ve already told you what I want you to do. Didn’t you hear me? I must have told you fifty times in the last five minutes. I’m sick to death of your terrible attitude. You need to listen to me and do what I say without any complaints or grunts or eye rolls. Just do it! It’s obvious how both responses feed off each other in a never-ending cycle of anger and despair and penance.

Works righteousness obliterates the sweet comforts of grace because it cuts us off from God, who alone is the giver of grace. It cuts us off because he absolutely insists on being our sole Savior. This is his claim: “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isa. 43:11; see also 45:21). We are not nor can we be the saviors of our children. He is the Savior. When we forget this, our parenting will be pockmarked by fear, severity, and exhaustion.

On the other hand, when we rest in his gracious work we will experience the comforts he has provided for us. He delights in being worshiped as the One who “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). He loves flooding our consciences with the peace that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven and our standing before him is completely secure. When we’re quietly resting in grace, we’ll have grace to give our children, too. When we’re freed from the ultimate responsibility of being their savior, we’ll find our parenting burden becoming easy and light. [excerpted from pg. 55 of Give them Grace, published by Crossway Books]

_____________________

I can’t help but adding a side-note here. Most IFBx preachers I know pastor their church by this same false notion that the salvation of their flock depends on them. They encourage parents to be harsh with their kids as being the only way to win them ultimately to the Lord. All the while, God’s grace sits untapped in the corner and the legalism factory churns along with everybody working overtime….

You can pick up a copy of this important book on parenting (and the Gospel of God’s grace) at the following retailers: , Monergism Books, Christianbook.com, Amazon.com, and direct from Crossway Books.

“Divided: Is Modern Youth Ministry Multiplying or Dividing the Church?” directed by Philip and Chris LeClerc

~ Bob Hayton ~ 12 Comments

A new documentary DVD sponsored by The National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, is beginning to make some waves. Divided: Is Modern Youth Ministry Multiplying or Dividing the Church? explores the pitfalls and problems of how we’ve done church for the last thirty to forty years (and more). You can watch the entire 54 minute DVD online through September. I have the video embedded below, but you may want to click through to watch it full size on Vimeo.com.

I found the DVD thought provoking and definitely worth my time in watching. Age segregation is a new concept in the church, and has only been around in the last hundred years or more. There is a strong argument to be made that it has contributed to many of the problems in the church.

The documentary interviews current youth ministry gurus, youth ministers with misgivings, and former youth ministers. Also included are interviews of church leaders in the Family-Integrated movement such as Douglas Phillips, Scott Brown, and Voddie Baucham, Jr. as well as other leaders less known for their preference for Family-Integrated churches, like R.C. Sproul, Jr., Ken Ham and Paul Washer.

The movie itself flows at a nice pace, tracing the investigation of Philip Leclerc into the problems surrounding youth ministry in the church. The filming is superb and well-planned, interesting shots abound. The setting of the interviews also are visually appealing and the whole movie is a great production. The Leclrerc brothers criss-cross the country interviewing leaders and digging into this problem.

Still, after all the interviews and the questions have been presented, I don’t think the case against modern youth ministry is as fool proof as the documentary claims. At our church, children age 5 and up sit with us in the worship service and that alone contrasts with what many churches do. We have age segregated Sunday School classes, but also foster a unity in spirit throughout the church cross-generationally. More could be done though. And just opening eyes to the questions in this debate can make a big impact.

I recommend you take the time to watch Divided. You may want to pick up a copy of the movie to have it in your library and show it to your church leaders. Learn more about Divided at DividedtheMovie.com. You can purchase a copy of this movie direct from the movie’s website, or through Amazon.com.

If you’ve seen this, or if you take the time to watch it, please join the discussion. Let us know what you think.

Official Divided the Movie (HD Version) from NCFIC on Vimeo.

Elyse Fitzpatrick on Parenting by means of the Gospel or the Law

~ Bob Hayton


I’ve just started into Crossway’s new title Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson. It is going to take some time to go through it because it is so powerful and packed with quite the punch. It’s at the same time oozing with grace and has the potential to transform our parenting.

So I present here an excerpt from chapter 1, from pages 33 and 36-37. To learn more about the book, check out the book detail page at Crossway.org, read the book’s introduction and all of chapter 1, or watch this 90 minute video from Desiring God.

There is a marked difference between this kind of gracious parenting and the moralistic parenting I did when I was raising my children. I would alternately tell them that they were good when they sat quietly or tell them that they had to close their eyes and pray or be disciplined when they were bad. My parenting had very little to do with the gospel. I assumed my children had regenerate hearts because they had prayed a prayer at some point and because I required religious obedience from them. This resulted in kids who were alternately hypocritical and rebellious. It taught them how to feign prayer, without pressing them to long for the Savior who loved hypocrites and rebels.

Religious obedience is probably the most difficult and dangerous form of obedience simply because it is so easily confused with conformity to God’s law. It’s the place where most Christian families go terribly wrong. Yes, we are commanded to teach the Word, prayer and worship to our children, but their acquiescence to these things won’t save them. Only the righteous life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ saves them….

Yes, give them God’s law. Teach it to them and tell them that God commands obedience. But before you are done, give them grace and explain again the beautiful story of Christ’s perfect keeping of it for them. Jesus Christ was the only one who ever deserved to hear, “You are good,” but he relinquished his right relationship with the law and his Father and suffered as a lawbreaker. This is the message we all need to hear, and it is the only message that will transform hearts.

…Everything that isn’t gospel is law. Let us say it again: everything that isn’t gospel is law. Every way we try to make our kids good that isn’t rooted in the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ is damnable, crushing, despair-breeding, Pharisee-producing law. We won’t get the results we want from the law. We’ll get either shallow self-righteousness or blazing rebellion or both (frequently from the same kid on the same day!). We’ll get moralistic kids who are cold and hypocritical and who look down on others (and could easily become Mormons), or you’ll get teens who are rebellious and self-indulgent and who can’t wait to get out of the house. We have to remember that in the life of our unregenerate children, the law is given for one reason only: to crush their self-confidence and drive them to Christ.

The law also shows believing children what gospel-engendered gratitude looks like. But one thing is for sure: we aren’t to give our children the law to make them good. It won’t, because it can’t. In our hearts we know that’s true because the law hasn’t made us good, either, has it? [bolded emphasis, mine]

You can purchase a copy of this excellent book at Westminster Bookstore, Monergism Books, Christianbook.com, Amazon.com, or direct from Crossway.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Crossway Books. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Book Recommendation: “Grandpa’s Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption”

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Grandpa’s Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption is a book for children which has the characters in the tale hearing the Bible stories retold by their grandfather. I’m reading this book to my girls right now, and they are fascinated by it and enjoy hearing the retelling of the Bible stories with the reactions to the stories by the children listening to the stories in the book. My eight year-old appreciates it the most as it is more on her level, but even my three and five year-olds enjoy the book.

The book promises to tell the whole Bible story of redemption, and comes highly recommended. I just learned today that Westminster Bookstore has the book at 50% off for a limited time (now through June 14). If you’re looking for a good book to use for family Bible time, I recommend this work. Pick it up during the sale, and it’s only $7.00.

Publisher’s Description: “It wa a wooden box, simply made. “˜I guess you could call it my war chest,’ Grandpa said. As the children peered into the box, they saw many small figures – animals, people, and objects of all kinds. A number of them were carved from wood.”

Learn along with Marc and Amy as Grandpa uses his special box of wooden carvings to illustrate the wonderful stories of the Bible to children. From Genesis to Revelation, Grandpa shows how the stories of the Bible fit as episodes in the one story of God’s redemption of His people. Children will come away with a deeper understanding of God’s plan of redemption told throughout all of Scripture. Even those children who already know the stories of the Bible will learn more about God and his plan for saving His people.

Click here to read a sample chapter, or here to see the included study guide. Use this link to purchase the book through Westminster Bookstore.