love to paint

In my last post, I shared that I'm going to read through the Bible using a curriculum titled The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study by Starr Meade.  Originally, I requested this curriculum to review because several families in the homeschool networks I'm a part of have been looking for Bible curriculums for middle and high school students.  I've reviewed three other books by Starr Meade this year (Mighty Acts of God, God's Mighty Acts in Creation, and God's Mighty Acts of Salvation).  I've been impressed by Ms. Meade's ability to convey difficult theological concepts at a very age appropriate level for elementary, middle, and high school students. One of the questions one mom asked me about this study is whether or not it was practical.  I think she wanted to make sure that it was practical, but not solely application.  Here is Ms. Starr's response on pg. 12 to that concern: "Certainly the Bible is not just any book, and our goal is neve...

I once had this impression that a hundred years ago, the preaching of the Word was dry and didn't apply to people's lives.  I think I got that impression from the culture we live in--old is bad and new is good.  Hymns = bad.  Modern worship songs = good.  At least that's what I thought until a few years ago when God placed my husband and in a traditional, hymn singing Presbyterian church.  As we struggled with the style of our worship and our misguided beliefs that what was most important about worship was how we enjoyed it, my mother in law sent us an issue of Moody Magazine.  The August 2002 issue was titled "Is there a Right Way to Worship?" This is a quote from an article by Rowland Forman from that issue, titled The Rest of the Service. "Worship is realizing God's supreme worth, followed by a response that reflects His worthiness.  It is declaring, by word or action, what we believe to be true about God.  It means giving God all He's wort...

In August, I noticed that two new devotional books were going to be published by Crossway in September.  One is entitled God's Mighty Acts in Creation and the other is God's Mighty Acts in Salvation , both by Starr Meade.  I was very curious what these two books would be like.  I've read many books for kids that try to engage kids by either watering down the truth or simplifying concepts so that much of the Bible's truth is missed. God's Mighty Acts in Creation is about how all of Creation points to God.  In our culture, children are inundated with the belief that man has made everything that we have created our own world.  Science sets out to prove that God doesn't exist.  As parents, we need to help our children see God in the world around us.  Rather than proving that God doesn't exist, science points to all that we don't know and the amazing complexity of His Creation, our world.  But, we need to help them see this.  This devotional i...

I grew up Quaker--yes, Quaker! As a liberal Quaker, actually. I never heard about reformed theology, covenant theology, predestination and the likes. The first I heard of all of this was when we lived in Georgia and began attending a PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) church. We felt the Lord challenging us to know what we believed and why. My husband and I sought the Lord in His Word and sorted through what we thought and felt convicted of. We joined that church and have held to reformed theology since. I've had many people ask me what that means. I usually answer that it means that I am saved by God's grace alone--not by anything that I did of myself. It was God's working in my heart that brought me to salvation--not my own efforts (free will). "For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as result of WORKS, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS...