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...