Matthew 18:20 Mondays – Becoming a Woman Who Loves – Chapter 3

This is the last post of the Becoming A Woman Who Loves online study series for the year of 2012! We will pick up with Chapter 4 – Bearing Fruit on Monday, January 7, 2013. Take the time to catch up, dive in deeper, or complete the study! Thank you so much for being a part of this community.

The Source of Love

The springs of love are in God, not in use.  It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our heats by the Holy Spirit.

-Oswald Chambers

I felt a little overwhelmed last week learning about the new commandment to love like Jesus.  How is that even possible?  Even when I try to put all of my effort into serving and loving selflessly, I find myself gripping about something else or tearing down my husband or friends in my heart.  And how am I supposed to love everyone like Jesus if I cannot even extend that same grace to my husband and family?  Fortunately for us, Scripture has answers for us and Cynthia Heald helps us find these verses that may change our outlook (and particular efforts) in our pursuit of loving like Jesus.

A Song for the Father

Theme:  Mary Sunday and making our lives a song dedicated to God

Scripture:  Luke 1:26-56

Materials:  A simplified translation of the story of Mary, pictures or a slide show to pair with the reading, paper and coloring/writing supplies

Opening:  Have children sit in a circle.  Introduce yourself.  Light three candles in the Advent wreath (including the pink one) and say, “We can’t see God, but we can see his light in the world.  These candles remind us that God is here with us and remind us to prepare for the birth of Christ!  We are lighting the pink candle today because today is the Sunday when we remember Mary.”  Say a quick opening prayer for your time together and lead the Lord’s Prayer.

Lesson:  I would like everyone to think of their favorite song and share it with the rest of us.  Why is it your favorite song?  One of my favorite songs is called “I Get to Be the One” by J.J. Heller.  It is about a mother singing to her new baby and telling the new baby all of the things they get to do together.  Can anyone guess why that is one of my favorite songs?  That’s correct – I just had a baby and I sing that song to her all of the time!

Fatherhood Fridays – Reading and Leading Through the Gospels

Men, let’s face it. Being the spiritual leader of our families is a daunting task… and it should be. For most of us, there is no higher calling, so feeling a little overwhelmed is only natural. It is a good thing because it shows we understand the significance of the task. But we can also be intimidated for some other, not so good reasons. Not the least of these reasons is a feeling of personal, spiritual inadequacy. It is that lack of confidence that I hope to address with this series, “Reading and Leading”, which will provide a framework for studying the Bible both on your own and with your family. To begin, we are going to lay a foundation for how to read and study the Bible in general. Then in the coming weeks we are going take a closer look at how to approach specific books (or types of books) of the Bible in particular. To break things up, I will also periodically post on other topics related to being a father/husband.

Reading and Leading Through the Gospels- Luke 11:1-4

“See one.  Do one.  Teach one.”  For those of you who don’t know, that is the mantra of medical school training, and since I am a physician in training, it is a learning theory that is near and dear to my heart.  For this installment in the series, I am going to walk through how study a passage from one of the Gospels, a passage that I hand picked just for dads.  In today’s study we will be bringing the “Three Simple Questions” approach to bear on Luke 11:1-4.  I invite you to open up your Bibles and follow along.  Also, please feel free to refer back to my previous post for an explanation of my general approach to Bible study.  I hope that after seeing this practical example you will be able to apply these principles to your own personal study and then use them to teach your family.

Matthew 18:20 Mondays – Becoming a Woman Who Loves – Chapter 2

I am so excited about all of the activity the first Matthew 18:20 had last week!  Thank you to everyone who visited and took part in the conversation.

Chapter 2 – A New Commandment

I don’t know about you, but I found this chapter a little challenging (which could make the rest of this chapter pretty interesting since this is only chapter 2!).  It’s all based off of two verses from John 3:

“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  verses 43-35

The study pretty much could have been left at that verse; it is challenging enough!  Heald continues, however, with looking into how Jesus loved, what exactly we are to model.  Jesus was completely humble – he disregarded his lordship and his power, even dying a humiliating and painful death to save us.  He bore every taunt, evil word, and violent action, yet still loved us perfectly, pointing continually to the character of God.  His love was completely sacrificial, lacking any selfishness; he gave all (time, talent, money, love) to those who needed him while still maintaining a close relationship with the Father.  Jesus was the full embodiment of God and loved so perfectly, in ways that we can only hope to love.  It would be so easy to give ourselves excuses to love in whatever manner we are able and forget our inheritance as children of God, forget the commandment our Lord gave us.

Heaven Broke Through

Theme:  Why the message of John the Baptist is still so important today.

Scripture:  Luke 3:7-18

Materials:  Advent wreath, dove ornament, tissue paper, glue, ribbon, The Jesus Storybook Bible

Opening:  Have children sit in a circle.  Introduce yourself.  Light the candle and say, “We can’t see God, but we can see his light in the world.  This candle reminds us that God is here with us.”  Say a quick opening prayer for your time together and lead the Lord’s Prayer.

Lesson:  Right now we are celebrating a special church season called “Advent”.  Can anyone tell me what Advent is?  The word advent means “the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event”.  Who and what are we waiting for?  That is correct!  We are waiting for Jesus and getting ready for Christmas!  I’m sure that your family has already decorated for Christmas.  When I was growing up, I always knew that Christmas was getting close when one of these came out.  Bring out Advent wreath.  Who made a wreath like this last week?  Who can tell me a little bit about it?  These four candles represent the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.  These candles are just like the candle we have in this room; they remind us of God and remind us to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

Speaking of preparation, there was a man in the Bible named John the Baptist who’s biggest message was about preparing for the coming of Jesus.  Let’s read about John from our Jesus Storybook Bible.  Read pages 200-207.

Show pages 201-202 and ask: What was John’s message?  Because Heaven had opened up and sent the Savior to the world, John knew that people needed to prepare their hearts to receive the message of Jesus.  There were four things John reminded God’s people to do: