Want to read 11 books with me this year? Some can read more. Some less.  But one book a month seems like a reasonable goal for 2022.  Hopefully, these categories provide a little direction for you as you read this year! 

• January | Start a Bible Reading Plan for 2022
• February | A Book on Finance/Efficiency
• March | A Novel
• April | A book by an old dead guy
• May | A book on Prayer
• June | A book for fun of your choice
• July | A book on Marriage
• August | A book on Family/Parenting
• September | One Read-A-Loud
• October | A book on one theological subject of interest/need
• November | A Biography
• December | An Advent or additional devotional 

 Enjoy! For suggested reading in each category, click HERE!

One line (in verse 3) to focus on is: “Ponder anew what the Almighty can do”.  Our thoughts are too small, our focus too distracted, and our memory too faded.  When do we stop and explore who God is and what God can do?  We can’t limit the limitless. 

Psalm 145:3 says “No one can measure His greatness” [NLT], or “His greatness is unsearchable” [ESV].  The word used for “unsearchable” means His greatness cannot be numbered, like the sands on the beach or the corners and edges of the ocean.  There’s a movie where the main character is afloat on an ocean on a raft made of luggage, barely alive.  He looks up at the full moon at night, slowly pulls himself to stand, and brokenly prays towards the sky the admission to God that he had forgot how big God is and God’s plans are. 

No matter the depth of your understanding of who God is, or the breadth of your understanding of God’s working in your life, it’s too small.  We forget how big.  And, we can’t know who we are unless we know who He is.  Ephesians 3:20 (NLT) says “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."  One commentator said God’s giving exceeds our capacity for asking or even imagining.  Let’s ponder anew and reflect together on who the Almighty is and has been, and what the Almighty is doing and has done.  Think big….but it’s still not big enough.

Eyes Upward, Heart Outward, Feet Forward,

Joe Plante

Growing up, I played a lot of sports. To me, more deflating than losing a game was having to forfeit a game due to not having enough players.  Having to surrender/give up with no chance to play, no opportunity to win because we didn’t meet the requirement.  And yet, here I am, often forfeiting peace when the only requirement is surrendering my cares to God.  In the first verse of What a Friend We Have in Jesus, there’s this line,

Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear.  All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer.  

Spurgeon described God’s faithfulness by saying “He has been a certain friend in uncertain circumstances”.  Certainty in the midst of uncertainty; stability in the midst of instability.  Don’t forfeit the peace, don’t bear the care.  He is our peace (Eph. 2:14).  Rest assured.  "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

Each month this year, we’re diving into the lyrical depth of some great hymns.  The themes of the 12 hymns are: Peace, not Instability (January-June), Grace, not Self (July-December).  For February (and starting this Sunday) we will be focusing on What a Friend We Have in Jesus. 

Eyes Upward, Heart Outward, Feet Forward,

Joe

What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer

Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer

This year, we are seeking to memorize one verse a week from the “crown jewel of Scripture”, Romans 8. Have you ever tried to memorize a larger passage of scripture? What about as a family? It is certainly not a walk in the park, but your efforts will end in treasuring the Lord more through His word. Here is a creative breakdown for you and your family as you dive into Romans 8. Click on the day of the week to see a video explanation.

MONDAY

Whether it is over the breakfast or dinner table, get out your bibles and journals and spend your Monday devotional time copying the verse down. Have someone read it and have everyone write it out in their journals. "Copying" might seem like a cold, heartless activity, but it is a great way to begin memorizing God's word.

TUESDAY

Here's the Family Memorization Plan for Tuesday! We're doing "Motions" to solidify the text in your minds and hearts. Have fun with it! Tip: Don't feel the pressure to assign a motion to every word or phrase. Choose 1-2 that drive the text and help with understanding.

WEDNESDAY

Here's the Family Memorization Plan for Wednesday. As you hide God's word in your heart, drawing it is a fantastic way to engage all ages in the scripture memory process. Be as creative as you can!

THURSDAY

Here's the Family Memorization Plan for Thursday to "write it". This is a great chance to see if your Monday-Wednesday discussions "stuck". By writing it out, it gives the visual learner a chance to slow down. Oral learners can't stand this day! Haha.

FRIDAY

Friday's plan is to recite the verse of the week and review the rest of the verses you have been working on. By recite, we mean to use all the cues from Monday-Thursday in order to speak it out with confidence. If faith comes through hearing (Rom 10:17), our aim is to be able to say the verse word for word.

SATURDAY

Saturday tends to be a little slower of a morning...unless you are an athletic family:) So, on your way to the soccer fields or volleyball courts, use the time in the car to ask your kids about the verse they have been meditating and memorizing. Example questions: "How has this verse shaped or changed your thinking?" "Has this verse changed your way of living in any way?"

Here's our guide for you to download and pass along: Family Memorization Plan 

John Wesley wrote, “Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason and others have utterly disregarded it.” I am under the presumption that followers of Jesus today have leaned more to the side of utterly disregarding it.

I would venture to say that if we have disregarded it, it has been because of the tension that Jesus says to do it in secret or else you loose your reward in heaven. Not really knowing how to train others/disciple others in this area in our life, we have neglected to talk about it. Therefore, it has become a lost discipline of the faith.

For example, if someone comes to me struggling in their walk with Christ, I listen to them as Christ would listen. I typically ask them some of my diagnostic questions in order to learn more of the status of their heart. Some of the questions are typically, Do you have any sin in your life that you are holding onto? How’s your time in the word? How’s your prayer life going? Are you consistently sitting under the word of God with God’s people? But what if I asked “Well, are you fasting and praying on a regular basis? That would feel like such a random question this day and age, would it? But with the way of Christ, it is not…or it should not.

So let’s start off with a few questions about fasting to gain a better understanding of it.

Question #1: Is fasting biblical? It sounds a little hindu or mystical…

The Bible is chalk full of men and women who fasted and prayed. Moses, David, Elijah, Esther, Daniel, Anna the prophetess, Paul, Jesus Christ.

Yes it is. In fact, the Bible links prayer and fasting together many times.

Lots of good men in the faith also fasted: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd. This is to name a few.

Question #2: Is fasting a biblical commandment?

There are no biblical laws that command regular fasting. Many Christians have wonderful experiences fasting and urge it upon Christians to do it as a regular occurance. HOWEVER, our freedom in the gospel does not give liscense but rather opportunity.

2 Corinthians 11:27 states that we are to engage in “fasting often”.

Question #3: What is fasting?

Abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. That is to say, not for physical purposes…to shed a few pounds and pray on the side. There are tremendous physical benefits, but the purpose of fasting is spiritual. That is also not to say that fasting from other things is not a bad thing, but that is not the kind of fasting that is talked about in scripture.

Question #4: Should we even be talking about this? Isn’t this just a private thing between you and God?:

In most cases, we see fasting as a private matter between God and the individual. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:16-18 like this:

 ¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

However, there are examples of corporate fasts in the scriptures. How can it be a secret if it is corporate? So the idea is this…if you are joining in on a corporate fast, pray your heart attitude would be for the Lord and not to make it known to the world that you are fasting.

Our Missions Mobile is one way our children can participate. The books on the Missions Mobile are selected to help our children "put their mind on the things of the Spirit" Romans 8:5. The Gathering has encouraged our kids to save some of their money and purchase a book of the cart in the lobby. For each book bought, the church will match and buy a Bible for the families in the YMCA. We have enough right now to purchase 14 Bibles. We need seven more to meet the needs for this Christmas. Between now and December 13th, let's aim as a church to meet this need. Please encourage your kids to use some of their savings to buy a book or buy a book or two for your family for Christmas.

Additionally, we would like our families to take one of the 21 ornaments off the tree in the lobby and buy a small gift under $10 for the families and bring back to the church by Sunday, December 20th. Gifts should be something appropriate for a boy or a girl pre-school to school age. Games, crafts, etc. are great ideas.

1.  Pray and Commit. Ask the Holy Spirit for help and commit your efforts to the Lord. Ask him to guide your planning, shape your discipline, and speak to you in the process.
2.  Plan. Take some time to think through how to best work Scripture memorization into your daily habits and routine. Look for areas such as car rides, mealtimes with family, walks or exercise times, etc. to naturally add it. Of course, hands-free options only if driving.
3.  Use a Verse List. There are many different memorization lists out there, including in memorization apps. The Topical Memory System from the Navigators is a good one (https://tinyurl.com/y73ny7h3) or Fighter Verses (https://fighterverses.com/the-verses/fighter-verses/). Use one of these lists, ask a friend for one, select your own, or ask your church leadership if the church has one. Pick one and stick with it.
4.  Don’t Go It Alone / Accountability. Ask a family member, discipleship partner, or someone from your community group to memorize the list with you. You want someone who shares your commitment and isn’t shy about their responsibility to hold you accountable. Pick a regular time to review progress and stick to it. Use the same Bible version to memorize from as your accountability partner.
5. Tools. There are several apps out today that make memorizing Scripture easier. My personal favorite is RememberMe. It’s a smart app that automatically creates a smaller list to practice each day from your regular set of verses. It has different practice tools such as “obfuscating” some words, one-tap sentence building, and typing. It also has flashcards you can use in a review. Some other apps include Bible Memory, Verses, and Scripture Memory Fellowship, “SMF.” Some of these apps are free, and others cost money. SMF is limited to just the verses in its app and not the whole Bible. Bible Memory and Verses both charge if you want to use a Bible version other than KJV.
6.  Small Bites. Don’t get bogged down trying to memorize an entire passage all at once. Divide it up into one to two verses at a time. Try to limit the number of new verses to one or two a week. The number of verses builds in the memorization apps, so if you do ten verses one week, you’ll be reviewing twenty the next week if you add another 10. One new verse a week will yield 52 verses memorized in a year.
7.  Memorize Reference and Topic Too. It helps if you memorize the Scripture reference if you say it before and after the verse. In other words, recite the verse by saying, “John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, John 3:16.” It’s also good to memorize a one-word topic for what the verse is about, such as “gospel” for John 3:16. This step helps you recall verses related to a particular topic later when needed.

12:00-3:00 Fasting to prepare our hearts
3:00  Prayer together online

“At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’” “Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ and He gave up his spirit.” 

Good Friday Personal Prayer Guide

Good Friday Corporate Prayer Guide 

We hope everyone is doing well during this “stay at home” period.  Since you are home more than normal, we’d like to recommend a few things to help you grow as a family.  

I don’t know about you, but our family thrives when Mom and Dad give a little direction and structure to the evenings.  How great is it when Mom and Dad can hype up a fun and exciting evening together to the rest of the family?  Sometimes, it helps to hear what other families are doing…so we’ve polled a few and put them together as a “mock schedule” of sorts. Prayerfully, this will help you make your home a vibrant place of gospel ministry and training.   

Monday Evening: Family Reading 

Explanation:  Family Reading time is a lost art for sure.  What do we mean by “Family Reading Time”?  Family reading time means that the whole family sits down in the same room and listens to one voice read a book.  No devices.  There are tons of benefits to reading out loud to your kids.  Take some time to look up the educational benefits to reading out loud.  You’ll be amazed! 

What does this look like in our home?  Most of the time, we really have work for it.  This means after dinner, after clean up, after the teeth are brush and the PJ’s are on, we’re in one of our kids rooms, sitting on the carpet and huddled together.  Nothing fancy.  Our kids are 13, 11, 8 and 6.  We still read picture books to them☺ Sometimes we’ll make a fire in the winter time and aim at reading a novel together.  Some of our favorites are listed below in no particular order…

Resources (Christian and Non-Christian):

For ages 8 and up:

• The Wing Feather Saga by Andrew Peterson 
• The Green Ember 
• Lightkeepers Girls/Boys Box Set by Irene Howat 
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Audio |  Christian Hereos: Then and Now
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

For the little ones:

• Anything from the “Good News for Little Hearts” series
• The Biggest Story by Kevin DeYoung
• Anything by Catherine MacKenzie  (for starters…Amy Carmichael: Can brown eyes be made blue? )
• Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Teri Sloat
• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

Kids Bibles:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally-Lloyd Jones
• The Big Picture Storybook Bible by David Helm
• Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids by Phil Vischer

Tuesday Evening:  Game Night

Explanation:  “A family that plays together stays together.”  We’ve got to have an environment of laughter in the home.  Honestly, we’ve not done a great job at playing a lot of games at night.  It takes a lot of energy and instruction.  But, as our kids are getting older, they are growing to love more and more games.  Here’s a few games to start…

Resources:

• Uno (of course!)
• Candyland (for littles)
• Charades (good for all ages)
• Matching games 
• Ticket to Ride (great first “strategy board game”)
• Blokus (good game for tetris/math type thinkers)
• Code Names (easy to play as a family – develops the language)

Wednesday Evening:  Scripture Memory/Singing/Prayer

Explanation:  This can look differently in each home.  We usually have our time of memorization/devotionals in the morning over breakfast where we write on our chalkboard wall and work on a verse together.  We L-O-V-E Seeds Family Worship.  They have fantastic videos with hand motions that help us sing and memorize scripture.

Resources:

• Our Kidzone Resource Page within Planning Center.  
• Seeds Family Worship (search for them on Youtube or Rightnow Media)

Thursday Evening: “Build a…”

Explanation:  After a day of sitting at a desk, etc, it might be nice to have a night where you just create!  Do something together with your hands like build a fort, build a campfire, build a lego castle, etc.  Be creative.  

Resources:  uh…duct tape.  What else?

Friday Evening:  Movie Night

Explanation:  It is nice to have one night to unplug and watch a movie as a family.  Often times, if there is no plan, movies become the easiest and most common source of entertainment.  Moms and Dads, fight the urge to watch something every night.  Use movie night as a special night rather than the common occurrence.  

Resources:

• www.pluggedin.com is an excellent resource put out by Focus on the Family to help Moms and Dads with discernment as to what to allow their kids to watch.  The movie reviews cover positive and negative elements, sexual content, violence, language and other matters parents should know.  

Saturday Evening:  On your own Reading

Explanation:  It is important to encourage reading on your own as well.  Why? Stories deepen us.  And… Just think how much reading you do in a day!  And…not only for their development, but it also gives Mom and Dad a chance to have a “stay at home” datenight!

Resources:

• The Gospel Coalition put out an extensive reading list for kids up to 8^th grade.  It is a little daunting!  Don’t mind the “classic” aspect.  It’s a great list for all.  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/a-complete-classical-christian-school-reading-list-grades-1-8/

As always, we’re here to help. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you need

anything or if we can pray for you in specific ways!

Grace and peace,

Your church