The Greatness of God

God’s Greatness

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).

The greatness, goodness, dependability of our God is too good not to share. “Tell your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children to another generation” (Joel 1:3). While this may have been referring to the invasion of locusts, we know God has instructed us to keep alive our relationship with him and His great and mighty works. (Daniel 4:1-3, Mark 5:19, Psalm 71:15-16, Exodus 20:2)

Consider these activities:

1. Read Exodus and focus on God’s glory.

2. Do a topical study of being responsible to make God known.

3. Keep a family journal where generation after generation will see what God has done.

4. Journal with photos. Photos with narrative can direct our thoughts to God’s continuous presence in our lives.

5. Talk about it freely. Marvel with one another at the long list that your family has, showing God’s greatness and goodness.

6. Look for God’s goodness in disappointments.

7. Share with others books, videos, podcasts or other ways your family is reminded of God’s goodness.

Is That True?

As the reading teacher in your own home, you will get excited when you see your child reading to herself/himself. You become more aware of the need to instruct each child how to verify if what he/she is reading is true. You may:

1. teach the child to discuss the reading with father.

2. have resources available for checking facts.

3. seek advice from trustworthy experts.

The study of reliability in reading leads well into teaching the dependably true, always accurate, trustworthy and absolute Word of God. This is ONE written book where facts will not need to be checked. In our present culture, where God and His Word are belittled, this is extremely important.

You may find help in teaching the absolute reliability of Scripture at:

• Focus on the Family

• Answers in Genesis

• Ligonier Ministries

• How Do We Know the Bible is True, book by Ken Ham.

Please take this seriously. And schedule time regularly to put this in your plans. It cannot be assumed that children know this because they were raised in your home.

Hurting

One of the greatest disappointments we have in our Christian walk is enduring the pain of being hurt by another Christian. Surely this is a great test in the faith. However do we know how to respond like Jesus?

Consider this (gained from experience)! Two responses that I can be assured are like Jesus are the following:

1. Love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12 This is red letter, Jesus speaking and commanding. My response, as a Christian, must be in love, only possible through His Spirit.

2. Forgiveness. Jesus vividly displayed forgiveness toward me (me, non-deserving) when He suffered and died for the very purposes of pardoning me. “Bear with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.“ Colossians 3:13

There may be other things we can do but I know I’m safe if I practice these two.

The enemy will bring arguments from many angles to defeat you but staying the course, the way of Christ, will offer ultimate reward.

Encourage

We have a new 8 year old neighbor (with his family) who came to meet us as we sat on our porch. His short visit ended with him saying, “I’ll come visit again and bring my guitar for you to enjoy music.” Here’s what I learned from that:

• Any age child can learn to encourage others.

• Comments of thanks or compliments of character should be shared with those in your family, community or church.

• Notice what you do have to share and offer that. Guitar in this case!

Now we are looking forward to his next visit.

Reformation Day is October 31st! Here are some ideas for celebrating the courage of those who brought the Word of God to light:

• Have a German-themed dinner in honor of Martin Luther, and have each family member read one of Luther’s 95 Theses

• Find a read-aloud book at your local library about Martin Luther or other Reformers to read together as a family

• Watch one of the many good films about the Reformers for family movie night!

• Invite friends over for a hymn-sing focusing on the doctrines of the Reformation: Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, To God’s Glory Alone!
  

Share Your Book

The book that you are reading for daily encouragement would, of course, always be the Bible. But if time permits, I’ve found reading a page or two of an uplifting, challenging book can be an asset. One given to me recently is, Saints Pocket-Book by Joseph Alleine but you can choose any that tugs at your heart.

My suggestion is: as you are reading this book and an idea refreshes or instructs you, share it with your children. Maybe even read a key paragraph to them. Explain for age appropriateness.

It could be years until they could read this book for themselves but as you share, each child gets ideas to apply to life now.

Love, Becky