When You're Looking for Home This Christmas

Walk through any store, restaurant, or other business establishment this time of year and you'll hear songs like, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays." Thoughts of home are on everyone's mind as they plan and prepare to be with family, purchase gifts for loved ones, and gussy up their homes for guests this Christmas.

But for some, home doesn't conjure up warm thoughts of hot chocolate by the fire and presents under the tree. Maybe home is not a place of peace and comfort. Maybe they can't go see their loved ones this year. Maybe they've lost their loved ones. Or maybe they've never found a place to call home.

Longing for Home

We all have a desire for a place to call home. We all search for home. And not just for the holidays. We are always seeking a place to belong, a place to rest, a place of refuge and safety. Some of us will spend our entire lives searching for home and often in all the wrong places. Some will think they have found it, only to have it snatched out from underneath them. For others, home will always be elusive and seem just out of reach.

...to read the rest of this post, visit True Woman, my writing home today.

The Jesus of Advent

Walk into any store or business establishment this time of year and you'll hear the familiar sound of Christmas carols. I was out shopping one day with my children and we heard the Christmas hymn, Joy to the World, playing from the store's loudspeaker.

My son turned to me and asked: 

"Mom, why are all the stores playing Christmas music about Jesus if they don't believe in him?"

Good question.

What Jesus?

These weeks leading up to Christmas Day are known among Christians as Advent. The word Advent means arrival or coming. These weeks are meant to be a time of preparation as we anticipate celebrating the arrival of Immanuel, Jesus the Christ. During Advent, we focus our hearts on who he is and what he came to do.

The question is, what Jesus are we waiting for? What Jesus are we spending these weeks anticipating?..to read the rest of this post, visit For the Family, my writing home today.

Book Review: The Ology

This semester in homeschool, we've started a new thing that I call "Theological Truth Thursday." During our Bible time on Thursday mornings, I teach my children a theological term. They write it down, along with the definition, and we discuss its meaning and significance to our faith. We've discussed words like theology, omniscience, and justification. 

Recently I had the opportunity to review a new children's book called The Ology. It has been a perfect addition to what I am trying to accomplish with Theological Truth Thursday. This book is one of those books that families will read over and over and with one child to the next. 

The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New

By Marty Machowski

The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New is a picture book, written by Marty Machowski. You may be familiar with his other children's books, Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God and Old Story New: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God. The Ology teaches children foundational theological truths in simple terms and in short chapters.

It begins with the story of a young boy and girl exploring around the cellar of an old church. They stumble across a book called The Ology. It is a long-forgotten book written for children to understand deep truths about God. They open its pages and begin reading the first chapter titled, "God Always Was and Always Will Be." 

Each chapter is one to three pages long and provides basic instruction in theological truths of the Christian faith.  There are seventy-one chapters in all, divided into eleven sections. Some of the sections include: The Ology of Sin, The Ology of Christ, The Ology of the Church, and The Ology of God's Word. 

From a chapter discussing God's holiness:

"Is it possible to get close enough to the sun to scoop out a sample to bring home in a jar? Of course not, the sun's surface is so hot is would burn you up before you even got close. While we know we can't touch the sun, a lot of folks don't understand that God's holy light--his glory and holiness--shines brighter than the sun. Just like we can't touch the sun, sinful people, still under judgment, can't get near to our holy God" (p.85).

This beautifully illustrated book is intended to be used with children both in elementary school and in older grades as well. There is a parent guide with helpful suggestions for how to use the book with both young and older children. For older children, there are Bible passages provided in each chapter for further reading and study. There are discussion questions for each chapter at the end of the book as well. Each theological truth is explained using examples and illustrations that children understand. The images are engaging and pertinent to the chapter, but not distracting. 

I do wish that the author had incorporated more of the terms we use for the theological concepts he describes. While he does define words such as "atonement" and "sanctification" he doesn't use terms like omnipotence or omnipresence when he describes God as all-powerful and that he is everywhere.  

The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New is a wonderful new discipleship tool for parents to use in training their children in the "Ology" of God and his word. If you've been searching for a new devotional for your family, this is one book you'll want to add to your library and read with your children multiple times as they grow.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for my review. The thoughts and opinions are my own. This post may also contain Amazon Affiliate links.

My Prayer for You This Advent

"An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:21-23).

This is the season of Advent, a particular time Christians set aside to dwell on the birth of our Savior. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we take time to focus on the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus' birth, the wonders of the incarnation, and the purpose for his coming. 

Christmas is often a hectic season, one in which we get caught up in what is expected of us this time of year. We go from one event to another, wrap present after present, and bake all manner of pies and cookies, only to end up stressed and spent, missing the Christ-babe all together.

My prayer for you this Advent, my friends, is that you would take time to set aside the to-lists and ponder in your heart what it means that God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. I pray that you might seek to understand and grasp the significance of a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a humble feeding trough. I pray that you might embrace with renewed wonder the woven pieces that make up the tapestry of God's story of redemption, culminating in the birth of Jesus the Christ.

May you spend time considering this Immanuel, the one Paul describes in Colossians 1 as: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (vs. 15-20).

Immanuel did not come to remain as a baby. He came to fulfill a purpose. He came to earth so that we could be restored back into right relationship with our Maker. So Immanuel left that feeding trough, grew into a man, faced the trials and temptations of this life without sin, and then died upon the cross in our place. In conquering sin and death, he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and then sent his Spirit to make his home within us. As Paul Tripp notes, “the whole redemptive story marches toward Immanuel, the Redeemer who would destroy sin’s dominion in our hearts by making our hearts the place where he, in his power, wisdom, and glory, would dwell.” (in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy  p.103)

I pray that we would all pause in stillness this Advent. May we cast aside the season's distractions and ponder as Mary did the wonder of a child born to save. May we rejoice that the Creator of the universe, the one who flung the stars in the sky and by whose word everything exists made a way to redeem us and live within us--through this Immanuel, Jesus, the Son of God.

Immanuel has come. He is with us. And for those he has redeemed, he has made his home in us. My prayer for you and for me is that this Advent season would draw us into deeper understanding of who Immanuel is and what he has done.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

"Mighty God (Is. 9:6) is the name of this child. The child in the manger is none other than God himself. Nothing greater can be said: God became a child. In the Jesus child of Mary lives the almighty God. Wait a minute! Don't speak; stop thinking! Stand still before this statement! God became a child! Here he is, poor like us, miserable and helpless like us, a person of flesh and blood like us, our brother. And yet he is God; he is might. Where is the divinity, where is the might of the child? In the divine love in which he became like us. His poverty in the manger in his might. In the might of love he overcomes the chasm between God and humankind, he overcomes sin and death, he forgives sin and awakens from the dead. Kneel down before this miserable manger, before this child of poor people, and repeat in faith the stammering words of the prophet: "Mighty God!" And he will be your God and your might." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Advent Activity: The Names Of Jesus

Do you have any favorite Christmas traditions from when you were a child? Perhaps it was going together as a family to pick out the perfect tree. Maybe it was the cookies you baked together with your mom. These traditions are important to us because they provide us an anchor and  connection to our family. Traditions tie a family together and give all of us a sense of belonging.

In the Bible, traditions were important to God's people. God instructed them to celebrate certain feasts and festivals each year. These events were to be used to reflect on and remind God's people of all God had done for them. Parents were instructed to use these festivals to teach their children about God and his faithfulness toward His people.

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance...And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Exodus 12: 14, 26-27

For Christians, traditions are important as well. As Noel Piper wrote in her book Treasuring God in Our Traditions, "The things we do regularly that help us in our deepest being to know and love and want God, the things that help our lives to be infiltrated with God--those things are traditions. And then if there are children in our lives, to pass these God-focused activities to the next generation--that's what tradition is for a Christian" (p.25).

Christmas is an opportune time for Christian parents to "pass these God-focused activities to the next generation." To read the rest of this post, visit For the Family, my writing home today.

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Book Review and Giveaway: Get Your Story Straight

When my oldest was first born, I began searching for good books to expose him to God's story of redemption. During those little years, many of those books were simple Bible stories. Since then, as my children have grown, I've discovered many wonderful books that teach solid Biblical truth to children. And I have shared many of those books with you on my blog. 

My children are getting older. I have one preteen and I recently began the process of researching and collecting books written with youth in mind. When I was a teen, much that was written was moralistic and works focused. Such books described what a good Christian teen looks like but failed to show our need for the gospel where Christ's perfect life was given to us. The good news is that there are many Christ-centered books for teens these days that point them to their need for Christ. There are writers intent on making sure that our youth understand the gospel and how it applies to all areas of their life.

Today, I want to tell you about one of those books:

Get Your Story Straight: A Teen's Guide to Learning and Living the Gospel

Kristen Hatton is the author of a new book for teens and young adults called, Get Your Story Straight. The life of a teenager is confusing. A teen is caught in a confusing place between childhood and adulthood. They long to understand who they are and their purpose in this world. Not only that but they are growing up in a "selfie" culture that teaches them that they are the center of the story. 

Get Your Story Straight is a devotional that takes teens through the story of redemption, showing them that the story is about Christ. He is the center of the story and of every story. The devotional is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on who the story is about. It begins with creation, goes through the fall, the promise of a Savior, and the promise fulfilled in Christ. Part 2 helps the reader see how their story is part of God's story. It shows them their identity in Christ and the work of the Spirit in their life. Part 3 focuses on how the story of Christ plays out in their life with others including the church, friendship, and service in the Kingdom. 

In going through this devotional, teens will learn about the problem of sin and their need for Christ, what he has done for them through the gospel, and what it means to be justified by faith. They will learn how the gospel transforms all of life, even the daily challenges of adolescence.

One such example comes from a study on Hebrews 12:

"Life is hard. We are weighed down by our sin, idols, circumstances, relationships, and trials and left here on earth to endure. Yet God, who providentially directs our paths, does not leave us alone. In fact, he sent his Son to endure life in this fallen world for us--to endure the rejection, hatred, mockery, and shame that followed him all the way to the cross. But he did it for the joy set before him, the joy of spending eternity in heaven next to his Father with YOU. Therefore, fix your eyes on him. He is the object of your faith, the perfecter of your faith, and the encourager for your faith" (p.216). 

What I love most about Get Your Story Straight is that it teaches teens how to study the Bible and gets them in the word each day. The book is divided into 52 chapters, one for each week of the year. At the beginning of the week, the teen reads through a passage of Scripture and answers questions about what they read. On the next day, they read Kristen's explanation of the passage and consider more questions. Day three, the reader is encouraged to read the passage of Scripture again and answer more questions. Day four does the same. And day five encourages the reader to journal and pray about what they learned that week.  

Kristen often points out repetitions of words and phrases in Scripture and encourages the reader underline them. She asks specific questions of the text that help the reader understand what they have read. She then helps the reader think through how the text applies to their own heart. In addition, Kristen has the reader memorize various passages throughout the book. 

As a mom of a preteen, I am thrilled about this book. Though my son is not yet a teen, I know he can already benefit from this study and plan to go through it with him. If you have teens yourself or will soon, you'll want to get this devotional for your children.

I have one copy of this book to giveaway. Enter below, US residents only please. Update: Bethany is the winner of this giveway. Congrats!

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Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my review. The thoughts and opinions are my own. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate links.