Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids and more...

A key component of every parent’s task is helping our children form good habits. A key component of every Christian parent’s task is helping our children form the good habit of personal devotions. We are convinced that our children are sinners in ... --------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... - [Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids](#0) - [A La Carte (September 21)](#1) [] [Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids]( A key component of every parent’s task is helping our children form good habits. A key component of every Christian parent’s task is helping our children form the good habit of personal devotions. We are convinced that our children are sinners in need of God’s saving grace, we are convinced that God’s Word is powerful, we are convinced that God is pleased to use his Word to convict our children of their sin and draw them to his Son. This is my brief review of a new tool that can help every parent in that crucial task. Many years ago my friend David Murray began releasing devotional guides for children. These were no fancier than plain Microsoft Word documents meant to be printed at home. For each day of the week there was a small passage to read, a brief question to answer, and, eventually, an area to jot down a couple of prayer requests. I immediately saw the promise in these guides, printed them off, popped them into binders, and gave them to my children. Each one of my three children used them for a time and each one benefitted from them tremendously. They were just perfect for ages 6-12 until they were ready to move on to more advanced resources. Those rough devotional guides have now given way to Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Published by Crossway and illustrated by Scotty Reifsnyder, it maintains the flavor of the original guides, but has been improved exponentially. It now takes the shape of a guide to exploring the big story of the Bible. Murray says it “will act as your leader, map, and compass to the Bible. It won’t take you to every part of the Bible, but it will take you to the main peaks and give you an all-round view of its beautiful landscape. At times we’ll slow down and look at some parts more closely. Other times, we’ll speed up in order to get to the next major mountain peak in the Bible’s story. By the end of a year, you’ll have learned skills to help you explore the Bible on your own with safety and success.” Each week is set up like a little expedition into a new part of the Bible. There are prayer points for each day, a memory verse to serve as a kind of snapshot of the expedition, and a daily log to write out a verse or answer a question. This format continues from Monday until Saturday. Sundays are a day to rest and recharge, though there is a place to jot down the sermon text, title, and a few notes. Here are a couple of images from the book; you may also benefit from browsing [this small excerpt](. [Exploring the Bible] [Exploring the Bible] David asked if I would provide an endorsement for the back of the book, and here is what I wrote: “There is so much I could say to commend Exploring the Bible, but any praise would pale in comparison to this, the ultimate parental endorsement: I gave all three of my children Exploring the Bible as their very first experience of personal devotions. All three used it, all three enjoyed it, and all three benefited tremendously from using it. I wholeheartedly recommend it for your children, too.” [Like on Facebook]( [Share on Google+]( [Pin it!](https%3a%2f%2fwww.challies.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2017%2f09%2fScreen-Shot-2017-09-15-at-8.40.44-AM.png) [Tweet This]( [Subscribe by email]( [Subscribe by RSS]( Related Stories - [Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage]( - [If I Had Two Lives]( - [He Will Hold Me Fast](   • [Email to a friend]( the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids;5776363) • [] [A La Carte (September 21)]( Today’s [Kindle deals]( include a quirky collection of this and that. [Nabeel Qureshi’s Memorial Service]( A celebration of Nabeel Qureshi’s life and ministry will take place this Thursday, September 21, at 10:00 a.m. (CDT) at The Loop Campus of Houston’s First Baptist Church (7401 Katy Freeway Houston, TX 77024). It will be livestreamed online for those who wish to watch it. [Lying to Machines]( John Dyer: “Over the past few months, I’ve been testing out the beta version of iOS 11 on my iPhone, and I’ve found myself doing something very disturbing – I regularly tell Siri little fibs, and sometimes I tell her full blow lies.” [Predigested Obsolescence]( Carl Trueman’s latest column is a good one: “As long as there have been churches, there have been churches that want to do less than that for which the church is intended. Rather than offer people a glorious vision of who God is and who men and women are before him, they have sought to offer the spirit of the age in a religious idiom.” [This Crisis? It’s Nothing]( Rod Dreher provides some important historical perspective to those who think we’ve come into the worst times in history. [No More Boredom]( Randy Alcorn addresses a too-common misconception. “Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy—that God is boring. There’s no greater nonsense. What’s true is that our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God’s hand.” [Have we Christians made Marriage too Complicated?]( I have often wondered whether we’ve made this all too complicated. “Were we playing our parts correctly? Was I sinning by giving my husband my opinion on things all of these years? Was my husband sinning by allowing me to have a say in things? And when he did listen to me when I had a strong opinion about something, was I manipulating him? At one point, I was even told by a church leader that it was strange that my husband and I told each other everything.” [Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Your Free Will]( These are helpful but sobering thoughts on the ways we are shaped by our digital devices. [Flashback: A Powerful Practice for Prayer]( There is one practice I find myself working on these days more than any other, and I think it may be the most important of them all. It is a simple one: Never resist the least urge to pray. God does not accept me just as I am; He loves me despite how I am. —David Powlison [Like on Facebook]( [Share on Google+]( [Pin it!](https%3a%2f%2fwww.challies.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2017%2f09%2fChallies_sept17-23-04.png) [Tweet This]( [Subscribe by email]( [Subscribe by RSS]( Related Stories - [A La Carte (September 20)]( - [A La Carte (September 19)]( - [A La Carte (September 18)](   • [Email to a friend]( La Carte (September 21);5776363) • --------------------------------------------------------------- [Contact Us]( •[Past Issues](5776363/52189706/4b3eb463229e6e69882820dd82c6606f) •[Unsubscribe]( [Click here to safely unsubscribe]( from "challies.com - Informing the Reforming." [Click here to view mailing archives](, [here to change your preferences]( or [here to subscribe]( • [Privacy]( Email subscriptions powered by [FeedBlitz](), LLC, 365 Boston Post Rd, Suite 123, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.