Grace Blog
SBC Resolution on Family Worship
Perhaps two of the biggest statements made (apart from the GCR vote) at the 2010 SBC Annual Meeting were the resolutions on the centrality of the gospel and family worship. Although members of Grace are no strangers to the concept of family worship, the fact is that many Christians today do not know or practice this important means of grace in the home. As we continue our study on Gospel-Centered Family this summer, let us consider this resolution and give thanks to God for the focus being given to the functional centrality of the gospel and practical outworking of God’s Word in the home!
Here’s the resolution on family worship:
Labels: Cape Coral, Family, Family Worship, Grace Baptist Church, SBC | posted by TimBrister at 6:30 am | Categories: News and Announcements, Parenting/Family |
Great Father’s Day Gift
Father’s Day is less than a month away, and I want to point you to a great little bundle of books just for dads. The Good Book Company has bundled Gospel Centered Family, Man of God, and A Few Good Men for one great price of $14.99. Another reason why you may want to get this bundle is that we will be using the book Gospel Centered Family during the summer months in our Bible Study time on Sundays.
Labels: Cape Coral, Father's Day, Gospel-Centered Family, Grace Baptist Church | posted by TimBrister at 9:01 am | Categories: Parenting/Family, Resources |
2010 Biblical Parenting Seminar
The 2010 Biblical Parenting Seminar hosted by Tom and Donna Ascol is now available for download. Both the Friday night and Saturday morning sessions are approximately 2 1/2 hours long. You can click on the following links for the MP3s.
* Friday Night Sessions
* Saturday Morning Sessions
Labels: Biblical Parenting, Cape Coral, Grace Baptist Church, Parenting, Tom Ascol | posted by TimBrister at 12:28 pm | Categories: Parenting/Family, Resources |
12 Principles for a Gospel-Centered Family
Coming up this summer during our Bible Study hour of Grace Gathered, we will be looking at what it means to be a gospel-centered family. Last Fall, we spent 20 weeks working through the gospel-centered life, and Pastor Tom, through his expositional preaching of 1 Corinthians, has been showing us the gospel-centered church. This summer, we will seek to apply the gospel in a crucial area of our lives–the family.
At the SojournKids blog, Jared Kennedy posted 12 principles for a gospel-centered family from Tim Chester and Ed Moll’s book, Gospel-Centered Family: becoming the parents God wants you to be. As a primer for this summer, take a look at these principles (we will be using this book as well).
1. Your family can show how great it is to live under God’s reign of love (Ephesians 6:1-4).
2. Knowing God is far more important than “succeeding” in life (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
3. The biggest obstacle to good discipline is our own selfish hearts (James 4:1-10).
4. Trying to be a good parent will crush you if you don’t embrace grace (Luke 18:9-14).
5. Addressing the heart matters more than controlling behavior (Colossians 2:20-3:10).
6. Don’t train your child to be a legalist (Luke 15:11-32).
7. Make sure you enjoy your children (Psalm 127).
8. Teach your children about God in the context of everyday life (Deuteronomy 11:16-21).
9. Shape WHAT younger children watch and HOW older children watch (Proverbs 4:1-9).
10. Teach children to pray by praying with them (Matthew 6:5-15).
11. We belong to two families (Mark 3:31-35).
12. Children are not the center of the world (Mark 12:28-34).
Labels: Cape Coral, Family, Gospel-Centered Family, Grace Baptist Church, Parenting, Tim Chester | posted by TimBrister at 11:49 am | Categories: Gospel, Parenting/Family, Sunday School Stuff |
God’s Wonderful Surpise: The Resurrection Story
Below is the video account of the resurrection from The Jesus Storybook Bible - a fantastic resource for walking your children through the Bible while at the same time always pointing them to Jesus. Take a moment to share this video with your children this Easter season!
Labels: Cape Coral, Easter, Grace Baptist Church, Jesus, Resurrection, The Jesus Storybook Bible | posted by TimBrister at 2:36 pm | Categories: Jesus, Parenting/Family, Resources |
C.J. Mahaney on Biblical Manhood
One of the things we try to do through our blog is point you to resources that would be helpful in everyday life as a Christian. Below is an interview with C.J. Mahaney who provides some solid counsel on what it means to intentionally pursue godliness as a man, husband, and father. He’s a general breakdown of the interview:
* 3:00—18:00, how to be wise as a young man and how fathers should lead their sons
* 18:00—30:00, how men can grow in leading their wife and children
* 30:00—40:00, how men can seek fellowship and invite criticism
Q&A on Biblical Masculinity from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.
Here are the books C.J. mentions:
* Derek Kidner, Proverbs
* Ed Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small
* Piper and Grudem, eds., Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
(HT: JT)
Labels: Biblical Manhood, C.J. Mahaney, Cape Coral, Fathering, Grace Baptist Church | posted by TimBrister at 9:08 am | Categories: Parenting/Family, Resources |
Gospel-Empowered Parenting
Juan Sanchez has written some helpful thoughts on the difference between gospel-empowered parenting versus fear-based parenting. Consider these points of application based on gospel realities in the home:
We must confess that we are not perfect parents - we have failed often and miserably! First, as Farley reminds us, know that if we were perfect parents, then our children would not need Christ. Second, know that if we were perfect parents, then we would not need Christ. Embracing the good news of the gospel begins with uncovering my sin, my failures and looks to the perfect Father who sent the perfect Son to live the life that pleases the Father and who received the punishment that we deserved.
Therefore, confess your sins: to the Father, to your family, your children as/when appropriate. Let them see your need for Christ and point them to Christ in their sin and failures. Build relationships with your children on the unconditional love of the gospel of the Father so that our children will not think that our love for them is conditioned on their performance. Spend much time on positive instruction: catechizing, reading together, doing life together in light of the gospel.
Be your child’s/children’s encourager. At our house, we (mom and dad) continually tell our children that we are their number one fans. It’s corny; we laugh; they get embarrassed. But we want them to know that we are for them, not against them. Finally, regardless of what kind of father you may or may not have had, remember that God is the perfect Father, and that His love is unconditional. He loves us because He chooses to love us, not because of anything in us or because of our performance. He loves us in Christ, and nothing will ever sever that love He has for us in Christ (Romans 8:29ff).
Be sure to read the whole thing.
Labels: Cape Coral, Gospel, Grace Baptist Church, Parenting | posted by TimBrister at 12:01 pm | Categories: Gospel, Parenting/Family |
Parenting Children Through Hard Thoughts About God
C.J. Mahaney recently shared about some counsel he gave to a father who was concerned that his constant call to obey the Lord would produce in his child hard thoughts about God, knowing his children do not have the power to live up to God’s commands. Consider the wise counsel Mahaney provided:
* You have the privilege of introducing them to God the Father and describing the ways in which he is different from you, different from all sinful fathers, and how in any way you are like him it’s only because of grace that you reflect him. See Luke 11:11–13.
* Your honest confession of your sin to your children will protect them from having hard thoughts about you or God.
* Communicating your affection for them—and joy when you are with them—promotes both good and accurate thoughts about God.
* Initiate time with them at both planned and spontaneous times. Don’t leave them with the impression that they get most of your attention when they disobey. Let them know you are so grateful for them and love being with them as much as possible.
* Bless your children with many gifts in many forms! See Luke 11 again. Study your children in order to discern what gifts would genuinely bless them and then purpose to surprise them as often as possible.
* Requiring appropriate obedience does not promote hard thoughts about God. This only happens when we do so in self-righteousness or anger. See point 2 again.
* Frequently preach the gospel to them (and not at them). Reveal to your children just how far God has gone to show his love for sinners like us.
* My friend, if you follow the example of our gracious God, your children will not have hard thoughts about him. They will have accurate thoughts about him—and a deep love for you.
Labels: C.J. Mahaney, Cape Coral, God, Grace Baptist Church, Parenting | posted by TimBrister at 3:15 pm | Categories: Parenting/Family |
Parents who forget they are lawbreakers
This is an excellent parenting excerpt from Elyse Fitzpatrick’s latest book, Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ.
“Parents who forget that they are law breakers expect their children to keep the law and to make them look good. They expect children who exhibit exemplary respect and self-discipline. Such parents are self-righteous and proud, and all too often they put confidence in themselves, their ability to obey God, and their methodology for extracting obedience from their children. They forget that the Lord didn’t save or bless them because they were law keepers but, rather, because they weren’t.
Although they may know they have failed to keep the law–loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as themselves–they give their children the law (or house rules) and expect perfect compliance the first time and every time, with a happy heart. Such parents are harsh and impatient and tempted to anger when their children fail. Although they might know the law doesn’t change the heart (and is, in fact, a ministry of death [2 Cor. 3:7]), they expect the law to change the hearts of their children. They forget that they have been adopted and brought into the family, not only as those who misunderstood and slipped up from time to time, but as defiant rebels. Have parents consistently obeyed God the first time and every time, with a happy heart? Children need what parents need–the gospel. Certainly children need to learn God’s law and to have house rules to follow, but gospel-oriented parents give the law to show children their need for a Savior, not to make them obedient.”
- Elyse Fitzpatrick, Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the love of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 159 (emphasis mine).
May God help those of us who are parents to give our children what they need, what we need–the gospel.
Labels: Counsel from the Cross, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Gospel, Gospel-Centered Parenting, Parenting | posted by TimBrister at 11:00 am | Categories: Gospel, Parenting/Family |
He’s Here - The Jesus Storybook Bible
The Jesus Storybook Bible has been a great gift to our family for our family worship. We are close to completing it for the second time, and our boys are increasingly loving their Bible with each time of learning about Jesus. Below is a video narration of the birth of Christ. I encourage you to share this with your children sometime during this advent season. You can pick up a copy at Westminster Bookstore for just $11 and change.
Labels: Advent, Jesus, Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible | posted by TimBrister at 12:17 pm | Categories: Advent, Jesus, Parenting/Family |
Spankings don’t save anybody - the Gospel does!
Let this little video expert be a sober reminder and daily challenge to shepherd our children’s hearts with the gospel, not just discipline them with the hand.
HT: Jared Kennedy (Sojourn Kids)
Labels: Discipline, Gospel-Centered Parenting, Parenting | posted by TimBrister at 3:38 pm | Categories: Gospel, Parenting/Family |
Parents, Give Up Your Independence
Tim Keller, in his excellent book The Reason for God, speaks of the significance of sacrificing parental independence that children who are dependent might know the freedom you enjoy. He writes:
“Children come into the world in a condition of complete dependence. They cannot operate as self-sufficient, independent agents unless their parents give up much of their own independence and freedom for years. If you don’t allow your children to hinder your freedom in work and play at all, and if you only get to your children when it doesn’t inconvenience you, your children will group up physically only. In all sorts of other ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, and overdependent. The choice is clear. You can either sacrifice your freedom or theirs. It’s them or you. To love your children well, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into the dependency they have so eventually they can experience the freedom and independence you have (194).”
Labels: Parenting, The Reason for God, Tim Keller | posted by TimBrister at 5:38 am | Categories: Parenting/Family |
Taking Charge of the Television
Randy Alcorn tackles the question of how parents should handle the television when kids are out of school. Parents in many ways are gate-keepers to their children and exercise wisdom in skillfully navigating the treacherous waters of a toxic culture whose principle medium is that of the television. Alcorn offers the following 14 suggestions for “taking charge of the t.v.”:
Labels: Parenting, Shepherding Your Children's Hearts, Television | posted by TimBrister at 9:46 am | Categories: Parenting/Family, Resources |
Prayers We Parents Rarely Pray
Here is an important little blogpost from Doug Wolter from the blog Life2gether about the importance of humble submission and self-control in parenting.
Wolter writes:
We’ve all been there before as parents. Your child has been told what to do and doesn’t do it. You’re tired and irritated. You have no patience left in your parenting tank. And so, you yell at your child (and perhaps even discipline your child) in anger and frustration. But what good does it do? Even though you took charge of the situation, your heart feels empty and frustrated and so does your child’s.
Let’s rewind the tape. Your child has been told what to do and doesn’t do it. Instead of reacting in anger, you acknowledge the fact that you are tired and lacking in patience. So before speaking to your child, you speak first to God. Just a simple prayer asking Him something like,
“Father, I need your help right now. I need your Spirit to give me patience and wisdom to talk with my child. I can’t do it on my own. I need you and my child needs you. Without you, Jesus, I can do nothing. So be with me now as I go. Open up my heart and my child’s heart to you.”
With a simple prayer such as this one, we take our parenting out of our hands and put it into God’s hands. We admit we cannot parent on our own. And so we pray a simple prayer of dependence … a simple prayer of reliance … a simple prayer of surrender.
This is the prayer we parents rarely pray. But I wonder how it would change us, and I wonder how it would change our families.
Labels: Parenting | posted by TimBrister at 6:42 am | Categories: Parenting/Family |
The Greatest Hindrance to Cultivating Community
Over at the Desiring God blog, Paul Tripp was asked the question: What is the greatest hindrance to cultivating community in the American church? Here’s a portion of his answer . . . (emphasis mine)
The first thing that comes to mind is frenetic western-culture busyness.
I read a book on stress a few years back, and the author made a side comment that I thought was so insightful. He said that the highest value of materialistic western culture is not possessing. It’s actually acquiring.
If you’re a go-getter you never stop. And so the guy who is lavishly successful doesn’t quit, because there are greater levels of success. “My house could be bigger, I could drive better cars, I could have more power, I could have more money.”
And so we’ve bought an unbiblical definition of the good life of success. Our kids have to be skilled at three sports and play four musical instruments, and our house has to be lavish by whatever standard. And all of that stuff is eating time, eating energy, eating money. And it doesn’t promote community.
I think often that even the programs of a local church are too sectored and too busy. As if we’re trying to program godliness. And so the family is actually never together because they’re all in demographic groupings. Where do we have time where we are pursuing relationships with one another, living with one another, praying with one another, talking with one another?
I’ve talked to a lot of families who literally think it’s a victory to have 3 or 4 meals all together with one another in a week, because they’re so busy. Well, if in that family unit they’re not experiencing community, there’s no hope of them experiencing it outside of that family unit.
We have families that will show up at our church on Sunday morning with the boys dressed in their little league outfits, and I know what’s going to happen. They’re going to leave the service early. Now what a value message to that little boy! Do I think little league is bad? I don’t think it’s bad at all. I think it’s great. But they’re telling him what’s important as they do that.
You can’t fit God’s dream (if I can use that language) for his church inside of the American dream and have it work. It’s a radically different lifestyle. It just won’t squeeze into the available spaces of the time and energy that’s left over.
Labels: Busyness, Community, Simple Life | posted by TimBrister at 11:46 am | Categories: Community, Parenting/Family |
