Grace Blogs

If your children have been intrigued by the messages and movie clips about Martin Luther and the Protestant reformation over the last two weeks, I highly recommend Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed The World by Paul Maier. As with all of Maier’s children’s books, this one is historically accurate and beautifully illustrated. 

Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed The World

Read the full entry

In my previous three posts, I highlighted the talks given by Tedd Trip from the concepts in his Shepherding a Child’s Heart. Here are the other four talks Dr. Tripp gave that weekend…

Passing God’s Greatness to the Next Generation - Dr. Tripp lays out a vision of what it looks like to pass on the truth of God to the next generation.

The Sowing and Reaping Principle in the Word of God - Here he relates Biblical concept of reaping what we sow to the discipline process with our children.

Loving Leadership - Dr. Tripp speaks to the men about leadership within the marriage and the home.

Motivating and Encouraging

…

Read the full entry

The next lesson in Tedd Tripp’s Shepherding Your Child’s Heart seminar is…

Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Teenagers

This is the time where the child transitions from the faith of his parents to owning his own ideas and belief system. This is when children tend to question things they never have before. It can be a scary time for parents who are not mentally prepared for it.

In this valuable lesson, Dr. Tripp focuses on communication and how to keep it open with your kids. As always, he gives the Biblical basis for his teaching, then he shares lots of scenarios and examples from his own life and those he’s counseled over the years.

Read the full entry

The second part in Tedd Tripp’s Shepherding Your Child’s Heart teaching series is…

Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Age 6 to 12

In this message, Dr. Tripp covers the important issue of addressing the heart over of manipulating the child to get the desired behavior. When our children are very young (say toddler age), they learn right from wrong through training in obedience; however, as they get older, mere obedience is not enough. Continuing to focus simply on obedience will tend to create children that learn to manipulate the system so that they look good and get what they want.

Addressing behavior is easier than shepherding our children’s hearts, though. So Dr. Tripp’s Biblical justification for it and encouragement

…

Read the full entry

In my last post I talked about how valuable Shepherding a Child’s Heart was for me in the forming of my parenting philosophy. If you read that post and thought to yourself “That sounds great, but I’ve already got a stack of unread books next to my bed. This would just be one more book I’ll feel bad about not reading,” then I’ve got some good news for you. I’ve found a series of messages that Dr. Tripp gave at The Bible Church of Little Rock in 1997 that covers much of what is in his book.

The first message is Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Ages 0-5.

In this message, Dr. Tripp lays the foundation you need for …

Read the full entry

We are in the middle of working through a very helpful video training training class called Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes… in You and Your Kids on Wednesday nights. The course centers around the idea of what it means for us to honor one another and how we can train our children to live out Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’”

As good as the course is, I feel

…

Read the full entry

The ESV Study Bible ships this week. As study Bibles go, this appears to be a good one. If you are planning to order one, you can get it Amazon for $31.49 (as of this posting). If you order it from this link (or the search box on the Library page), Grace Fellowship will get close to $2 as a referral fee.

I haven’t seen a copy, but with features like in-line color maps and figures (see Solomon’s Temple example), extensive background notes and introduction (see Psalms example), it looks like it will set a new standard for study Bibles.  Of course, at 2752 pages, you may need to check with your doctor before making

…

Read the full entry

During the summer’s ChurchWorks series, Dan mentioned the process we have for recognizing, developing, and appointing gifted leaders within the church. If this has you thinking thoughts like “Is God moving me toward a shepherding role within the church?” or “How would I know if I have the skill and desire to be a pastor?” or “How can I personally develop as a shepherd and pastor to those God has put in my path?” then I commend an excellent resource to you titled They Smell Like Sheep: Spiritual Leadership for the 21st Century by Lynn Anderson.

Ken gave me this book when I

…

Read the full entry

If you missed getting your free audio copy of C.H. Spurgeon’s All of Grace when it was offered a couple of years ago on ChristianAudio.com, you’ve got a second chance.  I cannot recommend this little book highly enough. This is a great illustration of a preacher who is passionate about reaching people with the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.

Simply go to the Free Downloads page and follow the directions for the free download.

Read the full entry

I’ve recently taken on an unfamiliar role for me: assistant coach of a 5 to 7 year-old flag football team. Fortunately for me and the kids, I am the third coach, and the first two actually know what they are doing. You can see how I have captured the boys’ attention with my commanding field presence and mastery of the game.

This, along with Austin’s growing interest in sports, has me thinking more about the role of sports in the Christian life. So, it was nice timing when I came across an excellent sermon by C.J. Mahaney entitled Don’t

…

Read the full entry