Today, Americans will be celebrating the Declaration of Independence. A holiday to focus on freedom, sacriļ¬ce and acting on convictions. Good values for a country. A great reminder of the gospel.
Freedom - āFor freedom Christ has set us free; stand ļ¬rm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.ā (Galatians 5:1)
True freedom is rooted in Christ. Without it thereās nothing but despair. The freedom He gives is the highest freedom, freedom to delight in His mercy and grace.... continue reading
Derek Jacobi, the Oscar-winning actor, has spoken of feeling āconned and embarrassedā when he was taken to a Billy Graham rally as a young man.
Thatās how he describes the moment when, having gone to the front to āgive my life to Jesusā, the American evangelist stopped talking: āIt was like the choir stopped singingā.
What an evocative description of a faith-response which depends on a man, rather than on the man. āThe choir stopped singingā.... continue reading
The Council of Dort laboured for months to make a five point response to the doctrines of Arminius, and finally formulated what have become known as The Five Points of Calvinism. Somewhere down the line (if you know when, please tell us) someone attached the acronym TULIP to the doctrinal formulation, and now they are the touchstone for people who consider themselves convinced Calvinists:
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
But such formularies can grow stale and lose their power to interest. So here is a brave effort to create a modern version that might appeal to full-blooded men (and women!) of today. Works for me. As Homer Simpson might say: "Mmmmmmmm.... Calvinism!"
If you want to know more about the Reformation and the issues that surrounded the formulation of these doctrinal positions, why not sign up for The Reformation Church History module of the Moore College course operated by our distance-learning college? Email admin@open-bible-institute.org to enrol.
Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
Say to God, āHow awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.ā
Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on footā
come, let us rejoice in him.
He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nationsā
let not the rebellious rise up against him.... continue reading
During this blog series weāve seen that thereās no such thing as ājust a helperā, we always need to start with the passage, that we focus the fun on the main teaching point, and that children learn best if we provide a range of learning styles. All of these things have a bearing on the single topic that most childrenās workers worry about ā discipline!
Discipline is a planning issue
Children are sinners ā just as we are. Their sinfulness sometimes shows itself in bad behaviour. Ours can show in how we respond. But the way we plan a session can minimise discipline issues, making it easier for children to control themselves, and for us to focus on teaching and modelling Christian truths.... continue reading
Getting children to remember Bible verses is important to their understanding of the Bible, the key is to make it fun and most of all memorable!
Following Alison Mitchell's series this week on children's work and particularly her piece on 'learning God's living Word', for the next 7 days we're offering you a great deal on Remember, Remember.
It's 50% off when you use the code remember at checkout. This book is packed with top tips and ideas for engaging children with learning verses, so it really is a no brainer. Do forward this on to your Sunday School leaders at church so they don't miss out!This great offer is available in the UK, USA and Australia!
Offer expires on July 6th 2012.
Iām just back from a church weekend where we learnt the whole of Psalm 16 by heart. Iām now practising it every day to try and get it firm in my mind. I am not finding it easy. But thatās partly because my adult brain isnāt used to memorising stuff, and is protesting at the strain. However, children do learn things ā poems at school, the words of pop songs, lines for a Christmas play. So this is the ideal time for them to be memorising key verses from Godās Word.
Most childrenās teaching material will include some memory verses, and may also give suggestions for how to teach them. But we can quickly get locked in to using the same few techniques ā the ones we think āworkā.... continue reading
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You can read large books about learning styles, or even study it at college, but the basics can be summed up in one phrase:
Different people learn in different ways.
Actually, itās perhaps better to say that different people learn best in different ways. So most of us learn a bit no matter how something is taught, but we will learn best through whichever style suits us the most.
Roughly speaking, there are three learning styles:
