Water Day Celebration!

This coming weekend (July 5 & 6) is our annual water Day celebration for all 2nd-4th graders!  Please send your kids ready to get wet with a modest swimsuit, a towel, and dry clothes to go home in!  Drop-Off & Pick-Up will be outside by the Common’s, entrance F.  Yes you have to check your child in before dropping them off and have the appropriate check-out slip to pick them up!

Also this weekend we will be celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles!  This is a Jewish feast that celebrates God’s many blessings.  For 7 days the Jewish people would live in tents decorates with ornaments.  We celebrate this feast to remind us that life on earth is temporary and only when we get to heaven will all things for us be fulfilled!

“The Israelites feasted and praised God for His abundant blessings. This week, enjoy a feast with your family and friends. As you gather around the table, think about how God has blessed you during your life. Take turns remembering and praising God for His blessings and provisions.

If you’re in a season during which you’re struggling to make money or put food on the table, remember that a feast isn’t the abundance of food but rather an abundance of who God is. Take some time to ask yourself what you know about God. Among many things, God is blessing us. God loves us and tells us in Scripture not to worry because He will take care of us.

Lean on the truth of who God is—the Provider who loves you. Then, remember how God has blessed you in the past. Thank Him for His blessings and for the ways He will bless you in the future.” (excerpt taken from Tru Curriculum)

 

If you have stories to share or prayer request for us, please go to our web page and let us know.

Click here to see Tru’s Inspire, Equip & Support for this lesson on our facebook page

HomeFront: A Spiritual Parenting Resource: This magazine gives families ideas for creating fun, spiritually forming times in their homes—setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! As the new issue becomes available each month, you may choose to print it for families or encourage them to visit www.HomeFrontMag.com to subscribe to have the magazine sent directly to their inbox. HomeFront is also available as an app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

God’s Power Changes Everything

This coming weekend we will be hearing the true story of how Peter & John healed the crippled beggar (Acts 3:1-10).

When I read this story, the word from verse 4 “look at us” stand out to me.  I can only guess that this man was looking down in shame and hardly ever looked anyone in the eye.  But Peter wasn’t just anyone!  he know that he possessed the power of Christ and he wanted this man to see it.  The man looked expectantly at Peter & John, thinking he was going to get some money.  But what he received was even greater!  Using the power of Jesus’ name, in verse 6 Peter says, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk.”  What happens next is absolutely amazing.  Peter & John help the man up and instantly his legs became strong (verse 7), he then went jumping and praising God through the temple courts!

 

The best part about this story is that as “Fearless Followers” of Christ, we too have this power inside of us!  We just need to let our ideas and ideals go and cling to Jesus and follow him!  Luke 17:6 says, “He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  What would it look like if we lived out our faith every day knowing that we had the power of Jesus to change everything?  What would you do with that power?  Provide healing for illnesses and broken relationships?  Provide support for a single parent?  Help out your elderly or handicapped neighbor?  Reach out to your neighborhood and proclaim the glories of God?  It is time for us to stop sitting passively by and use the power of Christ to change the world!

How do we help our children to live a life full of Christ’s power?

We as parents and as adults, live our lives as an example.  Take time each day to ask for prayer requests from your family, friends & neighbors.  Write them down and include you children in a time of daily prayer for these requests.  Be sure to look back and keep track of how God answers those prayers.  One of my favorite things to do for my children is to pray over them.  I pray with them before they leave for school each morning, plus I pray that the evil one will leave them in Jesus’ name when they have bad dreams, and I always pray for healing by touching the place that is hurt and asking for God the Great physician to provide healing.  Now, my daughter still has diabetes, God did not heal that, and in these situations we need to relinquish our child to God knowing He has a plan for them and that growth always comes from trials!  By doing these things, your family will flex their faith muscles and begin to impact the world around you with the power of Jesus Christ!

If you have stories to share or prayer request for us, please go to our web page and let us know.

Click here to see Tru’s Inspire, Equip & Support for this lesson on our facebook page

HomeFront: A Spiritual Parenting Resource: This magazine gives families ideas for creating fun, spiritually forming times in their homes—setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! As the new issue becomes available each month, you may choose to print it for families or encourage them to visit www.HomeFrontMag.com to subscribe to have the magazine sent directly to their inbox. HomeFront is also available as an app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

God’s Son Changes Everything

Have you ever experienced a radical change?  My life radically changed when I was 8 years old.  My dad was severely injured in a construction accident with little hope of ever walking again, he was only 28 years old at the time!  Through this, I got to experience God’s love through everyone who brought our family food, and help to pay bills, not to mention everyone who came out to finish the barn my dad was building when he was hurt.  I also got to experience the miracle of God’s healing and the strength He gives you to endure.  God gave my dad strength to go on when most people would have quit, God healed my dad enough that he could walk again, although he was never able to work due to the severe pain, and God provided us girls with the gift of a stay at home dad!  I can’t imagine a better childhood than the one I had even if we were financially poor!

Why do I share this, well this coming weekend in Ridge Kids, we are diving into Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9:1-31)!  The part of the Big God Story where Saul is going to Damascus to arrest all Christ followers (remember he was considered the Pharisee or Pharisees!) is blinded by Jesus, only to be healed by Ananias, become Paul and go on to be God’s chosen instrument to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15)!

Think back to a time where your life radically changed.  How did it affect your life?  Did this change draw you closer to God?  Was accepting the gift of salvation you biggest change?

Now consider that approximately 50% of all children will experience the divorce of their parents, 14-20% of children will have to move to a new home or town in a given year, and approximately 397,000 children are in foster care.  Our kids are dramatically affected by change!

For Saul, the change to Paul was life altering!  As you read verses 21-30, people were afraid of him, many thought the change was unbelievable, and others sought to kill him!  How can we help ourselves and our children live a life of radical change, of non-acceptance and be ok with it because it is for the glory of God?  How do we learn to do the right thing, even if that means we will me disliked or made fun of?

One way is to memorize scripture!  Here are some verses for you to memorize with your family.

Romans 12:2- “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Than you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-His good, perfect and pleasing will.”

Ephesians 2:10- “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Galatians 2:20- “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Be like Paul, live your life every day for Christ, no matter what the consequences!  Remember, Jesus is AMAZED by great faith! (Matthew 8:10, Luke 7:9)

 

If you have stories to share or prayer request for us, please go to our web page and let us know.

Click here to see Tru’s Inspire, Equip & Support for this lesson on our facebook page

HomeFront: A Spiritual Parenting Resource: This magazine gives families ideas for creating fun, spiritually forming times in their homes—setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! As the new issue becomes available each month, you may choose to print it for families or encourage them to visit www.HomeFrontMag.com to subscribe to have the magazine sent directly to their inbox. HomeFront is also available as an app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

 

 

God’s Spirit Changes Everything!

When I am reading a Bible story, I try to put myself in their shoes.  The story of Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost is no exception.  As you read through Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 1-2, try to imagine yourself there.  First, your Rabbi, who you watched die on the cross, rises again 3 days later.  Then he commissions you with the task of making disciples of all nations, I don’t know about you, but that seems almost impossible.  (But God was going to send them a gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit.)  So you stay in Jerusalem like Jesus instructed for what seems like a long time, then one day as everyone is gathered together, you hear the sound of a fierce wind fill the house and you see tongues of fire come to rest on everyone.  All of a sudden you are able to speak a language you have never spoken before!  God has given you the power to go and make disciples in a completely different nation!

I stand in awe, there is NOTHING our God in incapable of doing and there is nothing we are incapable of when we use the power God has given us through the Holy Spirit!

Now how do we help our children to understand this??

We must live our faith out every single day, we must not be afraid to share our story with people we meet.  1 Timothy 1:7 says, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”   Let your children be witnesses to you ‘Fearlessly Following” God everyday, own your part in the great Commission, pray that God will reveal His plans for you then  invite your children to join you in changing your community and the world for Christ!

Click here to see Tru’s Inspire, Equip & Support for this lesson on our facebook page

HomeFront: A Spiritual Parenting Resource: This magazine gives families ideas for creating fun, spiritually forming times in their homes—setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! As the new issue becomes available each month, you may choose to print it for families or encourage them to visit www.HomeFrontMag.com to subscribe to have the magazine sent directly to their inbox. HomeFront is also available as an app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.