wordandspirit

I realise that my posting here has tailed off significantly towards the end of this year, but I did want to do one brief post summarising what I have been up to this year.

Family

The big event for our family this year was the birth of our fifth child Annie in March. She is the reason why my blogging output dried up as I have barely had a full night’s sleep since she was born which means I no longer have my usual mental alertness in the mornings for ploughing through commentaries. Still, her incredibly cute smile more than makes up for the sleep depravation. This year I have also greatly enjoyed the fact that Ben is finally old enough to come to football matches with me, and we had a fun visit to the Emirates today to finish off the year.

Reading

As I have already admitted, I haven’t read anywhere near as many books as normal this year due to sleep depravation. The most substantial book I completed this year was Christopher Wright’s magnificent Mission of God, which I still need to get round to reviewing. Another book not reviewed on the blog as I was only proof-reading a draft is a forthcoming book from Simon Ponsonby on Justice, which is well worth looking out for when it arrives. Probably my favourite book of the year was Paul Miller’s A Praying Life.

Bible Versions

Recently I have been reading a lot more of the Bible. Every morning I use youversion.com to read around four chapters of the new 2011 edition of the NIV as I would like to read the whole way through this new version. I find it perplexing why so many evangelicals (including some within newfrontiers) seem so critical towards this excellent translation. The committee of translators behind it includes several of my favourite Biblical scholars and I can’t see why the NIV doesn’t deserve to be treated just as seriously as the ESV as a translation for evangelicals.

Also, my son Ben reads one or two chapters from the Good News Bible to me every night, and Lily and Joel also read shorter portions from the Good News Bible. It’s not a translation I would choose to use myself, but they have done a very good job in presenting Scripture using vocabulary that my 5, 9 and 10 year olds are able to read and (mostly) understand.

Programming

Some of you will know that my job is a computer programmer, but it is also something of a hobby of mine (yes I know that makes me a geek). I am the author of a number of open source audio related projects, and some of them have gained quite a lot of popularity in recent years (including one application that now has over 1 million downloads). It has resulted in me spending quite a lot of my free time answering support requests and working on various audio related projects, some of which I have even been able to earn some money from. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading about digital signal processing, but I expect most of you will be glad I haven’t been reviewing those books here. (You can follow my software blog here if you are interested in that kind of thing).

Also in my day job I have been studying and reading a lot about how to write better software and have been running lunchtime training courses at my work every fortnight. It is perhaps one small way in which I feel I may be able to make my daily work an act of worship. Programming (probably like most jobs) can sometimes feel quite “unspiritual” and detached from the Christian faith, but if God is a creative God who delights in making things good, then I want that to be the way I write software too.

Theology

This year I have again been involved in theology training at my church. Along with my good friends Mark Mould and Tom Scrivens, we taught an eight session series on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I found it hugely beneficial studying and researching in preparation for them and I regret that I never got round to blogging the notes from these talks. We have more training courses in the pipeline, and I will try to do better at blogging about what we are doing next year.

I have also very much enjoyed seeing the newfrontiers theology blog whatyouthinkmatters.org really take off this year, with a nice broad range of contributors and I’m looking forward to seeing what appears on there next year.

Music

Regular followers of my blog know that I occasionally like to write and record my own songs, sadly without ever achieving particularly great results. However, it is something I greatly enjoy doing and have been working away on a few ideas recently, which perhaps will see their way onto this website some time next year.

Anyway, that sums up a lot of what I have been up to this year. Thanks to everyone who has taken time to read and comment here. Have a happy new year, and may 2012 be a year of knowing God more and seeing his kingdom advancing.

A few months ago, John Hosier gave a series of four lectures on Hebrews at Gateway Church, Poole. I was unfortunately unable to attend due to them being shortly after the birth of our fifth child. But I was pleased to notice recently that they are available for download. Unfortunately the final recording is incomplete, and the accompanying notes are not available, but it is still well worth hearing. I always find John Hosier to be an excellent communicator, with a real gift for clarifying some of the more perplexing parts of Scripture (he is also an expert in Revelation).

The second talks is of particular interest since it covers both the warning passages, and the meaning of “rest”. I found the discussion of rest to be helpful, because despite having read three commentaries on Hebrews (France, Wright, and Brown), I have never felt I’ve really grasped what it is about. I recently bought Peter O’Brien’s new commentary on Hebrews from the Pillar series, but have only read the introduction so far.

As for the warning passages, half a talk isn’t enough to do it justice or fully nail down your position, but I found his material helpful, and there seems to be some agreement with my own position on perseverance which I have blogged about and given a talk on before (although I felt he left open the loss of reward interpretation as an option, which I am not persuaded by).

John Hosier’s talks are available here:

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4 (incomplete)

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I want to write one final post in my Psalm 119 series, highlighting some others who are thinking about it, and asking whether there is a reference to God’s word in every single verse or not.

Psalm 119 in blogs and songs

During the last month, I noticed a couple of other bloggers tackling this Psalm. First, is Chris Wright, with an article entitled “Experiencing God” on the theology network. As always, he makes several insightful and perceptive points. Also, on the Scripture Zealot blog, which I have been following for some time has a post on Ps 119:120 and another on Ps 119 in general, which includes a link to a free PDF exposition of the Psalm from Charles Bridges.

Also, while at New Wine, I noticed that one of the new songs we sung borrowed many of its lyrics from Ps 119. The song is called “Like Incense”. I would have liked the chorus to more obviously pick up a theme from the Psalm too, but it is nice to see it being used in modern worship songs.

If you’ve blogged, preached or written a song about Ps 119, do please put a link in the comments below.

God’s Word in Every Verse?

As you are probably aware, Psalm 119 is a meticulously crafted Psalm, with 22 sections, one for each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has 8 verses, each of which starts with the same letter of the alphabet. And almost every verse contains a synonym for the word of God. Here’s a list of the terms I noticed as I worked through the Psalm (in the ESV version):

• Law
• Testimonies
• Precepts
• Commandments
• Rules
• Statutes
• Your Word(s)
• Word of Truth
• His / Your Ways
• Your promise
• Your judgments
• A pledge of good

This left me with 6 verses that don’t have an obvious reference to God’s word. Now, it may be that the Psalmist felt at liberty to break from his pattern in a few places, but for such a carefully crafted work (did he have OCD?), it seems plausible to me that he thought himself to have referred to God’s word in every verse, even if obliquely in some cases.

The six verses are:

Ps 119:84 How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me?
At first glance, there appears to be no reference to God’s word here, but elsewhere (e.g. Ps 119:120) the Psalmist uses God’s “judgments”, and here, in the more literal translations the phrase is “execute judgment”.

Ps 119:90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.
Possibly God’s Word is depicted here as a manifestation of his “faithfulness” – God’s faithfulness, like his Word, endures forever. Alternatively, the Psalmist may have God’s creative word that spoke the earth into being in this verse.

Ps 119:91 By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants
This one is only an issue in the ESV, since other translations replace “appointment” with “laws”, “regulations”, or “ordinances”. Following on as it does from verse 90, God’s word of creation may be in view still.

Ps 119:121 I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors.
Here, doing justice and righteousness is the same as doing what God’s word says. “What is just and right” serves as a summary of the law.

Ps 119:132 Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.
Here the most promising candidate is “your way”, which the NIV translates “as you always do”, and another translation “as you have pledged to do”. In other words, the gracious character of God is testified to in the word of God. The Psalmist is praying for God to act in consistency with his self-revelation.

Ps 119:149 Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O LORD, according to your justice give me life
Both “steadfast love” and “justice” could be replaced with “word”, but “justice” seems more likely to function as a synonym for God’s word in this verse. And in fact, that is the direction many other translations take, going for words such as “judgments” or “ordinances”. The NIV has “laws”.

Now that I’m back from Together at Westpoint (TAW), it seems appropriate that I finish off my Psalm 119 series with something about the appropriately named final section, “Taw” – Ps 119:169-176

What is the purpose of reading the Bible? Some people take a very practical view. They view the Scriptures as an instruction book for life and read it to find out how they should behave, what they should be doing, and what they need to stop doing. Others take a more intellectual view. They view the Scriptures as the definitive doctrinal handbook and read it to find out what they should believe, to nail down the correct theological framework and to gather ammunition for combating heresy.

Both uses of Scripture are valid, but if that is all we take from the Word of God, something has gone badly wrong. Surely the main purpose of coming to God’s Word is to encounter God himself. To get a glimpse of his glory that drives us to worship. Proper study of the Word always leads to praise and adoration. True theology leads to doxology. If we are left unmoved by our study of the Scriptures, we have missed the point entirely.

This is something that the author of Psalm 119 understood well. Not only did he write a very substantial song all about the glory of God as revealed in his Word, but he also shares his intention to go on singing about what he sees and discovers as he meditates on the Scriptures. For him, time spent in the Word is anything but a dry, academic exercise. The goal of reading the Bible is not to fill our notebooks with interesting observations, but to fill our hearts with such a love for God that we cannot help but overflow with songs of praise.

May my lips overflow with praise,
   for you teach me your decrees. 
May my tongue sing of your word,
   for all your commands are righteous. (Ps 119:171-172)

I got back yesterday from Together at Westpoint, which is a four day Bible week for the churches in the south & south west region of newfrontiers. (It’s the fourth time we’ve been – here’s my reports from 2008, 2009, 2010). After surviving the treacherous driving conditions on the way due to the flash flooding in Bournemouth, we enjoyed surprisingly good weather while we were there. The journeys there and back did allow me to listen to several of the talks from this year’s newday conference, which despite being aimed at teenagers will benefit listeners of any age.

A disappointment this year was not being able to persuade anyone from our church to come with us, so we joined up with The Family Church, Christchurch, who had been so welcoming of us last year when we camped next to them. One benefit was that I got to play in their church football team. We somehow or other made it to the final before being comprehensively beaten by Grace Church, Chichester. My eldest son, Ben, also was in the winning team in the children’s football tournament and hasn’t taken his medal off since.

I got to hear three of the main talks, first from John Groves, who drew out some lessons from Ex 23:20-30 about the way God is leading his people through conquest and conflict. Next I heard Terry Virgo speak from Ezra 1:1-7 and Isaiah 1:7-9 on our identity as “Survivors” whose judgment is past, “Seers” with a vision for the future and “Supporters” whose commitment is in the present. Finally I heard Jeremy Simpkins unpacking Gen 49:22 about a fruitful vine, near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall – a prophetic promise fulfilled in Christ, but with relevance for us also as those who are in Christ. All three talks reminded us of the greatness of God and inspired fresh faith for mission.

The remaining three sessions I spent helping out in the kids work. An amazing amount of planning, prayer, and hard work was put in by the superb team that led the work and it was a privilege to be a small part of it and see God at work in the lives of the children. In some ways that was the highlight of the week for me, and I was moved by the dedication and love shown by the team. The theme of the kids work was “mission is possible”, and featured stories of various missionaries past and present.

The Saturday night saw us take up an offering, and Guy Miller declared that he felt we should go for the rather audacious target of £100,000 to fund various projects planned next year. I missed the announcement of the total, so was delighted to read on Matt Hosier’s blog that we managed to raise £101,000, not bad for just under 2000 people, many of whom are children. More exciting than knowing that we hit our target is seeing the progress of church plants we heard about last year, and hearing about new ones in their early stages. My good friend Mark Mould was there who will soon be joining up with the new Junction 13 church plant in Eastleigh. I also got to hear from some friends at Life Church Southampton about the exciting developments in their plans to plant an Southampton “eastside” congregation.

Whilst the scale and scope of the “Together at” Bible weeks is more modest than events such as New Wine or Stoneleigh, I love the church planting and mission focus of these events, and think it is vitally important for whole churches to catch a wider vision of what God is doing in our nation and around the world. Hopefully next year I’ll manage to persuade some people from KCC to come along.

I got back this week from New Wine, our 9th time there I think, and by my reckoning I have now spent more than a year of my life under canvas). It was our first time camping with five children, so things were hectic, and the number of seminars we could get to was limited. Still, thanks to the onsite radio, I was able to catch the main talk most evenings, and a few seminars, in addition to the ones I got to in person. Here’s just a brief flavour of what I got to hear.

As usual, the morning Bible teaching was excellent, this year it was from Kenny Borthwick, who worked through John 17. I got to hear a couple of talks by Baroness Caroline Cox, an extraordinary woman of courage and compassion, and heard about the work that is being done by HART. I attended two seminars by authors of interesting books – Michael Ward on Planet Narnia, and William Donaldson on Word and Spirit in Leadership, a book I hope to read soon as part of some writing of my own I am doing on the subject of Word and Spirit. It was also nice to see Tope Koleoso from Jubilee Church, Enfield speaking at one of the sessions. His talk on demonstrations of the Spirit’s power from the Brighton Together on a Mission conference is well worth hearing.

I also got a chance to briefly meet up with Simon Ponsonby, who somehow managed to do nine talks during the week, mostly from his Romans series he is preaching through at St Aldates (well worth listening to if you get a chance). We had an interesting discussion on Romans 7. Simon is convinced that it refers to Paul’s experience as a believer. My take is that it represents the battle we experience trying to fight sin without relying on the power of the indwelling Spirit, which Paul seems to deliberately leave out of the picture, before introducing it in Romans 8.

Simon also takes a view on the law very similar to the “New Covenant Theology” position, in which it is argued that the OT law is completely abrogated for the Christian, and replaced with the law of Christ. This obviously rejects the common threefold distinction of “moral, civil and ceremonial” or other similar schemes for dividing the law up into the temporary and the perpetually binding, as well as dispensing (I think) of two of Calvin’s three uses of the law. It is a view I have some sympathy for (and still have the Wells and Zaspel book on my wishlist), without being 100% convinced yet. However, I still believe that there is “paradigmatic value” in all of the OT laws, since all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for us. To say that the law’s only function is to show our sin and need of a saviour, seems a little too weak to me. Maybe that is a topic for a separate blog post another day.

As usual, it was a privilege to mingle with a like-minded, but slightly different stream to newfrontiers and see what God is doing in and through them. Next up for us is the Together at Westpoint regional camping event, at which Terry Virgo is the guest speaker, which should also be good.

My Story

I am, and have been my entire life, teetotal. I do participate in communion when I visit churches where the wine is alcoholic, but with that one exception, I never drink alcohol. That makes me very unusual in the church circles I inhabit, and in the minds of some, a de facto legalist.

The reasons for my abstinence are mostly due to my upbringing. The pastor of my church strongly advocated abstinence, and as a result, my parents, who joined the church when I was a baby, also became teetotal. Other Christian organizations I had contact with, such as UBM, took a similar stance.

It was a position I had no problem with, and had no real incentive to question until I went to sixth form college, where I first met other Christians who drank. It was during my time there that I saw the destructive influence of alcohol in a number of my friends, both Christian and non-Christian. One friend fell off the roof of a multi-storey car park after a drunken night out and a run-in with a police. He died a few weeks later. A Christian friend ended up pregnant after a night partying with too much to drink. To her credit, she courageously rejected the recommendations of her friends to abort the baby, whose father was a convicted criminal, but the trajectory of her life was irrevocably changed. Another friend, who I regarded as a particularly sensible and conscientious student, foolishly drove home after one too many to drink. He killed a girl and ended up in jail. It scared me. If someone like him could do something like that, what could I be capable of?

At the same time, many of my peers from my own church were beginning to revel in the freedom they had now they were legally old enough to drink. Whilst some found the balance of drink in moderation, sadly it seemed for others to be a first step in a journey away from God.

Another factor was my knowledge of own lack of self-control. I knew from experience how easily I could become addicted to things, whether following the football results or listening to 60’s music. If I bought a multi-pack of extra-strong mints I seemed incapable of not eating the whole lot in one sitting. What would I be like if I drank? Would I really have the self-control to avoid doing something I bitterly regretted?

The Biblical Case

So I chose to remain teetotal due to my own weakness and to seeing the effects of alcohol on my friends lives (doubtless there were other factors, such as my preference for nonconformism). But I haven’t mentioned the Bible yet. And that is simply because I don’t believe the Bible teaches or requires believers to abstain. It does forbid getting drunk, it does repeatedly warn of the dangers of alcohol, and there are several examples of people dedicated to the Lord who are asked to abstain (for example Old Testament priests, Nazarites and John the Baptist). But abstinence is simply not commanded for believers.

My reason for writing about this now is that my former pastor Stanley Jebb has blogged on his reasons for abstinence. Also John MacArthur recently took the “young, restless and reformed” crowd to task for their attitude towards drink. My wife, though not teetotal herself, was saved into an Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) church. The AOG have a position paper which vigorously argues for a total abstinence position.

On the subject of alcohol, I have seen both sides often severely distort the biblical evidence, throwing exegetical principles out of the window in order to defend their position. One side attempts to turn all the wine in the Bible back into water, while the other has the disciples drinking vodka at the last supper. One well-known visiting speaker at Southampton University Christian Union shocked me by declaring that “Jesus turned the water into wine so that the disciples could get smashed out of their faces.” And then there is Mark Driscoll who says he “repented” of the “sin of abstinence”.

I think I can honestly say that I have never heard a sermon warning against the folly of drinking too much in a church that doesn’t teach abstinence. Those Bible passages are effectively ignored, presumably for fear of sounding legalistic. Of all the biblical virtues, there can’t be many less well loved (at least in charismatic circles) than sobriety. The result is a generation of Christian young people who regard getting drunk as a joke.

Having said that, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Bible often uses wine as a symbol for joy. Even as a child in the church I grew up in, it always struck me as deeply ironic that we would sing “I will extol your love more than wine”, knowing full well that no one would dare speak a good word about wine. In those days we would often say about spiritual gifts – “the solution to abuse is not disuse, but proper use”. And yet it is this very principle that Martin Luther uses to dismiss the case for abstinence with typical biting sarcasm:

Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women? The sun, the moon, and the stars have been worshiped. Shall we then pluck them out of the sky?

And I think he is right. Yet at the same time I believe that a failure to prophetically speak out against social evils of alcohol amounts to cowardice. And failure to warn our children (whether as parents or youth leaders) of the dangers is abnegation of our God-given responsibility. When the time comes for discussing this with my children, I will not require them to be teetotal, but I think I will recommend it. Maybe they will be much more wise, mature and self-controlled than me, and will be able to honour God while enjoying alcohol in moderation. But I have no intention to do anything that will lead them into temptation, or cause one of these little ones to stumble (Rom 14:21).

Finally, whatever your view on this topic, whether you drink or abstain, do it to the glory of God (Rom 14:6, 1 Cor 10:31).

There are several possible motivations for obeying a command, whether a positive command (“do this”) or a negative one (“don’t do that”). First, we might be motivated by fear of punishment. Now clearly we would prefer if someone obeyed the “thou shalt not murder” command for nobler reasons than simply to stay out of jail, but nonetheless, it is both logical and appropriate to fear judgment, especially the judgment of God. Though the believer need not fear final condemnation, there are plenty of New Testament passages reminding us that the fear of the Lord remains just as important in the new covenant era (e.g. 1 Pet 2:17, Acts 9:31).

A second possible motivation is desire for reward. This is the inverse of fear of punishment. A person can be persuaded to obey a command they might otherwise ignore if sufficient incentive is offered. Like fear of punishment, this is hardly the most noble of all motives for obedience. And yet Jesus doesn’t seem to see a problem with holding out rewards as encouragements for us (e.g. Matt 6:4,6,18).

A third possible motivation is a sense of duty. It may be that you do not particularly want to obey a command, but you do so out of a sense of obligation, because of the authority of the one who gave it. But a sense of duty is not a bad thing; and obeying God because it is your duty finds scriptural support (e.g. Luke 17:10). In fact, one of the main ways the New Testament presents the believer’s relationship with Christ is that of a slave and master. We belong to Jesus, and it is our duty to obey him.

So all three of these motivations are in one sense appropriate and biblical. Yet they fall short of being the highest and most noble motivations for obedience. I want to consider two final motivations, both of which crop up in Psalm 119.

The first of these is that we sometimes obey because we are in agreement with the command. If someone commands you to do something you already want to do anyway, or forbids you to do something you don’t want to do, obedience is effortless. In fact, we hardly perceive it as being obedience. If our goals are perfectly aligned with the one we need to submit to, then submission is not a burden, but a delight. The Psalmist expresses this in several places. For example in Ps 119:128 he says “I consider all your precepts right”. In other words, he has become fully convinced of the rightness of God’s commands. He has reached the place where he genuinely wants to do what God commands, not because he is being told to do it, but because he is convinced it is the right thing to do.

However, I would say that the highest and greatest motivation for obedience is love (in fact, I have previously blogged that obedience is one of Jesus’ “love languages”). Ultimately, the Psalmist obeys God because he loves God. It is this love for God that has led him to love God’s commands. He delights in obeying God because he desires to please God. This theme crops up a few times in the delightfully named “Sin and Shin” section of Ps 119, but most notably in verse 167:

I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.

All five of the motivations I have listed are valid, but it seems to me that love must come right at the top of the list. The believer should be able to agree with all five of the following statements, and not just stop after the first few:

I obey your statutes, for I know you are a God who lovingly disciplines me when I disobey
I obey your statutes, for I know you are a God who graciously rewards me when I obey
I obey your statutes, for I know that you are my Master and I am your servant
I obey your statutes, for I am convinced that they are the best and most blessed way to live
I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly, because I love you greatly

As my series on Psalm 119 draws to a close, I want to return to a theme that crops up repeatedly throughout the Psalm, and that is of salvation. The psalm is filled with petitions for rescue, deliverance, salvation. Here’s a few from the Resh strophe (Ps 119:153-160)

• “deliver me” (v153)
• “defend me” (v154)
• “redeem me” (v154)
• “preserve my life” (v154, 156, 159)
• “salvation”(v155)

Holistic Redemption

As I pointed out under the Lamedh section, the salvation he is seeking is a holistic salvation – body and soul. He wants to be rescued from his persecutors and delivered from physical harm, as well as to be saved from God’s final judgment on the wicked.

Chris Wright makes a similar point in his superb book, “The Mission of God”, where he notes that Israel’s “redemption” from Egypt through the exodus was primarily being them delivered from the sins of others, rather than from bondage to their own sins (the return from exile is a better example of that). He goes on to argue that this should inform our understanding of mission – without in any way wanting to minimise the spiritual aspect of salvation (being forgiven from our sins), there are political, economic and social implications to God’s redemption that cannot be overlooked.

The Word of Salvation

As we would expect in a Psalm that never leaves the theme of the Word of God for a moment, the Psalmist forges a strong link between God’s words and his saving activity. Ultimately, of course, the Psalmist is looking to God himself for salvation, but his confidence that God will save him comes as he meditates on the saving God he sees revealed in Scripture.

In fact, we can say that God always saves by means of his Word. It is his Word that contains the message of salvation and the promise of salvation. It is when his Word is preached that we hear the call of salvation that brings about faith (Rom 10:17). But it is deeper than that. God’s word actually effects our salvation. When he says “you are forgiven”, a real change of status takes place – our guilt is removed and we are justified. When he says “you are my beloved son”, we acquire a new status as children of God. When he sees us kicking about in our blood and says “live” (Ez 16:6), new life enters into us and we are born again. God’s words are “declarative speech acts” – when he speaks, things happen.

I posted a while back about Don’t Wimp Out of Family Devotions. It can be a struggle to find the time to pray and read the Bible together as a family and we need to keep persevering. But in this post I want to talk about reading the Bible with your children as part of a daily routine.

One of the challenges is knowing what to do with them, and finding things that are appropriate for their age. Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve used:

• Children’s Bibles – this is perhaps the easiest option. We have several different children’s Bibles that we make use of. Not all of them are of the same quality. The Jesus Storybook Bible stands out as one of the best, but variety is good, and we have some others by Lion, Christian Focus, and Crossway.
• We made our own children’s edition of the book of Matthew, where I summarised each story in a sentence, and the children drew a picture to represent it.
• I also started to make a “Girl’s Story Bible” for my daughter Lily which attempted to trace through the story of the gospel through the stories of the women in the Bible. It was great fun, and I really should dig it out and finish it off as I only got as far as Rahab.
• Good News Bible – quite often I just get my 10 year old to read a chapter of the Good News Bible out loud to me. He gets to choose what he reads. He usually picks either a random Psalm or the next bit of Acts which we are working through, having finished Luke last year.
• Memorisation – I know I’ve blogged about this before, but I want to underscore that your children are capable of memorising short passages of scripture without too much time commitment. Just get them to repeat the passage out loud every night for a month and they will pick it up.
• I also tried teaching them Martin Luther’s catechism for children. That one didn’t work out too well.
• Children’s Bible Reading Notes – We’ve used Pens and Topz from CWR. Sometimes I feel these can be a little over-simplified, but the children really enjoy them.
• I’ve read a few story books with Christian themes – the Narnia series being the obvious example. I’d like to try some of the Patricia M St.John books on them at some time. Sadly, I don’t know of many up to date examples of Christian authors writing similar books. Do let me know in the comments if you know of any.
• I also want to get hold of some of the Christian “graphic novels” I have seen advertised recently (e.g. this one on Martin Luther or the Action Bible) as I think my 10 year old will love them. Has anyone given these a go?

Please don’t interpret this as me saying I heroically do some amazing devotional time every night with every child individually without fail. Sometimes it falls by the wayside. Sometimes we do it but it is horribly rushed. Sometimes they pay no attention at all.

But ultimately, I think that, as with family devotions, the important thing is just to ‘do something’ and ‘stick at it’, (as Gary Boal wisely pointed out in the comments last time). Find what works for you, and be on the lookout for creative ideas. When you miss a day (or a week or a month), don’t feel guilty or discouraged, just get going again. And tell me in the comments what you’ve found that works.