Highland Staff BlogsChanging life as we know it through the love, loyalty and friendship of Jesus Christ.

Through the Bible Family Challenge: Romans, I & 2 Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians.  We are now ready for the books that were letters written to early Christians. There are 21 of these books. Thirteen of them were written by Paul, a disciple of Christ. (There are 8 letters written by others.) The first nine of Paul’s letters were written to groups of Christ Followers – the first churches. The last four were written to individuals he was mentoring. Paul was faithful to communicate. He encouraged and taught them about the Kingdom of God. As a result of his faithfulness to our God, we have these letters in our Bible that continue the path of encouragement and training for us today. Find the maps at the back of your Bible and look for the map that is of NT Bible Times. Then find locations that sound like these books: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 & 2 Thessalonians.

Let your fingers find these books and touch all the pages. These books contain such powerful teachings for us as Christ Followers today. It will be hard to give you just a few reads…but there is a benefit everytime we reach for these words written for us as well. Read: Romans 1:1-6, 10:8-10; 1 Corinthians 16:13,14; 2 Corinthians 5:1, Galations 5:22; Ephesians 3:20,21; Philippians 1:9;Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5. (listen with your ears and your heart)

Breath deep the Words of Living Water that encourage, direct, and guide us on this earth journey till we are fully united with our Father and our Savior.

Unborn and babies: Read out loud to them from these books.
Preschoolers: What is a letter? Show them some letters and your mail box. Talk about the mailman. Show them your address and your email address and explain how the mail gets to you. Paul was writing letters to encourage groups of people who loved Jesus. He was writing letters to churches. Find the books and look for the “To” he was writing and how he said “good-bye”. Read 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18. Write an encouraging note to someone and mail it. Or, place it in the Bible with the letters of Paul. Read the rest of this entry »

Through the Bible Family Challenge: Acts. This book testifys to the “acts” of our Jesus before He ascended and then the continued “actions” through His Spirit. Jesus on the move in hearts and lives – Acts. The writer once again is Luke, the doctor who traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys and the writer of the Gospel – Luke. This book covers the period from the coming of the Holy Spirit to Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. The “action” of the book follows the plan Jesus gave in Acts 1:8. The book divides into three sections: 1)Church beginning in Jerusalem, 2)then in Judea and Sameria, 3) then the ends of the earth.

So let your fingers do some walking through these 28 chapters, looking at the headings and happenings. There are so many worthy stories to read that it is hard to pick. First read, Acts 1:1-11. How many days did the Lord appear to the disciples? Wow….Jesus could say so much more now that they truly knew who He is. What did the angels say to the disciples looking into the sky? May we remember this. Now read Acts 12:1-17. How many squads of soldiers were guarding Peter? Count the soldiers this would be. What was the church doing? How did the Lord answer their prayers? Did the praying church expect the Lord to answer their prayers so quickly?

Oh Lord, help us understand more and more of your Kingdom, your Father, and the way you would have us live. May we be the church praying for your power to be released and for more and more of us to walk free.

Unborn and babies: Read out loud to them from the book of Acts.
Preschoolers: Go on line and print a paper Jesus, tie a string to him and tell your child the story of Jesus ascending (going up) and what the angels said. You can make a storyboard or simply hang the string over the back of a chair and show him ascending….and coming back. Wow! He is going to come back the same way. Yeah! Talk about the coming of Jesus. What it will be like to get to talk to him and be with him. This always makes me smile….make some happy faces and hang them around your house. Then you can tell your friends….thinking about Jesus makes me smile. As always, find the book of Acts and place your Jesus with a string inside this book.

Sue Peniston
Children’s Director

Through the Bible Family Challenge: John. This book is considered by many to be the deepest and most spiritual book in the Bible. In it, God gives a more complete revelation of Himself and of God than found in the other Gospels. This book was written by John, who was also Jesus’ closest friend. John was beside him at the “last supper”, he stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus was dying, and he was trusted by Jesus with the care of His own mother. John, along with Peter and James, was a part of an inner circle of disciples who went with Jesus through the most intimate and dramatic moments of His ministry. He heard and saw more…which is why John’s Gospel is called the “intimate” Gospel.(Stedman, p.527)

Let your fingers do the walking through the chapters of this book, you will see that it begins and ends different than the other Gospels. Read John 1:1-18. This is worthy of reading several times. These 18 verses speak so plainly about who Jesus is. I love them. Then, take time to also read out loud with your family chapters 14,15,16, 17…if there is not time for that this week, read chapter 17…understanding that in verse 20, we are included in our Savior’s prayer. Through John’s Gospel, we are allowed to have an expanded understanding of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

This is my favorite book in the Bible. I love quoting its beginning verses…“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning.” It is a Rock to put your feet on…, it gives such straight forward clarity and truth about the beginning of time. I am so thankful that God allowed John to tell us so much about that which is beyond us.

Unborn and babies: Read out loud to them from the book of John.
Preschoolers: Ask your child what their name is. Ask them if they know your name. With the Bible in your hand, let them know that Jesus has many Names. His many Names…help us know him better. Open up your Bible and show them all the words on the pages…there are words on all the pages. Read John 1:1. Write the word “WORD” in capitals on a 3 by 5 card. John is telling that the Word is Jesus. Put the card in the front of the Bible,…In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Jesus has been with God from the beginning. One of His Names is Word. (This is a big – deep concept…reach for it.) All of these words come from the one who is the Word. Draw an outline of a person…write word all over it. Jesus is the Word of all words. We can trust all of His Words, because He is the Word. He is faithful and true. Then pray together….asking our heavenly Father to help us understand more about His Word.

Sue Peniston
Children’s Director

Through the Bible Family Challenge: Luke. The writer of this Gospel was a doctor and his name was Luke. He traveled with Paul and loved Jesus. He also wrote the book of Acts. His name means Barrier of Light. He writes his Gospel to a fellow Greek – a man named Theophilus. Theophilus seems to have known about the Christian faith and Luke writes to him an “orderly account” since he himself had investigated everything from the beginning. Read Luke 1:1-4. In this orderly account, Luke’s biography of Jesus’ life is more detailed than the other Gospels – about half of his recordings are only found in the book of Luke. With that said, let’s read a few of those. Read Luke 5:1-11,7:11-17,9:28-36 and look for what was done in the physical (crowd,water, boats,) and then what happened in the spiritual (hearing & understanding) – beautiful.

The key verse for this Gospel is Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Jesus referred to himself as the “Son of Man” more than any other title. Luke wrote to Theophilis about the humanity of Jesus: his birth and how he grew, when he was 12 and where he would go, and how he was tempted…when he started his ministry. He gave us a very personal view of our savior. Luke carried light to us through his view of our Jesus. On a side note I want to add, we named our first born son this name – Luke – Barrier of Light. He has brought much more of God into our life…he truly has carried light into our family.

When the Lord brings light through His Word to my heart, it brings me such joy to know him “deeper”. May we with our children and friends continue to seek Him so that we may know more of Him. I love that about this book…he was writing it for a friend so that he could know our Jesus better.

Unborn and babies: read out loud to them these scriptures.
Preschoolers: Begin with looking at pictures of fish and fishing poles and boats. You could do this on line. You can also find Lake Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee). Then read Luke 5:1-11. And talk about the fullness of the boat and all that fish….wow, fish meant money for them…they had a good paycheck that day. They could go buy food that day.:) What did they do with the fish? Why? Will Jesus take care of them? (All the fishermen watching them leave that fish had a big day too.) What is it to follow someone? Play Follow the leader. Let the word “follow” be your teaching word for this week. Who did the fishermen follow? Wow…they got to follow Jesus, God’s Son…that is amazing. Let’s follow him too. One way you can learn to follow Jesus – is to learn to follow your Mom and Dad…together we will follow Jesus.

Sue Peniston
Children’s Director

hrough the Bible Family Challenge: Mark. The one who held the pen and recorded this book was named Mark. Mark worked closely with Peter and recorded much of the information in this book from Peter. The book of Mark is the shortest Gospel. Mark is different from Matthew. This book was written more for the non-Jewish audience called Gentiles. They were more interested in what Jesus actually did than in fulfilled prophecies from the O.T. The key word is “immediately” repeated throughout the book. And the main picture we are given of Jesus is one of a servant. Many of the stories or Jesus’ actions are found also in Matthew and Luke as well, but Mark includes many details not found in the others. I think this is one of the awesome characteristics of the Gospels. Coming from four reporters, we get “more” than one viewpoint. I love the “fuller” picture.

Let your fingers do the walking through the book of Mark and its 16 chapters. Read, Mark 1:40-42, 2:6-8, Mark 5:21-43, & 6:47-51. As a family, talk about the word – immediately. What does it mean? And how does it add to the testimony of Jesus and they way he walked among them. What happened “immediately” in these verses? I appreciate the authority that we can see in these stories through Jesus’ actions. He is who He said He is.

Unborn and babies: read out loud to them these scriptures.
Preschoolers: Talk about the word immediately. Do they know what it means? It’s like stop & go. Show me go. Show me stop. Go is not “in a minute” or “wait”, it is this minute – go! Immediately means instantly – right now – go – done. There is no waiting or pausing int the word immediately. Then read them Mark 5:21-23 & 35-43, or read it from their children’s Bible. Jesus can say “stop” to the wind and to sickness and when he speaks – immediately creation responds. He is near – so close – always able to calm our hearts and help us.

Sue Peniston
Children’s Director

Through the Bible Family Challenge: Matthew. The writer was Matthew. He was a tax collector for the Roman government in Capernaum and not liked by the Jewish people. Jesus called to him and he followed. He was one of the 12 disciples. Matthew means “gift of the Lord”. The key words in this book are fulfilled and kingdom. The Old Testament prophesied the coming king and Matthew wrote to his Jewish people that Jesus was this king. In this book there are about 60 references to O.T. prophecies and about 40 quotations. Matthew refers to the Kingdom 50 times.

Now, let your fingers do the walking through this book. I want you to read Matthew 1:1-17. We just finished the Old Testament and reading these names brings the line of Jesus powerfully forward. Count the generations from Abraham to Jesus listed in verse 17. God promised us a savior and He did what He said He would do. Now read, Matthew 3. Who is the prophet in this chapter? Describe him and what was his message. Then finish with, Matthew 4:12-17. “From that time on” – Jesus was closing the distance between our heavenly Father and us.

I love the consistency of the Word of God. I love that a disliked tax collector transformed and became a “Gift” to those around him. I love that Jesus’ cousin (John the Baptist), stood for the truth he knew – Flint Stone. I love our Jesus who walked this earth and helped us understand the Kingdom from which we were called and made. And most of all…, I love our God who loved us enough to move through time to bring us back to himself.

Unborn and babies: read out loud to them these scriptures.
Preschoolers: Let your child see your Bible and show them the Old Testament and now the New Testament. In the Old Testament, men are telling us about a king who is coming and in the New Testament we read about the king who came – Jesus. Read Matthew 1:18-23. You can also find this story in their Bible. Read the rest of this entry »