Perhaps you’ve struggled to find good patterns to lead your children in a time of family devotion or worship at home.  I’d like to urge you to consider David Helm’s Big Picture Story Bible.  You can purchase this from our good friends at Evangelical Bible Book Store: www.ebiblebookstore.com.  This is an incredible resource that has significantly supplemented our family worship.  Our kids love it!  They literally beg us to read one more chapter in the unfolding story of God’s redemption.  What a beautiful thing to hear our kids plead with us to hear more about Jesus!  Now, you should know that we do a lot of Bible stories just by reading from our Bibles.  We do both - I think it is valuable for them to learn the art of listening to God’s Word read.  But we use this story Bible quite a bit too.  One of the things we’ve seen from reading this story Bible is that our children are starting to get some of the “Big Picture” of God’s plan of redemption because this book hits the major stories.  There are two HUGE advantages to this book.  First, it quotes directly from the Bible all the time.  This means that they are hearing the word and not just someone’s retelling of the story.  This is significant because “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  But second, it points to the main character of the Bible - JESUS - throughout.  Particularly in the Old Testament this book does not default to the “David was brave - be like David” tendency of many story Bibles.  Not that we don’t need to learn from saints in the Bible and follow their godly patterns - we do.  But we need to see it all point to Jesus and his work of redemption, and Helm does a masterful job of showing us Christ in every Old Testament story. 

 I would heartily recommend this book to help supplement your family worship!  Read a story and then stop with your kids and ask some questions about what they read.  When we recently read the story of Nicodemus, we had a great discussion with our kids about what it means to be “born again.”  I loved seeing them look at their Mama’s tummy and try to figure out what Jesus meant! 

We will be starting to post family worship help on this blog more regularly in the future, including thoughts, questions for discussion to help lead your kids, and resources.  Setting a pattern of family worship can be difficult at first, but the dividends are huge.  I’ll try to periodically talk about the things we’re trying in our family as we struggle together in this holy task.  May God bless you as you disciple your kids!

Periodcially on our blog we’d like to point you to good resources we could categorize under “Soul Food.”  The Valley of Vision CD published by our brothers and sisters at Sovereign Grace Ministries is one of those gems worth noting.  Sovereign Grace Ministries have done a great service to the church through their production of solid, content-rich music, much of which can be used in worship.  The Valley of Vision is a compilation of songs based on the book The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers.  We sing several of their songs at NCPC, particularly “Let Your Kingdom Come, O Great God” and “How Deep.”  This is a great CD to use for personal worship, or if you struggle to lead your children in singing, pop it in the CD player and sing along with it for family worship.  My kids love it, and it familiarizes them with songs we sing in church.  You can purchase this CD at www.sovereigngracemusic.org/music.  While you’re there, check out their Christmas album Savior (we sing “Hope Has Come” and “Christ the Lord was Born Today” from this CD) and the album Songs for the Cross Centered Life (Contains “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed” and “Before the Throne of God Above”).  Oh and did I mention they are on sale for $6 a piece with free shipping through the end of March?  Hard to beat!  May God bless you as you seek to foster worship in your life.