Faith

Praise the Lord, Sing Hallelujah

October 7, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Praise the Lord, Sing Hallelujah is based on Psalm 148.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights above.
²Praise him, all his angels;
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
³Praise him, sun and moon;
    praise him, all you shining stars.
⁴Praise him, you highest heavens
    and you waters above the skies.

⁵Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
⁶and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
    stormy winds that do his bidding,
⁹you mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars,
¹⁰wild animals and all cattle,
    small creatures and flying birds,
¹¹kings of the earth and all nations,
    you princes and all rulers on earth,
¹²young men and women,
    old men and children.

¹³Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
¹⁴And he has raised up for his people a horn,
    the praise of all his faithful servants,
    of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord.

With music part of his life from an early age, it’s no wonder that William J Kirkpatrick has music be part of his life. Even though he spent time as a carpenter, his passion was for music. He learned to play a variety of musical instruments including violin, organ, fife, pipe organ and vocal. He held a variety of positions over his life, most of them centred around his love of music. His compositions are still well-known today.

Lyrics

1 Praise the LORD, sing hallelujah,
from the heavens praise his name;
praise the LORD, our great Creator;
all his angels, praise proclaim.
All his hosts, together praise him,
sun and moon and stars on high;
praise the LORD, O heavens of heavens,
and the floods above the sky.

Refrain:
Praise the LORD, sing hallelujah,
for his name alone is high,
and his glory is exalted,
and his glory is exalted,
and his glory is exalted,
far above the earth and sky.

2 Let them praise the LORD their Maker:
they were made at his command.
God established them forever;
his decree shall ever stand.
Let the earth sing hallelujah:
raging seas, you monsters all,
fire and hail and snow and vapors,
stormy winds that hear his call. [Refrain]

3 All you fruitful trees and cedars,
every hill and mountain high,
creeping things and beasts and cattle,
birds that in the heavens fly,
kings of earth and all you people,
princes great, earth’s judges all;
praise his name, young men and maidens,
aged men, and children small. [Refrain]

Review: Teach Sunday School

October 3, 2018 By Annette1 17 Comments

For the past few weeks my son has been testing out a new bible knowledge program. He likes it! 🙂 That’s always a win you know? When you discover a program that works for how you think. Books of the Bible At-a-Glance from Teach Sunday School gives us an overview of each book of the bible. Simply laid out, clear and crisp one page glances at each bible book. Wonderful!

Who is Teach Sunday School?

Teach Sunday School is a company who wants to help parents and teachers have the tools they need to help themselves and their charges understand God’s word better. Bible-at-a-glance is designed to help individuals better understand the theme, purpose and main verses of each bible book. Teach Sunday School has a variety of other programs to help you understand the bible better. Their purpose? To help you teach the bible with joy!

There are things like:

– Print and go lesson plans which are complete curriculums for ages 4-12,
– Bible printables (like mazes, word search, crossword puzzles, and journal prompts for ages 5-18)
– Bible Games (like Jeopardy, Tic-Tac-Toe, Bingo, and Treasure Hunts)
– Seasonal items for Back-t0-school, holidays, and even Summer
– Bible Crafts for ages 4-18
– Christian Skits and Plays for pageants, plays, and puppet shows
– Christian Parenting material for teaching kids morals, defending their faith and so much more.

What do you get with Bible-at-a-glance?

As you can see, with these bible summary sheets, you have a clear bible book name followed by information that is laid out the same for every book of the bible.

Where you can find it, who wrote it and approximately when. You will then learn the famous stories and pivotal bible verses, complete with main ideas.

How did we use it?

I have to admit, it took us a little while to decide how to use Books of the Bible at a glance. This is the schedule my son and I came up with.

After I print each page off, we place it in a binder for ease of use and reference back. Having all the information on one sheet makes it very easy to use. Coming as a PDF means I can print off as many copies as I want if I were using for a Sunday School or adult learning class. Everything is right at my finger tips!

Before starting his copywork on Monday he would take the time to learn the bible book name and where it was located.

The first day he copied out the main verses, taking the time to read them over a few times and think about what they meant so that on Tuesday he was able to work on memorization. Some weeks were easy (like Genesis took him no time at all) but Leviticus he struggled with.

Below you’ll find his copywork for Exodus. He’s been practicing his cursive using these bible lessons.

On Wednesday’s we had a deal… if there were more than four stories all he needed to do was look up half of the stories and then tell me about the stories he found. Narration is a good skill to maintain you know, and doing it from bible lessons like these, all the better eh? 🙂

Thursday was pretty straight forward, learn the major points, be able to explain them. Expand upon them if you can.

Fridays were a review day where he pulled all the information together, being able to tell me everything he had learned.

My Thoughts:

Well laid out, I like it. I like how the information is succinct, easily seen, each page has the same layout, making it easy to teach or work through. My son could do it independently with just checking in once or twice with me.

Son’s thoughts:

I like how it is set up, I know what to expect. I like that it has bible verses for me to memorize and that I can learn all the basic facts about a book of the bible and I can do them over again if I forget something.

My Pastor Hubby’s thoughts:

They didn’t do a bad job. It’s definitely not laid out from a reformed viewpoint, but overall information presented is pretty decent.

Area of struggle

I disliked this being part of the Leviticus study. Setting people up to not want to read one of books of the bible doesn’t seem right in my eyes. My son commented: “Why would learning laws make people not want to read a bible book?”

Teach Sunday School
Books of the Bible At-a-Glance
Faith based, Bible, Summary Cards, Books of the Bible, Christian, Bible Lessons
Current price $9, normally $19!

I urge you to check out this very helpful resource. It’s an excellent way to help you and your students learn God’s word better in a seamless, easy manner.

75 members of the crew had a chance to look at Bible at a Glance,

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SundaySchoolLessons/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/biblefun/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachsundayschool/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SundaySchoolSample

Believe in Jesus, believe in God

October 2, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Last time we met we asked the question of whose glory is more important, today we read from John 12: 44-50.

⁴⁴And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. ⁴⁵And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. ⁴⁷If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. ⁴⁸The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. ⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

I read these words , “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. I had to pause and think on them a spell. Belief in Jesus isn’t just about Jesus… it’s also about belief in the ONE WHO SENT HIM. Just think on that a spell. I needed to.

God sent Jesus to earth. The heidelberg catechism we are reading right now is teaching us about how Jesus is God’s only begotten son, and the whole fact about Jesus’s humanity didn’t negate his divinity. Jesus was so VERY human, and yet, remain completely divine. It’s a mind boggling idea and yet… Jesus was still SENT. Like an obedient servant he WENT. So belief in him, since he went on the Lord God’s behest, also means believing in the one who sent him.

Jesus goes on to expand on this idea a bit longer. ⁴⁵And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. So basically…know Jesus, know God the Father. We’ve heard this message before from Jesus. It is just another sign of his divinity eh? God the father is God, Jesus just shows us another aspect of God’s divinity. (I may not be saying that quite right, but I hope you get my meaning).

Jesus continues teaching, ⁴⁶I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Jesus purpose…. to bring light into the world.

Jesus’ words lead us on, helping us to understand exactly what his job was: It wasn’t to judge, but to save. That’s his job. Salvation. That’s it. Now, if people choose to reject what he has to say, that’s their choice. Their choice is their judgement. He will say what he needs to say because he is on a mission, doing a service on the behest of God. The words he says are the words he’s supposed to say. It was a commandment of God. What else could he do? A command given, service on God’s behest, words spoken. So believe in him.. be saved. Don’t believe in him, know you will be judged on the last day.

⁴⁷If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. ⁴⁸The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. ⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

The clarity of this passage eh? Jesus’ obedience, God’s command, the turning faith to God, the showing where our faith truly ends up. Jesus acted on the behest of God, so of course, faith must ultimately end up being in God the Father. Makes sense doesn’t it? I wonder why more people don’t see it? As I’ve heard it you know “believe in Jesus, he’s the only one that matters”. Failing to see how Jesus ALWAYS leads us back to the Father. Every single time. He emphasizes this over and over and over again, and yet, yet we miss it. Why do we do that?

Let All Things Now Living

September 30, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I was flipping through a hymnbook that is new to me and I was reminded of this living song and just had to share it with you. I hope you like it as much as I do. 🙂 Let All Things Now Living, a song of thanksgiving.

Written by Katherine K Davis in 1939, Ms. Davis was an American woman who served as a teacher, classical music composer, and pianist. She also wrote The Little Drummer Boy (one of my favourite Christmas Songs). Born in Missouri she wrote her first composition at age 15. She died in 1980 at age 82. She willed all royalties from her music to Wellesley College where she was trained and taught. This has been a good support to the music program there.