We spend most Sunday evenings with our church where we have a time of family worship. We begin with worship in song, followed by a bible study (Genesis) and we conclude with a time of catechism.
This entire time is spent together as a family and it is something that we all look forward to. Because the children are present the entire time, it allows for an interesting climate to say the least ;) Our elders do a fantastic job of including our little ones and quite often the discussion and input from them is very insightful!
When we began this time of worship, I had never participated in catechism before and to be quite honest I had only associated the word with the Catholic faith and had no real understanding as to what it meant.
Any Baptists out there raising your hand with me?
Piper explains that the derivative of the word is Greek and simply means to "instruct" or "teach". Through the process of using questions and answers and applying scripture to support the answers, we are able to learn and study biblical truth.
Our family has learned so much through this process and it has provided teaching points on so many levels. This fall, Samuel will participate as well, using a shorter more simplistic version while still memorizing scripture. Usually, Hannah and I (slow and steady) are a couple of lessons behind Chris and Emma (brainiacs with freakish memories) but I still make an effort to break down the vocabulary each week and really make application to the biblical truth in each question & answer series.
We also recite from The Heidelberg Catechism each Sunday morning during our worship time.
Several weeks ago this particular set really resonated with me. Regardless of our present circumstances, there is no act....no thing....no loss that is outside of His ultimate and perfect plan.
What a blessing to cling to the truth that *everything* comes to us from God's sustaining hand!
Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. The almighty and ever present power by which God upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but from God's sustaining hand.
Q. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?
A. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from God's love. All creatures are so completely in God's hand that without the divine will they can neither move nor be moved.
1 comment:
Kim, that is so awesome. We have just recently started to do something like this. (Again, another Baptist here who this type of worship is foreign to). Our kids really enjoy it and so do we. I think we spend too much time separated while we are at church and not enough together as a family. Each age group has their own designated spot and they don't intermix. Sorry, this is your blog, not my soap box. ;o)
Thanks for the great example.
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