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MESS HALL
* STING |
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Come to the First Annual Mess Hall Monopoly tournament
Friday, April 3rd beginning at 6:00
p.m. at the Scholten’s. We will play in tables of four players.
Each table’s winner will advance to the next round until we have
a champ! Come and watch even if you don’t want to play (or be a
“Banker”!) Please let Mrs. Scholten know if you have a Monopoly
game you can bring. People to beat: Caleb Rastetter, Luke
Kadlecek and Pastor Mark! Bring snacks and drinks! This is for
Mess Hall and Sting.
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Late Night
Friends |
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All ladies welcome! Feed your family, put the kids to bed and come
on over to the Scholten’s and relax. You will meet and make new
friends!
Friday, April 10th,
8:00-10:00 p.m.
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Pres-WIC
Luncheon |
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 The
Pres-WIC luncheon will be hosted by the Harvest PCA church in
Medina. Come join your fellow sisters in Christ from the area
PCA churches in a time of encouragement. For more detailed
information please see the flyer on the vestibule bulletin
board.
Saturday, April 18th, 11:00 a.m. –
2:00 p.m. |
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In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Col
1:14 |
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Fun Bible
Trivia
1. Who made the first fur coats in the Bible?
2. Who was the first to have a multi-colored coat?
3. Who was the first to be buried in a coffin?
4. What is the first color mentioned in the Bible?
5. What was God’s first command?
6. What was the first conspiracy of the Bible?
7. Who was the first to mention corn?
8. Who was the first covenant between?
9. What were the first things that God created?
10. Who, or what, were the first to be cursed?
Answers:
1. God (Genesis 3:21)
2. Joseph (Genesis 37:3)
3. Joseph (Genesis 50:26)
4. Green (Genesis 1:30)
5. “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3)
6. Joseph’s brothers conspired to kill him. (Genesis 37:17-25)
7. Isaac (Genesis 27:28)
8. God and Noah (Genesis 6:18-20)
9. The heavens and earth. (Gen. 1:1)
10. The serpent. (Genesis 3:14) |
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birthday
wishes |
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Carolyn
Mealy’s birthday is April 3rd.
She will be 88 years old! I know she would appreciate a card. You can send one
to her at: Rose Lane Health Center, 5425 High Mill Ave. NW, Massillon, OH 44646. |
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Candychism |
Years ago Leonard Coppes wrote an essay in the OPC magazine, New Horizons, on
catechizing children. He called it “candychism.” In it he advocated rewarding
children who memorize a catechism question and answer.
To anticipate a frequent objection: No this isn’t crass bribery. The candy
isn’t the point. The intent is to say to our children, “We recognize that you
made an effort to do something important and here’s a small token of
recognition.” Kids love it. We rewarded our children with candychism. I’ve
tossed candy to college students for answering a question correctly in class.
They loved it.
What does it mean? It means that small children are apt to memorize. This
is how they are wired. Our stupid contemporary education program seems to be
systematically making us all ignorant by refusing to teach children that they
can memorize or to encourage them to do it. As Dorothy Sayers pointed out
decades ago, the ancient educational pattern in the West was “parrot, pert, and
poet.” We can and should apply this pattern to the religious education of our
children.
All things being equal, children are able to memorize a good deal of
material at a very early age. As an experiment, I taught my children the first
line of the Vulgate (”in principio creavit Deus, caelum et terram.”) when they
were 2 and 3. They can still recite it at will. Imagine if our children knew the
Heidelberg or Westminster Shorter Catechism by age 9? It’s quite possible.
Simply have your child memorize a part of a q/a each Lord’s Day and before long
your child will have the stuff of the Reformed faith in his head.
As he grows he will begin to ask immature, smart-aleck questions. This is why
Sayers speaks of the “pert” stage of development. Children aren’t asking so much
whether it’s all really true (though they may) but, however the question is
formed, what they’re really asking is “Do you really believe this stuff or are
you kidding?” Put on your kevlar and take the heat. It will be worth it.
Finally, your child will reach the “poet” stage where he will begin to see
that there are transcendent realities that are true but cannot be easily
quantified. Now they are ready to come to the table, because they see bread and
wine but they understand that through them the Spirit is feeding us on the body
and blood of Christ.
As J. W. Nevin noted in the 19th century, ours is not the system of the
anxious bench (i.e., the invitation system) but the system of the catechism. In
obedience to our Lord’s command, we initiate our children into the visible
covenant community (Gen 17; Acts 2:39) and we do so with the hope and
expectation that the Spirit will operate in them through the “due use of
ordinary means.” We take them with us to Lord’s Day worship, where they can
learn to sing the songs of Zion (God’s Word!) and where they can see for
themselves the community of the redeemed gathered around Word and sacrament,
where they can see and hear the sermon, where they can see their parents going
forward not for an altar call but to the table of the Lord to be fed by Christ,
where they can see that they are part of God’s people.
To do this, of course, congregations must stop sending children to another
country during the service where they are trained to become Pentecostals and
revivalists. What a rude shock it is to children when, after years of
preparation to become contemporary evangelicals, they are tricked with a “bait
and switch.” Having been trained to sing “Shine, Jesus Shine” they are then
asked to sing Psalm 23. Wouldn’t it be better to teach them to sing the songs of
Zion with God’s people from the beginning?
We can, if we will, break the cycle of theological poverty. Our children
are quite capable of learning a great deal at an early age. The real questions
are whether we are willing to teach them, do we love them that much? Let me
encourage you with this: I’ve catechized young saints and I’ve buried older
saints. It’s wonderful to see those facing death reciting Heidelberg 1, which
they learned in their youth.
Parents, you can build a foundation for the rest of your child’s life and it
can start with a piece of candy.
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By
this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his
commandments.
1Jo 5:2 |
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Gospel Driven
Sanctification (Jerry Bridges) |
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Part Two
(Part One
Click Here)
We Died to Sin
Now, however, we come to a big question. What does Paul mean when he says we
died to sin? It's fairly obvious he doesn't mean we died to the daily committal
of sin. If that were true, no honest person could claim to be justified because
we all sin daily. None of us truly loves God with our whole being and none of us
actually loves our neighbor as ourselves (see Matt. 22:35-40). Nor does it mean
we have died in the sense of being no longer responsive to sin's temptations, as
some have taught. If that were true, Peter's admonition to abstain from the
passions of the flesh would be pointless (see 1 Pet. 2:11). So what does Paul
mean?
Some Bible commentators believe that Paul means only that we have died to the
penalty of sin. That is, because of our union with Christ, when Christ died to
sin's penalty we also died to sin's penalty. Well, it certainly means that, but
it also means much more. It also means we died to sin's dominion.
Read More
Click Here |
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We love him, because he
first loved us. 1Jo 4:19 |
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