Gospel Summer

We are trying something new with our family devotions this summer.

We started these Sunday nite events about 5 1/2 years ago.  We are not always consistent. Sometimes devotions have quickly gone South with terse words or abrupt endings.  Sometimes they have been on the mark!

Last year went through the" Westminster Shorter Catechism"  ... because of my clumsy way of presenting it - I think it became stale at times but we got through it.

This summer, we hit upon the idea of having a "Gospel Summer".   This was partly inspired by the Emmaus Project Sunday school class R. and I attended earlier this year. In it we learned some new ways to approach the study and the teaching process.   It involves consideration of the audience, the scene changes, the repetition of terms or concepts and the like.

Our plan is to each take a Gospel with a plan for reading a few chapters each week and then explaining what we've read on Sunday nites.

Matthew was written primarily to a Jewish audience and he tied most everything to the Law or to Jewish history.  Ab, who is very concrete in her view of things - its either black or white with her... very little room for grey; she was assigned this book.

Mark was possibly written by John-Mark the youth that accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (apparently he also abandoned the party mid trip).  This book was written to a Roman audience, so it is direct and to the point.  There is a lot of action in this book and he doesn't sweat the details; so it went to AA.  He, too is not big on details and if we are watching a movie and there is not a lot of continual action... AA is up pacing or talking or out of the room.

Mom got Luke, because more so than any other book, he seems to include the human side.  You can feel the emotions of this writing. Some say that Luke got some of his information from interviews with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I took the Gospel of John - which sometimes seems to come from an ethereal perspective. The beginning Hymn ... "In the beginning was the Word..."   it's just poetic and beautiful.

We made assignments the first week and talked a little about how these books differed.  Then we made our first attempt at a "Gospel Summer" family discussion on this past Monday night (AA who had been to camp over the weekend was suddenly overcome by sleep before we could get to the devotion on Sunday night... see what I mean?

We have some work to do but I look forward to seeing growth in our appreciation for the Scriptures this summer.  My prayer is that both Ab and AA will come to find a great love for the Word of God this summer as the Holy Spirit brings the pages to life... in so doing, we pray that they will also come to find a greater love for the Christ of the Word.