Inductive Bible Study

I've posted part 2 of my tutorial in Inductive Bible Study. If you're interested in learning how to study your Bible better, look to the "tutorials" section on the left or click here.

Family news

Two big news items from recent weeks. First, my father is engaged. Through some mutual friends, he met a woman from South Carolina, Mary Holovar, and they hit it off right away. The wedding is planned for May.



Second, well, the picture of my nephew says it all.

Of obstacles and stumbling blocks

I attended a teachers' meeting at Calvary last night, and there was discussion on what is meant by "obstacles" and "stumbling blocks" in Rom 14:13. I did a bit of study and wrote a short paper on the subject. If you're interested, check out the link to Romans on the left or click here.

Who is the lion?

I'm reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" to my children. [Soapbox: To those of you who are parents of young kids, let me suggest that reading good stories to your children is a most wonderful way to spend time with them. If you do, make sure you read expressively and act out parts of the story; that makes it come alive.] We just finished "The Magician's Nephew" tonight. At one part in the story there is a singing lion. When the lion sings, things come into being, things like grass, flowers, trees, stars, and other animals. I asked my kids, "who is the lion?" Jacen spoke up first and said, "It's Aslan." You see, he had read part of the next book, and so he knew the lion's name. He gave the right answer, but Emmy gave a better answer. She said, "It's God." I was stunned at her perception (the books is an allegory, and the lion does indeed represent God) and asked, "why do you think that?" She replied, "because only God can create." Wow! Talk about out of the mouth of babes! Is this not exactly what the Bible says?

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. (Mk 10:15)

Photos: From the birthday party with friends

We had Jacen and Emmy's friends over for some cake and ice cream. Check out more pictures from his 7th birthday party. And, yes, I am amazed that he's 7 already. It seems like it was just yesterday...

Inductive Bible Study

There are a number of good books on Inductive Bible Study (IBS) techniques. I read and studied a number of them last fall, and as a result I've begun creating a tutorial in PowerPoint on how to study the Bible. I've posted the first of 4 installments in my point papers section. Help yourself.

Photos of Jacen's 7th birthday

Ok, I'm trying something new. Instead of only posting 1 photo of an event, I'm going to try and post many. But I'm not going to post them directly here. I've created an account with Flickr, a website that allows you to share photos. This will allow me to post many photos. So here's my first try: Jacen's 7th birthday party. Let me know what you think, plz.

Christmas Pics

I'm behind in my blogging. Here are two more pictures from Christmas day of the kids playing with their toys. Jacen still loves Legos and Emmy has discovered Polly Pockets, a small doll figure.

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas day at our condo here in Winston-Salem. It was a nice day of opening presents, attending church (no, ours didn't wimp out like many churches; in fact, it was packed), hanging out with family, and playing with presents. It's wonderful to be able to spend a holiday with family. Jacen's favorite gifts were the two remote control cars he got. Emmy's was her Polly Pockets mini-dolls. I'll tell you about our (Ann and I) gift later.

Marble Run Again

Dad stopped by the week before Christmas and spent a couple hours building marble runs with the kids. They got a second run for a Christmas and more marbles. If you're wondering, 200 marbles going down a 5 foot marble run is really, really noisy.

Galatians

I've been studying in Galatians recently. The results of my study for chapter one are available.



Decorating gingerbread cookies

The Nations

Did you know God has a plan for all the nations of the world? I've added a short point paper which traces God's plan through the Bible, from the Garden of Eden and the nation of Israel through the church and the end times. Take a look in the Point Paper section.

Candles

As you may or may not know, Ann has been making and selling homemade candles for several years. I've just put up a link to the candles she can make. Look on the menu in the "family" area.

Star Wars Cartoon

Our previous DVD player died last spring. Ann had bought me the cartoon version of Star Wars: Clone Wars for my birthday in June, but I had not been able to watch it. We finally replaced our DVD player this week, so Jacen and I watched it. Well done! I like the cartoon version as much as the real one.

Marble Run

We picked up a neat toy for our kids - a marble run set. It's a bunch of connectable pieces that build into a track for marbles to follow down. There are wheels to spin, bells to ring, and whirlpools to descend. I think the best games require kids to be creative, and this fits the bill. They keep coming back again and again to build new tracts. So far our tallest tract was nearly 5 feet tall.