After many months of recruiting for our Family Integrated Small Group, we have finally hit pay dirt! Only 1 of my original core families is still with us, but two of the other families are relatively new to the church, and the other family has not been well connected.

We’re working through the Parental Guidance Required curriculum from Andy Stanley, and reading the Gospel of John together through the week as our homage to Neil Cole’s LTGs…

We start with a 10 minute devotional with parents and children, followed by prayer time together. We’re trying to model (and do) family worship in our small group to encourage each family to make this a practice.

While we listen to Andy Stanley, the kids watch a Nest video with activities. We now have about 15 kids (2 – 13 yr olds, 3 – 12 yr olds), so we’re going to have to ramp up the curriculum for kids during the adult
time. We’re wanting to leverage the 12 and 13 year olds as leaders.
Sounds like I need to do some research!

…because if you already struggle with time to keep up with the discipline of devotional reading, you will not have the time to blog about it. Duh.

Besides that disclaimer, I’m really enjoying the Gospel of Matthew!

I should have mentioned that I have a specific methodology to my reading. I use the ESV Literary Study Bible my wonderful wife got me for Christmas to read Scripture. This helps me to approach the text without relying on study notes, as well as my own highlighting/comments, that seem to draw me down the exact same path of determining how God is speaking to me. I also like the organization of this bible, in that it puts notes about the literary style of the specific text in a block before the text. I usually read a couple of chapters, then close my eyes to picture the text. This always seems to help me meditate on the narrative.

The most important thing I’ve found is that “just doing it” always cause me to “just do it” more.

Ain’t discipline a great thing?

I really am. I’m just not blogging.

Perhaps I should start with the concept of 1 post per week. Since I’m writing primarily for myself, this should help me develop a “discipline’ of blogging.

Anyway, back to Matthew.

It’s always exciting to have God’s word come alive from a text you’ve read many times. I’ve found it best for me to read a small unified section of scripture many times to let it “stew”. The Holy Spirit has been faithful to show me new application every time I read.

I think the most surprising section(so far) was Matthew 1:1-17, the genealogy of Christ. Yes, you read the section and you see that several “lowly” people were included, showing that God can use anyone for his purposes. What surprised me was that the list included many enemies of God. Sure, on some level I know and believe that what God purposes always comes to pass, but I thought it interesting to see that he doesn’t <b>always</b> use humble, obedient and righteous folk for his purposes.

Well, I’m in Matthew 8 now. I finished the Sermon on the Mount very slowly, as I was afraid I would blow past it without meditating on what Christ himself had to say.

I’ll come back to Matthew 5-7 at a later date…

I just completed my devotional reading of 1 John, so it’s time for a gospel infusion!I’ve also been teaching a little out of 1 Corinthians, so I’ve been “epistle-heavy” for the last few months.

I studied Mark and John in the fall, so I think it’s time to get back into Matthew.

After I work my way through Matthew, I’d like to go back to one of the prophets. It’s very easy to neglect both the major and minor prophets in devotional study. I want to train my mind to see the gospel in the Old Testament.

But first…Matthew 1:1-17

Every road must have a starting point. I’m reminded of what the great philosopher Bilbo Baggins has to say about a journey:

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you may be swept off to.”

Here’s to the journey!