Day 111: Organization

Daily Sheet: Day 111: Organization

Family Book: “Aunt Minnie McGranahan”

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Travel: Hungary; Croatia; Bosnia; Serbia; Bulgaria

Video: “I Am Not a Mistake” – Indiana Feek

Video: “The Color Green” – Rich Mullins (official music video, with introduction by Rich)

 

 

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Day 102: Benevolence

Daily Sheet: Day 102: Benevolence

Family Book: “If the World Were a Village”

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Travel: Gabon

Map: Mary Kingsley’s Travels

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (talking about her inspiration behind writing this song)

In Psalm 84:11 we read, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  Sir Richard Baker comments, “But how is this true, when God so oftentimes withholds riches and honor and health of body from men, though they walk ever so uprightly?  We may therefore know that honors and riches and bodily strength are none of God’s good things, and the good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, fruition of God’s presence, and a vision of His face in the next.  These good things God never withholds from the Godly.”

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (live acoustic performance)

I believe in a blessing I don’t understand.  I’ve seen rain fall on wicked and the just.  Rain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain, that broken find healing in love.
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a fountain that will never dry, though I’ve thirsted and didn’t have enough.  Thirst is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I will open my hands, will open my heart.

I am nodding my head, an emphatic “Yes!” to all that You have for me.

Questions:

  • Do you think Sir Richard Baker is right?
  • Why does Sara Groves say, “I believe in a blessing I don’t understand”?
  • Why, if God is faithful, do people experience drought, pain, and thirst?
  • What is our role in all this?
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Day 99: Freedom

Daily Sheet: Day 99: Freedom

Family Book: “Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation”

Family Book: “You Are Special”

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Travel: Nebraska; Kansas

Video: “Set You Free” – Nomos

If you did, if you did, even if you did…  Been where you shouldn’t have been, Seen what you shouldn’t have seen, Dreamed what you shouldn’t have dreamed, that doesn’t mean you have to be locked up here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Done what you shouldn’t have done, Run when you shouldn’t have run, Lost when you shouldn’t have won, that doesn’t mean you have to be paying the price forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, only if you did…  Strayed from the beaten track, Maybe you never got back, Went in off the black, that doesn’t mean you have to be lying around here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
Ah if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Suffered from a broken heart, Got off to a poor start, Maybe you fell apart, that doesn’t mean you have to be paying the price forever.  I’m going to set you free.
And if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Known what you shouldn’t have known, Shown what you shouldn’t have shown, Thrown what you shouldn’t have thrown, that doesn’t mean you have to be lying around here forever.  I’m going to set you free.
Ah if you did, if you did, even if you did…  Been where you shouldn’t have been, Seen what you shouldn’t have seen, Dreamed what you shouldn’t have dreamed, that doesn’t mean you have to be locked up here forever.  I’m going to set you free.

Video: “Deliverer” – Audrey Assad

You are not possessive, You respect all things
You are not invasive, You have no envy
You are not insistent, You do not force me
You are not controlling, You make me free indeed

You’re my deliverer, You’re my deliverer.  You won’t pass me by.

Your law is freedom and mercy is Your rule
Though You dwell within me, I can’t contain You

In the ruins of my heart, You preach to the poor
Turning over stones to show me there is more
More than all I ask, more than I’m looking for
In the ruins of my heart

Video: “Land of the Living” – Roo Panes

Where they go
That we shall cherish and that I wrestle
Don’t want to be like the dust that settles
This empire of nothing
I find that I’m king of all these empty homes
That are ruled by my own flaws
But you can’t be an old fire
If you are burning with a new flame

So remember that, you are never a forgotten name
Cause I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
I hear the voices of my childhood singing it’s the world beyond those doorways
Where we use to play

Cause every moment
Is a chance to define what you want to become
You’re not a slave to things you’ve done
Be brave and be bold
Be childish and old it’s the same old story
Every life needs a hope of glory
But you can’t be an old fire
If you’re burning with a new flame

I was born to be free, you were born to free me

Cause I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
I hear the voices of my childhood singing it’s the world beyond those doorways
Where we use to play
I know a land called the land of the living
It’s the world beyond those curtains where we learned to play
Oh we’ll go back, we’ll go back to the beginning
And we’ll pick up on the trails of forgotten ways

Song: “Finally” – Gungor

Call me back into the silence, into the sunlight.

Every breath a standing defiance of death and of clamor; Let darkness be scattered now.

I’ll be here waiting in silence, waiting for sunlight to make all the world shine bright.

All the stars fall in line and the seas bow their heads.  We remember our dead and we sing another day.

As the silence, it grows and the worlds fade away; All the sons empty their graves.

We will sing another day.

Questions:

  • Compare and contrast physical, emotional and spiritual freedom
  • Can you find examples in today’s lesson where faith in Christ has brought each of these types of freedom to someone?
  • Explain what you think is meant by the line, “I was born to be free; you were born to free me.”
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Day 93: Kindness

Daily Sheet: Day 93: Kindness

Family Book: “The Watcher”

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Travel: Zimbabwe

Video: “All the Ways You Wander” – John Spillane

…And if you take the long way, if you take the long way home, down where the magicians and the dreamers roam, through the mountains of morning, through the valleys of night, searching for the island of your heart’s delight,

I’ll wait for you, like a true friend.  I’ll wait for you, ’til the very end.

Video: “Kindness”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helps Homeless People in Los Angeles”

“I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Video: “14 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Elliot Katz, the boy in the last three videos above, was inspired in part to form his charity organization, ReachingOutCalifornia, by the following verse:

“And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” – Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Yerushalmi Talmud.  

Put in context, the passage reads as follows: 

…We find in regard to Cain, who killed his brother, “The bloods of your brother scream out!” (Genesis 4:10) – the verse does not say blood of your brother, but bloods of your brother, because it was his blood and also the blood of his future offspring [screaming out]!  [The judges’ speech continues] “It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.”

Questions:

  • The Talmud, from which the Mishnah Sanhedrin passage is taken, is a Jewish writing.  Compare these verses to Jesus’s words as recorded in Luke 9:24: 

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  (New Living Translation – NLT)

  • “The Watcher” is written as a poem.  Describe the format.

 

 

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Day 88: Vision

Daily Sheet: Day 88: Vision

Family Book: “On the Oregon Trail”

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Travel: Idaho; Oregon; Washington

Hymn: “Be Thou My Vision” – Chelsea Moon

Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart.  Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.  Thou my best thought by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word.  I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord.  Thou my great Father, I Thy true son, Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise.  Thou my inheritance, now and always.  Thou and Thou only, first in my heart.  High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won.  May I reach heaven’s joys, oh, bright heaven’s sun.  Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, oh Ruler of all.

Video: “Be Thou My Vision” – Fernando Ortega (set against images from the Hubble telescope)

Consider the following three translations of Proverbs 29:18:

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.  (New American Standard Bible – NASB)

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; But blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.  (New International Version – NIV)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  (King James Version – KJV)

Questions:

  • Is vision important?  Why or why not?
  • What does Proverbs 29:18 teach us about vision?  Use the above three translations to explain.
  • How are vision and restraint linked?  How can you apply this in your own life?
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Day 82: Strength

Daily Sheet: Day 82: Strength

Family Book: “I Lay My Stitches Down”

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Travel: Sierra Leone; Guinea; Liberia

Video: “We Are Not as Strong As We Think We Are” – Rich Mullins (acoustic, Wheaton College 1997)

Video: “Please Be My Strength” – Gungor (live acoustic version)

 

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Day 70: Faithfulness

Daily Sheet: Day 70: Faithfulness

Family Book: “Horton Hatches the Egg”

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Travel: Chile

Hymn: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Chelsea Moon and the Franz Brothers

Video: “He’s Always Been Faithful” – Sara Groves (unofficial music video)

Video: “My Sweet Refuge” – Roo Panes

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Day 69: Significance

Daily Sheet: Day 69: Significance

Family Book: “Something to Tell the Grandcows”

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Travel: Argentina

Hymn: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Joey and Rory

Song: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Fernando Ortega

Song: “Lament” – Audrey Assad

Video: “Open Road” – Roo Panes

 

 

 

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Day 67: Gratitude

Daily Sheet: Day 67: Gratitude

Family Book: “Moonlight on the Amazon”

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Travel: Brazil

Hymn: It Is Well

Video: “Something Changed” – Sara Groves

Song: “Grace For Me” – Gungor (with Portuguese subtitles)

Listen for and discuss the following lyrics:

“Valleys come and tears are drying.  There are things I don’t yet see.  But I’ll rejoice in spite of hardship.  You’ll watch over me.  Your grace for me is all I need; all I need is here.”

Video: “How Great Thou Art” – The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir  (This takes the Cheesiest Video Cake.  My kids love it, though.)

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Day 60: Wonder

Daily Sheet: Day 60: Wonder

Family Book: “Why Am I Here?”

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Optional Family Book: “Tonight You Are My Baby”

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Travel: Canary Islands

Video: “Precious Again” – Sara Groves (official music video)

Video: “Breath of Heaven” – Sara Groves (dance ministry team)

Video: “Breath of Heaven” – Amy Grant (twin interpretive dance)

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