Category Archives: Resources

Holy Week Devotional Gospel of John, Year A

20130822-223520.jpg Share with one another the days or week’s concerns and celebrations. Be sure to write them down in order to pray for each other.

20130822-223633.jpg Read and reflect on the following passages each day:
Monday: John 12: 1-11
FaithCross Love can seem lavish and extraneous but Mary’s actions remind us that love can also keep us present with those whom we love. How can you show people in your life that they are important to you today? What are ways that we can remind ourselves that God loves us all in this same lavish and sacrificial way?
20130822-223633.jpgTuesday: John 20: 20-36
 FaithCrossThink of examples from nature or from your own experiences where something (or situation) had to “die” in order for something new to come about. Does the new life make the death any easier? How does knowing that God is still creating and making things new sustain us when we are experiencing all of the big and small “deaths” (losing job, divorce, empty nesters, moving, physical death, loss of independence) of life?
20130822-223633.jpgWednesday: John 13:21-32
FaithCross This is a difficult passage as it read that Satan entered Judas when he took the bread from Jesus. What does it mean that Judas, as one of Jesus’ disciples, still did not believe in Jesus and betrayed him? Does it change anything that Satan entered Judas? “The devil made him do it”? What do you think about that as a response to harmful behavior?
20130822-223633.jpgThursday: John 13: 1-17,31b-35
FaithCross To wash the feet of people was to be in the position of a very lowly servant in Jesus’ time. How do Jesus’ actions of foot washing along with the commandment to “love one another” as Jesus loved the disciples and loves us change how we treat other people? How do we truly serve those around us? How does the world know that we are followers of Jesus who came to serve, die and be raised to give us all freedom and eternal life?
20130822-223633.jpgFriday: John 18:1-19:42
FaithCross Trade off reading this long passage or assign parts. Light three candles at the beginning of your devotional time together. After John 18: 27, 19:16 and 19: 42 (the end), extinguish a candle and hold a minute of silent prayer before continuing on in the story. End your devotional time with silence.

20130822-223749.jpg Pray for the concerns and celebrations of those gathered. Pray to show lavish love to others, to allow new life to grow, for the wrestling with what we don’t understand, for the world to know God’s love and thanksgiving that God so loved the world that God gave Jesus so that no one is ever separated from God.

20130822-223908.jpg On Monday give each person in the household a cross of some kind (you can create one from cardstock or however you would like to), and write on it, “God’s love brings life from death.”

Faith + Home Epiphany House Blessing

20130822-223633.jpg Read Matthew 2: 1-12-With younger children have them act out the visitation of the wise men.

20130822-223454.jpgThis is a story that is found only in Matthew. Historians say that the wise men may have been astrologers or perhaps priests of an eastern religion. The traditional names for the wise men are Melchior, Casper and Balthazar and there were thought to be three because of the three gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh) that the gospel of Matthew states were offered to Jesus.

Why do you think that King Herod would have been unhappy with the birth of a “king of the Jews”? What would he have to fear? Why do you think the wise men offered the gifts that they did? What was your favorite gift that you ever received?

Dreams are important in the gospel of Matthew. Joseph has a dream where an angel tells him to marry Mary and then another one to have the family go to Egypt. The wise men also have a dream where they are warned to not go back to Herod. Do you ever remember your dreams? Do you think that God can communicate with us in dream? Why or why not?

20130822-223908.jpgOn January 6th, the day of Epiphany, an ancient tradition is to bless your home. The tradition goes that the wise men found the baby Jesus and blessed him with gifts and we remember on this day that God blesses us with God’s very presence in our lives. The day of Epiphany also marks Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3: 13-17). Take a piece of chalk and go to a door in your home as a family. Preferably the front door but any entrance door is fine. Write on the door frame “20 + CMB + 14.” The “20” and the “14” are for the new year CMB refers to the names of the magi as well as the Latin  Christus mansionem benedicat, which translates as “may Christ bless the house”. At the end of the house blessing make the sign of the cross on one another and say, “God is with you today and always.”

Take the slip of paper that has the star and the words “May Christ Bless This House” and write some ways that you see God in your life. Place the paper on the refrigerator and when you see God in your life write it on that paper throughout the year. Maybe even add more paper!

Download the 2015 printable here

20130822-224425.jpgPray as a family for the coming year. Pray for those things that you know are coming and for those things that you can’t anticipate.

FaithCross_ServeALTSend a note to a neighbor telling them that you are praying for them this coming year. Send notes (maybe with a treat!) each month to connect. You can do this anonymously as well!

 

 

Advent 2013 + Household Devotions

AdventPicture

Just in time for the start of Advent!  A simple four week resource for gathering together to prepare your hearts and minds for Christmas. Please print, copy and handout (or share electronically!) to whomever you so desire.

This is a devotion that homes and families of all shapes and sizes will find to be worth their time in spending a few minutes together each week of this week Advent. These links will let you download whichever format works best for you.  Note that all the links will take you to our Mediafire site so you can view the files before you download them.

Booklet Style – prints as a landscape on 8.5 x 11 inch and folds into a booklet

A Page a Week – each page is one devotion, great for eReaders and tablets

Supplemental Images for make your own ornaments 

Here is an overview:

Faith+Connect-a ritual of lighting a candle, picking an ornament off your tree for your time together, and singing or listening to a Christmas song that fits the scripture for the day
Faith+Bible and Faith+ Chat–scripture and discussion prompts plus optional activities
Faith+Prayer–a prayer together
Faith+Blessing–a time to bless one another as the devotional time ends.

We encourage you to use this in your home and share with others. For all you wonderful youth directors, children’s ministers and pastors we encourage you to have this available for your congregations and visitors throughout Advent.

We love feedback so let us know if you used it and what you thought!
Link  supplemental pages

+Blessings to you all this Advent and Christmas,
Leta, Brigette, Gus

Faith + Home Thanksgiving Devotion

ffjChildrenSermonUse this simple format around the Thanksgiving table to gather all in your home that day around each other and the God’s word of love, mercy and forgiveness for us all. This does not need to be done in order nor do all parts have to be practiced. Use this devotion in a way that makes sense for you and those gathered.

20130822-223454.jpgShare with each other your highs and lows of the past year. Have paper, pens or crayons for younger household members to write done what others share.

Highs________________________________________________________________________

Lows________________________________________________________________________

20130822-223633.jpg1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

What are some ways that you show joy? As an individual? As a family? Who is someone that you are grateful for today? When is your favorite time to pray as an individual or a family?

20130822-223749.jpgGracious God, we don’t always remember to show you our gratitude. Thank you for your unending presence, unconditional love and mercy. We thank you for this meal that we are sharing today. May it nourish us for service in your world. We pray for those who are hurting today, don’t have community, family, a safe place to be or food for their journey. May our gratitude lead us to willingly share what we have with your people in need. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

20130822-223908.jpgAt the end of the meal, say together: Rejoice always for God loves you now and forever.

 

Blessing of the Bibles

bible_wcandleMany of you may be giving Bibles soon or sometime this year to children or youth or adults! Here is a resource to help you out with Blessings the Bibles in worship

Blessing of the Bibles

This blessing was used at Bethel Lutheran Church in Aurora, CO. The congregation gave each family in their school a Spark Story Bible (Augsburg Fortress) as a beginning of the year gift. We had the church council and the school board present the Bibles at offering time and place them by the large cross that was present. An alternate idea is to place them on or by the altar. The pastor and the preschool director lead the congregation in the blessing that occurred after the offering time. A hand written card from families in the church highlighting their favorite Bible passage/story was placed in each Bible that the families received. Please feel free to use and modify to fit your context!

Invite Congregation to read the following blessing of the Bibles:

L: God from the beginning your Word spoke light into darkness and order into chaos. Your Word was on the hearts and doorposts of the Israelite people. You spoke through the prophets so that the Israelite people would remain faithful. You spoke loudest in the coming of your Son Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke words of healing, mercy and love. In his death on a cross he spoke without words but with actions. Then Paul, Peter and all of the apostles preached, wrote and acted on this Word of God for the sake of the entire world.

 C: Called through our baptism to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, we now send these Bibles, the Word of God in scripture, out to the homes of the families of Bethel Christian School. We pray that the Word of God will bless their homes, families and communities. May these Bibles sow the seeds of God’s love and grace for all of God’s people and grow the kingdom of God.  Amen

Christmas Week Devotions – 2010

colortreeFresh and HOT off the presses we have ready for you to print, copy and handout to whomever you so desire is a Christmas Devotion written for the final 5 days before Christmas (December 20-24). This is a devotion that homes and families of all shapes and sizes will find to be worth their time in spending a few minutes together each day of this week of Christmas. The link will take you to our googlesite where you can download the full document. Or use it online starting December 15th by looking at each day. Here is an overview:

Faith+Open–a ritual of lighting a candle, picking an ornament off your tree for your time together, and singing or listening to a Christmas song that fits the scripture for the day
Faith+Share–scripture and discussion prompts plus optional activities
Faith+Prayer–a prayer together
Faith+Blessing–a time to bless one another as the devotional time ends.

We encourage you to use this in your home and share with others. For all you wonderful youth directors, children’s ministers and pastors we encourage you to have this available for your congregations and visitors throughout Advent.

We love feedback so let us know if you used it and what you thought!
Link  supplemental pages

+Blessings to you all this Advent and Christmas,
Leta & Brigette

December 14, 2012

As I write this, my heart is breaking. My heart is breaking for parents who will not be tucking their child into bed tonight or any night. My heart is breaking for a school that should be a place of fun, learning, curiosity, love, friendship and safety but is now a sign of how fragile security can be as well as a sign of the reality of darkness in our lives. My heart is breaking for a community that is shattered and will need love and support to grieve and journey toward healing. My heart is breaking for our world: for people who live in their own hell and feel that taking another life, as well as their own, manifests itself as a viable option; for the deep brokenness of our own humanity that doesn’t reach out to those in need of help; for families that are now forever altered; and for the pervasive feeling of hopelessness and helplessness that permeates our souls.

These are feelings that have flooded me before. My own personal grief from the death of my youngest child almost eight years ago finds the crack in my armor on a day like today and invades my being. My child’s life was not taken by human violence but from the violence of disease. On a day like today, I am transported back to the moment when I was told my son was dead. The vivid memory of being cold, numb and wailing all at the same time flashes in me as if it happened yesterday. I am saddened that, while thousands of miles apart, I am now connected to those parents in Connecticut. Not that I know their specific loss but as parent, I am tethered to them by bonds of grief, loss of dreams of tomorrow and the shattering of our souls. To lose a child is to lose a piece of your own being.

But as I write this and my heart is breaking, my heart is also being pieced back together and swaddled. My heart, and all of our hearts, is in God’s loving and compassionate hands. God weeping with us, lamenting with us and railing with us gently uses clothes of love, peace and healing to swaddle us when we need it the most. Swaddling clothes of a friend’s hug and compassionate words, swaddling clothes of prayers lifted up, swaddling clothes of a friend who can hold our words of grief, brokenness and devastation, the swaddling of the interconnectedness of all of humanity as people of God.

God just doesn’t understand our grief, suffering and brokenness but fully experiences them with us . God’s own son, wrapped in swaddling clothes, was born into a world of brutality, poverty, suffering and death. In the manger we see don’t see a perfect world but a world that God is deeply concerned about, loves and wants to make new. In the swaddling of baby Jesus comes the swaddling of God’s unconditional and forever love and grace- no matter how bad it gets, no matter how we question our world, God’s presence or our own humanity-for all people and all of creation. Jesus lived in our suffering, diseases of the body and mind and died in the reality of brutality and violence. But God declares that death and sorrow are not the last words, neither for Jesus and the disciples nor for us. God had the last word on Easter morning in the exclamation point of the empty tomb. God offers this in our sorrow, God who raised Jesus and overcame suffering and death, that death, suffering and sorrow will not win. Dawn comes after a long, dark night, new life springs from a dead seed, and resurrection is the gift that God offers to all. This is God’s promise now and forever and this is my hope and help not just for me but for all people of God. Amen.

Blessing of the Christmas Tree

Gather either around or near your tree!

Tell where you see God at Advent & Christmas and where you need God at Advent & Christmas.

 

 

Psalm 96:11-13

11Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

12let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy13before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.

This tree is a blessing to our home. It reminds us of all that is beautiful, all that is filled with the gentleness and the promise of God. It stands in our midst as a tree of light that we might promise such beauty to one another and to our world. It stands like that tree of paradise that God made into the tree of life, the cross of Jesus. If you have young children or like good stories you may want to read “The Three Trees” by Angela Elwell Hunt

How can the Christmas tree remind you of the story of the birth of Jesus? How will it bless you in this Advent/Christmas season? How will you be a blessing to others?

Join in prayer together thanking God for where you see the Holy Spirit active and asking for help in where you need God this year.

 

 

Loving God, we come with joy to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, whose path of justice and inclusivity lights a path for all who follow him. May this tree, arrayed in splendor, remind us of the life-giving cross of Christ, that we may always rejoice in the new life that shines in our hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now make the sign of the cross on one another and say, “Child of God, remember that you are a light of God’s love. Amen”

~LB

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