Saturday, April 30, 2011

Homeschooling Fun



Getting to homeschool the kids is one of my favorite things in life right now...

There are so many amazing things we get to do together and read and learn together, and we are all enjoying it tremendously.  I have a lot of other pictures and posts I would love to get up at some point, but my friend who did this activity just e-mailed me these pictures and I wanted to quickly put them up on here.

It was such a blessing at this late stage of pregnancy for my friend Heather to come over with her three kids and do this lesson on marsupials with the kids.  They had so much fun reading some books and learning about marsupials, then making these little kangaroo pouches and hopping all around the yard.

Combining learning and fun and physical activity is one of the big blessings of getting to homeschool.  The kids are doing "school" all of the time without even realizing it!

Monday, April 25, 2011

He Has Risen!









My favorite Sunday of the year is Easter Sunday, as the IVC family gets to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus together bright and early in the morning...this year marks our 9th year of doing sunrise services, followed by baptisms, and breakfast at our house!

The reality of the good news of Jesus Christ sets people free and transforms lives from the inside out...baptism is such a great expression of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that we get to experience by faith in our risen Savior.

"Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin...in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6)

After the baptisms we headed to our house for breakfast...such an epic morning, the IVC family hung out till about noon...everyday is a celebration of the risen Christ, and our participation in His resurrected life - dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Passover


The last two years during Easter week we have celebrated Passover as a family (in our very simplified and non-traditional way), and the kids really love it.  We use some of our homeschooling to study the symbolism of everything, and then get to have the hands on experience of remembering what God did for the Israelites in rescuing them from slavery and delivering them out of captivity... and how Jesus is the true fulfillment of the passover!

There are so many object lessons in this Jewish feast that Jesus has fulfilled, and it so fun to see the kids grasp these concepts through the tangible experience of a meal.

We use a stuffed lamb as our passover lamb that we bring into the home, then slaughter it, and paint blood on the door of the house.  They love that part!  Last year we used ketchup, but dad wasn't too happy about how that dried on and didn't really come off, so this year we modified it to use water with red food coloring.  All three kids took their turns painting the blood on the doorpost and lintel.  This is really the crux of it for us, because we talk about how Jesus is the true passover lamb, who gave up His life for us to set us free from sin and slavery.  He was the unblemished lamb, who was sacrificed, and takes away the sins of the world.

Then we bake our unleavened bread and discuss the symbolism of both how the Israelites didn't have time to let their bread rise because they had to leave in haste, but also how biblically yeast represents sin, and Jesus is the bread of life, without sin, broken for us (tying into communion).

We have our special dinner with our seder plate, complete with the following:
+the lamb bone (the Passover lamb who was slain)
+karpas (parsley dipped in salt water representing the tears of the Israelites in their slavery, the crossing of the Red Sea and the birth of the new nation -- in the new covenant it is our new life in Christ and baptism)
+an egg (represents the hardness of Pharoah's heart, and was also symbolic of an offering people used to take to the temple)
+maror (bitter herbs - horseradish, symbolizing the bitterness of the lives of the Israelites in their slavery...and our lives apart from Christ)
+charoset (an apple and nut mix symbolizing the bricks and mortar the Israelites had to build for Pharoah... and then representative of the sweetness of our life in Christ)

There is much more symbolism that is a part of celebrating Passover, but we just do what we can with the kids at their ages and with what we have the time and patience for at this point.  There are the four cups of wine (we used grape juice and the kids were loving that part of it in their real wine glasses!), and the bread, and a bunch of other things about it all.  But basically, it a rich time of remembering God setting the Israelites free from their slavery in Egypt and learning about the foreshadowing it was and the true fulfillment of Jesus as our passover lamb.

It was also really neat to be able to help them experience during the holy week the reality of Jesus at the last supper, which was a Passover celebration, and to integrate Jesus taking the bread and the wine and speaking of His blood and His body and the instituting of the new covenant during our own Passover meal.  Children love traditions and they were able to grasp so many of the deeper meanings of it all through these object lessons, and they also feel like it is such a special thing we got to do together.

"Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed."  1 Corinithians 5:7

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Jeremiah


Jeremiah jumped off the couch yesterday and wacked his mouth on the coffee table...Holly took him to the ER right away. Fortunately, the cuts and scratches were not that serious; however, tbd on the one tooth that might have been cracked at the root.

He went to the dentist yesterday and took x-rays, please pray that everything turns out ok...God is good!

Ah, the joys of parenting...we love these kids, even when they're told not to do something like jump off the couch onto the coffee table because they could hurt themselves...which was the same thing that happened to me at the age of 5, except my tooth came out on impact. Like father, like son I guess.

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, don't lean on your own understanding..." (Proverb 3:5-6)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Holy Week - Jesus!


"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" 

Yes, it's that time of the year that tons of people in the world make a conscious decision to remember Jesus... the death, burial and resurrection!

This Sunday we will be having our 9th annual Sunrise Service at 6:30am, followed by about a handful of baptisms, and breakfast at our pad...probably my favorite Sunday of the year!

* this picture is of our friend Justin, one of the guys that lives at the DP House...I love Jesus and this guy too, but Jesus a lot more!

Monday, April 11, 2011

2 More Songs of His Glory

http://vimeo.com/22109778

http://vimeo.com/22150836

Dancing breaks out in the 2nd video...and in case you were wondering...yes dancing is biblical.

"Let them praise His name with dancing; let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre."  (Psalm 149)

We love you Jesus!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

IVC Worship - Deeper

This is the 1st song from the gathering on Sunday...God's presence showed up in an incredible way as we worshipped Him for 2 hours together...I will try to post other songs from the gathering later as our friend posts them on facebook.

On a funny note...usually when we begin worship around 4ish about a handful of people are present...but by the time worship ends the place is full...since the church began 9 years ago we have never had success on starting on time or having the beloved brethren show up on time...I guess where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

http://vimeo.com/22046984

Post by Jason, as my account does not allow for videos to be shown

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Jesus Burgers - Spring

The Upper Room (worship, prayer, & teaching) & Jesus Burgers was back on this last Saturday...so stoked for all the Spirit of God is doing in our midst!

This last weekend during the Upper Room we had an incredible time of being loved by God, loving God, and one another before moving to the front yard to serve the Jesus Burgers.

Please be praying that many souls would come to know the Lord this Spring Quarter as we are believing God for another move of His Spirit in this generation.

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls." (Prov 11:30)