David R. Helm - The Big Picture Family Devotional

The Big Picture

FAMILY DEVOTIONAL

edited by David R. Helm

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The Big Picture Family Devotional

Copyright 2014 by Holy Trinity Church

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover Illustration: Gail Schoonmaker

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4225-1
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4228-2
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4226-8
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4227-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The big picture family devotional / David Helm.

1 online resource.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4226-8 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-4227-5 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-4228-2 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-4225-1 (tp)

1. FamiliesReligious life. 2. Christian education of children. 3. Christian educationHome training. 4. FamiliesPrayers and devotions. I. Helm, David R., 1961 editor.

BV4526.3

242'.2dc23 2014020756

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

One of the immense privileges of pastoring a church plant is the opportunity to colabor in the gospel with eager and energetic Christianspeople who put their desire to make an impact for Christ to work by experimenting with new ideas to strengthen the church. In that context, The Big Picture Family Devotional was born.

In the fall of 1996, in the very early days of our church plant in Chicago, a commitment arose to provide fresh gospel resources for the many young families who were instructing their children in the faith. Because we believe the home is the central place for Christian education, the idea of writing a family devotional made sense. Soon afterward, the church was buzzing with excitement as members began writing devotional material that attempted to trace the storyline of the Bible. We even found ourselves writing Sunday school curriculum and adult small group study guides to supplement what was taking place around our dinner tables. Kids and adults alike began memorizing forty-five big picture verses that function as windows through which we gaze at Gods unfolding promise. It was during these years that God also allowed me the privilege of writing The Big Picture Story Bible, beautifully illustrated by Gail Schoonmaker.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to Graeme Goldsworthy, whose ideas on biblical theology provided a springboard for us, as well as my admiration for the many members of Holy Trinity Church, Chicago, who joyfully labored in writing bits and pieces of what you now hold in your hands. The Big Picture Family Devotional is not the work of one person, but manytoo many to mention them all by name! Special thanks go to Helen-Joy Lynerd for helping me prepare this book for publication. Also, I am indebted to Tara Davis of Crossway for her careful editing of the manuscript.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the children of Holy Trinity Church, Chicagofor you we gladly labor, counting it sweet joy.

The difficulty of devotions. Most people find doing family devotions difficult. For starters, many of us never had devotions modeled at home. Even if we were fortunate enough to grow up in a home with parents who tried to teach us the basics of religious belief, we must admit that today is a different worldone that presents us with practical challenges most of our parents never faced. Lets face it: today a family often eats meals at different times. Getting everyone together in the same place at the same time is nearly impossible.

How to use this devotional. Take heart! We live in the same world you do, and have written The Big Picture Family Devotional especially for todays family. Getting through this devotional in one year requires only three times a week when your family is in the same place at the same time. We even limited the material to fifty rather than fifty-two weeks so you can put this down and do something else for devotions during the weeks of Christmas and Easter. The devotional contains forty-five weeks of content and five weeks of review spread throughout the year. Everything is already prepared for you, saving you the time of trying to figure out something productive to share with your kids. Just open up the book and read the short Bible selection for the day and the brief devotional paragraph that unfolds the message of the Bible. Follow that up with the reflection and interaction prompts that are meant to spur family discussion. The entire process can take as little as five to ten minutesor longer, at those unexpected but enjoyable leisurely times when your kids are particularly interested.

The devotional is geared for children ages six to ten, with the intention that it will be read through over several years so that the concepts are reinforced and children grow into an understanding of the more advanced ideas.

For those who want more. For families who like to sing, we have included songs that reinforce what you are learning together. For the highly motivated, we encourage you to make use of the forty-five memory verses that trace the big picture of the Bible. We call them the big picture verses, and a little booklet containing just the verses is available (titled The Big Picture Verses: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible). The verses can easily work as a catechism that takes you from Genesis to Revelation.

We hope The Big Picture Devotional will help clarify the main message of the Bible and instill in your family a growing confidence that the words of the Bible are the very words of God!

The word catechism comes from the Greek katchein, which means to teach. The Big Picure Bible Verses is a tool that will help parents teach their children the storyline of the Bible through questions and answers.