The new Toddlerhood Transition workbooks are now in the GFI warehouse and available for classes. The introductory price is $10.95. The introductory price for the newly released nine-part Toddlerhood Transition DVD series with two workbooks is $99.95 (The introductory sale is good through January 31, 2010. Save an additional five percent by ordering on line.)

We’re also in the process of revamping the GFI Leader’s Place. This is where leaders and facilitators can go to find additional class ideas, handouts, charts, forms, video run times, session summaries and sample clips from each of the nine Toddlerhood sessions. Do you have a question relating to the course work or from a student that you would like some help with or a second opinion? Our ministry support staff is available to leaders and would like to help. We’ll do everything we can to provide a timely and concise answer. Enjoy the New Year and your new ‘Toddlerhood Transition’ class.

December 12, 2009

Although the 2009 ‘Winter sale’ is over, the two family resources highlighted during the Christmas season continue to offer some great family values. We will continue to promote both over the next couple of weeks. First, there is the Mom’s Notes bookstore. We personally believe this is the best “little bookstore” on the Worldwide Web for at least two reasons. First, each book is reviewed for compatibility with the GFI curriculum and moral philosophy. That means you will not have to worry about any inappropriate content passing in front of the eyes of your children. Second, it provides a wide range of spiritual resources for all ages, from devotional books for your toddler to spiritual-life reading for Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. Books always make a great gift.

Our second site is not tied to the GFI ministry per se, although it is very much tied to our hearts. Martin Chalk is a Growing Kids’ Dad, friend and more influentially, the worship leader at our church. His music is heard in churches all over the world. For us, each service is like going to a full ‘concert’ of praise and worship. His newest CD, ‘Always’ is now available.We know styles of music are a matter of personal preference and we respect different taste in styles, but for the Ezzos, Martin puts it all together beautifully. Visit Martin Here. www.MartinChalk.com

One of the underlying thoughts we attempt to communicate within the GFI community is the importance of your WorldView …. beginning in Prep. for Parenting and carrying it through all the curricula. Years ago we were introduced to Christian Overman and his book  Assumptions that Affect our Lives, a wonderful resource to help an individual understand this concept of ‘worldview’.  In reading Dr. Overman’s thoughts below, I am reminded that no matter what we are doing, even those daily, seemingly mundane tasks of homemaking, going off to the workplace, or one more time instructing our children in something we thought was taken care of … when we keep that Kingdom perspective, that all we do is important to God and for His glory. Trust the following will be an encouragement to you as well. Do not grow weary ….

Anne Marie Ezzo

If we are currently living within the Kingdom of God, and the rule of the Creator-Sustainer is a present reality, why did Christ teach us to pray,“Thy Kingdom come…?” (Matt. 6:10)

Describing the Kingdom of God is like the blind men describing an elephant. One man touches an ear and declares, “the elephant is like a fan!” Another touches the tail and shouts, “the elephant is like a rope!” It depends on which aspect of the elephant one touches.

When it comes to the Kingdom of God, there is both a present expression of the Kingdom and a coming expression. They are not exactly the same expressions. To put it in the context of Matthew 13, the coming Kingdom is “the Kingdom without weeds.” The Kingdom where “all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness” have been removed (Matt. 13:41). Until then, God’s present Kingdom contains weeds.

Even so, it is still His Kingdom, with or without weeds. In its current state of disrepair, the whole “field” of planet Earth, and all that it contains, including every airplane flying overhead, is the Creator-Sustainer’s own possession (Psalm 24:1).

Does this mean Jesus owns everything in the Boeing Company, and the Boeing manufacturing plant just miles from my home lies within the realm of Christ’s rule, under the jurisdiction of His present Kingdom? I say, “yes.” Jesus is Lord of all (Acts 10:36), whether the Boeing Company recognizes Him as such or not!

Why does understanding this matter? The ramifications for our everyday work are enormous. It means there is no type of earthly work that can be done outside the present Kingdom of God, because the jurisdiction of Christ’s rule extends over every human activity, and there is no earthly occupation that takes place outside the borders of the King’s domain.

It gets very practical. If I’m sweeping floors, I’m sweeping part of His Kingdom. If I am building airplanes, I am molding and shaping His Kingdom’s “stuff” into machines that fly through His Kingdom’s sky. This gives building airplanes a sublime dimension, and it gives all work an awesome significance: It is His world we are working in, and His stuff we are working with.

But if I limit my understanding of the Kingdom of God to only its coming pristine expression, and I fail to appreciate its present (albeit contaminated) expression, I’ll tend to focus on the age to come, and miss the significance of the here-and-now, including the full significance of everyday work in God’s present Kingdom. Including building airplanes.

by Chris Overman
Worldview Matters[TM]
www.biblicalworldview.com

I am wondering how many Christian kids could answer the question asked by a non-believing friend; “What makes Christianity different than any other religion? Why should I believe that the Bible is Gods’ book or in Jesus is God?”

Over summer vacation several of the books I read dealt with real cultural influences that have deceived a large number of followers of Jesus. The one I want to mention, “Already Gone” by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer, looks at why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. This must read is a well done survey on why kids from solid Bible believing churches walk away from their faith. As I was reading this book I was reminded of what the Apostle Peter recorded in his first epistle, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” 1 Peter 3:15 NIV.

While there is a ton of practical truth in this verse, I want to focus in on one area this week. It is the phrase, ”Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone.” Now stop and take a moment to reread that phrase slowly. The force of what Peter writes reinforces your need to be prepared to share your faith with others. What Ham and Beemer so powerfully communicate is that our kids are unprepared to defend their faith and as a result they are being swept away. What is more startling is that out of the 1000 kids surveyed only 11% walked away in college. Their survey revealed 40% began to doubt in Middle School and 43% in High School. If their assessment is correct, that means that we are loosing our kids while they are in church and living at home! They go on to make some other incredible observations about how we are failing to prepare our children to live in a post Christian culture. The main emphasis is addressed by the apostle Peter, the need to be prepared to defend their faith.

Let’s face it; it is more challenging to live for Christ in our culture today then when you were growing up. I would suggest that it is more difficult for kid’s today then for any recent generation. Not only have the issues like sexual immorality and alternative lifestyle become the norm, kids today also must battle tremendous temptations and cultural struggles at ages you never did.

While we need to protect our kids from these influences, we also need to prepare them to “give an answer for the hope that lies within them.” This is called apologetics, the study of how to defend the Christian faith. This was brought home to me this past week as we dropped our oldest child off at Washington State University. While I was sitting through an orientation for parents, I was reminded at the cultural conditioning that is happening all around us to adopt the culture’s values.

So what is the solution? While there are no guarantees, I would suggest two primary paths of action. First, is for you to live to the standard. If your life does not sell your kids on the necessity and viability of Christianity, why should they listen to anyone else?

Second, there are many ways to help your kids be prepared to address cultural issues. Don’t be afraid to discuss the issues before they become issues. Then be prepared to walk them through them. Your kids deserve more than a “no.” Help them to understand the moral reason why. You should also make solid age appropriate books and materials available to them.

This generation of kids needs to be more prepared apologetically prepared then any previous generation for the last 80 years! They will make it with our help!

-Pastor Joe Parkinson

There is more to life than what I see. I see only what is near me. My family, my job, my church. My focus has been on what is near me. My focus has been on making sure those things that I look at are all they can be. I want to be the best husband I can be. I want to be the best father I can be. I want to be the best employee I can so I can be the best provider for my family that I can be. I want to serve and be in relationship in the church so that I can grow and be the man, the husband and the father I should be. When I think about it that way, it is pretty clear how selfish I really am.

I don’t think God called me to just be a good husband or a good father or a good employee. He didn’t even call me to be excellent at any of those things. He called me (and you) to something much bigger than the little world we live in. He called us to preach the Gospel to all nations. He called us to disciple the world. He called us to be lights.

But what light can I be? Are we all called to be missionaries to a distant land? No. We are all called to affect the world around us. Many have said to others or themselves that their means of responding to “the call” is to provide funding. I think that is valid, but I also think it is a cop out. Funding is required and many of us are required to contribute to make it possible for others to do their work. But, when I send money and then look back at my own little world and its issues and don’t look outside my short focus, I’m copping out. There is something I should be doing to affect the world around me and it should be more than just raising “good” or even Christian children.

Jesus changed the culture around Him. The disciples changed the culture around them wherever they took the Gospel. If the Gospel is here in America, or at least our portion of it, are we driving the culture? Or is the culture driving us? Are we letting the secular thinkers, secular politicians, secular artists and musicians shape the culture around us? I believe we have. As a nation of Christians we have. It has come to the point that our President has stated that the United States of America is not a Christian nation. “One of the great strengths of the United States,” the President said, “is … we have a very large Christian population — we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.” (1) What I hear is a disrespect and disowning of the source of our culture and the root of our ethics. There is a desire to further separate who we are now from what we were and redefine who we will be in the future. Is that acceptable to us?

This statement by President Obama is a statement that effectively demonstrates that we have not discipled our nation.

Mat 28:18-20 “And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, ‘All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’”

We have not influenced who we are as a nation. We, the Body of Christ, have not properly influenced our nation for many decades. We have allowed others to present their opinions and beliefs without challenge. The US constitution allows everyone to state their own opinion, but that doesn’t mean it should be unchallenged by the Church.

So, how does this relate to me being more than just a good father, husband and employee? I think I have failed to recognize and accept the role of being a culture shaper. I have let the different opinions, and forces behind those opinions, go unchecked and even unchallenged. Perhaps I have succeeded in teaching my family what is right and wrong for themselves, but have I taught them to fight the culture around them for what is right? Have I taught them to take on the challenges against our Judeo-Christian ethic system or put blinders on like I have and hope that it won’t get too bad before Jesus comes back?

I challenge us each to pick a cause. It could be an individual cause or a familial cause. Whether it is feeding the homeless, reaching those in Asia who don’t know the Gospel, caring for those with HIV/AIDS in Algeria, standing against the homosexual agenda against traditional marriage or taking back the entertainment industry. Pick a cause beyond your own little world, train your children to affect the culture they live in and not be passive against the forces that are working to erase the Judeo-Christian culture we live in. Don’t just fight for you and yours; fight for our culture to fulfill the call to make disciples.

References: (1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/obama-us-not-a-christian_n_183772.html

Permission granted by Tim and Ami Loper of Miracle Books.  The original version of this article can be found in the Summer 2009 edition of “Oh Yeah”.

a horticultural tale by Tara Banks

(Grab a cup of coffee… it’s quite a read… but it just might be worth it.)

Anyone that is around me long knows of my deep connection and passion for the Hawaiian islands. Eight years ago on a visit, in an effort to bring aloha back with me, I brought home two very small thick green sticks and with great hope plunked them in two huge pots to watch them grow. For several YEARS they did absolutely nothing. Just two thick green sticks in the ground. I was faithful to water, bring the pots inside when it got cold, make sure they had sun… basically, baby them. Finally, about four years ago, (no, I’m not joking) they actually started to look like plants and these sticks began shooting out leaves and ultimately plumeria flowers.

If you’ve ever been to Hawaii – it’s THE smell of the islands. When you get off the plane and walk through the open-air airport – it’s the aroma that’s in the air all the time. The only way I can describe it is like a little whiff of Heaven. It MUST be the literal fragrance of Christ, I’m convinced. (Ok – do not send me emails… just let me take my own creative liberty and enjoy this moment as I type.)

Back to the point – my precious plumerias have become part of the Banks family. They now have become so large that in order to keep them healthy, we actually sink the pots in the ground during the spring and summer right by the front door. They love the sun and I love the fragrance as I pass by. It reminds me of home – Hawaii and Heaven.

This spring, I noticed there were fewer leaves, then no leaves as they all began to fall off! My heart broke as I searched the internet for information about what was happening to my trees. Then I read it: “Black Tip Fungus”. The DEATH of plumerias!! I frantically began to spray them with everything prescribed and do all I could to save these plants. As a last resort, and on the advice of a plumeria specialist (yes, there are such people), I took a very sharp knife to my precious trees and cut off each limb, systematically, making sure the blade was wiped clean at each cut. I cut off all the remaining brown leaves. I cut off the ends of every stem. I cut each branch until white sap ran from the deep scars. The black tip fungus was, in essence, gone, but so were my beautiful plumerias.

I essentially, at that point, looked at my stubby, leafless trees and said, “You’ve been wonderful – thank you for the joy you’ve brought to my life… goodbye.” I thought, for sure, there was no hope. Nothing beautiful could ever come from them again. I left them in the ground, in their pots, to die.

Fast forward two weeks… I stared in amazement as fresh, green bumps began to appear where the deep seeping black scars ended on each stem. Go forward two more weeks… more amazement. Tiny, tiny leaves. Two more weeks…. lots of leaves, and as if by sheer “you aren’t going to take me” kind of iron will – branches forming from each cut to enable more leaves, more branches….growth. The plumerias not only are BACK but in just a few days are ready to bloom again. Fuller, more vibrant, stronger even… despite the terrible wounds. Better than they ever were. Miraculously, life had returned to these plants.

What’s the point to this horticultural tale? (Yes, there is one.) As I was walking by the plants a few days ago, the Lord spoke to me and said, “How many people have you written off when they were in a season of pruning… when they looked too ugly in their sin or situation? Aren’t you glad I didn’t write you off?” OUCH. And then the parallels and started flooding my mind: The deep wounds that had to be inflicted to the plant in order to make it bloom again…. the deep purposeful wounds of Christ’s pruning tool of discipline or trial in order to make all things new. Me, leaving the plants to die just like I’ve been guilty of leaving friends in their struggles rather than getting in there and helping them sort through them on their way back to the Cross. Then He began to remind me of times I’d been deeply wounded for “pruning” sake: when areas of my life weren’t growing the way He wanted and He had to take them out, or, when I resisted in obedience and had to learn the hard way. He reminded me how those situations or seasons or years brought me to a place that was so much more beautiful than the previous place I had been and how even during those times when I felt lost, without hope, ugly, broken, and like I would never bloom again – I did.

Can you see? It’s the terrible, hope threatening, severe wounds in our very lives that produce the kind of growth He’s after. Does He enjoy the pruning process? I don’t think so, no more than I enjoyed it… but I do believe that he knows the necessity and looks on it with love – a love that sees the fabric of our lives in a way that only He can and what needs to be weaved in. A love that looks at what we truly are and what we can be, not who we’ve settled for and allowed ourselves to become. A love that looks down from the Cross and says – I’m willing to take these wounds, to die, and to be “written off” by the world in order that you might bloom in My abundance. (I’m sure you’re following along and making all the connections as well.) So listen to Him as He says, “Behold, I make all things new.” and believe Him for it. Oh how He loves us. Oh how he longs to show us Himself in all He’s made. He’s in it all – just breathe it in and if need be, wait for your cuts to heal…. it’s amazing what happens when He shows up and turns “nothing beautiful will ever come from this” into “something beautiful is coming, indeed.”