Lake Murray Baptist Church

Daddy Daughter Date Night

On Friday, February 8th at 6:30 Lake Murray will be hosting its first Daddy/Daughter Date Night. This night will include dinner, prom-style pictures, craft-time for the girls, and a discussion time for the dads on issues surrounding raising girls. The cost is only $15 per family.

Girls need to bring printed out pictures of them and their dads for a special craft time in which they will make a gift for their dad. Dad's need to bring a printed out prayer that they will share with their girls at the end of the night. An example can be found below that I have written for my oldest daughter       Clara Beth.

 

Prayer for Clara Beth

Dear Heavenly Father,

 Lord you alone are good, wise, holy, and righteous. I thank you Lord for the gift of my precious daughter Clara Beth. She is truly one of your good gifts. She gives joy and laughter to my heart. Her smile is contagious. Her personality commands a room. Her gorgeous blue eyes are something only you could have made. I thank you Lord for this treasure!

 Lord I confess to you that I feel inadequate to raise her. I am a sinful and prideful man that too often runs away from you. Help me Lord to cling to you. Help me Lord to read your word, hear your instruction, and pass it on to my family. Help me to love her mother as Christ loved the Church. Help me to represent you. Help me to open my mouth when I want to be silent. Help me Lord to be the type of Man that you would want her to marry. Lord I can only do this with your help. Guide me, teach me, correct me!

 I thank you Lord that you heard my prayer for a family that I prayed before I even met Sarah. You are a God who sees and mends the heart of the lonely. I thank you for this girl who is already a leader and not a follower. I pray Lord that you will capture her heart and use this God-given trait to lead others to you. I pray Lord that she will seek out the lost and lead them to you. I pray that you will use her fearlessness to boldly proclaim your good-news wherever you might call her. Lord she is on loan to me right now-please use her wherever you want her in your kingdom. Lord I pray that she would not use her beauty deceive and toy with others. I rather pray that she would use it to modestly radiate your glory and set an example for others to follow in love, patience, and purity. I thank you Lord for her sense of humor. I pray that she will use it to build others up, instead of tear them down.

 I pray now for her future husband. I pray that you will call him to follow you. I pray that he will seek wisdom in your word. I pray his parents will set a godly example for him. I pray you will keep him pure and make him a leader of men. Prepare his heart to receive and lead a strong helpmate. I pray Lord, that you will bless them with children that they can teach about you and find the everlasting joy that comes in worshipping you.

 In Jesus Name I Pray,

 Amen

Christmas Eve Family Devotion for Families with Older or Adult Children

SCRIPTURE READING:

Read the following Scripture out loud as a family. Does one person usually read the Bible during this time? Consider asking someone else to read today.

Matthew 2:1-12

TALK ABOUT IT:

Discuss the following questions as a family. The brief answers provided may help you guide the  conversation as needed.

1. Scholars believe that the Magi travelled for nearly two years in order to find Jesus. What does that tell us about their desire to worship Him?
        A: They saw the miraculous star in the heavens, and believed that God had sent a king to earth. They likely knew the prophesy from Numbers 24:17 (check it out!). It was a very long and certainly difficult journey, but they were committed to bringing their gifts and worshipping the king.

2. Why was King Herod so upset when the Magi told him that they had come to worship the new king?
        A: He had heard the prophesies. Herod would do anything to keep his power. The Magi were committed to bringing worship to Jesus. Herod was committed to finding Jesus and killing him.

3. When the Magi finally came to the house where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus lived, what did they do?
        A: They bowed down and worshipped Jesus. They presented him with three gifts, gold, incense, and myrrh.

4. The three gifts that the Magi gave to Jesus were very important. Do you know what each meant?
        A: • The gift of gold was a symbol that Jesus was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
             • The gift of incense was a little unusual. Incense was used in the temple as a symbol of the prayers of the people being offered to God. In giving incense to Jesus, the Magi were treating Jesus as God.
             • The gift of myrrh was most unusual. Myrrh was used as a spice to help preserve bodies after they were buried. The gift of myrrh reminds us that Jesus was born to die. He had come to earth to take our sins and die in our place on the cross.

5. The Magi went through a long journey, and invested great effort in bringing valuable gifts to Jesus for His birthday. We should follow their example. Are we willing to invest great effort and bring valuable gifts to Jesus?

Use this time to talk about how your family will spend time and spent money this Christmas. Will you give your best time and money to offer gifts for Jesus, or for each other?

PRAYER:

A powerful way to pray as a family is to follow ACTS.

A – Adoration, telling God how wonderful He is
C – Confession, admitting our sins to God
T – Thanksgiving, expressing our gratitude to God
S – Supplication, asking God for things we need
You may choose to pray through one or all of these sections. Invite anyone who wants to pray to do so.

Adoration
Christmas is a wonderful time to praise God for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Take time in prayer to praise God that Jesus is the King of Kings. Praise Him that Jesus is God. Praise Him that Jesus came to take away our sins and die so that we might have eternal life.

Confession
Do you want to give a wonderful gift to Jesus? Offer him confession of your sins. Confessing sins as a family is a powerful way to bond your hearts with one another.

Thanksgiving
Thank God for his blessings, big and small.

Supplication
Christmas is a miracle. Do you need God to work a miracle in your life or in the life of someone you care about? Use this time to offer your needs and requests to our miracle working God.

*A parent can conclude the family worship time with a prayer of thanks.*

Keep the conversation about God and His Word going throughout the week. Consider talking about some of these questions at meal times, in the car, or before bed. Some brief answers are provided to help you guide the conversation.

1. How do you think Mary and Joseph felt when the Magi showed up to worship their two year old boy Jesus?
        A: We don’t know for sure. Perhaps they were amazed. Certainly they would have seen it as yet another sign that this boy was truly the Son of God.

2. Why do you think we give each other gifts at Christmas?
        A: The tradition of giving gifts goes all the way back to the Magi coming and giving their presents to Jesus.

3. How does Satan try and keep our attention away from Jesus at Christmas?
        A: He wants us to focus on anything but Jesus. He wants us to think about the vacation, the food, and the presents. He even wants to rename the whole season. He doesn’t want people to call it “Christmas” - because that points to Jesus. He prefers “the holidays” or “winter break.”

4. Have you decided what gift you are going to give to Jesus this year for His birthday?
        A: Consider starting a family tradition where each family member offers his or her “gift” to Jesus. Perhaps you might do this on Christmas Eve, or first thing Christmas morning.


FAMILY WORSHIP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING:

Christmas morning will be here before you know it. Talk as a family about how you can start your day of celebration with your focus on Jesus - the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Perhaps that is the time that the family can announce the gifts that they will be giving to Jesus this year. Perhaps you will read the Christmas story from the beginning chapters of Matthew and Luke.

Don’t wait till Christmas morning to come up with a plan.

- devotion produced by Wheaton Bible Church

Christmas Eve Family Devotion for Families with Young Children

Be sure to spend intentional time together as a family focusing on Christ as the center of Christmas. Because our Christmas service falls on the evening of the 23rd, that opens a golden opportunity to use time on the evening of the 24th to remind your family and yourself why we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
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He's Here!

If you needed to be rescued who would you call?

 - Police

 - Fire Dept

 - Mom

 - Dad

 - Batman!

 - How about a baby?

Are babies strong? Are they fast? Do they have weapons?

What do babies do a lot?

Well - ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the world had been in need of a rescuer! And God promised to send one! He promised Eve that one of her kids kids would have a special baby one day to reverse the curse and fix everything they had messed up! Years and years went by and God would remind different people about his promise - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Micah. However, 400 years went by and no one heard from God - but then one day this happened - let’s watch.

 

Watch Video:

 

 

Was it a miracle that God became a baby?

Can we as humans completely understand that?

Does God keep His promises?

Does He always keep them in a time and manner we expect?

Where would you expect a king to be born?

Where was Jesus born?

How does Jesus fix the problem of sin?

Praise God as a family through prayers and song that Jesus was born, lived a perfect life, died and took on all of God's anger at sin that we have committed, and that God raised Jesus so that we can become His children too, through faith!

Worship with LMBC: November 25th

Join us for corporate worship this coming Sunday, November 25th!  Rick Fisher will be preaching on "The Source of Our Hope."

Here are the songs we'll be singing this Sunday as a congregation. All the songs below have accompanying links: click on a song to listen to it on YouTube.  Listen to them and learn them this week, and worship our great God with us on Sunday!

Our offering song may be new to many of you. It is a rich and powerful song that tells of the mission of the church and its inevitable triumph over the world: O Church Arise.

• Come, People of the Risen King
• Come, Thou Fount
• Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)
• Your Name
• Bless the Lord
• O Church Arise
• There is a Hope
  
  

-Dan