Excited to see everyone for PROMOTION SUNDAY! NPM Team is ready! Classrooms are ready! Our little ones are registered and ready! Can't wait to see you all this Sunday, August 6th! August 13th – PARENT & CHILD DEDICATION SUNDAY This is a special celebration for parents to gather with family, friends, and church family, making a commitment to raise their child in a Christ-centered home. Next Sunday, we get to celebrate and come along beside our parents and little ones. We get to conduct two Parent& Child Dedications each year. Looking forward to this special milestone event. Dear families,
Rest. It’s a word that conjures up different thoughts in different people from different circumstances. For some, rest brings to mind a desire to momentarily break from the chaos of life to sleep, relax, and even recover. For others, rest is an unrealistic hope as they navigate a non-stop schedule of busyness. Yet for others, the word rest suggests an uneventful, quiet life of the mundane. Whether it’s a nap, a vacation, or boredom that comes to mind when you think of rest, it is likely a word that triggers some desire or response. And almost universally, the thought of rest is primarily physical. The Bible teaches that rhythms of rest are good and even necessary for us; however, the Bible’s primary teaching on rest refers to the spiritual. In Ezra 1, God’s remnant is instructed to recover from their exile with … work. This work would be costly, demanding, and long; but this work actually aimed to bring rest. How could this be so? Because their work was to build the place where they would encounter the living God, the One who gives true rest to the soul. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Though God clearly teaches us the benefits of a rhythm of physical rest—Sabbath—He ultimately uses physical rest to teach us of our need for a greater spiritual rest—a rest for our soul, a rest that comes in understanding that we cannot save ourselves, but God has done everything necessary through Christ to save us. We are invited into this rest through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. The people of God are instructed in Ezra 1 to begin the arduous work of building God’s dwelling place. But this work would ultimately lead to their place of rest—in God’s presence. We too may find ourselves physically exhausted from the demanding work of faithfully following the Lord in the context He has placed us. But take heart, there is rest for your soul in the presence of God and the person of Christ. Check out The Gospel Project At Home for resources designed to help you lead a family worship experience as well as suggestions for morning and evening prayer times and family activities. FAMILY TALKING POINTS CHRIST CONNECTION This is the big idea of how this week’s Bible story points to Jesus.
BIG PICTURE QUESTION & ANSWER This is an important biblical truth that your child will encounter each week of this unit.
KEY PASSAGE This is a Bible verse that relates to what your child will encounter each week of this unit.
** Next week: Zechariah Gave Hope (Zechariah 13–14)
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GHC NPMPARTNERING WITH PARENTS Archives
August 2023
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