the latest at Harvest & other ramblings

In April of last year Greg started a series of sermons on the book of Acts. Hubby & I got really into this series--we were reading ahead of time in the book of Acts so we could understand the sermons more. I was still working every other Sunday back then (I FINALLY stopped working Sundays completely as of last August) so I would have hubby get me the DVD of the sermon so I didn't miss out on the days I had to work.

Unfortunately this series took longer to complete than anticipated because of the death of Greg's oldest son Christopher last July. This series was finally completed on March 1st of this year.

Greg has now started a new series. Not on a particular book of the Bible, but on what he calls the "Essentials of Christianity". He says there are too many people, both young & old, claiming to be Christians that aren't educated on really basic truths of Christianity. I have to admit I agree with this. I see it more in the youth, but I would imagine it's probably all the way across the board age-wise. So yes, I am again thoroughly enjoying this series as well & I'm praying it reaches the people who need it most.

One of the issues I see with the youth today is a major dislike for reading. I don't understand it at all........I could certainly see not being passionate about books & reading, but this extremely strong hatred I see for reading in so many youth today is really, really sad to me. Yes, I'm a bookworm, so it probably makes me more sad than it would someone else who's not as into reading as I am. Reading is a very basic thing in life--it's almost something you cannot survive without being able to do. I try to wrap my brain around WHY there is such hatred for reading in SO MANY youth I see, but I can't figure it out.

So if the youth dislike reading they certainly aren't reading their Bibles. And I see A LOT of youth (as well as adults I have to admit) who claim to be Christians yet never open their Bibles & don't know A LOT of things that are in the Bible, even really basic stuff. Knowing the scriptures & the promises contained therein is so important for our well-being & our relationship with the Lord. It's like trying to have a relationship with someone (friend, spouse, etc) while never even speaking to the person..........to have a relationship with our God we need to KNOW our God & the best way to do this is to read His Word.

Even worse, most of this youth I see actually misquoting the Bible & saying vague stuff like "it's full of contradictions" & it's this & that & the other.....yet if you ask them to SHOW you where there's a contradiction or anything else they're claiming they simply cannot do it. They are obviously just hearing this stuff 'somewhere', though I don't know where & they can't even open their Bibles & find out for themselves what's true & what isn't..........it's really, really heart-breaking to me when I see stuff like this.

Now I have to admit that I didn't grow up going to church, so I missed out on all that wonderful Sunday school education that some people I know have. I also hated school as I was growing up & my knowledge of history in general is horrendous, BUT I do feel like I know more about the Bible than most people despite this & I think that's really a shame.

I certainly plan to teach my little one how to read at a young age (much like my mother did for me) & I plan to make bedtime stories a ritual (I can remember how much I loved it when I was a kid & my dad or brother would read me a bedtime story). I know you can't force a child to like certain things, but you can certainly encourage it & I know I'll also be setting a good example as well cuz I'm always working on several books at any given time. So hopefully this child will also love to read & will know it's Bible well.