Easter reading

Easter is in 3 weeks and as it falls early this year it may have crept up on you by surprise!  For our family, that means it's time to consider how we remember Christ's death and celebrate his resurrection.

There is a lot of great reading material and resources available for adults, children and families these days. 

The following are some of my favourites:

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross has been my choice for the last 2 years.  Edited by Nancy Guthrie, this selection of 25 excerpts from known preachers and theologians on different aspects of the Easter story has something to offer and challenge in each reading.  I have really enjoyed this one.

Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die, by John Piper is also a great way to focus you on Jesus over Easter.  If you are like me you may struggle to articulate 10 reasons why Jesus died, let alone 50!  However each one made me see afresh another part of Jesus' death, why it was essential and why I can be so thankful for his sacrifice.  A more detailed review can be found here.

We will start our own family Easter readings next Monday.  It is 14-day set of readings from Matthew's gospel, each day has a bible reading, a few questions and a prayer. In addition each day matches to a colourful egg which is opened to reveal a special verse for the day and an item to remind us of the bible reading. See previous posts here and here if you would like more details.  If you would like a copy, you can download a booklet to print from here.





Your kids could also do Easter Unscrambled, a resource by the Good Book Company. It's 3 weeks of daily bible reading notes for children (XTB) and also material for families (Table Talk) to do together. We have used this material before and it's always very good. The XTB part would be good for competent (or almost competent) readers who still like activity books, and the Table Talk would be suitable for all.