Darkest Night, Brightest Day

Darkest Night, Brightest Day, Marty Machowski (New Growth Press, 2022)

Families with primary age children are often on the lookout for resources that help them explore the Easter story, balancing both the passion week and the joy of Jesus’ resurrection.

Marty Machowski has created this great book, Darkest Night, Brightest Day that does exactly that, with seven days of readings that cover the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, and then seven days on Jesus’ resurrection appearances, finishing with Pentecost. The illustrations by Phil Schorr are simple, colourful and clear.

Machowski has collated all the gospel readings together to make one coherent account, so it reads simply and logically, as if straight from the bible. It’s sewn together with skill, with some aspects 

explained further to assist with understanding. Each chapter is two to three pages of text, and would probably take under 10 minutes to read aloud. There are a few questions at the end of each chapter, with answers provided in small font if needed. It’s designed to have the Darkest Night chapters as one half of the book, with its own cover. Then after seven days of readings, on Easter morning - you switch the book over and with a new cover for Brightest Day, read the next seven days. 

I really like its simplicity. There are no fancy crafts or activities, no extra things to do. God’s word is allowed to speak for itself. This also means it isn’t asking too much of busy or weary parents. While it may struggle to hold the attention of pre-schoolers, it would be great for primary age kids, and even younger high schoolers would still benefit from reading this with their family over Easter. The appeal for older kids might actually be its simplicity, my children definitely grew out of devotionals that required activities around the end of primary school. This doesn’t ask much of them, but still enables them to listen to and interact with the biblical accounts. I suspect many adult readers will also see afresh how the events around the resurrection fit together, and how through Jesus we really have moved from darkest night to brightest day.


I received an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Journey to the Cross

Journey to the Cross, Will Walker and Kendal Haug

I have read numerous Easter devotionals over the years.   Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross by Nancy Guthrie has been a favourite, with her 25 readings from different thinkers. Similarly, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper makes you stop and ponder the vast depths of the sacrifice that Jesus made.

Journey to the Cross is now added to my collection as a great choice of reading in the lead up to Easter. Walker and Haug have designed a set of readings to cover the Lenten period, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday – 6.5 weeks. Each week focusses on a different theme: repentance, humility, suffering, lament, sacrifice and death.

Each day has a reading that calls to worship, a confessional prayer, a section from Mark’s gospel (starting with Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, to the end) and a prayer of thanksgiving.   Then there is a devotional based on a Scripture passage relevant to the theme.  This ends with some reflection questions and a closing prayer. Each Sunday is a shorter reading, of a hymn or profession of faith, as a way of celebrating the truths of the gospel.

I have benefitted so greatly from this resource. My heart was turned more towards Christ in the lead up to Easter. The sobering themes enabled me to reflect on each for the whole week, enabling more sustained thoughts on things like lament, which I would rarely take the time to do normally.

I found the challenge of how to observe Lent helpful.  Lent is a way of giving up something so that we focus on God.  Not something that draws attention to itself, but something that draws us into fuller dependence on Jesus. Perhaps it is an acknowledgement of that which takes us away from Jesus. So, having never having given up anything for Lent before, I did this year. I gave up Facebook, and it was both remarkably freeing and enabled me to see again how it does not help me in my walk with God.

The prayers throughout were very encouraging, and since I love written prayers I may choose to incorporate some into my own private prayers. Many were sourced from The Worship Sourcebook.

Here are just a few of the observations I found encouraging along the way:

“Ultimately, suffering is about learning to receive whatever God has placed in our hands as his goodness for us today.” (p95)  

“Lament is not about getting things off your chest. It’s about casting your anxieties upon God, and trusting him with them.  Mere complaining indicates a lack of intimacy with God.  Because lament is a form of prayer, it transforms our complaints into worship.  Anyone can complain, Christians can lament.”  (p101)  

“The norm in our culture is to sacrifice whatever we have to get what we want.  The way of true sanctification is to sacrifice everything we want because of what we already have in Christ.  This is the heart of Lent.  We are decluttering our lives, inside and out, testing the vales and habits and desires that have become our acceptable norm. We are considering what Jesus gave up for us, and it is changing us” (p146-7)  

“Repentance, humility, suffering, lament, and sacrifice do not come naturally.  Indulgence and self-righteousness do.” (p157)

It is a sobering way to spend six weeks. Yet it’s also filled with praise and worship and wonder at what Christ has done. In the busyness of first term and the complications of life, this had me dwelling in Jesus and God and their marvellous plan of sacrifice for the whole world.  Time very well spent.

Easter

As Easter is approaching, you might like to consider how to celebrate it with your family.

Every year we have two weeks of bible readings that we do together, as well as things to discuss, prayers and also optional inserts for openable eggs. It's been a great way to focus our attention on Jesus’ final week and reflect upon his death and resurrection as a family.

If you would like to use them for your family, both are available as pdf files via the resources tab. Note the start and finish dates are different for each so that the events of the Easter weekend itself line up with the readings.

Preparing for Easter with your family: Readings from the Gospel of Luke

• Aimed at more primary aged kids, although flexible and adaptable.
• Print in format needed (Acrobat Reader allows you to print as a booklet)
• Start on the Wednesday nine days before Good Friday and go through until Easter Tuesday (2 days after Easter Sunday).
• If you want to use my inserts which include the titles of the days, the bible verses and some suggestion for pictures, they are also available on the resources page.

Preparing for Easter with your family: Readings from the Gospel of Matthew

• Aimed at younger families, although flexible and adaptable.
• Print in format needed (Acrobat Reader allows you to print as a booklet)
• Note: this is exactly the same material as in previous years, it has just had a format update.
• Start on the Monday 11 days before Good Friday and go through until Easter Sunday.
• If you want to use my inserts which include the titles of the days, the bible verses and some suggestion for pictures, they are also available on the resources page.

For other ideas of how to celebrate Easter, books to read, and things to try – read through the Easter posts of the past. There is a lot in there!

We still have a simplified Passover meal and watch the Prince of Egypt on Thursday night. We still have hot cross buns on Friday morning and a little egg hunt on Sunday morning.  These have now become firm traditions, which makes them all the more special.

Easter

Easter is coming up fast this year, in fact it will all be over in only 3 weeks!   So it’s time to think about how you might celebrate Easter with your family.

Over the past 6 years we have used some readings from Matthew’s gospel over the two weeks leading up to Easter (you can read about them and their development over the Easter readings posts).   It has been a great way to focus our attention on Jesus’ final week and reflect upon his death and resurrection as a family.   When I wrote it our kids were a lot younger and so the readings and questions were a simplified version of the account. 

I have wanted to work through a more complete account for some time.  Also, as with Advent last year,  I felt we needed something new.   I had planned to write new material from John’s gospel, but realising the work involved that has been shelved for another year (!)  

This Easter we are trialling some new material from Luke’s gospel.   Like the Matthew readings, there are 14 days of bible readings, things to discuss, prayers and also optional inserts for openable eggs.

If you would like to use them for your family, both are available as pdf files via the RESOURCES tab:


Preparing for Easter with your family:  Readings from the Gospel of Luke

• Aimed at more primary aged kids, although flexible and adaptable.
• Print in format needed (Acrobat Reader allows you to print as a booklet)
• Start on the Wednesday nine days before Good Friday (March 16 in 2016) and go through until Easter Tuesday. 
• If you want to use my inserts which include the titles of the days, the bible verses and some suggestion for pictures, they are also available on the resources page. 

Preparing for Easter with your family:  Readings from the Gospel of Matthew

• Aimed at younger families, although flexible and adaptable.
• Print in format needed (Acrobat Reader allows you to print as a booklet)
• Note: this is exactly the same material as previous years, it has just had a format update. 
• Start on the Monday 11 days before Good Friday (March 14 in 2016) and go through until Easter Sunday. 
• If you want to use my inserts which include the titles of the days, the bible verses and  some suggestion for pictures, they are also available on the resources page.  

The start and finish dates are different for both so that the events of the Easter weekend itself line up with the readings.

I would love feedback on the new material, if you try it.  As we are also using it for the first time, I’m sure there will be edits along the way!

For other ideas of how to celebrate Easter, books to read and things to try – read through all of the Easter posts of the past.   There is a lot in there!

****

Update after Easter 2016 - we enjoyed the new readings, having some more details of the gospel accounts and some different things to think about.

Here is a photo of the pictures/readings on the wall at the end:

 

Easter

Easter is approaching - no doubt the large amount of chocolate in the shops has alerted you to it!

If you would like to think about some ways to celebrate Easter with your family, you could read my previous posts on Easter.

If you would like to use the "Preparing for Easter with your family"  readings the link can be found via the resources tab on this blog.  It starts on Monday.

Also, this year I have included a pdf of the titles, key verses and clipart pictures I use, in case you want to cut them up and put them in your eggs.   This photos shows the things I print out and use.

Have fun with your family preparing for Easter!

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished, Scott James

It's been some time since I have reviewed any of the books sent to me by New Growth Press.  The only reason is not having time to read them - I hope to rectify that very soon!

This one however seemed worth putting time aside for now and indeed it was.   

This family devotional by Scott James is designed to be started on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) and continued through Easter for two weeks.

I love the format: one week is spent "Walking with Jesus to the Cross" and the second week looking at "The Risen King" and our response to him.

When I first began looking into Easter material many years ago, the only things available focussed heavily on the Passion Week, with details that I did not think needed dwelling on, especially for families of young children.  So as regular readers of this blog will know, I wrote my own material   (accessible via here) that our family has used for the last 6 years. 

James done a similar thing, with even more emphasis on the risen Jesus.  Each study (mainly from Luke's gospel), has a 1-2 page explanation, some questions to discuss, things to pray about, and then either a song to sing or an activity to do.  Each could easily be done in 10 minutes, but some of the things to talk about could take longer if there was time and everyone was interested! 

I think this will appeal to families with school-aged children.  James has pitched the explanations at a reasonable level of understanding, which could be simplified if needed for younger children, or used to stretch older children and teenagers.  

As our family has a tradition of doing our own material, we will stick with that, as well as the other things we do to celebrate Easter. 

However, I think Mr (almost) 12 would really benefit from this material.  I will give it to him to work through for his own devotional time though Easter and then talk about with him.  It will be good to stretch him a little further and I think this book will do that.  Because of this, the only thing I wish was different was that the answers to the questions were at at the back of the book (if you needed to look them up) rather than alongside the questions themselves.

New Growth Press are trying to get this to Australian distributors in time for Easter.  If it doesn't make it in time, perhaps look out for it over the next few months and save it for next year!