I have always enjoyed Marty Machowski’s books. Listen Up: 10 Minute Family Devotions on the Parables is no exception. This book is perfect for the family that wants to dig a little deeper than just reading a Bible story each day. Each week begins with an activity to complete that will make the parables come alive (for example on week one you would explore four different soils before moving on to the study for the week). Each day is broken down into four parts: Listen Up (the parable), Think About It (an application story), Talk About It (discussion questions), and Pray About It (prayers). There is also a section to cover to go deeper into the story.
This book is perfect for family study time or even a small group such as Sunday school.
More about Listen Up
Everyone loves a good story, and children are no exception. Who better to tell those stories than Jesus? Listen Up, by bestselling author Marty Machowski, delves into some of Jesus’s best-known stories in a two-part discipleship resource fashioned to help children explore the parables of Jesus and learn the biblical truths they convey.
Listen Up offers two separate discipleship tools. The first product, a twelve-week curriculum and companion music album is designed to help children understand the gospel and the kingdom of God through Bible reading, discussion questions, object lessons, puppet skits, and art activities. Included in this curriculum is the Sovereign Grace Listen Up music CD, which reinforces the themes of the lessons in a catchy, easy-to-learn format. This curriculum includes three learning levels—preschool and kindergarten (ages 4–6), elementary (ages 6–9), and middle school (ages 10–12).
Also available in this series is the companion family devotional, Listen Up: Ten-Minute Family Devotions on the Parables, which will further reinforce the surprising truths of Jesus’s parables and explore how they are relevant and meaningful today. This family devotional can function as either a stand-alone resource for families or serve as reinforcement to the curriculum content learned at church. The ten-minute lessons for each week include Bible passages, short commentaries on the meaning of the verses, as well as discussion questions. “Fun facts” are also included to break up more serious teachings, and each lesson closes with a prayer suggestion. Through the stories that Jesus himself used, parents have a unique opportunity to help their children “listen up” to the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Purchase a copy of Listen Up HERE
Marty Machowski serves as the Executive Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for over 25 years. He is the author of The Ology, a systematic theology for children, Long Story Short, Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God, The Gospel Story Sunday School Curriculum and the companion Gospel Story Children’s Bible. Marty enjoys writing “study fiction,” a genre he developed that combines Bible study with engaging fiction. Dragon Seed, a novel for teens, and Prepare Him Room, an Advent devotional for families combine these two elements. He and his wife Lois and their six children reside in West Chester Pennsylvania area.
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