How are you doing with memorising Ps.119:9-12?   Don’t forget there will be an opportunity at Church (on 11th) to encourage the congregation by showing us that you have committed this passage (or part of it, depending on how old you are) to memory.  That is only the first step though.  We hide His word in our heart so that we don’t’ sin against Him!  Memorising Scripture is part of hiding His word in our hearts...  but that is a means to an end!

Meanwhile at Nazareth...  things aren’t going so well for Jesus.  We often think popularity is a good sign of how good a preacher someone is.  It might be.  But on that basis you’d have to conclude that Jesus isn’t a very good preacher!  Why not spend some time as a family reflecting on what make a good preacher?  Why might people get angry with good preachers?  Why did people get so angry with Jesus?  How do we make sense of it when we find ourselves getting angry when someone is teaching the Bible?  Maybe you could spend some time praying for those at MIE who preach week by week.  This can be a great opoprtunity to help your child(ren) think through the importance of Scripture being at the heart of the Church’s worship.

Can you look ahead in Luke’s Gospel and find places where Jesus does each of the things He says he’s going to do here in 4:18-19...  depending on how competitive your kids are, this could be presented as a challenge.  How many ways does Jesus proclaim good news for the poor? ... enable the blind to receive their sight? ...set the oppressed free? ...proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour?  This could be a great way of getting your child(ren) to read through Luke’s Gospel.  You might want to have an age appropriate version to hand.  We’ll be in Luke on and off for a few years, so it might be a worthwhile investment.

When they have identified passages where Jesus does what He says he will do, then you can have a conversation – based on those passages – about what Jesus means.  Is this limited to people physical well being and circumstances? ... or does Jesus have more than that in mind?

Older children might be interested in the idea that Jesus is fulfilling the Year of Jubilee (the Year of the Lord’s Favour).  You can read about it in Lev.25 – what a great interactive way of teaching the OT Church!  How do the various elements of the Year of Jubilee teach us about who Jesus is, or about what He will do?  How would living through the year of Jubilee have helped ancient Christians to understand the Gospel more fully?

If you do nothing else with this week’s passage, it would be worth spending a bit of time on Jesus’ teaching in Lk.4:24-27.  Jesus is underlining how God’s heart has always had an eye to those outside of the Church.  God is the original evangelist.  Why not have a chat with Tracey and find out how the Alpha Courses are going? ...maybe spend some time as a family praying for those wo are turning up and hearing about Jesus...