Family Worship

2 songs from Colossians

by Matthew Casteel on June 8, 2011

A prayer for your family and more

Colossians is an incredible book, just full of great verses worth memorizing. We just kicked off a study in Colossians in our home church Grace East and to help our kids (and myself) get the book down into our hearts I have written two songs, so far…

I’m Asking God:

This first song is from Colossians 1:9-14 and is from Paul’s opening prayer for the church there. It is a great prayer that we should be praying over our own families. This song is almost entirely word for word from the NIV except a couple of places where I had to distill a couple of phrases down into a single thought. So, as you are singing the song, be sure to reference back to the original Scripture to show your kids where it’s different.

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I’m Asking God

I’m asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will

Through all spiritual wisdom and understanding

And we pray this in order

That you may live a life worthy

Of the Lord and may please Him in every way – Every way

Bearing fruit in every good work

Growing in the knowledge of God

Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might

So that you may have endurance patience and joy

Giving thanks to the Father who brought you into His kingdom of light

In whom we have redemption forgiveness of sins

God’s Chosen People

This next song is from Colossians 3:12-13 and is word for word from the NIV. Here is a great Scripture for your family to remind us who we are in Christ and how that should motivate us to treat others with the same grace God has shown us.

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God’s Chosen People

Therefore as God’s chosen people

Holy and dearly loved

Clothe yourselves with compassion

Kindness humility

Gentleness and patience

Bear with each other and forgive

Whatever greivences you may have

Against one another

Forgive as the Lord forgave you (repeat)

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“All Scripture” Scripture memory song

by Matthew Casteel on February 2, 2011

“All Scripture” 2 Tim 3:16-17

Download the mp3

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or listen to the song below. To download: hover your mouse over “HERE” and right click then choose either “download link as” or something like that and just save to your desktop. Email me: matthew@holyoatmeal.com if you have any problems and I can help you along the way.

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Click Here to download a PDF of the chord and lyric chart.

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How much do my kids know about the Bible?

by Matthew Casteel on January 26, 2011

Who has captured my kids’ imagination?

Just read a hilarious (yet sobering) article from Jon Acuff’s site Stuff Christians Like. He relays how his kids seem to be much more familiar with pop culture than Bible stories.

My kids digest a lot of media. And we don’t even have any actual TV channels coming in our home. But with the internet and netflix and a loud marketing machine all around us, my kids still absorb a hefty portion of “stuff”. My two oldest boys know so much more about Star Wars than I have ever even heard about. They know the connections between soldiers, Jedi, aliens, sith lords, etc. I have been around Star Wars for far longer than they have been alive, yet they know the intricate details.

Can they relate God’s redemptive story from creation to the coming of the Messiah like they can relate the flow of the Star Wars Legacy? Can I?

The true cost of “just vegging out”.

I have been a great advocate of protecting my right to sit and watch tv/movies. I have viewed it as a reward for a hard days work. At the end of the day, I just want to sit and veg. But what has that cost me over the years. Man, this really gets me. I don’t want to fall into this hyper legalistic zone and condemn all forms of television as evil or sinful…but is it worth it? I’m teaching my kids (at least by example) the truly important thing in life is to watch tv and movies. And further more….

The more “grown up” movies we watch as mom and dad, we are inferring to our kids they can look forward to the day when they get to watch violence, sex, cursing as much as they want when they grow up. Maturity is equated with unrestricted access to all sorts of sin on display. Think about it. The video games and movies rated Mature are full of completely immature material.

Check out what the Bible says about maturity:

James 1:4 NIV84

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Hebrews 5:14 NIV84

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Ephesians 4:13 NIV84

until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:6 NIV84

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

How is that for a slightly different view of maturity? Biblical maturity is defined by those who can distinguish good from evil, not those who have full access and can “handle” more evil.

I don’t mean to get heavy. It is totally cute when our kids do say the darndest things, but what do I need to change in my home to ensure my kids really do have a saving knowledge of God and that they truly do love the stories of the Bible, more than anything George Lucas can come up with.

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What are you doing for family devotions? Part 001

by Matthew Casteel on January 14, 2011

Want to know what others are doing for family devotions?

Pastor Sam Shim from the Gospel Prism Blog and pastor of The Wellspring Church (as far as I can tell) had a cool review of books they have been using for family devotions. He makes a great statement I think is worth remembering,

Let me first say that there is no standard for family worship. And we are by no means that standard. Also, I don’t know if there is that one book, other than Scripture, that is THE standard devotional to be used for family worship. We have tried many different devotionals, all of them have worked for a season. Some of them we will probably use again.

I just thought that was great wisdom to remember. There are lots of great resources and tools, none is perfect except the Bible. Don’t get caught up in one perfect resource. Try some out if they work, great, if not, move on. I think the important thing (like so much in our life) is just do something and keep at it. That is my challenge for this year. I need to move beyond great ideas and start doing.

Their structure for family worship:

Here is how Pastor Sam and his family structure their family worship:

So here is our structure for family worship:

1. We sing hymns together. My wife plays the piano very well. And we choose hymns of all types, often learning hymns together. We’ve sung a vast array of Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Isaac Watts, and many others. (At Christmas, we always try singing the Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus together. The kids love that. Ok, I love that, they sort of roll their eyes).

2. Then we read the Word aloud together.

3. Then we sing the Gloria Patri together in response to reading the word. (I know. You’re probably thinking, “Gloria Who?” It’s something I saw at Park Street Church in Boston. After the reading of the Word, they sing the “Gloria Patri.” (Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost…)

4. Then we read from Long Story Short.

5. We then sing either the Doxology (Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow) or the Benediction (The Lord Bless you and keep you with the Amens) or we do both.

6. We read from the Church History book.

7. We close in prayer, and we pray for the sick, for missionaries, for current events.

All told, it is probably 30 minutes long.

So, back to Pastor Sam’s list:

Here’s a quick overview of the different books he recommends. For a full description of each be sure to read his reviews on his blog You can preview them all in my affiliate widget below. You will be taken to Amazon if you click on the images below. Enjoy. Let me know other resources you have found and maybe we can get a second update to this post real soon. Please leave comments below! By the way, even if you don’t want to get any of the recommended devos for your family, you MUST click on the arrows-it is way too much fun!

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