I’M GIVING YOU A GIFT. It’s coming from one of the projects I’ve been working on lately: a leader’s guide and an atlas for the entire book of Genesis—all 50 chapters.
The first draft of the leader’s guide is finished. It’ll get a couple of proofings before I release it.
When I got to chapter 48, with Jacob dishing out blessings to his grandsons, who were Joseph’s boys: Manasseh and Ephraim, I thought that one fine idea for discussion in a Bible study group would be to talk about blessing our kids and grandkids.
Old school, I know.
I’m not asking them to write a blessing to talk about in the group. But I am asking them to think about the kinds of things we could say in a blessing to our kids and grandkids.
We’ll skip the kind of curses Jacob left to some of his prodigal sons. Like this anti-blessing:
How not to bless a kid
“Simeon and Levi are identical twins in spirit
—two of a kind.
They use their swords to attack instead of defend.May I never ask for their advice.
May my name never be associated with anything they do.
They murdered men in anger. They crippled oxen for fun.I have nothing but curses for their anger,
which is vicious and cruel.
I will scatter them among the people of Jacob,
throughout the land of Israel” (Genesis 49:5-7 Casual English Bible).
Yeah, let’s not go there very often.
Though there are times…
Let’s go for the blessings.
Grandpa’s blessing
To prime the pump for the discussion group, I wrote a blessing that I’ve spoken to my grandkids. They’re too young to appreciate it—or to be embarrassed by it.
“May the God who created you follow you, fill you, and energize you. May you sense him with you wherever you go. And in the years to come, when you find yourself too numb to sense anything, may you remember he’s there nonetheless. Dear child, remember these words, as well. They come from the one who loves you more than you’ll be able to understand until you’re a grandparent: If you do anything dumb, you can always come home to grandpa.”
Bible maps online
I’ve been creating maps for the Casual English Bible, but they were an afterthought. So I had to hide them beneath words: SEE MAP. The link took you to the map.
But now I’m able to put the maps and videos up front, for everyone to see right away.
I loaded them onto the Gospel of Luke yesterday. Take a look and see what you think. I’ll be loading the other books during the next few days.
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