The following is a summer challenge I issued to our church family by email this week.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been enjoying an early morning, fast paced walk with Carolyn on a pleasant trail in the woods near the house. It’s really all I can do to keep up — she’s been walking about an hour a day, almost every day, for a couple of years now. On our walk this morning I saw a tall pine tree lying beside the trail. The tree looked like it had been blown over recently.

What I found interesting about it was the fact that though the tree had been standing not long ago, probably about 20 feet tall or so, a young pine, and appeared to be healthy, I saw no tap root. From what I understand about pines they grow a deep tap root that gives them strength and stability. Evidently the tap root of this tree had been compromised or was simply insufficient to withstand the severity of the storm that hit it.

How’s your spiritual tap root? Two characteristics seen in 1 John of believers who are strong in their walk with Christ are that they are people in whom God’s Word abides (1 John 2:14) and they are people who abide in Christ (1 John 2:27) — that is they yield to the work the Holy Spirit is working in them.

Let me encourage and challenge you to give attention to strengthening and growing your spiritual “tap root” by reading God’s Word this summer. Summer will go by quickly and I know there are many things we’d like to do during these wonderful but few warm days in Northern Michigan. Take time to enjoy them, but don’t neglect God’s Word. Better yet, get outside, pull out your favorite lawn chair or Adirondack and enjoy God’s Word while you enjoy His creation. And then be certain that you approach God’s Word with reverent humility, ready to obey as God’s Spirit works in you. Grow your spiritual tap root deep this summer.

I had a good talk with my dad on the phone yesterday afternoon on Father’s Day. I suppose it’s traditional to list the reasons why you love your Dad but I want to tell you why I know my Dad loves me.

My Dad prays for me every day.

A nice article and a neat photo of John Piper doing some thrifty shopping here. I was able to do a bit of cross-country skiing this winter because of some good thrift store discoveries.

My Dad tells a great story of a time I often remember. It still kind of blows my mind we actually did this. Thanks for the great memories Dad. Just envision two large cars, a full U-Haul trailer and a log chain and then go read “Night Rescue.”

This is a “must listen” sermon from Voddie Baucham on raising children. (11mb MP3)

(via Monergism.com)

I can hardly believe our oldest is 17 today. The years have flown by. Happy birthday Kevin Michael.

Al Mohler weighs in with a helpful presentation of the current homeschooling debate in his piece entitled Overt Hostility toward Homeschoolers.

A milestone for our firstborn. Kudos to the first to figure out what it is (for those who I haven’t told already).

Comments are open.

Abraham Piper’s article, published in “Decision” Magazine is sound advice for parents and grandparents dealing with wayward children. (via: Ken)

Al Mohler gives direction for believers on how to deal with Halloween in “Christianity and the Dark Side — What About Halloween?” He emphasizes parental discernment and concludes with this.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther began the Reformation with a declaration that the church must be recalled to the authority of God’s Word and the purity of biblical doctrine. With this in mind, the best Christian response to Halloween, might be to scorn the Devil and then pray for the Reformation of Christ’s church on earth. Let’s put the dark side on the defensive.

We’ve chosen to forgo making much of Haloween in favor of giving our children sweets because, as my wife says “the Gospel is sweet”, and we’ll be celebrating the Reformation tonight by watching Luther.

Update: And then you gotta love the Dan Phillips family observance of the 31st. I think that’s where Carolyn got the “sweets because the Gospel is sweet” idea.

Tomorrow, October 1, is Jacob’s 10th birthday. We’ll be traveling on his birthday to help his grandparents move, so we celebrated today. We love you Jacob.

Some time ago I set up a wiki (get one for yourself for free at pbwiki.com) for our family to use to share useful information such as favorite recipes, gift ideas or items needed when mom shops next week. I suggested early this year that we keep on the wiki a running list of books we’ve read, mainly as motivation (for me) to read more–a little peer pressure and accountability in this area is a good thing. Well, so far this year my wife Carolyn is showing me up. On her list are thirty-one books and one of them is the Bible. She’s kinda competitive that way.

We love you buddy! Have a great birthday.

We dropped off Luke and Jacob for a week of camp yesterday and stayed for lunch. They’ll have a great week.

Luke & Jake’s first camp experience

This is the best father’s day gift I could receive today. Click the image for full size on Luke’s site.

Earlier this week Kevin and Taylor got some bobcat time in the back yard. I did manage to get some video of Taylor.

Taylor on bobcat time from Kevin on Vimeo

25 Ways to Help Kids Love to Read — at the Desiring God blog.