Family Worship

A couple of weeks ago I ended up sharing about a concept known as family worship to the parents of our students.  It is maybe one of the best and yet least utilized (or possibly lost) weapons in leading a Christian home.  The Pilgrims, our founders and my ancestors knew what family worship was about.  The primary philosophy was that while church meetings were Biblical, multi-generational Christian homes depended upon the home to teach and instruct the children in praise, teaching, Biblical study, apologetics, and family leadership.  These concepts were not just ideas written about in books but were part of the weekly lives of the families.

Today, families, especially those with youth age children, do good to get in a meal together as a family once a week.  How do I know this?  When I got to be about 12, my brother, my sister, and I were going in three different directions most of the year.  And I seriously doubt that has changed.  Family worship is about setting aside a specific time in the week to focus on the Lord as a family.  It may include song, dance, reading, and teaching but it is a defined time where phones/laptops/tablets are put away and parents instruct and discuss the Bible with their children.  This is more than just your daily Bible reading time.  It is meant to lay the foundation for the child that what is seen in the church is practiced and perfected at home.  Family worship is about spending one set time per week to spend learning and growing with God.

You may ask why this is needed.  The numbers show that an astounding number of today’s Christian youth are abandoning the faith of their father’s, grandfather’s, and great-grandfathers.  When the Pilgrims came to the new world from Holland, according to their own journals, they did so because of the pagan influences that were affecting their children.  That meant packing up everything they owned, making a 2 month miserable journey to a wilderness.  Why?  Because the Pilgrims knew that the most important thing they could ever give their children was Christ.

Parents, the greatest gift you can give your child is time spent leading them to their Father.  They may learn a great deal from church, youth group, school, and mentors, but we are the ones whom the Lord has given the privilege to direct their hearts and minds.  Take time, show and demonstrate where priorities are.  Lay the foundation for Christ to build something incredible on.  Let their path to Christ be clear and easy.  At the end of the day, our children are our greatest legacy.

Wanted: A Man to Lead

I heard this poem and on a teaching and figured it say enough without my comments.

“There isn’t a boy but wants to grow manly & true at heart,

& every lad would like to know the secrets we can impart.

He doesn’t want to slack or shirk — Oh, haven’t you heard him plead?

He’ll follow a man at play or work… if only the man will lead.

 

Where are the men to lead today, sparing an hour or two?

Teaching the boy the game to play just as a man should do?

Village & slums are calling —“Come, Here are the boys!” Indeed,

Who can tell what they might become … if only the man would lead.

 

Where are the men to lend a hand? Echo it far & wide —

Men who will rise in every land, bridging the “Great Divide.”

Nation & flag & tongue unite joining each class & creed.

Here are the boys would would do right —

But where are the men to lead?”

Curveballs

First, my apologies for not having written in so long.  The past couple of weeks have been some of the busiest I can remember in a long time.  But thankfully, I’m starting to get caught up and ready to share some more with you.

Like my title says, today is a day of curve balls.  No, I’m not at the baseball stadium (even though that would be nice).  The curve balls I am talking about are the ones where you think life is going in one direction and all of the sudden something changes or some new information makes you alter your original plans.

Curve balls are interesting in that you never know the end of where they are leading you.  At the time they hit you, it seems as though your life/reality/plan has just been destroyed.  But many times curve balls end up being great blessings in our lives, because they force us to re-examine and look outside our normal “box”.  They force us to change, which while it may be difficult, change is many times not just necessary but crucial.

Curve balls can bring us to our knees and lead us to doing what some would consider “crazy”.  Things like starting a new business, pursuing a different career, changing the way we live, moving to a different place, or just something we wouldn’t have otherwise done.

So, next time you are enjoying a good baseball game and see a guy throw a wicked curve ball or are watching a soccer game and see a nasty bending free kick, remember the significance of curve balls.  They change lives, force us to think differently, lead us to our dreams, and pretty much challenge us to go further than what we thought was possible.  Until next time….enjoy some curves.

Restoring….

Restore: To return to a person, as a specific thing which he has lost, or which has been taken from him and unjustly detained.

In the book of Joel, God tells the the people of Isreal, “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten…”  Joel was a prophet who was telling the people what God would do if the people would repent of their wickedness and turn back to Him.  I love this verse because it involves 2 things….1) a change of heart and 2) bringing back what what has been lost.  Restore is one of my favorite words because it implies bringing something back to when it was better.  When you think about restoring a car, a house, one’s health, a relationship, you always think about those things getting better.  But many people never think about what goes into restoring things.

I think when you want to restore something, there must be vision for what the finished product will look like.  You must also be willing to put in the time, planning and labor to finish the job.  And typically you need some kind of guide to get you through the process.  I see this tremendously in the restoration of relationships.  If there is no vision for the relationship, then no one knows what they are working towards.  If no one is willing to prioritize and put in the time, the relationship will stay how it is, broken.

Relationships are worth the time and effort.  They are one thing that can have an impact many generations down the road.  Many of us have experienced years that we feel have been taken from us.  But God is not only able to restore, but He can make things even better than before.  But it requires action on our part.  Just like in Joel, God promised restoration to the people but it required something from them.  They had to change.  Restoration in any relationship begins from within.  I can’t change the person across from me but I can change myself.  I hope this will encourage and maybe challenge.  I’ll see you again soon.

Best laid….

Well, I’m a day late in doing my weekly blog post thanks to a nasty head-cold but thanks to some excellent home remedies, my favorite being the cayenne pepper, honey, and fresh garlic mix, pretty much knocked it out.  Yep, just mix together the three and instant immune booster and virus fighter.  But I digress.

I was thinking about what to write and my cold experience reminded me of the saying, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”  I had planned on spending time with my family yesterday but instead I spent most of the day in bed.  Why does it seem that so many times our plans get altered in mid-step?  We try to make sure all is ready and in the exact place and order where we want it and then KABAAMMMM….something happens and we have to adjust.  It reminds me a lot of hiking and camping.

When I was in college, I had more free time and spent some time hiking and camping in the Appalachian mountains.  One trip I went with about 7 other guys.  We mapped out our weekend expedition, planned how far we would go each day, and figured about how much time we would need.  Needless to say, our trip went a little differently.  On the first night it rained.  One of the tents had a hole in it, soaking 2 guys sleeping bags, and the next days 18 mile hike took not only all day but into the night as well (we finished in headlamps).  Needless to say, things didn’t go exactly as planned.  surprise, surprise.

Proverbs 16:9 states, “The mind of man plans his ways but the Lord directs his path.”  I think about when we planned that camping trip we used a great map, logical thinking, and consulted people online for the planning of the trip but things still went differently than expected.  Life tends to be the same way.  We plan the best we can but changes always arise.  You can only see so much on a map.  You never really know the land until you walk in it and experience all the unknowns first hand.  The path we walk with God is the same.  I may have a great map and be on the right course, but the actual trail can look very different than what I expected.  It isn’t that I am in the wrong place, simply that my current surroundings are a bit different (or maybe very different) from my expectations.  But like Proverbs says, I can be at peace because it is the Lord directing my path.  Until next time.