I want to speak briefly on family worship and how to make this lost treasure, once again a staple in as many Christian homes as possible. But there are lots of questions surrounding family worship and so many resources it can be difficult to know where to start. Hopefully, this short article will alleviate some of the anxiety that comes with family worship. If you are a parent in this crazy mixed up world then you would have noticed almost immediately two things.
Before we get started let's look to scripture for our basis of authority on this matter. In Genesis we have Abel, (the second son of the first couple to live on Earth) bring his offering to the Lord. Look at the text. Genesis 4:3-5 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Abel knew what was required of the Lord. God required the best and the first. Abel would have learned that from his parents. In obedience to the Lord, Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac his son. On the way to the place God would show him, Isaac asked his father, "My father! Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Isaac knew what God required and noticed that something was missing, the lamb. Isaac knew this because Abraham his father taught him. It was a regular event in Abraham's household. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says, 4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." Paul reminds us in the new testament book of Ephesians "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the disciple and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4) God is very clear in scripture that the parents are to be the primary disciple makers of their children. But this can be tough if we do not know where to start or how to implement this practice in our homes. We will address a three step approach to implementing family worship in the home.
Be a Disciple Yourself I cannot stress how important number one is. You and I cannot impart that which we do not have. A disciple is an active follower of a person / teaching. Therefore, Christians are disciples of Jesus. That is we follow Him and learn through regular interaction with His word, prayer, and obedience. We do this in an attempt to implement what we learn in our own life. This is why you must be a disciple in order to train your children. If you do not have a regularly scheduled time that you spend with the Lord than maintaining family worship once implemented will be difficult. We must spend time with God through interactive prayer, Bible reading, worship, and obedience. If you unfamiliar with how to get this started click the title link How To Grow Closer To God in 30 Minutes of Less. Do What Works For Your Family I cannot stress this enough. There is not perfect way to conduct family worship in the home. Aside from opening the Bible or a devotional book, interacting, and engaging your children, there is no specific format. This is one of the most freeing things about family worship. You have the freedom to make it your own. Tailor it to your family's needs and dynamics. For example, we have 4 children ages 16, 13, 11, and 5. The 11 and 5 year old color while we read the Bible or devotion and then engage when we discuss the questions or scripture for that evening. Some children need to keep busy during these times and that is okay. We have found that they tend to pay attention with more aptitude. Rinse, Recycle, Repeat Once you have found what works for your family and get into a steady routine, you will notice that your child(ren) may become restless or disengaged. This could be a tell tale sign encouraging change. I would suggest that you rinse off what does not work and recycle what does. Then repeat, repeat, repeat. If you need to go from Bible study to short video based devotionals, do it! If you need to add in a small simple craft or activity to keep little hands busy, do it! The main thing is to continue family worship at whatever cost because in the end, this is of eternal value. Can I say that you will have struggles, you will experience difficulty and you will get frustrated? But take heart, this is only because it is something new. Think about exercise. No one goes from couch potato channel surfer to a max dead lift of 300, or six-pack abs without hard diligent and consistent effort. Family worship is no different. If you are willing to put in the work, sacrifice the worthless things that consume our time you will find that the practice of family worship pays huge dividends.
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I know the majority of you reading this title are saying, “yeah right, not possible.” Hold onto that thought and consider that I was once of the same mind set. Let’s face it. We are inundated with worldly demands that vie for our attention with diligence and tenacity. With the ever advancing technological dynamics of our day, we are lead to believe that we can recover time or at the very least use it wisely. Unfortunately, neither of these misleading paradigms are true.
We soon find that the ever expanding technological advances simply demand more work, more effort, requires more ways of communicating, which leads to increased expectation on those utilizing the technology. Let me preface this by not saying what you think I am saying. Technology is simply a tool with no inherent value aside from what we put on it. Therefore, it is neither evil nor good. It is truly in the eye of the beholder. If you spend 50%, 30%, 20% or any time of your day on a particular social media platform or video streaming service, it is not the social media platform/video streaming service, nor the internet, nor the device of your choosing at fault. The fact is simply this, as soon as the alarm screams its ominous toll our precious time starts to fade quickly. We need to intentionally forecast time on our Creator. Therefore, before we get started on the how, it would prove useful to address the why. Although, the aforementioned address to technological advancement and its insatiable lust for our time probably gives way to some form of “why,” we will address it from the lens of Scripture. Our world is full of “why.” If you want to experience this in all of its fruitfulness, simply allow yourself an afternoon with a toddler. All jokes aside, there are many reasons why we should want to grow closer to God. The first and most important reason is this: “You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, soul, and strength. In addition to the first and greatest commandment, we can look at a few verses that further support the “why.” However, by no means an exhaustive list, we can see the importance God places on growing closer to Him. Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. James 4:8a Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 1 Timothy 4:7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness While all of these verses address the “why” I want to focus on the 1 Timothy. Paul says here we are to train ourselves for godliness. That is the process of sanctification over the course of our life as God the Father continues to mold us into the image of God the Son (Jesus) by power of God the Spirit (Holy Spirit). What do we have to loose with growth in godliness (sanctification)? Our fears, our propensity toward sin (Caveat of course I mean we will willingly choose to sin less), our shame, our guilt, our baggage, our meanness, our anger. What do we have to gain? We gain the ability to properly love, choose joy, experience true peace, maintain patience in all situations, extend kindness, overflow with goodness, keep faithfulness to God, pour out gentleness and exercise self-control. All to the glory of God, for our good by His mercy and grace. Let’s move to the “how.” How can this be accomplished in 30 minutes? Well, there are 4 things we can do each day that will help us. This is not an exhaustive list but a great start.
I know what you are thinking, “I can’t sing.” No worries, I cannot sing nor carry the proverbial tune in the 5 gallon drum; however, this practice does not mean you have to sing. The purpose is to worship the Lord in song by focusing our hearts, minds and ears to the tune of the music while simultaneously praising God. Find a station on one of the many smartphone apps that allow you to listen to music or search a web platform. I listen to older hymns not because they are inherently better than contemporary music; rather, I do so because they generally contain a lot of theological truth/doctrine in the lyrics and this helps keep me focused on God. 2. Pray the Bible If you have never done this, you are missing out. If you have ever felt like you say the same things about the same things in prayer, this is for you. If you feel like you don’t know how to pray or what to say, this is for you. All that aside, this is for everyone. Praying the Bible is the amazing process of reading scripture, steeping it in your heart and sending it back up to God in prayer. Let me explain how it works and then give an example. Thumb to the Psalm of the day (e.g. if It is the 10th, Psalm 10, the 25th Psalm 25 etc..) and read the first verse out loud or silently. Whatever comes to your heart or mind, simply turn it into a prayer and send it back to God. When nothing else comes to mind, read verse two and repeat praying until nothing else comes to mind and then on to verse 3 and so on. This can be done until you meet the time you have set for prayer or nothing else comes to mind. I thought when I first learned this technique that there would be no way I could ever pray for 10-15 minutes let alone 5 but once you get into this routine, time will easily pass by. Your heart will be filled with God’s word and your lips will be full of prayer. We will use Psalm 4 as an example. – Psalm 4 Verse 1 – Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. God, I pray that you will answer me when I call to you and right now Lord I call out. Please bless my family today… Lord God you are my righteousness, thank you for being my righteousness God. Without You oh God, there is no Salvation, thank You for Your Salvation….God you relived me in my distress Lord when I was dealing with that storm or sickness or temptation… God thank you for your grace, be gracious to me and hear my prayer as I pray for so and so, and for situation and thus…. I hope you can see the potential for your prayer life in using this method. Remember whatever or whoever comes to mind, just pour out your heart to God with His words. 3. Bible Intake This process is simply reading the Bible to yourself. A good practice is to choose a book of interest or one you have not read through and begin in chapter one. Read out loud and slowly while trying to mentally soak in the Word. This will help you get through books of the Bible and cause you to start probing the text more as what you read manifests applications and questions for your life. Remember this process is simply to read God’s word and take in what you read. It is not time to study the depth of the text. 4. Meditate on Scripture This process is where you choose a devotional book to begin in and study the text more thoroughly. For example, if you choose the book of James, begin in chapter 1 and read a few verses. Have your journal handy so that you can focus your thoughts as you meditate on what you read. You might wish to focus on “bond-servant” in James 1:1. There are various ways to meditate on this. You can ask questions :
The main idea behind Scripture meditation is to focus deeply on the text. James says in 1:2, “Consider it … ” The word consider means to think deeply on, look at from various angles, meditate on, concern yourself with. Simply put, we should consider the text as we read it. Scripture meditation is a great way to increase our understanding of the text as well as draw out application. This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive but a small starting point for us to intentionally grow closer to our Creator using a Biblical method. Furthermore, this process is flexible which means if you only have 10-15 minutes a day, great! Start there and slice up the 4 activities in a way that works for you. I know it is tough to schedule more things in our already too full calendar but when it comes to sanctification and growth in godliness, let something else go and make this a priority. The benefits far outweigh the cost. Make more time for God and less time for the world. In the words of most notable missionary evangelist, Jim Elliot: “I believe the enemy has made it his business to monopolize on three things, noise, hurry and crowds. Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.” Don’t let the world steal all your time. Give some to God for worship, prayer, reading His word and meditating on its meaning. When we go to face our Great Creator we will be asked what we did with the time we were given. The definition of Savior is:
"a person who saves someone or something (especially a country or cause) from danger, and who is regarded with the veneration of a religious figure." Why say Everyone is Looking for a Savior? Well, the short and simple answer is because they are. It’s our nature as human beings. Consider why every story containing a heroic protagonist always involves good triumphing over evil. From video games to movies everyone is looking for a savior. Most have a distorted and self-absorbed understanding of this “savior” but the concept holds true all the same. We will consider one video game from years ago and one recent movie. I used to be into the Final Fantasy video game franchise. From FFI to whatever number they are at now, the premise is the same. Some terrible tragedy is happening or about to and it is up to some unsuspecting slightly arrogant and pride filled person to stop it. Along the way the protagonist learns very important things about life and self. There is personal reflection, introspection and a host of other life lessons that turn our once arrogant pride filled goober into a wise, “others focused” hero who would do anything to see the greater good realized. Final Fantasy 10 carried the same premise but in this case our protagonist was a self-diluted insecure boy whose father he thought abandon him early in life to chase a ridiculous dream of becoming a famous blitzball player. Tidus, the protagonist is also a blitzball player like his “dead beet” dad and during a major game in his home town a creature massive in size destroys the city. Auron a longtime friend of Tidus’ father (we realize later in the game) tells Tidus the creature is called Sin. It goes from city / world to city / world and destroys almost everything in its path. Now as the story goes, Tidus meets many other friends and a young woman named Yuna through Auron. He soon realizes that the many friends are Yuna’s “guardians” and she is on a quest to defeat Sin. Tidus therefore becomes the 11th or 12th guardian (I can’t remember) and travels with the team. Yuna goes to various temples and worships to gain strength for her plight. When she comes to a town that Sin has already destroyed, she performs some sort of healing or miracle that helps the townspeople. Starting to sound familiar yet? After Tidus and Yuna develop a close emotionally and conversationally intimate relationship he finds out that the only way for her to defeat Sin is to give her life in the final battle at which time she both defeats and becomes Sin. Does this sound like the game developers picked this story up somewhere… anywhere… or I don’t know perhaps the Bible. Most every other video game that involves good and evil follows this same concept. Next we discuss a recent movie. The Death Cure was the last in the Maze Runner franchise. Many are familiar with either the movies or the books so I will not go into much detail. However, the same premise holds. The protagonist does all he can to help everyone. There is a contagion spreading in the Maze Runner series that turns people into “crazies” who attack everyone and everything and suffer from violent outbursts. Those in power are trying to find a cure but every promised development comes up short. After a lot of running, fighting and rescuing we find out toward the end of the movie that they found a cure. At this point the Maze Runner world is in complete upheaval. There are fires, buildings collapsing, people are dying and the medical staff, down to just one person still desperately trying to find the cure, realizes that the blood is the cure. In a very dramatic way they call back the protagonist by telling him how many lives he can save and how he can make the world a better place. He need only come back, possibly sacrificing himself to save everyone because his blood contains the cure. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Ever heard a story like this before? My point in simply this, everyone is looking for a savior. However, because we live in a sinful world we are prone to make up our savior in our own image so that s/he acts, thinks, speaks, and saves how we want. We commit the egregious sin of idolatry to comfort ourselves. Why are we willing to do that? It is because we are all looking for a savior. We desperately hold onto anything in this life that is good and brings us joy because in this world we will have pain, suffering, heartache, trials, temptations and death. None of which was part of the original design by God. All of this is merely the effects of sin. Genesis 2:16-17 "And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned." The problem is our desire to make up a savior in our image. If the savior we are so desperately trying to find is made in our image than that savior is wicked to the core (Jeremiah 17:91; Romans 8:62; Revelation 21:83; Ezekiel 18:204), insecure, tired, heartbroken, and is unable to save self let alone anyone else. We desperately search out a savior because deep down we know that we are hopeless and even on our good days we feel a longing that cannot be filled with the worlds fleeting carnal pleasures. God tells us that He is the only savior (Isaiah 43:115). God is the only God there is no other (Isaiah 45:56). God promises a savior to deliver His people all throughout the Old Testament and delivers in Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:217; Acts 5:318). Jesus says He is the only way, the only truth and the only life, no one can get to the Father except through Him (John 14:69). |
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