Saturday, January 26, 2008

Family Worship

“Every christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove in effectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be sucessful.”

Words from Jonathan Edwards http://members.aol.com/kptacek/jefg.html.

Experiential religion, in the way of family worship, is beneficial to everyone who walks faithfully with Christ for his glory in the earth. Men will disapprove of such a discipline as to binding in a time of such independence. I would argue that this teaching is grace and the neglect and disparaging of such instruction is to bring misery to a home and the churches those homes fill. We must enjoin ourselves for the spread of the glory of God’s name in the earth through worship in our homes.

I encourage all who call themselves the children of the living God to enjoin themselves daily to God’s means of grace through family worship. I have briefly outlined our practice for your help as you seek to walk with God in this discipline for his glory and the good of those who come after you.

In the evenings: The singing of the Psalms is a good way to begin family worship. Each week we sing a particular Psalm during our times of family worship. We choose those Psalms from the Trinity Psalter http://www.crownandcovenant.com/Trinity_Psalter_Words_Only_p/cm125.htm or Sing Psalms editions. The Psalm we are singing each week we have read publicly in worship on Sunday morning and sung together as a congregation on Sunday evening. After the word is sung we take up and read the word. We ask God to open our eyes to see wonderful things concerning him in his word and to bend our hearts to him through his word. We read through the McCheyene evening readings each year. In an even year we are reading the “Secret” readings in family worship and in the odd years we are reading the “Family” readings together. As I read I stop and give the sense of what we are reading asking questions for application. At the close of our reading I will answer questions the family may have concerning the passage. We then enter into a time of prayer. We seek to pray with the word we have read and from other portions of God’s word as a family. We close our time with the singing of a hymn or the Doxology. This is typical of our evening worship as a family. We are not able to do this every night but it is our aim to do so as often as we are home in the evenings together. This usually takes place 4 or 5 nights during the week.

In the mornings: We begin this time around the table with a prayer of thanksgiving. We recite a verse or more of Scripture that we are learning each week. We then recite together catechism questions that we are learning for that we week. We take up the word and read our morning reading from McCheyene’s reading plan (same as above). And then we close our time in prayer committing our lives together to the Lord for his glory in the earth.

Our morning times together are shorter than our evening times but we are usually more consistent during the week in the mornings. I have six children who range from 6 to 18. All of these participate in every element. We use a children’s catechism for our younger and the Shorter Catechism for our older children and Bethlehem Baptist Church’s Fighter Verse Memory system for scripture memory http://c4.atomicplaypen.com/sites/BBC/resources/images/58236.pdf

I pray that the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon us as we return with our families to the worship of his name around his word as the body of Christ in our homes and in our churches.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Men of Understanding

Redeemed men in Christ Jesus are called to bring that redemption to bear in their relationship to their wives in many different ways. One of those ways is through a relationship of understanding. The apostle Peter commands us as husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as a weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. (1Pe.3:7). Peter’s command for a life of understanding comes with the logic of redemption because our wives share with us in this redemption as joint heirs of Christ in eternal life. The redeemed husband sees his wife through the lenses of justification and adoption. He sees her as one who has been given the same righteous standing with God through the righteousness of Christ, eternal life through the forgiveness of sins and privileges as an inheritor of all that belongs to Jesus Christ. Therefore she is a joint heir to be brought, through serving leadership, to all the knowledge and enjoyment of God she was created for in Jesus Christ. Therefore Peter says to live with her in an understanding way because she is a delicate flower growing in the glorious garden of God’s wisdom, power and goodness in Jesus Christ. She belongs to God and she is going to be given to the knowledge and enjoyment of God through the rest of her life for all eternity. She was created and redeemed to be swallowed up in a loving relationship with her Savior and Lord. So we are in a mysterious way a groom who is to mirror Christ to her so that she will find herself more and more delighted in who he is. This calls then for a life lived toward her in understanding.

There are many ways we can seek to understand our wives as delicate flowers of God growing for his glory. But Peter gives one clear hint when he tells us to live with your wives in understanding. True understanding will come when we live with our wives. It is quite possible in today’s culture to live with someone and never understand them. But Peter is emphasizing that we must live together with them. We must watch, listen and interact with their lives in order to have understanding. This takes time, thought, and energy. It does not mean that we are to quit our day jobs so that we can understand our wives. You will understand very quickly that she does not appreciate laziness and a lack of leadership. We must watch and pay attention to what they like, dislike and are indifferent to. We must listen to them talk. Listen as they talk to their family, their children and especially you. We must ask questions and be prepared to interact with our thoughts, words and actions.

Understanding our wives as gentle and delicate flowers growing in the garden where God has planted them and redeemed them for his glory is very important work. And we are to delight ourselves in God who gives us the privilege to work in leading them to himself for their good and his glory. Let us work with delight to get understanding of our wives for then we will have worked for great treasure as we lead them to their greatest riches in Christ Jesus.

I have given some suggested questions you may use in conversation with your wife that will help you seek a better understanding of God’s redeemed image bearer he has placed in your life.

1. What circumstances are challenging or troubling you right now?
2. What decisions that need to be made are most weighing on you?
3. How are you currently experiencing temptation? This week? In this season?
4. Are you more aware of your sin or how Christ is at work in you?
5. In what ways do you most need my leadership?
6. Where do you need me to provide more spiritual direction/nurture?
7. What passage of scripture would you like us to meditate on together? As a family?
8. How can I help you set priorities?
9. In what area do we need to be more unified?
10. Do you know where I most need your help/input

*questions taken from Family Room blog Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg Md. http://www.covlife.org/familyroom/?cat=3

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

What Will They Be Singing?

On Tuesday January 22 I participated in a “Right to Life” prayer event on the steps of City Hall in our community. I was asked to participate as a pastor in leading those gathered together in prayer. I was one among several pastors in our area who participated in leading those gathered to pray. It was an encouraging time of ecumenicalism as we pleaded together at the throne of grace for repentance and help in our time of need. But at the end of our time together we participated in ecumenical singing that we could not all participate in.

We were accompanied by a talented family who lead us with a guitar and their beautiful voices in a contemporary praise song. They asked that everyone present would sing along with them. As I sat at the top of the stairs with the other pastors I noted that not all were able to sing as we did not know this particular song. Also, as I watched those gathered at the foot of the stairs, in the street and on the sidewalk, I noticed that some participated and some did not because of being familiar or not with the song. And at this I wondered what would my children be singing in the years to come? What would the saints gathered together from different traditions sing in the years to come?

This question forced me to be repentant and thankful. I was repentant toward God because I do not think we are striving with great enough strength for the singing of God’s song book, the Psalms in our churches and our homes. If we were singing God’s songs from his Word we would know what Psalm would fit an occasion like this and we would as one body of Christ sing. We could have sung a song of repentance, or a song of the rule and reign of our Savior, or a song of lamentation, or an imprecatory song. And our children could sing with us because they would be learning to sing songs after God’s heart revealed in his Word. But instead we sang a new song that will not last past ten years and our children will have to invent something new to sing.

But I was also thankful for a discipline that we have begun in our church and family that will hopefully lead to the end of singing in homes and at church for the glory of God, and when called upon in the public square. On Sunday mornings, when we are gathered together for corporate worship, we read a particular Psalm or portion of that Psalm in unison. And then on Sunday evening, when we gather again for corporate worship, we sing that Psalm that we read on Sunday morning. In this we are reading and praying through God’s song book in corporate worship. But to tie it together to worship in the church and family we print it out on a family worship guide so that it can be learned and sung throughout the week in family worship gatherings. It is our hope that God’s people will learn God’s songs and love the opportunity of worship in song around his throne. And that this singing for the glory of God will be for our children and our children’s children.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Pride

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
-Augustine of Hippo

To God’s people angels are a great blessing. Whether they are brining news of a great joy, declaring the praises of God before men or dragging one out by the arm to escape horrible judgment, they are conduits of goodness, heralds of wisdom, and servants of the power of God. But devils are another matter. They speak with the tongues of asps, minister with the mastery of murder, and bring suffering that leads to sorrow absent of joy. O that God’s people would be as angels to one another robed in the beauty of humility, and not as devils destroying one another in cloaks of pride.

"There is no tongue that can express, or heart that can conceive the horrid sins and miseries that pride has ushered in among the children of men." - Thomas Brooks

"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." - James 4:6

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

On Educating Children

4"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

Tonight my wife and I sat with a younger couple in our church discussing children and school. I insist that it is the parent’s responsibility to educate their children. However, I believe that parents can educate their children in accord with God’s will in or out of the home. Therefore, when I am seeking to counsel parents in this regard I encourage them to educate their children for the glory of God in whatever way, in or out of the home, he leads them. My wife and I educate our children in our home. But there have been years where our children have been entrusted to other adults in school settings to assist us in the education of our children. However, even in those settings we were their primary teachers and held ourselves responsible for their education in the Lord as he relates to all education.

But in the course of our conversation tonight I had a wonderful opportunity to realize the education our children are getting. While my wife and I sat listening and counseling this couple in the Lord’s wisdom our two teenage young men sat with us. They listened to this couple with us, hearing their questions and concerns, watching us ask questions and listen, and seeing us seeking to give them Godly counsel for the glory of God. They even at times participated by sharing their experiences and thoughts. The joy I experienced tonight was seeing the grace of God in the context of counsel and in the grace and knowledge of Christ growing in the young men in our home. They were with us walking by the way in seeking to love the Lord and teaching them to love Him in all that we were doing.

Educating our children in everything that the Lord has commanded us (Deuteronomy 6:6,7; Matthew 28:20) takes time and participation. It takes time invested in their lives whether you send them to school or keep them home. If they are home the time is intensive and if they come home from school the time will be intensive. But in either situation the time is given to parents as the children are given to parents for stewardship. And this stewardship of time in the context of educating children is for the raising up of Godly seed for the glory of God. Parents must be diligent in the use of time to teach their children to love the Lord their God in all of life. It also takes participation of parents in the lives of the children. The children of Godly parents need to participate with parents in the way of Godly living. Children will grow up into love with the Lord and a love that walks after him in all his ways when parents make them participate in talking in the house, walking in the way, lying down under the stars, and rising up with the sun and the mercies of God that are new every morning. Children need to sit with other adults while their parents are with other adults more than they need to sit with their peers in a separate room with the X Box or the latest DVD. Children need to be with adults when they talk and listen, teach and serve, walk and pray, in the context of other adults in the church and community.

Sanctity of LIfe

Princeton professor, Peter Singer says, “the life of an adult pig deserves protection more than that of a new born human baby, and . . . the parents should be free to kill their young children already born if they deem them unacceptably disabled.” Richard John Neuhaus, “While We’re at It” in First Things (January, 2006, Issue 159)

The Psalmist, David says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)

The suffering Job says, “Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:15)

When did man become a murderous judge? Man became a judge when he exalted himself in the Garden of Eden above the wisdom of God (Genesis 3). When he exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1). At that point in time he became the judge of what was acceptable and unacceptable.

But the remarkable thing about what Professor Singer acknowledges in his judgment is that God is the one who knits the child together in the womb. In other words for man to deem a child acceptable or unacceptable, they are acknowledging that they are the receivers of a gift, a work already accomplished. He is acknowledging that David and Job are correct. It is God who has knit the child together, formed it from an egg and sperm in the womb of a woman, and delivered it into the hands of his creatures.

But at this point the human receivers take the place of God. They continue to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who has just given them a gift, a privilege and a responsibility. As they worship and serve the creature they receive, the gift, and determine its acceptability based upon its ability to give them what they want in the earth, that which really satisfies the exaltation of self and all that satisfies self. And if that child is going to cost them thousands of dollars, sleepless nights, vacations, rest, countless trips to the doctors and hospitals, pain and suffering then they deem the child unacceptable. The adult pig will provide pork loin, pork chops, ham, bacon and sausage all for the satisfaction of the creature. So protect it until it’s time to kill it for the creature’s pleasure. But please kill the child that is going to ruin the ham dinner at Christmas because they are crying, need feeding, can’t sit up by themselves and someone will have to wipe the drool and food from their face.

Jesus Christ was unacceptable to the Jews of the first century and so they had him put to death. But this was the definite plan and foreknowledge of God who put his son forward as a propitiatory sacrifice for sinners who would trust in God through Jesus Christ for salvation (Romans 3:23-26). There is hope for the unborn and the born. There is hope for those who have established themselves in the earth as judges, putting to death unborn children through abortion. We must give up the place of assumed authority to the one who is the only true judge, and cry to him for mercy.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Call the Lord's Day a Delight

13 "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day,and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable;if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;14then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
- Isaiah 58:13-14

Living as the redeemed in a fallen world do you struggle to call the Sabbath (“the Lord’s Day” Rev.1:10) “a delight”? The Lord’s Day is a gift from God whereby he gives us himself to satisfy our souls in him through worship, rest and mercy. Yet we struggle to call the Lord’s Day a delight. We are like Esther Edwards, daughter of Jonathan Edwards, who wrote in her journal, “O, I long for a Sabbath’s frame of Mind. But instead my thoughts wander to the ends of the Earth. And in whatever duty I am engaged, I am as cold and Dead as a stone. My heart, I see, is on the World and not on God.” What is it in the world that your heart calls a delight that separates you from calling the Lord your delight on his day? The “Sabbath frame of mind” that Esther speaks of is one which is captivated by the Lord of the Sabbath who has made the Lord’s Day for man (Mk.2:27-28). He has made the Lord’s Day for man that he may come out from the world to rest himself in the One who has said, “Come to me all who labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mt.11:28-30).

I urge you to come out to him and rest yourselves in the knowledge of who God is for you in Jesus Christ. Come on the Lord’s Day and sit at his feet and let him feed your hungry soul at the banqueting table of his goodness, power and wisdom. Come on the Lord’s Day and call it a delight as you live in union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in being a conduit of his grace to those in need. Come on the Lord’s Day and be comforted and comfort those who need the knowledge and grace of a God holy and merciful. Call the Sabbath a delight having your minds set on the things above not on the things of this world and let the bread of heaven fill your soul this Lord’s Day.

To call the Sabbath a delight we must prepare ourselves. This Saturday evening prepare yourselves to call the Sabbath a delight by using some of the ideas from the list below. These are some suggestions that have been helpful to myself and my family in preparing for the Lord’s Day..
1. Recount God’s faithfulness in the week past.
2. Enjoy God in his gifts of goodness, beauty and truth through reading, listening to music, eating, walking outdoors, etc.
3. Meditate on the glory of God revealed in his Word in study and prayer.
4. Sing a Psalm or Hymn.
5. Turn off the television.
6. Use the Ten Commandments as explained in the Shorter or Larger Catechism to examine your heart and to spend time in repentance and faith before God in prayer.
7. Lead your family in worship or join a family for their time of family worship.
8. Pray for the Sunday worship service, the congregation, the elders, and the musicians.
9. Share the grace of God in the gospel with a neighbor through word and deed.
10. Read a Christian biography in order to see God’s faithfulness to his people.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will act.
- Psalm 37:4-5

Friday, January 11, 2008

A First Time for Everything

I remember the first time I rode a motorcycle, falling on the dirt road hurt. I remember the first time I shot a shot gun, my shoulder was sore. I remember the first time I took the Lord's name in vain, the bar of soap tasted terrible. I remember the first time I preached, those poor parishioners. But I do not remember the first time I blogged because this is it.

I have enjoyed taking part in reading blogs over the last several years, but now I have decided to weigh in on this experience as a writer and reader. I do not begin to embark on this activity with premonitions of a name for myself or with the idea that anyone will benefit from reading but I do want to be more of a participant in the blog world rather than a mere spectator. So as I begin I suppose that I must weigh in on some important issue or thought at present.

I will begin by weighing in on what inspired me to jump in as a participant. I received an email from a friend in Columbia South Carolina who linked me to some encouraging thoughts from a blogger he had read. I ventured on to the link and was delighted. I was delighted to find the name of the blogger a familiar one. He was once a pesty jr. high kid in a youth group I lead. Then he was a rebellious teenager I pleaded with to trust Christ and later a help to our youth ministry as a young man through his gifts in music. I was also delighted to find what the topic of his writing. He was writing on a Biblical view of the fourth commandment as fulfilled in Christ and still binding on the church today. Through a blog I have had the delight to see the glorious grace of God at work in a young man's life who many gave up on years ago. I have lost touch with this young man due to my own neglect in the realm of relationships, but now through this medium I have been brought back into his life but more importantly into the realm of our Lord's redemptive work through Christ.

Therefore, I will begin this effort of writing blogs that somehow through this medium God may be glorified in whatever he gives me to do in a day, whether it be reading or writing.