What is family worship? (Click the arrow to the left)
As Christians, particularly Christian men, we are responsible to lead our households with strength and resolve in the ways of Christ. Leading our families in devotions and family worship is one way to lead our families, raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. Deuteronomy 6:7; Ephesians 6:4).
In my house, we do morning and evenings. In the morning after we eat breakfast together, we all have our quiet times. We read our Bibles seperately and journal what we see. In the evenings before bed, we talk about what we saw in our morning Bible reading, I share my insight from my own devotional time, we ask questions from the New City Catechism, we sing a couple worship songs together, and then we pray as a family. Family worship doesn’t have to look like this. It may look different for every household, but I want to invite you to join me in leading our families well. Every weekday on this blog, I want to provide a guide for fathers to lead their families in some form of family worship. If your household doesn’t have a father, I believe the responsibility falls to the mother. Design a routine that works for your family, but be intentional about leading in the only way that matters instead of getting too caught up with the affairs of this world. Every Christian man is the pastor of his home. I believe the most important thing we can do for our children is (1) lead them in the home and (2) be faithful to the church as a family. As the family goes, so goes the nation. Our job as pastors to our family matters.
Micah 5:1-2
1 “Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
They have laid siege against us;
With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
700 years before Jesus’s birth, the Assyrian army was laying siege to large portions of Israel and Judea. Micah prophesied in the midst of the destruction as Israelites were being carried off into exile. Bethlehem, the smallest of towns, would be the birthplace of Israel’s deliverer. Israel, the kingdom of lost tribes, would be abandoned until the messiah was born.
How can the intermarried lost tribes return to Israel? Only if the messiah would also come to save the gentiles and graft them in. This is exactly what Jesus would do 700 years later. He was born in Bethlehem and came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, a claim with worldwide implications. He is succeeding as we see the kingdom of God envelop the whole world even in our time.
Today’s question from the New City Catechism:
Q- Since we are redeemed by grace alone in Christ alone, must we still do good works and obey God’s word?
A- Yes, so that our lives may show love and gratitude to God; and so that by our godly behavior others may be won to Christ.
1 Peter 2:9-12 says,
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
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