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.
Isaiah 53:1-3
1 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
After predicting His servant would appear in the future, God, through Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born, began describing the servant in the past-tense, which has always interested me. He would later be successful and sprinkle many nations (Isaiah 42), yet in Isaiah 53 He already grew up, was not impressive, was rejected, knew suffering, and was not valued by people.
Part of me wonders if God gave Isaiah a vision of how the Jews would treat Jesus, and Isaiah wrote the future as if he had personally observed it. The Bible doesn’t say that’s what happened. Instead, we have to realize that there are differences between the ancient Hebrew language and modern English. In Hebrew, this chapter reads a little differently. Hebrew has an imperfect tense while English does not. We have to translate in past, present, or future tense. The Hebrew imperfect tense denotes something that was or is and continues indefinitely. Isaiah recognized that the people around Him 700 years before this servant’s birth were already rejecting God’s servant. Though the servant was yet to be, He already was. He had an interesting relationship with what we call space-time.
Jesus was the savior and Lord of the world before His incarnation. According to Isaiah, Christmas is simply when Jesus appeared in a plain and material way.
Today’s question from the New City Catechism:
Q- How is the Word of God to be read and heard?
A- With diligence, preparation, and prayer; so that we may accept it with faith and practice it in our lives.
2 TImothy 3:16-17 says,
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
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