Family (43)
As the loving mother rejoices to be the fountain of nourishment to the babe which clings to her warm bosom, so the Christian father delights to convey, even by reverent reading, "the sincere milk of the word" (1 Peter 2:2). He has found it good to his own soul; he rejoices in an appointed means of conveying it to his offspring.
J.W. Alexander
A Theology of the Family3.4K
The reason why the reformation succeeded so well in Germany was because the peoples catechizing went along with Luther's preaching. It was laid as a charge upon masters of families, that they should catechize their children
we must recognize that God's basic institution throughout Scripture, starting from the Garden of Eden, is the covenant family. From a biblical point of view, all modern forms of government are variations on monarchism, of rule from the top down, whereas in Scripture, the family is the central social government.Mission of God, 67
A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.
The way of family worship is a good old way, no new thing, but the ancient usage of the saints.Commentary Gen 12:6
There is but one family which ought to be reckoned, both in heaven and on earth, both among angels and among men—if we belong to the Body of Christ. For outside of Him there is nothing but dispersion
Unfortunately, the idea of segregation is so ingrained in the minds of Christians in our culture that they cannot conceive of a church without age-graded Sunday school classes, children's church, and youth service on Wednesday night (and now on Sunday mornings in some places).Family Driven Faith
Walk into a family-integrated church, and the first thing you will notice is the presence of babies. We don't realize it, but we have been desensitized to the absence of babies. We're used to corporate worship being a largely adult affair. In fact, I preached in a church not long ago that had a sign up that read, "Please silence all cell phones, pagers, and children under four." In other words, "No babies, please!" Once you get over the inordinate number of babies, your attention will probably be drawn to the absence of a teen section in the sanctuary. What's more, you will notice that the teenagers are actually sitting with their families, and rather large families at that. It won't take long to realize that you're not in Kansas anymore. This is not your normal church gathering.Family Driven Faith
The Fifth Commandment was the foundation upon which the concept of multigenerational faithfulness is built. God designed the family to disciple children and insure the faithfulness and perpetuation of the community of faith throughout the ages.Family Driven Faith
[C]oncerning the spiritual state of his family; [the father] ought to be very diligent and cautious, doing his utmost both to increase faith where it is begun, and to begin it where it is not. Therefore, he must diligently and frequently bring before his family the things of God, from His Holy Word, in accordance with what is suitable for each person. And let no man question his authority from the Word of God for such a practice.
If giving our children a biblical worldview is the why of family driven faith, giving them biblical instruction is the what. Our worldview shapes the way we think, but learning and memorizing the Scriptures determine what we think.Family Driven Faith
If you want to be a godly head of a family, you must ensure that there is Christian harmony among those under you, appropriate for a house where the leader fears God.
A family without a commitment to the God of the Bible has no hope of stemming the tide of cultural onslaught. If we mix a little biblical truth, a little secular psychology, a little romance novel ideology, and a little eastern mysticism, we will get a deadly mixture of lies. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many Christian families do. We do marriage according to Dr. Phil, raise our children according to Dr. Spock, govern our sex lives according to Dr. Ruth, and only run to Dr. Jesus when things have gotten so bad we can't find another doctor to help us.Family Driven Faith
The size of our families has become a matter of income and convenience. Our attitude toward children is, "A boy for me and a girl for you, then praise the Lord, we're finally through!" I am amazed at the number of people I meet who live in two-thousand-square-foot homes with two cars parked outside and argue that they can only "afford" to have one or two children. Amazing! Our forebears successfully raised houses full of children in homes that we would now consider meager at best, but we can't afford it.Family Driven Faith
Unfortunately, this is a foreign concept to most Christians in our culture. Most pastoral search committees never even bother to meet a man's wife and children, let alone observe him at home or question those close enough to know how he teaches the Word to his family, leads them in family worship, disciplines, instructs, and encourages his children, or loves his wife. This may seem like a separate issue, but I assure you it is right on point. The fact that we no longer require exemplary family life from those who lead us is indicative of the fact that we have dropped the ball on this issue from the top down. In fact the term preacher's kid has become a euphemism for the poorly behaved, rebellious, oft-neglected sons and daughters of our leaders. If our leaders are failing as husbands and fathers, what hope is there for the rest of our families?Family Driven Faith
my family is the primary place where my walk with Christ takes on flesh. It is one thing for me to have a personal relationship with Jesus. However, if I spend hours reading the Bible and praying and invest the lion's share of my time ministering to others while neglecting my role as husband and father, my relationship with Christ is out of balance or, worse, inauthentic.Family Driven Faith
It has been said that as goes the family, so goes the world. It can also be said that as goes the father, so goes the family.
I'm even more persuaded than previously that itinerant ministry or the conference circuit speaker is unhealthy. I can think of cases where husband and wife travel together, ministering together, and it is a beautiful thing. However, we must value the local church and the family far above the big names and dynamic conference speakers. We need to be wholeheartedly committed to a family of faith. The preacher-man should be a family-man (1 Timothy 3:4–5). The shepherd should smell like sheep. We need people who know our strengths and our weaknesses. We need people, lots of people, around us who know we're nothing special. We need real accountability.https://www.fairviewbaptistchurch.ca/when-leaders-grievously-sin/
in the economy of human life, the family lays the foundation for human society for the believer and the non-believer alike and is the nursery of knowledge, worship, government, and all social order. Thus, when the family collapses, all society breaks down.Mission of God, 67
The house of the godly is a little church; just as the house of the wicked is a little hell.
It is clear that sexual and gender identities now trump family identity. The state is not only increasingly pitting these two forces against each other, but it seems ready and willing to step in and enforce the subjugation of the family to the autonomous sexual self.
The sphere of the family opens itself, with its right of marriage, domestic peace, education and possession; and in this sphere also the natural head is conscious of exercising an inherent authority - not because the government allows it, but because God has imposed it
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Somehow we have come to believe that children are a burden instead of a blessing. If our churches are going to stem the tide of cultural and moral decay, we must change our disposition toward children. We decry the work of abortionists but seldom say a word to the intentionally childless couples who slay even the possibility of life in the womb.Family Driven Faith
Our children are falling away because we are asking the church to do what God designed the family to accomplish.Family Driven Faith
The problem is not that these children are leaving Christianity. The problem is that most of them, by their own admission, are not Christian!Family Driven Faith
Lead Family Worship with a firm, fatherly hand and a soft, penitent heart: Even when you're bone-weary after a day's work, pray for strength to carry out your fatherly duty. Remember that Christ Jesus went to the cross for you bone-weary and exhausted but never shrunk from His mission. As you deny yourself, you will see how He strengthens you during Family Worship, so that by the time you finish, your exhaustion is overcome.Theology of the Family, 96
Observation shows that families which have no household worship are at a low ebb in spiritual things; that families where it is performed in a cold, slugglish, negligent, or hurried way, are little affected by it and little affected by any means of grace; and that families where God is worshipped, every morning and evening, by all the inmates of the house in a solemn and affectionate service are blessed with increase of piety and happiness. Every individual is blessed. Each one receives a portion of the heavenly food.Thoughts on Family Worship
if God be the Founder, Owner, Governor, and Benefactor of families, then families are jointly to worship God and pray unto Him.How May the Duty of Family Prayer Be Best Managed for the Spiritual Benefit of Every One in the Family?
what monstrous wickedness it is! God hath kept you all safe in the night, and yet in the morning you do not say, "Where is the Lord that did preserve us? Come, come, let us give joint praises to Him!"What God is to Families
I hope you will never be averse to it or weary of it. God forbid you should: you are not weary of meal times, if you be healthy. Know and keep these appointed times of coming to God. If you promise to meet a person of quality at such an hour when the clock strikes, you rise up, crave pardon, and tell the company [that someone] tarries for you, you must be gone. Oh, take not more liberty with God than you would do with men, and keep your hearts continually in a frame for duty.A Remedy for Decaying Religion
Family prayer and the pulpit are the bulwarks of Protestantism! Depend upon it, when family piety goes down, the life of godliness will become very low. In Europe, at any rate, seeing that the Christian faith began with a converted household, we ought to seek after the conversion of all our families and to maintain within our houses the good and holy practice of family worship.
family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God's majesty and authority, sets solemn truths before the mind, and brings down benefits from God on the home.
the whole household should be gathered together to bow before the Lord--parents and children, master and servant--to confess their sins, to give thanks for God's mercies, to seek His help and blessing. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with this duty: all other domestic arrangements are to bend to it.
we may observe what fearful threatenings are pronounced against those who disregard this duty. We wonder how many of our readers have seriously pondered these awe-inspiring words: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name" (Jer 10:25)!
And verily there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day, which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of; and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed.Second London Baptist Confession
People often try to fix their families by making surface changes in important areas, but until they deal with worship, they will find themselves like the men of Judah--healing "the hurt of [the] people slightly" (Jer. 6:14). So many maladies in family life can be traced to the abandonment of family worship.A Theology of the Family, 45
First, God created the family to give structure and order to the human beings that He made in His image. Second, the family provides the essential labor of teaching and preparation of children for churches, communities, cultures, and nations. Third, God created the family in order to pass the gospel from one generation to the next. Finally, God designed the family to be a living demonstration of various aspects of the glory of the gospel and the embodiment of biblical truths.A Theology of the Family, 36
Young Americans, and that includes young Christians, face some very real challenges in moving toward full adulthood, and there is no question that economic factors play a part. But even secular observers understand that a shift in marriage points to an underlying shift in morality. The blunt fact is that previous generations of young adults, facing even greater economic challenges, still found their way to adulthood and marriage.http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/problem-delaying-marriage/
[Chrysostom] urged that every house should be church, and every head of a family a spiritual shepherd, remembering the account he must give even for his children.Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity Vol 3 , 545
They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another... Psalms and hymans they sing to one another, striving to see which one of them will chant more beautifully the praises of their Lord. Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices.Ad uxorem, bk2 ch8
Brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word... And therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.Works of John Knox, Banner of Truth, 2014, 4:137
I am persuaded from my own ministry experience in hundreds of churches that so little family worship regularly exists in Christian homes today, that even in most of our best
churches, most of our best men do not even pray with their
wives (and children if they have them) much less lead them in
ten minutes or so of worship as a family.Family Worship, 13
Brethren, I wish it were more common, I wish it were universal, with all [Christians] to have family
prayer.
We sometimes hear of children of Christian parents
who do not grow up in the fear of God, and we are asked how it is that they turn out so badly. In many, very many cases, I fear there is such a neglect of family
worship that it's not probable that the children are at all impressed by any piety supposed to be possessed by
their parents. A Pastoral visit, pulpit v 54, 362-63
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