The Family Altar

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:4-7

I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:3-7

The new school year is back in full swing and if your schedule is anything like ours, it seems as if there are more things to do than there are hours in the day. Knowing how tired so many of us are and how hectic our schedules are, I hesitate to add anything else. But I will. Daily time spent together as a family in God’s Word.

When I think about the families of St. Paul’s, I rejoice. So many fine parents and wonderful children! So many of you who are regular in worship on Sundays! Such a large percentage of folks who attend Bible class and Sunday School and small group bible studies! How thankful to God I am for your commitment to God’s Word!

And yet I also know that there is only a small percentage of folks in our congregation, especially among the young families with children, who make it a regular practice to have devotions in the home with the entire family.

Dear friends in Christ, believe me when I say that I am sympathetic with your busy schedules—I am! But I also want what is best for you and your families. With the apostle Paul I want to be able to rejoice in the knowledge that faith in Jesus Christ is being passed on from generation to generation in your family.

Family devotions are vital in this regard. It is so very important that our children see that faith in Jesus is not just something for Sunday morning, not just something that is verbalized in the words of the liturgy, but something that sustains us from day to day, influences every moment of our lives, and forms the basis for so much of our conversation as a family.

The easiest way to get started is to have a Bible and a devotional book sitting on the kitchen table so that after breakfast or after supper the family can join together and hear God’s Word; commit their cares and concerns into his mighty, loving hands; and rejoice that the crucified and resurrected and ascended Jesus is present with us in our homes—forgiving us and renewing us in his love day by day.

I am praying that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, family devotions would become more and more a part of the lives of the people of God at St. Paul—that the Good News of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the sins of the world would be a daily source of comfort and hope and peace for your family!