Archive for generational faithfulness

Podcast 84 – How radical faith for generations happens

Posted by Carey

· Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

How radical faith for generations happens

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/

OK parents, it’s time to get real.

Life is too short for us to spend it in the aimless pursuit of status, stuff, or personal satisfaction. There’s too much at stake.

God has given us one of the most wonderful AND most daunting responsibilities we could ever have and it’s one that is intended to change the course of history. We’re not just living, we’re not just raising kids, we’re building a foundation of radical Christian faith that can last for generations.You and I are responsible before almighty God for the eternal destiny, not only of ourselves and our immediate families, but also for the generations to come. Just like your grandkids and great grandkids will be able to trace their blood ancestry through you, they will be able to trace their spiritual heritage through you as well. Your children’s children, and their children, and their children, though unborn, are depending on YOU to build the spiritual foundations that will enable them to know Christ personally, to live their lives by the power of His Spirit, and to lead THEIR families into an authentic, radical faith that endures.Imagine generation after generation of your family, knowing, living, and passing on the powerful legacy of genuine Christian faith. Imagine the impact they could have on the world. Imagine the day when your life is over and you land in the presence of God. What would it be like to realize on that day, that hundreds, even thousands of years of your descendants have walked faithfully in the ways of the Savior because of your radical faith in Christ, begun years before?

That’s not an impossible dream… if you will do one thing.

Make sure that YOUR life is one of deep relationship with Jesus Christ, today.

Then do the same thing tomorrow and the day after that.

Don’t let a day pass when you are not pursuing your relationship with Jesus more than the day before. Commit yourself to knowing Jesus as deeply and powerfully as you can, so that His life becomes manifest in yours.

The results of that kind of daily faithfulness will be a ripple of radical Christian faith that transforms the generations of your family. It starts small, in the changes Christ makes in you personally. The work He begins in you will spill over into your marriage relationship, bringing about changes you never thought possible. And as your children witness the transforming power of Christ in you and in your marriage, they will be irresistably drawn to the radical faith that makes that kind of transformation possible.

As they come to faith in Christ, the ripple will continue as you teach and model what it looks like to walk with Jesus day by day, to depend on Jesus for every need, to humble yourself under His leadership, and to make every decision and take every step with the aim to bring Him glory and honor. Your kids will see His peace, and power, and blessing that are yours because of your radical faith, they’ll see it multiplied in your family, and they’ll begin to experience the fruit of it in their own lives. Until finally, they leave your home filled with the fruit of a family that experienced the reality of Christ day after day. They will be determined to see the fruit of that radical faith expressed in their own lives.

As wonderful as that dream is, it’s much too small. There are generations of children still to come, your descendants, who will be affected by the radical faith you begin nurturing now. Jesus likened it to a tiny seed that grows until it becomes a mighty tree, and I’m telling you that what may seem to you to be a tiny seed of faith in your heart right now, can grow in the power of God’s Spirit into a mighty family tree that demonstrates God’s transforming power.

All that begins with you parents, today, right now. It begins with your commitment to pursue Jesus with all that you are. You have to be the authentic, growing, humble CHRISTIAN example your children need to see before they will believe that Jesus is real and the He is able to transform and use even the weakest and most humble person.

So where do you start?

1) On your knees.

Stop everything and turn to Jesus in utter dependence. Rid yourself of every attempt to be strong in yourself and ask Him to fill you with His desires for you and your family. Affirm your desire to pursue Him in everything. Ask Him to help you, to transform you, to give you the strength you need to chase after Him for the rest of your life.

2) Talk with your family about what’s happened in your heart.

Begin to paint the vision of what Jesus can do in the generations of your family. Tell them that you are going first, you’re taking the lead to let Jesus make YOU into all you need to be to lead the family into that place of greatest blessing. Ask them to pray for you, to encourage you, to hold you accountable.

3) Connect with others who are committed to the same glorious goal.

Ideally that would be in your local church, but if you can’t find people there, look further. I’ve created an on-line community for that purpose, if you’d like to find out more, click the link shown in the video or go to www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/community to find out more.

4) Establish daily habits to fuel the fire.

You need daily time with Jesus. He is your life (Galatians 2:20) To help you get started, I’ve created many resources to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Everything one of them has a free version so that nothing stands in the way of you getting started right away. You can find those resources by clicking the link in the video or by going to www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/store

Parents, it’s time to get real. There’s too much at stake for you and I to waste another precious minute of life. The generational faithfulness of your family depends on the work God does in YOUR life, starting today. What are you going to do ? It’s my prayer that you will take your responsibility seriously and begin nurturing a radical Christian faith of your own… for the sake of seeing radical faith for generations in YOUR family.

Categories : Family Foundations, Parenting, Podcast, Spirit Health

Tags : christian discipleship, generational faithfulness, passion for Christ, radical faith for generations

Praise and worship are really, really hard

Posted by Carey

· Friday, June 6th, 2014

Praise and worship – it’s harder than it should be.

Sadly so.

Worship itself is a response. It’s a reaction to the greatness of God.

When the heart sees, with the eyes of faith,who God is and all that He’s done, worship is the natural response.

But we don’t easily see God in that way.

Sadly, the King and Creator of the universe is obscured from His creatures by an ever-widening range of trivial things.

possessions
ambitions
desires
toys
gimmicks
false securities

… and the list goes on. That’s why true praise and genuine worship are so hard.

But there’s another reason praise and worship are so difficult…

We get used to it.

We can too easily become accustomed to worship as an activity we do, during a worship service, with other people.

It can become synonymous with music, singing, liturgies, and body postures, rather than being what it truly is; a grateful response of a heart that has seen true glory.

Genuine praise and true worship are hard because fallen people like us are prone to getting the blinds drawn between us and the glory of our Gods. We’re distracted and drawn away from an intentional, ongoing focus on Him, by lesser things. In fact, we come to prefer the lesser things over the God who has given them to us.

So what’s a Christian parent to do? How do you learn how to genuinely worship, and then pass it on to your children?

Here’s my quick-list of tips – things you have to commit yourself to working on daily.

1 Work hard to keep the glory of God clear in your own mind.

You can never expect your children to see the glory of God if you, their parent, don’t demonstrate the importance of seeing it, in your own life. They need to see you pouring over the scriptures, and hearing why you do it. You need to repeatedly tell your kids, “I read the Bible because it shows me more and more of the wonders of God.”

But you can’t do it with no heart. You’ve got to mean it.

You’ve got to be searching the scriptures for yourself, like you’re searching for a treasure – because you are (Matthew 13:45-46). And you’ve got to be sharing that treasure with your children, every time you find it.

2 Encourage your kids to seek after the treasure for themselves.

It’s one thing to hear about a treasure somebody else has found. It’s quite another to find it yourself. Your kids need to see the glory of God personally.

They need you to help them find it.

Point out His glory in the sunset, and in the puppy, and in the fun of a good joke.
Draw out His provision and care in every blessing you share as a family.
Tell them how He’s held you up in your hardest times.
Explain to them why you will never turn away from Him.

You need to be the one who pulls up the blinds for them, to let the glory of God shine through.

3 Prepare your kids for times of corporate worship.

When your family will be joining with others for a time of worship (Sunday morning worship services, Sunday school, youth group, etc.), make sure you do some preemptive preparation.

Remind them why the activity is important. Point out how hard it can be to stay focused on God in the presence of distractions they might encounter (everything from a friend across the room to the Pastor’s unique quirks). Challenge them to seek God like treasure – in the music, in the spoken word, in the prayers, and in what He may be doing in their own hearts. Tell them you’re going to ask about their experience when it’s all over.

Then do it.

And emphasize that their experience of worship may or may not be emotional. What matters is that they work to express their apprehension or understanding of the worth of God, back to Him.

Genuine praise and worship are really, really hard…

for you and for your kids.

Make sure you do your part to help them become the true kind of worshipers the Father seeks (John 4:24).

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Below is one of my favorite songs (for now) that focuses on the greatness, awesome power, and majesty of our God. It reminds me of the kinds of things that are true of God, and nobody else. It reminds me why He is worthy of my worship and why I need to recommit myself, every day, to the hard work it takes to make sure that I AM truly worshiping Him daily.

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Categories : Parenting, Spirit Health

Tags : family worship, generational faithfulness, praise and worship