Family devotions – Page 3

Friends, we are not in the Bible Belt anymore. Though elements of cultural Christianity drift about the South like the objects from Dorothy’s farmhouse (God Bless the United State, anyone?), we have been transported into a new world. The road to fulfillment no longer guides people to churches singing, “I Walk Through the Garden.” The yellow brick road of the twenty-first century points its guests to a technological wonderland with shiny towers dedicated to humanism, naturalism, and paganism.

A NOT SO GOOD OZ

The new Technicolor America surrounded by the Munchkins of secular diversity is, as one pastor said, a world of “hedonistic and unrestrained sexuality and selfishness” (p. 59). Our high school teachers are sleeping with students, our web designers are responsible for 89% of all pornographic web content, our scientists are silencing their critics via lawsuits, and our youth commit violent crimes against both the young and the elderly. The new American culture no longer seeks for the truth behind the curtain. Americans are their own final authority and their own god on all matters from sexuality to immigration. And things are not going particularly well in the new Oz.

Moreover, America is increasingly finding evangelicals to be scarier than winged monkeys. Today, researchers estimate that only 7% of the American population sees the world through the black and white lens of evangelicalism (Dickerson, 2013, p. 32). If trends hold true, less than 4% of America will be evangelical in the years ahead. Evangelicals are feared and decreasing in number.

Even things that might be considered good news are followed by bad. For example, the Bible is currently the most searched for book on google. Unfortunately it is followed by Fifty Shades of Grey, and The Fault in Our Stars. Christianity is losing the popularity battle to unrestrained sexuality and self-expression. Off to the modern Oz, we go.

OUR HOPE IS NOT GONE

I say all this not to dampen your day. God is still king. And His kingdom is moving forward (Mark 1:15). When He returns, we will really see in color as we enter a world of loving perfection. And as we wait, we can be confident that the Church will never disappear. And the gospel is moving powerfully in China, the Philippians, and South Korea. And there is every reason to hope that God will bring revival to our own nation. Jesus will rule the world one day (Rev. 7:9-10)!

WE CAN’T TRUST OZ

I mention the above statistics to remind us parents of our responsibility to teach our children. No one else will help our kids grasp that there is more to the world than sex, money, and college degrees. The new American culture settling in on our screens will not teach our kids biblical morals. The internet will not make our kids wise. Hollywood will not inspire our kids to abandon violence. And, schools will not direct our children to spiritual truth and hope. If anything, they all point to a dark world swarming with disappointment.

If we want our kids to know Jesus and to understand the beauty of the gospel as it relates to work, school, sports, and music, we will have to teach our children. And while church is important, the task of teaching is primarily our responsibility (See Deut. 6). We watch our kids when they wake up, slap a sister, refuse to eat green beans, and score a touchdown. We have the wonderful ability to bring the gospel to bear in every aspect of their life. Let’s commit to following God’s plan and protect our kids from the coming tornado of American culture. Moreover, let’s commit to seeing our kids become brothers and sisters in the kingdom of Christ.

Works Cited

Dickerson, J. S. (2013). The Great Evangelical Recession. Grand Rapids: Baker .

We may not have a coffee stained book in our hand or a bible study course in our DVD player or a regular prayer time with our family outside of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But we are still disciple makers. If we can convince someone to follow our way of life, we are making disciples.

I became painfully aware of this fact several nights ago. As my wife and I were powering down for the evening, I began cycling through the various ways to use the last hours of our day. I considered our family devotional, reading, or watching a movie. Driven by tiredness, I opted for the movie. As the screen blinked on, my mind felt conviction. Through God’s grace, I realized that I was not just passing on a traditional biblical discipleship time. I had done much more. I had embraced a humanistic discipleship. In that moment, I had taught my wife (who could not see my internal struggle) that human entertainment was more valuable than Christ. I was discipling her away from God.

I fear that I am not alone in this struggle. As I look about, I see people all throughout Christendom skipping church to go to a sports tournament, replacing quiet times with movies, and missing bible studies to go hunting. I hear about Christians embracing anger when life gets hard, turning to gossip when they are bored, and using alcohol, drugs, or entertainment to escape the struggles of daily life. And when we make these bad choices, we model a faith of self and worldly worship.

Just as flipping the remote influenced my wife, we all will influence our loved ones for good or for ill with every decision we make and with every word we speak. As the continual updates of important, trivial statuses on Facebook and Twitter show, we cannot justify sin by asserting that we live in a social vacuum. We are watched. We all disciple.

For this reason, we need to dive deep into scripture. As we study the Bible in private, with our families, and at church, we will learn how to love God and one another. We will see that God should come before all else. If we seek to make God our priority will excel at heavenly discipleship. If we act as Jesus acted, we will teach our spouses, children and friends to be like Christ.

Admittedly, we cannot disciple perfectly all of the time. I began this post with a story of my own failure. Moreover, we must agree with the words of I John and say that anyone who claims he is not a sinner is liar. But the existence of sin does not excuse us from of life devoted to pursuing the things of God. We must seek as Paul commands in I Corinthians to honor God in everything that we do (even eating and drinking) by relying upon God’s power.

Today, I invite you to join me in to analyzing your life through the lens of discipleship. Let’s daily ask if we are pointing our loved ones to death or to life. When we disciple people in godly living, let’s praise God. And when you or I point loved ones away from God, let’s commit to stopping our actions and ask our gracious God and loved ones to forgive us. We all disciple. Let’s strive to disciple in the gospel!