At Home with God

Okay, so we’re going to be talking about various sins that highlighted in the Bible – the sins of parents. Now before you stop reading and run to lock yourself in the toilet (come on parents, who has not done that at least once when you needed some space from your children) bear with me for a bit.  Every parent I know feels like they are not doing a good enough job at some point. We walk under the weight of failure. The aim of this series is not to add to this burden of guilt, but rather to bring clarity as to what the Lord expects from us as parents.  Raising children in today’s world is confusion and at times perplexing. Boundaries and best practice seem to change each month and there is a great drive to comply with the world’s expectations. The added pressure of ‘if you don’t do this you will damage your child’s future, if you do this you will harm them.’ It’s enough to stir the most well-meaning of parents into inaction. Sometimes it is unspoken, but the standards and judg...

  One day I had a revelation: When Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    Okay, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me a moment while I explain. If Jesus walked into a room, blessed two of the people there, then walked out again, we would expect those two people’s lives to take a turn for the better from that moment on, wouldn’t we?    In other words, when Jesus blessed people, it was not a case of wishing the best for them, or even speaking a few nice words to make them feel well. Nor was it a superstitious act or a magic spell. Instead, it was a divine declaration that had the power to change the direction of a life. In short, there was power in the blessing that Jesus spoke: when Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    This is the Jewish understanding of blessing: it invites God’s presence to come to that person or into a situation. As we pray blessings over our children, we are inviting God to fulfil His will for their li...

My children clean their teeth most days now without us having to ask (though they do still need the odd reminder).   This is the fruit of some very intentional work on our part as parents. We saw personal as an essential part of their preparation for future life so built in a routine of brushing their teeth from when they were very little.  Supporting the more when they were younger, then encouraging them and now leaving them to it.  In the same way we should encourage our children to develop their own times of reading the Bible.  In our home this is encouraged from when they have the skills to be able to read the simplest Bibles and are older than five so able to take some measure of responsibility for it.  Set a target Set a target of reading for your children, perhaps by guiding them to a particular book. For children in primary school a few verses or a short story is a good starting point, for children in secondary school a chapter a day is very achiev...

It can be daunting to know where to start when it comes to reading the Bible as a family.  I’m not thinking so much about the  how  we can read the Bible together – there are hundreds of amazing resources and suggestions out there that address this. Rather, I am seeking to reflect on  what  we should be reading.  Where should we start? Here are 8 ideas of places to begin your Bible reading journey as a family. These have come from history, personal experience and from speaking with the oldest members of our congregations to hear what their parents used to do for them when they were children.   1. T he core stories.  When children are young you can simply open a Bible story book, snuggle up on the sofa and start to read. Stories of Jonah, Adam and Eve, David & Goliath and the miracles of Jesus are all the more gripping when hearing them for the first time and enjoyable when they become well known. They help lay a foundation of Bible knowle...

In this series of three blogs, I want to reflect on the importance of exposing our children to the Bible in the home.  This first article we look at the importance of reading the Bible together. In the next article we consider places where we can start to read the Bible. Finally, we will look at how we can encourage a regular habit of Bible reading and personal devotion.  Why? But first a quick comment on  why  we should prioritize reading the Bible together. In times past, reading the Bible together as a family was consider the normal daily thing to do. With increased time pressures of modern living and decreased communication across the generations, family Bible reading times are not as common as they should be.    That’s not to pile guilt on parents, but it is a statement that we should seek to read the Bible together regularly as a family, even if it is only a verse a day on the way out of the door or in the car on the school run.    The ...

In this second article on the senior members of church we are going to focus in on this issue from the perspective of grandparents (and surrogate grandparents) in the church. There is no greater privilege than seeing the next generation rise up around you. Having a sense of the legacy that God has given to you brings its own reward. As the famous saying goes, ‘No one ever said on their death bed I wish I’d spent more time at work.’ While the value of family is seen more clearly that does not mean that it comes without significant challenges for many. The obstacles of time and location may be one thing, but harder still can be the obstacles of past issues and changing values. The former can be overcome with technology and will power, the latter require much more effort.  So here are few thoughts: 1. Don’t live in guilt and regret. Live in faith and effective prayer. You cannot change the past. You may look back and see things that you wish you’d done differently. To be honest, it wo...

One of my friends stood in front of the church to share his testimony. As he began to share a few of us were sat together and our jaws were hitting the floor. We had known our friend for a few years but had never known anything about his history (just how little we knew soon became clear). When you met him, he struck you as one of those clean-cut people. You know, one of those who had had a happy childhood, never went off the rails and who even kept off the grass if the sign told him too.   But that was not the testimony he was sharing with us now. It seemed like every evil I could imagine (and some that I couldn’t) had been his history. From drugs to prostitution, from abuse to academic failure. With each new revelation we, his friends, were more shocked. As he started each new episode with the simple phrase, ‘God saved me from a life of …’ we had to agree, God had truly redeemed him from that life, he was definitely free.   I’m not sure how long his testimony went on for. It...