Michael Kelley's Blog, page 14

3 Bible Verses that Teach Us 3 Things About Grace

The Greek word for grace is charis. It means favor. Acceptance. Giving. Grace is free in the sense that something done or given in grace is done so truly without expecting to receive anything in return. That means the origin of grace isn’t the object receiving it; the origin is entirely found in the giver’s goodness, love, and care. And this is our experience in Christ.

We didn’t earn this. We don’t deserve this. Nothing in our sinful and rebellious selves warrants this. Grace finds its root in the generosity of God who gives freely to us.

J.I. Packer wrote, “God is good to all in some ways but good to some in all ways.” We’re the “some.” Every other religion in the world boils down to a sort of cosmic barter system. People bring their good stuff to their god, whether it’s good actions, good money, or good sacrifices, and in exchange their god gives them some of His good stuff. Christianity stands apart from this system as a grace-based belief system that is built squarely on the extravagant goodness of God. Nothing in us is motivational, and nothing we can do can pay Him back. The only part we have in grace is the receiving of it.

If you wondered about the importance of “grace” in biblical theology, it’s pretty revelatory to see the word appearing 116 times in the New Testament. But in particular, here are three verses that help us see the truth about grace:

1. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:2).

“Grace and peace.” That two-word salutation is how Paul began his letter to the Ephesian church. But not only that letter – much of the correspondence that’s recorded in the New Testament begins the same way. Much in the same way that we might write “Dear . . .” or “To Whom It May Concern”, “grace and peace” is Paul’s greeting to his audience. Why is that? Were they just convenient and poetic words, a way to say “Hey there!” with a little more class? Or is there something more?

I would suggest that these two words—grace and peace—are a two-word summation of the gospel. If that’s true, with his very first sentence Paul is conjuring up a vivid reminder for his audience of what it is that they all, as hopelessly lost sinners and subsequently found children of God, have in common. Grace and peace. “Grace” is God’s ongoing posture toward us as His children. How wonderful to remember even in times of difficulty that God’s grace does not run dry.

2. “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-10).

This verse reminds us that our relationship with God, in Christ, is based on His grace and His grace alone. We didn’t manufacture it; we didn’t create it; we didn’t initiate it and we don’t even maintain it in our own strength. Our rightness with God, past, present, and future, is not based on our own effort and conduct but rather on His grace.

This is important for us to remember because of our tendency to drift from grace. The longer we are Christians, the more tempted we are to rely on our own spiritual resume. We can trick ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God and His grace as badly as we once did; that we are pretty good people after all. But this verse reminds us that we still are held in right standing with God not because of our own effort but by His grace alone.

3. “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

One of the charges that was consistently leveled against Paul was that his preaching of grace would lead to unrestrained conduct. The argument went does that if we are only made right by God’s grace, and God is so free with His grace, then there is no reason for a person to choose the way of holiness and righteousness. And yet in these verses, we find the opposite is actually true.

God’s grace, so freely given, is also transformative. It is daily teaching us to walk in the way of godliness more and more. We are saved by His grace, and we are being transformed into the image of Jesus by His grace.

There is, of course, much more to God’s grace, but at a minimum, these things are reason enough for praise. Let us renew our praise for God for His grace today, for it is by His grace we have been saved, are kept in right standing, and are being transformed.

Why You Need “Purah”

The story of Gideon reads like a roller-coaster. First, he’s afraid of everything, hiding in a winepress. Then he gets a call from God to lead Israel’s army, but he puts God to the test by throwing out some fleeces and asking them to be both wet and dry. Then when he’s got the assurance he needed, God dwindles down his army from 32,000 to 10,000 and then to 300.

300!

And those 300 were facing a Midianite army that were “like locusts.” And that those locust-like numbers had “camels more than the sand on the seashore.”

Up. Down. Up. Down. I can imagine Gideon getting sea sick. Then God told him this:

“Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.  If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah  and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp” (Judges 7:9-11).

When the two men got there, they overheard a conversation where one enemy soldier told another one about a dream he had. The other responded that the dream meant without a doubt that Gideon (yes, he mentioned Gideon by name) and his army were going to come and rout them. Gideon must have been dumbstruck. Talk about a confidence-booster!

But here’s the question: Why did God tell him to take Purah with him down into the camp?

It’s almost given as an allowance to Gideon. As in, he shouldn’t be afraid to do what he had been commanded to do. Not after what he was going to hear, but Gideon did not have the greatest faith track record up to this point. He had, after all, asked for further verification of God’s promises time after time. And perhaps that’s why the offer was made – take Purah with you, just in case.

And if that is the case, then this allowance given to Gideon ought to mean something to us as well. It should be meaningful because we, like Gideon, are pretty forgetful people. And we forget things relatively quickly. Yes, we forget things like where we put our keys and where we park the car, but we also tend to forget what God has told us.

Let’s face it – we have heard some pretty unbelievable stuff:

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).The Lord rejoices over you with singing (Zeph. 3:17).What manner of love is this that we should be called the children of God? (1 John 3:1).

And then there are those things that are equally powerful but for a different reason:

Pray continually (1 Thess. 5:17).Blessed are the poor (Luke 6:20).Flee from sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18).Woe to you when all men speak well of you (Luke 6:26).

We tend to forget all these things. Sometimes we forget because our circumstances are so overwhelming that we can’t find a way to see the work and mercy of God through them. Sometimes we forget because our priorities are out of whack. Sometimes we forget because we are afraid. Or anxious. Or even too prosperous and comfortable. In all these cases, we tend to forget what God has already told us in His word. We are, by nature, forgetful and doubting people.

And that’s why we still need “Purah.” We need people in our lives who have heard the same things we do. We need those who can cut through our own fog of fear, anxiety, or prosperity and say once again to us, “The Lord has already said.” We need each other to help us remember.

If, then, you are feeling forgetful today – then perhaps the best thing you can do is find a Purah around you. Find them, and let them help you remember.

Becoming More Like Jesus… Whether We Want To or Not

“Whether you like it or not…”

Now there’s a phrase every parent is familiar with. I’ve said it; you probably have, too, and probably in a lot of different contexts:

“You’re going to eat those vegetables whether you like it or not.”“You will get in the bath whether you like it or not.”“You will do that homework whether you like it or not.”

It’s a declarative statement – something is going to happen; the child doesn’t really have a choice about it. They do, however, have a choice about their participation in it – whether they “like” it, or “not.”

In my own experience, most of the time it’s “not.”

Is it possible that the same statement is true, at least partially, when it comes to our relationship with our Heavenly Father? Of course, it’s broadly true because God’s will and way is going to go forward on earth regardless of who likes it or not. This is what it means to call God sovereign – it means He will have His way in the end, and no one can stand against Him:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

But what about in a more personal sense? In particular, is this true when it comes to God’s will in our individual lives? The answer, again, is yes… at least in a sense. So what is God’s will for our lives? In a broad sense, it’s the same thing for each one of us. God’s will for us, regardless of where we live, what career we choose, who we marry, or what opportunities we accept or turn down is that we become more like Jesus. Day by day, and even moment by moment, the Holy Spirit of God is making us more like Jesus, conforming us into His image.

To be sure, we play a role in that formation. Take, for example, Paul’s statement in Philippians 2:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose (Phil. 2:12-13).

In these two verses, we find a beautiful kind of cooperation happening. God is working in us to fulfill His good purpose of making us like Christ, and we are at the same time doing the hard work of surrender. We are yielding Himself to His work, and that submission looks like the conscious choice of discipline and obedience. To take it back to the earlier illustration, this is when we “like” it. We are consciously and eagerly embracing the work of God in us.

But there are times when we like it “not.” Another example from Paul, this one from the book of Romans:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope (Rom. 5:1-4).

Why can we rejoice in our difficulties? In our pain? Not because it’s pleasant, or even because things will get circumstantially better. We can rejoice because God is working in us through those difficult circumstances. This is a hard kind of rejoicing; it’s a “like it not” kind of joy. But we can nevertheless be just as confident in these seasons as we can in the “like it” kind of times. We can know that in either set of circumstances, God is making us more like Jesus… whether we like it or not.

3 Ways to Grow Your Hope Today

The Bible is a book about joy. About peace. About security. But it is also a book about sadness. And because it is, the Bible gives us permission to be sad as it is full of laments. In its honesty, time and time again God’s Word shows us the example of people who were truly, genuinely, deeply sad. Psalm after psalm depicts people in the midst of trying and heart-wrenching circumstances pouring out their hearts to the Lord. There’s an entire book, for goodness sake, called “Lamentations.”

Yes, the Bible gives us permission to be sad, but it also doesn’t leave us there; even in the midst of our sadness, the Bible shows us the pathway to hope. Take just one section in that book called Lamentations:

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord (Lam. 3:19-26).

These verses, written at one of the darkest times in Israel’s history, when foreign armies had invaded and destroyed the temple of the Lord and the people were being carried off into captivity, it’s no wonder that Jeremiah’s soul was downcast within him. Even so, even in these darkest of days, there was a pathway to hope:

1. Remember God’s character.

Ultimately, hope is not found in our circumstances. Despite what we might want to believe, there is no guarantee that our present situation will change at all, much less get any better. To find hope, we have look to something better and more stable than our present circumstances – we have to look to God and His character. We have to remember His love. His mercy. His compassion. And we see all those things on display most clearly not in our circumstances, but at the cross of Jesus Christ.

2. Look around you.

True enough, it is most often our circumstances that cause us to lose hope. But if we look a little deeper we will see evidences of God’s faithfulness and new mercies with each passing day. These are things that often go neglected, but they are nevertheless reminders of God’s enduring compassion.

The sun still rises. The seasons change. We have moments of joy and laughter. And to a greater extent, every molecule of the earth and the universe is still held together. These things, though they might seem commonplace, they are still pointers to God’s new mercies, and part of the pathway to hope is taking notice of them.

3. Look to the future.

Having reflected on the character of God and having taken a close look around him, Jeremiah turned his gaze to the future. When we look to the future, we see that there will indeed be a day when things will be different. Salvation is coming. So is justice. So is redemption. True enough, we might not see these things come to pass in our own circumstances or even our own lifetimes, but with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. These things are coming, and so the way of hope is to wait patiently and quietly for the Lord to bring them about in His own time.

Remember God’s character. Look around you. Look to the future. This is the way of hope, and hope like this does not disappoint us because it’s not grounded in circumstantial change. It’s grounded in something better.

Christians Are Less Concerned with Time than Order

What is your most precious resource?

Is it money? Property? Bitcoin? Perhaps. But I suspect that in a world of increasing busyness, when the lines between work and rest are blurred by technology, when there is always another email, another podcast, another post, another opportunity, that the one resource you wish you had more of is time.

You feel it, don’t you? Not all the time, but acutely on some occasions. Like when you look at old pictures of your children and wonder when they got so big. Or when you hear of the funeral of someone you went to school with. Or even when you come to the end of a day and have barely made a dent in your to-do list. On all these occasions and more you feel the limited and fleeting nature of time. 

Maybe that sense is part of our obsession with time. We want to know what time it is, how much time is left, and when specific things are going to happen. We get frustrated when people are late and when meetings run long and when unexpected things pop up in an already crowded calendar. We are very, very concerned with time. That’s true regardless of whether you are a Christian or not.

To be sure, that concern with time is not all bad. Like any resource, time is something that is meant to be stewarded for the sake of the kingdom of God:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Eph. 5:15-16).

At the same time, though, Christians should think differently about time than the rest of the world. And one of those differences is this – the Christian should be less concerned with time than with order. By way of example, consider what Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica: 

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape (1 Thess. 5:1-3).

Evidently there were those among the church who were obsessed with the exact timing of the return of Jesus. They wanted to know – and perhaps were spending considerable energy trying to find out – the exact date on the calendar about when it would happen, and Paul wanted something else for them. The main reason why they didn’t need to be investing their energy in this issue of time is the fruitless nature of such an investigation. Paul makes it clear that we simply won’t know the timing.

We will, however, know the order.

We don’t know the calendar date of Christ’s return, but we do know the order – that it comes next. How long between now and next? We don’t know, and that’s precisely the point. Not knowing the timing, but knowing the order, motivates us to live with a sense of urgency. It creates a posture of expectation and anticipation rather than giving us the luxury of laziness.Let’s learn from these words of Paul. Let’s be less concerned with exact timing and more concerned with order so that we can live like next might be right now.

Christians Expect, but Don’t Presume

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
     in the morning I lay my requests before you
     and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:3).

What a wonderful thing to be able to expect things from God. We have that privilege, as His children, because we know that God always says what He means, and He always means what He says. So when we read, for example, that God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), we can expect exactly that:

That no matter how dire or painful our circumstances, we can expect that God is somehow working those things for our good. Similarly, we can expect that God will still love us today because He is love. We can expect that He will keep us in His grace because He has made us His children. And we can expect that today, regardless of what it holds, will be filled with the mercies of God because His mercies are new every morning.

When it comes to our specific prayers, we can have the same kind of expectation. As David wrote in the psalm above, we can pray and lay our requests before God and then wait with a sense of expectation. We can know that He had heard those prayers, and that He will answer them in a wise and loving manner.

But there is a difference between expecting and presuming. And we would do well to major in the former and avoid the latter. Maybe a little example will help point out the difference.

Let’s say that your child comes to you in the middle of the afternoon and says, “Dad, will you provide dinner for me tonight?” The answer is yes because you are the kind of father who loves your children and you delight in giving them what they need. Your child knows this; in fact, he knows it so deeply that he rarely even asks if you will provide dinner. Instead, the question is more of an expectation, and it sounds like this:

“What are we having for dinner tonight?”

Whether or not the dinner will be provided has already been answered because your child knows you. And he knows how you have provided in the past.

So dinnertime comes and you do provide dinner. It’s tasty fair and includes a healthy amount of vegetables. But when you put that dinner down in front of your kid, his face falls and maybe he says something like, “Where is the pizza?”

And now we start to see the difference between expectation and presumption. Your child, it seems, not only expected you to provide dinner, but also presumed you would provide the same type of dinner that he had in his mind that you ought to provide. And perhaps that was not an outlandish presumption; you have, after all, provided pizza at points in the past. But not tonight. Because tonight was not the best night for pizza despite the desire of your son.

Silly example, but it’s still worth thinking about how often we are disappointed in the way the Lord answers our prayers. And if it’s very often at all, then perhaps we have drifted from expectation to presumption.

When we pray, we can be assured that God hears our prayers, but we can also be assured that our prayers are always, always, always limited in their nature. Our prayers are limited by our own wisdom. Or our own vision. Or our own perceptions. Or even our own pain. Now that’s not to say our prayers are not well-intentioned and even well-meaning; it only means that in our human capacity they are always limited. Consequently, when the answer to our prayers does come, we are often surprised by it because it looks different than what we were asking for. Or it doesn’t come in the timing we wanted. And we are disappointed by our own presumption.

To put it another way, an expectation is based on what we know to be true about God; a presumption is based on our own ideas of what is good and right.

God does what is good. What is right. What is best not only for us but for all His children. He weaves together all the answers to individual prayers in such a way that all of us are rightly provided for and helped. This is what we can and should expect.

But if we are surprised by the manner in which He answers, then perhaps we have stopped expecting things from God and have started presuming upon Him.

When the Commands of Jesus Make You Sad

In the book of Matthew, the man is called young. Luke makes clear that he was a ruler of some kind. And both point to the fact that he had great wealth. That’s why we call him “The Rich, Young Ruler.” The Bible tells us that crowds were following Jesus wherever He went in those days, and there must have been a sharp contrast between this guy and the crowd pressing in on Him. They were dirty; he was clean. They were poor; he was rich. They were shabby; he was finely dressed. He had a simple and straightforward question for Jesus: “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus responded that he should keep the law. The man claimed that he was already doing that. Wasn’t there something more? And that’s when Jesus came with the zinger—“Sell it all. Become poor. Then you can follow Me.”

The Bible says that the man went away sad because he had great wealth (Matt. 19:22).

I wonder if you’ve ever felt the same way. Surely you have – surely you’ve been reading the Bible or listening to a message being preached and you run headlong into a command from Jesus. It might be, as it was for the rich, young, ruler, a command about money. But it might also be a command about sex or moral purity. A command about parenting. About marriage. About laziness or gluttony or a host of other things because the Bible is full of commands.

You are confronted with this command and you feel… sad.

Most of the time, if and when that happens to us, we either disregard that command or we look for some way to get around it. We search for some reason why either the Bible can’t really be saying what it seems to be saying, or else why the manner in which we are currently operating is an exception to that command. But if we can get past those initial reactions of denial and self-justification, perhaps we can ask ourselves just why it is that we are so sad to begin with.

Most likely the answer is pretty simple – it’s because we like whatever we are doing, and the thought of stopping it makes us sad.

But that’s not all there is. There is yet another level to the sadness, and it’s a level beyond the initial emotional reaction to that command. The deeper level is that of faith. Yes, this command of Jesus makes you sad, but at a deeper level, what do you believe to be true about Jesus? And that question – the question of faith – is what will ultimately determine how you respond to the commands of Jesus that make you sad.

The question of faith is whether you and I really believe that Jesus loves us and wants the best for us or not. Because if we truly believe that, even if His commands make us sad, we can move through the sadness into obedience, trusting that though the command might be painful in the moment to follow, it is ultimately for our own good.

This is the beautiful detail from the rich, young ruler’s own experience. Look back in Mark’s account of this story before Jesus gave the saddening command:

Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).

Notice the order here, because the order is important.

Jesus looked at him and loved him…

Then…

Jesus gave him a command.

In other words, Jesus loved this man enough to tell Him to sell everything He had. The same thing is true for us. Jesus loves us enough to give us commands to follow. This is how we respond, by God’s grace, when the commands of Jesus make us sad:

We remember He loves us. Loves us enough to die for us. And so we follow Him, despite our temporary sadness, knowing that there will eventually be more joy for us on the other side.

 

The Surprising Antidote for Greed

When you look back to the recorded teachings of Jesus in Scripture, you find a surprising number of references to the subject of personal finance. That’s not because Jesus wants our money; it’s certainly not because He needs our money. It’s because Jesus is after our hearts, and He knows that the clearest window into what we truly love, desire and pursue is visible through our bank statements.

Think about it – Jesus could have set up anything as the primary competitor to God in our lives. He could have easily said something like, “You cannot serve both God and power,” or “You cannot serve both God and sex,” but instead He chose money:

“No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money” (Matthew 6:24).

Paul echoed this sentiment in 1 Timothy 6:

If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

If that’s true, and we want to align our hearts with God and the gospel, then it stands to reason that we should be aware of the potential idolatry that comes from the love of money. Not only aware, but on guard. But how do we do that? Though there are many practical ways, the book of Hebrews gives us a surprising one. According to that book, the surprising antidote for greed is the presence of God:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?” (Heb. 13:5-6).

Now why might that be?

Perhaps the answer comes if we look deeper into the reason why we drift so easily into serving money. Money is, and always has been, more than just a means of purchase; it is the currency of safety, security, and status. As long as there has been money, money has been a ready-made substitute for those things which we are meant to find in God.

When our bank account is full, then we feel safe. When funds are plentiful, we feel secure. And when our balance is busting, we feel important. These are deep, soul level needs common to every human being. And they are also deep, soul level needs that can only ultimately be met in God. Money is, at best, a poor substitute for what we find in God alone.

This is why the writer of Hebrews tells us not only to keep our lives free from the love of money but points us to that which we are using money, whether we know it or not, to compensate for. We are, when we are mired in greed, trusting in our money to keep us safe, secure, and validated instead of finding those things in God alone. This is also why the next part of the passage reminds us that the Lord is our helper.

In Him, we find that no matter what assails us our souls are safe.

In Him, we find that no matter how many circumstances fluctuate in the world, we are secure in Christ.

In Him, we find that no matter what else is taken from us, we find our self-definition in our relationship with God in Christ.

We find these things in God alone, and it’s when we become more cognizant of His constant presence with us that we can turn away from poor substitutes – like money – for what only He can provide.

4 Words that Link Every Generation Together

Every couple of years I need a refresher on language.

Most of the time this happens through our children. They will say something, some word or phrase, and I will not understand. I’ll ask for a clarification, a definition, and maybe even for another example in context… and I still won’t get it. Most of the time I still need the help of Urban Dictionary to know what I’m supposed to be talking about. But even then I’m not really allowed to use these phrases.

The kids cringe with I do, and I get that.

I did the same thing.

And I assume my parents did the same thing when their vernacular was discovered and tried to be put in use by the previous generation. And so it goes, one generation after another, being linguistically left behind. And yet through each and every generation of human history, there is a link. The link is not a particular language, but instead four words translated into a multitude of dialects. It’s these four words that bind all the generations of humanity together:

“Has God indeed said…”

Way back at the beginning – in the very first generation – everything was good. Very good, in fact. All creation existed in perfect harmony, and at the center piece of everything was the crown jewel of creation. The man and the woman lived in perfect fellowship with God, walking without guilt, shame, or any other hindrance with Him. And into this harmony slithered the cunning serpent armed with what must have seemed like a very innocent question and just a few short sentences that followed it:

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

It was a simple question really

“Has God indeed said…?” Just four words. And yet into those four words are packed a far more cunning charge. 

The serpent was calling into question the Word of God, at least on the surface. And we would do well to pay attention to the fact that he was because he does the same thing in our ear today.  

Those four words still haunt us. They haunt us because they have haunted every generation since then. That’s not only because of the devastating effects that came afterward in the garden, but because those same four words are at the core of every temptation, social evil, and moral compromise we still face. Indeed, they are at the heart of those things for every single generation since then: 

“Has God indeed said not to worry?” “Has God indeed said He would provide for you?” “Has God indeed said that judgment would come to all people?”

And we can take it further: 

“Has God indeed said that there is male and female?” “Has God indeed said all life is precious, even in the womb?” “Has God indeed said that Jesus is the only way to the Father?” 

The follow-up questions might change with each generation, and yet the basic premise remains the same. 

Every generation has had to reckon with those words and the subtle but terrible charge they bring against the Word–and therefore the character–of God. Those four words are much more than an innocent question; they strike at the core of our faith. This simple phrase, for all time since the garden, is an expression of whether God can be trusted. Is His Word true? And is His Word to us a loving Word?  

Mercifully, God has not left us to wonder. He has not left us without a Word. He chose to communicate with us. And He even went further than giving us His book; He gave us Himself. As we dig into the written Word of God, we find ourselves coming alongside the Living Word of God. And that’s where true life resides. And that’s where the answer to those four words lies as well. 

Yes. Yes indeed, God has said. 

3 Principles of Family Discipleship

As parents, we are the greatest influences in the lives of our children. We are the ones responsible for forming their views on God, humanity, society, culture, and a host of other things. Now while that is true, there are a couple of caveats we should also embrace as parents.

Caveat number one is that we are influential regardless of whether we are intentional about it or not. It’s a frightening thing to recognize that our children’s minds and hearts are being formed – by us – whether we know it or not. Our kids will learn about how to handle money by watching us. They will learn how to treat their peers by watching us. They will learn about how to relate to the opposite sex by watching us. And they will learn and be formed by all those things whether we want them to or not.

The second caveat is that our influence, while profound, decreases the older our children grow. That’s not rocket science because we know from experience that the older our children get the more influences come into their lives. They spend less and less of their time with us, their parents, and more and more time with other people.

Combining those things together help us see that discipleship in our families should be both intentional and urgent. Having said that, we turn to a particular passage in the Old Testament that gives us some helpful principles when considering discipleship in our families:

“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 on 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 6:4-9).

These words were spoken first by Moses to the people of Israel as he was trying to prepare them for their new lives in the land God had promised to them. In that land, there would be all kinds of competing influences, and the Lord knew the importance of reinforcement of His ways in the midst of those influences. From these verses, we can still glean today – in a culture of competing influences – at least three principles for discipleship in the home:

1. The Principle of Responsibility.

Though obvious, it still needs to be said that the first principle is that of responsibility. Moses was addressing parents and future parents, telling them what to do. To put it simply, the spiritual education and formation of our kids is our job as parents.

It’s our job. Not someone else’s. We cannot, as parents, outsource the discipleship of our kids, even to the church. That’s not to say the church doesn’t play a role here, and it’s not to say that the role of the church is important. Imperative even. It does mean, however, that we must first accept the spiritual responsibility of parenting before we do anything else.

2. The Principle of Repetition.

There is a regularity to this passage. Everything that happens in this passage – sitting at home, walking on the road, laying down, getting up – these are all things that happen with regularity. So should it be with the way we approach discipleship in the home. There needs to be steady repetition and regularity with that discipleship.

That means we should establish, reinforce, and embrace spiritual routines in the home, and these can and should take a variety of forms. Reading the Bible and praying at breakfast, praying together before bedtime, a consistent conversation after worship on Sundays – these are all routines that we need to establish and then commit ourselves to, to the degree that when the rare occasion happens when we break the routine, our kids notice and call us out for it.

3. The Principle of Normalization.

While there is a regularity to the passage that presses the need for consistent routines, there is also a normality to the passage. All of the activities mentioned are things that happen in the course of every day life. The vision, therefore, is one of normalization – that discipleship becomes the norm for how we do life in our homes.

It means there don’t have to be special, isolated occasions when we pray or talk about the Bible. These things should be part of our every day conversations – on the way to school, sitting around in the evenings, going on a walk – we talk about real things. And we apply the Bible to the real stuff of life. When we do that, we are helping normalize spiritual conversations and also building a way of thinking about all parts of life from the biblical standpoint.

These three principles – responsibility, repetition, and normalization – are the foundation for family discipleship. Once we choose to align ourselves with these, we can, as parents, steward the time and influence we have with our children for the sake of Jesus and His gospel.