Monday, September 14, 2015

September 15, 2015

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 door frames of your houses and on your gates.Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Let’s set the scene here to give context to these verses.

God is preparing to take several million fugitive slaves and transform them into a great nation. If you are going to build a nation you must build it on a solid foundation of healthy, godly families. In fact, God shared the same vision for these people that we embrace at FredWes. We want to raise up a generation of believers who are even more passionate and committed than we are!

Our own Coach Billy Thomas did a masterful job of communicating and illustrating this vision in his message yesterday. Over the next five weeks we are going to camp out in this and other great Scriptures that will give us specific instructions on how to “Raise Home Run Kids”. I challenge every mom and dad who shares our FredWes vision for child-rearing to show up all five weeks of this series.

Exodus 6:1-9 contains God’s instructions for how to raise godly kids. I urge you to prayerfully study these verses this week. Make time to meditate on them and memorize them. As you do, you will marvel at how practical His commands are. Yes, they are commands not suggestions or helpful hints.  If God offers advice on raising kids, why wouldn’t you want to know it and follow it?

Obviously, while raising godly kids is possible and preferable, it isn’t easy. If it was easy our world would be in far better condition.

Have you ever tried to push a rope? Have you ever tried to roll up a hill? Have you ever tried swimming against the current? Like these difficult tasks, raising a generation of kids who are more passionate and committed to Christ goes against the natural order. It is natural for succeeding generations to become less committed than the previous one. So, to overcome the natural order will take a supernatural pattern and power.

As you study Deuteronomy 6 you will notice the intense and intentional tone of this instruction. This is very serious stuff!

This week, of course, will focus on how to make sure your kids make a winning connection with God at Home Plate:

1) Be intentional in making time with your kids

2) Be intentional to talk with your kids.

3) Be intentional teaching truth to your kids.

These next five Sunday mornings and afternoons will be pivotal in helping us develop big-league families and strength the winning Team God is developing at FredWes.

Let’s raise home run kids!