“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!