September 19, 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 are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home ans 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 

In this portion of Scripture God through Moses instructs the people of Israel on how to raise Home Run Kids.

First, make intentional time, V. 7

I found time to enjoy doing. teach my boys to play baseball and I had time to attend their games.I always seem to find time to do the things that matter most to me. 

It takes time to to raise kids! 

To make time to be with them enough you will have to borrow time from something else you enjoy doing. 

You will have time for hobbies when your kids are gone. While you have them, make enough time to be with them.

God commands you to make time to have spiritual formation time with your kide.

Second, make in time to talk, V. 7b

Again, intentional talk takes time!

1) Talk with them!

2) Talk to them!

3) Talk to God with them!

4) Talk about them!

5) Talk when:

·       You sit – Time to reinstate the dinner table

                        Schedule “dates” with your kids

·       You walk – Take advantage of travel time

·       You rise – Take advantage of morning time

·       You lie down – Take advantage of bed time

God commands you to talk to your kids about Him. And He also expects you to teach them to talk to God as well.

Third, make intentional truth, V. 7

Due to their fallen nature, your kids (like you) do not come by truth naturally. If left to themselves they will be led away and deceived.

1) Talk about the source of truth

God's Word is the only source of all that is true and right. Teach your kids that whatever the Bible says is true and anything that disputes the Bible is wrong.

2) Three big truths to teach:

• Creation – we are made by God
• Christ – we are saved by God’s love
• Community – we are led and united by the Holy Spirit

     Raising Home Run Kids is not easy and it requires intentional effort every day. It must begin by teaching your kid how to connect with God at Home Plate by taking the time, having the talks and teaching the important truths.

      Are you ready to step up to the plate?

     

September 18, 2015

"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" Deuteronomy 6:7

If you are committed to Raising Home Run Kids, you must intentionally commit time to that worthy task. It may be impossible to commit too much time to teaching your kids how to connect with God at Home Plate and know how to win with God. Plan your time and your days to be able grab quality moments with your children.

Talking (and listening) requires time and attention. How much time? Look at the Scripture, "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up". Basically, God says to wake up talking about His commands, look for "teachable moments" all through the day and talk about them at bedtime!

This suggests an intentional plan for talking about spiritual truths.

"When you sit at home"

To me, this suggests the importance of re-establishing the dinner table and developing a strategy of doing meals together. Significant bonding can happen over family meals.

"when you walk along the road"

While some spiritual conversations are scheduled other times parents should look for teachable moments during the course of the day. Perhaps while traveling you notice a rainbow or an eagle soaring high in the sky. You may seize on that moment to marvel over creation. Always be on the look out for those unscripted opportunities to offer life lessons.

"when you lie down"

Bedtime for your kids is a custom-made opportunity to pray with them and send them off to sleep thinking about Jesus and feeling safe in God's care.

"when you rise up"

Awaken with a praise on your heart and a word of praise to share with your family is a wonderful to start the day!

Words are powerful! The Word is even more penetrating. No wonder God, through Moses, instructs His people to speak blessings into the lives of their children. They were to do it intentionally and consistently. So are you!

Do you have a plan to talk to your kids today?

September 17, 2015

"These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 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 6:1-9

Both the foundation and the fabric of a strong nation is strong families. It is common sense and it is strongly supported by Scriptures such as the classic passage above. So, no wonder we are devoting five weeks to studying how strong families are built.

As mentioned in a previous post, God shared the same vision for His new nation that we have for FredWes. He called and commanded the Hebrew parents to raise up their children to be even more passionate and committed to serving God than they were themselves.

You may be thinking, "That is certainly worthy goal and I embrace it, but how can I pull that off?"

This passage offers helpful insights toward reaching that goal.

It will require an intentional effort with the use of your time.

Here are some practical truths regarding the use of time:

• Time is the one thing everyone has the same amount of
• Time is what life is made of so it has great value
• The use of time reflects what is actually most important to you
• Time manages those who won't manage it
• Those who manage time the best have the most productive lives
• Raising Home Run Kids will demand a time substantial commitment of time on what God requires of parents in the commands given in Deuteronomy 6.

Here are a few things to think about:

• Did you get enough time with your parents?
• Do you wish you could have more time with them?
• So, time translates into memories.  
• Have you made all the memories with your kids that you want to make?
• With kids, time spent with them is indicative of how much you love them.
• Where will you find the additional time you need to spend with your kids?

I challenge you to take the time to prayerfully consider these bullet points.

September 16, 2015

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be on your heart. Impress them upon your children." Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Wow! You can devote a lifetime to fulfilling those three verses!

If you profess Jesus as your Savior that is EXACTLY what you should be doing! These are commands, after all!

How can you form these commandments in your children if you don't own them in your own life? 

Last Spring I introduced the Home Run Life which is a paradigm for spiritual growth designed around the rules of baseball and the baseball diamond. For the next five weeks we are going to revisit that paradigm for this "Raising Home Run Kids" series. So, let's review.

Home plate is where everything begins and ends in baseball. Home plate is where you connect with the ball in order to get on base.

In the Home Run Life home plate is where you connect with God. It is where faith begins. It is where God becomes real and personal.

If you are going to raise Home Run Kids you must show them how to connect with God at home plate and learn to love Him.

Over the next five weeks we will learn practical ways to win at home plate.

First Base is the character base. It is where your connection with God begins to shape your attitudes, thoughts and behavior. First base is where your love for God translates into loving yourself.

To raise Home Run Kids you will need to teach your kid(s) how to develop a proper love of self.

Over the next five weeks we will offer practical ways to win at first base.

Second base is the community base where you learn to love others. This is the natural result of loving God and learning to love your self.

Raising Home Run Kids requires teaching them to win with other people.

Through this Raising Home Run Kids sermon series you will learn some ways to do that!

Third base is the competency base. At third base you learn how to love what you do and experience success because you have learned to love God, love self and love others.  Third base is where you learn to head back to home plate and score.

To raise Home Run Kids you must help them discover the gifts, talents and passion God has planted in them! When they know that they will learn to love what they do.

This is the purpose of the Raising Home Run Kids series, to learn Biblical principles for unlocking their God-given potential.

The Home Run Life is a very effective paradigm for understanding and tracking your spiritual development. It also works for raising Godly children. Obviously, you can't teach it if you don't have it.

Is your life on a winning path?

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!

September 14, 2015

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." Hebrews 9:27-28

Each of us have an "ever after". It is not just the stuff of fairy tales. But unlike fairy tales, a happy ever after is not a given.

Let me ask you, "How is your ever after looking?" Are you staring at a happy ever after or is it scaring the stuffings out of you?

Here's the really important thing about "ever" - it is never-ending. We are talking about eternity. You and I have a date with our "ever after". That is what these verses are telling you! You had best pay attention.

If you spend your "ever after" with Jesus in Heaven you will know a joy that is unimaginable. But, if you miss Heaven the only other destination is Hell and that, too will be unimaginable - unimaginable horror.

The good news is that you get to determine your "ever after" by the choices you make in your "here and now". It is within your power to determine your eternal destination. So, if you can determine your destination and choose Heaven or Hell, why wouldn't you? Who would choose to go to Hell?

From my experience working with people for many years, I would say that those who fail to choose Heaven do so because they fail to choose. By not making a clear commitment they revert to their default setting - sinfulness, separation from God and a very unhappy "ever after." I think they miss it by assuming they will have another opportunity to choose. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. You can't afford to be wrong because you could be dead wrong.

Today is the best time to to assure that your "ever after" will be happy is RIGHT NOW. Christ was sacrificed for your sins. He paid the price for your forgiveness. He took your sin and your guilt upon Himself on the cross. He died as a sinner so that you don't have to! Why not receive His wonderful gift?

You don't have to wait until forever to be happy. Your "happy ever after" could begin today.

September 13, 2015

"For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first-fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."  II Thessalonians 2:7-17

Paul's counsel to those who would be facing the perilous days of the end times is worthy of your attention.

There seems to be a growing sense of foreboding that we may be in the end times.

Think about it. Not just Evangelical Christians are sensing the approach of the last days. 

Secular progressives who believe and promote the Climate Change doctrine warn that the rise of the oceans will usher in the destruction of civilization as we know it. In addition, the radical Islamic terrorists are motivated by their belief that attacking "Infidels" and destabilizing the world can usher in the return of "The 12th Imam" in their version of end time theology.

As dramatic as those various end time scenarios may be, that is not the focus of this portion of Scripture.

The concern of the Great Apostle was not the chaotic evil of the End Times but rather, how Christians should believe and behave in the midst of those days. I want to focus you on his wise counsel.

1) Be Thankful!

Despite the dark and difficult days, remain thankful to God and for fellow believers.

2) Be Faithful!

Demonstrate a strong and uncompromising belief in God's Word and the certainty of your salvation.

3) Be Hopeful

Depend on your faith and you will not get overwhelmed by the fearfulness that will be rampant in those days! Remember that you walk by faith not by sight.

Meditate on these verses and commit them to memory. You may very well need them and it could be sooner than you think.