Thursday, March 26, 2009

MY FAMILY: MY MISSION FIELD -- Devotional for March 26, from "Good Seeds"

Parents, bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) Husband, cleanse your wife by the washing of the Word. (Ephesians 5:26)

The Great Commission is directed to each and every Christian to “make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). The world is our mission field. But in breaking down that mission field into workable areas we see three things to be true: 1) The primary focus for ANYONE WITH FAMILY TIES is that family. This would include anyone with living parents, siblings, or other blood relatives. Don’t focus on the unsaved world at large, those you don’t know, or contacts through friendship, work, or other means, at the expense of giving your primary attention to your own kindred. If Jesus condemned the Pharisees for exempting themselves from caring for their own relatives when needs in other circles seemed more pressing, would He not do the same to us? 2) A MARRIED MAN is exhorted to “cleanse his wife by the washing of the Word” (Eph. 5:26). His love for her, expressed in nourishing and cherishing (verse 29), is second only to his love for his Lord, who is the ultimate source of married love. A spouse will walk either closer to or further away from the Lord in direct proportion to the quality of nourishing and cherishing received from the partner. Even an unbelieving spouse can be nourished, or sanctified, in this way by the believing partner (I Cor. 7:13-16). A man cannot save his unbelieving wife, but she must be his chief target of witness, even as he remains her primary link to the Savior. I would not consider myself a good Christian leader, worthy of following, if my own wife did not look up to me as an example of godliness, and did not receive from me the encouragement and help in her own walk with God. Someone said, “The greatest mission field you’ll ever have is within the four walls of your own home!” And this is doubly true when the home has children. 3) Moses commissioned PARENTS with the responsibility to teach their own children the Word and ways of God (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). My godly influence in the church and society at large is emasculated if my authority is weak, inconsistent or non-existent at home, with my wife and children. Who would listen to a man in the marketplace who is ignored or disrespected at home? The New Testament confirms the ancient Jewish exhortation with the words of Paul, “Fathers, DO NOT exasperate your children, that they lose heart, but DO bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21).

No comments:

Post a Comment