Jesus Loves Families

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The everlasting God is your place of safety. His arms will hold you up forever. He will force your enemy out ahead of you. He will say, ‘Destroy the enemy!’” These are comforting words to spiritual warriors fighting “the good fight” we learned about last week. King Jesus defeated the enemy and exposed him to open shame by dying on the cross for our sins and rising from the dead to live forever. Now, all who trust and obey Him will live forever with Him. No one can defeat our King Jesus! He will return and judge the whole world so we can keep on with the mission He left us without fear or worry. We will be victorious in the end. But we can delay the victory. Jesus commands us to tell everyone about the gospel and try to convince them to believe in Him and obey...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. As we learned in last week’s devo, there’s a war going on in our world between good and evil. God is good, and all who want to be good must be on His side. God doesn’t expect us to fight without His help, though, so read Ephesians 6:10–20 together and then think about these things: When we're fighting for what’s true and right, we need to remember, we’re not alone. God gives us His strength to make us able to keep on keeping on. In fact, He promises never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5). All He asks of us in return is to trust and obey Him.  Pray for protection! Evil spirits serve Satan and somehow tempt people to evil and deceive many in the world. We can’t see them, but God can, and He can keep us safe. All we have to do is ask Him to, James 4:2 says so. A little later in James 4, i...

I wrestled in prayer for years, trying to become like an ancient "son of Issachar." They "understood the times and knew what Israel should do" (1 Chr 12:32 NET), so they wisely supported King David. Today's "sons of Issachar" understand AD 2024 and know what the church and Christian families should do. The church is "spiritual Israel," continuing the storyline and covenants we read about in the Old Testament. Fulfilled in Christ, they now find expression through the New Covenant in His blood. Israel's mission was to bring Christ into the world. Ours is to bring Him back (2 Pet 3:11–12). This is fundamental. Jesus is King and the loyalty of the world, church, family, marriage, and individual is due Him. Humanity's duty at all these levels is to serve Him faithfully and loyally. Only when individuals are faithful will marriages and families be. The church cannot be unified and focused on the mission if the member families are broken. An...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. This life is a battleground in more ways than one. It is a fight between good and evil. God is good. The devil is evil. We all pick sides whether we mean to or not. If we don’t mean to, we’ve picked the wrong side. There’s only one way to join God’s good army and that’s to mean to through faith in Jesus. We sometimes talk about “fighting the good fight,” a biblical term (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7) that doesn’t mean a literal fistfight at all. It usually means teaching, influencing, and working to overcome and replace something wrong with something right. It means we’re not just trying to do what pleases us selfishly but doing what will benefit many people. That’s what we call “the greater good,” and it’s what “the good fight” is all about. So, when the Bible talks about fighting ...

The hymn, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, was written by Anthony J. Showalter (1858-1924) and Elisha A. Hoffman (1839-1929) in 1887. The story behind the hymn is touching. Showalter was a music teacher and had received a letter from two of his former pupils who informed him that both of their wives had died on the same day. Grieving for his students, Showalter was inspired by Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The hymn was meant to convey the comfort and strength he found in leaning on God's everlasting arms during times of sorrow and grief. The lyrics are as follows. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.  O how sweet to walk, In this pilgrim way, Leaning on the everlasting arms. O how bright the path grows f...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. The hymn Leaning on the Everlasting Arms was written by Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha A. Hoffman in 1887. The creation of this hymn was sparked by a tragic event when two of Mr. Showalter’s former students' wives passed away on the same day. Deeply affected by this, Showalter, a music teacher, drew inspiration from Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Like the Bible verse, the song was intended to convey the comfort and strength one can find in God's enduring care, even if there’s sorrow and grief. The hymn's lyrics share a deep sense of joy, peace, and security that comes from relying on God's power and love. The song teaches us to lean on God as a source of strength and protection, which people facin...

Read the text and briefly discuss it together. Some discussion-starter questions are provided. Then read the closing text as a guide to your family prayer and finish by praying together and singing a hymn. In a family ordered according to the Bible, each member has a unique and important role to play. A family should be like a team, where everyone has a job to do, and when all the team members work together, everything goes smoothly. In a proper family, the man is the leader. He's like the ship's captain, guiding and protecting his crew. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:23 that “the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.” This doesn't mean that men are better than women or that they get to boss everyone around. It just means that God has given the husband and father in a family the responsibility to lead in a loving and caring way. He provides, guides, and teaches his family the way of the Lord.  On the other hand, the woman is like the heart ...

"Harrison spoke boldly about Christian values, especially marriage and family values rooted in the Scriptures, which, I believe, the churches of Christ should affirm, and regarding which we may need restoration." This Spring, Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, gave the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony of Benedictine College, a Roman Catholic institution. The video, broadcast on YouTube and other social media platforms, quickly went viral, inspiring a media backlash but instilling courage in many believers who supported Butker’s speech. Much has been said about it, and this post isn't intended to convince his detractors of anything or express agreement with everything he said. But Harrison spoke boldly about Christian values, especially marriage and family values rooted in the Scriptures, which, I believe, the churches of Christ should affirm, and regarding which we may need restoration. The same can be said across the spectrum of Christendom...